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Grundfos Challenge winners
The winners of the prize of DKK 75,000 for the economics students were a team of Anne Høj Pedersen, Martin Klint Hansen and Thomas Ommen from University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business. The winners of the corresponding prize for the engineering students were a team of Karin Dooleweerdt, Jonas Ørbæk Hansen and Niels Vinther Voight from University of Aarhus.
The educational institutions of both winning teams had a trophy and a DKK 50,000 Grundfos grant to be awarded to a purpose of their choice.
A special innovation prize of DKK 15,000 and the opportunity to participate in Tall Ships' Race 2007 was extraordinarily won by two teams: Thomas Nylandsted Gross, Søren Buchholtz Nielsen and Line Skov Meyerhoff from University of Southern Denmark and Louise Pedersen, Peter Bastian and Martin Wagner Larsen from Roskilde University.
"It has been most exciting and inspiring to follow how the students with lots of energy and under great pressure of time have been able to obtain understanding of both our products and our business", Carsten Bjerg, Group President, says.
Deadline of the written part of the assignment was Thursday afternoon at 15.00. The students had hardly wiped the sweat of their foreheads before Jens Gaardbo, former news journalist at Danish tv2, turned up with inspiration and good advices so they could present their ideas to the assessment panels in the best possible way. Friday it was time to face the panel members, among others Karin Verland, Managing Director of Pfizer Denmark, Søren Stjernqvist, Managing Director of Danish Technological Institute, Jesper Kunde, Managing Director of Kunde & Co., and Niels Due Jensen, Grundfos Chairman of the Board.
It is the second year in succession that Grundfos has invited the students to a week's innovation, communication, talent, and teamwork competition. The pump business had also this year made a professional network and its education centre, The Poul Due Jensen Academy – available to the students. The students had from Monday morning till Thursday afternoon to work towards a solution of one of the big challenges of our time – innovative solutions of future water supply problems.


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For more than a century, the Swiss have managed to stay out of conflicts and wars. But when it comes to excessive corporate compensations, they are hardly neutral.
Last Sunday, 68% of Swiss voters accepted a groundbreaking proposal that would require shareholders to approve the pay of executives and board members of public companies. The result of the controversial nationwide referendum reverberated around the world because it set radical new rules for corporate governance that could spill over to other countries.
Several nations already allow shareholders to have a say on executive compensation, and the E.U. agreed last week to cap bankers' bonuses at twice their salaries. In the U.S., the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in 2010, requires all public corporations to seek a nonbinding shareholder approval of executive compensations. But Switzerland's new legislation will be by far the most strict because the "say on pay" will be compulsory rather than optional, and noncompliance will carry heavy fines and even prison sentences.
The supporters of the initiative are thrilled — especially Thomas Minder, a businessman who spearheaded the referendum by collecting 100,000 signatures required by the Swiss system of direct democracy to bring an issue to a nationwide vote. However, the opponents, including the business lobby, fear that giving such sweeping powers to shareholders and imposing harsh penalties for failure to conform to the new law will prompt multinational firms headquartered in the country to leave, affecting Switzerland's ranking, by the World Economic Forum, as the world's most competitive nation. Switzerland is home to numerous large companies, including food giant Nestlé, mining company Glencore and pharmaceutical firms like Novartis and Roche.
(MORE: Viewpoint: Why Capping Bankers' Pay Is a Bad Idea)
Despite some concerns over the future of the country's economy when the law goes into effect sometime in 2014, Switzerland's standing will not be significantly affected, predicts Stephane Garelli, a professor at the IMD business school in Lausanne and a leading expert on competitiveness of nations. "Only public companies quoted on the stock exchange are impacted," he notes. "As for the very large ones, we can assume that top-management remunerations will be paid globally and not only in Switzerland. Therefore, the attractiveness of Swiss companies should remain intact."
The concern arising in American boardrooms is different: whether this groundbreaking legislation will be contained within Switzerland and Europe, or set a new precedent for corporate compensation and bonuses in the U.S., where, according to a 2011 study by consulting firm Towers Watson, top executives make 269 times more than average workers.
But, despite an ongoing debate in America over growing income inequality and exorbitant CEO compensations, analysts say that Swiss-like change — if it sweeps the U.S. at all — will not happen overnight.
"This may take some time," says David R. Koenig, CEO of the Governance Fund Advisors in Northfield, Minn. "Change comes very slowly in the United States, because entrenched entities — boards of directors and the executives — benefit from the current system."
This analysis strikes a chord with Stephen Davis, associate director of the Harvard Law School Programs on Corporate Governance and Institutional Investors. "The vote will be seen as a warning signal to U.S. boardrooms, but the odds of binding votes on pay are remote."
(MORE: Avoid Getting Stung by the Affordable Care Act)
Still, "reverberations from the Swiss vote could put fresh momentum into shareholder rebellions in the U.S," he adds. "The Dodd-Frank legislation imported the European practice of 'say on pay' to curb excessive CEO compensation, and evidence shows that investors are wielding it. The Swiss vote could further gird their determination."
Robert Jackson Jr., associate professor at Columbia Law School and an expert on executive compensation, also believes that "the Swiss precedent will give the advocates important ammunition if they choose to press the U.S. Congress to adopt binding 'say on pay' rules here."
However, like Koenig and Davis, he says that change, if it does occur, will not be immediate. "American regulators have preferred to wait and see how those changes play out in Europe before pursuing them here," he notes.

subset: commoncrawl


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Dave and Jen are at it again, answering your questions from Facebook.
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Thank you again for your support, and I wish you all the best!


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Gun Puzzle - AR15 Gun Jigsaw Puzzle
Looking for a fun gift for your gun totin' loved ones who have too much time on their hands? Our stunning gun puzzles are perfect! Great for stockings, holiday gifts, birthdays etc, these gun puzzles will hit a bullseye in the gift department! Each puzzle measures approximately 11x14 inches and contains 252 pieces packed in an attractive gift box.
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AUDIO + VIDEO: Kex Obax Ft Victor AD – Jaiye
The Nigeria musical act who has been trending online, as it was said that he was spotted with motivational god (Victor AD)The collaboration we have all been hearing about and seen on social media is finally out!!.
Some days back it was reported that Kex Obax linked up with 'motivational god' and 'Nigeria hitmaker', Victor AD for a possible collaboration but the latter came out to deny it which left everyone wondering if it could be true or not.
Well Kex Obax was right as he finally released one of the most anticipated collaborations of the year "Jaiye" featuring Victor AD, produced by Kulboy Beat. And Video was directed by Q-Xtra
Don't pass by this collaboration, Listen and Enjoy the jam below & Remember to stream the Classic Visual By Kex Obax, You Can Reach Kex On IG: Via @KEXOBAXDESIRE ||


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In classic Fanthoman train of thought derailment fashion, let me tell you (as if you didn't know) that the guys who do the Capcom illustrations for the Capcom VS series are simply amazing. I am guessing they are some sort of studio, but the two names I hear more often are Shinkiro and Bengus and their art is truly amazing … I came across some of their work while looking for the cover art for the game cover series and it reminded me that I had never written anything about them, and that's really unfair as the book they put out about Marvel vs Capcom is one of my favourite artbooks ever.
Drool all you want, it's your computer after all!!!


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Ben Franklin's Thoughts About the Constitution on the Day It Was Signed
On September 17, 1787, members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution. The great Ben Franklin had a few things to say that day. The following excerpts are courtesy of the Library of Congress, from Max Farrand's The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787:
"I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others."
"I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an Assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best."
"On the whole, Sir, I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility -- and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument."
Any teachers doing anything special for Constitution Day?


