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Monday, July 22, 2024 | Today's Paper | 85.793°
Associated Press
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LONDON — Recession may just be a word. But in Britain it may become a habit — and a dangerous one at that.
It's possible that official figures on first quarter economic growth, to be released Thursday, could show the country is back in recession, and tension is building.
Although economists on average expect growth of 0.1 percent on the quarter, they warn it would take the smallest statistical variation to put the figure in negative territory. That would place the country in recession, typically defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.
Another recession — the third since the 2008 financial crisis — is already being referred to with foreboding in the media as a "Triple Dip." Experts warn that its confirmation would create a wave of negative media attention that would scare consumers away from spending, feeding into a vicious cycle that has the economy flat-lining.
"It's psychological — this is all psychological," said Cary Cooper, a professor at Lancaster University Management School. "It's about the message that those figures send to consumers and small businesses."
The government desperately wants a strong number to justify its increasingly criticized policy of painful spending cuts. But recent indicators on Britain's economy, the third-largest in the 27-country EU after Germany and France, have been disappointing.
Inflation is rising faster than wages, cutting into people's standard of living. Unemployment is up at 7.9 percent. Two international ratings agencies have downgraded the country's credit grade from the top level AAA, warning about the government's fiscal policies.
The government, which has long played on its AAA rating as a sign of its economic might, has been pursuing a harsh program of spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the budget deficit, which at 7.4 percent of annual economic output is more than twice the EU's 3 percent limit. Like many governments across Europe that have been scarred by the bond market turmoil that forced Greece and four other countries to need rescue loans, Britain is focusing on reducing debt quickly, even at the cost of short-term economic pain.
What some governments and economists are slowly realizing, however, is that they may have underestimated the damage such austerity would do.
There's long been pressure domestically in Britain to ease off the budget cuts, but in the past few days the International Monetary Fund also chimed in. The fund, whose views carry weight as it is involved in all of Europe's sovereign bailout programs, has pressured Treasury chief George Osborne to slow down the austerity measures in hopes of reviving the economy, whose output was worth £1.4 trillion ($2.1 trillion) in 2012.
As the austerity debate rages on, no other person than the national spiritual leader — the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby — has waded in and used a word no want wants to hear: Depression.
Welby has unusual standing in the world of money because in a previous life he served as an oil industry executive and now sits on the parliamentary banking standards committee. He told an audience at the heart of government in Westminster on Monday that there was an issue of confidence and trust — and there is need to rebuild both.
"I would argue that what we are in at the moment is not a recession, but essentially some kind of depression and it therefore takes something very, very major to get out of it in the same way as it took something major for us to get into it," he said.
The Bank of England has cut its interest rate to a record low 0.5 percent and pumped money into the financial system in the hope that will encourage banks to lend money more cheaply. But the results have been mixed and experts say there is only so much a central bank can do to create jobs.
On Wednesday, the Bank of England and the Treasury extended until January 2015 a program to boost lending and help the economy. The program offers funding at low interest rates to banks on condition that those rates are passed on to small businesses and households. Its results so far have been mixed, however.
Even if the economy dodges recession, the daily reality for many Britons remains tough.
The Trussell Trust, a food bank network, said it fed more than 350,000 people in the year ending in March — more than double the 128,000 served in the previous 12-month period. Tim Boyce, a retired investment banker who runs a south London branch, said he's seeing the people behind those numbers. Inside a frosty church that's opened its doors to the desperate, he watches as they come for emergency handouts of rice, pasta and beans.
"Most people don't realize the extent of poverty," he said as he sipped coffee to keep the edge off the chill. "It's hiding in plain view."
Take the cases of Kevin Bishenden, 50, and his wife, Nicola, 40. He's an upholsterer who says that no one wants to hire someone his age. She says she just can't find work. The only reason they aren't homeless is that Britain's welfare state manages to keep a roof over their heads.
But they've slowly been shedding all their possessions, together with memories of a past life. First a bike, then stuff from the kitchen. All the DVDs are going, though even Star Trek only gets you a few pennies. They've already sold their wedding rings.
He lamented a new council tax payment of £15 ($22.80) that came into effect as part of government austerity plans. His exhaustion was plain as he tried to imagine paying for it.
"Where's that supposed to come from?"


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This course presents the basic elements of scientific computing, in particular the methods for solving or approximating the solution of calculus and linear algebra problems associated with real world problems. Using a non-trivial model problem such as the heat equation, and sophisticated scientific computing and visualisation environments, students are introduced to the basic computational concepts of stability, accuracy and efficiency, as new numerical methods and techniques are introduced to solve progressively more challenging problems.
Honours Pathway Option (HPO):
To do this option, students must have completed MATH2405 or STAT2001 or a mark of 60% or more in MATH2305 or MATH1116. The HPO expands on the theoretical aspects of the underlying algorithms, and uses alternative assessment to assess these theoretical aspects.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
On satisfying the requirements of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
1. Use high-level programming language such as Python with proficiency and confidence
2. Use appropriate tools to verify the output and reliability of code/data
3. Use computing and visualisation software appropriately in scientific or engineering problems
Indicative Assessment
Assessment will be based on:
- 10 tutorial responses demonstrating capacity to use relevant software (30%; LO 1, 2, 3)
- 5 written assignments demonstrating a problem-based understanding of algorithms (30%; LO 1, 2, 3)
- Final examination (40%; LO, 1, 2, 3)
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Three lectures per week and regular tutorials/computer labs.Requisite and Incompatibility
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 2
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees. Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
Units | EFTSL |
6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
Year | Fee |
2017 | $3444 |
- International fee paying students
Year | Fee |
2017 | $4590 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
First Semester
Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
2601 | 20 Feb 2017 | 27 Feb 2017 | 31 Mar 2017 | 26 May 2017 | In Person | N/A |

subset: commoncrawl


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The Environmental Protection Agency is taking its first major action to address toxic wastewater from coal-burning power plants, ordering utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites.
Plants in four states will have to close the coal ash ponds months or years ahead of schedule, the EPA said Tuesday, citing deficiencies with groundwater monitoring, cleanup or other problems.
Coal ash, the substance that remains when coal is burned to generate electricity, contains a toxic mix of mercury, cadmium, arsenic and other heavy metals. It can pollute waterways, poison wildlife and cause respiratory illness among those living near massive ponds where the waste is stored.
The actions mark the first time the EPA has enforced a 2015 rule aimed at reducing groundwater pollution from coal-fired power plants that has contaminated streams, lakes and underground aquifers.
U.S. coal plants produce about 100 million tons (90 million metric tons) annually of ash and other waste.
The Obama administration regulated the storage and disposal of toxic coal ash for the first time, including a requirement to close coal-ash dumping ponds that were unstable or contaminated groundwater. The Trump administration weakened the Obama-era rule in 2020, allowing utilities to use cheaper technologies and take longer to comply with pollution reduction guidelines that are less stringent than what the agency originally adopted.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the actions announced Tuesday will ensure that coal ash ponds meet strong environmental and safety standards and that operators of industrial facilities are held accountable.
"I've seen firsthand how coal ash contamination can hurt people and communities,'' said Regan, a former North Carolina environmental regulator who negotiated with Duke Energy what state officials say was the largest cleanup agreement for toxic coal ash.
"For too long, communities already disproportionately impacted by high levels of pollution have been burdened by improper coal ash disposal,'' Regan said. "Today's actions will help us protect communities and hold facilities accountable. We look forward to working with our state partners to reverse damage that has already occurred.''
In separate letters sent Tuesday, EPA denied requests for extensions of coal ash permits by the Clifty Creek power plant in Madison, Indiana; James M. Gavin plant in Cheshire, Ohio; and the Ottumwa plant in Ottumwa, Iowa.
The Greenidge Generation plant in Dresden, New York, was ruled ineligible for an extension. The former coal plant now uses natural gas.
The H.L. Spurlock plant in Maysville, Kentucky, will be required to fix groundwater monitoring as a condition for continued operation of its coal ash pond, the EPA said.
Lisa Evans, a senior attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice, said the enforcement action "sends a strong message to industry that (compliance with the EPA rule) is not a paperwork exercise. It requires them to clean up these toxic sites.''
Frank Holleman, a lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center who has battled Duke Energy and utilities over coal ash disposal, said the enforcement action offers significant protections for clean water nationwide.
"The EPA has sent a clear message that (power plant operators) cannot leave coal ash sitting in primitive, polluting ponds across the country,'' he said.
Utilities in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and other states that are still storing coal ash in leaking, unlined pits sitting in groundwater and next to waterways are among those affected by the decision, Holleman said.
Michelle Bloodworth, president and CEO of America's Power, a trade association that represents coal-fired utilities, said the group was reviewing the EPA's announcement. "On its face it doesn't make sense to shut down prematurely coal plants that provide the security of on-site fuel storage or serve as an alternative when prices of natural gas and other sources spike" or are not available, she said.
In a related action, EPA sent letters to operators of four current or closed coal-fired power plants, saying they need to make improvements to coal-ash sites to comply with EPA rules. The AES power plant in Puerto Rico and three closed plants — the former Beckjord power station in Ohio, Tecumseh Energy in Kansas and Gallagher Generating Station in Indiana — all received EPA warning letters.
Coal ash storage and disposal goes back decades, but went largely unregulated until a 2008 spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in Kingston, Tennessee. A containment dike burst and flooding covered more than 300 acres (121 hectares), dumped waste into two nearby rivers, destroyed homes and brought national attention to the issue.
In 2014, an estimated 39,000 tons of coal ash spewed into the Dan River after a drainage pipe running below a waste dump collapsed at a Duke Energy plant in Eden, North Carolina. The toxic sludge turned the river gray for more than 70 miles (112 kilometers).
The EPA on Tuesday reiterated its "consistently held position that surface impoundments or landfills cannot be closed with coal ash in contact with groundwater.'' Limiting contact between coal ash and groundwater after closure is critical to minimizing contaminants released into the environment and will help ensure communities near the sites have access to safe water for drinking and recreation, the EPA said.
Copyright 2022 North Carolina Public Radio


