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Posted: September 10, 2018
Photo: lokoperucho
Have you always wanted to volunteer in Peru but aren't sure how to make the most of your time in South America? Learn more about Peru's capital city, Lima – it has something to offer every type of traveler.
Perhaps when you think of Peru, Machu Picchu is the first thing that comes to mind. But in a country with a variety of beautiful landscapes, incredible biodiversity, a blend of cultures, and rich history, there is so much more to do after you've hiked the Inca Trail.
Peru has something for everyone to enjoy – exquisite food that fuses local, African, Spanish, and Asian flavors, outdoor adventure activities, lively cities to explore both day and night, beautiful rivers, lakes, and beaches for relaxing and swimming, a rainforest rich in biodiversity, and stunning historical sites and architecture.
Machu Picchu and the Peruvian Amazonia may be what initially draws many travelers to Peru, and South America in general, but Lima is quickly making its way onto travelers' lists as a must-see city when visiting the region.
Located on the western central coast of Peru, Lima is a city that pre-dates any colonial presence in the region. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was the political and administrative epicenter of South America.
Lima's historic city center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, made up of towering churches, brightly colored balcony-clad mansions, and pre-Columbian pyramids: all of which give its visitors a glimpse into the city's rich history and make them feel like they've transported back in time.
For those that love to explore creative Bohemian neighborhoods, Lima won't disappoint. Burgeoning neighborhoods like Barranco offer travelers the opportunity to engage and interact with the growing art scene in Lima, and a chance to slow down by visiting art galleries, coffee shops, and local restaurants.
Photo: Art DiNo
Lima isn't just for those fascinated by history or interested in exploring urban neighborhoods. Situated along the western central coast, travelers can satisfy their need for the outdoors by enjoying the stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and walking along the many beaches that Lima has to offer. You'll see locals and tourists alike soaking up the sun, perhaps surfing or swimming as they take advantage of the city's waterfront location.
As a volunteer in Peru, you'll likely fly into Lima. Once on your project, you'll be uniquely placed to learn about Peruvian people and their culture, more so than if you just visited as a tourist. But don't forget to make time for Lima, either before or after your trip. It will allow you to see a different side of Peru, and dive more deeply into its culture and history.
Here are four reasons why we think Lima should be on your travel itinerary when volunteering in Peru:
Photo: Leal86
Peru is rich in cultural traditions that represent a true mix of Hispanic and early Incan customs.
Music and dance, in particular, play a central role in Peruvian society. Visitors can experience these for themselves at small bars, known as peñas, throughout the city.
These local hotspots play Creole music, typically accompanied by guitar and the Peruvian percussion instrument known as a cajón These bars can only be found by those who know where they are, so this is a great opportunity to get to know the locals.
Peru is also a spectacular place to be if you love festivals. If you are traveling to Lima in October, you won't want to miss the Procession of the Lord of the Miracles, one of the largest Catholic processions in the world that takes place in downtown Lima annually. Thousands of people flood to the streets of Lima to participate in this procession and feast, making it a truly unique experience for any traveler.
Photo: Bart Everson
Peruvian food is all about bold and spicy flavors. As in many countries, what's popular varies between regions. Potatoes are a staple in the Andes mountains, while seafood is more common along the coast and in Lima.
In Peru you will be exposed to dishes that you cannot find anywhere else. Peruvian food has changed and adapted over the years due to an amalgamation of different groups who have settled in the region. It now represents a unique blend of cultures from around the world.
As groups from Europe, Africa, and eastern Asia made their way to Peru, they brought their gastronomic traditions with them, and fused them with local Peruvian favorites. Chifa, for example, is a classic Peruvian dish, and is quite popular in Lima.
It fuses a traditional Peruvian dish with ingredients from Chinese cuisine. Head to the Barrio Chino neighborhood in Lima, where you will find streets lined with restaurants serving Chifa.
When in Lima, you'll also want to try fresh ceviche, anticuchos (seasoned beef heart), the Peruvian-Japanese blended style of food, Nikkei, causa rellena con pollo (a chicken sandwich, where potato is used instead of bread), and picarones (doughnut like, but made from sweet potatoes and green squash, topped with aniseed and cinnamon, and drizzled with sugar, passion fruit, or fig cane syrup).
Photo: Omar Navarro
Lima was once known as the City of Kings, named by Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizzaro. But the Inca name for the area was Rimaq, which was more informally called Limaq. This was eventually shorted to Lima.
Not only was Lima the political and administrative capital of South America, it was also a cultural and economic heavyweight that played an important part in the development of the region.
For those looking to explore deeper into Peru's history, a visit to Huaca Pucllana is a must. Situated in the newer upscale suburban district of Minaflores in Lima, the pre-Inca temple is where sacred ceremonial games were played. As empires rose and fell, the temple's purpose changed. It was largely abandoned except as a place of worship, sacrifice, and sometimes burials.
Photo: Jon Roberts
Taking a tour of the Basilica and Convent of San Francis is also highly recommended. It is one of the oldest monasteries in South America and it is a brilliant display of Moorish architecture, complete with libraries, winding staircases, and, perhaps most famously, catacombs. These catacombs house the skeletal remains of those who opted to be buried closer to the alter in order to be nearer to God.
Looking for other historical sites to check out in Lima? Take a look at Cemeterio Presbitero Matias Maestro, the San Inquisición Museum, and the Plaza de Armes at the historic city center.
What makes Lima so great for all kinds of travelers is that it has no shortage of activities to enjoy, from urban exploration to outdoor adventure.
Not surprisingly, much of Lima's outdoor appeal comes from its coastal location. Locals and tourists enjoy its many beaches and surf spots, especially along the Miraflores seashore.
Those who are eager to see the ocean from above can go paragliding – a truly wonderful experience where you'll feel like you're floating in the air as you soak in the natural beauty around you.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/144691019@N08/30566230850/ Latin Discoveries
Lima has no shortage of parks for those who love to stroll around the city while also taking in nature. Parque de la Reserve is located downtown and is home to multiple fountains that are part of the Magic Water Tour, a unique water and light show that has become one of Lima's most popular attractions.
Renting a bike is a great way to meander around the city and explore its parks – you can do it solo or join a tour to get more of a local's perspective on the city and all it has to offer.
Whether you're looking to teach, help cultivate local business skills, or promote women's empowerment, a visit to Peru would not be complete without exploring its capital city of Lima.


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Arlington County, VA Climate Stabilization Declaration
Type: Resolution
Status: Adopted on 7/9/07
Source File: http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/CountyBoard/CountyBoardDeclarationCoolCounties.aspx
County Board of Arlington, Virginia
U.S. Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration
WHEREAS, there is a consensus among the world's leading scientists that global warming caused by human emission of greenhouse gases is among the most significant problems facing the world today; and
WHEREAS, documented impacts of global warming include but are not limited to increased occurrences of extreme weather events (i.e., droughts and floods), adverse impacts on plants and wildlife habitats, threats to global food and water supplies – all of which have an economic impact on communities and their local governments; and
WHEREAS, leading scientists have projected that stabilization of climate change in time to minimize such impacts will require a reduction of global warming emissions to 80 percent below current levels by the year 2050; and
WHEREAS, currently the United States is responsible for producing approximately 25 percent of the world's global warming pollutants; and
WHEREAS, many leading U.S. companies that have adopted greenhouse gas reduction programs to demonstrate corporate and operational responsibility have also publicly expressed preference for the federal government to adopt precise and mandatory emissions targets and timetables as a means by which to provide a uniform and predictable regulatory environment to encourage and enable necessary and long-term business investments; and
WHEREAS, state, regional and local governments throughout the United States are adopting emissions reduction targets and programs, and this effort is bipartisan, coming from Republican and Democratic leadership;
WHEREAS, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has endorsed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which commits cities to reduction of global warming emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, and calls for a federal limit on emissions; and
WHEREAS, the State of California has mandated statewide reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050; and
WHEREAS, more than 100 county leaders signed a letter written by Dane County, Wisconsin, that was sent to the President in March 2006 calling for increased energy investment and development of jobs focused on clean energy technologies; and
WHEREAS, counties have a unique role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for the impacts of climate change through their regional jurisdiction over policy areas such as air quality, land use planning, transportation, zoning, forest preservation, water conservation, and wastewater and solid waste management; and
WHEREAS, the economic arguments for implementing climate solutions are compelling, from the near-term economic gains of energy efficiency to the long-term climate stabilization that can prevent irreparable harm from catastrophic climate change impacts; and
WHEREAS, many counties throughout the nation, both large and small, are reducing global warming pollutants through programs that provide economic and quality of life benefits such as reducing energy bills, preserving green space, implementing better land use policies, improving air quality, promoting waste-to-energy programs, expanding transportation and work choices to reduce traffic congestion, and fostering more economic development and job creation through energy conservation and new technologies;
We, as Cool Counties, will take immediate steps to help the federal, state, and our governments within our county to achieve the 2050 climate stabilization goal by making the following commitments:
i. Create an inventory of our county government (operational) greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions and implement policies, programs and operations to achieve significant, measurable and sustainable reduction of those operational GHG emissions to help contribute to the regional reduction targets as identified in paragraph ii;
ii. Work closely with local, state, and federal governments and other leaders to reduce county geographical GHG emissions to 80 percent below current levels by 2050, by developing a GHG emissions inventory and regional plan that establishes short-, mid-, and long-term GHG reduction targets, with recommended goals to stop increasing emissions by 2010, and to achieve a 10 percent reduction every five years thereafter through to 2050; and
iii. Urge Congress and the Administration to enact a multi-sector national program of requirements, market-based limits, and incentives for reducing GHG emissions to 80 percent below current levels by 2050, and urge Congress and the Administration to strengthen standards by enacting legislation such as a Corporate Average Fuel Economy ("CAFE") standard that achieves at least 35 miles per gallon (mpg) within 10 years for cars and light trucks.
We will take immediate steps to identify regional climate change impacts and will draft and implement a county plan to prepare for and build resilience to those impacts.