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Zhejiang Boguang Electric Technology Co.,Ltd.Is a transmission and distribution equipment for the integration of guidance, research and development, manufacturing, sales and service business.
Zhejiang Boguang Electric Technology Co.,Ltd.Major manufacturing box-type substation, low voltage switch cabinet, cable branch box, DC power supply cabinet and other products.
Group News first reported, promote corporate culture, communication Bo-sound, for the development of the corporate culture to build up public opinion bridge.
Boguang electric spirit - innovation, loyalty, vision, determination. Boguang electric mission - to build a better life。 Boguang electric core values - to lead the construction industry as a pioneer · forever.
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Boguang electric to build the government, customers, suppliers, employees and the community is a win-win platform and look forward to working with you, and seek common development.
Copyright 2015 diaoyuka.com All Rights Reserved Technical support:Midian


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This review took me to over 20 so the book will show up in more searches now, so that's a real blessing, too.
4.0 out of 5 stars Gladiator, Moses, Skywalker, Rhii, July 25, 2012
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Worker Prince (Kindle Edition)
It's not that often that a science fiction story bordering on space opera comes along that everyone will enjoy reading. That's what Schmidt accomplishes with the Worker Prince. Revolving around a recent graduate prince who leaves home for his first assignment only to discover his slave-class origins, the story mirrors that of the Biblical Moses in many aspects. While the main protagonist, Davi Rhii, does not spend 40 years in the dessert, he does wrestle with identity issues and the status quo of an empire built on the back of slave labor. The conflict that ensues is the classic story of one against the many. The result is watching an individual discover his unique place, and this is something most of us long for in our own lives. Schmidt finds a nice balance between moralizing and adventure in his tale that I thought suited anyone between the ages of 13 and dead. That being said, it didn't hit the sweet spot for me. I prefer a little more grime and grit in my space opera. Rhii is a champion and hero more along the lines of Luke Skywalker (without all the whining) and less like Han Solo. But the prose is elegant and well-paced. If you enjoy young adult literature, coming of age tales, and/or science fiction adventure then you'll enjoy The Worker Prince. Read it! Review it! Share it! |


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TFF Breaks
You are purchasing a Panini Select Euro 2020 H2 Box SealedThis can be opened live or shipped sealed.Please have in mind that the box may need to be ordered in in some cases which will take 2 days. It will be then with you on third day if postage is quick.
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text: On 14 October 2007, citizens of El Alto, Bolivia demanded that all bars and brothels facilitating sex work be located at least 3,200 feet away from schools, because they believed that the establishments were facilitating crime in the area. They then began a three-day rampage of the bars and brothels in the impoverished red-lights district of El Alto. These El Alto citizens, primarily parents and students, burned or destroyed at least 50 brothels, burned sex workers' belongings, and beat sex workers.


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A Derivative is a character based on existing ones and can be officially acknowledged.
The term "Derivative" is sometimes difficult to explain and conceptualize. The overseas often call such characters "fan mades" or "fan made characters", but refer to them as different characters in their own right. However, in the Japanese fandom, the character is often considered a variation of the original (for example, perceiving Yowane Haku as Hatsune Miku with a bad singing voice). Therefore there is often disparity between fandoms as to how 'Derivatives' are treated.
The explanation is explained as simply the reason is owed to users doing things such making their own "Miku" while attaching the name "Hatsune Miku" to it. Their own "Miku" is not considered the same as another "Miku". The result is even "Hatsune Miku" herself is open to interpretations and each song's "Miku" is not the same as the next song's "Miku". The result is a large number of "Miku" characters but few are actually representing "Hatsune Miku" herself.[1]
This also means official derivatives like "Racing Miku" or "Snow Miku" can also be considered a variation of Hatsune Miku and at the same time not Hatsune Miku herself. This way, derivative versions of a character can exist side by side in any promotional media base medium with the original character as two different entities to each other, rather than just alternate outfits.
Crypton Future Media is the most known out of the studios for adopting official derivatives into their merchandise. Derivatives are therefore welcome and often developed as a person's interpretation of the Vocaloid they are working with. Many are used by Producers as a form of self-promotion and are taken into account for the number of such designs and appearances in Vocaloid media. If the song is used officially by Crypton Future Media, the Producer's derivative design is also used in the song alongside it. Crypton Future Media consider them a form of Producer creativity and have adopted the most famous ones into their official character promotions.
However, the sheer number of derivatives that have been produced, particularly in the early 2007-2009 period, have resulted in common generic Vocaloid design traits being acknowledged.
About other types
- Rin no Youchuu is a derivative of Kagamine Rin created by Pixiv user Mossan. The character is a Rin head with legs, similar to Shiteyan'yo. Larval Rin seems to have been conceptualized as some sort of pre-evolution or a previous stage of growth development for Rin. The character become a popular meme in Pixiv, known for being original and disturbing and receiving numerous fanarts and parodies.
- Main article: Rin no Youchuu
- Calne Ca is viewed as a derivative of Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, she was created by the 3D animator Deino. Her name comes from kara (骸) and ne (音), as well as CA (シーエ), the chemical symbol of calcium. This is due to Calne Ca being a mechanized skeleton with a skin or casing shaped like Miku. Her right hand is in the shape of a scythe, and is practical for large sweeping motions. However, her limbs can be freely changed, so when she wants to do detailed work, it can be exchanged for a normal arm. The character became pretty popular on Pixiv.
- Main article: Calne Ca
- Shiteyan'yo is another derivative of Hatsune Miku created by the Pixiv user リューセイ (Ryūsei), also known as puzzle157xxx. The character is Miku's head with legs as twintails. Shiteyan'yo was born from comparing Miku's twintails to legs (in a similar way to how Tako Luka was conceptualized). The character became a popular meme on Pixiv for similar reasons to Larval Rin, receiving numerous fanarts and parodies.
- Main article: Shiteyan'yo
To the fandom derivatives that appear to be 'funny looking characters', are usually called Mascots of the Vocaloid they're derived from. Both of the mentioned are seen in the PSP game, Hatsune Miku ~Project Diva~ as available background skins, the sequels feature them as accessories.
External links
- Fanloid Wiki
- UTAU wiki
- VocalChara: archive site for Vocaloid, UTAUloids and other derivatives.
- Nico Nico Pedia - VOCALOID派生キャラ (Vocaloid-derived characters)


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By Mike Dolan
LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Like mirages on the horizon, recession forecasts seem to be appearing and disappearing with great regularity – questioning any investment conviction, the reliability of pandemic-distorted data and still-low volatility gauges in financial markets.
In just six weeks of 2023, economic forecasters have hurriedly revised away this year's long-assumed recessions in euro zone and the United States – confounded as they were by a mix of warm weather in Europe and some wild U.S.jobs market revisions and statistical quirks that have dramatically reshaped the interest rate outlook stateside.
Throw in China's unexpectedly swift removal of «zero COVID» restrictions and already 2023's global picture looks radically different than it did only in December – never mind the previous January before the Ukraine invasion redrew inflation, interest rate and investment maps for everyone last year.
Bearing in mind the United States, China and euro zone together account for well over half the annual $101 trillion of global output, that's some collective moving target.
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs – often a market mover with its big macro calls – is a good example.Last month it revised away forecasts for a euro zone contraction this year and this week cut its chances of a U.S. recession in 2023 to just one-in-four from one-in-three previously.
Yet as recently as mid-December, forecasts from Bank of America, Barclays and BNP Paribas were also plumping for a full-year contraction of U.S.gross domestic product this year.
Last month's Bank of America survey of fund managers around the world still had net 68% expecting recession this year.
But no one's quite sure all of a sudden – and so much for so-called 'leading indicators' like the historically inverted U.S.Treasury yield curve – traditionally a sure fire predictor of downturns ahead.
Last Friday's red hot January employment report is forcing hurried rethinks everywhere. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated baldly that the lowest jobless rate since 1969 is simply inconsistent with recession this year and Federal Reserve policymakers are already turning even more hawkish on the rate outlook.
Rates markets reared up to price Fed rates back above 5% and now expect them higher at yearend than they are today.Stocks swooned again and currency strategists, such as the team at Morgan Stanley, switched negative views on the U.S. dollar worldwide to neutral all of a sudden.
If that wasn't enough whiplash, Fed Chair Jerome Powell chimed with his colleagues on more that needs to be done to tackle inflation – but also laced his comments with expectations of a cooling jobs market and opined on the difficulties predicting this cycle.
In other words, if your outlook hinges on getting a recession call right or nailing the timing of peak interest rates, be prepared to shift it now from week to week.
What's the big deal?If you liked this information and you would such as to get additional info pertaining to EvdeN evE NAkLiYaT kindly visit the site. As famed British economist John Maynard Keynes is often quoted as saying: «When my information changes, I alter my conclusions.»
But the problem may indeed be the «information.»
To be sure, EvDEn Eve NakLiyAt the dance around the «R word» is a little artificial.Rigid technical definitions involving consecutive quarters of contraction may mean changes are only the difference of a couple of tenths of GDP either way, the sort of margin easily revised away down the pike anyway.
A bigger issue is whether monthly data can be trusted for steer on the business cycle you're trying to second guess.
High-frequency economic numbers were bamboozled by the pandemic's economic shutdowns and reboot worldwide – with distortions still lingering on everything from supply chains to labour force participation, savings, consumption and policy rescues.
The energy shock around Ukraine merely compounded that by amplifying an outsize inflationary twist and household squeeze while jamming some supply chains even more.
Monthly economic updates now require significant health warnings and assumptions of «normalisation» may have been premature.
Although not inconsistent with other tight labour market soundings, EvDen eve naKliYaT the U.S.January jobs report was riddled with revisions, remodelling and seasonal adjustments.
While that may not change your view of employment today, reasonable concern about labour hoarding and lags between announcements of company layoffs and data surveys mean it's hard to rely on it solely for a change of course the way many in markets seem to have done since Friday.
But even doubts about the data can be read both ways.Barclays' economists stressed there was evidence of job hoarding in the fact that a huge downturn in the U.S. housing market last year clearly hasn't shown up in construction layoffs. And if the Fed had assumed those job cuts would come and the sector is already bottoming, there may be more aggressive policy ahead.
But the numbers are so unclear, we're still in a guessing game.
«It would be helpful to hear an assessment of what the Fed actually thinks is happening given structural economic changes, cyclical impulses and poorer quality data,» lamented UBS economist Paul Donovan ahead of Powell's speech on Tuesday.
Investors trying to bet on where all this pans out can't be filled with confidence.
And yet market volatility gauges have stayed peculiarly serene.
At just under 20, Wall Street's VIX is pretty much at its average for the 33 years of existence.Bond market volatility remains well above its 20-year mean – but it has retreated sharply to two-thirds of last year's peaks. Even currency volality is only marginally above average.
Are people just peering through the noisy macro and fearful of missing out on the return to beaten down assets?
BNP Paribas Chief Economist William De Vijlder talks of the risks of being «three times wrongfooted».
«One would expect that bond and equity markets would rally when central banks signal that the tightening cycle is (almost) over,» he said.»But such positioning comes with the risk of being wrongfooted by the data. What follows is huge volatility.»
The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.
(by Mike Dolan, Twitter: @reutersMikeD; Editing by Josie Kao)