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John Lear, a Lockheed L-1011 Captain, known for his revelations about aerial phenomena and UFOs, caught up with Art for the full 4-hour broadcast.
Related Articles:
As presented on the 11/2/03 show:
Art Bell: Let's say the government chose me. They were going to use me as an outlet to release this information. Let's just say they did that and they took me to a briefing. Then what John?
John Lear: They whisk you to Washington, DC, you get limo-ed to this building, beautiful building, you go up into this room. They say, 'Art, you're the guy and if you give us the go ahead, we are gonna release everything we know to the public. If you decide to go ahead, all major networks will be provided with information on all aspects of the cover up and no type of information will be withheld. Because of the deal for immunity for all participants of the cover up provides that nothing, no artifacts, no piece of information be withheld.'
So here's what happened, Art. We'll use some videos and stills. Our first UFO recoveries were in the late '30s. We made a couple in the beginning of the '40s and then came Roswell, which the public found out about. We got 2 live aliens from Roswell. One died shortly there after and one lived till 1956. And we found out so far there are 18 different alien species that we know about monitoring Earth. Some are good and some are hostile, most are indifferent. We found out that we are the experimental product, if you will, of an alien race who we never met and we don't know who they are. All we know is that the Greys are cybernetic organisms, glorified robots if you will, who work here at the behest of their employers monitoring us through abductions. We were never able to find out what the experiment is all about except that we have been externally corrected about 65 times. And they, the aliens, refer to us as "Containers." There's been speculation that the souls our bodies contain is the reason for the experiments. But nothing's been proven or determined.
Since 1938 we've lost over 200 aircraft due to UFO hostilities and thousands of soldiers in all kinds of different actions with aliens. Since that time several hundred thousand civilians have disappeared with no trace. Several thousand of those were eliminated by us because of their chance encounters with the aliens which we could ill afford to have publicized.
A slightly more frightening phenomena known as "human mutilations" have occurred on a regular basis and are similar to "cattle mutilations". In that the human or humans are taken from the street, so to speak, and returned to the same area about 45 minutes to an hour later with their rectums cored out, their genitals removed, eyes removed from their sockets, and completely drained of blood. In all cases it appeared that the mutilation procedures occurred while the persons were still alive and conscious. One of our scientists speculates that apparently the human specimens had to be alive for the samples to be worth anything. Abductions occur on a daily basis throughout the United States to at least 10% of the population.
When we were first made aware this we protested to the little grey being we had held in captivity at the YY-2 facility in Los Alamos, but a deal was struck that in exchange for advanced technology from the aliens we would allow them to abduct a very small number of persons and we would periodically be given a list of those persons abducted. We got something less than the technology we bargained for and found the abductions exceeded by a million fold than what we had naively agreed to.
In 1954, President Eisenhower met with a representative of another alien species at Muroc Test Center, which is now called Edwards Airforce Base. This alien suggested that they could help us get rid of the Greys but Eisenhower turned down their offer because they offered no technology.
At this point it became apparent to all involved that there was no such thing as a God, at least how the public perceives God. Certainly some form of computer recorder stores information and an occasional miracle is displayed by the aliens to influence a religious event. This so unnerved Eisenhower that he had "In God We Trust" put on paper money and coins and put in the Pledge of Allegiance to reaffirm the public belief in God. Shortly after this it was determined in meetings between the US and the Russians that the situation was serious enough that a cold war should be manufactured as a ruse to divert attention of the public away from UFOs towards some other scary threat like the H-bomb. It was also decided to keep the ruse secret from any elected or appointed officials within both the US and Russian governments as it took so long to vet these officials and the ruse was easier to manage if the top people didn't know about it.
In the late 1950's NASA was formed to compartmentalize, containerize, and sanitize information from all space platforms and vehicles. We sold NASA to the public claiming that all information would belong to them but they got very little and even that was highly sanitized.
Our first efforts were to keep the public from learning about Venus. A very similar planet to Earth and it's population is very similar to us just technologically advanced. We have learned a lot from them starting with the Russian Venera 1 and US Mariner 2, we made Venus look like a lead melting, volcanic surface, spewing sulfuric acid into a pressurized atmosphere 90 times that of Earth. And as often the case we over did it and we wondered why nobody asked how a parachute survived a descent into 800-degree air. We set up operations in Pine Gap, Australia to preclude any prying eyes figuring out what we were up to. We regularly eliminated through extreme prejudice anybody who was part of the operation and made the least little tiny threat about disclosure or dissatisfaction with the operation. Any space mission that included Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Mariner, Voyager, Clementine, and all the rest. All data initially came transmitted to Pine Gap then it was relayed to JPL or wherever after sanitizing. We had a little trouble with amateur radio operators but we figured out how they could intercept these signals but we managed to deal with that.
When the Russian threat began to fade we introduced Vietnam which kept the public occupied for over ten years. The cover up and personnel to run the operation began to get bigger and bigger and required more and more money. We were forced to inflate the defense budget, which soon not enough. Then we got into the drug business which was still not enough. We were the ones that looted the savings and loan industry and Wall Street to boot. It is so out of control now most people want immunity and want out. But there is so much secrecy and so many double and triple blinds in place that it's unlikely that this thing can ever be dismantled. And even if you give us the go ahead to spill the beans to the public it's unlikely they will get anything more than "yes, we recovered a flying saucer and yes, there was an occupant" but that's all we're gonna tell ya.
So go ahead and roll the tape for Mr. Bell. What you see here are what human mutilations look like. That one was a male about 27 years old. That one is film of dead aliens being pulled from the wreckage of a craft that crashed in Olancha, California in the '50s. That craft you see over there was over 250ft. in diameter and had to be buried on the spot. That site is in Utah near Dugway Proving Grounds. The object you're looking at now is the as the Kecksburg Acorn which was brought to Wright Patt in the middle '60s. There's Frank Drake trying to force information out of a being tied down to a stretcher. He was supposedly from Tao Ceti.
These pictures you're looking at now are structures on the Moon. That's the tower in Sinus Medii and it's over seven miles tall. And that thing over there is what we call the Colossus of Oguram(sp) in Mare Crisium. We don't know what it does but the machine itself is bigger than Brooklyn, New York. Now those are videos of the domes covering the craters. As you can see, some are in a very advanced state of decay.
These are 5 second slides of the 18 different alien species we are looking at. That one there is the most gruesome looking. The guards at one facility are carefully indoctrinated over several months being shown pictures similar to but not exactly like the alien. Only when he'd been acclimatized, so to speak, of the horrible looking beings are they allowed to stand in security positions. Before these acclimatizations were done, we had two guards die of a heart attack as the aliens came down the hallway unexpectedly.
And this last clip is of the Kennedy assassination. You've heard of the second gunman theory? Well, this is the second camera that recorded exactly what happened and we had 4 gunmen. And the bottom line was that Kennedy had to go. He insisted on releasing what little alien information we had told him about and he was trying to withdraw troops from Vietnam which we were using as a diversion for the public. After Kennedy we never told any President anything. Nixon knew because he was briefed as VP in 1952. That's how we knew where to take Jackie Gleason to Homestead Air Force Base to see the alien bodies we had in storage there.
And that's about it. What say you Art Bell? Do we brief the public? Yay or nay?"
--Special thanks to "Spaceprophet" of Fantastic Forum who provided this transcription.
Here are some of the web links that John Lear provided in support of his data:


