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1. HIS LINEAGE: He was Aboo Muhammad, `Abdullaah ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Qudaamah ibn Miqdaam ibn Nasr ibn `Abdillaah ibn Hudhayfah ibn Muhammad ibn Ya`qoob ibn al-Qaasim ibn Ibraaheem ibn Ismaa`eel ibn Yahyaa ibn Muhammad ibn Saalim ibn `Abdillaah ibn `Umar ibn al-Khattaab-radiyallaahu `anhu.
al-Qurashee; al-Maqdisee; al-Jammaa`eelee, then ad-Dimashqee; as-Saalihee; al-Hanbalee, Muwaffaqud-Deen. al-Qurashee: in ascription to the tribe of Quraish, since he was descended from `Umar-radiyallaahu `anhu-who was `Adawee (i.e. from the sub-tribe of Banoo `Adiyy who were part of Quraish). al-Maqdisee: His familys ascription to `Baytul-Maqdis (Jerusalem) since they lived close to it. al-Jamaa`eelee: In ascription to the village of Jammaaeel where he was born; and it is a village on the hills of Nablus-a city about 40 miles north of Jerusalem in present day occupied Palestine. ad-Dimashqee: In ascription to Damascus (in Syria) which is where his family migrated to, and where he lived for most of his life, and where he died. as-Saalihee: In ascription to the mosque of Saalihiyyah. His brother Shaikh Aboo `Umar said: They ascribe us to as-Saalihiyyah because we settled at the mosque of Aboo Saalih, not that we were righteous people (saalihoon). [And this is from piety since they were indeed a family of righteousness and rectification.] al-Hanbalee: in ascription to the Hanbalee madhhab, i.e. that he learned and was an expert in the madhhab, i.e. that he learned and was an expert in the principles and details of Fiqh followed by the students of Imaam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. [and he was not a blind follower.] Muwaffaqud-Deen :an honorific title meaning one guided to and granted attainment of correctness in the Religion.
2. HIS BIRTH: He was born in the month of Sha`baan in the year 541H in the town of Jammaa`eel.
3. HIS FAMILY: He was from a family who were noble in their lineage, their knowledge, and their piety.
His father: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Qudaamah was born in 491H and died in 558H. He was one of the righteous scholars; famous for knowledge, zuhd and worship. He was the Khateeb of the mosque of Jammaa`eel. He educated his children and taught them the Qur.aan, and the hadeeth, and correct manners.
He died when Muwaffaqud-deen was about 17 years old, so his elder son Muhammad ibn Ahmad-who was known as Aboo `Umar-continued his upbringing and education.
For the first ten years of his life he remained with his family in Palestine, and he began memorization of the Qur.aan. Then in 551H his father performed Hijrah with the family, fleeing from the invading Christians, and migrated to Damascus. In Damascus he completed memorization of the Qur.aan, and he memorized a large number of ahaadeeth. Then he memorized Mukhtasar al-Khiraqee-on the Fiqh of Imaam Ahmad. (Then later in life he wrote an explanation of it in 9 volumes, called al-Mughnee). He remained in Damascus for 10 years, and at the age of twenty he began his journeys in search of knowledge.
-In 561H: he travelled to the main city of knowledge and of the scholars at that time-Baghdaad. He was accompanied by his maternal cousin al-Haafiz `Abdul-Ghanee al-Maqdisee; He inclined towards the study of Fiqh and his cousin towards hadeeth, however they accompanied each other to the lectures and acquired both; There he studied with many of the scholars, amongst them: Shaikh `Abdul-Qaadir al-Jeelaanee (D. 561H), Ibnul-Battee, and Ibnul-Manniyy. He remained in Baghdaad for four years. He studied Mukhtasar al-Khiraqee under `Abdul-Qaadir al-Jeelaanee, and then the Shaikh died 50 nights after his arrival; then they studied under Ibnul-Jawzee; then he remained with Ibnul-Manniyy, and learned the Fiqh of the Hanbalee madhhab with him, and its principles, and the different sayings of the scholars- and he excelled in that. He then returned to Damascus.
- In 567H he again travelled to Baghdaad where he remained for a year.
- In 573H he travelled to Makkah to perform Hajj, and he met the people of knowledge there; amongst them al-Mubaarak ibn at-Tabbaakh. Then after performing Hajj in 574:-
-Then from Makkah he travelled to Baghdaad-where he again remained for a year.
-Then from Baghdaad he returned to Damascus where he started to write works on many branches of knowledge, the most famous of his works being al-Mughnee.
-His Shaikhs included:
1. His father Ahmad ibn Qudaamah al-Maqdisee (491-558H),
2. His elder brother Aboo Umar Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Qudaamah al-Maqdisee (528-607H),
3. Shaikh Abdul-Qaadir al-Jeelaanee (471-561H),
4. Abul-Fath Nasr ibn Fityaan ibn Matr Ibnul-Mannee (501-583),
5. Abul-Fath Ibnul-Battee (477-564H),
6. Fakhrun-Nisaa. Shuhdah-the daughter of the Muhaddith Aboo Nasr Ahmad ibn al-Faraj Ad-Deenawaree -(>480-574H), Shaikh Badr ibn `Abdillaah al-Badr- hafizahullaah- in his introduction to his checking of Ibn Qudaamahs book Ithbaat Sifatil-`Uluww gathers a list of his Shaikhs numbering 67, and then said: and many others besides them.
6. HIS STUDENTS: Amongst them:
1. al-Bahaa.ul- Maqdisee (d. 624H) who wrote al-`Uddah Sharh al-`Umdah.
2. Diyaa.ud-Deen al-Maqdisee (d. 643H)
3. the son of his brother: Shamsuddeen ibn Qudaamah (d. 682H)
4. al-Haafiz al-Mundhiree (d. 656H)-who wrote many works, including; Mukhtasar Saheeh Muslim, Mukhtasar Sunan Abee Daawood, at-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb Shaikh Badrul-Badr gathers the names of 44 of his students and then says: And many others.
His student ad-Diyaa. al-Maqdisee said; He was of full height, white, with a bright face, large distinct eyes; he was so handsome that it was as if his face gave off-light; he had a broad forehead and a long beard; a straight nose and his eyebrows joined. He had a small head, slender arms and legs; and a thin body; and full senses and faculties. He was extremely intelligent; and behaved in a fine manner
Ibnul-Najjaar said: al-Muwaffaq was the imaam of the Hanbalees in the main congregational mosque of Damascus. He was fully reliable, an evidence (in narrating), noble. He had plentiful virtues; and he kept away from anything not befitting; he was pious, a worshipper. He was upon the way of the Salaf. Light and dignity could be seen upon him. A man would take benefit from seeing him even before hearing his speech.
Ibn Katheer said: He used to engage in optional Prayers between the two night Prayers close to his place of Prayer. Then when he had prayed the `Ishaa. Prayer he would return to his house of the street of ad-Duwalla`ee by the bank of the river .He would take back with him those he could from the poor and needy, and they would eat with him, and his primary house was upon Qaasiyoon .
ad-Diyaa. said: he was fine in his manners: he would hardly ever be seen except that he was smiling: He would relate incidents and joke. I heard al-Bahaa. say; When the people read with him he would joke with us, and be cheerful and at ease. Once they complained to him about some children who studied with him, so he said; They are children. They have to have some play, and you used to be just like them. And al-Bahaa. described him as being courageous, and said: He used to go forward to the enemy, and he was wounded upon his hand; and he used to take part when the army and the enemy were firing at each other.
ad-Diyaa. said: He used to pray with Khushoo` (humility and attentiveness). He would hardly ever pray the Sunnah prayer before Fajr and after `Ishaa. Except in his house; and between the two night Prayers he used to pray four rak`ahs, reciting: as-Sajdah, Yaaseen, ad-Dukhaan, and Tabaarak. He would hardly miss out on them. He used to stand in Prayer in the last hours of the night reciting 1/7th of the Qur.aan. He would sometimes raise his voice and he had a beautiful voice.
8. SCHOLARS PRAISE OF HIM: Aboo `Amr ibn as-Salaah said: I have not seen the like of al-Muwaffaq.
Aboo Bakr ibn Ghaneemah-the muftee of Baghdaad-said: I do not know anyone in our time who has reached the level of ijtihaad except for al-Muwaffaq.
Sibt ibn al-Jawzee said: He was an imaam in many fields. After his brother Aboo `Umar and al-`Imaad, there was no one in his time who had greater zuhd or piety than him. He had a great deal of hayaa. (sense of shame), and he remained aloof from this world and its people. He was easy and mild-mannered, humble, and he had love for the poor. He was fine in manners, generous and giving, whoever saw him then it was as if he had seen one of the Companions; and it was as if light came from his face. He was plentiful in worship.
Shaikhul-Islaam Ibn Taimiyyah said: After al-Awzaa`ee no one entered Shaam having more Fiqh knowledge and understanding of the Religion than al-Muwaffaq.
ad-Diyaa. al-Maqdisee said: He was an imaam with regard to the Qur.aan and its explanation; an imaam in the knowledge of hadeeth and its problematic matters; an imaam in Fiqh-indeed the outstanding scholar of his time in that; an imaam in knowledge of the disagreements of scholars; the outstanding scholar of his time in Laws of Inheritance; an imaam in Usoolul-Fiqh; an imaam in Arabic Grammar; an imaam in mathematics; an imaam in the movements and positions of stars and planets.
Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalee said: The Faqeeh, the Zaahid, the Imaam. Shaikhul-Islaam. The singular exception scholar.
al-Haafiz Ibn Katheer said: Shaikhul-Islaam. An Imaam. An outstanding scholar. There was not in his time, indeed even for a long time before him, anyone having greater knowledge of Fiqh than him.
Ibn Rajab said: He used to closely follow the texts in the matter of al-Usool (Fundamentals and belief) and in other than it. He did not hold applying any acts of worship for which there was no narration. He used to order affirmation of the texts, and leaving them as they are-with regard to what occurs in the Book and the Sunnah from as-Sifaat (Allaahs attributes): not altering them, not declaring how they are, not distorting the meaning; not interpreting them away with ta.weel, and not negating them.
He died-rahimahullaah-on Saturday, the day of `Eidul-Fitr, in 620H, at the age of 79 in his home in Damascus. His funeral which had a huge attendance was held the next day and he was buried on the hill of Qaasiyoon.
He married his paternal cousin Maryam bint Abee Bakr ibn `Abdillaah ibn Sa`d al-Maqdisee. They had a number of children: (al-Majd) `Eesaa, Muhammad, Yahyaa, Safiyyah, and Faatimah.
Then he took a slave girl, and then another. Then he married `Izziyyah- who died before him. All his sons died in his lifetime, and none of them had offspring except for `Eesaa- who had two righteous sons, however both of them died without any offspring. So the Shaikh had no remaining progeny.
Dr. `Alee ibn Sa`eed al-Ghaamidee lists his works and they come to 38 in number. Amongst his printed works are: al-Mughnee in Fiqh, (9 volumes); Rawdatun-Naazir in Usoolul-Fiqh (2 volumes); Kitaabut-Tawwaabeen (1 volume); Dhammut-Ta.weel (Booklet); Ithbaat Sifatil-`Uluww (1 volume with checking of Shaikh Badrul-Badr-hafizahullaah). Lum`atul-I`tiqaad (Printed along with the explanation of Shaikh Ibn `Uthaymeen-rahimahullaah- and translated and printed with the title: Sufficiency in Creed.) And (printed with the explanation of Shaikh al-Fawzaan-hafizahullaah)
Sources: (1) Ikhtiyaaraat Ibn Qudaamah al-Fiqhiyyah of Dr. `Alee ibn Sa`eed al-Ghaamidee; (2) The biography of the author included in Shaikh al-Fawzaans explanation of Lum`atul-I`tiqaad; (3) The biography complied by Shaikh Badrul-Badr in his checking of Ithbaat Sifatil-`Uluww. References: (1) Siyar A`laamin-Nubalaa. (22/165-173) of Dhahabee; (2) al-Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah (13/99-101) of Ibn Katheer; (3) Shadharaatudh-Dhahab (5/88-92) of Ibnul-`Imaad; (4) Dhayl Tabaqaatil-Hanaabilah (2/133-149) of Ibn Rajab; (5) al-Mughnee verifiers introduction (1/6-37).
Translated by Aboo Talhah Dawood Burbank