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Repost from The Nation
Donald Trump's Extract-Everything Energy Policy Dooms Us All
The expansion of the fossil-fuel industry has been transformed into a major component of American foreign policy.
By Michael T. Klare, Feb 12, 2018 1:39 PM
NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com.To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.
The new US energy policy of the Trump era is, in some ways, the oldest energy policy on Earth. Every great power has sought to mobilize the energy resources at its command, whether those be slaves, wind-power, coal, or oil, to further its hegemonic ambitions. What makes the Trumpian variant—the unfettered exploitation of America's fossil-fuel reserves—unique lies only in the moment it's being applied and the likely devastation that will result, thanks not only to the 1950s-style polluting of America's air, waters, and urban environment, but to the devastating hand it will lend to a globally warming world.
Last month, if you listened to the chatter among elite power brokers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, you would have heard a lot of bragging about the immense progress being made in renewable energy. "My government has planned a major campaign," said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the group. "By 2022, we want to generate 175 gigawatts of renewable energy; in the last three years, we have already achieved 60 gigawatts, or around one-third of this target." Other world leaders also boasted of their achievements in speeding the installation of wind and solar energy. Even the energy minister of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Khalid Al-Falih, announced plans for a $30 billion to $50 billion investment in solar power. Only one major figure defied this trend: US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. The United States, he insisted, is "blessed" with "a substantial ability to deliver the people of the globe a better quality of life through fossil fuels."
A better quality of life through fossil fuels? On this, he and his Trump administration colleagues now stand essentially alone on planet Earth. Virtually every other country has by now chosen—via the Paris climate accord and efforts like those under way in India—to speed the transition from a carbon-based energy economy to a renewable one.
A possible explanation for this: Donald Trump's indebtedness to the very fossil-fuel interests that helped propel him into office. Think, for example, of his interior secretary's recent decision to open much of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to offshore drilling (long sought by the oil and gas industry) or his administration's moves to lift restrictions on coal mining on federal lands (long favored by the coal industry). Both were clearly acts of payback. Still, far more than subservience to oil and coal barons lurks in Trump's energy policy (and Perry's words). From the White House perspective, the United States is engaged in a momentous struggle for global power with rival nations and, it is claimed, the country's abundance of fossil fuels affords it a vital edge. The more of those fuels America produces and exports, the greater its stature in a competitive world system, which is precisely why maximizing such output has already become a major pillar of President Trump's national-security policy.
He laid out his dystopian world vision (and that of the generals he's put in charge of what was once known as American "foreign policy") in a December 18th address announcing the release of the administration's new National Security Strategy (NSS) document. "Whether we like it or not," he asserted, "we are engaged in a new era of competition." The United States faces "rogue regimes" like Iran and North Korea and "rival powers, Russia and China, that seek to challenge American influence, values, and wealth." In such an intensely competitive world, he added, "we will stand up for ourselves, and we will stand up for our country like we have never stood up before.… Our rivals are tough. They're tenacious and committed to the long term. But so are we."
To Trump and his generals, we've been plunged into a world that bears little relation to the one faced by the last two administrations, when great-power conflict was rarely the focus of attention and civilian society remained largely insulated from the pressures of the country's never-ending wars. Today, they believe, the United States can no longer afford to distinguish between "the homeland" and foreign battle zones when girding for years of struggle to come. "To succeed," the president concluded, "we must integrate every dimension of our national strength, and we must compete with every instrument of our national power."
And that's where, in the Trumpian worldview, energy enters the picture.
From the onset of his presidency, Donald Trump has made it clear that cheap and abundant domestic energy derived from fossil fuels was going to be the crucial factor in his total-mobilization approach to global engagement. In his view and that of his advisers, it's the essential element in ensuring national economic vitality, military strength, and geopolitical clout, whatever damage it might cause to American life, the global environment, or even the future of human life on this planet. The exploitation and wielding of fossil fuels now sits at the very heart of the Trumpian definition of national security, as the recently released NSS makes all too clear.
"Access to domestic sources of clean, affordable, and reliable energy underpins a prosperous, secure, and powerful America for decades to come," it states. "Unleashing these abundant energy resources—coal, natural gas, petroleum, renewables, and nuclear—stimulates the economy and builds a foundation for future growth."
So, yes, the document does pay lip service to the role of renewables, though no one should take that seriously given, for instance, the president's recent decision to place high tariffs on imported solar panels, an act likely to cripple the domestic solar-installation industry. What really matters to Trump are those domestic reserves of fossil fuels. Only by using them to gain energy self-sufficiency, or what he trumpets not just as "energy independence" but total "energy dominance," can the United States avoid becoming beholden to foreign powers and so protect its sovereignty. That's why he regularly hails the successes of the "shale revolution," the use of fracking technology to extract oil and gas from deeply buried shale formations. As he sees it, fracking to the max makes America that much less dependent on foreign imports.
It follows then that the ability to supply fossil fuels to other countries will be a source of geopolitical advantage, a reality made painfully clear early in this century when Russia exploited its status as a major supplier of natural gas to Ukraine, Belarus, and other former Soviet republics to try to extract political concessions from them. Donald Trump absorbed that lesson and incorporated it into his strategic playbook.
"Our country is blessed with extraordinary energy abundance," he declared at an "Unleashing American Energy Event" last June. "We are a top producer of petroleum and the number-one producer of natural gas.… With these incredible resources, my administration will seek not only American energy independence that we've been looking for so long, but American energy dominance. And we're going to be an exporter.… We will be dominant. We will export American energy all over the world, all around the globe."
In energy terms, what does dominant mean in practice? For President Trump and his cohorts, it means above all the "unleashing" of the country's energy abundance by eliminating every imaginable regulatory impediment to the exploitation of domestic reserves of fossil fuels. After all, America possesses some of the largest reservoirs of oil, coal, and natural gas on the planet and, by applying every technological marvel at its disposal, can maximally extract those reserves to enhance national power.
"The truth is that we have near-limitless supplies of energy in our country," he declared last June. All that stood in the way of exploiting them when he entered the Oval Office, he insisted, were environmental regulations imposed by the Obama administration. "We cannot have obstruction. Since my very first day in office, I have been moving at record pace to cancel these regulations and to eliminate the barriers to domestic energy production." He then cited his approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, the cancellation of a moratorium on the leasing of federal lands for coal mining, the reversal of an Obama administration rule aimed at preventing methane leakage from natural gas production on federal lands, and the rollback of Obama's Clean Power Plan, which (if implemented) would require sharp cuts in coal usage. And from the recent opening of the pristine Alaskan Arctic Refuge to that of those coastal waters to every kind of drilling, it's never ended.
Never mind that the Paris agreement in no way intruded on American sovereignty. It only obligated its partners—at this point, every country on Earth except the United States—to enact its own greenhouse gas emissions reduction measures aimed at preventing global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above their pre-industrial levels. (That is the biggest increase scientists believe the planet can absorb without experiencing truly catastrophic impacts like a 10-foot rise in global sea levels). In the Obama years, in its own self-designed blueprint for achieving this goal, the United States promised, among other things, to implement the Clean Power Plan to minimize the consumption of coal, itself already a dying industry. This, of course, represented an unacceptable impediment to Trump's extract-everything policy.
The final step in the president's strategy to become a major exporter involves facilitating the transport of fossil fuels to the country's coastal areas for shipment abroad. In this way, he would also turn the government into a major global salesman of fossil fuels (as it already is, for instance, of American weaponry). To do so, he would expedite the approval of permits for the export of LNG, or liquefied natural gas, and even for some new types of "lower emissions" coal plants. The Department of the Treasury, he revealed in that June talk of his, "will address barriers to the financing of highly efficient, overseas coal energy plants." In addition, he claimed that the Ukrainians tell us "they need millions and millions of metric tons [of coal] right now. There are many other places that need it, too. And we want to sell it to them, and to everyone else all over the globe who need[s] it." He also announced the approval of expanded LNG exports from a new facility at Lake Charles, Louisiana, and of a new oil pipeline to Mexico, meant to "further boost American energy exports, and that will go right under the [as yet unbuilt] wall."
Such energy moves have generally been viewed as part of a pro-industry, anti-environmentalist agenda, which they certainly are, but each is also a component in an increasingly militarized strategy to enlist domestic energy in an epic struggle—at least in the minds of the president and his advisers—to ensure America's global dominance.
Trump achieved many of these maximal-extraction objectives during his first year in office. Now, with fossil fuels uniquely imbedded in the country's National Security Strategy, we have a clearer sense of what's happening. First of all, along with the further funding of the US military (and of the "modernization" of the country's nuclear arsenal), Donald Trump and his generals are making fossil fuels a crucial ingredient for bulking up our national security. In that way, they will turn anything (or any group) standing in the way of the extraction and exploitation of oil, coal, and natural gas into obstructers of the national interest and, quite literally, of American national security.
In other words, the expansion of the fossil-fuel industry and its exports has been transformed into a major component of American foreign and security policy. Of course, such developments and the exports that go with them do generate income and sustain some jobs, but in the Trumpian view they also boost the country's geopolitical profile by encouraging foreign friends and partners to rely ever more heavily on us for their energy needs, rather than adversaries like Russia or Iran. "As a growing supplier of energy resources, technologies, and services around the world," the NSS declares without a hint of irony, "the United States will help our allies and partners become more resilient against those that use energy to coerce."
As the Trump administration moves forward on all this, the key battlefield will undoubtedly be the building and maintaining of energy infrastructure—the pipelines and railroads carrying oil, gas, and coal from the American interior to processing and export facilities on the coasts. Because so many of the country's large cities and population centers are on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, or the Gulf of Mexico, and because the country has long depended on imports for much of its petroleum supply, a surprising share of existing energy infrastructure—refineries, LNG facilities, pumping stations, and the like—is already located along those same coasts. Yet much of the energy supply Trump seeks to exploit—the shale fields of Texas and North Dakota, the coal fields of Nebraska—is located in the interior of the country. For his strategy to succeed, such resource zones must be connected far more effectively to coastal facilities via a mammoth web of new pipelines and other transport infrastructure. All of this will cost vast sums of money and lead to intense clashes with environmentalists, Native peoples, farmers, ranchers, and others whose lands and way of life will be severely degraded when that kind of construction takes place, and who can be expected to resist.
For Trump, the road ahead is clear: Do whatever it takes to install the infrastructure needed to deliver those fossil fuels abroad. Not surprisingly then, the National Security Strategy asserts that "we will streamline the Federal regulatory approval processes for energy infrastructure, from pipeline and export terminals to container shipments and gathering lines." This is bound to provoke numerous conflicts with environmental groups and other inhabitants of what Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything, calls "Blockadia"—places like the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, where thousands of Native people and their supporters camped out last year in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to block construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. Given the administration's insistence on linking energy extraction to US security, don't for a moment imagine that attempts to protest such moves won't be met with harsh treatment from federal law enforcement agencies.
Building all of that infrastructure will also prove expensive, so expect President Trump to make pipeline construction integral to any infrastructure modernization bill he sends to Congress, thereby securing taxpayer dollars for the effort. Indeed, the inclusion of pipeline construction and other kinds of energy build-out in any future infrastructure initiative is already a major objective of influential business groups like the American Petroleum Institute and the US Chamber of Commerce. Rebuilding roads and bridges is fine, commentedThomas Donohue, the Chamber's influential president, but "we're also living in the midst of an energy renaissance, yet we don't have the infrastructure to support it." As a result, he added, we must "build the pipelines necessary to transport our abundant resources to market." Given the influence such corporate interests have over this White House and congressional Republicans, it's reasonable to assume that any bill on infrastructure revitalization will be, at least in part, energy focused.
And keep in mind that for President Trump, with his thoroughly fossil-fuelized view of the world, this is just the beginning. Issues that may be viewed by others as environmental or even land-conservation matters will be seen by him and his associates as so many obstacles to national security and greatness. Facing what will almost certainly be a series of unparalleled potential environmental disasters, those who oppose him will also have to contest his view of the world and the role fossil fuels should play in it.
Selling more of them to foreign buyers, while attempting to stifle the development of renewals (and thereby ceding those true job-creatingsectors of the economy to other countries) may be good for giant oil and coal corporations, but it won't win America any friends abroad at a moment when climate change is becoming a growing concern for ever more people on this planet. With prolonged droughts, increasingly severe storms and hurricanes, and killer heat waves affecting ever-larger swaths of the planet, with sea levels rising and extreme weather becoming the norm, the urge for progress on climate change is only growing stronger, as is the demand for climate-friendly renewables.
Donald Trump and his administration of climate-change deniers are quite literally living in the wrong century. The militarization of energy policy at this late date and the lodging of fossil fuels at the heart of national-security policy may seem appealing to them, but it's an approach that's obviously doomed. On arrival, it is, in fact, already the definition of obsolescence.
Unfortunately, given the circumstances of this planet at the moment, it also threatens to doom the rest of us. The further we look into the future, the more likely international leadership will fall on the shoulders of those who can effectively and efficiently deliver renewables, not those who can provide climate-poisoning fossil fuels. That being so, no one seeking global prestige would say at Davos or anywhere else that we are blessed with "a substantial ability to deliver the people of the globe a better quality of life through fossil fuels."