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Sure, anything in the "strip of murdered nature" that was the battlefields of the Western Front was going to end up as rubble. But there are RGA War Diaries that record their target as "Langemarck Church" not a strong point in the church, or the village but the church itself. It was repeatedly targeted along with targets such as "trenches u.16.d.76.23- u 16 d.54.14 and "wire u 16 a.52,05 – u16 a.15.16" So why was the church such a popular target?
A week or so ago I was carrying out some research for a guided family history tour to the battlefields of where their relative Bombardier Griffiths had served in 324 Heavy battery RGA. The battery's war diaries were available, but the diary for March 1918, the month he died, was missing. Furthermore, there was evidence that suggested that Bombardier Griffiths did not join 324 battery until January 1918.
However, the diaries were very legible and full, recording the details of each shoot, including rounds fired and the target.
324 Heavy Battery was formed from 1916 conscripts and deployed to France in May 1917 equipped with four 6″ 26 cwt Howitzers. After a few weeks on the quiet sector of Bois Grenier the battery moved to Woesten, north of Ieper on 14th July 1917. From there it took part in the preliminary bombardment for the 31 St July , then stepping forwards to Elverdinge. The first day of 3rd Ypres 31st July, was successful on Pilckem Ridge, with the British line moving forward roughly along the Steenbeek south west of Langemarck.
A first world war artillery piece aimed at a target some 6km away was probably going to miss with its first round, even if the target had been plotted on a surveyed trench map. The position of the guns and the direction in which they are recorded as pointing may not be particularly accurate. Changes in the wind speed and direction will change the trajectory. An observer with communications to the guns could adjust the fire of the guns until the rounds form the guns are landing in the target area. Of course, by this the enemy will have worked out what was going to happen next and take cover.
A further problem is that the guns in a battery would not all have the same characteristics. Guns may be manufactured to different standards and might have different wear in the barrel. The WD entry for 5th August records that between 2pm and 2.30 pm 324 battery fired 30 rounds unobserved at Langemarck Church as ordered in Operation Order No 23. After this, someone,at Periscope House, probably Major William Orpen Sikottowe Sanders, the battery commander decided to calibrate the guns using the church. Firing ten rounds and watching one hit the church with others plus and minus, the unit could apply a correction for each gun. (Though ten rounds might be few to base a statistically reliable.
It wasn't always possible to see targets clearly. Pilckem ridge isn't much higher than the surrounding ground and it would have been quite difficult to pick out specific targets from the ground. Furthermore, the landscape was devastated, with buildings and trees leveled and landmarks obliterated.
One technique which could help is to use a "Witness Point" This was a point some distance from a target, but accurately located in relation to it, which could be ranged without losing surprise against the target and the correction applied to data for the target. If the correction to hit the church was "left a bit and add a bit", the same correction could ensure that targets in the same area picked off a map could be hit first time.
The entry for 7th August shows that between 3.30 and 6.30pm 324 battery fired a total of 24rounds at Langemarck Church as a Witness Point. Their next shoot 7.30pm to 8.30 an unobserved concentration on trenches straddling the Langemarck-Poelcapelle road was unobserved, but could be expected to be reasonably accurate, as might the shoot at 9pm. a response to a call for the SOS.
The targets on the 8th August were east and west of the German positions which ran through the north end of the German Cemetery at Langemarck, as evidenced by the three bunkers.
The search for the part an individual soldier played turns up some surprising detail about how the battle was fought and the reason why Langemarck Church was shelled. It also explain the rationale that supports the old military axiom to never deploy at an obvious terrain feature. Landmarks are shelled because they are landmarks .


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<< [Back to News Release Archive]
Raytheon AWARE situational awareness systems at Paris Air Show
Advanced Warfighter Awareness for Real-time Engagement line of advanced situational products being featured
PARIS, June 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon is featuring its AWARE line of advanced situational awareness products at the International Paris Air Show. The Advanced Warfighter Awareness for Real-time Engagement (AWARE) systems use cutting-edge helmet, cockpit and vehicle-mounted smart displays to give air and ground warfighters intuitive networking capability.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130615/NE31141-INFO)
New and existing AWARE systems at the Paris Air Show include the multifunction Center Display Unit (CDU) for F-16 aircraft. Raytheon's CDU is certified by the U.S. Air Force as the F-16's Primary Flight Reference. The Helmet Mounted Integrated Targeting system is also being shown with the CDU demonstration.
Being demonstrated as well is the new Joint Tactical Air Controller system prototype for dismounted soldiers and the highly successful soldier-worn Aviation Warrior system with eye-level monocle display and 3D Audio.
"With our AWARE product line, our customers are able to cost effectively upgrade and significantly increase the situational awareness capabilities of their existing platforms," said John D. Harris, Raytheon Company vice president and general manager of the company's Intelligence, Information and Services business.
"With the global reach of the Paris Air Show," he added, "we are also demonstrating the AWARE family of innovative ruggedized computer display systems for ground vehicles, which keep ground and airborne warfighters connected."
About Raytheon AWARE
Advanced Warfighter Awareness for Real-time Engagement is a family of advanced products designed to maintain full situational awareness for pilots and dismounted soldiers.
About Raytheon
Raytheon Company, with 2012 sales of $24 billion and 68,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, security and civil markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 91 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems; as well as a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @raytheon.
Media Contact
Keith Strubhar
SOURCE Raytheon Company


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Join us on an extraordinary journey to the most beautiful places on earth.
Travel with Gerhard's Odysseys
The finest hotels: Having a comfortable setting to return to at the end of an exciting day is of the utmost importance. The hotels on my tours are always chosen for their central location, ambiance, service and value. We will always be within short walking distance of the shops, museums and other local attractions. Many of the hotels I select are amongst the best in Europe.
European dining at its best: Culinary creations are as much a reflection of a nation's culture as the art and history, and it therefore goes without saying that meals are an important part of the travel experience. Dinners are assured to be fresh and savory, reflective of the region and country, and served in a comfortable setting that allows you to share the day's events with your fellow travelers. Breakfast each morning is served buffet style with a variety of fresh rolls and breads, yogurts, cereals, meats, cheeses, fruit and eggs. A vital part of breakfast, orange and other fruit juices, as well as a choice of freshly brewed coffee or teas, are also included.
Small groups: A smaller group makes it possible for everyone to meet new friends and to receive personal attention from the tour escort. It also allows for more comfort in our large motor coach and better service in hotels and restaurants. Rest assured you will be traveling with people who are enjoyable companions and who share common interests.
Since 1974: This year Gerhard's Odysseys enters its 50th year since our founding in 1974. A reputation for value and quality has brought with it continuous and consistent praise from satisfied repeat travelers, some of whom have been to Europe with me as often as thirty times!


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BISON WARP: M. Bison can move up to FAR distance without traveling the space between
❌ Binary Option, Forex and their likes are a means of making money but it's more like gambling. There are no sure means to guarantee that a person could make profit with them and that's why it can also be reasoned to be scam. Let's not forget that some individuals even give you 💯 % guarantee of making profits and end up running away with your money. The internet today is full of Binary Option Recovery Scam, you see so much testimonies been shared about how a firm or Company helped them recover what they lost to Binary Options. But believe it, it's just a way to lure more people and end up scamming them.
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2021 © All Right Reserved.
As a life-long comics fan and a retailer with a quarter century of experience, I was today years old when I discovered that Buzz Dixon and ...