subset: commoncrawl


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Shark Porcelain Mosaic
Shark Porcelain Mosaic
Shark Porcelain Mosaic vibrant colors and exquisite detail are what set our porcelain tile mosaics apart from the rest. Our porcelain tile swimming pool mosaics are unparalleled in quality, ease of installation and affordability. All porcelain mosaics are frost proof, maintenance free and guaranteed for the life of your pool. Custom Mosaics is the world's largest manufacturer of high quality frost proof porcelain tile mosaics, ceramic tile mosaics for swimming pools. We offer over three hundred and fifty in-stock designs ready for immediate shipping.
Product Specifications:
- Size 32"x 18"
- Screen Printed, Waterjet Cut Mosaic
- Approximately 3/8" Thick
- Guaranteed for the Life of the Application
NOTE: Number of pieces in the mosaic may vary based on size selected. Largest size mosaic is pictured.
Shade and size variations are inherent characteristics in all mosaic and glass tile products. These variations are a trademark of hand crafted quality and adds to the unique beauty of your individual mosaic.
Please Inspect Products Prior to Installation - Use Constitutes Acceptance.


text: Today's giveaway is sponsored by Dance in a Box. Dance in a Box provides tools for teachers to aid in teaching hip hop and rhythm to kids age 3-12, including interactive choreography kits and learning music. Creator, Tricia Gomez is giving away her new 1-2-3 Dance interactive hip hop choreography kit, containing 50 mix-and-match hip hop step cards and much more, to two DA readers.


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Some wild numbers from my recent launch
This surprised even me. I've been apart of multiple 6- and 7-figure product launches with several big name online marketers, so I knew this was the case. But, I never realized just how much. With
This surprised even me. I've been apart of multiple 6- and 7-figure product launches with several big name online marketers, so I knew this was the case. But, I never realized just how much. With
My latest course, Turn Content Into Clients, is now live. Here's the details on what's in it: When I first started freelancing, I had no idea how to get clients. No plan for how to
Stories. They seem weird, but they're one of the most powerful tools you can use to sell your services on Instagram, because they accomplish two of the most important priorities when marketing any product or
Got this zinger over on YouTube: "Why did you needed to clickbait? 58k subs, 500 views with clickbait, r you kidding me? Without clickbait he would have 250." Oof! In a haze of dread… And paranoia
I rip apart my top performing email from this week to draw out the #digitalmarketing lessons. Listen to the whole gory mess here: https://www.johnmorrisshow.com/333/
Over 7,700 other freelancers have started thriving freelance businesses using the information on this blog. Are you next? Subscribe below to get notified whenever a new article is posted and create your own success story:
75 SEO and website clients now. My income went from sub zero to over 6K just last month. Tracking 10K for next month. Seriously, you changed my life.
By the way, just hit 95K for the year. I can't thank you enough for everything you've taught me. You've changed my life. Thank you!
I started this 3 days ago, following John's suggestions, and I gained the Upwork Rising Talent badge in less than 2 days. I have a call with my first potential client tomorrow. Thanks, John!
John is the man! I followed his steps and I am flooded with interviews in a week. I got into two Talent clouds. The very next day, I got an invitation from the talent specialists from Upwork and a lot more. I wanna shout out, he is the best in this. Thanks John for helping me out!
After viewing John's course, I made an Upwork account and it got approved the same day. Amazingly, I got my first job the very same day, I couldn't believe it, I thought maybe I got it by coincidence. Anyways I completed the job and received my first earnings. Then, after two days, I got another job and within a week I got 3 jobs and completed them successfully. All the things he says seem to be minute but have a very great impact on your freelancing career.
I've been in an existential crisis for the last week about what the heck I'm doing as a business owner. Even though I've been a business for about a year, I'm constantly trying to think of how to prune and refine services. This was very personable and enjoyable to watch. Usually, business courses like this are dry and hard to get through…. repeating the same things over and over again. This was a breath of fresh air. THANK YOU.
I've definitely learnt so much in 2.5 hours than I'd learn watching different videos online on Youtube and reading tons of articles on the web. John has a natural way of teaching, where he is passionately diving in the topics and he makes it very easy to grasp — someone who wants you to really start running your business well by learning about the right tools and implement them in your online business. I will definitely share with many of the people I know who have been struggling for so long, I did find my answers and I'm sure will do too.
I have been following John Morris for several years now. His instruction ranges from beginner to advanced, to CEO-level guidance. I have referred friends and clients to John, and have encouraged my own daughter to pay attention to what he says. All of his teachings create wealth for me (and happiness for my clients!) I can't speak highly enough about John, his name is well known in my home.
John is a fantastic and patient tutor, who is not just able to share knowledge and communicate it very effectively – but able to support one in applying it. However, I believe that John has a very rare ability to go further than just imparting knowledge and showing one how to apply it. He is able to innately provoke one's curiosity when explaining and demonstrating concepts, to the extent that one can explore and unravel their own learning journey. Thanks very much John!
John has been the most important person in my freelance career ever since I started. Without him, I would have taken 10 or 20 years more to reach the position I am at now (Level 2 seller on Fiverr and Top Rated on Upwork).
Over 7,700 other freelancers have started thriving freelance businesses using the information on this blog. Are you next? Subscribe below to get notified whenever a new article is posted and create your own success story:
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In a few words:
While other browsers do not allow particular charaters in sub domains, IE does. Hence it's possible to abuse that behavior to exploit referrer based DOM Xss.
Some more words about it:
I was doing some testing using DOMInator (a yet-to-release tool for finding DOM Based Xss) and I saw a JavaScript snippet doing the following:
write('<sc'+"ript src="http://Host/image.gif?t="+c+"r="+(referrer.split("/")[2])+"></sc"+'ript>'); //updated to match host only referrer
Immediately some question came to me: « Is it actually exploitable? Do any browser allow HTML special characters in subdomain, like '">heyThere.mindedsecurity.com? »
After testing some browser I saw that Internet Explorer does allow them.
So we set up a DNS which always returns the same IP no matter what subdomain is requested.
That means that it's possible for an attacker to request
"onreadystatechange=eval(name).attacker.com and use it to abuse IE host behavior and exploit
pages vulnerable to DOM Based Cross Site Scripting via referrer.
Nota Bene: At the moment the wildcard DNS is private. But we'll release
a basic service to test referrer based DOMXss. So, stay tuned for updates.


