text:
A Visit to Penzeys in Menlo Park
Much like a visit to a neighborhood bookstore, a trip to Penzeys' new Menlo Park store will have you happily perusing the shelves while losing all track of time.
The new store, which opened at 771 Santa Cruz Ave. in late November, is the Wisconsin-based spice giant's first Northern California outpost.
Since opening in 1957 in Milwaukee, the company has become a mail-order phenomenon, with cooks nationwide clamoring for its more than 250 herbs, spices, and seasonings.
The Menlo Park store already seems to be a hit. When I visited on a Tuesday afternoon, about 10 customers were browsing their way through the small store. Employees behind the counter said the holidays have been quite busy, with customers loading up on spice gift assortments.
What I especially love about the store is how informative the simple displays are. You'll find apothecary jars on each shelf, containing a large sample of the spices contained in the surrounding smaller jars for sale. On the outside of each apothecary jar is a short description of each herb or spice, where it comes from, and suggested culinary uses. Best yet, you can uncap each large jar to take a whiff of what's inside.
A charming old-fashioned kitchen is set up in the middle of the store, displaying baking spices, and the longest vanilla beans I've ever seen.
I toted home a bottle of Mexican vanilla extract (per the advice of FoodGal reader, Rena Takahashi), a jar of Chinese cassia cinnamon (because FoodGal reader, Moe Rubenzahl, raved about it), a tiny jar of powdered pure wasabi (made from the real-deal rhizome, and not just colored horseradish), and some Singapore Seasoning because one sniff convinced me it would be magical in a sauce with coconut milk.
If you're ever at a loss as to what to cook or bake next, wander over to Penzeys. You just can't help but discover inspiration there.


text:
Comprehensive Financial Reporting
It's Easy To Keep Tabs On Your Investment
PMI provides accurate worry-free accounting to owners. Ensuring you get your money as soon as possible is important to us.
Specialized Accounting Staff
Our goal is to maximize your income and minimize your expenses. Our professional accounting team tracks the income and expenses of your investment property for you.
Our job of keeping your financials in order includes the following:
- Rent collection and recording
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- Security deposit disbursements
- Tax statements and 1099s
- New owner, tenant, and vendor setup
Fill out the form and we will be in touch. Want immediate help? Call us at 918.940.8811 to get started now!
Get In Touch With Us
Fill out the form below and we will be in touch. Want immediate help? Call us at 918.940.8811.
Owner or Renter?
Areas We Serve
Don't see your neighborhood? These are just a few cities and communities we offer management services to. Contact us if you don't see yours; we are always looking to expand!
- Tulsa
- Owasso
- Muskogee
- Jenks
- Broken Arrow
- Coweta
- Bixby
- Sand Springs
- Catoosa
- Sapulpa
- Glenpool
- Claremore

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Zhoushan Shunfan marine electrical equipment factory is a professional manufacturer engaged in the production of complete sets of electrical equipment for ship...
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Tailor made: carefully designed according to the real needs of customers
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text:
Efficient reversal of phiC31 integrase recombination in mammalian cells.
Publication Year:
PubMed ID:
Funding Grants:
Public Summary:
More than ten years ago, my laboratory showed that a enzyme found in bacteria that could carry out recombination between chromosomes could also function in human cells. This enzyme, called phiC31 integrase, has became a useful tool for modifying the chromosomes in a wide variety of organisms, including human and mouse cells, as well as cells from fruit flies, plants, toads, and other organisms. For example, we have used phiC31 integrase extensively in gene therapy studies to add healthy genes to mammalian cells that had harmful mutations in various genes, such as the genes involved in hemophilia and muscular dystrophy.
The phiC31 integrase enzyme made it possible to add genes, but it was not possible to remove the genes, if desired. In this new study, we show that a newly-identified protein, called excisionase or recombination directionality factor, can reverse the recombination reaction that is carried out by phiC31 integrase. Therefore, it is now possible to carry out the reaction in either direction, to either add a gene or remove a gene. This new feature of the integrase system gives it more utility and flexibility for making changes in chromosomes.
In addition, in this study we created a new plasmid, or circle of DNA, that codes for a useful form of phiC31 integrase. The new plasmid, called pCS-kI, encodes a slightly shorter form of integrase. This form can catalyze recombination between the two DNA sequences recognized by the integrase, attB and attP. However, it cannot catalyze recombination between the attB site and sequences in the chromosomes that partially match the attP site. By making the integrase reaction more restrictive, the integrase coded by pCS-kI is more useful when we want the enzyme to react only with the exact attB and attP sites and not other sequences in the chromosomes.
In summary, this new study describes new tools that add to the usefulness of the phiC31 integrase system. This recombination system is in wide use by our laboratory and by many other laboratories around the world. Therefore, these new tools will help to stimulate progress in the field of genome engineering, which is an important contributor to the stem cell field.
Scientific Abstract:
Over the past decade, the integrase enzyme from phage phiC31 has proven to be a useful genome engineering tool in a wide variety of species, including mammalian cells. The enzyme efficiently mediates recombination between two distinct sequences, attP and attB, producing recombinant product sites, attL and attR. The reaction proceeds exclusively in a unidirectional manner, because integrase is unable to synapse attL and attR. To date, use of phiC31 integrase has been limited to attP x attB recombination. The factor needed for the reverse reaction--the excisionase or recombination directionality factor (RDF)--was identified recently and shown to function in vitro and in bacterial cells. To determine whether the phiC31 RDF could also function in mammalian cells, we cloned and tested several vectors that permit assessment of phiC31 RDF activity in mammalian environments. In the human and mouse cell lines tested (HeLa, HEK293, and NIH3T3), we observed robust RDF activity, using plasmid and/or genomic assays. This work is the first to demonstrate attL-attR serine integrase activity in mammalian cells and validates phiC31 RDF as a new tool that will enable future studies to take advantage of phiC31 integrase recombination in the forward or reverse direction.


text:
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More About This Product
Weight & Dimensions
Full Dimension | 144W x 68D x 36H |
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text: Dear Scientists: The Bioinformation Search Center (BSC) 3.0 (http://www.ittc.ukans.edu/~mxu/cgi-bin/thesis/bi.cgi) is now available to the public! Maijor new features of Version 3.0: 1. Partial result display, from the first to the last, step by step; 2. Faster result presentation; 3. A more robust scoring method is used. You can find your desired information more easily. Please give this baby a try! Any comments are highly appreciated! Please see below for the brief introduction to BSC. Thanks a lot. Sincerely, Mousheng Xu BRIEF INTRO to BSC Bioinformation Search Center is a MS thesis project implemented by Mousheng Xu, Department of EECS, University of Kansas. The goal of BSC is help scientists to search for biologically related information stored in distributed biological databases such as GenBank, Human Genome Database, and Protein Information Resource. It has quite a few cool features  such as automated distributed database entry interlink, easy expansion to include more databases in the system, easy mainteinance, concise result representation, etc. It is believed to find more and high quality information than any other biological databases.