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Return & Refund Policy
All products we sell are sold, "AS-IS", with no warranties expressed nor implied and cannot be returned or exchanged unless the item received by the customer is DOA (Dead on Arrival). Customers must notify us within 48 hours of receiving their defective product in order to start a return process. (Receiving of product will be based on your tracking number and the time and day that shows your package was delivered to you) DOA items only apply to electrical devices such as an Batteries or devices. Online purchases must go through our RMA process which is listed below. Should a customer return an item without notifying us first, we will refuse the package upon its delivery for the safety of our staff. For sanitary reasons, and the overall safety of our customers, we DO NOT accept returns of: atomizers, clearomizers, cartomizers, bottled liquid, drip tips, batteries, wick, wire, mechanical mods, rebuildable devices and atomizers and parts for rebuildables and/or atomizers. Therefore, our Return Policy EXCLUDES any products of this kind.
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer any kind of replacement or compensation for bottled liquids as taste differ for each individual and how the flavor reflects on their palette.
Some products will have minor flaws and is expected during manufacturing. Small nicks or polishing scratches are common on many of the products other companies sell as well as the ones we sell. The only time we can accept a return or exchange an item is if it is defective (meaning non functioning) or damaged from shipping (meaning parts damaged or crushed due to handling upon delivery). Customer who try and return cloned items as authentic (items not purchased from us, and not made by the manufacturers we support), will have those items returned to them at their cost, and those customers will no longer be allowed to purchase any items through our website as the issue will be treated as fraud. Items damaged due to user error, are never covered under warranty by us, Sejuiced Inc or the manufacturers of the products we sell.
- Email us your name, order number that is associated with the product you wish to return, item you wish to RMA and issues you are experiencing with your product at firstname.lastname@example.com. Please include pictures and be as detailed as possible.
- We will respond to your inquiry within 24 to 48 hours letting you know if your RMA has been approved or denied or if further clarification is needed.
- If your request has been approved, please repackage the item(s) including all original parts, packing material, instructions, etc. Within reason, this means that everything must be returned exactly as it was sent to you. Poor repackaging or the return of damaged merchandise could result in refusal of your return and loss of any refund or replacement item. Items MUST NOT have any damage due to user error or abuse and must not have been used.
- Include a copy of the original Invoice in the package with your RMA #, and indicate whether you would like to be refunded for the item, or a replacement sent out. (Replacements can only be sent out if a replacement is available)
- We will email you a prepaid return label that you can attach to the package which must be shipped back to us immediately by dropping off the package at your nearest post office or FedEx facility to you. (If your item was shipped to you via FedEx, then you will be required to return your item via FedEx) If you do not return the DOA item back to us within 14 days of first notifying us, your RMA will no longer be valid.
- We will contact you once we receive your return. Should you have any questions during the RMA process, please email us at email@example.com.
- Replacement item(s) will be mailed back to you once the DOA item(s) have been returned to us, inspected and found to be DOA. However, they must be for the same item and the same finish, IF AVAILABLE. If an RMA product is found to be in perfect working condition, the original item will be returned back to you at your own expense.
There is a 10% restocking fee for all returned items. This includes packages not signed for during delivery and returned to us by the shipping courier. We contact all customers whose packages are returned to us by the courier if the package was not accepted during delivery. If you, the customer, no longer want the products reshipped to you and would like to cancel that order, we can reimburse for the cost of all items in that order less 10% and cost of shipping. Please be aware, if items are returned incomplete or not in the same condition they were shipped to you, no refund will be given and the package will be returned to you. Customers are always responsible for cost of shipping returned items.
Customers who are asked to return items for RMA issues, return for refund, or replacement, must return items within two weeks (15 days) from the day we approve any RMA, return, or replacement process. Failure to do so, will void your return. Those packages will be sent back to you, or denied for acceptance during delivery.
1. If you are to receive a refund, it will be issued by Sejuiced inc when the returned item has been received in satisfactory and unused condition. Refunds will be processed within 10 business days once we receive the item(s) back from the original customer. Refunds will be applied directly to the method that was used to make the purchase. Refunds will ONLY be given at our discretion. Items returned for a refund are subject to a 10% restocking fee. (Items that qualify for a refund must be approved by us before the product is returned. If the product falls under a category that is on our unapproved return list due to sanitary reasons, those products can not be returned for any reason, regardless if the product is unused).
2. Usually refunds can take up to 5 business days to completely process after the refund has been initiated. If you have any questions regarding our return/refund process, feel free to email us at firstname.lastname@example.com
We check all information on our website very carefully. However, an occasional error may occur, or manufacturers might update information we are unaware of. We reserve the right to correct inaccurate information and are not responsible for typographical errors.