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Terraces are one way to control soil erosion. Crop rotation and tillage practices also control erosion. but they do not provide control of runoff water after heavy rains, Terraces provide this control and should often be a part of your water management plan for continuous row crops on slopes of 5 percent or more.
Terraces do require high capital investments, however. Costs may range from $100 to $250 per acre, depending on the type of terrace system.
Terraces are intended to intercept and slow the flow of surface water from unprotected slopes. Contour farming by itself is not very effective in controlling water when large storms occur on moderately steep slopes. Terraces capture the water in a channel and control its removal from the field via an erosion-resistant, vegetative waterway or an underground pipe outlet.
Your financial position will affect your choice of terracing systems. If you have a definite cash flow problem and little equity, you may consider only a minimal investment in the short term. If you have considerable equity in your land or other sources of capital, you can install a terrace system and still show a profit.
Unfortunately, no one has collected statistics showing significantly increased yields in the first five to 10 years after terracing. Yield loss due to erosion is not easily measured but does definitely occur as the moisture-holding characteristics of the eroded soil decline.
In deciding on which fields to spend money, remember that the best land is usually devoted to high return row crops and needs the maximum protection possible. Therefore, take two steps. First, prepare a plan for the entire farm. This is a must so that travel lanes, terraces, fences and outlets all work together. Then put the practices in place. Put in outlets first and then construct terraces on the best land near the tops of ridges. Careful scheduling will ensure that terraces can be put in place as crop rotation permits.
Terraces are being built today under many of the same constraints that hindered their development forty years ago. However, advances in technology have provided a wider variety of technical alternatives. Review of terraces is helpful in identifying systems that are useful to Missouri landowners. These terrace methods are listed in order of both increasing cost and increasing design complexity. The simplest systems can be laid out directly in the field. Those developed later require more field measurements and considerable computation; thus, they usually require technical assistance. The overall objective of all the systems, of course, is to produce a cost-efficient and easy-to-farm system that meets the owner's preferences.
A case study of a farm in northeast Missouri illustrates the various types of systems one might adopt.
Easiest and cheapest
The early constant grade terrace, first constructed during the 1930s and early 1940s, was and continues today as an excellent erosion control device. It is relatively easy to design and lay out in the field. It can be constructed using farm equipment. Grass turn rows or brush along the banks of a ditch or fence row often provide outlets. Two-row farm equipment on 40-inch rows could traverse the sharp turns and point rows that were often necessary to obtain a proper channel grade with no cutting or filling. Heavy earth moving equipment was not readily available when the constant grade terrace was first used; thus, farm equipment had to be used to build the terraces. Many farmers today ignore farming on the contour if they choose this type of terrace, since large equipment is difficult to use on these sharply turning channels. But the terrace ridges are damaged unless the land is farmed on the contour.
Dozers and four-row equipment
As farm equipment began to increase in size, the larger four-row equipment no longer fit the terrace cross-section properly. Sharp turns and point rows caused more concern. The broad-base terrace was developed after World War II along with the practice of cutting a little more or less in the channel to reduce the sharpness of curves in the terrace. Terrace channels have straightened. After World War II, the crawler tractor with dozer blade came to be readily available for hire on the farm. This tractor was necessary for constructing the broad-base terrace. Bending the wire staffs of marking flags became a common way to mark where adjustments to improve terrace alignment were to be made. The bent staff signaled the dozer operator to cut a little deeper than normal at this point. The amount of extra cut was left to the dozer operator's judgment.
The dozer became a valuable tool in the development of agricultural lands. Gullies were cleared and shaped into crossable grassed waterways. Fence rows were cleared. and fences were eliminated to create larger fields and longer rows to accommodate even larger more powerful farm machines. The 36-inch crop row width became more common. Cutting through high spots and filling across depressions in the terrace channel reduced curves and point rows. The idea of varying the terrace channel grades within certain limits gained general acceptance and extended the capacity for straightening the terrace without excessive cuts and fills. Operators continued to use dozers to transport cuts to areas of fill.
Terrace system designs became more demanding while layout possibilities became more varied. Cuts and fills required balancing and locating to make transporting fill easier. Guide stakes had to be marked with specific amounts to be cut and filled. Construction was more exacting. The builder had to supplement "seat of the pants" grading with more exact methods. A sequence of construction had to be planned to keep transportation of cuts and fill materials to a minimum.
Modern technology and narrow rows
Modern times are bringing even larger machines and narrower rows. Row widths of 30 inches and six- to eight-row equipment are becoming common. These rows must be traveled by huge, four-wheel drive tractors with like-sized tillage and planting equipment. Self-propelled combines with six- or eight-row headers are commonplace.
Advanced technology has also given us herbicides, pesticides, special planting machines, fertilizers and tillage machines. The construction industry has developed the self-propelled and self-loading scraper, the chain and wheel type trencher and corrugated polyethylene plastic tubing with a complete set of quick-connect fittings. The self-loading scraper is fast becoming the primary machine for constructing terraces. Cuts and fills no longer have to be kept close together or even in the same terrace channel. This scraper is capable of cutting, transporting, filling, shaping and smoothing earth efficiently. The trencher and corrugated plastic tubing have made the underground terrace outlet not only feasible but easier and faster to install than a grassed waterway.
As the self-loading scraper freed the terrace designer of many restrictions on location of cuts and fills, so has the underground outlet added new concepts of design that provide wide latitude in developing a parallel and accessible field terrace system and that satisfy the increased demand for easy-to-farm land. In exchange, the modern day designer of terraces must consider storm runoff quantities, storage capacities of terrace channels, optimum removal rates, pipe flow rates and capacities for varying slopes and proper outletting of underground conduits to minimize the possibilities of plugging by sediment or washouts. Terrace builders must be better able to follow construction plans and handle new installation techniques required to establish a satisfactory system and to reduce the possibilities of component failure. For a given area, the terrace system layout possibilities are many. Special training and field experience are valuable assets in reaching a solution that will give the most functional and economical plan.
Cuts and fills, a variable grade, underwater outlets and water and sediment control basins keep terraces parallel. This is the easiest-to-farm system proposed to date. Farming operations do not always follow the contour in some sections of these terraces. But erosion control should still be effective as long as the affected slope lengths are kept within one terrace spacing. Other areas of the field are protected by water and sediment control basins, which trap the soil and do not let it leave the farm. The terraces use all of the options and much of the technology listed previously. A high priority has been given to ease of farming. Not all landowners would want to consider this system. Proper management of residues is critical if such a design is to succeed.


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In 2005, University of California, Berkeley, researchers made the surprising discovery that making conjoined twins out of young and old mice—such that they share blood and organs—can rejuvenate tissues and reverse the signs of aging in the old mice. The finding sparked a flurry of research into whether a youngster's blood might contain special proteins or molecules that could serve as a "fountain of youth" for mice and humans alike.
But a new study by the same team shows that similar age-reversing effects can be achieved by simply diluting the blood plasma of old mice—no young blood needed.
In the study, the team found that replacing half of the blood plasma of old mice with a mixture of saline and albumin—where the albumin simply replaces protein that was lost when the original blood plasma was removed—has the same or stronger rejuvenation effects on the brain, liver and muscle than pairing with young mice or young blood exchange. Performing the same procedure on young mice had no detrimental effects on their health.
This discovery shifts the dominant model of rejuvenation away from young blood and toward the benefits of removing age-elevated, and potentially harmful, factors in old blood.
"There are two main interpretations of our original experiments: The first is that, in the mouse joining experiments, rejuvenation was due to young blood and young proteins or factors that become diminished with aging, but an equally possible alternative is that, with age, you have an elevation of certain proteins in the blood that become detrimental, and these were removed or neutralized by the young partners," said Irina Conboy, a professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley who is the first author of the 2005 mouse-joining paper and senior author of the new study. "As our science shows, the second interpretation turns out to be correct. Young blood or factors are not needed for the rejuvenating effect; dilution of old blood is sufficient."
In humans, the composition of blood plasma can be altered in a clinical procedure called therapeutic plasma exchange, or plasmapheresis, which is currently FDA-approved in the U.S. for treating a variety of autoimmune diseases. The research team is currently finalizing clinical trials to determine if a modified plasma exchange in humans could be used to improve the overall health of older people and to treat age-associated diseases that include muscle wasting, neuro-degeneration, Type 2 diabetes and immune deregulation.
"I think it will take some time for people to really give up the idea that that young plasma contains rejuvenation molecules, or silver bullets, for aging," said Dobri Kiprov, a medical director of Apheresis Care Group and a co-author of the paper. "I hope our results open the door for further research into using plasma exchange—not just for aging, but also for immunomodulation."
The study appears online in the journal Aging.
A molecular 'reset' button
In the early 2000s, Conboy and her husband and research partner Michael Conboy, a senior researcher and lecturer in the Department of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley and co-author of the new study, had a hunch that our body's ability to regenerate damaged tissue remains with us into old age in the form of stem cells, but that somehow these cells get turned off through changes in our biochemistry as we age.
"We had the idea that aging might be really more dynamic than people think," Conboy said. "We thought that it could be caused by transient and very reversible declines in regeneration, such that, even if somebody is very old, the capacity to build new tissues in organs could be restored to young levels by basically replacing the broken cells and tissues with healthy ones, and that this capacity is regulated through specific chemicals which change with age in ways that become counterproductive."
After the Conboys published their groundbreaking 2005 work, showing that making conjoined twins from the old mouse and a young mouse reversed many signs of aging in the older mouse, many researchers seized on the idea that specific proteins in young blood could be the key to unlocking the body's latent regeneration abilities.
However, in the original report, and in a more recent study, when blood was exchanged between young and old animals without physically joining them, young animals showed signs of aging. These results indicated that that young blood circulating through young veins could not compete with old blood.
As a result, the Conboys pursued the idea that a buildup of certain proteins with age is the main inhibitor of tissue maintenance and repair, and that diluting these proteins with blood exchange could also be the mechanism behind the original results. If true, this would suggest an alternative, safer path to successful clinical intervention: Instead of adding proteins from young blood, which could do harm to a patient, the dilution of age-elevated proteins could be therapeutic, while also allowing for the increase of young proteins by removing factors that could suppress them.
To test this hypothesis, the Conboys and their colleagues came up with the idea of performing "neutral" blood exchange. Instead of exchanging the blood of a mouse with that of a younger or an older animal, they would simply dilute the blood plasma by swapping out part of the animal's blood plasma with a solution containing plasma's most basic ingredients: saline and a protein called albumin. The albumin included in the solution simply replenished this abundant protein, which is needed for overall biophysical and biochemical blood health and was lost when half the plasma was removed.
"We thought, 'What if we had some neutral age blood, some blood that was not young or not old?'" said Michael Conboy. "We'll do the exchange with that, and see if it still improves the old animal. That would mean that by diluting the bad stuff in the old blood, it made the animal better. And if the young animal got worse, then that would mean that that diluting the good stuff in the young animal made the young animal worse."
After finding that the neutral blood exchange significantly improved the health of old mice, the team conducted a proteomic analysis of the blood plasma of the animals to find out how the proteins in their blood changed following the procedure. The researchers performed a similar analysis on blood plasma from humans who had undergone therapeutic plasma exchange.
They found that the plasma exchange process acts almost like a molecular reset button, lowering the concentrations of a number of pro-inflammatory proteins that become elevated with age, while allowing more beneficial proteins, like those that promote vascularization, to rebound in large numbers.
"A few of these proteins are of particular interest, and in the future, we may look at them as additional therapeutic and drug candidates," Conboy said. "But I would warn against silver bullets. It is very unlikely that aging could be reversed by changes in any one protein. In our experiment, we found that we can do one procedure that is relatively simple and FDA-approved, yet it simultaneously changed levels of numerous proteins in the right direction."
Source: Read Full Article


text:
Product Description
Kong Comfort Kiddos are ideal for doggie play and cuddle time.
Featuring a low tone bellow squeaker that pique a dog's curiosity and a removable squeaker for quiet time.
The squeaker is easy to remove, making it ideal for cuddle time, insert back into the toy for countless indoor play sessions.


