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High School Sports
She was cut from her club volleyball team. Now she's the player of the year.
Louise Comerford always liked volleyball, but the junior setter at Althoff High School wasn't so sure the sport liked her.
Cut twice in two years from a club volleyball team during her grade-school days and struggling with confidence, she found some much needed support in her older sister, former Althoff volleyball player Eileen Comerford.
A few years later, area volleyball coaches have provided even more confidence and support by voting Comerford the Belleville News-Democrat Small-School (Class 1A-2A) Volleyball Player of the Year.
"I would try out for teams and I would get cut a lot, but I didn't want to give up and I'm really happy I didn't," said Comerford, who soaked up everything her sister told her and stuck with the sport while she kept growing and improving. "There were other girls then who were just better than me. I was pretty small and I wasn't very strong.
"My sister was a setter and she had a huge part in this whole thing."
Comerford was genuinely surprised upon hearing the area coaches had chosen her as player of the year.
"It means a lot. It shows that hard work actually pays off," she said. "I'm super-flattered and honored. I really appreciate it."
Only a junior, the 5-foot-11 Comerford already has a scholarship to Division I Miami (Ohio). She played a big role in Althoff's third-place finish at the Class 2A state tournament this year and run to the super-sectional in 2015.
Resourceful and talented
Despite being a setter she ranked fourth on the Crusader with 142 kills and led the team with 48 blocks and 53 service aces. The well-rounded performer piled up 709 assists, averaging 19.69 per match, along with 219 digs.
Her resourcefulness as a setter is limitless thanks to the variety of skills, fakes and footwork she has incorporated into her preparation.
Althoff coach Sara Dietrich, who received BND Small-School Volleyball Coach of the Year in voting by her peers, said Comerford's size and being left-handed definitely helps.
"She's very athletic and being almost 6-foot and a lefty setter is a huge advantage over everybody," Dietrich said. "The biggest thing for her was her will to learn and to be coached and being such a good teammate. Those are all very important aspects to being a a setter and running the court."
Comerford forced her way into the varsity lineup as a freshman and never left.
"When she came into the program, she was so tall and a lefty and that's rare," Dietrich said. "Once we started working with her she built her confidence and that gave her more motivation. She ended up setting all these goals that she wanted to achieve and she did it. By midseason (that year) she was running a 5-1 (formation)."
Comerford can't imagine herself playing anywhere but setter. She likes all the touches and determining what happens next offensively.
"Setting is huge for me because I love getting the right set and the hitter coming to me and saying 'Good set' every time they get a kill," she said. "I've been so blessed with such great teams."
Like her teammates, Comerford was hoping for a state title rather than third place, but the Crusaders made it to state for the first time since 2007. The Crusaders lost to St. Joseph-Ogden in the state semifnals before beating Chicago Latin in the third place game for the school's best finish since 2004.
"It was so fun and such a good experience. We were all so close and I wouldn't want to experience it with any other people," Comerford said.
Dietrich said Comerford has come a long way since her first high school volleyball match.
"It's actually been cool seeing her come out of her shell," Dietrich said. "She was a freshman on varsity running a 5-1 and a little nervous. Now she's leading silly dances in the locker room, but at the same time holding other girls accountable for their play on the floor.
"A lot of teams don't see players like Louise and it can throw blockers and defenders off. The thing she's really good at is making those blockers guess and putting our attackers one-on-one. I'm just glad she's just a junior, too."
Comerford plans on continuing her fast-track improvement in the off-season with the new High Performance club volleyball team in the metro-east.
"Our seniors are going to be a big loss, but the talent that we have with the underclassmen is going to be unreal," she said.
Coach of the Year
Dietrich was a former BND Player of the Year during her days as an all-state player at Althoff. After continuing her career at Missouri State, she returned to coach at Althoff and guided the Crusaders to the state tourney this season.
"It was quite different than being a player," Dietrich said. "As a coach I really tried to take it and in and made sure the girls highly enjoyed it no matter what the outcome was. I want to go back, all those little things you've got to do to get there are totally worth it."
Norm Sanders: 618-239-2454, @NormSanders


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CHAH Goes to Europe! Day 7: Madrid. The Final Day of the Tour!/
On the last day of the CHAH Goes to Europe Tour with Explorica, CHAH students, parents, and staff spend time exploring Madird, Spain.
First up: sports stadiums! They visited REAL Madrid Futbol Statium, followed by The Ventas Bull Ring.
They saw Cervantes' Statue and discussed Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha. Looks like Aneudys was able to channel their inner Quixote for some quixotic photos!
In the afternoon, they visited The Royal Palace and learned about the Spanish royal dynasties.
The tour continued to the Prado Fine Arts Museum, where students raced in a scavenger hunt locating the works of Goya, Velasquez, and El Greco.
The day ended with the flight back to the United States. The students shed a few tears and shared a final group hug.
Congratulations to all of the CHAH world travelers on a very successful, first ever, CHAH Goes to Europe Tour!

subset: commoncrawl


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Rose, Lily & Calla Bouquet
Prices from £50.00 Includes deliveryEffortlessly chic and naturally stunning, this graceful tribute includes exotic white Oriental lilies and perfect large-headed roses with a sleek, elegant calla lily. We've added eringium, phormium and fern, plus pretty lilac lisianthus for colour and contrast.
Approximate product dimensions
L:70cm W:30cm
Code: SH005
- Delivery Information
With all Interflora delivered funeral tributes…. There are no delivery charges. Interflora florists work directly with the Funeral Director to ensure that your order is handled in a professional and sensitive manner. Each tribute will be lovingly created by expert local independent florists. To ensure the flowers remain fresh and in best possible condition, the tributes are delivered hydrated. The Interflora florist will hand-write the message you have specified on the card accompanying your tribute. You're able to order up to 2pm (excludes Sundays and Bank Holidays) for next working day delivery.
If you need any assistance, please call us on 0800 088 4849.


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This hand cabbed tiffany stone is an interesting shape, and was very picky about how it wanted to be wrapped. I actually tried 4 different frames/wraps on this before it was realised into this. I made this reversible necklace with sterling silver, and I added two antique watch gears. The chain is rolo chain.
Materials: sterling silver sterling silver rolo chain antique watch gears
Techniques: wire weaving wire wrapping
Tags: steampunk
A flower does not compete with the beauty around it, it just blooms.


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The general manager of Millennium Place, Rob Hallam, will be taking up a new position in the US starting Oct. 1.
"He was a valuable addition to our team," said Stephen Milstein, chair of the MY Place Board.
"Lets put it this way, we opened and we had no disasters, and its running smoothly. Thats not to say its perfect but we needed someone to take on a large multi-task job from construction, to getting the place to run, to organizing the finances and helping us choose a governance model."
Hallam was quite a catch for Millennium Place. Before taking up the Whistler position he was the general director of the Vancouver Opera from 1991 to 1999.
Its really no surprise that he is moving on. Hallam and his family will be moving to Omaha, where he will become president and CEO of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra which is about to get a new $100 million US facility.
"There is a huge sense of community spirit there and a desire to put arts on the forefront," Hallam said of the Nebraska city.
The past year has been one full of challenges for Hallam as he spearheaded Millennium Places push into community life.
It hasnt always been easy. Many misconceptions surrounded the centre, which not only houses The Whistler Village Church but also provides a home for the Jewish community and other faiths, community space for activities such as Yoga and childrens program, a performance hall, youth centre, recording studio, and day care centre.
While Hallam felt it was not his position to comment on what the board of My Place should focus on when hiring to fill his position, he would say that getting the community and Millennium Place to knit together was crucial.
"Interaction with the community is important," he said.
Thats something close to Milsteins heart as well. He will be helping to choose a new general director for the centre.
"Its likely there will be a focus on someone strong in management and who is a good facilitator with the community," said Milstein.
"We will be hiring the best person for the job. But having said that if there are two people who are equal and one knows and is familiar with our community then it would be likely that we would choose that person."
Its likely MY Place will see a significant increase in business in the nest couple of years as it picks up clients from the Whistler Conference Centre which will closing at the end of September for major renovations.
The successful candidate will offer many skills according to the employment ad appearing this week.
He or she must be able to develop and implement a business plan, fundraise, develop partnerships with community groups develop creative marketing, manage staff and the daily operations of the facility, and develop business plans.
Closing date of applications is Sept.13, 2002.
October 23, 2019, 5:15 PM
October 23, 2019, 1:42 PM
October 23, 2019, 7:00 AM
Sixty-three per cent of B.C. lives in water-stressed areas, according to Watershed Watch More...