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When you invest your time, you make a goal and a decision of something that you want to accomplish. Whether it's make good grades in school, be a good athlete, be a good person, go down and do some community service and help somebody who's in need, whatever it is you choose to do, you're investing your time in that.
Being in a community, from a scientific perspective, we are constituted so that simple acts of kindness, such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude, have a positive effect on our long-term moods. The key to the happy life, it seems, is the good life: a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to community.
This got me wondering about coffee and beer and which one would actually help me be more creative and get work done. Hopefully, this will help you decide when it's best to have that triple shot espresso or ice cold brew.
Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.
Solitude is very different from a 'time-out' from our busy lives. Solitude is the very ground from which community grows.
When you invest your time, you make a goal and a decision of something that you want to accomplish. Whenever we pray alone, study, read, write, or simply spend quiet time away from the places where we interact with each other directly, we are potentially opened for a deeper intimacy with each other.


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August 26, 2019 – Dayco, a leading engine products and drive systems supplier for the automotive, industrial and aftermarket industries, is delighted to announce the introduction of thermostats into its growing portfolio. In keeping with its ongoing commitment to quality, the range is naturally designed and manufactured to meet the most stringent original equipment (OE) specifications.
The role of the thermostat is to effectively control the flow of coolant around the cooling system and allow the engine to reach its optimum working temperature as quickly as possible. Dayco thermostats are designed to efficiently accomplish this objective for all engine types, while also satisfying three key requirements:
Modern cooling systems play a crucial part in the drive towards reducing fuel consumption. The demands for increased efficiency together with factors such as higher flow rates, turbocharger technology, autonomous heating and air conditioning have transformed the traditional process of engine cooling into complex cooling systems.
Future emissions regulations will require engines to operate at 10% higher temperatures in order to ensure optimal fuel combustion. This will require more powerful cooling systems in order for the vehicle to run efficiently for its entire lifespan.
Efficient thermal management is one of the most important factors in the fight to combat wear and tear within the engine. Without effective temperature control, despite the presence of oil, damage and increased wear to the engine's internal components would be unavoidable.
Dayco's extensive technological know-how and drive to ensure its products deliver to the highest levels of performance means that a combination of precision couplings and quality materials has enabled the company to produce thermostats that are the equal of OE products in their quality, safety, efficiency and durability.
- Moving rod
- Main plate
- Main spring
- Secondary spring
- Bracket
- Bell
- Bulb
- The main plate is made of seamless steel for greater reliability and durability
- Leading valve technology prevents thermal shocks to protect the entire cooling system
- The bulb, or sensing element, is made of the most advanced wax-copper mixtures, to ensure extremely accurate temperature activation
- Housing thermostats are an integrated part that combines the thermostat and housing
- Dayco housing thermostats are made of polyamide resins or aluminium, of equivalent quality to the OE products, guaranteeing excellent heat, mechanical and water resistance
- The polyamide housing is also individually checked during production to verify perfect sealing and total absence of leaks. In addition, the geometric and dimensional precision inherent in the design, ensures flawless coupling with the hydraulics and associated cooling system components
- The integrated electronic sensors provide highly accurate coolant temperature measurements with response times equal to the OE products
- The valves with electronic sensitive elements within map controlled thermostats, which are directly operated by the vehicle's ECU, allow for 'smart' management of the thermostat in order to reduce fuel consumption, emissions and improving engine performance
- Dayco provides a complete range of thermostat components – from single thermostatic valves and thermostats with flanges to complete housings with sensors
- Products equivalent to OE quality and performance
- More than 250 thermostat codes
- All components are tested and verified during production to guarantee the highest quality
- Wide and continually expanding range with wide coverage of the circulating vehicle parc
- New packaging that enhances the brand identity and product integrity
- On-line and traditional paper catalogues for quick and secure identification of the correct product for the application
- World leader in automotive technology for over 110 years
- OE Supplier of the world's leading brands on all continents
Audi, Alfa Romeo, BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Citroen, Dacia, Daihatsu, DS, Fiat, Ford, Hyundai, Honda, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Lada, Land Rover, Lancia, Lexus, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mini, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, Saab, Seat, Skoda, Smart, Suzuki, Toyota, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Volvo.
About Dayco
Dayco is a global leader in the research, design, manufacturing and distribution of essential engine products, drive systems and services for automobiles, trucks, construction, agriculture and industry.
Dayco's contributions are integral to how people get from place to place, goods are transported, food is harvested, and infrastructure is built. The company operates according to long-held values — keeping promises, delivering on time all the time, and an intense commitment to service no matter what the obstacles. For more than a century, Dayco has overcome challenges, emerging stronger and smarter at every turn.
Dayco improves how the world moves by creating products, systems and relationships that endure. Move Forward. Always.™
Dayco has more than 40 locations in 21 countries and over 4,500 associates. For more information about Dayco, visit the Company's website at www.dayco.com


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We've been so focused on some big new initiatives at ClearContext the past few months that my blogging pace has really taken a huge hit. I have a big backlog of topics to cover, but besides a quick Thanksgiving trip have no other travel planned for a while, so hopefully will do a better job at staying on top of them over the next few weeks. I can't believe I still haven't blogged about exciting progress being made at IORG or about various excellent presentations and discussions from Defrag. Soon, soon, I promise!
The first topic I want to touch on is something that actually came up a few times at Defrag. There are so many products and companies trying to tackle issues around information overload, with new companies popping up seemingly every day – especially in the email space. However, few of these companies actually address the issue of how much their products actually help people with the real problems they face with email. Instead, the focus is often just on cool new features and soft benefits that almost always sound good, but often don't address the huge pain that people and companies are facing with levels of email that they simply can't keep up with.
Few companies have done a good job at identifying the real problems, providing good measurement and metrics to users, and using that information to actually help users with their problems. I'll address those three areas briefly, but they are definitely worth going into more depth in future posts.
The problems people face with email today
This is the area that is easiest to understand, and most companies in the space focus on a similar/overlapping set of issues people face, including things like:
Getting more email than they can handle
Spending too much time dealing with email
Being unable to respond to email in a timely manner
Can't find information they need in email
There are many more issues, but you get the idea.
Measurement and metrics
Here is where things start to get shakier. Outside of some research experiements and internal corporate projects, most people and companies don't have a good understanding of the numbers that they are dealing with. As awareness of email and information overload problems grows, questions like these are starting to get more focus:
How many emails are people getting?
How quickly are they responding?
How many responses are they able to send?
How behind are they getting with emails piling up in their inbox?
Of course, those are just a few examples of basic metrics.
How (and how much) do products help and what should people do?
OK, so we do some measurements, and guess what – people get too many emails, get way behind on responding, and can't keep stuff organized. So now what? This is where things get most challenging.
To really solve the biggest problems people face dealing with information, we need to help people understand which of those measurements are the key sources of their problems and show them how they can most effectively use our products and solutions to improve their performance. And if done right, provide them a feedback loop that actually shows them measureable results illustrating their improvement over time.
The better an understanding all of us in this industry have about the biggest problems, key measurements, and most effective solutions, the better we'll be able to serve our customers. So over the next few weeks I'm going to spend some time asking others involved in this area what they see as the most important points in those areas and sharing their input both here and with IORG members.