text:
About This File
ct scans assignment - stl file processed
Have embodi3D 3D print this model for you. This file was created with democratiz3D. Automatically create 3D printable models from CT scans.
Body of vertebra, Superior vertebral end plate, Inferior vertebral end plate, Intervertebral disk space, Facet joint, Superior articular process, Inferior articular process, Transverse process, Spinous process, Pedicle, Sacroiliac joint, Sacrum, Sacral foramina, 3d, model, .stl, printable, bone


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By 10am I'd already broken a mug, stepped on Lego and lost the remote control amongst a sea of toys.
By 12pm I'd missed an important phone call, slipped in the shower, burned Tricky's lunch, thrown it out and burned the second lot too.
At 2pm we headed to the doctors for Tricky's one year immunizations.
Why do doctors surgeries insist on packing patients in to ten minute slots then spending half an hour with each person? Keeping a toddler amused for an hour in a place with no toys and three torn books is a particularly sadistic form of torture.
So we finally get in there to see the amazing doctor, Dr B, who first picked up Tricky's sagittal craniosynostosis. It was like a little reunion of sorts with lots of head feeling and progress updates. All good.
I decided to get the whooping cough booster for myself so the doctor flicked over to my file on the computer and a big alert popped up on the screen.
My breathe caught in my throat and my heart started racing. Or maybe it stopped, I'm not sure.
2009? TWO YEARS AGO? How come I'm only being told now?
The doctor searched through the entries on the computer, showing them all to me. And there it was. Abnormal result.
In early 2009 I was seeing one doctor, Dr H, weekly for allergy desensitization injections. Under one of those visits he has typed "discussed abnormal pap result".
Ahh, no. That was never discussed. I'm pretty bloody sure I would have remembered someone saying that. I mean, wouldn't you?
I've also been back since then for two pregnancies - one of which resulted in Tricky, a flu shot, to get my stitches checked after Tricks was born and when I had gastro. NOTHING was ever mentioned. Not once.
So here I am, a mere three months away from getting that lovely letter that says it's time for a Pap smear, to be told the last one, TWO WHOLE FUCKING YEARS AGO, was abnormal.
How does that happen? How can these things slip through the cracks?
I'm not panicking, well, not properly. I'm pretty sure I had an extra Pap Test when I had my first Obstetrician appointment and I'm going to assume that since I saw him so often during my pregnancy that he would have mentioned something. He would have... wouldn't he?
But there is that corner of my mind that is whispering dark thoughts to me when it's quiet. It's the same part that jumps to conclusions; the same part that thinks maybe the OB assumed I'd already been told; the same part that thinks I'm a shit magnet when it comes to incompetent doctors.


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Here is the story of Rabi'ah told in his own words: "I was still quite young when the light of eemaan shone th rough me and my heart was opened to the teachings of Islaam. And when my eyes beheld the Messenger of God, for the first time, I loved him with a love that possessed my entire being. I loved him to the exclusion of everyone else.
One day I said to myself:
'Woe to you, Rabi'ah. Why don't you put yourself completely in the service of the Messenger of God, peace be on him. Go and suggest this to him. If he is pleased with you, you would find happiness in being near him. You will be successful through love for him and you will have the good fortune of obtaining the good in this world and the good in the next.'
This I did hoping that he would accept me in his service. He did not dash my hopes. He was pleased that I should be his servant. From that day, I lived in the shadow of the noble Prophet. I went with him wherever he went. I moved in his orbit whenever and wherever he turned. Whenever he cast a glance in my direction, I would leap to stand in his presence. Whenever he expressed a need, he would find me hurrying to fulfil it.
I would serve him throughout the day. When the day was over and he had prayed Salat al-'Isha and retired to his home, I would think about leaving. But I would soon say to myself:
'Where would you go, Rabi'ah? Perhaps you may be required to do something for the Prophet during the night.'
So I would remain seated at his door and would not leave the threshold of his house. The Prophet would spend part of his night engaged in Salat. I would hear him reciting the opening chapter of the Qur'aan and he would continue reciting sometimes for a third or a half of the night. I would become tired and leave or my eyes would get the better of me and I would fail asleep.
It was the habit of the Prophet, peace be on him, that if someone did him a good, in turn he loved to repay that person with something more excellent. He wanted to do something for me too in return for my service to him. So one day he came up to me and said: 'O Rabi'ah ibn Kab.'
'Labbayk yaa rasoolullah wa sadark - At your command, O Messenger of God and may God grant you happiness,' I responded.
'Ask of me anything and I will give it to you.'
I thought a little and then said: 'Give me some time, O Messenger of God, to think about what I should ask of you. Then I will let you know.' He agreed.
At that time, I was a young man and poor. I had neither family, nor wealth, nor place of abode. I used to shelter in the Suffah of the mosque with other poor Muslims like myself. People used to call us the "guests of Islaam". Whenever any Muslim brought something in charity to the Prophet, he would send it all to us. And if someone gave him a gift he would take some of it and leave the rest for us.
So, it occurred to me to ask the Prophet for some worldly good that would save me from poverty and make me like others who had wealth, wife and children. Soon, however, I said:
'May you perish Rabi'ah! The world is temporary and will pass away. You have your share of sustenance in it which God has guaranteed and which must come to you. The Prophet, peace be on him, has a place with his Lord and no request would be refused him. Request him therefore, to ask Allah to grant you something of the bounty of the hereafter.'
I felt pleased and satisfied with this thought. I went to the Prophet and he asked: 'What do you say, O Rabi'ah?'
'O Messenger of God,' I said, 'I ask you to beseech God most High on my behalf to make me your companion in Paradise.'
'Who has advised you thus?' asked the Prophet.
'No by God,' I said, 'No one has advised me. But when you said to me, 'Ask of me anything and I will give to you,' I thought of asking you for something of the goodness of this world. But before long, I was guided to choose what is permanent and lasting against what is temporary and perishable. And so I have asked you to beseech God on my behalf that I may be your companion in Paradise.'
The Prophet remained silent for a long while and then asked: 'Any other request besides that, Rabi'ah?'
'No, O Messenger of God, Nothing can match what I have asked you.'
'Then, in that case, assist me for your sake by performing much prostration to God.'
So I began to exert myself in worship in order to attain the good fortune of being with the Prophet in Paradise just as I had the good fortune of being in his service and being his companion in this world.
Not long afterwards, the Prophet called me and asked: 'Don't you want to get married, Rabi'ah?'
'I do not want anything to distract me from your service,' I replied. 'Moreover, I don't have anything to give as mahr (dowry) to a wife nor any place where I can accommodate a wife.'
The Prophet remained silent. When he saw me again he asked: 'Don't you want to get married, Rabi'ah?' I gave him the same reply as before. Left to myself again, I regretted what I had said and chided myself:
'Woe to you, Rabi'ah. By God, the Prophet knows better than you what is good for you in this world and the next and he also knows better than you what you possess. By God, if the Prophet, peace be on him, should ask me again to marry, I would reply positively.'
Before long, the Prophet asked me again: 'Don't you want to get married 'Rabi'ah?'
'Oh yes, Messenger of God,' I replied, 'but who will marry me when I am in the state you know.'
'Go to the family of so-and-so and say to them: the Prophet has instructed you to give your daughter in marriage to me.'
Timidly, I went to the family and said:
'The Messenger of God, peace be on him, has sent me to you to ask you to give your daughter in marriage to me.'
'Our daughter?' they asked, incredulously at first.
'Yes,' i replied.
"Welcome to the Messenger of God, and welcome to his messenger. By God, the messenger of God's Messenger shall only return with his mission fulfilled."
So they made a marriage contract between me and her. I went back to the Prophet and reported:
'O Messenger of Allah. I have come from the best of homes. They believed me, they welcomed me, and they made a marriage contract between me and their daughter. But from where do I get the mahr for her?'
The Prophet then sent for Buraydah ibn al-Khasib, one of the leading persons in my tribe, the Banu Asiam, and said to him: 'O Buraydah, collect a nuwat's weight in gold for Rabi'ah.
This they did and the Prophet said to me:
'Take this to them and say, this is the sadaq of your daughter.'
I did so and they accepted it. They were pleased and said, "This is much and good." I went back to the Prophet and told him:
'I have never yet seen a people more generous than they. They were pleased with what I gave them in spite of its being little...Where can I get something for the waleemah (marriage feast), O Prophet of God?'
The Prophet said to Buraydah, 'Collect the price of a ram for Rabi'ah.' They bought a big fat ram for me and then the Prophet told me: 'Go to 'Aa'ishah and tell her to give you whatever barley she has.'
'Aaishah gave me a bag with seven saa's of barley and said,
'By God, we do not have any other food.'
I set off with the ram and the barley to my wife's family. They said: 'We will prepare the barley but get your friends to prepare the ram for you.'
We slaughtered, skinned and cooked the ram. So we had bread and meat for the waleemah. I invited the Prophet and he accepted my invitation.
The Prophet then gave me a piece of land near Abu Bakr's. From then I became concerned with the dunyaa', with material things. I had a dispute with Abu Bakr over a palm tree.
'It is in my land,' I insisted.
'No, it is in my land,' Abu Bakr countered. We started to argue. Abu Bakr cursed me, but as soon as he had uttered the offending word, he felt sorry and said to me: 'Rabi'ah, say the same word to me so that it could be considered as qisaas -just retaliation.'
'No by God, I shall not,' I said.
'In that case', replied Abu Bakr, 'I shall go the Messenger of God and complain to him about your refusal to retaliate against me measure for measure.'
He set off and I followed him. My tribe, the Banu Asiam, also set off behind me protesting indignantly: 'He's the one who cursed you first and then he goes off to the Prophet before you to complain about you!' I turned to them and said:
'Woe to you! Do you know who this is? This is As-Siddiq... and he is the respected elder of the Muslims. Go back before he turns around, sees you and thinks that you have come to help me against him. He would then be more incensed and go to the Prophet in anger. The Prophet would get angry on his account. Then Allah would be angry on their account and Rabi'ah would be finished.'
They turned back.
Abu Bakr went to the Prophet and related the incident as it had happened. The Prophet raised his head and said to me:
'O Rabi'ah, what's wrong with you and as-Siddiq?'
'Messenger of God, he wanted me to say the same words to him as he had said to me and I did not.'
"Yes, don't say the same word to him as he had said to you. Instead say: 'May God forgive you Abu Bakr.'" With tears in his eyes, Abu Bakr went away while saying:
"May God reward you with goodness for my sake, O Rabi'ah ibn Kab...
May God reward you with goodness for my sake, O Rabi'ah ibn Ka'b..."