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TNF are delighted to return to New York this October for our 3rd Americas Meeting.
It gives us great pleasure to bring the community together again to focus on the key areas of growth, and also challenges, that the market is facing. The Meeting will be joined by over 100 network managers, direct custody providers, CSDs and tech innovators from across the region at the Americas essential industry gathering, and we are delighted to help curate this chance to share a rich dialogue of how best to face the future together.
See below for more


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Beyond Farmville: Teens Should Use Social Media to Promote Ag Agri-View: Capitol News: "Beyond Farmville: Teens Should Use Social Media to Promote Ag
By Casey Langan, Director of Public Relations, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation
Thursday, March 25, 2010 4:51 PM CDT
At first blush, being asked to deliver a speech to a group of teenagers about advocating for agriculture via social media was a little daunting.
It wasn't so long ago that someone told me I was "too old" for the social networking phenomenon known as Facebook. The internet site first started as a place exclusively for college students to swap messages and photos. Clearly that has changed though."
Wendy's note: This popped up on a search today after I created and posted a video of the Lodi Agricultural Fair which just concluded this weekend. At the time I was thinking about sharing this video of the local fair experience with a few friends and family members on Facebook that couldn't be here to actually attend the event. My extension is to talk more directly with the Fair Board on better use of the channel for next year's fair. I love showing how excited the kids are, and then to move to the adults who volunteer so much time, and lastly the company sponsors who give money, to ensure the event is successful.
This post highlights how social media can be used to help fairs and farms as well as the downside. In marketing we always say that you always have a Brand. If you don't control your Brand, you may not like the view of the Brand that your customers or detractors have. Social media in my belief can play a major role in affecting the position of your Brand.
Agriculture is a business just like a plastics plant or paper mill. We need to have open and transparent communications with our audience. And we need to strategically think about social media. Ask yourself these questions:
What are my business goals?
Why would I use social media?
How will social media help me achieve these goals?
Where does my audience spend their time?
What problems and issues does my audience have?
What are the needs of my audience?
If you are in marketing, you normally need to answer these questions before you create a website, advertising campaign or begin a sales effort. Social Media is no different. The big difference is that since the entry point is so low, everyone just jumps in without a sustainable strategy, content development plan, engagement or escalation approach.


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On Wednesday afternoon around 1400 hours, the Vista Fire Department was dispatched to a 1-car motor vehicle accident with unknown injuries involving a utility pole in the area of Smith Ridge Road.
The occupant self extricated prior to arrival and was evaluated by Vista EMS, where they refused medical attention.
The Vista Fire Department & Lewisboro Police Department closed traffic on Smith Ridge Road and the scene was handed over to the Lewisboro PD and NYSEG shortly before 1445 hours.


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Epitome of perfection.
I'm sorry that Flashback Fridays has turned into a drool-fest over sexy boys with guitars for me, but I can't help it. Sometimes my heart just gets nostalgic. Those blue eyes. That perfect voice. That skinny little body. Tyson Ritter is the epitome of perfection. Anyway. I still remember the first time I heard this song. I was literally in love, and I still am.
The All-American Rejects - Time Stands Still
circa 2003


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Our Party
Want to know what the DPLC is all about? Below you'll find Party officers, committee chairs, ally organizations, and documents like meeting minutes, resolutions, the DPLC platform, and our bylaws.
In addition to our political campaign operations and community outreach, we conduct official business on the third Thursday of every month (except August) at our Central Committee Meeting. Join us at the Eugene Garden Club (1645 High Street) at 6:30 p.m. for a presentation and business meeting - and to find out how you can make a difference in your community.
DPLC Leaders
Find DPLC officers, committee heads, and House District chairs - and how to contact them - here.
Read the DPLC platform, which is revised every two years, to learn about our values, mission statement, and priorities.
See the resolutions we've passed to find the Party's stance on pressing political issues.
Meeting Materials and Minutes
Find the agenda and materials for upcoming meetings, look through minutes from past meetings, or find out whom we've endorsed for the May 21 Special District Election.
Find out how you can be part of the DPLC, whether you want to help at events, register voters, or get out the vote for a candidate.


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Jared L. Aurentz, Thomas Mach, Raf Vandebril, and David S. Watkins received the SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize at the 2017 SIAM Annual Meeting. They were recognized for their paper, "Fast and Backward Stable Computation of Roots of Polynomials," published in SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications, Volume 36, Issue 3 (2015).
The SIAM Outstanding Paper Prizes are awarded annually to the authors of the three most outstanding papers, in the opinion of the selection committee, published in SIAM journals in the three calendar years preceding the year before the award year. Priority is given to papers that bring a fresh look at an existing field or that open up new areas of applied mathematics.
Q: Why are you excited about winning the prize?
A: The paper and the algorithms that it describes had a long gestation period. After its shaky beginnings in experimental MATLAB code, it was gradually made better by a sequence of improvements. There were times when we felt like giving up, but each new problem was eventually solved by one or another of us. This was truly a team effort. In the end we had a powerful algorithm that performed better than we could have hoped. Once we had such a good algorithm, another challenge was to explain why it works so well, and this also turned out to be a team effort.
By the time we submitted the paper for publication, each of us felt that this was some of the best work we had ever done. It was therefore highly gratifying to learn that other people thought so too, as indicated by this prize.
Q: Could you tell us a bit about the research that won you the prize?
A: Many years ago Cleve Moler installed in MATLAB a command called roots that computes the zeros of a polynomial by finding the eigenvalues of its companion matrix. Cleve remarked at that time that his method might not be the most efficient algorithm for the problem as it required O(n2) storage space and O(n3) computations for an nth degree polynomial. It ought to be possible to bring the storage down to O(n) and the computations down to O(n2). Our research solved that problem. We weren't the first to do it, but our algorithm was the first to be shown to be backward stable. It is also significantly faster than the other fast companion eigenvalue methods that have been proposed.
Algorithms for structured matrices have to preserve the structure. Previous attempts at a structured algorithm for the companion eigenvalue problem projected the iterates back to the desired structure, thereby introducing small, but noticeable, additional errors. We succeeded in encoding the structure differently, using only unitary matrices. Thus we were able to create an algorithm that preserves the structure without any projections.
Our work is not yet finished. Recently we (with an additional collaborator, Leonardo Robol) have been able to strengthen our stability analysis. We now know that our algorithm is backward stable in an even stronger sense than MATLAB's roots command. Thus our method is not only faster, it is also more accurate. This work has been submitted for publication.
We are in the final stages of writing a monograph, Core Chasing Algorithms for the Eigenvalue Problem, that will present a unified treatment of our prize-winning paper and related work that we have done in the past few years. We expect it to be published in 2018.
Q: What does your research mean to the public?
A: This is a contribution to the infrastructure of science. If, as we hope, our new algorithm is incorporated into popular software packages, scientists and engineers will benefit from our faster and more accurate algorithm, and most of them won't even know it.
Q: What does being a SIAM member mean to you?
Jared: I've met many of my collaborators, most of whom are now good friends, at SIAM meetings. The majority of my publications are in SIAM journals, and many of the books I own were published by SIAM. Needless to say, SIAM has been a major factor in developing my career.
Raf: The first conference I attended was the 2001 SIAM Annual Meeting; It was an overwhelming experience. I was and I still am impressed by the diversity of applications and numerical problems that are investigated by SIAM members. Without the incentives of SIAM I would never have been able to connect to so many people, offering me so many opportunities: research visits, collaborations, industry contacts, and not to forget the many friends I have made.
David: I belong to several professional societies, but SIAM is by far the most important to me. I benefit regularly from the networking opportunities provided by SIAM meetings, and a good fraction of my publications have been in SIAM journals. I have also published one SIAM book.
The SIAM News Blog brings together updates on cutting edge research, events and happenings, as well as insights on broader issues of interest to the applied math and computational science community. Learn more or submit an article or idea.
Learn more


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Houston has role in rising U.S. exports
Houston exports grew more than 12 percent from 2009 to 2010, corresponding with a national trend that began with the onset of the recession, according to a recent report from the Brookings Institution.
The report, based on 2010 data, ranks the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. by total exports.
Houston ranked fourth in 2010, the first year of the economic recovery, with exports totaling $47.9 billion - 14 percent of the metropolitan area's gross domestic product, or GDP.
Chemicals were Houston's largest exporting industry, accounting for $9.7 billion, or 20 percent, of total exports. The Port of Houston is the nation's largest petrochemical complex.
From 2003 to 2008, Houston's exports grew by 14.5 percent, according to the report, compiled by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank's Metropolitan Policy Program.
"The U.S. economy has been rapidly becoming more export intensive over the last couple of years," according to the report. "Total 2010 U.S. exports, as a share of GDP, almost reached pre-recession levels. Further, based on the preliminary estimates of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, total U.S. exports, as a share of GDP, reached the highest level in 2011 since 1929."
U.S. exports grew by 11 percent in 2010, the largest annual growth in exports the country has seen since 1997, according to the report.
Exports have been and will continue to be a major driver in the nation's economic recovery, said Emilia Istrate, the report's lead author.
Istrate said the declining demand in the domestic market that accompanied the recession caused companies to "orient themselves to where the demand is."
"And the demand at that time was abroad," said Istrate, a senior research analyst.
Istrate said export growth will continue, spurred by the growing demand in developing countries, and local, state and federal agencies need to find better ways to coordinate to fully capitalize on the potential.
"These trends together tell us that people in charge of economic development Houston or Texas" and the rest of the country "have to be focused on exports," she said.
Before the recession, Istrate said the country's manufacturers and other exporting industries tended to focus on demand in the domestic market. However, in 2010 and 2011, exports accounted for 46 percent of the growth of the U.S. economy, she said.