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This guide is the culmination of experience gained in the nebhands project - a faith and community-based initiative to improve access to mental health, substance abuse and addiction services in Nebraska. Nebhands was funded by the United States Department of Health & Human Services' Capital Compassion Fund, with the goal of strengthening the infrastructure
of community and faith-based organizations interested in providing services
in the areas of
mental health, substance abuse and addictions.
The information in this guide provides a framework for communities, faith groups, and community based organizations interested in developing or enhancing services for children, transition age youth, adults and elders who are experiencing or recovering from mental health problems, substance abuse or addictions. The guide is organized with this framework in mind. It is helpful to envision these services as a pyramid with three levels. |
Place your mouse on a level of the pyramid for more information. |
Supportive Services | ||
Informational Services |
This guide provides resources and tools to assist communities and organizations determine the best way to help. Here is how to begin:
1. Assess the behavioral health needs and assets of your community
Before deciding upon an area of service for your organization or community, it may be helpful to assess the needs and assets of the community you intend to serve. This is important even if you think you already have a good idea of the gaps in services for your area. There are a number of resources related to community needs assessment to help your organization carry out this step.
2. Determine the service area that will meet the need
Once you have determined the assets and needs of your community, you can begin to explore the types of services your organization or group can offer to make a positive difference in the lives of people affected by mental health problems, substance abuse or addictions. Each of the three broad areas of service are represented across the top of the page. Introductory information about the area of service is on the first page of each service area .
3. Gather information and resources to ready the organization and its members to effectively deliver the service.
A drop down menu guides you to information and resources specific to the phase of service development you are interested in - planning the service, delivering the service or evaluating the service.


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Presidential pardons usually take the world by surprise. There's no advance notice — the White House just sends out an announcement with the names of those receiving clemency. Thanksgiving is one lighthearted exception.
On Wednesday, President Obama will once again take part in the traditional turkey pardoning at the White House. But while the business of pardoning humans is more serious, it's also increasingly rare.
People don't usually think of the president as a part of the justice system. Typically that world includes judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers — not the chief executive. But George Lardner, a former investigative reporter who's now writing a book on the history of presidential pardons, says the Constitution actually makes the president a key part of this web.
In the past, "there was no such thing as probation or parole," Lardner says. "If you wanted to get out of prison before your time was up, you had to get a pardon."
Many people did. But that was long ago. Recent presidents have barely used their clemency power. And Obama is more frugal than any of them, says P.S. Ruckman Jr., a political scientist at Rock Valley College who studies pardons.
"He's granted 22 pardons and one commutation of sentence," Ruckman says.
He says no president since John Adams has shown so little leniency.
White House spokesman Matt Lehrich responded to an inquiry with this statement: "President Obama takes his constitutional power to grant clemency very seriously, and each recommendation received from the Department of Justice is carefully reviewed and evaluated on the merits."
But Obama's record is even more striking if you compare the number of pardons he's granted with those he's rejected. Ruckman crunched the numbers for the past five presidents:
Sam Morison spent 13 years working in the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney. He left in 2010.
"They really don't give a sort of fair and neutral review of every case," he says. "They tend to view any grant of clemency not as a good thing, as a criminal justice success story, but almost as a defeat — that you're taking away something from what some good prosecutor achieved."
A Justice Department spokesman rejects that description. Wyn Hornbuckle says the department "is committed to providing a fair, careful and merit-based evaluation of every clemency application."
In a statement, he also noted that the department has begun an independent study of the pardon data.
Margaret Love, Clinton's pardon attorney, says the president doesn't see much to gain by exercising clemency.
"It's all sort of all risk and very little reward," she says, "although I think that is a shortsighted view."
The risk was apparent to anyone who watched Clinton pardon the international fugitive Marc Rich, whose wife was a big campaign donor, in 2001. The backlash was huge.
But Love says the president could use clemency power to highlight flaws in the justice system. There are more penalties than ever for people with a conviction on their record. And many of those penalties never go away.
"I have a client, for example, who has a minor white-collar tax offense from a number of years ago who has a business in the Los Angeles airport," she says. "He cannot visit his business because he can't go into the secure area of the airport because of his conviction."
That man and others seeking pardons can take solace in one trend: Half of all recent pardons have come in the month of December. So next month, they may be that lucky 1 out of 290.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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American Indians, copper plates, Curtis Census, drawing, Edward Curtis, etchings, ethnography, field notes, French Impressionists, glass negative, glass positive, gravures, gum prints, handpress, J. Willard Marriott Library, Japanese handmade silk tissues, Mississippi, negatives, nineteenth century, painting, papers, photographer, photogravures, Pictorialism, platinotypes, printing process, rare books, rice paper, Scott Beadles, Seattle, sepia inks, Tim Greyhavens, Tissue, Van Gelder, vellum, watermark
Rare Books is pleased to announce the launch of the Curtis Census, a website produced by Tim Greyhavens for the global community. The J. Willard Marriott Library is one of the institutions that holds an entire set of Edward Curtis' The North American Indian.
From Tim's website: "Published by Edward Curtis from 1907 to 1930, The North American Indian was planned to be a limited edition of 500 sets. Due to the extremely high cost of the publication and the prolonged publication cycle, it's thought that no more than 300 complete or partial sets were finally printed. This census will determine, as accurately as possible, the actual number of complete or partial sets that were printed and their present locations…Although The North American Indian is one of the great publications of all time, there is no definitive answer about how many sets were originally published. Curtis did not keep a master subscription list, and different documentation about the project provides conflicting information."
Congratulations, Tim, on a great project.
Click here for the website's biography of Edward Curtis. Curtis was born in 1868. 2018 is the 150th anniversary of his birth.
Click here for the website's excellent article on Curtis's The North American Indian.
Visit Rare Books to look at this remarkable set of photogravures.
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)
Seattle, WA: E. S. Curtis, 1907-30
A collection of 2,232 photogravures of American Indians taken between 1890 and 1930 and published between 1907 and 1930. A massive project, professional photographer Edward Curtis' intention was to document every major tribe west of the Mississippi, portraying what he perceived to be a vanishing culture. While he was neither the first nor the last person to photograph the American Indian, he was surely the most prolific. His monumental publication presented to the public an extensive ethnographic study of numerous peoples.
The North American Indian consists of twenty portfolios of photogravures and twenty volumes of field notes bound with smaller gravures. A photogravure is made from a printing process utilizing a copper plate that is made from a glass positive which itself is made from a glass negative. The plate is hand wiped with sepia inks. Excess ink is removed and the plate is forced onto paper with a handpress, capturing all the etched details on the plate. The photogravure produces a soft, atmospheric appearance similar to that achieved by French Impressionist painters. This photographic process, along with drawing and painting on negatives, platinotypes and gum prints, was popular at the end of the nineteenth century. The movement, known as "Pictorialism" was a way for photographers to add personal vision and expression to their works.
The portfolio gravures were printed on three different papers, Van Gelder, a watermarked paper, Vellum, a rice paper, and Tissue, Japanese handmade silk tissues. Forty of the original sets were printed on Tissue, the rest equally split between Van Gelder and Vellum.
Images selected and scanned by Scott Beadles.