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By Robine Jean-Pierre
Growing up, I heard Haitian Creole and English spoken interchangeably at home. My knowledge of Creole started off as a collection of simple words and phrases pertaining to cuisine, the household, and hygiene. Unfortunately, I soon developed the regrettable habit of hearing a question or statement in Haitian Creole and responding in English. As a result, I've always understood more Creole than I can actually speak.
Taking up French in sixth grade drastically increased my Creole vocabulary. Many people I've come across expected it to be the other way around–in other words, that knowing Creole first would have helped me learn French. (My eighth grade French teacher used to exclude me from competitive games during class because she thought I had an unfair advantage.) In truth, my analytical mind started to make connections between the original French terms and the cognates that derived from these. For example, du riz in French means "[some/of] rice" and I realized that this was where the Creole diri came from. (If you're interested in more on this, consider reading An Nou Palé – Let's Talk.)
By the end of high school, I had taken French for six years and Spanish for about two (just for fun, since I loved it so much), so that means I have four languages under my belt. However, I'd be lying if I said I could speak each one (aside from English) 100% fluently! This fact embarrasses me, and I often ask myself, Is it the flawed education system? Is it me? Did I ever really learn?
The answer is simple: PRACTICE. For all my theory and knowledge and textbook smarts, I have not always taken advantage of real-life opportunities to practice–and by this I mean live, on-the-spot, spoken communication. I figure that if I'm not speaking Creole as fluently as I'd like to, it's because of my own timidity, but most heritage speakers have the same struggle. I was always afraid that I would be mocked for pronouncing something wrong or fumbling a sentence, which kept me from trying. (Being condescending is somewhat ingrained in Haitian culture, so my fears were well-grounded.)
It bothers me that I am familiar, yet not fluent, with these three languages other than English (LOTEs); but what I need is to get bothered enough to actually do something about it. Plus, nothing pushes you more than having a sense of "need" rather than just "want." I've been considering multiple measures: getting language-learning apps like DuoLingo; finding friends who speak the desired language and striking up a conversation; and replying in Creole to my family's questions (which, of course, would take a whole lot of guts).
For French and Creole, especially, I know that most of the words are stored up in my brain somewhere, so it's just a matter of excavating them. My worst nightmare would be to lose what it took so many years to learn, especially since it's harder to learn new things as you get older. In the future, I hope to travel to communities that speak any of the three LOTEs, and be able to communicate comfortably. Languages are like keys that open the doors to other worlds, and I wish to hold onto those keys as tightly as I can.


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Foundas on Film: "Snow White and the Huntsman" & "Hemingway & Gellhorn"
The proverbial mirror on the proverbial wall in Snow White and the Huntsman looks more like a golden wok, and when the evil queen (Charlize Theron) stands before it, the thing turns into a smoldering mass of anthropomorphic goo, slithering across her chamber floor and reassembling itself into something like humanoid form. The talking goo reminds the queen that she will not remain the fairest in the land so long as her bothersome stepdaughter, Snow White (Kristen Stewart), remains among the living. Which, in turn, sends the queen into paroxysms of rage—the siren cry, if you will, of a Hollywood actress just this side of 40, gazing into her future.
There are a great many reasons to avoid seeing Snow White and the Huntsman, the self-consciously dark and brooding—and thuddingly lifeless—reworking of the Grimm fairy tale for the Game of Thrones era. But one of the few reasons to see it is Theron's grandiose turn as a woman desperately clinging to the vestiges of her fading beauty. When an actress goes this far out on a highly theatrical ledge—think Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest—critics are usually waiting with their penknives, ready to skewer the performance as camp. (At least one early Snow White review has already accused Theron of consuming all the scenery save for the mirror.) But given the scarcity of quality roles for women of "a certain age" in ageist, image-obsessed Hollywood, Theron's hyped-up histrionics struck me as close to documentary. Whether she's bathing herself in what looks like a medieval version of Oil of Olay or, in a nod to Colin Wilson's The Space Vampires, literally sucking the youth and beauty from the souls of innocent young maidens, there's a palpable despair underlying Theron's every action—the despair of any performer who fears becoming the next tenant of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Would that the rest—or, really, any—of Snow White and the Huntsman were up to Theron's level. Clearly modeled on that masterpiece of dirtied-up, revisionist mythologies, John Boorman's Excalibur, the movie is long on atmosphere—thundering armies of phantom soldiers who disintegrate into glass, darkly magical forests that reach out and touch you—but woefully short on characters whose imperiled destinies rouse even the faintest of concern. The director, Rupert Sanders, is an award-winning British commercials whiz making his movie debut, and he's clearly spent some time schooling himself on the work of another British commercials whiz turned Hollywood A-lister, Ridley Scott. It's a likeness underlined by Snow White's arrival in theaters on the doorstep of Scott's own Prometheus (also starring Theron). But oddly, the Scott movie Sanders seems to have studied the closest is the director's epic 1985 folly, Legend, with its new-agey hodgepodge of demons and goblins and Tom Cruise communing with a white unicorn. Here, in one of Sanders's more risible scene, Snow White gets up close and personal with a giant, antlered forest spirit, while all creatures great and small look on in awestruck wonder. You half expect someone to burst into song, until an errant arrow from one of the queen's henchmen spoils the trippy garden party.
Mainly, the movie unfolds as one big, long, and very dull chase, with the beautiful princess on the run from stepmom's minions, aided and abetted by the titular Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth of Thor fame), a not-too-bright bounty hunter who becomes a chain-mail Clyde to her enchanted Bonnie. And yes, there will be dwarves—a who's who of British character acting talent (Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, Nick Frost, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan), digitally reduced to miniature proportions and given almost nothing of consequence to do (disproving the old adage that there are no small parts). The movie pivots on the hoped-for chemistry between Stewart and Hemsworth, and while such things are ultimately in the eye of the beholder, I for one beheld nothing but a couple of kids dressed up for Halloween making unconvincing googly eyes at each other and spouting some of the most insipid romantic platitudes this side of the Twilight franchise. Hemsworth's Huntsman, supposedly traumatized by the loss of his wife, comes across about as grief-stricken as someone who's lost his car keys. Stewart's Snow White, meanwhile, pouts her lips, bats her bedroom eyes, and scarcely seems to have more on her mind than who might take her to the senior prom—let alone the destiny of an entire kingdom. Periodically, Theron resurfaces to inject the movie with her icy frisson. Was I alone in secretly rooting for her to vanquish the forces of good and continue her reign?
It's not even officially summer yet, but those already seeking refuge from the summer tent-pole doldrums need look no further than HBO to find the best movie not playing at any multiplex or art-house theater near you. The movie is Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Clive Owen as the poet laureate of frustrated American masculinity and Nicole Kidman as Martha Gellhorn, the lauded war correspondent who would become Hemingway's third wife. Separately and together, they covered the Spanish and Chinese civil wars, and made a go at something like domestic bliss in Cuba, which proved to be the most perilous combat zone of them all. "What's always appealed to me about life is what's happening on the outside—action," an aged Gellhorn, recounting her life story for a TV crew, remarks early on in Hemingway & Gellhorn, and it's the conceit of the film that Gellhorn was always more at ease on the front lines of global conflict than on those of la vie quotidienne.
Hemingway & Gellhorn was directed by Philip Kaufman, who has long been one of the great American filmmakers, but who has spent most of the last decade in retreat, unable to find a project worthy of his prodigious gifts or—more likely—backers willing to make those projects happen. He's the sort of director who's a true anomaly in today's Hollywood—a master group portraitist (his closest analogues are Robert Altman and Howard Hawks) who privileges character above plot and specializes in juxtaposing tightly knit circles of friends, artists, iconoclasts against the broader currents of social and political change. So Hemingway & Gellhorn (which was scripted by Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner) is a movie about its two title characters, but also a big, sweeping, richly satisfying survey of the times in which they lived and the other storied figures who drifted in and out of their tempestuous ecosystem.
They first spy each other in a Key West watering hole called Sloppy Joe's: he sidles up to her at the bar and she pulls out a review that praises her work at his expense. And that more or less sets the tone for all that follows—two lives entwined by physical passion and shared obsessions, torn asunder by competitiveness and petty jealousies. To Spain they go, where Hemingway lends a hand—and later his voice—to the anti-Franco propaganda film The Spanish Earth, made by the great Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens (well played, in an audacious bit of casting, by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich) in collaboration with the writer John Dos Passos (David Strathairn) and photographer Robert Capa (Santiago Cabrera). And later, to China, where they rub elbows with the warring ideologues Chiang Kai Shek and Zhou Enlai. In between, there is Cuba, where Ernest and Martha play at making their marriage work, and it is the only point at which Hemingway & Gellhorn itself feels less than fully vital. Like Gellhorn herself, the movie wants to be where the action is.
This kind of biographical film always faces the danger of having scene after scene of famous people meeting other famous people, but Kaufman deploys it all smoothly and effortlessly, bringing this heady world of revolution-minded artists and intellectuals to life as vividly as he did for the space-race pioneers of The Right Stuff and the Prague Spring lovers of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. In Cannes, where Kaufman's film premiered alongside another movie about the private lives of famous writers, Walter Salles's respectable but stolid On the Road, the disparity was acutely felt.
Owen makes for a fine Hemingway—suitably big and brash and drunk on ego, a whirligig of self-aggrandizement and self-destruction. But it's Kidman who's the real revelation as Gellhorn—a woman who practices sex as a kind of intellectual exercise, fiercely navigating her way through the male-dominated society of the era. It's a bold, full-bodied performance that ranks alongside To Die For, Dogville, and Margot at the Wedding as the riskiest high-wire work of her career. Kaufman does marvelous things with small supporting players, too, like the excellent Molly Parker as Hemingway's put-upon second wife, Pauline, who manages in a few short scenes to convey a poetic sense of a woman trying to tame a lion with a riding crop.
The movie is a triumph of visual imagination, too, finding all of its exotic locales in ingeniously repurposed parts of Kaufman's beloved San Francisco, and with marvelous visual effects that seamlessly insert the actors into real historical footage. When people lament the lack of sophisticated adult entertainment at the movies these days, Hemingway & Gellhorn is exactly the sort of movie they're pining for—and indeed, it's hard to imagine any major studio, or most independents, taking a chance on a project like this nowadays. Is this what Norma Desmond meant when she said that the pictures had gotten small?
Snow White and the Huntsman is now playing nationwide. Hemingway & Gellhorn is now playing on HBO.