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In our (badly designed) flat the upstairs waste pipes run straight through our bedrooms.
It's a shame as the outer corridor is right next to our bedroom, so it would have been sensible to put it in there.
Any recomendations on sound proofing a waste pipe?
Thanks for BMitch's answer, I forgot to add the information that the waste pipe is already enclosed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Roberta Cruger
454 W. California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91105
Website: http://robertacruger.com
Professional Experience
From green drinks to the green card lottery, my stories cover a range of topics including arts and design, entertainment and the environment, food, health, and travel. As a lifestyle journalist, I've written about feather bowling for Smithsonian magazine, the funniest places on the planet for Continental Airlines inflight publication, and a vintage trailer park hotel for The Believer. For Treehugger I've profiled sustainability projects by Prince Charles, Jane Goodall and Leonardo DiCaprio.
I've also written trend reports for branding companies, "second screening" tweets for television, blogs for businesses, and news for an international wire service. My books include guides to travel, restaurants and films. Whether a feature on a home's "smart" design, a round-up of curious festivals, columns, web content, or slide shows, I seek to convey the unique and worthwhile to readers with style and substance.
Book Author
10 Years
13 Years
16 Years
Environment & Nature
10 Years
16 Years
12 Years
Book Publishing Consumer
10 Years
Magazine - Large Consumer/National magazines
16 Years
Online/new media
12 Years


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It's been nearly a year since I acquired both the RTL-SDR (above) and Rasperry Pi 3 (below)r.
Remember when I made a plea for Pi 3 projects just last year––?
Although many of you suggested some great projects, I never actually got around to doing any of them. Now, don't get me wrong––I wanted to, of course, but simply got involved with reviews, NPOTA, two months of travel…and, well, life.
Then, last week at the Winter SWL Fest, a common theme emerged in both presentations and discussions: the numerous applications of the super-cheap, and thus super-ubiquitous, RTL-SDR dongle. In their engaging presentations, both Dan Srebnick and Mark Fahey––SWLing Post contributors and good friends––focused on the power of the RTL-SDR, expounding upon some simple, inexpensive applications in their forums. It was inspiring. Also, buddy Eddie Muro showed me just how easily an ADS-B receiver could be set up using an Android phone.
Back to the Pi. Though I was already aware the Pi 3 and RTL-SDR could be united to make an ADS-B receiver, watching Mark Fahey talk about how simply one could feed the FlightAware network with ADS-B data finally hooked me. Why not, indeed? Here was fun to be had!
I couldn't get the idea out of my head, so Tuesday, the day following my return, I set the afternoon aside. I rolled up my sleeves, and with my long-neglected Pi 3 and RTL-SDR, got ready to cook up a flight sensor.
I figured I was probably missing a component or two, and fully expected the process to be complicated, but decided I wouldn't let this deter me. And guess what? I was wrong on both counts!
FlightAware ADS-B feeder recipe
- A computer to install the PiAware image on a MicroSD card
- A Raspberry Pi (I use the Pi 3 which is available bare-bones and in starter packages like this one)
- An RTL-SDR receiver, of which there are a couple of popular options:
- The RTL-SDR V3 (I like this package, which ships with antennas)
- The FlightAware SDR dongle with filter (no included antenna)
- A MicroSD card (mine was 8GB, more than enough for this application), and
- An antenna. This one is often used for ADS-B, though I found the smaller telescopic whip that shipped with my RTL-SDR dongle works well.
If you only plan to use this SDR and antenna as an ADS-B feeder, you might go for the FlightAware Dongle and 1090 MHz antenna combo.
Note: I used this excellent PiAware ADS-B feeder tutorial to build my system–it's detailed and doesn't make the lofty assumption that you actually understand formatting cards, building disk images, and/or editing config text files.
Directions below are a highly distilled version of that tutorial. If you're new to all of this, as I was, follow these directions instead of the above tutorial. Be aware that the directions assume you're using the Pi 3 and a Windows PC to burn the image file.
- Download PiAware image, 7-zip, SD card formatter, and the Win32 Disk Imager. Decompress all compressed files, install and note the folder locations.
- Register your username at FlightAware–presuming you don't already have an account, of course.
- Use SD Card Formatter to format your MicroSD card. Just make sure you're formatting the correct drive, else you could easily wipe the wrong disk/card!
- Use Win32 Disk imager to write the PiAware image to your MicroSD card.
- If using WiFi, open Windows Explorer. Locate text document called piaware-config on the MicroSD card, open it with a text editor, and locate the WiFi ssid and password locations. Per the config comments, edit them to match your WiFi system. Note that any special characters in both the name and password will require the use of quotation marks (again, noted in the config file comments). Save the file in the same location on the disc image.
- Remove the microSD card containing the PiAware image; insert it into the Pi 3.
- Connect the RTL-SDR or FlightAware dongle to the Raspberry Pi. Attach an appropriate antenna to the RTL-SDR. Note: You'll get the best results if you place the antenna outdoors with line of sight to the skies.
- Plug the Raspberry Pi 3 into a power source…and cross your fingers!
- Grab a cup of coffee, walk the dog, or listen to this 12 minute version of the BBC countdown; it could take at least this long for FlightAware to start receiving data from your ADS-B feeder.
- When you see this My ADS-B button in the header of FlightAware (see below), you'll know you're in business. Congratulations! You can now watch the skies.
Feeding FlightAware
After my ADS-B receiver had been in operation for a while, I was very impressed with the data FlightAware was able to pull from my ADS-B feed. I was equally impressed with the number of distant aircraft I could receive with such a modest antenna––a number of them up to 135 miles from my location. Once I find a suitable outdoor location for the mag mount antenna, currently indoors, I expect the reception distance will increase significantly.
You can also connect to the live feed from your ADS-B receiver through your local network. Here's a screenshot of my live data:
Future plans
At the moment, my ADS-B receiver is located indoors, in a south-facing window.
It works, but clearly isn't ideal. Since the Pi 3 connects to my network via WiFi, I intend to install the full ADS-B receiver system into a small weatherproof case and mount it outside. My Pi 3 has no case, so I purchased an inexpensive one yesterday. I should be able to feed it power with an outdoor outlet…but I'm very tempted to experiment with making it solar powered. To find out if this is a logical move, I need to observe and measure the power requirements first, and will be doing that in the next few weeks.
Meantime, I'm thoroughly enjoying watching the (amazingly busy) traffic in the skies…and the kid in me relishes it!
Thanks, Mark, for the great idea!
Have any SWLing Post readers attempted to build a solar-powered or outdoor ADS-B receiver? Please comment!