text:
Date(s) - 28/02/2022
9:30 am - 11:30 am
Yoga classes for parents/carers who are struggling with their mental health.
There will also be time at the end of the class for refreshments, a chat and to share how you're feeling.
With funding from Active Sussex/Sport England.
Any questions contact Emma (yoga teacher) email@example.com


text:
Egypt's Islamist Government Reaches For Control Of The Unions
Our guest author today is Heba F. El-Shazli. Currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University's Center for Democracy and Civil Society, Prof. El-Shazli has 25 years of international experience in political and economic development, including democracy promotion programs and support for independent trade unions. She has worked with trade unions, political parties, and leaders throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The views expressed here are her own.
It is becoming uncomfortably clear that the strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is to take control of many of Egypt's major civil society organizations. While everyone's attention is focused on the assault on the constitution and the judiciary, President Mohammed Morsi has strategically revised a trade union law that will affect millions of Egyptian workers.
If successful, this move will affect the lives, jobs, and political freedom of millions of Egyptian workers, as well as renew the Egyptian Trade Union Federation's (ETUF) longstanding role as an enforcer of government labor policy.
The ETUF is the official government-controlled trade union federation. Founded in 1957, it remains in existence despite efforts to dismantle it during the immediate post-Mubarak period. It claims a membership of over 4 million workers mostly in the public sector. Under Mubarak, ETUF was notorious for its failure to protect worker rights. In recent years, a courageous – and illegal -- independent trade union movement has challenged ETUF's supremacy, and dared to press for freedom of association, using strikes and protests in all the major sectors of the economy. First established in December 2008, the independent union movement has grown enormously since the January 2011 uprising. Hundreds of independent trade unions have been established and Egypt now has two independent trade union federations representing almost 2 million workers.
Against this background, on the 26th of November, Morsi endorsed revisions to the trade union law ensuring that the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party loyalists can be appointed to the ETUF and its affiliated unions' executive boards. This move took place a few days after Morsi's sweeping decree to grant himself immunity against any judicial oversight - basically granting himself absolute powers. That decree has now been withdrawn and a hastily-called referendum on the new constitution is scheduled for December 15.
These political maneuvers have not affected the new labor law, which gives the government the power to fill vacancies on these union governing boards by forcing all who are over 60 years of age to retire. It also extends by six months the time a union member serves on a trade union's executive board. These changes were made without any consultation with the ETUF's current leadership, who remain Mubarak loyalists.
Not surprisingly, the reaction of the current ETUF leadership was negative. Chairman Ahmed Abdel Zaher is openly critical of the new law and, with some irony, now cites the International Labor Organization's (ILO) core principles on union rights. This was unheard of in 2008, when Egypt was placed on the ILO's black list of countries in violation of the ILO's conventions, and when ETUF was in collusion with the Mubarak regime.
For his part, the head of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU) said that the attitude of the Muslim Brotherhood and the new government was "even more hostile" to "workers, trade unions and economic and social rights" than that of the Mubarak regime.
In that light, the new independent unions now face the challenge of a Brotherhood-dominated official trade union structure. The new labor law will enable the Minister of Manpower, a member of the MB's political party, to install President Morsi's supporters in the unions' leadership positions. This change will stop any effort by the old guard to use ETUF as an alternative power center, while, ironically, giving renewed life to the ETUF as an instrument of government policy. It is a shrewd and revealing move by Morsi. His government has extended its control over an organization that is mass-based and possesses local and regional structures that reach deeply into many sectors of the Egyptian economy. It also appears to endorse the Mubarak-era rejection of freedom of association – the right of workers to organize their own unions, free of government control.
During the Mubarak era, the Muslim Brotherhood was never able to gain a strong foothold within the blue collar trade unions. Historically, the Brothers focused on Egypt's professional unions and associations, referred to as "syndicates", although interest in their "working-class cousins sharply rose after the revolution." Within professional unions, politics and political identity have a high profile and the Brotherhood controls professional syndicates representing doctors, engineers, pharmacists, scientists, and lawyers. There are 22 professional syndicates in Egypt with a total of 3.5 million members.
The political implications of Morsi's move remain unclear. Morsi may have bitten off more than he can chew in his attempted usurpation of the right of judicial review, but the changes in the labor law may trigger even more unrest. Egypt's workers have never hesitated to protest over bread and butter issues, and it is unclear how the rank-and-file, let alone the ETUF regional and local structures, will respond to this government action. This ETUF takeover confirms suspicions that the MB is seeking to dominate all aspects of government and civil society. It also raises concerns for independent union leaders who occupy a very vulnerable political and legal position. Will they be next?
Finally, this takeover of a major labor organization – however tarnished its past – is creating much anxiety within broader civil society. It adds to worries that, in Egypt, authoritarianism looks the same whether it is military or Islamist rule.
- Heba F. El-Shazli


text: Hydrotherapy is a therapeutic technique that harnesses the healing properties of water. The combination of heat, buoyancy and massage helps to relax muscles, ease sore joints, improve circulation, and reduce muscle tension. Used by healthcare professionals all around the world, hydrotherapy can help to improve sleep patterns, reduce stress, ease aches and pains, aid in post-injury recovery, and soothe sore joints, among many other health benefits.


text:
By Juliane von Mittelstaedt
Photo Gallery: Solar Power for the West Bank
Several small Palestinian villages in the West Bank had been without electricity for decades — before an Israeli foundation with funding from Europe recently installed solar panels and wind turbines. Now, though, Israel wants to remove the facilities because they are on land under its administration.
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The best part is when the lights in the tents go on, one by one, says Elad Orian. Electricity here, in the hills south of Hebron, was long unreliable. Either it was not available or it was too expensive, produced for just a few hours each day by a noisy, diesel-guzzling generator. That changed when Elad Orian and Noam Dotan, two Israeli physicians who had tired of conflict, came along three years ago and installed solar panels and erected wind turbines. Since then, such facilities have been installed in 16 communities, providing 1,500 Palestinians with electricity.
The women here no longer have to make their butter by hand; they can refrigerate the sheep's cheese, which is their livelihood; and their children can do their homework at night. Now they can sit together and watch TV — and connect to a world that seems far removed from their lives on the edge of the Judaean Desert. It is but a small revolution, achieved at little cost. But it is a good example of successful development aid.
The success, though, could soon be a thing of the past. Israel has threatened to tear them down with five municipalities in recent weeks having received "stop work" orders — the first step on the road to demolition. The problem is that the facilities are in the so-called Area C, which covers 60 percent of the West Bank and is administered by Israel. Permission from the Israelis is a requirement before construction projects can move ahead — and permits are almost never given to Palestinians.
'A Clear Signal'
The result is that Area C residents face poor roads and a lack of electricity and water. Farming is impossible, and the construction of factories forbidden. As a result, only 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C — and 310,000 well-supplied Israeli settlers. The solar project helps make life a bit more bearable for Palestinians in Area C. That, though, would appear to be something that Israel does not want.
"The demolition orders are meant to send a clear signal to all European Union countries: Do not interfere, do not invest in Area C," says project founder Noam Dotan.
Some of the facilities have already been there for two years, which makes it hard to believe that they have only just been noticed now. Above all, the decision sends a signal to Germany which has provided most funds for the project, or a total of roughly €600,000 ($791,300). The project was carried out by the aid organization Medico International in cooperation with Comet-ME, the organization founded by the two Israelis.
European diplomats in Ramallah and Tel Aviv suspect that the demolition orders are a reaction to a recently drafted, unusually critical EU report on the situation in Area C. It states: "The window for a two-state solution is closing rapidly with the continued expansion of Israeli settlements." The conclusion: The EU needs to target investment in economic development and improved living conditions of Palestinians in Area C.
Political Talking Point
A few months ago, a similar project co-financed by the Spanish government was scheduled for demolition, something which has been prevented thus far through massive diplomatic pressure.
Projects funded by foreign aid organizations or the EU have often been destroyed in the past, the best known example being the Gaza airport, financed with $38 million from the EU only to be destroyed by Israeli bombs a short time after its construction. Generally, though, the demolitions have been the result of security concerns. The fact that harmless solar cells — installations which are funded by allied countries to provide basic humanitarian needs — are at risk of demolition is a new development.
As such, when German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle traveled to Israel two weeks ago, he not only spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak about the peace process and Iran's nuclear program, but also about wind turbines and solar panels in places like Shaab al-Buttum.
Hundreds of people live in the village, and they are the poorest of the poor. A community of shepherds, they moved freely through the area until Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. Since then, they have settled, collecting rain water during the winter and buying expensive drinking water brought in by a truck along a gravel track in the summer. A well-maintained road to the settlement doesn't exist, despite the fact that Shaab al-Buttum lies between two Israeli outposts. The settlements are illegal, but miraculously they have all the basics their Palestinian neighbors are missing: electricity, water and roads.
Social Changes
However, over the past four months, two wind turbines and 40 solar panels have supplied the villagers with energy: 40 to 60 kilowatt-hours each day. It is just enough to heat one square meter of a well-insulated house for a year — or enough to supply a whole village.
Since the arrival of electricity, Israeli anthropologist Shuli Hartman, 60, has been living in the village. She wanted to find out what electricity does to people. She observed that women have more time because their workload is reduced and they can earn more. She saw they became more independent, using mobile phones, which they couldn't even charge until recently. And she saw how a village in which every family used to struggle to survive is now learning to become a community. An elderly villager told her: "Electricity for us is like water to a person walking through the desert." Her life has become a bit easier as a result of the mini-power station.
Last but not least, the project has brought together Israelis and Palestinians. "The Palestinians here had previously only known Israelis as settlers and soldiers," says Hartman.
"We did not want to just demonstrate and remain part of the conflict; we wanted to be part of the solution," explains Noam Dotan. But a solution is apparently not wanted. In the absence of a small miracle, the tents in Shaab al-Buttum will soon be dark once again.