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[Video Highlights] Tottenham 1-0 Bournemouth: Eriksen Nets Winner For Spurs
Tottenham Hotspur registered their first Premier League victory at Wembley as they limped to a 1-0 victory over Bournemouth this afternoon.
Spurs started slowly and had Hugo Lloris to thank for not falling behind midway through the first half as the French international pulled off a superb low save to keep out the ball following a corner.
Neither side found the target during a laboured first half but Mauricio Pochettino's side came flying out the blocks after the break and they opened the scoring just minutes after the restart.
Pep Guardiola may have suggested Tottenham were too reliant on Harry Kane but they proved they are far from a one man team as Christian Eriksen fired in to the bottom corner for 1-0 in the 47th minute.
Tottenham had plenty of chances to put the game to bed during the second half but Asmir Begovic made a number of fine saves to deny the likes of Kane and Eriksen.
There were no further goals so Spurs had to settle for a 1-0 win which sees them move to within just three points of second-placed Manchester United.
Watch the goal and highlights here:


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I've started to notice a new trend emerging in jewelry, art, and fashion - the lunar phases. I find this new trend to be spiritual and full of natural charm. Here are a few fun ways to incorporate this trend into your life...
Maybe try a new tattoo.
Temporary Tattoo here, in case you are a wuss like me :).
Get a wind chime.
Try a pair of new earrings, that are also ear climbers (double the trend!).
Get a new art print for your walls.
Try out one of these Luna Rings by Pamela Love.
Buy a new t-shirt for Fall, to pair with jeans and a sweater.
Ok, more jewelry...I just can't help myself!


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I'm sure I'll be surprising absolutely nobody when I say the seemingly never-ending feud between Nicki Minaj and Cardi B lives to see another day.
Cardi posted ten – yes, ten – videos to her Instagram account yesterday (October 29), calling out the Superbass rapper, offering to fight their issues out in person.
The feud came to a head on September 7 when the two rappers attended the Harper's Bazaar's ICONS party and got into an altercation.
Cardi was pictured leaving the event with a huge bump above her eye and footage of the 'fight' on TMZ, appeared to show her throwing a shoe at Nicki.
Eyewitnesses described Cardi as 'aggressively' approaching Nicki, saying 'let me tell you something', before making a lunge for the singer. Security at the event apparently managed to stop her before she got to Nicki.
Since then, the feud has continued in the form of Twitter digs and Instagram call-outs, with insults going back and forth regularly.
The latest, being Cardi's recent posting of ten videos, posted one after the other in fast succession, confronting Nicki about everything that's been going on.
The reason for her social media tirade was apparently because Nicki had gone on her Queen Radio show and claimed Rah Ali – Nicki's close friend – beat up Cardi during the brawl last month.
The I Like It rapper started off the rant by saying this was not true, stating:
How you saying that I got ragged by Rah Ali when there is so many footage of that night, every single angle, and where am I getting ragged at? [sic]
She goes on to say Nicki needs to choose whether she's a victim or a gangster, stating she keeps going back and forth between the two.
And it doesn't stop there. Throughout the videos, Cardi attacks Nicki for many things, including allegedly leaking her number to people who then sent abusive messages to the rapper and 'snitching' on her for saying she's going to sue as a result of the altercation.
She then states she's the one who's going to sue, saying:
Sis, I don't gotta sue somebody because of a fight. I'm a street b*tch, that is called snitching y'know, but since you wanna talk about suing, maybe I should sue you for defamation of character
Cardi also made reference to Nicki's claims she was offered her Fashion Nova deal more than a year before Cardi was, and stating she declined to be on Little Mix's recent Woman Like Me record before Nicki was asked to feature on it.
She finishes off by telling Nicki she's 'sick and tired' of going back and forth all the time, and how she's not doing it anymore, saying:
If you really wanna talk about it, you know where to link me… We could talk about it, or we could fight it out. I'm with whatever.
Yikes. And Nicki wasn't letting her off that easy – she'd already written and posted a response to Twitter an hour after the videos were posted.
She called Cardi out for being a 'fkn fraud' and told her to 'write a rap' instead of focusing all her energy on the ongoing feud.
She then ended by saying she wasn't going to be 'discussing this nonsense anymore', writing:
Ok you guys, let's focus on positive things only from here on out. We're all so blessed. I know this stuff is entertaining & funny to a lot of people but I won't be discussing this nonsense anymore. Thank you for the support & encouragement year after year. Love you. ♥
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) October 30, 2018
So who knows, maybe that's the end of the feud and both rappers will go their separate ways and never speak of it again?
Yeah right, we've got more chance of a decent Brexit deal getting made…
If you have a story you want to to tell, send it to [email protected]
A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).


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Contact Us
St. Marys Town Council consists of the Mayor and six Councillors, including the Deputy Mayor.
Council meets in Council Chambers, located in the upper level of Town Hall, on a regular schedule. They meet to adopt recommendations from the Strategic Priorities Committee, enact by-laws and adopt resolutions related to Town business. The Procedural By-Law governs all regular and special meetings. Council welcomes public engagement and encourages citizens to ask about how they can speak at council meetings when concerns arise.
Mayor Al Strathdee
Councillor Fern Pridham
519-284-2340, ext. 490
Councillor Jim Craigmile
519-284-2340, ext. 493
Councillor Lynn Hainer
519-284-2340, ext. 494
Councillor Marg Luna
Deputy Mayor
519-284-2340, ext. 492
Councillor Robert Edney
519-284-2340, ext. 491
Councillor Tony Winter
519-284-2340, ext. 495
The Town of St. Marys has a Code of Conduct that establishes ethical guidelines for members of Council and appointed members of committees and boards of Council. The Code of Conduct complements federal and provincial legislation and helps to ensure that all members share a common basis for acceptable coduct.


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Steve Hiegel
Omni Land Settlement Corporation
Steve currently works for Omni Land Settlement Corporation as their Marketing Director. He has been in the Real Estate business for 16 years. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Towson University.
Steve has lived in Baltimore for most of his life as he grew up in Towson and currently lives in Cockeysville. His wife Michelle is a Baltimore City school teacher and they have been married for 10 years. In his free time he loves to play soccer and go to the movies.


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Our convenient downtown location enhances the attraction of Hyatt Regency Jacksonville. Spectacular views of the St. Johns River, Main Street Bridge, or the Jacksonville skyline are available in our rooms. Gain access to amenities perfectly suited to your needs—business or leisure, we have you covered. An unforgettable experience is in store when you experience, first-hand, our authentic hospitality, exemplary on-site amenities, attentive service and much more. Expect big things in Jacksonville when you stay at Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront, the best hotel in the city for convenient, comfortable accommodations. Take advantage of Northeast Florida's largest convention center hotel with 110,000 square feet of versatile function space including 30 meeting rooms, most with windows overlooking the St. Johns River.
225 East Coastline Drive
Tel: (904) 588-1234


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- Grain and Gluten Free
- Only 1 ingredient
- Nutrient dense
- Wholesome treats with no artificial anything
- Made in the USA
- 3.5 Ounces in a resealable pouch
Evanger's Nothing but Natural Freeze Dried Beef Hearts is a grain-free and gluten-free product and is Endorsed by the cRc Kosher for Passover. Because of the palatability and wholesomeness of these treats, they are excellent for finicky pets or pets with food sensitivities, as well as for use as a training reward or food mixer.
Ingredients: Beef Hearts.
Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein 67.0% Min
Crude Fat 1.0% Min
Crude Fiber 8.0% Max
Moisture 7.0% Max
Calorie Content: 345 kcal per 100 g (one bag)


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SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, BRAZIL -- Embraer officials today said they are interested in offering up one of their business jets as a replacement for the E-8 JSTARS ground surveillance fleet, should the U.S. Air Force decide that it wants to replace the 707-based E-8s with a smaller fleet of business jets for the ground scanning radar mission.
"We are looking at all opportunities that may arise in the U.S. and for this kind of program we not only have the ERJ 145 but we have larger airplanes like the Embraer 170 and 190 as options in terms of platforms to explore in certain kinds of missions" like that the one currently done by the E-8, Fernando Ikedo, director of market intelligence for Embraer's defense division said today during a very cool tour of the company's headquarters here.
Just last week we wrote how Air Force officials recently said they're considering business jets, 737-based aircraft and UAVs as possible alternatives to continuing to use re-engined versions of the aging E-8 fleet.
"Our product was" originally chosen for the Army's Aerial Common Sensor ground surveillance radar system, "so we have good solutions that can be used for that kind of application and we're always willing and open to serving the U.S. market, of course," added Acir Padilha, director of marketing and sales for Embraer's military division.
Padilha went on to say that Embraer could partner with U.S. defense companies to build an aircraft with classified military parts, if needed.
The company already makes ground scanning radar jets based off it's ERJ 145.