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It all started out here at the Richmond Democrat blog, where J.C. Wilmore was waxing elequent about how some Republican Congresswoman had urged resistance to further taxation and thus had committed sedition. On the theory that he hadn't a clue what sedition really was, I sent him this:
Dutchman6 has left a new comment on your post "Republican member of Congress commits sedition":
We are, we must admit, two different peoples inhabiting the same national boundaries, sharing a common language but little else.
If we cannot agree on something as basic as the sanctity of life, the inalienable rights to property and liberty (see in starkest relief in the gun control debate) and the basic right to be left alone by a nanny-state government turned predatory, does ANYTHING else we agree on matter?
There are two fundamentally different visions at work here and throughout history such divisions have rarely been settled except by civil war.
Indeed, the one thing which almost guarantees conflict is the refusal on both sides, but especially the liberal side, to admit that open violence is possible.
This perception is not merely a "right wing paranoid fantasy." An Obamanoid OFA volunteer in Birmingham AL was recently quoted as saying:
"We're looking for supporters," said DeHaven of Hoover, one of the event's organizers. "We're not looking for a fight. That will come later, when we have an army."
Here's the thing though. We already ARE an army, complete with weapons and ammunition. We are the armed citizenry of the united States of America. And while you have been busy enveloping yourselves in the cult of personality of "The Lightworker," we have been busy supporting the firearms and ammunition industry by purchasing more weapons and ammo than has EVER been sold in this country.
There is a reason for that. Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.
Mike Vanderboegh
Pinson AL
Now this frightened J.C. considerably, for he hustled on over to the Daily Kos to write this:
A letter from a militia man (with poll)
by JCWilmore
Tue Mar 24, 2009 at 10:25:51 AM PDT
Today I received a disturbing comment on my home blog, The Richmond Democrat, and I'd like to share it with you. The comment was a response to my diary "Republican member of Congress commits sedition" which was also cross posted to Daily Kos here. My diary was about Republican Representative Michele Bachmann's call for right-wingers to be "armed and dangerous." It is a note from a right-wing (Republican?) militia man justifying their preparations to wage war against their fellow Americans.
(MBV: Insert my post here. Then he continues -- )
I am struck by just how matter of fact he is about his intentions and the fact that he is willing to give his name and contact information. At his website he claims to be under surveillance by the federal government.
Another key theme that is coming through is the "other-ness" of Democrats and Liberals. These people no longer acknowledge that we are all Americans. They regard themselves as a separate nation occupying the same territory. Establishing a mindset that labels a target group as an "other" is a key step in justifying violence towards that group. Recall Sarah Palin's use of words like "real Americans" and "real America." Members of the Republican Party and the right wing seem to be mentally preparing themselves for the use of violence and we ignore this development at our peril.
What if anything should be done about right-wing militia groups organizing in the open with a clear intention to wage war against their fellow American citizens? What responsibility, if any, does the Republican Party bear for the existence of these groups? Are the Republicans encouraging the formation of these armed groups in order to use them as a bargaining chip in political negotiations?
He also posted this poll:
Does the Republican Party bear any responsibility for these groups and their actions?
___ No, absolutely not. These groups are independent of the GOP.
___ Perhaps the GOP indirectly encourages them a little.
___ Somewhat: the GOP intentionally encourages them, but does not control them.
___ Yes, the GOP encourages these groups and exercises some control over them.
___ Yes, absolutely. These groups are a militant outgrowth of the GOP.
These silly people always frame their opposition as being from the GOP. They truly haven't a clue. I am proud to say that I have been on the enemies list of three consecutive White Houses now and I haven't been a supporter of the so-called Republican Party for more than a decade. It is most amusing for him to ascribe to me the adoption of seeing the enemies of the Founders' Republic as "the Other," when that is what collectivists of all stripes have been doing to us for decades.
But ole J.C. represents the but the tip of the Daily Kos' spleen. The comments are as hysterical as they are reflexive and stereotypical. Go and read. I haven't the space to do it justice.
LATER: I wrote the silly man back and thanked him for the publicity as follows --
My thanks for your posting my reply on that bastion of collectivism, The Daily Kos.
I always like to toss a skunk under the beds of those who harbor cherished collectivist misconceptions just to watch them go nuts.
If you do an honest search of my work, you will discover that I am a life-long anti-Nazi and anti-racist, having fought them at street level. My militia friends and me embarrassed the FBI into arresting Michael Brescia, a member of the Aryan Republican Army bank robbery gang, who the Fibbies were allowing to walk the streets of Philadelphia armed and unmolested. If you obtain the book by Dr. Robert Churchill, To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrants' Face, you will find that the militias carried out their own little anti-terror campaign with the neoNazis after OKC.
Your obsession with the GOP is ludicrous on its face as is your silly attempt to link the constitutional militias to them.
You have swept away the GOP politically. My sin is in pointing out how little that truly avails you. You have us surrounded now, you poor bastards. You'll have to deal with real people now, not corrupt politicians. Try to adjust your thinking to the new reality.
Mike Vanderboegh
PS Your buddies on the Krotch make the mistake of thinking that the Army will do your bidding, no matter how unconstitutional the order. You DO know that soldiers take an oath to the Constitution? It is not a Fuehrer Oath. See the blog Oath Keepers if you don't believe me.


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It's stuff like this that makes drawing a comic strip worthwhile. As anyone who's actually eaten a Peep will agree, I'm glad they've found another use for them as building material, and I hope they develop some way of constructing low cost, environmentally friendly housing out of the damn things. And that when they do they can find people who'd be willing to live in spongy pink and yellow houses.
Joe also made this, Alice's big ugly fountain. It's amazing, and it actually works! Dang, Joe!


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We realize you've got a lot on your mind these days, like the economy, health care, and the entire Middle East, but if you have one second to take a look at this petition from the United States Breastfeeding Committee, we'd really appreciate it.
I get the sense that you probably think breastfeeding is a no-brainer. You're smart like that. With all the health benefits for mom and baby, you'd think moms would be scrambling to attach their babies to their boobs.
And you can't beat the price of breastmilk, particularly as our economy is sinking fast. Not that you need me to remind you of that situation. Formula is pretty darn expensive (but they don't tell you that when they send you home with that ugly black bag and all those free samples) and the money families are spending on formula could go to helping them stay afloat during these crazy times.
So maybe you'd be surprised to know that there are still millions of new moms who head straight for the bottle (well, that one too, but mostly I'm talking about the formula bottles) without even giving breastfeeding a chance.
The question is, who's to blame?
Statistics show that moms in lower income brackets and minority groups are less likely to breastfeed, probably not because they don't want to or think that it's gross, but because they're heading back to their jobs to provide for their family – jobs that don't give them nursing breaks.
And while we're quick to guilt and judge moms who don't try it or stick with it after a few weeks or months, the support for breastfeeding mothers really stinks. If you've got the time and energy to make it work, it's obvious that it can be extremely rewarding. But for many women, it's just not that easy.
We're hoping that you'll give some attention to this issue. While the US Breastfeeding Committee does agree with the US Department of Health and Human Services in encouraging moms to breastfeed for at least 6 months, only a handful of states are actually meeting the Healthy People 2010 breastfeeding targets! Meeting these targets could save millions upon millions of dollars in later life issues like obesity, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
But we also need more support for moms who breastfeed – time off to pump, incentives to continue to breastfeed through at least six months, maybe longer, and better resources to help breastfeeding moms problem solve without feeling guilty.
Thanks for your attention to this matter.
Yours in breastmilk,
Kristen Chase
PS: If you wouldn't mind giving a tongue lashing to businesses, corporations, and online forums (read: Facebook) who seem to think nursing moms should hide in their homes until they're done breastfeeding, we'd appreciate it.
PSS: We're guessing if the government supports breastfeeding for a minimum of six months and strongly encourages it through at least one year, then they realize moms will have to leave the house and feed their kids.
[This post was written by Kristen Chase.]