text:
When I spread out my hand here today,
I catch no more than a ray
To feel of between thumb and fingers;
No lasting effect of it lingers.
There was one time and only the one
When dust really took in the sun;
And from that one intake of fire
All creatures still warmly suspire.
And if men have watched a long time
And never seen sun-smitten slime
Again come to life and crawl off,
We not be too ready to scoff.
God once declared he was true
And then took the veil and withdrew,
And remember how final a hush
Then descended of old on the bush.
God once spoke to people by name.
The sun once imparted its flame.
One impulse persists as our breath;
The other persists as our faith.


text:
Obama in the Holy Land
As President Obama prepares for his first trip to Israel, I hope when he gets there he sees what I saw.
Several weeks ago I returned from my first trip to Israel. I went with a delegation headed by Governor Mike Huckabee, who visits Israel at least once every year.
What did I see?
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/what-i-saw-in-israel-91939/#MWzoVwgbXs08I2Vp.99


text:
Have a fantastic trip to one of the most beautiful countries. Travel to France and unlock its secrets through a series of puzzles set in the capital city of Paris, amazing landscapes of Champagne, Provence and the jewel of French Riviera – Cannes.
Earn dozens of achievements, get free gold to charge the powerups, blast through challenging levels and set the best score.
Learn fun facts about past and present of France on every level and collect tons of artifacts and souvenirs!
Your journey around the world continues! Where will your travels take you next?
PC games download


text:
This is a copy of my answer on stackoverflow.com.
The use of scriptlets (those <% %>
things) in JSP is indeed highly discouraged since the birth of taglibs (like JSTL) and EL (Expression Language, those ${}
things) over a decade ago. The major disadvantages of scriptlets are:
- Reusability: you can't reuse scriptlets.
- Replaceability: you can't make scriptlets abstract.
- OO-ability: you can't make use of inheritance/composition.
- Debuggability: if scriptlet throws an exception halfway, all you get is a blank page.
- Testability: scriptlets are not unit-testable.
- Maintainability: per saldo more time is needed to maintain mingled/cluttered/duplicated code logic.
Sun Oracle itself also recommends in the JSP coding conventions to avoid use of scriptlets whenever the same functionality is possible by (tag) classes. Here are several cites of relevance:
From JSP 1.2 Specification, it is highly recommended that the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) be used in your web application to help reduce the need for JSP scriptlets in your pages. Pages that use JSTL are, in general, easier to read and maintain.
Where possible, avoid JSP scriptlets whenever tag libraries provide equivalent functionality. This makes pages easier to read and maintain, helps to separate business logic from presentation logic, and will make your pages easier to evolve into JSP 2.0-style pages (JSP 2.0 Specification supports but deemphasizes the use of scriptlets).
In the spirit of adopting the model-view-controller (MVC) design pattern to reduce coupling between the presentation tier from the business logic, JSP scriptlets should not be used for writing business logic. Rather, JSP scriptlets are used if necessary to transform data (also called "value objects") returned from processing the client's requests into a proper client-ready format. Even then, this would be better done with a front controller servlet or a custom tag.
How to replace scriptlets entirely depends on the sole purpose of the code/logic. More than often this code is to be placed in a fullworthy Java class.
If you want to invoke the same Java code on every request, less-or-more regardless of the requested page, e.g. checking if an user is logged in, then implement a filter and write code accordingly in
method. E.g.:public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain) throws ServletException, IOException { if (((HttpServletRequest) request).getSession().getAttribute("user") == null) { ((HttpServletResponse) response).sendRedirect("login"); // Not logged in, redirect to login page. } else { chain.doFilter(request, response); // Logged in, just continue request. } }
When mapped on an appropriate
covering the JSP pages of interest, then you don't need to copypaste the same piece of code over all JSP pages.If you want to invoke some Java code to preprocess a request, e.g. preloading some list from a database to display in some table, if necessary based on some query parameters, then implement a servlet and write code accordingly in
method. E.g.:protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { try { List<Product> products = productService.list(); // Obtain all products. request.setAttribute("products", products); // Store products in request scope. request.getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/products.jsp").forward(request, response); // Forward to JSP page to display them in a HTML table. } catch (SQLException e) { throw new ServletException("Retrieving products failed!", e); } }
This way dealing with exceptions is easier. The DB is not accessed in the midst of JSP rendering, but far before the JSP is been displayed. You still have the possibility to change the response whenever the DB access throws an exception. In the above example, the default error 500 page will be displayed which you can anyway customize by an
.If you want to invoke some Java code to postprocess a request, e.g. processing a form submit, then implement a servlet and write code accordingly in
method. E.g.:protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { String username = request.getParameter("username"); String password = request.getParameter("password"); User user = userService.find(username, password); if (user != null) { request.getSession().setAttribute("user", user); // Login user. response.sendRedirect("home"); // Redirect to home page. } else { request.setAttribute("message", "Unknown username/password. Please retry."); // Store error message in request scope. request.getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/login.jsp").forward(request, response); // Forward to JSP page to redisplay login form with error. } }
This way dealing with different result page destinations is easier: redisplaying the form with validation errors in case of an error (in this particular example you can redisplay it using
in EL), or just taking to the desired target page in case of success.If you want to invoke some Java code to control the execution plan and/or the destination of the request and the response, then implement a servlet according the MVC's Front Controller Pattern. E.g.:
protected void service(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { try { Action action = ActionFactory.getAction(request); String view = action.execute(request, response); if (view.equals(request.getPathInfo().substring(1)) { request.getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/" + view + ".jsp").forward(request, response); } else { response.sendRedirect(view); } } catch (Exception e) { throw new ServletException("Executing action failed.", e); } }
Or just adopt a MVC framework like JSF, Spring MVC, Wicket, etc so that you end up with just a JSP/Facelets page and a Javabean class without the need for a custom servlet.
If you want to invoke some Java code to control the flow inside a JSP page, then you need to grab an (existing) flow control taglib like JSTL core. E.g. displaying
in a table:<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c" %> ...
 <c:forEach items="${products}" var="product">
 ${product.name}	 ${product.description}	 ${product.price}
 </c:forEach>