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Festive Food Gift Options
The ever-popular gift certificate is an easy way to give the gift of delicious Hill dining
Capitol Hill staffers looking to buy gifts for the foodie friends and colleagues among them should look no further than a gift card to one of the many eateries around town.
And for those who want to help support — as well as show off — the ever-changing Capitol Hill neighborhood, there are a host of restaurants to satisfy every price range and palate.
From upscale haunts replete with D.C.'s movers and shakers to hole-in-the-wall joints bursting with flavor, we've compiled a list with our best picks for Hill dining.
Sonoma Wine Bar
For the wine enthusiast, a gift card to this Northern California-themed restaurant is the perfect selection.
Experienced wait staff can point diners to the right wine pairing from the dozens of domestic and Italian choices on their extensive list.
Diners looking to dabble can choose from three different wine flights chosen by Sonoma staffers. Fans of bubbly can choose the "tiny bubbles" flight of three sparkling wines; red wine connoisseurs can sample three red blends; and a staff-pick flight features favorites from the restaurant's menu.
Glasses are priced from $7 to $18, with bottles starting at $25 and peaking at $164. Dishes range from $10 — for personal pizzas — to $35 for a main course.
Gift card tip: A $25 gift card would buy a diner a few nice glasses of wine. Hike up the price to $75, and your recipient could splurge on dinner and drinks for two.
Location: 223 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
Contact: 202-544-8088; sonomadc.com
Ted's Bulletin
Breakfast lovers will dig Ted's Bulletin, a casual newspaper-themed restaurant on Barracks Row that's gotten considerable press after President Barack Obama dined there in August 2011.
Ted's is the place to go for breakfast-for-dinner enthusiasts, with favorites such as biscuits and gravy and stacks of pancakes, to the massive breakfast sandwich called the T.U.B.S. — short for Ted's Ultimate Breakfast Sammy — a fried egg, scrambled egg, sausage, bacon and cheddar sandwiched between two slices of thick Texas toast.
Homemade Pop-Tarts and boozy milkshakes are also fun choices for friends with a sweet tooth.
Gift card tip: Spend $25, and your diner could get a breakfast and milkshake and even splurge on a Pop-Tart to go. (They'd be too stuffed to enjoy it there.)
Location: 505 Eighth St. SE
Contact: 202-544-8337; tedsbulletin.com
Johnny's Half Shell
Perfect for the networkers in your social group, Johnny's is the place to go to brush elbows with political types.
The seafood restaurant is the locale of choice for lobbyists and politicians hosting fundraisers as well as grabbing a drink after work with colleagues, so Johnny's provides good people-watching and networking opportunities.
Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, Johnny's has many options to choose from, ranging from classic Maryland crab cakes to a fried oyster po' boy. Entrees don't come cheap, however, so for those on a budget, go for the happy hour menu with discounted food — such as fried calamari, raw oysters and a cheese plate — and drinks, including $8 cocktails and draft beers for $5.50.
Gift card tip: You'll need to give $100 for a dinner for two at Johnny's. But if you're on a budget, $25 would get the recipient an appetizer and a beer or two during happy hour.
Location: 400 North Capitol St. NW
Contact: 202-737-0400; johnnyshalfshell.net
Good Stuff Eatery
There are a lot of places to grab a burger in D.C., but pioneer Spike Mendelsohn's joint is one of the best.
Located just a stone's throw from the Capitol complex, Good Stuff is a favorite lunch take-out spot for Hill staffers, making this restaurant the perfect place to buy a gift card for an office Secret Santa.
In addition to tasty burgers and crispy fries, Good Stuff also serves up hand-spun milkshakes and classic root beer floats at wallet-friendly prices.
Burgers start at just $5.95, with the most expensive option an $8.50 "Big Stuff Bacon Meltdown," loaded with bacon and cheese on a double patty.
Gift card tip: A $15 gift card to this classic joint will keep you solvent and leave the recipient more than sated.
Location: 303 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
Contact: 202-543-8222; goodstuffeatery.com


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Stories to whisk you away…
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Nikki Gemmell is the best-selling author of thirteen novels and four works of non-fiction. Her books have been translated into 22 languages. She was born in Wollongong, New South Wales and lived in London for many years, but has now returned to Australia. Her distinctive writing has gained her critical acclaim in France, where she's been described as a "female Jack Kerouac". The French literary magazine Lire has included her in a list of what it called the fifty most important writers in the world – those it believes will have a significant influence on the literature of the 21st century.


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The enrolment is managed by paying the required fee directly at the terminals of the Studies and Examinations Department within the enrolment periods by using "Bankomat/Maestro/Credit"-card.
Applicants are guided after their positive admission procedure.
Enrolment from the 2nd semester
The online payment data for enrolment can be seen in the MedCampus student account --> menue "Studienbeitragsstatus". Therefore, please take care about your enrolment and pay the required fee for each semester within the enrolment periods!
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In case of missing the payment for enrolment within the required enrolment periods:
Admission, enrolment and MedCampus student account get closed! In order to continue studies a new application for admission with all required documents has to be submitted.
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Please notice that the Studies and Examinations Department and the MedCampus EDV-System use the student email addresses (firstname.lastname@example.com) to deliver @mail messages to its students.
Therefore it is obligatory to set up and check your student email account steadily.


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Lamborghini introduces limited edition Centenario Roadster
If you've been pining over a new Lamborghini, you're going to have to look for something other than this new roadster. Lamborghini introduced the limited edition Centenario Roadster at Pebble Beach this weekend and announced they will only be making 20 of these beautiful beasts. All of them have already been sold at a starting price of 2 million euros!
This follows the introduction of the Centenario Coupé, with Lamborghini unveiling its latest one-off creation for fervent collectors and enthusiasts at Monterey Car Week in California.
"Lamborghini prides itself on the relentless pursuit of experimentation. We are proud to unleash Centenario's further potential in the form of a classic roadster; the perfect harmony between innovation and timeless design. This unique engineering achievement is a befitting tribute to Lamborghini's extraordinary past and a preview of its brilliant future. Centenario Roadster embraces the cutting edge characteristics of its coupé sibling and embraces the freedom of a true open-top super sports car for a pure drive experience," said Stefano Domenicali, Automobili Lamborghini Chief Executive Officer.
It's not just a beautiful vehicle. The new Centenario Roadster also boasts a V12 naturally aspirated engine with 770 horsepower, the most powerful built by Lamborghini, with a weight to power ratio 2.04 kg/hp. The 20 buyers should have some fun with this one!


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Uber's business in Kenya said on Friday it will keep its fares unchanged for now, after associations representing taxi drivers in the country signed a deal giving guidelines for better fares and working conditions.
"As of today we will not be adjusting our fares as we are busy completing a deeper study of driver economics in light of the concerns and feedback that we have received from drivers to ensure that fares are correctly priced," a spokesperson for Uber Technologies said in an email to Reuters.
The Digital Taxi Association of Kenya, representing more than 2,000 ride hailing taxi drivers, signed a deal on Wednesday meant to give drivers higher pay and better conditions.
The drivers told Reuters they thought the deal would cushion them in the event of falling fares arising from discounts companies offers to passengers. They had staged a nine-day strike seeking higher fares and better working conditions.
As in other markets, these ride hailing services in Kenya initially faced opposition and sometimes hostility from other taxi drivers.
Kenya is Uber's second-largest market in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa. It competes mostly against its local rival Taxify, which has gained popularity in Nairobi in the past year and a half but does not disclose numbers of active riders and users.