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"Never ask what sort of computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him? – Tom Clancy" : Guy Kawasaki
– "What the Plus"–
This article fits in with Tom Clancy's quote.
My history with Apple Computers
I jumped ship a couple of years ago from Windows to Apple Computers. Most people who know my work in IT in our city of Canberra were surprised.
In late 80's and 90's I had a small amount of experience with Apple Computers at a couple of government agencies.
Prior to full time employment in Enterprise IT, I worked in the Facilities Maintenance Management environment. At the time I didn't recall any Apple based software programs for managing Asset Maintenance Management, Condition Monitoring and Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning control systems. Windows PCs and Unix platforms were it.
When I moved into Enterprise IT in 1999, the desktops were Microsoft Windows based. The backend systems were mainframes IBM zOS and mid-range Unix systems.
So anything with a Apple was not a good fit. Apple seemed to work well in the Communications and Marketing departments, anywhere else, no one wanted to go there.
On a personal level outside of work, several years later, I found myself making short movies which required lots of video editing. At the time we used Sony Vegas for video editing, we attended Douglas Spotted Eagle's training @eyewingsuit, and cut our teeth on Sony Vegas as our video editing platform.
Sony Vegas is still is an excellent tool. The challenge wasn't Sony Vegas, it seemed like we were upgrading our PC's to get the best results for Vegas to work; more memory and more CPU and more dollars. It never ended. It was time to re-evaluate my approach.
Am I a geek or a user?
When you're in the thick of it, you have to sometimes step out and take the "General's view"of the battle and re-assess your options.
The first question I asked was what kind of a user am I? Am I a geek or am I super user? At the time I saw myself as a super user not a geek.
The next question was what kind of user did I want to be? Did I want to spend my time tweaking hardware or did I want to be more of consumer creator of content?
My goal was that I wanted to become a creator of content.
So, why did I jump ship and buy a Mac?
Back around 2006, Microsoft started moving to Vista. At the same time I started using the Web heavily for research and personal development. The network at home required upgrades, Microsoft updates were coming down the wire at a regular pace and I couldn't keep up. Microsoft was getting a bad wrap for Vista and more security vulnerabilities were being exposed. XP's life as an operating system was being extended.
I had six Personal Computers at home I had to maintain, I decided not to get a Windows server as that would require further learning and administration just to administer the six PCs, so something had to be done as my productivity was going out the window. The concept of being a creator of content was becoming a distant thought, rather than reality.
Enter the thought of buying an Apple. The more I read about iMacs, the more I was warming to the idea that this platform could improve my productivity.
So the idea was floated and soon I took delivery of a 24′ iMac, specced with large CPU; that was in 2008.
Putting my foot in the water with my iMac
When I purchased the iMac and powered it up, the first thing I noticed was that it easily found my network and immediately gave me access to the Internet, that was impressive.
Being a partial believer, (having a camp in Windows and one in Apple) I also purchased VMWare Fusion to run Windows on the Mac to manage my Outlook mail accounts.
After a while I found that the majority of work I was doing was on the iMac, except for email where I would flip across to Microsoft Windows.
When it came to the virtual machine running Windows, I struggled with managing the memory effectively with VMFusion and realised the best way to deal with this was to eliminate the virtual machine altogether. That meant losing Outlook as my mail client and moving to Mac mail.
My Mac D Day
My Mac D Day was the Saturday I shutdown my Microsoft Outlook email client and started using Mac mail. As soon I transferred my email it was a sense of liberation. There was no more dependence on the Windows PC.
From that day I have removed all the Window's PCs. My family quickly converted to MacBooks and Macbook Pros. It has been IT bliss in terms of usage and management.
Here's what I've personally discovered since I purchased an iMac nearly five years ago
The purchase price of a Windows PC, plus the software, plus the service costs, plus my time fixing and configuring all the systems raised this question, "was a low price computer really a low price computer"?
No, there was always some more memory then there was adding another driver, then there was always another update.
What people won't tell you is that it's your time you're cutting into when you go to fix your PC , so ask yourself the question, how much is your time worth?
If I calculate the value of my time as an IT Professional and the time I spent on fixing the issues, it didn't take long to realise it was a false economy. As an example, a $250 video card upgrade now became around a $600 card by the time I had installed it, configured it and tested it.
Now the above example wouldn't directly apply to the everyday consumer, unless of course they are a "tinkerer" but if they wanted to upgrade their PC they would have to pay someone to do that.
With the iMac everything was out of the box and didn't require any additional hardware, it just worked.
The User Interface was consistent, this made it easier to use when flipping in and out of different applications.
Another wonderful feature was that it soon integrated with all my devices.
Within the 12 months I purchased an iPhone and a MobileMe account and all "my stuff" was synced. The same telephone book, notes, bookmarks and documents were in the same across all devices.
Within another 12 months I purchased a Macbook Pro and everything syncing across all three devices.
Now that iCloud has overtaken MobileMe, I am now leveraging the iCloud to improve my interoperability between devices, that means the same applications, the same contacts, calendars, bookmarks, the same documents. It helps when going from one device to another.
The gated community vs the open community
The gated community is probably more recognisable in the form of residential community where you have a perimeter wall and a one-way in and one way out, usually past a security guard.
A number of Tech Journalists have labeled Apple's approach of joining everything together as a "gated community". Others have also called it the "Apple Eco-System" eg. purchase an Apple device > connect to iCloud and use its service> purchase apps through the App Store and iTunes Store.
Undoubtably this model helped bring the iTunes store into being and the pitch the record companies bought into when music was made available on the iTunes Store.
If you just want to be a consumer and stick to the "Apple Eco-System" then you will find the concept of gated community straightforward.
The same experience, the same apps and music across all devices.
The other great thing the gated community model brings is that applications have to meet their strict requirements before being released into the community. On the Apple desktop computers, the OSX 10.8. Mountain Lion operating system has provided a greater level of security improvements on applications with the introduction of sandboxing.
People say why not try an Android Phone and a have a Mac?
Well, for me, I like the gated community approach where the gatekeeper (Mac) is going the extra mile to secure my working environment.
Unfortunately the Android community is open to abuse and security concerns with Applications in its market place. As this article dates there should be improvements, you would hope.
There are other instances of gated communities in the tech world, Google are certainly working towards that.
So summing up, the reasons I like the Apple experience are:
- The integrated experience of the same applications and services across all my devices
- The consistency of the User experience for all applications
- The consistent workflow in doing things
- Less configuration
- The approach to security
- My overall improvement in Productivity
I found that the Apple experience simplifies my life and my business allowing me to focus on getting work done rather than configuring computers and being a Systems Administrator. That's my biggest win.
These days I prefer the consumer appliance approach to IT as opposed to the configuration approach.
As we move into the post PC era where PC become a thing of the past and most consumption is done on a mobile device such as Tablets, I prefer devices that need little or any configuration but rather customisation to my preferences.
The more I speak to friends, and colleagues, it seems that's what they want as well.
Lastly, to bring the equilibrium to my story and a question you may ask me, is the Apple ecosystem perfect? No,of course not, however it's pretty darn good and does make life easy. I'm happy to live with those minors for the majors.
Article – Why I jumped ship and changed to an Apple Mac – By Chris Mundy
Other Useful Articles – Six reasons to buy an iPad by Christopher Breen


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Moccasins, Loafers & Boat Shoes, Special Offers
Barker Northwich 4868/4869
Original price was: 189,00 €.119,00 €Current price is: 119,00 €. €
English slip-on moccasins handcrafted from goat skin with leather sole that features a traction rubber patch and a decorative loafer strap.
Leather shoes can serve their purpose for an extended period of time if maintained properly. We will gladly share some useful tips to help you keep your favourite shoes as good as new even after many years of use.
- Leather footwear should be thoroughly cleaned after a couple uses with a rug or a soft brush in order to avoid scratches. The use of a brush is preferable for brogues or shoes with many stichings in order to clean them in depth.
- Shoes made of patent leather should be cleaned only with a soft rug.
- Footwear made of nubuck or oil tanned leather are brushed up the nap with a soft brush. Any black spots should be cleaned with the use of a common white pencil rubber. If the spots insist, you can use a brush made of crepe rubber, usually sold in shoe repair shops.
- Polishing shoes made of smooth leather – not nubuck, suede or patent leather – should be done with high quality shoe polish and not self finish products that can ruinthe surface of the skin. Always use the same colour tone as the shoes – in case you cannot find a shoe polish matching the colour tone it is best to use neutral colour. Same thing applies for brushed or burnished leather shoes so that they keep their patina. Shoe polishing and waxing should be done regularly and definately before storage at season's end.
- Whenever your shoes are wet, let them dry naturally away from any sources of heat for as long as it may take. Usually a dump wettex cloth can help to remove mud and then clean them accordingly to their leather type.
- Leather footwear require to respirate in order to dry out from human sweat, and so it is not advisable to wear the same pair daily.
- The protective rubber of the heels needs to be replaced on time to avoid damaging the shape of the soles.
- Shoes made of oily leather can be treated with vaseline after they are thoroughly cleaned.
We are at your disposal for any further information concerning shoe care and maintenance.


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Because of its unique poppet action the Kamvalok® Dry Disconnect virtually eliminates spillage of any residual liquid contained within the line after disconnection.
Kamvaloks® are used at transfer points where product loss is unacceptable.
Common applications include: paint, lacquers, inks, adhesives, fatty acids, pharmaceuticals, liquid soaps, petroleum products, solvents, ag-chemicals, vegetable oils, detergents, diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) and many acids and caustics.