With XML-style tags which fits nicely among all that HTML, the code is better readable (and thus better maintainable) than a bunch of scriptlets with various opening and closing braces ("Where the heck does this closing brace belong to?"). An easy aid is to configure your web application to throw an exception whenever scriptlets are still been used by adding the following piece to
:<jsp-config> <jsp-property-group> <url-pattern>*.jsp</url-pattern>  </jsp-property-group> </jsp-config>
In Facelets, the successor of JSP, which is part of the Java EE provided MVC framework JSF, it is already not possible to use scriptlets. This way you're automatically forced to do things "the right way".
If you want to invoke some Java code to access and display "backend" data inside a JSP page, then you need to use EL (Expression Language), those
things. E.g. redisplaying submitted input values:<input type="text" name="foo" value="${param.foo}" />
displays the outcome ofrequest.getParameter("foo")
.If you want to invoke some utility Java code directly in the JSP page (typically
public static
methods), then you need to define them as EL functions. There's a standard functions taglib in JSTL, but you can also easily create functions yourself. Here's an example how JSTLfn:escapeXml
is useful to prevent XSS attacks.<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/functions" prefix="fn" %> ... <input type="text" name="foo" value="${fn:escapeXml(param.foo)}" />
Note that the XSS sensitivity is in no way specifically related to Java/JSP/JSTL/EL/whatever, this problem needs to be taken into account in every webapplication you develop. The problem of scriptlets is that it provides no way of builtin preventions, at least not using the standard Java API. JSP's successor Facelets has already implicit HTML escaping, so you don't need to worry about XSS holes in Facelets.


text:
Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States.
That's remarkable for all sorts of reasons: He has no governmental experience, for example. And many times during his campaign, he said things that inflamed large swaths of Americans, whether it was talking about grabbing women's genitals or calling Mexican immigrants "rapists" and playing up crimes committed by immigrants, including drug crimes and murders.
But right now, it's also remarkable because almost no one saw it coming. All major forecasters predicted a Hillary Clinton win, whether moderately or by a landslide.
So what happened?
We don't know just yet why pollsters and forecasters got it wrong, but here's what made this electorate so different from the one that elected Barack Obama by 4 points in 2012. To be clear, it's impossible to break any election results out into fully discrete demographic groups or trends — race, gender and class are interconnected, impossible-to-disentangle phenomena. But, for now, here's what the exit polls, as reported by CNN, do tell us about a few of those trends that handed this election to Trump.
Men backed Trump
Women's voting preferences haven't shifted much since the time when they preferred Obama by 11 points. However, men swung more heavily Republican, by the latest exits. In 2012, men preferred Mitt Romney by 7 points. This year, they preferred Trump by almost double that.
The exact counts are still likely to shift a bit but, right now, 24 percentage points separate America's women from America's men in the latest exit polls — that is, women preferred Clinton by 12 points, while men preferred Trump by 12 points. If that ends up being the final tally, it will be the largest gap measured by exit polls since at least the 1950s.
Non-college-educated whites, in particular, love Trump
Trump specifically appealed to whites during this election, and they clearly preferred him at the polls — right now, his margin of victory among them is roughly the same as Romney's in 2012, which was 20 points.
But there's a massive fissure between college- and non-college-educated whites. Romney won non-college-educated whites by 26 points, according to polling data provided to NPR by the Pew Research Center. Currently, exit polling shows Trump's margin among that group to be roughly one-and-a-half times that.
Meanwhile, college-educated whites appear to have preferred Trump slightly, according to current exit poll figures (which, once again, could still shift some). That would mean Trump moderately underperformed Romney, who won this group by 14 points, according to the data from Pew.
However, that would still essentially be a win for Trump, considering that at one point, it looked like Trump might be the first Republican in decades to lose white, college-educated Americans.
Clinton failed to perform in key counties
Clinton underperformed Obama — sometimes heavily — in key counties in swing states. For example, Obama beat Romney by more than 381,000 votes in Wayne County, Mich. — by far the state's most populous county. Clinton beat Trump there only by around 287,000 votes, meaning there's a more than 90,000-vote gap between her win and Obama's win there.
In Cuyahoga County, Ohio — home to Cleveland — Trump drew about 4,500 fewer voters than Romney did in 2012. However, Clinton drew almost 37,000 fewer, giving her a much smaller win there than Obama scored in 2012.
In Milwaukee County, Wis., where it appeared Trump had a much bigger early lead (as we reported earlier), the gap closed considerably as the hours wore on, to around 6,700, by the latest data. Likewise, Clinton trailed Obama's margin in Philadelphia County, Pa., by around 10,000 votes. Those aren't huge gaps, but they do reflect the broader national trend of Clinton losing a bit here, a bit there ... adding up to a loss.
Conservatives don't seem married to traditional conservatism
Right now, the numbers for conservatives are looking about the same this year as they did in 2012 — that is, around 80 percent of them went for the Republican candidate in both elections. And in both, they made up just over one-third of the electorate.
But, then, Trump is not at all the kind of conservative that Romney was; indeed, he's not at all a traditional conservative. Trump has rejected free trade agreements, called for up to $1 trillion in government spending on infrastructure, and introduced a tax plan that could balloon the debt by $7.2 trillion in one decade, by one estimate.
That makes it pretty clear that Trump voters weren't driven by far-right ideology (unless many self-proclaimed conservatives had big changes of heart since 2012). Trump's populist, overtly masculine, anti-PC appeal helped him vault past Clinton.
With the GOP controlling both the Senate and House, the question now is how Trump will square his brand of conservatism with that of his congressional counterparts.
Those leery white evangelicals? They weren't so leery after all
Right now, the polls show that 81 percent of white, self-described evangelicals voted for Trump. That doesn't look too different from 2012, when 78 percent of white, born-again Christians (a term that pollsters often use in place of, or in conjunction with, the term "evangelical Christians") chose Romney.
All of which is to say that despite white women evangelicals' apparent reluctance to choose Trump, and despite some evangelical leaders' arguments against Trump, this group in the end didn't shift much at all.
Trump did well among voters who didn't really like him
You'd think that when people see a candidate unfavorably, they'd vote against that candidate.
That didn't happen this year — at least, not the way it did in 2012. In 2012, 94 percent of voters who saw Obama unfavorably chose Romney. Likewise, 92 percent who saw Romney unfavorably chose Obama.
But as Amy Walter pointed out at the Cook Political Report Tuesday morning, 77 percent of voters who saw Trump unfavorably voted for Clinton; 15 percent of those people still voted for him. The numbers were slightly less stark among Democrats — only 82 percent of people who saw Clinton unfavorably chose Trump; 11 percent chose her anyway.
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