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Hi and welcome to the Rokkor Files! The Rokkor Files began as a tribute to Minolta manual focus cameras, lenses and accessories, and if you came looking for this you have a treat in store. The Rokkor Files is a comprehensive resource for keen Minolta manual focus SLR users, with history, reviews and photographic tips for users of these great cameras.
The Rokkor Files is more than just this however. Progressively the Rokkor Files will grow to cover photographic tips and hints, modern gear and equipment use and reviews, and photography in general. I hope you enjoy your time here.
This site is copyright Chasing Summer Photography. Any use of text or images from this site without consent is prohibited.


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Rechercher une page de manuel
Langue: en
Version: June 5, 1996 (ubuntu - 24/10/10)
Section: 5 (Format de fichier)
xferfaxlog - HylaFAX activity logDESCRIPTION
The file etc/xferfaxlog contains information about inbound and outbound activities. The file contains one line per inbound or outbound call (except for facsimile documents retrieved by polling in which case multiple entries may be present for a single call). If the modem config setting LogCalls is set to true, then the file also contains one line per received call. Lines are fixed-format, tab-separated ASCII strings.Each record of a facsimile transmission is of the form:
date SEND commid modem jobid jobtag sender ``dest-number'' ``CSI'' params #pages jobtime conntime ``reason'' <null> <null> <null> ``owner'' ``dcs''
A facsimile reception record is of the form:
date RECV commid modem fax.tif <null> fax ``local-number'' ``TSI'' params #pages jobtime conntime ``reason'' ``CallID1'' ``CallID2'' ``CallID3...CallIDn'' <null> ``dcs''
Each inbound call record is of the form:
date CALL commid modem <null> <null> fax ``local-number'' <null> 0 0 jobtime conntime ``reason'' ``CallID1'' ``CallID2'' ``CallID3..CallIDn'' <null> ``dcs''
Each facsimile document retrieved by polling has a record of the form:
date POLL commid modem jobid jobtag sender ``dest-number'' ``TSI'' params #pages jobtime conntime ``reason'' <null> <null> <null>
An alphanumeric pager request has a record of the form:
date PAGE commid modem jobid jobtag sender ``dest-number'' ``<null>'' 0 0 jobtime conntime ``reason'' <null> <null> ``owner''
The following describes the fields in the above records:
- date
- The date and time of the transaction in the format MM/DD/YY HH:MM, where MM is the numeric month, DD the numeric day, YY the last two digits of the year, and HH:MM is the time in 24-hour format.
- commid
- The communication identifier for the call.
- modem
- The device identifier for the modem that was used to do the send or receive.
- jobid
- The job number for outbound calls.
- jobtag
- The client-specified job tag for outbound calls.
- fax.tif
- The associated recvq fax TIFF file for the event.
- sender
- The sender/receiver's electronic mailing address (facsimile receptions are always attributed to the ``fax'' user).
- dest-number
- The phone number dialed for outgoing calls.
- The Transmitter Subscriber Identification string (as received) for incoming calls.
- The Caller Subscriber Identification string of the remote machine (as reported) for outgoing calls.
- local-number
- The local phone number on which the data was received.
- params
- The negotiated facsimile session parameters used for transferring data encoded as described below.
- #pages
- The total number of pages transferred.
- jobtime
- The duration of the session; in the format HH:MM:SS. This time includes setup overhead and any time spent cleaning up after a call.
- conntime
- The time spent on the phone; in the format HH:MM:SS. This should be the time used by the PTT to calculate usage charges.
- reason
- A string that indicates if any problem occurred during the session.
- CIDName
- The received CIDName value for the session.
- CIDNumber
- The received CIDNumber value for the session.
- owner
- The login name of the job owner.
- dcs
- The T.30 DCS string that was used in the facsimile communication.
Note that fields may have embedded blanks. Session parameters are encoded as a decimal number that contains a packed set of Class 2 session parameter values. The format is: 2 bits for vertical resolution, 3 bits for signalling rate, 3 bits for page width, 2 bits for page length, 2 bits for data format, 1 bit for ECM use, 1 bit of BF use, and 3 bits for the min scanline time. The page counts are always integral numbers. Partial pages that are to be retransmitted are not included in the page count.
The simple ASCII format was designed to be easy to process with programs like awk(1).
The sender field does not necessarily represent the submitter's actual identity. For example, it reflects the value given by the sendfax(8) ``-f'' option. Be cautious that this field is not utilized for auditing if the fax user base is not trusted.BUGS
The date format will ``break'' in the year 2000. Information should be recorded on a per-page basis for facsimile communications.SEE ALSO
faxq(8) faxsend(8) faxgetty(8)Contenus ©2006-2024 Benjamin Poulain
Design ©2006-2024 Maxime Vantorre


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Certification services in infection prevention and control
To support owners and operators of all ship types and offshore units' in demonstrating proper prevention, control and mitigation of infection risk, DNV - Maritime has developed a suite of related services. A selection of the services are addressed below.
Certification in Infection Prevention-Maritime (CIP-M) programme
DNV Maritime in cooperation with DNV Healthcare, offers a Certification in Infection Prevention-Maritime (CIP-M) programme. The CIP-M programme is an evidence-based protocol providing a modern, comprehensive and practical certification framework to help companies improve their management of infection risk in the maritime setting. Through annual surveys on board and company audits ashore, DNV verifies that a company maintains a detailed operational plan in compliance with the CIP-M requirements. CIP-M certification for a vessel is a demonstration of proper prevention, control, and mitigation of infection.
The expertise
CIP-M builds on the existing Certification in Infection Prevention (CIP) programme requirements released by DNV Healthcare USA, Inc. for hospitals in January 2019. CIP is based on leading healthcare standards and guidelines, including those of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as the ISO 9001 Quality Management System standard. Other related national and local guidelines are considered, where applicable. When developing CIP-M, class requirements as well as statutory regulations were considered, along with the possibility to include emerging international and industry association guidance. CIP-M is customized for a vessel's reality, characteristics, and operations.
Since 2008, DNV Healthcare has accredited and/or certified more than 600 hospital facilities worldwide, with teams of experienced healthcare professionals including clinicians, experts in infection prevention, quality management, healthcare operations and environmental safety. Utilizing an alternative to traditional hospital accreditation by incorporating the ISO 9001 quality management system, DNV Healthcare has garnered extensive experience in infection risk management.
The value
For a vessel owner or operator, the certification, which is valid for three years, demonstrates an organizantion's commitment to prevent, control and mitigate infection risks vulnerabilities. It also supports an organization's efforts to build trust and confidence amongst passengers, crewmembers and other stakeholders. The CIP-M programme assists a company and its assets to be better prepared to address the challenges of today and any future emerging pathogens.
CIP-M crew and company training
Navigating the dynamic situation when a contagion presents, does involve many changes being implemented concurrently and on a very short timeframe. In order to achieve behavioural change and embed new processes, crews and company representatives must develop new competences. To support companies building awareness and understanding in the fundamentals of infection prevention and control, the existing DNV Healthcare training programmes have been adapted by Maritime Academy for use in the maritime industry. The Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Infection Prevention & Control training courses are available for relevant personnel, as well as a specific COVID-19 and Emerging Pathogens training course.
The courses can be delivered classroom style, or via flexible computer-based training (CBT) and short custom-made CBT modules can be created to reference a company's specific procedures, checklists and other assets. The CBT method incorporates psychological concepts such as gratification, reinforcement and gamification, and provides auditable records of successful training completion. The company's involved personnel onshore and onboard can be trained in accordance with their related activities and responsibilities.
Product assurance and certification
The market for infection prevention and control technology at this moment is developing rapidly (e.g., UV cleaning, antimicrobial surface coatings, HVAC equipment, etc.). Vessel owners and operators who choose to procure such items need to ensure that they are selecting the right products (equipment, systems) for the job at hand. Product Assurance and Certification is now available in this space through modified form of DNVGL-RP-A203 Recommended Practice for Technology Qualification, and in cooperation with Business Assurance.
The process involves a screening and categorization of a product performance claims, operational risks and which external parameters are important for proper functioning, followed by a critical review of existing evidence for the product's performance. A risk-based gap analysis is carried out to assess the uncertainties associated with the application of the product in the maritime environment, including an assessment against the relevant Class and Statutory requirements. Product certification on satisfactory completion of qualification or testing activities includes specification of approved service conditions and any maintenance, testing and inspection regime that may be required.
Product assurance and certification applies a systematic and documented approach to product selection for owners, through third party assurance to the decision-making process. It can also help product manufacturers build customer confidence in their products and get them accepted to the market for use.
For other related service possibilities, please contact your local DNV representative.