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For centuries, the words "Vatican" and "intrigue" have gone hand in hand. But the Holy See's centuries-old code of secrecy ensured that scandals and conspiracies usually remained hidden behind the tall and sturdy Renaissance walls of the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, unbeknownst to the faithful masses around the world.
Now, in the era of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, mudslinging between rival church factions is being waged out in the open.
"It's as if the Borgias and the Medicis had Twitter accounts," Christopher Bellitto, a professor of church history at Kean University in New Jersey, told the National Catholic Reporter.
The power struggle has been simmering ever since the Argentine-born Jorge Maria Bergoglio became Pope Francis in 2013. He signaled a break with his two predecessors by promoting a message of mercy over strict dogma, of inclusion over punishment.
The anger of a traditionalist faction critical of the pope's more welcoming church broke out into the open for the whole world to see last weekend, with the publication by conservative Catholic media outlets of a bombshell letter by a former Vatican diplomat. The letter was released just as the pope was on a highly charged visit to Ireland — ground zero in the clerical sex abuse crisis.
The vitriolic 11-page letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican's former ambassador to the United States, is filled with innuendo. Mixing factual and ideological claims, it accuses Francis of knowing and ignoring allegations of sexual misconduct by the recently disgraced Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., who resigned as cardinal last month. In the letter, Viganò calls on the pope to step down for complicity in covering up crimes.
In the unprecedented attack, Viganò makes numerous unsubstantiated claims. He says that in 2013, he personally informed the new pope that McCarrick had been widely accused of inviting seminarians into his bed and that Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had punished McCarrick by forbidding him to celebrate Mass in public, give lectures and travel. Benedict, he says, ordered McCarrick to dedicate himself to a life of prayer and penance. Viganò claims that Francis overruled those sanctions and virtually rehabilitated McCarrick.
The wrinkles in Viganò's claim are that there is no public knowledge that Benedict ever issued any kind of sanctions against McCarrick and that it contradicts the historical record. McCarrick was often seen celebrating Mass, visiting Rome and attending events with Benedict. It is possible that the former pope did impart those orders secretly and for some reason was unable or unwilling to enforce them.
The known fact is that when credible allegations recently surfaced that McCarrick had abused a minor, it was Francis who elicited his resignation as cardinal — an extremely rare occurrence in the Catholic Church.
Viganò's letter, titled "Testimony," also contains accusations of cover-ups by about a dozen cardinals who served under Pope Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II when he was pope — many of whom Viganò has clashed with in the past. It makes no mention of the fact that Viganò himself once tried to quash a probe into a Minneapolis archbishop being investigated for misconduct with seminarians.
That Vatican officials have covered up clerical sex abuse is an open secret.
It is public knowledge that during John Paul II's papacy, one of the cardinals named in Viganò's letter — former Vatican Secretary of State (equivalent to Prime Minister) Angelo Sodano — long protected the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican priest who founded the Legion of Christ. Maciel, who died in 2008, turned out to be a serial predator of minors and was removed from active ministry by Benedict.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — who headed the biggest-ever U.S. investigation into clerical sex abuse, uncovering seven decades of abuse of more than 1,000 victims by some 300 priests — said his office had evidence the Vatican knew about cover-ups. But he could not verify whether Francis had direct knowledge of the crimes.
The Viganò letter rarely mentions children — the prime victims of clerical sex abuse. Rather, it reads like an ideological screed, a homophobic manifesto. The retired archbishop belongs to a traditionalist church faction, critical of what it decries as Francis' gay-friendly agenda. Those traditionalists blame clerical sex abuse on the presence of homosexuals in the church and believe Francis is too lenient with gays.
Viganò calls for the eradication inside the church of what he calls "homosexual networks which ... act under the concealment of secrecy and lies with the power of octopus tentacles and strangle innocent victims and priestly vocations and are strangling the entire church."
Most secular experts reject the identification of homosexuality with pedophilia as retrograde and encouraging anti-gay bigotry.
Francis and his supporters in the church mostly blame clericalism — a sense of superiority, exclusion and entitlement among the clergy that distances them from the laity — for creating a culture where the crimes of pedophilia are committed.
On the flight back to Rome from Ireland Sunday evening, reporters asked Francis two key questions — whether it was true that Viganò had told him about McCarrick and whether Benedict had issued sanctions on McCarrick.
Francis answered neither question, dismissed the letter and told reporters to read it and judge for themselves.
One of the pope's closest aides, the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Vatican-approved Civiltà Cattolica, tweeted that Francis has never publicly "defended himself against the accusations ... because he *knows* that sooner or later the truth will surface."
Nevertheless, those crucial questions are still hanging, unanswered, which has emboldened the pope's critics. Many of those critics are in the United States, where conservative Catholics are among Francis' strongest opponents for his stands on climate change, against laissez-faire capitalism and in favor of protection of migrants and refugees — as well as his opening to Cuba and to divorced Catholics.
Referring to Viganò's allegations, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, told his diocese in a letter, "I will lend my voice in whatever way necessary to call for this investigation and urge that its findings demand accountability of all found to be culpable at the highest level of the church."
And, commenting on the Viganò letter, the ultraconservative Rome-based Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American, told the conservative Catholic website LifeSiteNews, "After the truth of each declaration has been established, then the appropriate sanctions must be applied both for the healing of the horrible wounds inflicted upon the Church and her members, and for the reparation of the grave scandal caused."
In 2016, Burke and three other cardinals wrote a public letter known as the dubia ("doubts" in Latin), in which they accused Francis of sowing confusion on moral issues.
Viganò himself has a reputation as a disgruntled prelate with an ax to grind. In 2012, detailed letters he wrote to Benedict accusing other prelates of financial corruption were leaked to the Italian media and led to the Vatileaks scandal that is said to have persuaded Benedict to step down as pope.
While Viganò presented himself as a whistleblower, many inside the Vatican began to question his credibility. As Vatican ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2016, Viganò took active part in the "culture wars." That proved his undoing.
During Francis' visit to the U.S. in 2015, the ambassador orchestrated a meeting between the pope and Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who had been jailed for five days for refusing to issue same-sex-marriage licenses because of her religious beliefs. News of the meeting — which contrasted with Francis' message of inclusion — broke days later and reportedly infuriated the pope, who summoned Viganò back to Rome.
In the days since Viganò's latest bombshell, more details have emerged as to how his letter came about. Marco Tosatti, a conservative Italian journalist who has covered the Vatican for many years, told the Associated Press he helped Viganò write the letter and that he persuaded the former archbishop to make it public after the Aug. 15 release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report.
Tosatti says Viganò has gone into hiding to avoid the media onslaught and told the New York Times Viganò was "worried for his own security."
Another person who appears to have encouraged Viganò to speak out is Timothy Busch, a conservative American Catholic on the board of governors of the media network that owns the National Catholic Register, one of the outlets that first published Viganò's letter.
Busch told the New York Times, "Archbishop Viganò has done us a great service" and said the National Catholic Register's leaders "had personally assured him" that Benedict had confirmed Viganò's account, the paper reported.
But the retired pope's secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, told a German newspaper that reports that Benedict had confirmed Viganò's letter "lack any foundation."
On Tuesday evening, quoting close aides of Francis, the Italian news agency ANSA reported that the pope is "embittered" by the Viganò letter but "is not contemplating a resignation."
Even before the Viganò letter was released, clerical pedophilia in many countries around the world had become the biggest crisis of Francis' papacy, with survivors of abuse demanding the pope undertake much more concrete steps to hold accountable those bishops who ignored or willfully covered up predator priests. Conservatives, meanwhile, based their attacks on the pope on doctrinal issues.
Now, after the letter's release, Francis' opponents have raised the stakes, trying to de-legitimize him by accusing the pope directly of covering up sexual abuse. The battle lines have been drawn — the weapon is the issue of clerical sex abuse; the target is the papacy of Francis. The next battleground is likely to be the Youth Synod, a major meeting of Catholic bishops from all over the world, to be held in Rome in October.