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It's Black Friday! Last night, after pie and coffee, I took one last turn through my Inbox replying to friends and family who couldn't be with us for food and gratitude. I had a clean Inbox at 11pm. This morning, I have 240 emails, all begging for attention. What could possibly cause such a ruckus? Sales!!! Best prices of the season, from 7-9am only, doorbusters, hurry hurry hurry! And it hit me, I have something to sell. I'd love to sell out my calendar for next year on Black Friday. But I won't, because our event flowers are not On Sale, and in fact, never can go On Sale. Why? We'll get to that answer shortly, let's look at why and how products and services go on sale.
If you make widgets, and by widget I mean any mass produced product, it's easy to see how you might have a sale. You negotiated a better price on the raw materials, you were able to take advantage of economies of scale and make more for less, you have a surplus of widgets that are taking up space and you need to move them fast. Any number of reasons could cause you to offer a better price, including that you were asking too much in the first place (hello Apple, I'm talking to you!).
If you offer a service: you create, repair, monitor, clean, what evs, you generally can offer a sale price if you expect to earn a repeat customer. You expect to sell another design, tires and oil change, contract for monthly security monitoring or house cleaning...you're expecting a repeat customer to over time cover the gap in cost for the Sale Price you extended to get the customer. It's a marketing cost.
Why can't I offer a Sale on event flowers? My number one reason is: I will always give you my absolute best price the first time. I'm not going to inflate my prices to offer you a discount, I'm not going to offer 'free delivery and setup' and secretly add the cost back into the flowers, I'm not going to be less than 100% honest and above board when it comes to your, or my, pocketbook. The absolute best I can do at the best price I can offer, that's my promise to you.
***This post will probably hit on Small Business Saturday - don't forget most Independent Florists are small business owners, buy local and support your community.***


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The two hunks we have today are so hot that we simply had to skip ahead and release their hardcore scene right away! They start sitting side by side, they think that it'll be a simple jerking off side by side session but in the end things get way out of hand! These two hunky first timers get so carried away that they end up going all the way. They show off their amazing bodies and we learn that Drew has sucked before in a scene that we will release soon, so he goes straight for Corey's cock and Corey is happy to let him! Corey had only done a solo scene before, so when Drew asks him if he wants to top him he's hapyp to oblige! Drew is a bit scared when the moment comes for the penetration but Corey reassures him and then it's happy sailing! Drew is overwhelmed with pain and pleasure and Corey enjoys it thoroughly as he pounds him hard!
See more of Corey and Drew at Active Duty


text: PHOTO: New York, NY | 12.14.2014 By Steven Posted February 8, 2016 In Photography PHOTO: New York, NY | 12.14.20142016-02-082016-08-17http://stevenseighmandesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/logo-1-1.pngSteven Seighman Book Designhttp://stevenseighmandesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/GCT.jpg200px200px 0 0 Grand Central Terminal, New York, NYC, Photography, VSCO Recommended PostsPutting In the Work . . . WorksNEW ETSY STOREMy 2017 To-Do List Leave a Comment Cancel reply Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.


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Care England has expressed its disappointment over the decision made by the BMA to cease caring for care home residents.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: "Residents of care homes should not be treated any differently from those living in their own homes; a care home is their home. GPs are a vital part of the fabric of the care package for any care home and it is impossible to imagine residents receiving the care and attention that they require without full access to primary care.
"In the past we have talked about the unfair practice of care homes being charged fees for core services. One wonders whether this decision by the BMA is a reaction to the end of GP retainers. If so, let's have an honest discussion without forgetting the dire financial state of affairs affecting the care sector."


text: 101 Reykjavík is a 1996 novel by Hallgrímur Helgason which found international fame in 2000 when made into a film. Both are set in Reykjavík, Iceland. The film was directed by Baltasar Kormákur and stars Victoria Abril and Hilmir Snær Guðnason. The title is taken from the postal code for down-town Reykjavík, "the old city". The film won nine B-class film awards and received ten nominations most notably winning the Discovery Film Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. ... more on Wikipedia