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Working with a wholesaler in Lake Charles can be a great way to find discounted properties. However, there are some things you need to watch out for! Learn more about what to look for in our latest post!
Are you looking for a great deal on a house in Lake Charles? If so, you may have considered working with a property wholesaler. Working with a wholesaler can be a great way to acquire a new home whether you are an investor or a private buyer. A word to the wise… not all real estate wholesalers in Lake Charles are the same! Keep reading to learn more about the things you need to watch out for when working with a wholesaler in Lake Charles!
Properly Researched
Everything needs to be disclosed just like any other sale. While your wholesaler will be able to provide you with extensive information about a property, it is always up to you as the buyer to do your due diligence on the property. You will likely be buying the property as-is, so if something should go wrong after the house has closed, you will likely be liable. Once you receive information about a property from a wholesaler, take th time to verify accuracy. Most sales information will be public knowledge and using 3rd party sites you can find out when a property was last rented out and what was being asked in monthly rent.
Lack Of Experience
An inexperienced wholesaler isn't going to know how to find the best properties. They won't know the area or where to find the best deals. When working with a wholesaler in Lake Charles, it is best to choose someone that has experience not only in wholesaling but also in the local real estate market. They should be familiar with current trends, who's buying, what people are asking for, and in what niches potential buyers will be the most successful.
Not Well-Connected
When you work with a great property wholesaler, they will be well-connected and able to help you with every aspect of the acquisition. When deciding who to work with, make sure they can offer you access to some of the resources your property may require. A high-quality real estate wholesaler will be able to connect you with lenders, title companies, property managers, contractors, and many other services a new homeowner may be looking for when buying a new home in the Lake Charles area.
Bad Pricing
Just because you are buying a property from a wholesaler doesn't mean you are getting a great deal. Not all wholesalers are able to get the same discounts, meaning you could ultimately be paying more than if you had simply found the deal on your own. Watch out for novice or inexperienced wholesalers who aren't able to get things done as quickly and efficiently as someone with more experience would be able to do. They will not be able to provide you with the deals you are looking for.
Business Over People
Many wholesalers get started because it is a way to get into real estate without any capital of their own. Some wholesalers do this professionally, while others are just in it to make a quick buck and move on. The best wholesalers are the ones who love finding and negotiating the best deals but who don't like to own the properties themselves.
At Prestigious Properties, LLC, we are passionate about real estate and helping people save money. We work with private buyers and investors to provide phenomenal deals on houses in Lake Charles! Our inventory is fully researched and is changing all the time!


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The Venus Transit 2004
... Observing Campaign Results
The VT-2004 programme set up a unique, international network of observers to observe the Venus Transit event on June 8, 2004 within the VT-2004 Observing Campaign . One of the stated goals was to re-enact the historical determination of the distance to the Sun (the Astronomical Unit) by collecting timings of the four contacts made by these observers and combining them in a calculation of the AU.
Most of the observations were made in Europe, but data also arrived from North and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia, cf. see the maps of all registered groups of observers in the world (2763) and in Europe (2427). In total, 4550 contact timings were received from 1510 registered observers . Many of these were delivered on-line during the transit event; the rest before July 10, 2004.
Following extensive data analysis of this large material at Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Éphémérides (IMCCE; Paris), the final result is:
Calculated value of 1 AU with uncertainty | Difference from "true" value |
149 608 708 km ± 11 835 km | + 10 838 km |
It is also possible to consider the AU as a known parameter and to introduce the radii of the Sun and Venus as unknowns to be determined from the timing observations. Using the AU determinined from radara measurements ( 1 AU = 149 597 871 km ), the result is as follows:
Object | Calculated radius with uncertainty | Difference from "true" value |
Sun | 695980.7 km ± 806 km | 8.6 km |
Venus | 6052.3 km ± 7.0 km | 0.5 km |
The excellent outcome of the VT-2004 Observing Campaign indicates that most observers took great care to achieve the best possible accuracy with their respective equipment.
A comparison with the results obtained by transit observations in past centuries shows that the above determination of the distance to the Sun in 2004 is the "best" in terms of accuracy , despite the relative lack of experience of most of the observers and notwithstanding a random distribution of the observing sites, caused by the absence in 2004 of any specific planning as this was done in earlier centuries. This success is undoubtedly due, above all, to more accurate timings and better known geographical locations, better optics in the telescopes, digital image recording and advanced image processing software.
In a nutshell, even if we had not known the distance to the Sun before the Venus Transit 2004, we would have been able to measure it with an accuracy of one hundredth of a percent by means of the observations made by the many participants all over the world!
Thank you to all participants - we can be proud of this joint achievement!
More information about these calculations are contained in some other documents, listed below in order of increasing complexity:
- Brief Summary of the VT-2004 Determination of the AU ("Theme of the Week" - November 1 - 7, 2004)
- Extended Summary of the Analysis of the Contact Timing Observations
- Explanatory Note No. 1: The On-Line Calculation of the AU (PDF)
- Explanatory Note No. 2: Calculation of the AU by means of the Entire Data Set (PDF)
Related maps:
- Locations of 2763 registered observing teams in the world
- Locations of 2427 registered observing teams in and around Europe
- Circumstances of the First Contact (T1) - please consult Explanatory Note No. 2 for details
- Circumstances of the second Contact (T2) - please consult Explanatory Note No. 2 for details
- Circumstances of the Third Contact (T3) - please consult Explanatory Note No. 2 for details
- Circumstances of the Fourth Contact (T4) - please consult Explanatory Note No. 2 for details


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Crank Brothers Klic HV Gauge
Crank Brothers Klic HV Gauge features a revolutionary design that sports a hidden flexible hose hidden inside the pump body. A magnetic head and twisting collar allow the hose to be attached easily and keeps debris out.
- High-volume portable hand pump with hidden magnetic hose and pressure gauge
- Premium pump with flexible rubber hose that hides inside the body of the pump when not in use – perfect for those stealth air-strikes!
- Features also include an air pressure gauge, Presta/Schrader valve adapter, magnetic head with twisting collar, and a folding and locking handle.
- HV (high volume) version recommended for tires 1.8" wide and larger.
- All Klic pumps come with a bottle cage bracket mount.
- Pressure 110psi / 7.6bar
- Weight: 150 grams