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By Alan Caruba
I do not know what it is about Islam and liberalism that causes both to turn logic and truth on its head, but we have been witnessing it in different ways in recent days.
First there was the "humanitarian" flotilla running the Israeli blockade of Gaza and then there was the appalling anti-Semitism of Helen Thomas, formerly of the front row in the White House press room.
Suffice it to say that the so-called Palestinians are not living in a state of "occupation." They have repeatedly been offered a state of their own, but have refused it for some six decades. They exist as wards of the United Nations.
Israel is a sovereign nation and has been since May 16, 1948. Its ancient sovereignty dates back to the days of David and Solomon. I say "so-called" because Palestine was the name applied to Israel by a Roman emperor in an effort to make the world forget that Jews had been living in their own land for over a thousand years before being driven into exile.
Arabs who live in Israel are called Israelis because they are citizens there. They number more than a million and, while most are Muslim, about nine percent are Christian. So, while the enemies of Israel talk exclusively in terms of its Jewish population, they are ignoring a sizeable number who are Muslims. It need also be said they enjoy freedoms that their counterparts in other Middle Eastern nations do not.
What I have always found astonishing is the way the Arab nations surrounding Israel and who have attacked it repeatedly nonetheless regard Israel as the aggressor.
This is the same strange logic that says al Qaeda destroyed the Twin Towers and attacked the Pentagon, but is blameless because they did so in response to U.S. policies in the Middle East. It is the same sick logic and contempt for everything that is not Islamic that pursues the creation of a mosque within walking distance of ground zero.
Not surprisingly, after 9/11 the U.S. responded with military action against the Afghanistan base of Al Qaeda operations, followed thereafter with an invasion of Iraq, the second such military action after having initially driven the Iraqis out of Kuwait. The result was the end of the three-decade regime of Saddam Hussein. The Saudis and oil-rich Gulf states were the major beneficiaries.
There is not a single justification for the "humanitarian" flotilla, one ship of which was filled with men who violently resisted the boarding by Israelis under long established international law regarding blockades.
Tons of humanitarian aid is routinely delivered daily to Gaza after inspection. The inspection is necessary because, since having withdrawn from Gaza as a gesture of peace in 2005, the area has been used to launch thousands of rockets. Even the Egyptians who share a border with Gaza maintain a comparable blockade to ensure weapons are not smuggled into the Hamas hotbed of hatred for Israel.
So far in its short history, Israel has fought a 1948 War of Independence against several Arab armies. The famed Six-Day War followed in 1967. In 1973, the Israelis were attacked on one of the holiest days of their calendar, Yom Kippur, by a coalition of Arab nations. They also endured Yassir Arafat's PLO Intifada of terror bombings
In 1982 the first Lebanon War was a response to constant terror attacks on northern Israel. It was followed in 2006 by a second Lebanon War in response to the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, a proxy Islamic organization funded and armed by Iran. The most recent Israeli 2009 military engagement against Gaza was a response to constant rocketing and attacks. The blockade is part of the way Israel must cope with a self-defined enemy.
In every case, the Israelis were accused of being the aggressors. Arab nations insisted they were "occupiers" in a land in which Jews had lived for 3,500 years and called their home despite an exile that had existed for 2,000 years prior to the reestablishment of Israel. It followed the Nazi Holocaust that killed six million European Jews during World War Two.
Throughout the Middle East and most particularly in the United Nations, Israel has always been called the aggressor. The same irrational hatred for Jews that has existed everywhere for centuries explains why Israelis are armed to the teeth and why Jews worldwide are experiencing a rise in anti-Semitic attacks.
What worries Israelis these days and should worry Americans as well is the policy of the Obama administration that has clearly turned against Israel, emboldening its enemies. It shames the history of friendship that has existed since Israel was reestablished over sixty years ago.
It is an invitation for war in the Middle East, one that has been joined by Turkey, a nation that has abandoned its history of secular governance in favor of the Islamism that threatens Western nations in particular and the world in general.
Allowing Iran to acquire nuclear arms will tip the world into a global conflict whose casualties are incalculable.
America needs to assert its support for Israel, if only in its own interest. America is being infiltrated by Islamic terrorists and it has a growing number of home-grown ones. Having elected a president whose stated preference is for Islam, the prospects are not good. In the words of Islamists, Israel is the "Little Satan" and America is the "Big Satan."
Commentator, J.D. Longstreet summed up the threat. "I am not optimistic that hatred of the Jews will end, or even lessen any time soon. In fact, I expect it to get much, much, worse and eventually lead the nations of the world to a place known as the Megiddo Valley and the final battle known as the Battle of Armageddon."
Will the armed might of the U.S., already present in the Middle East in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in the Persian Gulf, be used to thwart this? That question waits upon the decision of Barack Hussein Obama.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
Reprinted by permission from Alan Caruba's worthy blog WARNING SIGNS.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
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text: Babies are hardly monster-like, unless you're a toy. After escaping a drooling baby, Tinny realizes that he wants to be played with after all. But in the amount of time it takes him to discover this, the baby's attention moves on to other things only an infant could find interesting.


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In an email to E.W. Scripps, Google confirmed that it had suspended Parler from the Play Store.
"In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence," a Google spokesperson said. "All developers agree to these terms and we have reminded Parler of this clear policy in recent months. We're aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US. We recognize that there can be a reasonable debate about content policies and that it can be difficult for apps to immediately remove all violative content, but for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content. In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app's listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues."
Apple has reportedly threatened to remove Parler from its App Store unless the social networking company changes its content moderation policies.
In an email sent Friday from Apple to Parler executives, which Buzzfeed News obtained, the tech giant cited instances where users of the right-wing social media platform used to make plans to storm the U.S. Capitol Building, which led to the deaths of five people.
According to Buzzfeed, Apple added that Parler "appears to continue to be used to plan and facilitate yet further illegal and dangerous activities."
The Wall Street Journal reported that Parler has 24 hours to submit a content moderation plan, or Apple would remove it from the App Store.
The Verge reported that Discord had banned a server called "The Donald," which was a pro-Trump community.
The fallout from the violent riot continued Friday when Twitter permanently banned Trump "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."
On Friday, Twitter also suspended accounts they say are "solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content" that included General Michael Flynn, Trump attorney Sidney Powell, and 8kun co-owner Ron Watkins.
According to The Verge and Axios, Reddit banned the Donald Trump subreddit on Friday "for encouraging and glorifying violence" after a violent riot erupted at the US Capitol on Wednesday.


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The One Thing Holding Back Congress From Fixing the VA
Everyone wants to fix the Veterans Affairs Department - but how to pay for it? By Stacy Kaper
The House and Senate have agreed it's time for reform of the Veterans Affairs Department. Now they have to agree how to pay for it—and they have to do it quickly.
More than two dozen House and Senate lawmakers meet Tuesday to formally begin negotiations aimed at merging the two chambe''s VA reform bills into one. The measures have some minor discrepancies, but the big challenge is how much the reforms will cost and where the federal government will find the funding.
It was a question the chambers largely sidestepped as they rushed to pass reforms in the wake of the VA scandal, which revealed that veterans were being placed on "secret" waiting lists for treatment, and that some had died during the wait.
The Senate deemed the reforms imperative and authorized emergency funding to provide whatever resources necessary to carry them out. Cementing that sentiment, 75 senators voted to waive budget offsetting pay-as-you-go rules to protect that provision. The House bill would instead require that the reforms be funded by Congress's appropriations process.
The tension over payment has been heightened as the Congressional Budget Office has projected the measures to cost more than expected.
CBO has said the Senate bill could add as much as $35 billion in direct spending over 10 years, and ultimately cost the federal government an additional $50 billion a year as vets pursue additional health care options. The House bill—which seeks to slash health care wait times more expeditiously—is expected to entice more veterans into VA and private health care than the Senate bill would, costing the federal government a projected $54 billion per year.
"Their initial urge was to forget about funding altogether and get it past them, and now, of course, the whole process has slowed down, so now they are stuck with having to deal with budget reality. It's going to be difficult," said Joseph Antos, the Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in health care and retirement policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "This is a problem for Republicans and Democrats alike."
But as Congress explores funding solutions, veterans groups will be watching carefully, pushing the lawmakers to provide specific, long-term funding for the reforms. Temporary funding or budget tricks, the groups say, could lead to a return to the status quo, where veterans continue to suffer from inadequate care.
"Congress and VA must not rely on budgetary gimmicks, such as unrealistic estimates of operational improvements, efficiencies, collections, carryovers, and contingencies. These undocumented 'savings' have rarely materialized and have contributed significantly to funding shortfalls that have plagued VA for more than a decade," the heads of more than a dozen veterans organization wrote to congressional leaders last week.
The groups fear that, given the political sensitivity of the issue and the coming Fourth of July recess, the groups will rush the bill through with an incomplete funding arrangement.
"They are not going back home for the July Fourth recess without having a bill on the president's desk. They all want something to go home and champion," said Louis Celli, the legislative director for the American Legion. "I think they have to with all the exposure on this.… The veterans need help, they need to be seen."
Analysts and congressional aides following the process expect lawmakers to pull out their fiscal tricks, including the use of arguably bogus funding sources or adoption of rose-colored assumptions about cost savings from certain programs. Alternatively, lawmakers could attempt cost-cutting by tightening restrictions on who would be eligible for care or limiting access by other means.
Most of the real wheeling and dealing is expected to take place behind closed doors, and negotiations among staffers have already begun.
Beyond funding woes, the lawmakers have a host of in-the-weeds details to hammer out before sending the bill to President Obama.
Both bills make it easier to fire incompetent senior VA leaders and aim to improve veterans' access to health care within and outside the VA.
But while the Senate bill would create an appeals process for fired VA leaders to contest their dismissal, the House bill lacks that provision. The Senate bill would also expand the GI bill's in-state tuition benefits further than separate House legislation would, including funding to the spouses of deceased veterans who would have qualified for the tuition break.