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Perhaps nothing encapsulates San Diego's mix of innovation and lifestyle more than the surfboard pictured below. Let us explain…
Although it looks like any other surfboard, it's actually made from algae, instead of petroleum-based polyurethane which is typically found in surfboards. We have Stephen Mayfield, a scientist from UC San Diego and director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology, to thank for that. Like quite a few San Diegans, he can call himself both a scientist and a surfer.
Mayfield is featured in "National Geographic Channel's: World's Smart Cities" documentary about San Diego, which premiered last night at San Diego Symphony Hall. Following the documentary, Mayfield presented the world's first algae-based surfboard to Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Surfing legend and San Diego local Rob Machado, who also appeared in the documentary, was on hand to help present the surfboard. In the documentary, Mayfield talks about industry/academic collaborations that are helping to make biofuels from algae a commercially viable transportation fuel in the future.
The documentary follows San Diego's innovation narrative as National Geographic host and Digital Nomad Andrew Evans gets his genome sequenced at Illumina, performs stem cell surgery on a penguin at SeaWorld, flies UAVS at Northrop Grumman, learns about the Smart Grid at SDG&E, checks out the Qualcomm® Thinkabit Lab™, part engineering lab and part art studio – all while enjoying the sites, culture and lifestyle that San Diego is known for.
Last night, Andrew Evans made the trek back to San Diego to join Mayor Kevin Faulconer, San Diego Tourism Authority's Joe Terzi, EDC's Mark Cafferty and a packed house of San Diegans to show people why San Diego is the only city in North America chosen for the documentary.
"San Diego is a neat city. There's no place like it in the world," said Evans at the premiere.
The documentary will be shown in more than 60 countries, reaching approximately 250 million households world-wide. Make sure to tune in (or record) the documentary, which begins airing this Saturday, on the National Geographic Channel.
Spread the word. It's time the world learns what San Diego is really about.
Follow the conversation at #Smartcities.
Every year, The Scientist, a world-renowned science and innovation publication, looks to highlight "research products introduced in the past year that are poised to revolutionize the life sciences industry." Half of the "Top 10 Innovations of 2014" list is made up of San Diego companies.
This is no small victory. Companies as far away as Austria, with its HAP1 Cells developed by Haplogen Genomics GmbH, were ranked. In fact, no other city had more than one local company ranked.
The San Diego winners of The Scientist's Top 10 innovations of 2014 are:
With a strong concentration of research institutes, San Diego has made a name for itself as the genomics capital of the U.S. All of the San Diego-based innovations, with the exception of the exVive3D Liver model, are classified as genomics innovations.
Growing this base of innovative companies is a key focus of EDC's work. In July, Illumina announced its plans to expand in San Diego, thanks to a 1.5 million tax rebate from the City of San Diego, which will retain and create 300 well-paying jobs locally. Because of this deal, Illumina will continue to develop its local footprint, and attract top scientists to the region.
As San Diego becomes ubiquitous for life sciences innovation, this ranking reiterates that products and innovations developed here have the power to change the world.
With more than 80 research institutes throughout the region, San Diego is a breeding ground for innovative companies and institutes that solve some of the world's toughest challenges. Perhaps no local institution has captured the region's innovative spirit more than The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).
They are on the forefront of controlling a global epidemic. Currently, TSRI Professor Erica Ollmann Saphire is advancing new Ebola therapies and has already contributed to the development of ZMapp, the Ebola therapy from San Diego-based Mapp Pharmaceuticals, given to the first two U.S. missionaries who survived infection. Dr. Saphire has launched a crowdfunding campaign to find new therapies for the viral disease. TSRI Professor Dennis Burton and his colleagues are also taking a global leadership role in the development of a vaccine to combat HIV/AIDS, focusing on understanding rare antibodies that are effective in neutralizing the virus.
As part of his commitment to raising global awareness of the region's innovation economy, City of San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has partnered with EDC to tour some of San Diego's most cutting-edge businesses and institutes, including TSRI last Friday. The Mayor also visited General Dynamics NASSCO and SPAWAR earlier this year.
As of Tuesday, Dr. Saphire's crowdfunding campaign has exceeded its $100,000 goal, meaning more innovation will take place right here, in San Diego.
When MIT set out to the name the world's smartest company in February, they didn't look to count the number of patents or PHds or even stock gains; instead, they asked themselves whether a company had made strides which have helped redefine its field. The answer was not a company located in Silicon Valley or Seoul or London. The answer was – and still is – right here in San Diego. That company is Illumina.
Founded in 1998, Illumina has not only helped build the genomics field, but also has redefined it. In a time when medicine and medical research are becoming increasingly expensive, Illumina has made personalized medicine more attainable. They have made it feasible to sequence genomes for under $1,000 a patient.
Last week, more than 15 EDC stakeholders got to experience this innovation first hand when they toured Illumina's UTC headquarters. With its wide array of platforms, Illumina is sought out by researchers and healthcare professionals as well as ancestry companies, such as Ancestry.com and 23 & Me to provide valuable genetic information. Each day, Illumina and its 3,000 global employees- 1,500 in San Diego - work to improve lives around the world by unlocking the power of the genome.
On the tour of Illumina's campus, guides walked participants through R&D space, on-site manufacturing facilities and a suite of amenities available to Illumina's employees, including a state-of-the-art fitness center, coffee shops, an amphitheater and the cafeteria, which employees admit is the most effective and efficient meeting space on campus. Collaboration is at Illumina's core and all of these spaces provide opportunities for employees to exchange information and generate new ideas, developing the next ideas that will fuel Illumina's growth as a global brand.
As MIT notes when talking about their rankings, "It might sound difficult to define what makes a smart company, but you know one when you see it." Thanks in part to Illumina, San Diego is showing the rest of the world what smart really means.
Capital can be a pain point for many entrepreneurs. Despite the odds, many San Diego companies have found funding. According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree report, San Diego companies were involved in 23 venture capital deals and received more than $145 million in funding in Q4 of 2013. However, for a variety of reasons, overall venture capital invested in San Diego still took a dip between 2012 and 2013.
A group of alumni of the University of California, San Diego may help change that. They have created a venture capital fund—the Triton Technology Fund—that is specifically focused on commercializing innovations by UC San Diego faculty, students and alumni. (Read the Xconomy story here.)
The Triton Technology Fund will invest in companies affiliated with UC San Diego faculty, students and alumni with innovations in the software, communications, electronics, materials, medical devices and instruments sectors. The goal is to leverage breakthroughs in these areas to provide solutions for business-to-business enterprises.
"Commercializing university research requires external expertise and investment. The Triton Technology Fund is going to accelerate the success of our innovators by injecting crucial resources into our entrepreneurism and commercialization initiatives here at the Jacobs School of Engineering and across all of UC San Diego and its alumni networks," said Albert P. Pisano, Dean of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering in a statement announcing the fund.
The university is a breeding ground for ideas and innovation. To date, UC San Diego faculty and alumni have been credited with forming more than 500 startup companies. Some of these innovations can be seen in action this Thursday when the Jacobs School of Engineering hosts its annual Research Expo event. UC San Diego engineering graduate students will present their latest research at the 200-strong poster session at Research Expo on Thursday April 17 from 2:00 to 4:30 pm on the UC San Diego campus. (You can scan poster titles or search by industry application area online.)
The Jacobs School of Engineering's Research Expo, now in its 33rd year, also includes ten-minute faculty tech talks covering regenerative medicine, big data, video processing for medical applications, robotics education, wearable sensors, and aerospace safety. Registration is available onsite.
Linden Blue, vice chairman of General Atomics and current chairman and CEO of Spectrum Aeronautical, was honored by the Tesla Foundation this past Saturday with the Nikola Tesla Award for Innovation.
Linden Blue is one of the masters of modern energy and aviation and San Diego is honored to have such an innovative leader in its region. The event program reads, "Linden Blue has always been very interested in technology. That interest has led him from innovating Learjet product improvements while working at Gates Learjet, to overseeing the development of the Lear Fan and the Beech Starship, and, more recently, to develop unmanned aerial vehicles and nuclear reactors."
The Tesla Foundation's mission is to create, promote, and protect American jobs and businesses through innovation and commercialization.
Here's to you Linden, for your incredible contributions to the aeronautics and energy sectors and for pioneering San Diego's game-changing innovative culture.
"The thing that's always turned me on in aviation is the innovation part of it. If you could dramatically improve the technology, that interested me. That's what I want to do." – Linden Blue
Illustrating some of the dynamic uses for unmanned system. Clockwise from top left: Drone used for newspaper delivery (The Atlantic), prepping a wildfire- fighting drone for launch (The New York Times), simulation of a lifeguard/lifesaving drone (AUVSI), agricultural drone used for weed control (3dRobotics/ Diydrones.com)
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With more than 2,800 manufacturers spread out across San Diego County, the region is home to a diverse and growing manufacturing base which supports more than 91,000 jobs. Yet there is a growing perception that manufacturing is on its way out, as jobs supposedly head overseas to remain cost competitive. Every day, companies are finding ways to innovate and refine the manufacturing process and retain and bring back manufacturing jobs and it's happening right here in our backyard.
On Oct. 4, many of these San Diego companies will open their doors to the public as part MFG Day, a national program that addresses common misperceptions about the manufacturing industry. Participants include:
· D&K Engineering – As the exclusive manufacturer of innovative e-recycler EcoATM, this Rancho Bernardo company also works in the medical device and 3d printing space. Register
· Quality Control Manufacturing Inc. – What started as a one man operation in a garage in 1978, has grown into a 95 person team for this Santee precision parts manufacturer Register
· Taylor Guitars – Located in El Cajon, the Taylor Guitars' factory tour takes guests through the steps of guitar construction. From wood selection to final assembly, guests will experience each process as a guitar evolves from raw wood into a finished instrument. Register
The tours will be preceded by a breakfast panel and discussion with representative from the touring companies at San Diego City College.
So why should San Diego County care about manufacturing? Here are a few reasons:
· According to the Manufacturing Institute, every job created in the manufacturing sector supports 2.5 additional jobs
· Manufacturing crosses all sectors – Military, tourism, and innovation- of San Diego's traded economies; For example, the San Diego Military Advisory Council reports that the manufacturing industry is the largest business sector that provides goods and services to the military throughout San Diego County
· The industry is more relevant than ever: According to the U.S. Census Bureau Quarterly Workforce Indicators, California's manufacturers created 51,571 new jobs in the third quarter of 2011
· The Mega-region creates an economically competitive landscape for manufacturers—Just ask companies including 3Drobotics, Taylor Guitars, and Aqua lung
· Small businesses are the lifeline of San Diego's manufacturing ecosystem; 80 percent of manufacturers in San Diego and Imperial Counties have less than 10 employees
We hope to see you at Manufacturing Day, but if we don't catch you there, you can still follow the conversation on twitter using the hashtag #MadeinSD.
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San Diego venture capitalist and entrepreneur Greg Horowitt took the EDC board of directors on a virtual zip line tour of his new book "The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley" at a recent meeting. San Diego has served as a living lab for Horowitt, who is one of the founders of Global CONNECT, a San Diego-based network committed to growing new technology clusters worldwide.
Horowitt asks a provocative question: Can we engineer serendipity through design? The answer is yes – if we are designing a culture and a system for innovation. Using the contrast between a plantation and a rainforest, he illustrates the prized attributes of a plantation: order, precision, accuracy, productivity, and (to make the comparison work) no weeds. Then imagine a rainforest: it mixes diverse elements together that encourage the development of new species and allows weeds to grow unchecked.
In San Diego, we talk about an ecosystem of innovation. According to Horowitt, the roots of an ecosystem are smart policies, supportive infrastructure, flexible but strong intellectual property frameworks, enterprise and entrepreneurial support, and a robust capital "food chain." It also includes an informed and engaged private sector, proactive innovation leadership development, responsive and responsible workforce development that includes skill-building initiatives, active youth engagement, and university – industry linkages. A quick scan of the San Diego innovation landscape reveals that, as a region, many of these roots are well established and are growing branches that expand our economy and prosperity.
Horowitt's Rules of the Rainforest are straightforward and time-tested:
Rule #1: Break rules and dream.
Rule #2: Open doors and listen.
Rule #3: Trust and be trustworthy.
Rule #4: Experiment and iterate together.
Rule #5: Seek fairness, not advantage.
Rule #6: Err, fail, and persist.
Rule #7: Pay it forward.
The living lab of San Diego has given Horowitt insights that he and his Rainforest co-author Victor Hwang hope will lead to a focus on the development of innovation systems rather than the more traditional emphasis on innovation at the micro level of individuals and teams. Horowitt and Hwang have given San Diego a thoughtful, well-researched look at what it takes to build innovation capacity.