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originally published on Cassandra's Legacy on Wednesday, June 13, 2012
My post on the "Seneca cliff" has inspired Hannes Rollin to create an App for the iPad that can be used for running the model for different input parameters. I must confess that I don't own an iPad, so I can't test the model, but it seems to me a very interesting idea. So, here is the story, with many thanks for Hannes for his interest in my work.
Guest post by Hannes Rollin
Many of you who are reading this post may be familiar with one or the other of Ugo Bardi's mind-sized models, where he employs system dynamics to illustrate fundamental economic and natural processes in a general way. The model which impressed me the most was the one Ugo called Seneca's Cliff – a very simple model capable of generating an economic decline much faster than previous growth had been, a fact already remarked by Seneca. Hence the name.
I give you a quick summary of the model. You have three stocks (imagine them as containers), namely Resources, Economy and Pollution. Now, a given fraction of Resources is extracted and used to run the Economy. Subsequently, a fraction of the Economy spawns Pollution. The flow is furthermore dependent upon degradation or restoration (negative degradation) of each stock. If you ever asked yourself where the nice curves come from, here is the answer: The content of the stocks is plotted against time.
Ugo tweaked the parameters to give a Resource depletion and Economic activity curve very similar to one of the more famous outputs of the WORLD3 model of the Limits to Growth team. I have set this result as the default settings of the iPad app.
The interesting thing is that the model can evolve scenarios quite distinct from the standard run above. If you model a renewable Resource stock with negative resource loss rate, you get a (potentially infinite) sequence of boom-and-bust cycles similar to H.T. Odum's simulation of locust pests.
Although this run looks catastrophic as well with long periods of almost zero economic activity, it already maintains two highly optimistic assumptions: First, resources are strictly renewable no matter how much strained, and second, that pollution (gray), which spikes sharply according to the initial economic peak, is handled completely by natural self-repair.
It is even possible to create something like a steady-state economy, a slightly meandering stream of low but positive activity. When you play with the app, however, you will see that combinations of parameters leading to such favorable circumstances are hard to find, and the solution is highly unstable – wiggle any slider in any direction, and you are quickly back to extinction or boom-and-bust.
Note that in this run high growth is followed by rapid decline and finally zero
growth (brown). The steadiness of the Economy has its price: economic activity is pretty low compared to the once-in-a-lifetime peak at the beginning, and the Resource stock never again reaches its initial wealth due to continual harvesting. The are many more scenarios this simply excellent model can provide, for instance two or three consecutive peaks of activity, increasing or decreasing, followed by die-off (stable solution) or steadiness (unstable solution).
As an apology, I am certainly aware of the irony of porting a model for the simulation of economic decline to the flagship of techno-narcissistic consumerism, klickibunti self-distraction, and perpetual remote controlling of human resources. But, you know, the spirit speaks in many tongues. There is certainly something to gain by playing with the model rather than merely studying formulas or staring at static graphs. Just like the Pythagoreans presumably played with pebbles to gain a feeling for the relation between triangles and squares, you may develop a feeling for the precariousness of stability and, perhaps, understand how inevitable and fierce a destiny is able to fulfill itself.
This said, I would only wish to add that the app is, of course, free, and anyone who wants to learn the background or extend the model is invited to mail me (Hannes Rollin) at initials at sabik dot de. The Seneca cliff App has recently been approved to App.


text:
Updated at 1:51 p.m. ET
In a way, 2020 has felt like the year of the governor, with so many people focused on states' (as opposed to the federal) coronavirus response. President Trump has waffled between praising and slamming governors for their actions around COVID-19. If Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia had star power before, it's even more pronounced nearly eight months into the pandemic.
But 2020 is also a slow election year for governors. Out of the 11 on the ballot across the country (Delaware, Indiana, Montana, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia), only three races are considered competitive. Those are in Montana, Missouri and North Carolina.
In Missouri and North Carolina, COVID-19 couldn't be more of an issue. Those races may tell us whether the coronavirus has the power to make or break a governor. In Montana, though, politics have complicated the issue.
When Republican Gov. Mike Parson took the stage in January to deliver the Missouri State of the State, he was able to hang his hat on a stronger economy and better-than-average unemployment rates. His path to victory looked easy. Since then, the coronavirus has caused immense challenges to the state's health care system and decimated the economy.
"This has been a test of leadership, and he's failed that test," said Nicole Galloway, Parson's Democratic challenger and Missouri's state auditor, in an interview with St. Louis Public Radio. "Gov. Parson's approval rating has dropped 22 points because of his poor handling of COVID," she said.
Parson was one of the last governors in the country to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, although he let most businesses stay open. He said he wanted the decisions left up to local governments.
"I've been pretty open about that the entire time," he said, talking to St. Louis Public Radio. "I think it was important to leave it up to the locals."
Parson has refused to implement a statewide mask mandate despite the White House Coronavirus Task Force urging him to do so. "It's almost become a political issue, we all know that," he said.
The 65-year-old and his wife contracted the virus in late September. He was asymptomatic, but his wife fell ill. That didn't change his state response, though. "You have to live in concern, but you don't have to live in fear of it," Parson has said.
Galloway, 38, wants to provide more guidance for schools to resume in-person learning. She also wants to put a mask mandate in place, calling masks a ticket to freedom. "That is a science-backed, data-driven approach to slowing the spread of the virus so we don't have to shut down again."
Galloway has been able to attract many more individual donations than the governor, although most polls, if not all, show Parson leading. For Galloway to win, she'll need to regain lost ground in rural Missouri and have a strong show of support in urban areas.
North Carolina
On the other side of the political spectrum, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina is seeking reelection. The state's lieutenant governor, Dan Forest, is his Republican challenger. (North Carolina is one of just a few states where the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor.)
Cooper, a 63-year-old Democrat and native of North Carolina, is up for reelection in a year when he has had to guide the state through the coronavirus pandemic, and voters seem to like the job Cooper has done. Since March, he's held on to relatively high approval ratings.
That hasn't stopped Forest, 53, from criticizing Cooper every step of the way. Earlier this year, Forest sued Cooper over some of his coronavirus-related executive orders, arguing that the governor shouldn't have the power to issue those orders on his own. The lieutenant governor later dropped the lawsuit.
In the last month, coronavirus numbers have spiked in the state, and during that time polls have shown Cooper's lead narrowing slightly. He has had a healthy lead over Forest since the primary, and a Forest win would be surprising to followers on both sides of the aisle.
Cooper has been in state politics for decades and enjoys widespread name recognition. That's not the case for Forest.
Trump carried voters in Montana by 20 percentage points in 2016, but while it is often thought of as a red state, Montana is full of split-ticket voters and has had a Democrat in its governor's office for 16 years.
The current Democratic governor, Steve Bullock, is limited by term and running for U.S. Senate, leaving the seat open.
The candidates vying for the position have been neck and neck in the polls since the primary. Even though COVID-19 is raging in Montana, neither Republican Greg Gianforte nor Democrat Mike Cooney has made it a key talking point for their campaigns.
As lieutenant governor, Cooney is close to Bullock. Any criticism of the governor's virus response could jeopardize Bullock's bid for Senate. Bullock mandated masks statewide in July, but now some hospitals are overwhelmed, the state is considered a hot spot and Bullock hasn't imposed new restrictions.
As a Republican, Gianforte has said he is against Bullock's statewide mandates, even as case numbers have surged. If elected, he said his coronavirus response would defer to individual choice.
Gianforte is a tech billionaire whose pitch to be Montana's next governor is similar to what Trump's was to voters as a presidential candidate in 2016. Gianforte said he will slash regulations, reduce taxes and install new leaders at state agencies
Cooney has been a public servant his whole career and says he wants to safeguard and build on Democratic priorities, such as protecting Medicaid expansion and pushing through a public preschool program.
Recent polls have shown Gianforte with an edge over Cooney but within the margin of error. Montana, like many states, has experienced enthusiastic election participation and has broken its voter turnout record.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Commercial Painting in River Oaks, Houston, Texas
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2017-01-23 -
★★★★★ - "First Choice Paint & Remodeling did a truly amazing job on our home! They were so professional and kind, and incredibly trust worthy always going above and beyond! I would recommend them to anyone! Our home looks brand new inside and out and SO UPDATED!"
Kat Theis in The Woodlands, TX
★★★★★ - "Clay did a great job painting the interior of my house. He definitely goes the extra mile. He is clean, efficient and easy to work with. I highly recommend First Choice Painting and Remodeling."
Carolyn in Houston, TX
★★★★★ - "First Choice Painting and Remodeling was recommended by a neighbor. I was very satisfied with the painting that Clay and Pedro did on the interior of my home. They went the extra mile. I highly recommend Clay Tyler."
Carolyn in Houston, TX
★★★★★ - "We've been using 1st Choice Painters for years. We trust Clay with our home and we have him back every year for maintenance. He is extremely professional, punctual, and meticulous. Give him plenty of notice to get on his list, because he stays busy! When he's finished with your home it will look like a fine wedding cake made by a fabulous pastry chef. If you need a perfect painter, look no further."
Tyri C. in Houston, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "We've had Clay and his crew paint multiple rooms over the years, hang cieling fans, and replace a fence/gate. They are always on time, do excellent work, and clean up after themselves every day until the job is finished. We will continue to call Clay and his team whenever we need things fixed, painted or installed at our house."
Bill D. in Spring, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "Clay and his assistant painted the exterior of my house, pressure washed, replaced rotted wood with Hardi, repaired my gate and installed an outdoor light fixture. Clay arrived on time and worked diligently to get the job done. I am extremely satisfied with all the work and will recommend First Choice Painting & Remodeling to friends and will also call him the next time I need a job done!"
Barbara H. in Houston, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "Clay and his co-worker were the most helpful and courteous hard workers you could ask for. They were always on time and did a fantastic job. Clay went out of his way to accommodate my needs to get around in my house in my powerchair. He even did a few extra things for me and it was most appreciated. We loved their work so much we had him do my mother-in-laws house when he completed our house. They did an excellent job with that as well. Now we are working on him painting our son's house as soon as possible. I would highly recommend him and his co-worker Pete."
Denice H. in Spring, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "Clay and team went above and beyond what I asked. Very professional and eager to help, even if its out of the scope of work he's hired for. I'd highly recommend First Choice to any of my family or friends. Thanks Clay, for all your hard work!"
Sara W. in Houston, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "They did all I asked for and more. Cleaned up after themselves each and every day. Never felt any imposition or need to get out of their way. Each job they tackled was completed quickly and neatly. The men showed true professionalism in their work. I could not have been more pleased."
Mrs Charlotte E. in Missouri City, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "Clay and Pedro are the best! First Choice Painting & Remodeling offers excellent workmanship and add value to a customer's home for an affordable price. You will bring them back again and again to maintain the appearance of your home."
Arthur M. in Spring, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "I would recommend this company for any project you have. I have used them several times over the years and they did an outstanding job were always on time and very professional."
Kathy P. in Houston, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "First Choice Painting & Remodeling was professional from start to finish. The representative that I spoke to was very knowledgeable, courteous, and lead me in the right direction with what I needed done. Setting up an appointment was a breeze and the crew did a impressively thorough job with painting our home. They had a great eye for attention to detail and cleaned up everything extremely well. I'd definitely recommend them."
Roland M. in Houston, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "First Choice Painting & Remodeling has been doing work for me for 17 years. Every time I call him to make an appointment he is always there on time. They are really neat and they clean everything up after they are finished working. Great experience."
Ted B. in Conroe, TX
2016-09-16 -
★★★★★ - "We have relied on First Choice Painting and Remodeling contractors for many home improvement projects over the years and have always been really pleased with the work, the time in which they complete it, the minimal interruption to our family and their quality. They have done everything from a full bathroom upgrade (including shower and tile flooring), our kitchen renovation (including new sheetrock and drywall repair and window replacement), siding installation and power washing, the list goes on. Every time their prices are fair, they get back to you quickly and their quality of work is second to none! If you are looking for an insured and licensed painter and remodeler, we recommend First Choice for any home repair job around the home, no matter how big or small. "
Rudy Phillips, Home Remodeling in Houston, TX
2016-07-25 -
★★★★★ - "Upon hiring Mr. Tyler and his worker, I was very clear what my expectations were. He gave me direct eye contact and assured me how long the job would take and a estimate upfront. I was very pleased how the work turned out and he demonstrated integrity and compassion through his work. I certainly give him a high 5 !!!!"
Karen P. in Houston, TX
2016-07-25 -
★★★★★ - "I will never take a chance on another painter. Great work. You can't even SEE where they did drywall work. They use quality materials and make the extra effort to leave you with a clean and professional end result. Highest praise."
Mrs. Adams, Drywall Repair in Houston, TX
2016-07-25 -
★★★★★ - "They did fabulous job! This is the second time we have used First Choice, and they are very professional. We couldn't be happier with the outcome of our house."
Gibbons Family in Cypress, TX