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On 16 December, 1961, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) was launched as an armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC).
The formation of the MK
Umkhonto weSizwe ("Spear of the Nation") or 'MK' as it was more commonly known, was launched on the 16th December 1961. On the same day in 1838, the Afrikaners had defeated the Zulus at the Battle of the Blood River and it was perhaps significant that the armed struggle was launched on this particular day, more than one hundred years later. The formation of MK followed a series of events that made it necessary for the national liberation movements in South Africa to move towards a more significant challenge to the white minority government. The African National Congress (ANC), together with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the members of the Congress Alliance, the South African Indian Congress, the Coloured People's Congress and the Congress of the Democrats, had been engaged in peaceful acts of resistance which aimed at forcing the government to eventually recognise the rights of Black people in South Africa. However, the 1950s and the early 1960s, showed the intension by the South African government to further isolate the country's black people through various laws and severe repressive measures. In addition, in the face of repressive measures by the state, came the need to change tactics in the manner in which the ANC, SACP and the Congress Alliance had been approaching the struggle for freedom and equality.
Changing tactics was not going to be a simple and easy thing for the ANC, because for a long time it had embraced the 'non-violence' approach, an approach favored by Chief Albert Luthuli, President of the ANC at that time. Apart from the 'non-violence' stance that the ANC embraced, there were other issues that did not support the idea of an armed struggle, for instance at the time when the decision was made to form the MK, the ANC was banned under the Unlawful Organisations Bill of 1960 therefore, if the decision to take up arms became the decision of the ANC as the organisation, that would have put its Congress Alliance in danger of being banned.
Events leading to the decision to take up arms by the ANC
In the 1950s it became clear to some members of the ANC and the SACP that passive resistance and non-violence were not working. A factor that undoubtedly had an influence on the thinking of the ANC and the SACP, and which probably had a bearing on their shift towards political violence in 1961, was the general failure of the ANC directed campaigns of the 1950s to bring about meaningful political changes based on the policy of non-violence and moderation, following the moderate successes of the Defiance Campaign of 1952 and the Western Areas Campaign.
Some sources site that the reason for these 'moderate' successes were due to unproductive and unfocused meetings. The ANC also showed a shift in its policies during the Annual National Congress on 26 June 1955 in Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was adopted. The significance of the Freedom Charter, was that the perception of the ANC as an African-only organisation shifted to one that embraces a growing unity amongst all Black peoples. However this multi-racial ideology did lead to a split within the ANC by those members like Robert Sobukwe who espoused the Pan-Africanist view of "Africa for Africans". He went on to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
The most significant catalyst that led to the taking up of arms was the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March 1960, where the government violently crushed a peaceful anti-pass demonstration organised by the Pan African Congress. This demonstration lead to the deaths of 69 people, with 186 wounded. Also in the Western Cape Township, Langa, 3 people were killed and 27 injured in clashes with police over the burning of passes. The states' heavy-handed response to the peaceful demonstrations and the subsequent banning of the ANC and SACP the following month, dealt a serious blow to the ANC and its allies.
Therefore, in 1960 after the Sharpeville massacre and the banning of liberation organisations many more ANC and SACP members were convinced. The time had come to rethink the approach towards the struggle and move from 'passive resistance' to the 'armed struggle'.
"Mandela's" proposal
By the end of 1960, popular resistance seemed to be crushed. The flames of the burning passes had been put out by the bullets of Sharpeville and Langa. The week long stay-away called for the 19 April 1960 failed to raise the spirit of a dejected people. Those liberation leaders who escaped the massive state clampdown slipped out of the country to begin re-organising resistance from abroad. For Mandela, this was the turning point. "If the government reaction is to crush by naked force our non-violent struggle," he told a gathering of local and foreign press in a safe house, "we will have to reconsider our tactics. In my mind we are closing a chapter on this question of a non-violent policy."
Various suggestions have been given on who and how the idea and the decision to take up arms came into being. One is that the proposal was first made to the ANC by Mandela in June, but Ben Turok suggests that it was in one private meeting between April and May 1960, which comprised of a handful of SACP activists, Yusuf Dadoo, Jack Hodgson, Joe Matthews, Michael Hermal, Moses Kotane, Ben Turok, and Ruth First. Bram Fischer and Bartholomew Hlapane. At this meeting Michael Hermel presented a proposal of a move towards armed struggle. The proposal, according to Ben Turok, suggested that:
""¦peaceful methods of struggle were over; that one had to now look at alternatives; and that the alternative was armed struggle - violence. And it set this in the context of Marxist theory and communist theory, and revolutionary practice."
This proposal was later presented to individuals within the ANC, and it therefore pre-dates the 1961 decision of the ANC to begin the armed struggle.
At an ANC Working Committee meeting in June 1961 Mandela presented the proposal for a military wing, initially Moses Kotane disagreed. He argued that: "There is still room for the old methods if we are imaginative and determined enough." Eventually, however, Kotane agreed to the matter being raised with the National Executive.
Later that month the National Executive met in Durban. Like all ANC meetings at the time, the meeting was secret and held at night in order to avoid the police. Mandela anticipated difficulties. There was no doubt that the timing was poor. At the Treason Trial, the ANC had contended that non-violence was an inviolate principle of the movement, not simply a tactic. He knew, furthermore, that Chief Luthuli's commitment to non-violence was deeply moral and feared his opposition. However, Luthuli was ultimately persuaded. "If anyone thinks I am a pacifist", he said, "let him try to take my chickens, and he will know how wrong he is!" Luthuli's suggestion was that the military movement should be a separate and independent organ, linked and under the overall control of the ANC but fundamentally autonomous. In this way the legality of the unbanned allies would not be jeopardised. The NEC agreed.
The following night, the Joint Executive met in Durban including representatives from the Indian Congress, the Coloured People's Congress, the South African Congress of Trade Unions and the Congress of Democrats. Chief Luthuli opened the meeting by saying that even though the ANC had endorsed the decision on violence, "it is a matter of such gravity, I would like my colleagues here tonight to consider the issue afresh".
For Mandela, this was a sign that the chief was not one hundred percent convinced by his proposal. However, when the session opened at 8pm, Mandela presented his arguments once again. Maulvi Cachalia pleaded with the ANC not to take up arms, arguing that the state would slaughter the whole liberation movement. "Non-violence has not failed us, we have failed non-violence", pleaded JN Singh.
"We argued the entire night", recalled Mandela, but then suddenly MD Naidoo, a member of the South African Indian Congress, said to his Indian colleagues: "Ah, you are afraid of going to jail, that is all!" By dawn, Mandela had his authority.
Nelson Mandela of the ANC and Joe Slovo of the SACP were mandated to form the new military organisation and its high command, separate from the ANC. The policy of the ANC would still be that of non-violence. They were authorised to join with whomever they wanted or needed to create this organisation and they would not be under the direct control of the mother organisation (ANC).
"At the time when MK was formed a decision was taken that it should be an independent organisation. There is however, no certainty as to the precise terms in which the decision was formulated. This enabled the ANC and any of its leaders to deny any involvement in armed activity, while allowing those organising MK to do so in the ANC's name".
The name of the new organisation would be Umkhonto weSizwe, Zulu and Xhosa for the Spear of the Nation. Its short name would be the MK. The MK's aim was to "hit back by all means within our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom".
Planning for the first phase
The first phase of armed action was to be the December 1961 sabotage campaign against government installations. Instructions were issued to avoid attacks that would lead to injury or loss of life.
Joe Slovo wrote: "No one believed that the tactic of sabotage could, on its own, lead to the collapse of the racist state. It would be the first phase of 'controlled violence' designed to serve a number of purposes. It would be a graphic pointer to the need for carefully planned action rather than spontaneous or terrorist acts of retaliation which were already in evidence "¦ And it would demonstrate that the responsibility for the slide towards bloody civil war lay squarely with the regime".
In the six or so months between making the decision to form the organisation (June) and the first acts of sabotage (December), the MK high command set up regional commands in the main centres. The people chosen to be part of these commands were chosen either because they had the necessary technical or military skills or because they were members of the Congress Alliance organisations.
Curnick Dlovu led the Natal region. Looksmart Ngudle (who died in security police detention in 1963) and Fred Carneson were leaders in the Western Cape. Washington Bongco (who was hanged for MK activities in August 1963) was Border regional commander. Vuyisile Mini (who was executed in 1964) was one of the key figures in the Eastern Cape command. Jack Hogson, Ahmed Kathrada, Arthur Goldreich and Dennis Goldberg were in Johannesburg.
Ronnie Kasrils recalls his recruitment to the newly formed MK: "During July 1961, MP Naicker took me for a walk along the [Durban] beach front "¦ 'I have been asked to approach you,' he said, above the roar of the surf smashing against the rocks, ' to sound you out. Are you willing to get involved?'
"Theory apart" wrote Slovo, "this venture into a new era of struggle found us ill-equipped at many levels. Among the lot of us we did not have a single pistol. No one we knew had ever engaged in urban sabotage with home made explosives "¦"
It was Jack Hodgson, appointed to the Johannesburg military command of MK, who showed them the ropes. A veteran of the Abyssinian campaign and a 'desert rat' during the early stages of the North African war, Jack Hodgson taught the cadres the rudiments.
"Sacks of permanganate of potash were brought", wrote Slovo, "and we spent days with pestles and mortars grinding this substance to a fine powder".
Kasrils continues: "He (Hodgson) placed a chemical mixture with icing sugar into a spoon and carefully added a drop of acid with an eye dropper. The powder burst into flame and we were as impressed as pupils in a science class. The problem, of course, was how to achieve the result without directly applying the acid. For that one required a timing device." "With a huge grin he produced a condom". First he placed a teaspoon of the chemical mixture into the condom. Next he produced a small, gelatine capsule "¦ Opening the capsule, he added a few drops of acid, carefully put the cap back on the capsule and dropped it into the condom. He told us that it normally took up to 50 minutes for the acid to eat through the capsule "¦"
Niemann, M. (1993). 'Diamonds are State's Best Friend: Botswana's Foreign Policy in Southern Africa'.|Africa Today, vol 40. No 1.Magubane, B. (1983). 'Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland: South Africa's Hostages in Revolt'. (Eds)|Callaghy, T. M. South Africa in Southern Africa: The Intensifying Vortex of Violence, Praeger: New York.|Urnov, A. (1982). South Africa against Africa, Progress: Moscow.|O'Meara, P. and Carter, G. M. (1982). 'Interchapter--Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland: The Common Background and Links'. (Eds)|O'Meara, P. and Carter, G.M. Southern Africa: The Continuing Crisis (second edition), Indiana University Press: Bloomington.|ANC official website (history and documents section). anc.org.za|African National Congress (undated). The History of Umkhonto weSizwe, timeline. anc.org.za (accessed 12 December 2003).
uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Operations Report by Padraig O'Malley


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Paperback. Set on and around a North Dakota Ojibwe reservation, Love Medicine—the first novel by bestselling, National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich—is the epic story about the intertwined fates of two families: the Kashpaws and the Lamartines.
With astonishing virtuosity, each chapter draws on a range of voices to limn its tales. Black humor mingles with magic, injustice bleeds into betrayal, and through it all, bonds of love and family marry the elements into a tightly woven whole that pulses with the drama of life.
Filled with humor, magic, injustice and betrayal, Erdrich blends family love and loyalty in a stunning work of dramatic fiction.