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In May 2015, 30,000 workers in the Turkish metal sector organized a mass strike to demand the right to organize and freely choose their union. 1,200 workers at Türk Traktör – a Turkish manufacturer of tractors and agricultural machinery – joined the strike. In response, the company fired 20 workers, some of whom were leaders in the strike. They filed a complaint at The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Read their story below.
Photo: radikal
Türk Traktör
Türk Traktör is a Turkish manufacturer of tractors and agricultural machinery. The company boasts that it produces every second a tractor in Turkey, and exports to more than 100 countries. Its majority is owned by Fiat and the Turkish Koç Holding.
Low wages for heavy work
Working conditions are harsh. The annual over-time in the Türk Traktör factory is compulsory and much higher than the legal maximum of 270 hours. Also, the work at the factory is officially classified as heavy work. This combination causes serious health problems. Much of the workforce have herniated discs or suffer other musculoskeletal disorders. The average wage in the workplace ranges between 1300-1400 TLs (approximately 430-460 Euros) per month. This is not sufficient to meet basic needs. As a result, many of the workers have incurred debt.
Unable to address problems
The workers of Türk Traktör are unable to address these issues because they cannot freely bargain for their working conditions. Türk Traktör has consistently denied its workers the right to organize and instead compelled them to join Türk Metal, a union that is closely connected to the Turkish government and Türk Traktör management, as a pre-condition for employment. As a result, for many years, Türk Metal union has been the competent union to make collective bargaining agreements in the workplace. Since workers have no choice but to join Türk Metal, the collective bargaining agreements do not adequately represent the interest of the workers.
Mass strikes
In May 2015, 30,000 workers in the Turkish metal sector launched a mass strike. Workers fought for the right to organize and freely choose their union, and to be paid a living wage. 1,200 workers from Türk Traktör joined the strike.
Emre Cevizoglu, who worked for six years at the factory of Türk Traktör: "The strikes started at Renault's car plant in Bursa in April 2015 and then jumped from factory to factory until it reached us at Türk Traktör."
On June 1, 2015, the workers at Türk Traktör decided to end the strike and return to production. Despite assurances that it would not dismiss anyone because of the work stoppage, Türk Traktör fired 20 workers, including some of the organizers of the strike. The reason given by the company for the dismissals was that the action was an illegal strike and workplace occupation.
Anonymous worker, involved in leading the strikes, stated that: "We just wanted to have better working conditions and be able to choose our union freely, that's why we went on a strike, like thousands of other workers in the sector. As a result of exercising this right, we lost our jobs. Now it is impossible for us to find jobs in other factories because they know that we were dismissed because of leading the strikes."
Involvement of the EBRD
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) provided a 30 million Euro loan to Türk Traktör in 2013, in order to finance the construction of a tractor assembly plant in Sakarya and ongoing operations in its existing facilities in Ankara. As a client of the EBRD, Türk Traktör is required to comply with the bank's policies, including the relevant provisions of the ILO conventions
Türk Traktör Timeline
The complaint
Download the full complaint
Eyüp Özer, international secretary of Birleşik Metal: "The EBRD has a responsibility to make sure the basic workers' rights are guaranteed in their business partners in Turkey."
The process
Read more about the Project Complaint Mechanism of the EBRD
Birleşik Metal requested that the PCM undertake a problem-solving initiative to help all parties reach a solution, ensuring respect for workers' rights at Türk Traktör. In lieu of a problem-solving initiative, Birleşik Metal requested that PCM undertake an independent investigation to determine whether the EBRD has complied with its own policies (Compliant Review).
Problem solving
Albab Akanda was assigned by the PCM to conduct the Eligibility Assessment. Akanda did not make any efforts to contact complainants to discuss the issues, nor did he take a site visit to Turkey to explore the willingness of the parties to engage in a problem-solving initiative. The Eligibility Assessment Report, published in December 2015, found that the complaint was eligible for a compliance review
In January 2016, Halina Ward was assigned by the PCM to conduct the compliance investigation. She conducted a site visit in February 2016. In the course of her investigation, she reviewed documentation from EBRD and its client and was in contact with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Freedom of Association Committee Secretariat, the office of the World Bank Group's Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO), and with a UK-based labour expert with prior experience working in Turkey. The PCM Expert was regularly in touch with complainants to request additional information and update them on the status of the complaint.
As provided by the PCM rules of procedure, a draft compliance report and the bank's Management Action Plan responding to the report's findings were sent to complainants for their comments in December 2016. After the final report was sent to the EBRD board, either voluntarily or at the Board's request, bank Management revised the Action Plan to include additional commitments to address the PCM's findings.
Download the full report of the PCM
The result
In April 2017, the PCM published its investigation report, finding that the EBRD failed to ensure protection of core labor standards when providing the loan to Türk Traktör:
- The EBRD failed to adequately monitor issues around overtime, occupational health, and safety;
- The EBRD did not adequately assess and act upon issues related to freedom of association;
- The EBRD did not undertake an evaluation of the dismissals that took place at Türk Traktör following the industrial action in 2015, and failed to evaluate Türk Traktör's adherence to the ILO Core Conventions;
- The EBRD failed to routinely monitor Türk Traktör's implementation of a (required) external grievance mechanism.
EBRD's response to the investigation
Download the Management Action Plan of the ERBD in response to the investigation
In response, the EBRD committed to improve their internal procedures and commission an analysis on the gaps between international labor law and national law. They commited to:
- Undertake an analysis of the differences between Turkish law and the International Labour Organization's core conventions;
- Commission an independent analysis of the dismissals of the workers against the provisions of the ILO conventions;
- Update its internal guidance materials on freedom of association;
- Improve its due diligence process.
Eyüp Özer (Birleşik): "Turkey is one of the biggest markets for EBRD, but the country is also known for its failure to respect labor rights. EBRD has a responsibility to make sure at least its own investments don't contribute to violations of the most basic human rights."
Dismissed workers remain without remedy
Download the full response of the complainants
Although EBRD's intended policy review and improvements are a positive first step, none of the planned actions will provide remedy for or result in concrete changes in the conditions for current or formers workers at Türk Traktör. The workers who were fired after the strike still have not received compensation for their dismissals. The PCM will monitor the implementation of the MAP. Birleşik Metal and SOMO will continue to look for ways to ensure that EBRD and its clients respect labor rights and that those harmed receive remedy.


text: xanrer Posted March 7, 2018 (edited) Soo umm.. Hi hello im gonna do some boring talk here if you don't want to read this part just read the parts with bold font. First of all hello DOOMWORLD community. Im quite new here, i have made a little map for doom1 a mouth ago and i share it on moddb but i tough it can reach more people from doom dedicated forums soo here we are! I gotta say that i will never make this concept to any other map so you can call this as a demo that will never going to be finished, the reason? Because im not talented nor patient, it actually was quite easy even though this was my first finished map ever (if you can call this as my map i mean) and didn't take really long even with all of those research (i didn't even know how to open a door in udmf before this) it take only 6 hours but the real reason why i made this project was i really liked psx dooms colored lights so i wanted to play doom with that colors but i hated the graphical and geometrical sacrifice for running this on ps. So i said maybe i should make the first step for this kind of project so actually talented and patient people will make this into a real mappack, so i would play doom with some sick colors. Also i add some of the features from psx doom to here like that slight bulge on the exit switch, slowly fading light effect on the exit room and transparent secret wall. I was also thinking of fixing all the texture connections but i couldn't decide if that will be too far off. So basically i made this demo mod only for influence someone else to make the full version of it... Yes i am THAT lazy, go figure! Because of that please don't ask me to do the rest of the maps. There is and there will be only E1M1. Lets get to the technical parts shall we. This map has udmf structure, and crashes original engine and of course chocolate doom so don't even try. Zdoom is an option but even though it runs well as a software renderer fan i sadly have to say that it looks like hot garbage. So you can try this with any engine that has gl render, i personally tried on gzdoom 3. Basicly i only tried with gzdoom but you can try runing it with engines that has hardware renderer. Obviously you need doom1 iwad for this. Here some screenshots: Spoiler If you have any questions/feedback please read the part with italic font first. Also i coudnt find the forum rules so i dont know if its forbiden to use another sites link but just for easy tracking and uploading i will use my moddb link: Download Ah yeah.. I also made the gl dynamic light shadowmaps + 3d ceiling lights version of this mod you can find it here Credits to: -DRD Team for GZDoom builder -Kippykip(fenderc01 for PSX Doom TC) (i get most of the color data from there) -Brutal doom discord community -Countless people from youtube and doomworld (i am so sorry for not getting the names next time if i make a mod i'll write all the names) Edited August 12 by xanrer : misinformation cleared 2 Share this post Link to post