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The Supper Club
By Elia Alba
Elia Alba's The Supper Club photographic portrait series depicts U.S.-based artists of colour. Alongside the portraits are excerpts from dinner conversations addressing issues that relate to race and visual culture on themes including sanctuary, policing, post-black identity and intersectional identities connecting gender, race and privilege.
Elia Alba's The Supper Club focuses on racial politics and visual culture. Curated by Sara Reisman for The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, The Supper Club is comprised of socially-engaged dinners and portraits of artist participants. She began photographing artists of color like LaToya Ruby Frazier and Mickalene Thomas in 2012. To give voice to her community Alba hosted dinners, 25 so far, with themes like Baltimore, Race and Identity (in honor of Freddie Gray) and Racial Subjugation in Latin America. Inspired by Vanity Fair's "Hollywood Issue," Alba's portraits capture each artist's unique voice, transforming them into iconic images.
136 pages, 40 colour illustrations
20.3 x 25.4 cm, hardcover


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text:
Basic Search Stone Collection: Volume 15 - Item 4 | Advanced Search | Online Archives | Help | ||||||||||||
4. Alexander H. Stephens, "African Slavery, the Corner-Stone of the Southern Confederacy. A Speech by Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, Delivered at the Atheneum [sic], Savannah, March 22, 1861," in The Pulpit and Rostrum. Sermons, Orations, Popular Lectures, &c. (New York: E. D. Barker, 1862), 65-78.
Speech by the Vice-President of the Confederacy in which he argues that slavery is the primary reason why the Confederate States of America was formed. Mr. Stone has marked several paragraphs of this speech, particularly this one. "One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics; their conclusions are right, if their premises are. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. If their premise were correct, their conclusion would be logical and just; but their premise being wrong, their whole argument fails."