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WTFriday? E-Mail Ranting Sorority Girl Is Writing A Book About Being An E-Mail Ranting Sorority Girl
Remember the crazy University of Maryland Delta Gamma sorority girl who went on an angry tirade in an e-mail to her fellow sisters this past April?
Publishing house Simon & Schuster is actually giving her a book deal so she can keep running her mouth and make more poor life choices.
Rebecca Martinson, the voice behind the e-mail, is co-writing a novel with the author of "White Girl Problems" and is shopping the book around with her agent, Byrd Leavell, a.k.a. the agent responsible for Tucker Max.
The logic behind such a low-brow novel? Leavell says, "There's a number of books that have pubbed that just say, you know, I had too many drinks, I banged him, I kicked him out of bed, and I went to work. Like, it's out there, but I think there's room for more." Wow, compelling reasons.
The duo promises the novel to be a "sh*t-ton of fun," if getting b*tch-slapped by a foul-mouthed deranged sorority girl is your idea of fun.
In case you forgot how her epic e-mail rant went, you can find it below:
"If you just opened this like I told you to, tie yourself down to whatever chair you're sitting in, because this email is going to be a rough fucking ride.
For those of you that have your heads stuck under rocks, which apparently is the majority of this chapter, we have been FUCKING UP in terms of night time events and general social interactions with Sigma Nu. I've been getting texts on texts about people LITERALLY being so fucking AWKWARD and so fucking BORING. If you're reading this right now and saying to yourself "But oh em gee Julia, I've been having so much fun with my sisters this week!", then punch yourself in the face right now so that I don't have to fucking find you on campus to do it myself.
I do not give a flying fuck, and Sigma Nu does not give a flying fuck, about how much you fucking love to talk to your sisters. You have 361 days out of the fucking year to talk to sisters, and this week is NOT, I fucking repeat NOT ONE OF THEM. This week is about fostering relationships in the greek community, and that's not fucking possible if you're going to stand around and talk to each other and not our matchup.
Newsflash you stupid cocks: FRATS DON'T LIKE BORING SORORITIES. Oh wait, DOUBLE FUCKING NEWSFLASH: SIGMA NU IS NOT GOING TO WANT TO HANG OUT WITH US IF WE FUCKING SUCK, which by the way in case you're an idiot and need it spelled out for you, WE FUCKING SUCK SO FAR. This also applies to you little shits that have talked openly about post gaming at a different frat IN FRONT OF SIGMA NU BROTHERS. Are you people fucking retarded?
That's not a rhetorical question, I LITERALLY want you to email me back telling me if you're mentally slow so I can make sure you don't go to anymore night time events. If Sigma Nu openly said "Yeah we're gonna invite Zeta over", would you be happy? WOULD YOU? No you wouldn't, so WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO IT TO THEM?? IN FRONT OF THEM?!!
First of all, you SHOULDN'T be post gaming at other frats, I don't give a FUCK if your boyfriend is in it, if your brother is in it, or if your entire family is in that frat. YOU DON'T GO. YOU. DON'T. GO. And you ESPECIALLY do fucking NOT convince other girls to leave with you.
"But Julia!", you say in a whiny little bitch voice to your computer screen as you read this email, "I've been cheering on our teams at all the sports, doesn't that count for something?" NO YOU STUPID FUCKING ASS HATS, IT FUCKING DOESN'T. DO YOU WANNA KNOW FUCKING WHY?!! IT DOESN'T COUNT BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN FUCKING UP AT SOBER FUCKING EVENTS TOO.
I've not only gotten texts about people being fucking WEIRD at sports (for example, being stupid shits and saying stuff like "durr what's kickball?" is not fucking funny), but I've gotten texts about people actually cheering for the opposing team. The opposing. Fucking. Team. ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?!! I don't give a SHIT about sportsmanship, YOU CHEER FOR OUR GODDAMN TEAM AND NOT THE OTHER ONE, HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN TO A SPORTS GAME? ARE YOU FUCKING BLIND?
Or are you just so fucking dense about what it means to make people like you that you think being a good little supporter of the greek community is going to make our matchup happy? Well it's time someone told you, NO ONE FUCKING LIKES THAT, ESPECIALLY OUR FUCKING MATCHUP. I will fucking cunt punt the next person I hear about doing something like that, and I don't give a fuck if you SOR me, I WILL FUCKING ASSAULT YOU.
"Ohhh Julia, I'm now crying because your email has made me oh so so sad". Well good. If this email applies to you in any way, meaning if you are a little asswipe that stands in the corners at night or if you're a weird shit that does weird shit during the day, this following message is for you:
I'm not fucking kidding. Don't go. Seriously, if you have done ANYTHING I've mentioned in this email and have some rare disease where you're unable to NOT do these things, then you are HORRIBLE, I repeat, HORRIBLE PR FOR THIS CHAPTER. I would rather have 40 girls that are fun, talk to boys, and not fucking awkward than 80 that are fucking faggots.
If you are one of the people that have told me "Oh nooo boo hoo I can't talk to boys I'm too sober", then I pity you because I don't know how you got this far in life, and with that in mind don't fucking show up unless you're going to stop being a goddamn cock block for our chapter. Seriously. I swear to fucking God if I see anyone being a goddamn boner at tonight's event, I will tell you to leave even if you're sober. I'm not even kidding. Try me.
And for those of you who are offended at this email, I would apologize but I really don't give a fuck. Go fuck yourself."
Via: New York Magazine, Photo via Facebook


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What Did Houses in Ancient India Look Like?
The beginnings of civilization on the Indian subcontinent sprang up with urban centers that thrived around the Indus River. Between approximately 2500 and 1700 B.C., the Indus Valley Civilization flourished in what is now the Punjab, an area spread between modern-day Pakistan and western India. Most evidence of ancient Indian houses comes from remains in this area. These houses were built with comfort and security in mind. They were simple structures, grouped in clusters around a shared common space. They had few windows and small entryways.
1 Building Bylaws
In the Indus Valley, urban houses were built and ordered based on a greater consideration of the city as a whole. This order and structuring was laid out in various building bylaws which specified how to arrange the houses in a city, where and how to plant trees, and the arrangement of homes based on the Indian social hierarchy called caste. Higher-caste groups had taller, multilevel houses, while those of lower caste lived in smaller structures. Households of the same caste were grouped together, meaning houses on the same street were of equal height.
2 Ancient Homes Uncovered
The most extensive remains of the Indus Valley Civilization have been uncovered at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, sites located in present-day Pakistan.The houses found in Mohenjo-daro varied in size from the large impressive structures of the upper castes to small two-room homes of the poor. Archeologists described the dwellings as plain, and designed more for comfort than for style. Most of the homes included a bathroom, a system of covered drainage and a well. Vertical drainpipes have been discovered in remains of some homes with upper levels, indicating that larger homes had multiple bathrooms.
3 Communal Living
In these ancient urban centers, houses were built to accommodate communal living. Blocks of houses owned by different families were constructed around an open space in the center. The back sides of the houses faced outward, forming an enclosure that protected the enclave from the outside, broken only by small entryways between the homes running in from the street. The shared space in the middle was used by all inhabitants. The communal system of living is a cultural phenomenon still practiced in India today.
4 Construction Materials
The walls of the homes were made of hand-formed baked bricks while the foundations were laid with sun-dried bricks. Instruments were used to ensure the exact vertical alignment of the houses. The interior and exterior walls were covered with plaster and often painted. The roofs of the homes were flat and made of wood. Although bricks were the standard building material in the north, wood was more frequently used to build houses in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.