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Sources: Winston items not validated
written by ESPN Darren Rovell
Five sources who spoke to "Outside the Lines" on the condition of anonymity said that James Spence Authentication got the items only after competitor PSA/DNA backed out of the February signing with Winston. PSA/DNA did so after being told that it couldn't witness the quarterback signing the items in person, sources said.
The batch of Winston autographs were discovered in the JSA online database in October. James Spence, the company's owner, said in October that he had full confidence that those autographs were authentic, and he reiterated it again this week, through company lawyer Stacy Biancamano.
Winston has never been disciplined for anything related to autographs, and he has not personally addressed the autograph situation.
Spence has repeatedly declined to reveal the identity, or identities, of the customers who submitted the signed Winston items for authentication. But five sources told "Outside the Lines" that the submissions came from individuals who all got their items from a single signing arranged by a Florida memorabilia dealer named Donnie Burkhalter.
Those five sources said that in the first week of February, Burkhalter arrived in Tallahassee to conduct the signing. Burkhalter had taken orders from at least five autograph wholesalers, sources said, which, when counting the pieces Burkhalter was taking for himself, would have equaled more than 1,000 autographs.
Sources told "Outside the Lines" that Burkhalter told those who initially paid for the Winston autographs that the signing came about thanks to his relationship with former Florida State running back and current Atlanta Falcons player Devonta Freeman.
Freeman, through his agent Tony Fleming, acknowledged to "Outside the Lines" that the running back did a signing with Burkhalter after his eligibility expired and confirmed that Burkhalter wanted Freeman to approach Winston earlier in the year, which he did. But Fleming said that his client said Winston told him no, and that's where his involvement ended. Because Burkhalter was relatively new to the memorabilia business, autograph authentication company PSA/DNA had agreed to authenticate the items only if one of its authenticators could be present to see Winston sign them, sources said.
An official with the company flew from New Jersey to Tallahassee to witness the signing and stayed at the hotel where the signing was to take place, sources said. Burkhalter and some of the wholesalers of the signing had set up a couple of rooms full of Florida State gear for Winston to sign when he arrived.
But Winston didn't show up, sources said.
Burkhalter denies that much of this happened. He told "Outside the Lines" that he has gotten items signed by Winston but has never compensated him. He said he never told anyone that Freeman set up an autograph signing and doesn't recall setting up items in a hotel for a Winston signing. He said February was a long time ago, but he didn't get anything close to 1,000 pieces signed by Winston for anyone.
Sources said that hours into waiting for Winston to show, Burkhalter told those in attendance that Winston had decided he couldn't do a signing in the hotel room and instead preferred to do it in an apartment. The conditions? The authenticator and Burkhalter could not be there to witness the signing.
So, sources said, Burkhalter loaded the Florida State items into his truck and returned later with the items signed, telling those waiting back at the hotel that he had to give the batch of items to a person who then got the items signed inside the apartment.
Those who had invested in the signing -- paying Burkhalter between $30 and $40 per autograph -- were very suspicious, sources said.
Under the new signing conditions that occurred, PSA/DNA decided it could no longer vouch for the authenticity of any Winston autographs, a company official said.
Sources said the company had been building a database on Winston's signatures, but that there were enough variations in his signature on various items that the company didn't feel comfortable.
A few days later, Burkhalter and those who had allegedly bought the Winston signatures were in a Tampa, Florida, hotel room getting the items authenticated by JSA, which was holding an event in the area to authenticate various non-Winston items collectors had brought in.
Burkhalter and the wholesalers brought their own Winston items in, and JSA passed them all.
"JSA is confident in its authentication based on a comprehensive exemplar file and a 10-person authentication panel who independently score the autographs," Biancamano told "Outside the Lines."
Biancamano said the company had Winston exemplars on file that JSA officials had previously seen Winston sign in person, and that all 10 people on its authentication panel said the Burkhalter items were authentic.
"Outside The Lines" showed one of the few known authentic representations of Winston's autograph -- taken from a media statement Winston signed two months before the autograph signing -- to two autograph experts.
One, Rich Albersheim of Albersheim's Historical Memorabilia and Autographs in Las Vegas, said it would be tough to determine authenticity because he wasn't comfortable with the lack of verified Winston representations or exemplars in the marketplace.
The other, Ron Keurajian, a Baseball Hall of Fame autograph specialist, said that in his opinion, "These Winston autographs from the supposed signing are done by more than one hand. His authentic signature is very unstructured, which makes it harder to authenticate, but there are many here that actually are structured very well."
PSA/DNA officials said that because they did not accept the job, company policy precluded them from publicly taking a stance on the authenticity of the Winston autographs.
For his part, Burkhalter said he has never forged a Winston signature. "That's the most farfetched part of this entire story you are telling me," Burkhalter told "Outside the Lines."
On Oct. 14, Florida State officials acknowledged that they were looking into the autograph situation, but head football coach Jimbo Fisher said Winston, after his team's game against Syracuse, told the coach he had not accepted any money for autographs.
Since then, the school has not commented on the state of its inquiry. Last week, Florida State sports information director Rob Wilson said the school would not be commenting on the status of where the investigation stands.
Representatives within the NCAA did not return messages seeking comment. An ACC office spokesperson told "Outside the Lines" that "by general practice and procedure, we would not comment on discussions between our office and a member institution."
Winston's attorney, David Cornwell, has declined to comment.
full article:


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Taylor Swift Blasts Former Label Owner, Scott Borchetta, for Selling Her Catalog to Scooter Braun
Taylor Swift was as surprised as anyone on Sunday (June 30) to discover the news that her back catalog, which is owned by her former label Big Machine, was sold to music mogul Scooter Braun as part of a conglomerate deal that encompasses the label group's holdings. However, the singer—who has recently been voicing her opinions openly, in a stark comparison to her past—wasn't going to remain silent about the transaction.
Swift took to Tumblr to compose an impassioned post, revealing to fans that Braun (an industry powerhouse who represents Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, among many other holdings), has been abusive to her for years—as well as asserted that Borchetta has deliberately controlled her for the 12 years she was under his wing.
Swift, who is now signed to Universal Music Group's Republic Records, spelled it out plainly for fans. "For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and 'earn' one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in," she wrote.
"I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums."
"I learned about Scooter Braun's purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world," she explained. "All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I've received at his hands for years. Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked.
"Now Scooter has stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it."
Swift noted that she knew when she left the label, Borchetta would eventually sell her catalog. However, "Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter," she fumes.
"Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words 'Scooter Braun' escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn't want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever."
Swift closed her post by stating that Borchetta may have owned her past, but he doesn't own her future. "I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23," she wrote, signing off with "Sad and grossed out."
Neither Braun nor Borchetta have commented publicly on the matter as of press time. The entire deal, which includes Swift's first six albums, reportedly topped $300 million.
See Country Music's Most Political Singers


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Alcatel-Lucent gives DSL networks a gigabit boost
Alcatel-Lucent and Telekom Austria have completed the world's first trial of G.fast, new technology enabling gigabit broadband over existing copper networks.
To help keep DSL a relevant option for the last part of a broadband connection, the so-called "last mile," vendors are working on a number of technologies to increase the broadband speeds that can be delivered over old telephone lines.
However, calling G.fast a last-mile technology is somewhat misleading, because the technology is only intended for distances up to 100 meters or 0.06 miles. But at that distance and less it helps copper keep up with fibre. The trial achieved a maximum speed of 1.1Gbps over 70 meters and 800Mbps over 100 meters over a single, good-quality cable, according to Alcatel-Lucent. On older, unshielded cables the trial managed 500Mbps over 100 meters on a single line, it said.
With the help of vectoring, G.fast also works over multiple copper lines at the same time. Vectoring already improves the performance of VDSL2 to 100Mbps over existing copper connections at up to 400 meters by removing crosstalk interference. It works by continuously analysing the noise conditions on copper lines, and then creates a new anti-noise signal to cancel it out, much like noise-cancelling headphones.
Just like next-generation mobile networks, G.fast uses more spectrum to achieve the higher speeds.
Alcatel-Lucent is not alone in working on G.fast products and will compete with the likes of Huawei Technologies. The plan is to have a standard ready next year, followed by chipsets in 2015 and first-generation commercial products in 2016, which won't have support for vectoring, according to Stefaan Vanhastel, marketing director for the Fixed Networks business at Alcatel-Lucent.
The company and the rest of the industry are working hard to make G.fast a commercial reality at an interesting time for the broadband market. At the end of 2012, analyst company Point Topic said that subscriber numbers for copper-based broadband services had fallen for the first time. Recent data from the company showed that this decline has accelerated in 2013, with about 2.8 million subscribers lost in the first three months of the year.
Copper remains the dominant technology, but Point Topic believes that a shift in technology is occurring, particularly to fibre and hybrid fibre, as consumers require and are willing to pay for higher speeds from their broadband connections, it said.
It is in these hybrid networks, which use fibre for as long as possible and then switch to copper, where Alcatel-Lucent G.fast will find a home. The technology will, for example, be used for just the last tens of meters to avoid having to enter a subscriber's home, which is both time-consuming and expensive, Vanhastel said.
IDG News Service


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Can't wait for round two back in this hood. With beautiful weather anticipated for the Summer, some shopping around Union Street (Hello THE BOARD OF TRADE CO.!) and Phnom Penh? Sounds like a good time.
In other news, I will be going to India in August! More on that later. XO