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Elyssa is the Senior Campaign Director, National Early Learning and Budget for MomsRising. Her career has been focused on legislative and policy work in the field of poverty policy. She previously served as the Deputy Policy Director for the Jewish Council of Public Affairs and as a Legislative Representative for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Elyssa has also worked in Senator Edward Kennedy's Office, as well as Representative John Tierney's office. She received her bachelor's degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and her master's degree in government at Johns Hopkins University. Originally from Swampscott, MA, Elyssa now resides in Ann Arbor, MI.
When did you realize moms have superpowers?
"Growing up watching my mom's involvement in local government and seeing how much people depended on her and respected her. It was a life lesson in the power of one individual in government."


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DMX-84 is a hardware and software driver for TI-84 calculators to run DMX equipment such as DJ and theater lights. It is currently written as an Axe include program, but it may be rewritten as an Axiom in a later version. The driver requires an Arduino-based adapter to transmit DMX.
How It Works
Concept Video
Block Diagram & System Design
Here is a visual block diagram of how the project communicates.
- The TI-84 communicates with the Arduino over a modified version of the two-wire TI Link protocol.
- The Arduino is powered over USB by either the TI-84, a PC, or even a decent quality phone charger (not pictured).
- Also over USB, the PC can debug the Arduino using a serial console at 115200 baud.
- The Arduino transmits DMX to the receiver(s).
- The receivers listen for their respective channel values and provide variable power to the light fixtures. Alternatively, each light could have a receiver built in such that the lights could be daisy chained together directly, but the concept is still the same.
The software
The software driver on the calculator is an implementation of an application-specific protocol. The protocol is designed to be as lightweight as possible to minimize transmission time. To accomplish this, messages consist of a single command byte followed by optional parameters, wrapped in a standard TI link packet. For details on the protocol, see DMX-84/doc/Protocol.md.
The hardware
The hardware driver is an Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 5V/16MHz produced by Sparkfun. I selected this board because its small feature set is perfect for this project, especially because it can be powered by USB Mini B from the calculator (or an external USB power supply). I also selected it because of its small size and relatively low price. The Arduino handles the calculator input and stores the channel values in memory. It transmits DMX packets at 250 kbaud using a slightly modified version of the DmxSimple library. Between the Arduino and the DMX Out jack is a transceiver that converts the +5/0V signal from the Arduino pin to a differential +5/-5V signal.
The adapter connects to the calculator through a combination of a 2.5mm audio jack for the serial data and a USB Mini B to FTDI adapter for power, serial debugging, and firmware updates. The Arduino can also receive power from any normal USB power supply, such as a computer or even a phone charger.
The Arduino transmits DMX packets over a 5-pin XLR female jack. An LED mounted on the enclosure indicates the system status (normal, error, debug, etc.). All of the hardware is housed in a small aluminum enclosure, painted black for theater use.
Theater Demo
Open Source Licenses
DMX-84 uses certain open source hardware and software.
- DmxSimple library: LGPL
- The version used in DMX-84 is modified and thus is also released under the LGPL by section 2.a. (Conveying Modified Versions).
- Arduino Pro Mini: CC BY-SA 3.0
All other software used in the project, as contained in the repository, is open source under the GPL version 3.


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By: Adam Goldman, Associated Press
(reprinted from the USA Today (NY), October 24, 2006)
NEW YORK – Gamblers may look over their shoulder now, but experts say a new Internet gambling ban won't keep bettors from ponying up, just turn them on to overseas payment services out of the law's reach.
"It has put a terrible scare into people," said I. Nelson Rose, who teaches gambling law at Whittier Law School. "But it won't by any means wipe out Internet gambling."
The fright swept through the $12 billion industry on the heels of the recent arrests of two gambling company executives and a new law President Bush signed Oct. 13 that seeks to ban most online gambling and criminalizes Internet transfers of money for gambling purposes.
The law has wiped out billions of dollars in shareholder value of British companies, leaving the industry's future in doubt as U.S. lawmakers initially trumpeted they had found a way to halt bets coming from the America.
But serious questions remain about whether the legislation can be effective in stopping U.S. residents from playing poker or betting on sports.
The "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act" goes after the money, not the millions of players, which would be nearly impossible to enforce.
It will essentially try to choke off the way Americans fund their gambling habits, hoping to prevent the transfer of dollars to the popular Internet sites.
It's also widely understood that the law has online poker in its gun sights, identifying it as a game of chance – something the poker companies dispute. They believe poker is a game of skill and therefore not subject to the new rules.
But they're fearful nonetheless.
"Their mission is to kill the funding of online poker, and that's what this law does," said Mike Sexton, who hosts the popular World Poker Tour and has won millions as a professional player.
The new law comes amid an explosion in online gambling, fueled by the Texas Hold 'em craze and widespread access to the Internet. In addition, dozens of websites have sprouted up that allow any gambler with a credit card to bet on any sport they choose, for any amount of money they want.
Industry experts say there are an estimated 2,000 Internet sites that take bets for sports and poker. American players have fueled Internet gambling, supplying $6 billion of the $12 billion in revenues generated annually.
"The time has been one of rapid growth," said Sebastian Sinclair, president of Christiansen Capital Advisors, a gambling consultant. "This industry was well on its way to becoming mainstream in a great part of the world. Capital was tripping over itself to fund these companies."
The new law gives the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve, along with the Attorney General, 270 days to establish policies and procedures.
"The regulations are clearly going to prevent banks from doing electronic fund transfers to gambling sites, but that is no big deal," Rose said.
Clamping down on the banks won't serve as a panacea, Rose said. In some cases, banks simply move the money to payment processors, known as e-wallets. Non-U.S. payment processors such as the widely used Neteller then transfer the money to the Internet gambling sites.
The U.S. government has no authority over processors like Neteller that are operating legally.
Anthony Cabot, a well-known gambling lawyer in Las Vegas, thinks language used in the bill provides a loophole for the payment processors and the U.S. banks that want to be free to do business with them.
"Unless you have some fairly Draconian measures … the likelihood of stopping payment to them is small," Cabot said.
Much damage has already been done to the offshore sports betting industry without the looming regulations.
British BetOnSports PLC folded after its chief executive was arrested in July by U.S. authorities. David Carruthers faces 22 counts of fraud and racketeering charges and remains under house arrest in the St. Louis area.
London-based Sportingbet's chairman was detained last month in New York on a state fugitive warrant charging him with illegal online gambling. He was eventually freed.
Both arrests sounded serious alarm bells for those running sports wagering sites that take American bets.
The new legislation has already had a dramatic effect. It supposedly clarifies the 1961 Wire Act, explicitly outlawing Internet gambling, including online poker.
It creates new criminal penalties, which have rattled investors and executives – although Rose said it doesn't expand the act, and there's no indication the Justice Department is about to a huge campaign to enforce the law.
Still, the biggest publicly traded names in Internet gambling on the London Stock Exchange and AIM, the exchange's global market for growing companies, could not afford to flout American law. When news broke earlier this month that Congress has passed the bill, Internet gambling companies traded on those exchanges lost a combined $7 billion in market capitalization.
PartyGaming PLC, once the envy of online gambling with its more than $8 billion IPO in 2005, is now trying to figure out how to save its business model. It runs what was once the world's biggest poker site, PartyPoker, and has said it will no longer take payments from the U.S., eliminating nearly 80% of its revenue and sending its stock plunging.
Another poker company, 888 Holdings PLC, also said it would stop taking U.S. bets, ensuring its profits will fall dramatically.
Sportingbet and Leisure & Gaming both sold their U.S. operations for a dollar. Sportingbet said its exit from the U.S. market cost it nearly $400 million.
The bleeding didn't stop there. Neteller and FireOne, which owns e-wallet FirePay, also saw their stock price plummet. On Oct. 2, FirePay announced it had stopped doing business with sites that might take U.S. bets, including PokerStars. The decision forced PokerStars, now the biggest poker site in the world and a registered business in Costa Rica, to rely on Neteller to take money for bets headed to its site.
"There are privately owned operators that will continue to take play as long as they have payment processors that will work with them," said Sue Schneider, publisher of the online gaming magazine Interactive Gaming News. "I think the big question is whether the volume remains the same. But I don't think any of this means there will be less people playing on the Internet."
Neteller has said it is evaluating the law. If Neteller abandons PokerStars and other sites, their bottom lines, no doubt, will be hit hard.
But so far, Neteller's decision to work with PokerStars has amounted to good news for sites not afraid of scorning U.S. law.
Experts say while the new law has forced the public companies out of U.S. market, it has left poker players and bettors gravitating toward private companies.
Both PartyPoker and FullTilt have already seen traffic on their websites surge, taking advantage of any short-term gain now that some of the competition has been sidelined. On its website recently, FullTilt boasted: "We're Here to Stay!" and offered bonuses to sign up.
This isn't the first time the industry has faced a serious setback. In 2001, Visa and MasterCard and other merchant banks stopped allowing money to be sent to Internet gambling sites.
Like then, Sinclair thinks Internet gambling will recover again. It's simply too lucrative.
"There will be a big hit to the industry," Sinclair said. "A big hit. But it's not going to be long term, it's transitory until somebody finds a solution to whatever roadblocks are put in their way. There's too much money for it to go away."