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MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A missing girl from Mississippi was being sex trafficked in Memphis, according to a police report obtained by FOX13.
RELATED: FOX13 Investigates -- Saving our youth from sex trafficking
The 18-year-old from Jackson, Miss. had been missing since January 29. More than a month later, police got a call that a girl was being held against her will outside a Memphis grocery store.
Police went to the location and found the victim standing in front of the business. They confirmed she was the missing teen from Jackson.
Hear from the girl's father and see the moment he was reunited with his missing daughter, only on FOX13 News at 6.
The teen told police she was brought to Memphis by a man named Reginald Harris. She met the suspect online, and he said she would have a better life if she left with him, according to a police affidavit.
The victim said she left home on January 29 after getting into an argument with her parents. Once she and Harris arrived in Memphis, they stayed at several different hotels around the city.
RELATED: Heartbreaking story of missing Memphis teen has a happy ending
The teen told police she never had sex with Harris, but he forced her to have sex with strangers more than a dozen times, according to the affidavit. The victim said she didn't want to sleep with the men, but she was afraid the suspect would beat her – and he was her source of food and housing.
The teen also told officers Harris threatened to put a box over her head and drag her down the street if she didn't follow his orders. He also tried to make her do drugs, according to the affidavit.
Reginald Harris is not in custody. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.


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Word of the Worlds April 2017
The Women Writers of Science Fiction
The 2017 Hugo Awards finalists were just announced earlier this month. The nominees are up for one of scifi's more prestigious awards, despite an unfortunate taint in recent years by misogynists and bigots seeking to manipulate the ballots. This year at least, the changes to the nomination procedure have had a dampening effect on those efforts. I'm not going to get into the (supposed) reasoning behind those group's misguided attempts, or how and why everything they stand for is wrong. Instead, I will point out the recurrence of one of the great trends that drives them crazy: the increasing recognition of women scifi/fantasy authors. This year, four of the six Hugo finalists for Best Novel are women: Charlie Jane Anders, Becky Chambers, N.K. Jemisin, and Ada Palmer. You'll see the same kind of representation as you move down the ballots: four of six for Best Novella, five of six for Best Novelette. And the same thing is happening over in the Nebula Awards, whose finalists were announced in late February.
It's not just nominations either--women are winning the awards. Last year, N.K. Jemisin and Naomi Novik won Best Novel at the Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards respectively. Nnedi Okorafor took home Best Novella at both. And the Hugo for Best Short Story went to Naomi Kritzer while Alyssa Wong took the Nebula.
These victories are wonderful steps forward for women authors in the fields of scifi and fantasy. Last year, The Huffington Post claimed women were reaching new heights, and in 2015, The Guardian wrote that women writers were storming the citadels of male scifi, with waves of new authors raised on Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.
Crucially though, both of the above-linked articles raised a separate but important point: it's a historical misperception to think women writers are only now being acknowledged. Scifi and fantasy continue to be perceived as bastions of maleness, but they are citadels that have actually been under attack by writers who are not straight, white, science-minded men since the very beginning. After all, Mary Shelley' Frankenstein (1818) is frequently considered a starting point for scifi as we know it, and even before that there were feminist utopia works like Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World (1666) and Sarah Scott's A Description of Millenium Hall (1762). It does, however, have to be admitted that between 1818 and about the 1960s, men absolutely dominated the genres, and it wasn't uncommon for women who were writing to use male pseudonyms like Andrew North, or at least gender-neutral names, like C.L. Moore and Leigh Brackett.
Then came the Golden Age of feminist scifi. During the 1970s, when Second Wave Feminism swept the country, women started winning and being nominated for many awards in scifi and fantasy: writers like Joanna Russ, Anne McCaffrey, Kate Wilhelm, and Joan D. Vinge. In this decade, Ursula K. Le Guin, James Tiptree Jr. (the pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon), and Vonda McIntyre each won both a Nebula and a Hugo. And Pamela Sargent published her groundbreaking anthology series Women of Wonder.
But after any golden age are always dark years and these dark years lasted for the next three decades, as once again men largely dominated the lists. So it may come as a surprise that even during this time, women writers were being recognized within the field. Connie Willis, called "the Meryl Streep of science fiction" by WIRED Magazine for the sheer number of awards she has garnered, earned the bulk of them during the 80s and 90s. In 1984, after a lifetime of work, Andre Norton was named the first female Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (she was Andrew North). And Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which is once again much in the limelight, was nominated for a Nebula in 1986.
So why does it seem like few people seem to remember these achievements? In NPR's Top 100 Scifi & Fantasy Books as voted on by the public, the first book on the list by a woman (Shelley's Frankenstein) comes in at number twenty, and there are only thirteen on the whole list.
As Naomi Novik pointed out in the Huffington Post article above, it's a particularly insidious type of prejudice that simply forgets about others, one that is rooted in unconscious biases. Society has long seen geek culture as predominantly male, and recent mainstream acceptance has led to reactionary, ugly urges to police that culture and judge the authenticity of others' fandom. Much of this comes from deep-seated microaggressions that perpetually posit women as outsiders, and microaggressions by their nature are notoriously difficult to combat. But they can be, and one way is to realize that talented women in scifi are not new and strange things. Here I think is what lies at the heart of this sense of "discovery" of talented women writers. Suddenly publishers are discovering not that these writers exist, but that they sell. And that's actually important. Having them continue to sell, having them continue to be published and win awards, and ultimately, having a growing base of women and men who want to read stories that aren't focused on one kind of individual, that's going to make all the difference.
So are women writers on the road to parity? I'm optimistic. But I'll politely clear my throat whenever someone marvels at these women writers coming out of nowhere, and kindly point to our list of women in scifi, fantasy, and speculative fiction across the decades. By no means comprehensive, this is a brief survey of writers who should not be forgotten. After all, they've always been there, launching stones at the citadel.
A Partial Survey of Women in SciFi/Fantasy
A brief note: Nearly every author here has way too many books and/or stories to list, and many of them are still actively writing. Mostly, I've tried to select seminal or, in some cases, early works to achieve a balanced distribution across the decades. Some of these works are tragically no longer in print. I've linked to what we can still obtain for you, but I highly recommend using a favorite, local, second-hand bookshop to find others. Particularly during the 1950s and earlier, stories were more common than novels; in some cases I've linked to anthologies that I know to have collected at least one of their works. These anthologies are an excellent way to find the works of many of these writers gathered in one convenient place. I particularly recommend:
Sisters of Tomorrow - Edited by Lisa Yaszek & Patrick Sharp
Sisters of the Revolution - Edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer
The Big Book of Science Fiction - Edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer
Naomi Novik - Uprooted (2015)
Nnedi Okurafor - Binti (2015)
Marie Brennan - A Natural History of Dragons (2013)
Lauren Beukes - Moxyland (2008)
Kelly Link - Pretty Monsters (2008)
Nalo Hopkinson - Midnight Robber (2000)
Octavia Butler - Parable of the Sower (1993)
Connie Willis - Doomsday Book (1993)
Pat Cadigan - Synners (1991)
Lois McMaster Bujold - Shards of Honor (1986)
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
Angela Carter - Nights at the Circus (1984)
Angelica Gorodischer - Kalpa Imperial (1983)
C.J. Cherryh - Downbelow Station (1981)
Eleanor Arnason - Swordsmith (1978)
James Tiptree Jr. - Up the Walls of the World (1978)
Marge Piercy - Woman on the Edge of Time (1976)
Joanna Russ - The Female Man (1975)
Anne McCaffrey - Dragonflight (1968)
Andre Norton - Witch World (1963)
Kate Wilhelm - The Mile-Long Spaceship (1963)
Madeliene L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
1950s and Earlier
Leigh Brackett - The Long Tomorrow (1955)
C.L. Moore - Shambleua (1933)
Leslie F. Stone - The Conquest of Gola (1931)
Clare Winger Harris - The Fate of the Poseidonia (1927)
Book Reviews
The Stars Are Legion
Kameron Hurley
The dedication page of Kameron Hurley's The Stars are Legion says simply: For All The Brutal Women. I've never read a more exciting dedication, and, as it turns out, one that so succinctly describes the novel. The Legion is a place of brutality where factions fight for dominance of the outer rim of an artificial sun, dreaming of total power and the divine blessings of the War God.
The alternating plot lines, the re-imagining of what the Hero's Journey can be, and the mystery at the heart of the story are wonderful nuggets, but the real power of The Stars are Legion come from Hurley's world building. The Legion is a solar system populated entirely by women, women who are so intimately linked to their worlds they birth what their planet needs, whether that is a humanoid being or gears for the deep machinery powering the core. Make no mistake, this is space-opera at it's finest, but unbound by tradition and wholly original in its audaciousness. Especially recommended for fans Ancillary Justice who don't mind (a lot of) gore. -- David C.
Winged Histories
Sofia Samatar
With Winged Histories, now in paperback, Sofia Samatar returns to her fantasy colonial empire in this companion to 2015's A Stranger in Olondria. But never fear if you didn't read Stranger. Winged Histories is where I actually recommend you start. This is an utterly gorgeous epic fantasy, one that subverts typical fantasy tropes. Yes, there's an aristocratic girl who runs away to become a swordmaiden. Yes, there's a nomadic desert people who prefer an oral tradition to written history. There's a socialite who wanted only for things to stay the same, and a legendary monster that suddenly proves to be very real. But somehow, it all feels fresh and exciting, in part because of how talented a writer Samatar is, weaving back and forth between present and past in the space of paragraphs, even sentences. What might be pure fantasy instead becomes a deft exploration, through the voices of four women, of marginalized vs. center, invisible histories, and the pressures of social convention not simply on day to day life but on how one's existence is even remembered. Complex, beautiful, and nuanced, Olondria is a place to sweep you away. -- Chris P.
Brian Catling
Erstwhile is Brian Catling's second installment of the Vorrh trilogy. Catling continues to develop a world that revolves around a massive, self conscious forest in the middle of Africa that has proven itself capable of expelling colonialist and awaking prophets that help defend its boundaries. As rumors of another world war spread, strange creatures are appearing throughout Germany and London. Mistaken for shell shocked soldiers or the mentally ill, they wind up in institutions where a few have recognized their unnatural behavior. They are the Erstwhile, the angles that failed to protect the Tree of Knowledge and abandoned by God.
Brain Catling fuses traditional mythology, historical locations, people and events, with his own created world to develop a style that lands some where between fantasy and speculative fiction. There are intricacies to Catling's story telling that are hard to discuss without giving to much of the fun away. I can say that Catling has produced the most creative and engrossing trilogy that I've read in a long while. -- Terry S.