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On March 11, 2011 Japan was hit by what appears to be the largest scale natural disaster in modern history (link NOT safe for work!). If we take the data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey on their website as a reference, then the 2011 Japan earthquake was the fifth most powerful earthquake since the tracking started in 1900.
The devastation unleashed by this massive earthquake was only a beginning. The tsunami tidal wave that followed was easily the most ferocious in our lifetime. There is a lot of water in the Earth's oceans and a good chunk of it has swept across the Pacific coast of Japan, destroying everything in its path. There is no way the force of such scale could have been contained.
The tsunami water made it as far as 10km in land in some parts of Japan. Yet as if that weren't enough, the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami was not the end of it. The earthquake disabled the mechanisms powering the cooling tower of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and subsequent tsunami then knocked out the backup power generators, removing the possibility to cool down the reactor, resulting in overheating and explosions which could lead to the leakage of radioactive materials (how much has been leaked has not been confirmed at the time of this post).
So within a span of a couple of days, Japan suffered from the fifth most powerful earthquake since the recordkeeping started, quite possibly the largest tsunami experienced on this planet in centuries and a realistic possibility of a nuclear catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of people live in make-shift shelters, tens of thousands are unaccounted for, parts of towns have been entirely wiped out, transportation options are either limited or completely paralyzed, there is a shortage of food and a shortage of food in some areas yet there still have been no reports of any looting going on in Japan.
Natural Disasters and Looting
There are several interesting points to consider here:
- Almost all natural disasters that happened in recent history were followed by out of control looting. Whether we look at Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 tsunami in IndoChina, or recent earthquakes in Haiti or Chile – the looting seemed to have been a natural part of the aftermath.
- No mainstream media reports on the fact that there has been no looting in Japan despite it suffering from one of the largest scale natural disasters in modern history.
If you do a search on looting after natural disasters, you'll find countless experts talking about and justifying the "psychology of looting". I can't help but ask – why do these experts ignore the fact that Japan is not experiencing any looting and how would they explain the inconsistencies in their theories?
Since I'm the first to bring this up, I'll be also the one who's gonna say it like it is. I take a lot of heat from internet tough guys for not holding back and speaking the truth even if it's not entirely politically correct. But rather than toning it down for fear of offending someone – which as a travel writer I seem to be the only one to NOT do – let me get right down to it and say that there is no excuse for looting.
Japan vs Other Countries
Internet tough guys like to excuse inexcusable behavior of uncivilized people using the "necessity argument". When a Cambodian thief robbed me, I called him a thief, but got bashed for talking badly about a person whose struggle to survive forced him to do it. Forced him to do it my arse. When someone is a rapist, perhaps it's time to call them a rapist and when someone is a murderer, perhaps it's time to call them a murderer. Instead of looking for the ways to excuse their unlawful behavior (and encouraging it from re-occurring), it's time to call a spade and spade even if it may sound seemingly bigoted or racist.
Lack of looting in Japan is a proof of that. If you listen to what the prime minister of Japan tells his fellow Japanese, you will notice that he talks about rebuilding a new Japan. He asks his fellow Japanese to support him in this huge task and doesn't hide the fact that it will require a lot of hard work, but it won't be the first time when a Japan will have to rebuild itself from the ashes.
This rhetoric is entirely different from that coming from places like Indonesia, Thailand or Haiti after they'd suffered from similar, even though smaller scale natural disasters. Instead of appealing to their citizens to roll up their sleeves and get to work to rebuild their countries, people of those nations focused on whining about how poor they are and made their recovery a responsibility of others. Utilizing the "oh, we're so poor" excuse, they sat with their feet up on the items they stole during looting, waiting for the people from the west to send money and workforce to rebuild their country.
While it goes without saying that Japan will receive assistance rebuilding, the Japanese will not sit with their feet up whining about being poor and needing others to fix their country up. They will be in the front line, they will be the first ones and the most hard working to see their country back up and running. Japan was the only country that had cities wiped out with the nuclear weapons. There were parts of it that were literally levelled after the World War II. Yet if you look where it got within a few decades from this total destruction, you'll see that if you swap whining with hard work, anything can be achieved.
After the WWII, Japan was in a far more desperate state than many other countries. Yet they bounced back and turned into an economic powerhouse. If Japan could do it, then countries that had never been brought this low should find it even easier to recover. Taking that into an account – if Cambodia is still poor 30 years after the rule of Khmer Rouge, then there is nobody else to blame but Cambodians themselves. They can continue blaming Khmer Rouge for additional 30 years and then additional 30 years and so on and on and on and they will still be poor. Because complaining about the past long gone will not fix the problem.
The fix to the problem is in the willingness to roll up the sleeves and get to work. As is seen from Japan's example (as well as an example of many European countries), hard work can turn a country from being completely depleted into being economically strong. On the other hand, there is yet to be one example of a country becoming economically strong after decades of waiting around and complaining about being poor. It only proves that you cannot help someone who cannot help themselves. No matter how much international aid is sent to Cambodia, it'll end up being nothing but wasted resources. Supporting this culture of handouts is anti humanitarian and should be avoided. If you do want to donate, then support Japan where your graceful donation will not go to waste or to support the laziness.
Yes, it may sound bigoted, but we can either beat around the bush and look for excuses to justify their laziness, or we can say it like it is, and address the real issue. The Japanese people are not freeloaders. They are hard workers and through this approach they were able to resurrect their country from the ashes after WWII devastation. People with this type of respect for themselves and their homeland will not stoop to the level of a looter. If people of Cambodia, Indonesia, Haiti or other similar freeloading countries turned their whining into hard work, they would have as strong economies as Japan has. And this is the fact, as it is the way to explain why there has been no looting in the wake of the earthquake in Japan.


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Argentinian musician Federico Durand returns with his 2nd full length album on 12k following 2016's A Través Del Espejo (12k1085). Taking his already minimalist composition style Federico challenged himself by using only one synthesizer for this beautiful album of sparse, hypnotic dustiness. His talent for creating works of so much emotion out of so little attest to his concentration when working and his passion for the craft. La Niña Junco is a handwoven gem. Music with a humble origin and a deep resonating soul. Famed Argentinian artist Lola Goldstein graciously illustrated the album cover, caputuring the idea of memory and object that is so infused with Federico's work.
"Immersed in the beauty of the very moment, the songs for La Niña Junco were recorded in one take during two days, in a rush of inspiration. I used a small sound palette: one instrument, a Crumar Performer synthesizer along with two looping pedals and Roland Space Echo RE-201. The Crumar was my first synthesizer. I bought it many years ago and then gave it to a friend, who later lent it to my brother. After a very long time, I got it back when we moved to La Cumbre, a small town in the central mountain area of Argentina. As this instrument has a very limited but beautiful oscilator, it was rewarding to make small melodies using only its almost magical sound. I was enchanted to have the chance to play with my Crumar again: in many ways this album feels like returning to an early home. The electric noises of my old, broken keyboard, were an unexpected and musical gift and a humble proof of the passing of time."
– Federico Durand, La Cumbre, 2017


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So, This is gonna bounce around a bit. Great day on the first day of rifle season. Spent the whole day out, either waiting in ambush with my high-powered, high-precision, instrument of instant death, or actively working the land as a team "flushing" the hunt.
First thing this morning, a hawk is chittering out on the riverbank, and flies not too far over head. pretty cool.
Young buck comes into my little area, small one with two spikes. I could tell he was small right
I'm very mad and very disappointed. at 9:30 yesterday morning, I was ready to go to the event. By 2:00, everyone else finally was ready. I couldn't get the wife to take me and drop me off with the kids and just come back later... I don't know why the whole day got wasted and I never got to go back yesterday, but by the time we would've got there we'd have missed the whole thing so we just came home.
A once-a-year chance for me to learn something from people who grew up on reservations preserving
Theres a short answer, and there's a long answer.
I look at things like this: Pre-settlement natives had no "modern" anything. They did for themselves and their community or they did without. They viewed their tribe as a whole entity consisting of seperate specialized parts. Some were livers, some were toenails, some were eyes. Some hunted, some tanned, some foraged, some gathered firewood, etc.
Native Americans did a lot with little. This is my goal in life. I want
I really enjoy brain tanning. To be able to take a wet, greasy, sloppy, hairy mass of flesh and turn it into this fantastic, chamois-soft, sweet-cigar-smelling piece of washable cloth amazes me every time I do it. These views are mine alone and are simply observations made during my experiences.
Comparing Tans:
buckskin is great but absorbs water like a sponge. soft, lightweight, washable. excellent cool weather wardrobe, and it's sexy as all get-out. It is a very physical
I probably should have posted this part first, but oh well. I have come across a few field dressed deer that looked to me like had a lot of extra work in them. I wanted to post up a slightly simpler way that is equally effective and will get you back out on the road so you can get your meat home quicker.
Field Dressing 101
If it is going to take a while to get your deer home, most people prefer to gut the deer in the field. I personally dont gut them where I kill them, because