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Who is ultimately responsible for the ongoing attacks on Christians and their churches throughout the Islamic world?
Focusing on one of the most obvious nations where Christians are regularly targeted—Egypt's Coptic Christians—one finds that the "mob" is the most visible and obvious culprit. One Copt accused of some transgression against Muslim sensibilities—from having relations with a Muslim woman, to ruining a Muslim man's shirt—is often enough to prompt Muslim mobs to destroy entire Christian villages and their churches.
Recently, for example, after her cross identified Mary Sameh George as a Christian, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood mob attacked, beat, and slaughtered her.
However, a recent Arabic op-ed titled "Find the True Killer of Mary" looks beyond the mob to identify the true persecutor of Christians in Egypt. According to it:
Those who killed the young and vulnerable Mary Sameh George, for hanging a cross in her car, are not criminals, but rather wretches who follow those who legalized for them murder, lynching, dismemberment, and the stripping bare of young Christian girls—without every saying "kill." [Islamic cleric] Yassir Burhami and his colleagues who announce their hate for Christians throughout satellite channels and in mosques—claiming that hatred of Christians is synonymous with love for God—they are the true killers who need to be tried and prosecuted… The slayers of Mary Sameh are simply a wretched mob, with the body of a bull but the brain of a worm. It's not the puppets on the string who need punishing, but rather the mastermind who moves the puppets with his bloody fingers behind closed curtains that needs punishing.
One fact certainly validates this Arabic op-ed's assertions: the overwhelming majority of attacks on Christians in Egypt and other Muslim nations—including the slaughter of Mary Sameh George—occur on Friday, the one day of the week that Muslims congregate in mosques for communal prayers and to hear sermons.
The significance of this fact can easily be understood by analogy: what if Christians were especially and consistently violent to non-Christian minorities on Sunday—right after they got out of church? What would that say about what goes on in Christian churches?
What does it say about what goes on in Muslim mosques?
The Arabic op-ed also does well to name Sheikh Yassir al-Burhami as one of those who "announce their hate for Christians throughout the satellite channels and in mosques, claiming that hatred of Christians is synonymous with love for God."
For example, Dr. Burhami—the face of Egypt's Salafi movement—once issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, forbidding Muslim taxi- and bus-drivers from transporting Coptic Christian priests to their churches, which he depicted as "more forbidden than taking someone to a liquor bar."
As for hating non-Muslim "infidels," many Islamic clerics, especially Salafis, believe that the doctrine of "Loyalty and Enmity" (or wala' wa bara') commands Muslims never to befriend or be loyal to non-Muslims.
Burhami himself appears on video asserting that if a Muslim man marries a Christian or Jewish woman (known in Islamic parlance as "People of the Book")—even he must still hate his wife, because she is an infidel.
When asked at a conference how Islam can allow a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman and yet expect him to hate her, Burhami expounded as follows:
Where's the objection? Do all men love their wives? How many married couples live together despite disagreements and problems? Huh? That being the case, he [Muslim husband] may love the way she [non-Muslim wife] looks, or love the way she raises the children, or love that she has money. This is why he's discouraged from marrying among the People of the Book—because she has no [real] religion. He is ordered to make her hate her religion while continuing marriage/sexual relations with her. This is a very standard matter…. Of course he should tell her that he hates her religion. He must show her that he hates her because of her religion, and because she is an infidel. But if possible, treat her well—perhaps that will cause her to convert to Islam. He should invite her to Islam and call her to Allah…. In fact, let me tell you: whoever rapes a woman, does he necessarily love her? Or is he just sleeping with her? He's sleeping with her for her body's sake only, and he does not love her in reality, because if he loved her, he wouldn't have hurt her. Therefore it is possible to have sexual relations [between a Muslim man and a Christian or Jewish woman] without love. This is possible, but as we said, he is commanded to hate her (emphasis added).
Burhami even said that the Muslim husband cannot initiate greetings to his non-Muslim wife when he comes home—according to the teachings of Islam's prophet as recorded in the hadith.
Like all other Islamic clerics, Burhami justified "infidel-wife-hating" by quoting some of the Koran verses that form the cornerstone of the doctrine of Loyalty and Enmity:
Otherwise what do you do with the undisputed texts [of the Koran], such as "Thou wilt not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last Day, loving those who resist [or reject submission to] Allah and His Messenger, even though they were their fathers or their sons, or their brothers, or their kindred… "O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors…" [Koran 58:22 and 5:51, Yusuf Ali translation]. What do you do with such a verse? What do you do will all these verses?
Indeed, what does a Muslim do with all these Koran verses and sayings attributed to Islam's prophet Muhammad?
Such is the dilemma.
From here it becomes clear that the aforementioned Arabic op-ed discussing the slaughter of Mary Sameh George is only partially correct. It is true that behind the mindless mob stand Islamic clerics like Burhami, inciting hatred for Christians and other infidels. But that is not the complete picture; for behind all these clerics stand Islam's scriptures—the Koran and hadith—commanding enmity for the infidel.
In short, it's not just a few "radical clerics"—a few "rotten apples"—that incite mobs to attack Christians, but rather the core texts of Islam itself.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (Regnery, April, 2013) is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.


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1Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses.
2He sets the time for birth and the time for death,
the time for planting and the time for pulling up,
3the time for killing and the time for healing,
the time for tearing down and the time for building.
4He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy,
the time for mourning and the time for dancing,
5the time for making love and the time for not making love,
the time for kissing and the time for not kissing.
6He sets the time for finding and the time for losing,
the time for saving and the time for throwing away,
7the time for tearing and the time for mending,
the time for silence and the time for talk.
8He sets the time for love and the time for hate,
the time for war and the time for peace.
9What do we gain from all our work? 10I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us. 11He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does. 12So I realized that all we can do is to be happy and do the best we can while we are still alive. 13All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift.
14I know that everything God does will last for ever. You can't add anything to it or take anything away from it. And one thing God does is to make us stand in awe of him. 15Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before. God makes the same thing happen again and again.
16In addition, I have also noticed that in this world you find wickedness where justice and right ought to be. 17I told myself, "God is going to judge the righteous and the evil alike, because every thing, every action, will happen at its own set time." 18I concluded that God is testing us, to show us that we are no better than animals. 19After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. One dies just like the other. They are both the same kind of creature. A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either. 20They are both going to the same place — the dust. They both came from it; they will both go back to it. 21How can anyone be sure that the human spirit goes upwards while an animal's spirit goes down into the ground? 22So I realized then that the best thing we can do is to enjoy what we have worked for. There is nothing else we can do. There is no way for us to know what will happen after we die.
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When my niece Miriam and her hubby bought their little home a couple of years ago......
It had a small coat closet in the downstairs hall.....
which wasn't large enough to hold all the stuff that people in New England need
to get through the taxing seasons of the north.
they went in and out of the side door off the living room more than they did the front door.
This is how it looked the first year they lived in the house,
before I got my hands on this space.
This door opens onto the screened in porch, and is the prime exit for Perla the wonder dog's walks.
Miriam wanted a hall tree,
or something....
just some place to hang their stuff by the side door.......
I am brilliant!!!!!
I looked at the area in question.....
I looked at the bookcase.....
Since I was adding a large bookcase across the room,
I asked Miriam if she really needed this one?????
Here's a picture of the new bookcase across the room.....
'Cuz I had a better way to use this built in.
'Cuz I am a @#$ genius!!!!!
I had the top three shelves removed, along with the bottom divider.
I had a wooden board applied across the back which the hooks were screwed to.
This prevented the dreaded hook pulling out of the wall problem.
Miriam and I spent a completely obsessive amount of time looking for the right hooks.
I found the kind I wanted, immediately at Restoration Hardware.
Miriam be frugal.
Miriam be cheap.
Miriam was convinced she could find something similar for less money.
Miriam drove me crazy emailing me options.
But I gotta hand it to the girl.
She found some nice ones at Lowes.
As you can see in the shot below.
Miriam and Ross couldn't even wait for the construction to finish before they started using thier new "closet".
The long bottom shelf was installed to allow a taller space on the lower level for boots.
Next step was having it painted!!!!!
Here's the finished product!!!!!
It works like a charm.
The woven baskets hold Perla's leashes and things.
The wire baskets hold hats and gloves.
The topmost shelf holds Ross's baseball caps.
Here's one of my fabulous side by sides!!!!!
with Kindle and iBook, who needs shelves?????
On that note,
Latah, Gatah


text: ATalking History Project Introduction On Monday morning, September 13, 1971, an uprising by prison inmates of the Attica Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison located in western New York, ended in the bloodiest prison confrontation in American history. Five days earlier, thirteen hundred prisoners had rebelled, taken over the prison, and held forty guards hostage. Issuing a list of demands�including calls for improvements in living conditions as well as educational and training opportunities�they entered into negotiations with state officials. The negotiations failed and state police and national guard troops seized the prison; in the course of taking it over they killed forty-three individuals, including ten hostages. The Attica Rebellion is more than a prison insurrection. It is also a window into the time and culture that produced it. It offers scholars and non-scholars alike an opportunity to examine closely a facet of our society that most of us rarely see or experience yet which is increasingly viewed by other nations and cultures as a fixture of American life. We lock away millions of people every decade in penal institutions; occasionally, as in the case of Attica, their inmates rebel and become socially and politically visible. When they become visible, so do our prisons and our criminal justice system. Prisoners rebel for various reasons: because the warden is insensitive and cruel, because they are abused by guards, because living and sleeping conditions become intolerable, because certain prison communities foster group militancy, because social and cultural movements outside prisons encourage rebellion. Whatever the reasons, the act of rebellion brings public attention. Utlimately, the Attica Rebellion is about us. Revisiting it permits us to peer into a world that we, after all, created�and perhaps reexamine our penal institutions once again, without waiting for another bloody rebellion. By bringing to the public the numerous documents, radio documentaries, films, videos, and interviews that were produced during and after the events of September 1971, we hope to give teachers, students, and the general public an opportunity to directly experience and reflect on the events and participants of the Attica Rebellion�and to stimulate debate and discussion of America's criminal justice system. With the cooperation of the New York State Archives and the Pacifica Foundation, we have gathered together an extensive collection of audio, video, and textual records of the Attica rebellion�including written transcripts and audio recordings of the McKay Commission hearings as well as dozens of audio documentaries produced by the Pacifica Foundation. The documentaries contain many hours of interviews with key actors in and observers of the drama played out in September of 1971. We have also asked historians to contribute their perspectives on the story of Attica. We hope you find these resources useful to understanding the history of the event and the history of New York and American penal institutions in general. |


text:
Our everyday thoughts are presented here
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text:
The pastor, Chizemdere Ezuma, who is the founder of Jesus Intervention Household Ministry, Ejigbo, Lagos, was arrested for allegedly sodomizing the underage boys.
According to The Nation, Chizemdere Ezuma was arrested at his residence after an informant notified the police he had resurfaced, three months after he was declared wanted.
Read More : Joyce Mensah offers herself to Abronye; promises him Free sex
It was gathered that the suspect climbed his ceiling where he hid for over two hours to evade arrest when detectives stormed his home few days ago.
The suspect was declared wanted after an alleged male prostitute, Prince Chinecherem, was arrested and charged to court after a 16-year-old victim, Anthony Ikem, made revelations that implicated them.
Ikem, who was found sneaking out of the suspect's home with a polythene bag containing used condoms and other items, was accosted by neighbours and he confessed he was one of several sex partners of the pastor. Ikem also confirmed that the Ezuma usually gave them to service some of his male clients including VIPs. The teenager was taken to the hospital for checks and it was discovered he was HIV+.
Read More : The "Aboa wo to nono" Hit was inspired by Medikal's Fella Makafui
It was gathered that some residents of the community were worried he was corrupting their male children and initiating them into the club, hence, their keen interest to see that he was arrested and prosecuted.
Findings revealed that Ezuma was moved to the Gender Section at the Police Command Ikeja, yesterday afternoon, following pressure from certain quarters in the division to release him.
In his confessional statement to the police, Ezuma claimed he usually paid the boys N2,000 for sex. Investigation showed that he brought about 15 boys into his apartment where he forcefully penetrated them all through the anus. "The reverend confirmed he is HIV+ and has been receiving treatment for over three years. So, he knew he was HIV positive and still infected his victims and clients with it," a source said.