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So nearly a world champion again.
On Sunday I awoke at 4:30am to watch the BBC's broadcast of the pro road race on "the red button" (God knows what that means or how it works) with Porter and Chris Boardman commentating. It was a fantastic race which made their job easier but it was a major blunder that they both missed Philippe Gilbert being caught 3km from the line. Porter was bitterly complaining that the camera wasn't on Gilbert long after he was caught.
I then watched the race for a second time on Eurosport with Harman and Kelly. As always Yer Man was good but he did make a major blunder. He said more than once that the peloton could allow the early break to gain half an hour and still reel them in before the finish. Wrong Sean. If the break had reached the circuit with that kind of lead they would have been more than a lap up. With the break tucked in the bunch how exactly would the "chasers" got that lap back? The new world champion would be the Ukrainian Kvachuk who was the strongest of the break.
I am told by my race adviser Ken Beck that at the point the bunch reached the circuit they were just 45 seconds in front of the leaders finishing their first lap. I don't think the UCI will risk adopting the same format again.


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Microsoft Global Security Badge Update
Microsoft issues security badges to each of its 120,000 employees world-wide.
The Challenge
Microsoft senior leadership provided a corporate directive to upgrade all employee and vendor badges globally. Badge-holders were given an option to update their photos and personal information for their new badges.
A platform was required to receive badge-holder's photos and information, provide quality assurance, manage exceptions, and track the new badges through production and delivery to their badge-holders.
The Solution
The solution included three integrated applications addressing the full business process from end to end.
- MyMSPic provided Web + Mobile support for all badge-holder operations related to the badge update. These included uploading and proofing a new portrait, and updating personal user information.
- MyMSPic Review supported Microsoft quality reviews of badge-holder submitted photos and information.
- MyMSPic Cardholder Information provided management and start to finish tracking of badges from initial submission through final delivery to their badge-holders.
An Azure Hosted Web + Mobile application was provisioned, supported by Azure SQL for data and Azure Storage for images. Single-Sign-On was implemented for Microsoft CorpNET users supporting two-factor authentication.
A SharePoint Collaboration Portal was provisioned for the project team and stakeholders. Status Reports and badge tracking information were surfaced here with Power BI and with Excel Services.
OffPiste's solutions manager oversaw the application lifecycle from initial requirements gathering through retirement and archiving. This was a global solution affecting nearly every employee and vendor at Microsoft. Security of personal information, reliability of operation, and clarity of operation and status were major objectives successfully delivered in this solution.
Services and Platforms
Solutions Management
Project Management
Process Assessment
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Cloud Services
Web & Mobile


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Dir 615 validating identity
Author: Unknown, but it is so hacked up it doesn't matter by now. Author: Mike Schwartz mandel A Mandelbrot set program.
hello Demonstrates creation of a simple window, "hello world". latffp Shows how to access the Motorola Fast Floating Point library from Lattice C. Author: Larry Hildenbrand palette Sample program for designing color palettes.
After a network interruption during which the client side had broken the connection, the server side sockets remained open until the JGroups channel was shut down.
The An issue that resulted in clients receiving errors has been resolved in this release.
With this update, the race condition no longer occurs, the transaction commit uses the correct data when using a JTS transaction manager under load, and transactions are committed correctly.
Inactivating a JBoss Cache region locked the entire subtree of the region's parent and never unlocked it.
Search for dir 615 validating identity:
On the AMIGA, there is no connect mode, only send and receive.


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From Paul Ryan's speech last night at the Jack Kemp Foundation Dinner (via Politico):
Poverty rates are the highest in a generation. Of the millions of children born into hardship, fewer and fewer are able to escape it. And some never learn to dream at all, which is a worse tragedy. When 40 percent of all children born into the lowest income quintile never rise above it, what does it say about our country?
To me, it says our economy is failing to provide basic security, much less rising wages. It says our schools are failing to provide a path out of poverty. And it says that our families and communities are breaking down where they are needed most –in those homes and neighborhoods where even a mighty government cannot match the power of one caring soul helping another.
At a time of great consequence, the American people have again chosen divided government. And it's up to us to make it work. We've got to set aside partisan considerations in favor of one overriding concern: How can we work together to repair the economy? How can we provide real security and upward mobility for all Americans – especially those in need?
Ryan also talked about the need to purge our culture of the notion that more money spent equals greater compassion:
Here's the problem: We haven't applied the welfare-reform mindset with equal vigor across the spectrum of anti-poverty programs. In most cases, we're still trying to measure compassion by how much we spend – not by how many people we help.
Just last year, total federal and state spending on means-tested programs came to more than one trillion dollars. What does that mean in practical terms? For that amount of money, you could give every poor American a check for $22,000. Instead, we spent all that money trying to fight poverty through government programs.
What do we have to show for it? Today, 46 million people are living in poverty. During the last four years, the number of people on food stamps has gone up by 15 million. Medicaid is reaching a breaking point. And one out of every four students fails to earn a high-school diploma. In our major cities, half of our kids don't graduate. Half.
When Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964, he predicted we would eliminate poverty in 35 to 50 years. Here we are, 48 years later, and poverty is winning. We deserve better.


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Larry Burroughs of Fairless Hills passed away Tuesday, April 3rd, 2018, at the age of 64. A hardworking handyman, good with his hands, Larry enjoyed Nascar and sports. He also loved the outdoors, spending time in Potter County, hunting, fishing, and camping, and was very passionate about taking pictures of nature and wildlife. Those fortunate enough to know Larry, knew him as a loving and caring man that simply loved to be around his family.
Larry is survived by his beloved wife of 40 years, Linda (nee Ferry) Burroughs, his adoring children, Larry J. (Dana) Burroughs and Linda Burroughs, and his cherished grandchildren, Hailey, Kendall, and Caden. He is also survived by his 6 brothers and sisters, his brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Bob (Roxanne) Ferry, Steve (Debbie) Ferry, and Dave (Susan) Ferry, his dogs, Gizmo and Jasmine, and several nieces and nephews.
Family and friends are invited to Larry's Life Celebration on Sunday, April 22nd, from 11 AM – 1 PM, followed by his Memorial Service at 1 PM, at the Beck Givnish Life Celebration Home, 7400 New Falls Rd., Levittown, PA 19055.
7400 New Falls Rd.
Levittown, PA 19055
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