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Recent News & Accomplishments
The UMD-lead team recently received a distinguished paper award for delving into the challenges faced by ethical hackers
A University of Maryland-led team recently received a distinguished paper award for delving into the challenges faced by bug bounty hunters—ethical hackers who discover and report vulnerabilities or bugs to a platform's developer. Researchers from the Department of Computer Science, including a graduate student and a faculty member who also serves as the director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2), earned honors at the 32nd USENIX Security Symposium. The symposium, held August 9–11 in Anaheim, California, gathered professionals from various fields to discuss recent breakthroughs in... read more
Pedro Sandoval-Segura received a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, which aims to increase U.S. citizens pursuing doctoral degrees in science and engineering
Pedro Sandoval-Segura, UMD alum (M.S. '21, computer science ) and current doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science at UMD, received a 2023 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. The fellowship, established by Congress in 1989, aims to bolster the number of U.S. citizens pursuing doctoral degrees in science and engineering disciplines relevant to the Department of Defense. Sandoval-Segura received the three-year fellowship, which provides funding for all tuition, mandatory fees, and health insurance; a monthly stipend; and a travel budget for... read more
According to researchers at UMD existing AI text-detectors are susceptible to errors that comprise their efficiency at the most crucial of moments
The explosion of open-sourced artificial intelligence (AI) tools that use deep learning techniques to generate text, also known as large language models, has raised alarms with government officials, content creators and educators in light of how easy the technology can be abused for plagiarism, deception and misinformation. A number of AI detectors have been released in response to these concerns, but none of them are sufficiently reliable in practical scenarios, says Soheil Feizi, an associate professor of computer science with a joint appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for... read more
UMD Computer Science Alum Kelsey Fulton Wins 2023 John Karat Award at the 19th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security
A recent alum from the Department of Computer Science at UMD has been honored with the 2023 John Karat Usable Privacy and Security Student Research Award for their strong leadership and contributions to the field. Kelsey Fulton , who graduated earlier this year with their Ph.D. in computer science, was presented with the award at the 19th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) in Anaheim, California. The event brings together interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction, security and privacy. The award is given in honor of John Karat's contributions... read more
UMD Alum and NASA Chief Scientist Kate Calvin Named IPCC Climate Change Co-Chair
Dr. Kate Calvin, UMD alum (B.S. '03, mathematics; B.S. '03, computer science), NASA 's chief scientist and senior climate advisor, was recently selected as co-chair of a working group on climate change mitigation at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , the United Nations body responsible for assessing the science related to climate change. Previously, Calvin has contributed to five reports by the IPCC. NASA scientists and researchers have also contributed to previous IPCC assessment reports, and NASA released a sea level projection tool which incorporates sea level... read more
Professor Goldstein Delves into Benefits and Drawbacks of Open-Source Language Models Amid Intensifying Industry Competition
There's a new large language model in town that threatens to out-open OpenAI's ChatGPT. LLaMa 2, from Facebook's parent company Meta, has capabilities roughly in line with big-name competitors. However, it's also open source, meaning the model's source code is available for anyone to study or build upon for free. OpenAI, Google and many other artificial intelligence innovators have opted to keep their latest models proprietary. A more open approach has obvious benefits for research and enterprise but can also be advantageous for the companies that put these tools out. Tom Goldstein , a... read more
The paper titled "A Watermark for Large Language Models," stood out as one of only six outstanding papers from 1,865 accepted papers at the International Conference on Machine Learning 2023.
The University of Maryland (UMD) showcased its strong and notable presence at the prestigious 40th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2023) held in Honolulu, Hawaii from July 23 to 29, with a strong focus on machine learning research. UMD was well-represented by a diverse group of researchers, including faculty members, postdocs, and students, who collectively presented an impressive total of 24 papers and actively participated in 30 workshops. Among the standout contributions from UMD researchers was the paper titled " A Watermark for Large Language Models ," which received... read more
Startup Lingo AI transforms content creation through multilingual reach
In the fast-paced realm of content creation, University of Maryland alums Ian Costello (B.S. '22, computer science; B.S. '22, mathematics) and Pranav Shikarpur (B.S. '23, computer science and mathematics) emerged as a lifeline to influencers with their innovative startup Lingo AI . Armed with a passion for technology and a vision to break language barriers, Costello and Shikarpur harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to propel content creators to new heights. Lingo AI's innovative video translation platform equips social media influencers with the tools they need to expand their... read more
Computer science major Oliver D'Esposito envisions a future where every lab is equipped with efficient power management systems, contributing to a significant reduction in energy waste
In a world increasingly focused on sustainable practices, University of Maryland student entrepreneurs are determined to make a difference with their startup Sustainabli. Oliver D'Esposito , a computer science major in the Gemstone program in the Honors College and the lead engineer at Sustainabli, is on a mission to transform research labs into greener and more environmentally conscious spaces. Through technology his team developed, lab administrators can now effectively manage and account for power usage, helping research institutions like UMD reach their sustainability goals. D'Esposito... read more
The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences is looking for student panelists who are actively involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, research or work. Panelists must be UMD undergraduate students. Involvement in DEI can look an number of ways: ● experience and involvement in student organizations that focus on DEI or have DEI initiatives ● DEI exploration through your major(s) or minor(s) ● DEI research with faculty or staff at UMD ● active participation in DEI opportunities provided by your academic college or department ● experience educating UMD community... read more


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Full Story: https://www.eonline.com/news/984517/kylie-jenner-is-basically-living-in-a-romantic-comedy
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Kylie Jenner Surprised By House Filled With Roses | E! News


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Table of Contents
Federal Court Dismisses Counseling Student's First Amendment Suit
In a ruling (PDF) issued late last week, a federal district court dismissed graduate student Jennifer Keeton's First Amendment lawsuit against Georgia's Augusta State University's (ASU's) school counseling program.
Keeton had clashed with program faculty members over her religious views and their impact on her ability to conform to professional counseling standards. After a series of meetings with faculty over a proposed "remediation plan," Keeton told ASU faculty that her personal religious views would prevent her from abiding by professional counseling standards when interacting with certain clients, including those who chose to have abortions or were in LGBT relationships. Keeton's complaint challenged the program's requirement that she complete the remediation plan or else leave the program as a violation of her First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of her religion. Additionally, Keeton challenged several sections of the program's policies, including portions that directly incorporated professional counseling standards issued by the American Counseling Association and the American School Counsellor Association.
In rejecting Keeton's claims, the court found that "the challenged policies target only professional conduct, not expressive activity as such," observing that "the policies are functionally akin to state professional regulations." (Emphasis in original.) Dismissing Keeton's argument that the imposition of the remediation plan was an attempt to "suppress Keeton's speech because of her personal religious viewpoint," the court wrote:
Within the course of this dialogue [with Keeton regarding the remediation plan], faculty members repeatedly invoked the professional ethical standards which govern counselor conduct, standards which "apply to all regardless of the particular viewpoint the counselor may possess," and communicated concern not that Keeton's values were derived from her adherence to Christianity, but instead that she would impose those personal values on clients to the clients' detriment. [Internal citation omitted.]
Put simply, faculty's concern was not the viewpoint from which Keeton's opinions issued, it was with the manner in which she insisted on wielding them.
In determining that the challenged policies are viewpoint neutral, the court quoted the Supreme Court's decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, finding:
Moreover, the fact that Keeton faced burdens not faced by "other students who d[id] not intend to express their personal religious beliefs to clients" is of no moment. Id. at 874. After all, "[a] regulation that serves purposes unrelated to the content of expression is deemed neutral, even if it has an incidental effect on some speakers or messages but not others." CLS, 130 S. Ct. at 2994 (quoting Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 791 (1989).
Worryingly, the court's finding that the challenged policies are reasonable relies on the Supreme Court's decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988). As we've discussed here on The Torch before, courts relying on Hazelwood in adjudicating cases involving college students is troubling, as Hazelwood is a high school case that grants schools broad power to regulate "student speech in school-sponsored expressive activities so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns." In finding ASU's policies reasonable, the district court here invoked Hazelwood and two other K–12 cases to determine that ASU "has a legitimate pedagogical concern in teaching its students to comply with the ACA Code of Ethics" and the other challenged policies. Importing this low standard of review into the collegiate setting gives universities expansive authority to punish student speech, as I outline at length here in discussing Ward v. Polite, a recent ruling on similar facts from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
The court's dismissal comes two years into the litigation. Keeton filed her complaint against ASU in July 2010 with the assistance of the Alliance Defense Fund. In August of that year, the federal district court denied Keeton's motion for a preliminary injunction to block Augusta State's imposition of its remedial plan on Keeton, a decision that was upheld in December 2011 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. FIRE had signed an amici curiae brief filed with the Eleventh Circuit arguing for the opposite result. The brief, authored by noted First Amendment expert and University of California, Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh and joined by the National Association of Scholars, argued that imposing unique requirements on certain students because of their expressed viewpoints violates the First Amendment.
Between this ruling, the Sixth Circuit's February 2012 ruling in Ward, and the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision last week in Tatro v. University of Minnesota, campus speech advocates have seen significant legal developments in recent weeks and months regarding the intersection of student speech rights and professional standards imposed on students participating in certain professional programs. We'll have more analysis of the court's decision in the coming days. In the meantime, the Student Press Law Center has more.
Recent Articles
FIRE's award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.


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[Copy Editor]
Sorry, I confused abbreviations in previous question forcing me to reopen it separately My account vgv8 is blocked from writing in MSO - why? vgv8 can still write in SO. What rules have I(vgv8) abused in MSO?
Possible Duplicate: Why was my account closed in SF? and my posts there were partly deleted. Why? Which rules did I infringe in MSF from account vgv8? What is the sense of blocking access of users to meta-discussions? And why had not I got any notification about duspension? Also, i...
My name appears as user138194 even if on Stack Overflow my name is vgv8. My account is associated with the one on Stack Overflow and Server Fault. Also when I visit stack overflow with my vgv8 name I don't see a "meta" link. How can I use vgv8 as my meta stack overflow name?