text:
We're Looking for Haunt Reviewers!
We're looking for haunt reviewers to help us cover haunts in (and around) Indiana. Interested? Click above to learn how to join!
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We have 89 Haunts currently listed in our Indiana Haunted House Directory!
(Listings are Sorted by City)
About our Indiana Haunted Houses Directory
We currently have 89 haunted houses that are located in Indiana. Here in our Indiana Haunted Houses Directory, you can find all of the biggest, best and scariest Halloween haunted attractions, haunted hayrides, haunted trails, home haunts, scream parks and more! To get more information about any of these haunted attractions, click on the haunt's name. This will take you to their "Details" page with more information about them, as well as links to visit their website and social media pages (if applicable). In addition, click on any Review link to find scores and detailed insights on scary these haunted houses are! You can also use our interactive map! These maps show you where each haunt is located in Indiana, and what types of haunted houses they are.
Whether you're here to find a haunted house to visit near you, planning a trip to a haunted attraction in another State, or if you're just here for fun, we're glad you stopped by! Don't forget to check out our YouTube Channel for walkthrough videos of some of the haunts we visit. At the next haunt you visit, tell them The Scare Factor sent you!


text:
The Historical Thinking Project was directed by Professor Peter Seixas, at the University of British Columbia, and coordinated by Jill Colyer, an educator with 20 years experience with the Waterloo Region District School Board in Ontario and OISE (University of Toronto). As a non-profit educational initiative, it was funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canadian Studies Program) and THEN/HiER.
The historical thinking framework promoted by The Historical Thinking Project revolves around six historical thinking concepts: historical significance, cause and consequence, historical perspective-taking, continuity and change, the use of primary source evidence, and the ethical dimension of history. These concepts have been integrated into the curriculum guidelines in a number of provinces and territories across Canada.
Our funding ended as of March 31, 2014. However, we are committed to maintaining:
Peter Seixas retired as Professor from the University of British Columbia at the end of June 2016, and assumed the position of Professor Emeritus. A celebratory symposium and dinner were held on March 12, 2016. For the program, presentations, video and photographs, click here.


text: The term "grid" is made in referrence to the arrangement of symbols on the reels of a slot. A grid can consist of three or more rows and columns, and it defines the number of symbols that appear on the reels for each spin. Each symbol has its own value and can lead to a win if it shows up in a winning combination. The size and number of rows and columns on the grid varies from slot to slot, and affects both the number of ways in which you can win and the house advantage (so-called house edge).


text:
Apex resection, also known as root resection, is a dental treatment used to prevent and fix bone loss injury, or damaged root apexes. The root apex is the part of the tooth attached to the jawbone.
Apex resection is also used to remove any inflammation, bacteria, and infection from the pulp and bottom part of the tooth and jawline preventing any damage from forming.
The bottom portion of the tooth is called the apex and the top of the tooth is referred to as the crown. Root resection procedures are commonly mistaken as root canal treatments.
Root canal treatments focus on blood vessels and nerves that are located inside of the tooth. Root receptions help remove damaged portions of the bottom portion of the tooth found in the gum line.
Individuals bothered by infection or problems caused by damaged and/or injured roots can benefit from the apex root resection procedure. Root resections are best for those suffering from damage to teeth sharing common roots.
An Apex root resection procedure is generally performed under local anesthetic. An incision is made near the affected tooth and gum surrounding the apex. The oral surgeon drills a hole into the root of the tooth to reach the infection. The dental surgeon flushes the area with a sterile solution of saline and the holes in the tooth root are filled.


text:
This is the Unity weekly report for 22 June. We're sliding into the week before the Ubuntu Platform Rally in Dublin, Ireland, and after that we're in Alpha-2 mode, so the team is getting a bunch of house cleaning out the way. In many ways, this should be the last super-boring Unity report as things will get more exciting from here on out, as such we continue to chip away at the rock.
Unity Contributor Activity This Week
Andrea Azzarone's made the bottom of the launcher unfold where you left it last, which is a backlog bug from last week. Daniel van Vugt added unmount/eject/remove quicklist options for external drives in the Launcher, and lastly Marco Trevisan has proposed a bunch of miscellaneous fixes in BAMF. Other branches for incoming fixes are in the review queue.
The team also had it's first team meeting where people made introductions and went through some reviews together to get them landed. Feel free to join us, every Wednesday at 1800UTC on #ayatana-freenode.
Things going on in Oneiric
There's actually a ton of work going on in Oneiric. By the time you read this Unity 4.0 should be hitting the archive (if not, the day after). This includes a port to GTK3 by Gord Allott, Neil Patel, and Bilal Akhtar. Neil also reorganized the source code a bit. And application indicators have also been ported to GTK3 by Michael Terry and others. This will be the platform that 11.10's Unity will be built on, so it's all been mostly boring-looking plumbing work that needed to get done. Here's a picture of my desktop with some of the changes:
You can find this and other stuff going on in Oneiric by checking out the desktop team report.
The Big List
Here's a list of targeted bugs that the design team has picked out as a result of user testing and feedback that would make Unity nicer to use. Here's the full list if you want to dig in.
- 676453 Launcher – Add 'installing' animation for when app is installed via drag & drop
- 616866 Installation of apps by dragging them to the launcher
- 750375 Dash – Cursor navigation allows the user to keep scrolling down indefinitely
- 723866 Dash file Lens – Rename "Favourite Folders" category header to "Folders"
- 765715 Launcher – When a app icon de-couples from the Launcher a small shadow should appear on the bottom and right sides of the icon
- 767272 Top bar menus – there should be a very quick and subtle fade out/in effect when a user shifts from one menu to another or closes a menu
How to Get Involved
1. Get the Code
Follow the Step by Step Instructions and Wiki Page. This will get the code from Launchpad, set up your development environment, and getting you used to the Launchpad workflow.
2. Pick a Bug
Here's the full list, or you can just join the team and watch them roll in and pick what you'd like.
3. Fix your bug and then get your code into Unity
Don't worry we won't leave you hanging, you can get a-hold of a Unity developer through many different ways:
- Join the ~unity-community-hackers team and start digging in.
- We now have a Weekly Meeting at 1800UTC on #ayatana on Freenode IRC if you feel like hanging with us and getting organized and ask questions
- #ayatana on freenode IRC during European and American workdays. Or you can post to the mailing list if you have a question.
- We also have weekly IRC Q+A for any developer who wants to dive in and ask a Unity developer. 7pm-8pm UTC (That's 2pm EST) every Friday!


text:
Tampa, FL, March 07, 2018 –(PR.com)– Stonehill announced today that it has signed a lease to establish an innovation studio at 1300 N. Westshore Blvd. Tampa, FL 33607. The studio will incorporate a unique collaboration space that will be used to conduct design thinking sessions. It will also provide office space for Stonehill's Tampa based employees. Stonehill selected the Westshore business district because of its convenient proximity to Tampa International Airport, allowing it to better serve its clients who are internationally headquartered.
Over the last two years, Stonehill has rapidly become one of the most recognized consulting firms in design thinking and customer experience. It currently serves clients in healthcare, financial services, hospitality, legal, real estate, entertainment, and professional service industries. Stonehill was selected by Great Agencies as one of the top Business Intelligence firms in the United States and is a featured partner at the Design Thinking 2018 Conference in Austin, TX.
Stonehill was founded in Tampa Bay by well known businessman, Doug Pace. Mr. Pace is a nationally recognized expert on business strategy and design thinking. He has been recognized by Consulting Magazine as one of the 75 Most Influential Consultants in the United States.
"I am very excited about Stonehill's rapid expansion," said Doug Pace, President and CEO of Stonehill. "This studio will help us to execute on our mission of helping the worlds most interesting brands to innovate, implement change, and accelerate growth."
About Stonehill
Stonehill is a strategy and innovation consultancy. As recognized experts in Design Thinking, Customer Experience, and Business Intelligence, Stonehill helps companies to identify opportunities, implement change, and accelerate growth. Our team looks across factors to understand your business culture, clearly define your customers' journey, and identify key performance metrics. From customer inflection to post-sale engagement, Stonehill's goal is to engineer enhanced customer journeys, redesign key interaction points, and create opportunities for continuous CX improvement. Stonehill has been recognized by Great Agencies as one of the top business intelligence consultants in the United States and is an Oracle Silver Partner.
Contact Information:
Doug Pace
Contact via Email
Read the full story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/746880
Press Release Distributed by PR.com