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Article Text
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Commentary on: OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
Implications for practice and research
The findings highlight the use of meta-analysis as a valuable tool to evaluate mindfulness interventions.
The research provides substantial support for mindfulness approaches in treating depression in the context of other symptoms and disorders.
Evidence-based indications for practice are crucial given that up to 75% of patients with depression do not receive treatments based on scientific evidence.1
Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders and is frequently comorbid with other psychiatric conditions. Mindfulness-based interventions have become increasingly popular mainstays of treatment and adjuncts to empirically established therapies.
The authors performed a meta-analysis of 39 studies across nine countries involving 1847 participants with …
Competing interests None.


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TK India is a new company whose goal is to introduce a range of services providing a response to the specific needs and challenges India and its population face today.
With over 35 years of experience in IP development and protection, TK India focuses on the management, protection, enhancement, and sharing of professional data.
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Based on a proprietary white label platform, TK India provides interactive tools to optimize existing solutions within the targeted markets, dedicated to the needs of various indian environments.
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TK India, in essence, has the ability to adapt to any environment as well as being able to integrate different systems and technologies to provide unique services in various fields.
TK India builds specific offers, packaged and customized according to various markets' needs, size, capacities as well as the advancement of their established infrastructures.
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TK Financial allows anyone, banked or non-banked, to exchange money universally and have access to a secure supply of financial services compatible with all circulated currency.
TK Financial is "for and by banks", providing financial institutions with a white label platform that is accessible via a variety of devices.
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TK Events develops customized services and solutions for all stakeholders' profiles, including both upstream vision (for organizers) and downstream vision (for attendees) for Sport and Event.
The platform offers event support before, during and after the event and is designed to help manage registration, sponsorship, virtual advertising, social media advertising, attendee feedback, revenue simulation, real time mapping and much more.
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Along with being pleasurable and satisfying, knitting can sometimes be frustrating: the turtleneck that looked so fabulous on the model is too bulky for your body, or the cardigan you spent countless hours on just doesn't fit right. Herein lies the beauty of Custom Knits, which teaches knitters how to use improvisational techniques to achieve spectacular results—and to unleash their inner designers.
Wendy Bernard, creator of the popular blog Knit and Tonic, provides 25 original designs for sweaters of nearly every type, plus variations, most knitted in one piece starting at the top, a method that allows you to try on as you go, alter as desired, and essentially design on the fly. "Make It Your Own" prompts in each pattern suggest easy alterations to suit your style and body type. And an in-depth reference section teaches how to alter key sweater elements, for example, change a crewneck to a V-neck, add sleeves to a vest, and much more. For the truly adventurous, the book concludes with guidelines for knitting sweaters with no pattern at all.
Bernard's friendly writing style and photographer Kimball Hall's lively images create an inviting book of beautiful designs and key techniques that a knitter can use to customize nearly every garment she knits from now on.


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Richard Edelman invited us to his front lawn in Saugerties where a parade happened by today. The parade reached our view point at 11:30am or so and only ended at 1:15pm. There were way too many fire trucks and too few marching bands. Then, the Saugerties Vintage Tractor Club appeared with some 22 old tractors. The high light of the day.
The John Deeres are my sentimental favorites. During my college days in Wisconsin I worked for a dairy farmer, Henry Moeller, who had a tiny, by Wisconsin standards, farm with 85 head of milking cows and a few hundred acres of corn and hay. He had a recent vintage Massey Ferguson tractor, but also, being a thrifty guy, he had retained his circa 1948 John Deere Model B. The sound of it running is so characteristic. Here is a video of one being started. Listen for the sound.


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Jessie RN Men's Premium T-Shirt
Men's Premium T-Shirt | Spreadshirt 812
- 100% cotton (heather gray and heather ice blue are 95% cotton /5% viscose. Heather blue & charcoal gray are 80% cotton/20% polyester. Heather burgundy is 60% cotton/40% polyester. Heather oatmeal is 99% cotton/1% viscose) | Fabric Weight: 4.42 oz (lightweight)
- Wide range of sizes from S-5XL
- Fairly produced, certified and triple audited.
- Double stitched, reinforced seams at shoulder, sleeve, collar and waist
- Optimized for beautiful brilliance across all printing methods
- Imported; processed and printed in the U.S.A.
Shipping Information
We are currently only shipping within the United States
All items are print to order - after order is placed, your items are sent to printing, then packaged and set up for shipping, you will receive a shipping tracking number by USPS. Please allow 24 hours after receiving tracking number for information to show in USPS website.
All of our items are custom, and most are even handmade.
Processing Times:
Coffee Mugs - 2-3 Business days to be printed - Shipped Priority Mail 2-4 days to be delivered.
Stainless Steel Tumblers - 3-4 Business Days to be engraved - Shipped USPS First Class Mail 2-5 Business Days To be Delivered.
Apparel - 5-8 Business Days to be printed - Shipped USPS First Class Mail 2-5 business days to be delivered.
Returns Policy
Please contact us if you need to return an item, exchange an item.


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The following is a guest post by James Martin, Senior Legal Information Analyst at the Law Library of Congress.
This year most U.S. taxpayers have two additional days to file their Federal income tax returns. This extension was granted because April 15 fell on a Sunday, a non-business day, and April 16, Emancipation Day, is a legal holiday in the District of Columbia.
Today is the 150th anniversary of the enactment of the law that freed individuals held as slaves in the District. Earlier attempts had been made to adopt such legislation. In 1849, Representative Abraham Lincoln had attempted to introduce a bill on the subject. However, it was not until after the advent of the Civil War that such legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress.
On December 16, 1861, Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts introduced a bill to abolish slavery in the District and pay owners loyal to the national government compensation of up to three hundred dollars for each enslaved individual. The awarding of compensation was to be administered by a commission composed of three residents of the District appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. The bill, S. 108, was referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia which reported it with amendments in February 1862.
In the House of Representatives a similar bill had also been introduced in December by Representative John Hutchins of Ohio. This bill and a companion bill were referred to the House Committee on the District of Columbia. The House bill when reported to the floor was accompanied by a hostile report and was not acted on.
In March 1862, the Senate took up consideration of the reported version of the Wilson bill. The Senate approved the final version of the bill on April 3 by a vote of 29 to 14. The bill was then quickly taken up in the House where it was adopted without amendment on April 11 by a vote of 92 to 38. President Lincoln approved the law on April 16, 1862.
The law remained the only instance in which the Federal government provided compensation for the emancipation of slaves. Moreover, the law had no impact on the operation of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 inside the District. Under the Fugitive Slave Act, slaves owned by loyal slave owners who escaped to the District would be captured and returned to their owners until this law was repealed in 1864. The impact of the District of Columbia's Emancipation law on future events would ultimately be secondary to the Confiscation Act of 1862 and the Emancipation Proclamation. These laws would make it official policy to free slaves in those areas which were actively resisting the Federal government. Slavery would be abolished in the entire country by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in December, 1865.


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Please contact me regarding Viking special offers.
You can contact me by:
Ʌ If you request us to contact you by telephone then we need to advise you that all our inbound and outbound calls are recorded to help provide the highest standards of customer care and may also be used to help resolve any disputes.
Our latest privacy notice can be found at https://www.vikingcruises.co.uk/privacy-policy/index.html. The privacy notice tells you what information we collect about you, how we use it, and your related rights.