text:
Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland
506 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 … 21 Newer→ Last
There's no way to win this.
Either you're right, and people in China seeking foreign property *are* buying Auckland houses in great numbers.
Or you're wrong, and people in China seeking foreign property *are not* buying Auckland houses in great numbers.
Twyford and Salmond have been far too smart for their own good.
Jim Cathcart, in reply to
Yes, one of the problems looking through a consideration funnel is that you still need an outcome to make an accurate estimate. As for BNZ, I would their estimate is based on their own customer base, which they then extrapolate based on their estimated relative share of customers by ethnicity.
Alfie, in reply to
__Stats from BNZ__ indicate numbers of overseas buyers relatively small and Chinese overseas buyers only portion of that.
What makes you think the BNZ stats show the full picture?
When the Chinese government is supporting overseas land purchases by making loans easy to get, it's unlikely that the BNZ would get a look in. Why take out an expensive mortgage from an Aussie bank when money from home is cheaper and much easier to obtain.
Lilith __, in reply to
How long should we wait before making things up??
The government has started collecting the data, and now require a NZ IRD number for people buying property.
Alfie, in reply to
The government has started collecting the data, and now require a NZ IRD number for people buying property.
True. But I wonder how many resident Chinese students will effectively "own" NZ property while having little or no visible income. The requirement to have an IRD number is just National's way of appearing to do something about the problem whilst sitting on their hands.
Katharine Moody, in reply to
The government has started collecting the data, and now require a NZ IRD number for people buying property.
That doesn't tell us where we are at but rather where we might get to with respect to foreign ownership. Question is: are we happy with where we are at with Auckland market prices and private mortgage debt.
Labour would have been far better advised to turn their guns on; the inefficient and expensive construction industry, the "Australian" banks, or the parasitic real estate industry. Almost everyone distrusts or dislikes those industries.
Many people dislike or distrust foreign investors too, but Labour/we can't win because if they're successful they'll end up bringing the hate back to immigrants who live here. (This dislike already exists, but they'll succeed in spreading and intensifying it). That isn't what Phil wants, it isn't what Rob wants, and it's not what their party wants.
David Tong, in reply to
Exactly. Apparently I'm Chinese now?
Sacha, in reply to
That isn't what Phil wants, it isn't what Rob wants, and it's not what their party wants.
Yet they've done it anyway. Geniuses.
The question for Rob/Phil is simple: Do you know how this game works?
Given your experience, the question would seem rhetorical. So you have sat down, discussed your strategy and decided to do this, in (we have to assume) the full knowledge of how this would go down in the media (note: that's the media which most voters consume, not lengthy Public Address posts).
The explanation I'd like is not the methodology, but the motivation. What the hell are you doing?
Steve Curtis, in reply to
Exactly. Apparently I'm Chinese now?
No one has said that, A large group has been allocated ethnicity based on surnames.
A similar method is used for decile ratings of schools. Student addresses are matched to mesh blocks, which then provide an average income. This method matches an income based on the street you live in. It DOESNT presume to know your household income.
Your neighbours may be 'dinks' ( the demographic kind) but you are a single income with 3 kids. Its average over all the pupils to give a rating ( 1-10).
The problems with school decile ratings are that parents presume it means ethnicity.
Jan Rivers, in reply to
If you're explaining, you're losing
What a spectacularly silly comment. So debate, clarification and argument are all superfluous making a case? Are you also proposing that public address is therefore populated by losers on all sides or are some kinds of explanation valid?
At the very least, Twyford could have kept out or minimised the race thing, just by staying on message with 'absentee non-residents', which a stamp duty could partially fix. And in Aussie, non-residents can buy a house if they build it from scratch.
Then again, Twyford might really be pitching for the Winston vote. If so, there's a real risk it could push the 'model minority' vote to the Blue Team.
It is the only data anyone has. How else could they have used it? The fact is that they have highlighted a huge problem. It is impossible to argue against their findings when no other data is available.
If Labour are correct in their analysis, then this shows two things. One we are recieving foreign direct investment in an area where we have a shortage of investment - housing. That's pretty much an entirely good news story.
Two, the price response shows the supply side of the market is broken - that is the problem here.However, even if the supply curve was vertical, foreign buyers purchasing is good for renters. Being against investors is really the same as being against renters which is pretty regressive.
Alfie, in reply to
If Labour are correct in their analysis, then this shows two things. One we are recieving foreign direct investment in an area where we have a shortage of investment - housing. That's pretty much an entirely good news story.
Wow! Foreign investors driving up the price of housing in Auckland is now a good thing? That sort of logic makes me grateful that I live down south.
Sacha, in reply to
Then again, Twyford might really be pitching for the Winston vote.
Unless him and his leader firmly say otherwise, that's a perfectly reasonable assumption. Was there anything on the TV news (not watching them anymore)?
simon g, in reply to
The fact is that they have highlighted a huge problem.
No, they have completely re-defined a huge problem, in a way that is likely to come back and bite them on the bum. The problem was previously about capital gains tax, property speculation and assorted problems/solutions with the Auckland market. Now it's about people (voters, in fact) with names: "Mr Singh" and "Ms Lee". It was complex, now it's simple. Clearly that was what Labour wanted. They have cut through.
I assume they've calculated that X exceeds Y (X being angry Aucklanders of Winstonian tendencies, Y being Mr Singh, Ms Lee and their friends). I think those calculations are wrong.
Notwithstanding my comment above, this analysis does look highly speculative. The idea that we should be comparing the % of buyers to the total population is dubious. The latest surge in property prices in Auckland has correlated rather well, nlike it usually does with a boom of inward migration. The stats show that nearly 40% of immigrants are from Asia. A lot of those will be from China. So we can't draw much from the data.
Danielle, in reply to
("If you're explaining, you're losing" is a quote by Ronald Reagan -- also used by the Turd Blossom himself, Karl Rove, I believe. I guess it means that if your political idea ends up putting you on the explanation-spiral-defensive it isn't a winning strategy.)
Kumara Republic, in reply to
Two, the price response shows the supply side of the market is broken – that is the problem here.
Much of the supply happens to be held back by those who want the RMA thrown on a bonfire, yet at the same time will invoke it when it suits them.
ACT leader David Seymour has a weird concept of property rights:
and they do not want to have their neighborhoods intensified with eight story towers next to their homes. And the kind of rates corruption that they get from Len Brown -
Genter: And this is interesting because this is supposedly the free market party arguing for regulation. Arguing for regulation, higher prices where land values are high, where people want to live.
Seymour: No, what I'm arguing for is if the people of Epsom have bought into certain property rights and the character of their community.
Dick Quax claims Auckland is more densely populated than Sydney, Melbourne and even Vancouver. Cameron Brewer claims
And of course, this brain-fart from Denise Krum.
Rae Sott, in reply to
Investment in already existing housing is dreadful, and contributes nothing, and that is from anybody, the rentier class regardless of where they are from including here, need severely curtailing and NZ needs to again be a nation of home owner occupiers.
Sacha, in reply to
So we can't draw much from the data.
not if we're being ethical, professional, etc.
It does not surprise me that this data (such as it is) has been leaked. What does surprise me is that it has taken this long for the panic button to be pressed.
I have had conversations with three real estate agents over the past six months...from North Auckland, Alberta, and Los Angeles.
All have made the exact same observation. Their respective markets have been profoundly affected by Chinese nationals with seemingly bottomless pockets buying property at prices significantly higher than valuation.
Auctions figure prominently, with phone buyers from the Chinese mainland routinely beating the highest bid by offering ten percent higher than the last bid....it seems that that jump in price is enough to deter further bids from local prospective buyers...who are on a less elastic budget.
Despite the fact the these realtors have benefited from this upsurge in sales and house prices....all expressed dismay that house prices have become so artificially high that home ownership has gone beyond the reach of even those young people on moderately high incomes.
The real estate agent from North Auckland described the situation as "sheer and utter madness", and "suicide for the local economy". The spectre of Kiwis being tenants in our own country is very real. (A friend had a landlord, a Chinese banker, who owned 50 rental houses in Hamilton..)
Despite having, as I wrote earlier, benefited financially from these sales to non resident buyers with unlimited funds, the Kiwi agent simply could not understand how on earth this current government was re-elected when it had not only failed to acknowledge there is a severe problem but also failed to do take any measures to at least slow down the market.
He saw this as gross negligence and a failure to protect the interests of NZ citizens.
Such a pity that Labour handled this significant issue so clumsily...the path to hell and all that.
"First, Chinese Aucklanders tend to be young, and tend to have low incomes."
But then...
"While the ethnically Chinese population makes up 9% of Aucklanders, it makes up only 5% of Aucklanders on high incomes."
Wouldn't that mean that more than half of (126,000) Chinese population in Auckland are on high incomes? How is that 'tend to have low incomes'?
Post your response…
This topic is closed.


text:
...one of the most highly
regarded and expertly designed C++ library projects in the
— Herb Sutter and Andrei
Alexandrescu, C++
Coding Standards
Copyright © 2006-2012 Matias Capeletto
Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
Table of Contents
Boost.Bimap is a bidirectional maps library for C++. With Boost.Bimap you can
create associative containers in which both types can be used as key. A bimap<X,Y>
can be thought of as a combination of a
and a std::map<Y,X>
The learning curve of bimap is almost flat if you know how to use standard
containers. A great deal of effort has been put into mapping the naming scheme
of the STL in Boost.Bimap. The library is designed to match the common STL
The design of Boost.Bimap interface follows the standard template library. It has been strongly influenced by Joaquin Lopez Muñoz's Boost.MultiIndex library (the heart of bimaps) and codeproject::bimap library.


text:
This print has never been cleaned or restored. Being over 170 years old and may demonstrate characteristics commonly associated with its age and usage, such as finger smudges (spoiling) along the margins and the natural discoloring of the paper (toning). There may be a few blemishes or age spots (foxing). As an indication of these characteristics for this print please refer to the photos. The edge that was attached to the book is untrimmed and may retain some of its glue binding. Overall, I believe that this print is in good condition.
This print size is approximately 6 5/8" x 10".
Feel free to email if you have any specific questions or requests regarding this print.


text:
Blue Medallion Pocket Square
This pocket square features a unique motif featuring a variety of shapes and colors, and its wool/silk blend makes it ideal for year-round use. Made in Macclesfield, England at one of the few surviving printers capable of classic dye and discharge printing. The classic English design (also called Macclesfield Neats) is selected or modified from archives dating back to the 1930s.
- 70% wool, 30% silk
- 42cm x 42cm
- Hand rolled edges
- Made in England