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ECU Repairs was founded in 1972 as one of the first UK remanufacturing specialists repairing the very first ecu's in the world.
We have since, adapted with technology to bring our most extensive services to both the trade and public customers. We are able to test, decode and remanufacture all ECU's including:
- ABS ECU's
- Air Bag ECU's
- Engine ECU's
- Dashboard / Comfort ECU's
- And more..
Please Note: We Give All Our Customers a full 12 Months Warranty.
We not only repair the ecu's but also carry a large number of units in stock ready to swap and are constantly updating our stock lists to hold the more in demand ecu's and offer our customers a wider range.
We have the latest in technology test rigs setup to extensively test all ecu's as though they were plugged in to the vehicle. We test all ECU units for up to 24-48 hours so we're able to verify every fault found and also catch out the intermittant faults and possibly any the customer was not even aware of.


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Folks, the following is an excerpt from a 2017 story in the Washington Blade, a newspaper for homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders in the nation's capital, regarding then-State Department spokesman and current Trump nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Heather Nauert.
Pro-LGBTQ activism and advocacy was a fixture of the Obama years, and social conservatives hoped it would stop under President Trump. Yet it persists, usually through official recognition of special LGBTQ activist "days" like this. Surely there are deep divisions within Trump's foreign policy team, which by definition includes many Obama holdovers, on whether and how strongly the United States should engage in pro-homosexual/-bisexual/-transgender advocacy of this sort.
When I first heard of Nauert's nomination, all I could think of was how bizarre it is that Nauert, just years from being a Fox News persona, would likely hold the same position as the esteemed Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan's steely UN ambassador, who played a pivotal role in facing down Soviet aggression and ultimately the fall of Soviet communism. Try as I might, I cannot imagine Kirkpatrick donning purple and hawking a pro-homosexual "Spirit Day." Let's just leave it at that. (The event is organized by the anti-Christian LGBTQ leftist group GLAAD.)
If Nauert becomes one of the world's most prominent international "gay/trans rights" advocates, it would be a significant betrayal of Trump's electoral mandate and a great victory for the powerful leftist social forces pushing American-style immorality on the world. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
From the Washington Blade (Oct. 19, 2017:
State Department Spokesman Acknowledges Spirit Day
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert on [Oct. 19, 2017] acknowledged a campaign that seeks to combat bullying.
Nauert at the beginning of a press briefing told reporters that "today, along with many of my colleagues here at the State Department, including members of the LGBTI community, in association with GLIFAA (a group that represents LGBT and intersex Foreign Service members), we are — many of us are wearing purple today to celebrate Spirit Day."
"On Spirit Day, we speak out against bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and intersex persons and stand with LGBTI youth who disproportionally face bullying and harassment because of their identities," she said.
Nauert — who was wearing purple — said LGBT and intersex people around the world "face increasing physical attacks, arbitrary arrests just because of who they are or who they love."
Read the rest of this article »


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A jury has awarded $14 million to a suburban Chicago woman who sued her doctor over a debilitating stroke she suffered after taking the birth control drug Yasmin.
Lawyers for Mariola Zapalski, of Elmwood Park, say the stroke occurred 13 days after she began taking the drug, paralyzing her left side and causing permanent brain injury.
Defendant Dr. Zbigniew (ZBEEG'-nyehf) Aniol declined to comment Saturday.
Friday's verdict came after a two-week trial in Cook County Circuit Court. A $2.5 million settlement in the same matter was reached a month ago with Resurrection Medical Center.
Drugmaker Bayer has also faced lawsuits from women claiming the contraceptive caused blood clots that led to serious health consequences.
The company stands by the drug and says it is safe if used as directed.
Date: April 19, 2014
Source: Associated Press


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Celebrated author Margaret Atwood challenges #MeToo's lynch mob justice
By Linda Tenenbaum
23 January 2018
The #MeToo witch-hunt has received another blow to its hysterical media-backed denunciations of prominent men in the arts and entertainment industries.
On January 13, Margaret Atwood, the 78-year-old, multi-award winning Canadian novelist, poet and literary critic published a forceful comment, entitled "Am I a Bad Feminist?" on Canada's Globe and Mail web site, opposing #MeToo and defending the right of every accused person to due process and natural justice. For this, she has faced a storm of feminist protest and concerted efforts to intimidate her into silence.
"The #MeToo moment," Atwood writes, "is a symptom of a broken legal system." She warns that if "the legal system is bypassed because it is seen as ineffectual, what will take its place? Who will be the new power brokers?"
#MeToo is a political movement that is being directed by the Democratic Party in the US, in order to exploit, for its own ends, what is a serious and complex issue. Its class nature is revealed in the methods it employs. #MeToo has already initiated trial by Internet, with the world's corporate media assuming the role of judge, jury and executioner, as, in Atwood's words, "stars fall from the skies." Anyone daring to disagree is treated as "an apostate, a heretic or a traitor." And punishment directly follows accusation, with no redress.
In her comment, Atwood mounts a direct challenge to the #MeToo movement's reactionary lynch mob justice.
"My fundamental position is that women are human beings, with the full range of saintly and demonic behaviours this entails, including criminal ones. They're not angels, incapable of wrongdoing. If they were, we wouldn't need a legal system.
"Nor do I believe that women are children, incapable of agency or of making moral decisions. If they were, we're back to the 19th century, and women should not own property, have credit cards, have access to higher education, control their own reproduction or vote. There are powerful groups in North America pushing this agenda, but they are not usually considered feminists.
"Furthermore, I believe that in order to have civil and human rights for women there have to be civil and human rights period, including the right to fundamental justice, just as for women to have the vote, there has to be a vote."
Atwood has put her beliefs into practice. In her Globe and Mail piece, she explains that in 2015-16, she publicly defended the rights of academic, novelist and friend, Steven Galloway, former chair of the University of British Columbia's (UBC) department of creative writing, against whom a number of accusations of sexual misconduct had been made.
"The university went public in national media before there was an inquiry," she writes, "and even before the accused was allowed to know the details of the accusation. Before he could find them out he had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
"The public—including me—was left with the impression that this man was a violent serial rapist, and everyone was free to attack him publicly, since, under the agreement he had signed, he couldn't say anything to defend himself."
More than 100 academics, novelists and writers joined Atwood in signing an Open Letter that protested his anti-democratic treatment at the hands of UBC. The letter insisted that the university's handling of the case was "contrary to the principles of fairness and justice," and emphasised, in bold type, "Justice … requires due process and fair treatment for all."
Despite the fact that an independent judge eventually declared the sexual misconduct allegations to be false, Galloway was sacked and his career ruined.
Nevertheless, Atwood's feminist detractors were outraged at the Open Letter and at her insistence on Galloway's right to due process. In her comment, she accused them of distorting and vilifying the letter, in a series of tweets, as a "War on Women."
Atwood's primary concern is to uphold the right to due process, that is, a guarantee that the rights of any accused are respected. This must include notification of any and all allegations and/or charges in advance of any proceedings, the right to answer such allegations, to have a fair and impartial hearing and to be treated throughout according to a transparent and established procedure.
Along with every other democratic right, all of the above are now being trashed. Not a single one of #MeToo's male victims has been accorded any substantive due process.
Unsurprisingly, Atwood's exposures enraged the #MeToo Twittersphere:
"Margaret Atwood asks: Am I a bad feminist? Yes when you prioritize your powerful male friend over sexual assault/harassment victims you are in fact a bad feminist."
"Just here to say I would rather eat my own computer and then my own face than read something by Margaret Atwood with the title 'Am I a Bad Feminist?'"
"Wish Margaret Atwood would get back to writing dystopian fiction about a misogynist world instead of, y'know, ACTIVELY CREATING IT."
"Instead of listening to a famous author w (sic) outdated white politics I'd rather uplift the voices of Black, Indigenous & POC women who know inclusive feminism & tackling rape culture. All authors do research. But Atwood needs some basic anti-oppression training."
The tone of these tweets reflects nothing so much as the unhealthy state of mind of their authors.
Many #MeToo advocates clearly feel that Atwood has betrayed them. Her 1985 novel, The Handmaid's Tale, suddenly leapt to prominence at the end of 2016, after Trump was elected US president. Due to the popularity of the book, and the Hulu TV series that followed it, she became the world's highest-selling novelist in 2017.
The first season of the Hulu TV series has already aired, with Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men) chosen to play the female lead. Both Moss and the series itself won Golden Globes at this year's awards ceremony, which was hijacked, to all intents and purposes, by #MeToo.
The #MeToo crowd seized upon The Handmaid's Tale as a feminist metaphor for today's "patriarchal" and "misogynist" world, with some even dressing up in the handmaids' TV series red cape to express their identification with its message.
But The Handmaid's Tale author and the cast of the Hulu TV series have a different view. They argue that the central theme is the disturbing trend towards oppression, dictatorship and the destruction of democratic rights. After last year's US presidential election, the TV series struck a powerful chord, particularly among young people, with many seeing it as a chilling anticipation of Trump's presidency and the moves of his fascistic and militarist regime towards authoritarianism.
Set in a fictional Republic of Gilead, a theocratic, totalitarian state, the story follows the experiences of its female lead after a violent coup has toppled the United States government, killing the US president, and members of Congress. An unspecified environmental catastrophe has rendered the majority of women infertile. Those who can still bear children are forced, as "handmaids," to become virtual sex slaves to powerful and wealthy men, who insist upon the production of their own progeny. They live desperately restricted lives, and are constantly monitored. Opponents, both religious and political, male and female, are brutally suppressed, executed, and strung up on the "Wall" as intimidating examples to would-be followers. A second season is about to begin.
At a Tribeca Film Festival after the series release last year, cast members shocked and infuriated numerous feminist fans—for whom The Handmaid's Tale has taken on virtual cosmic significance—by openly rejecting the "feminist" label.
Writing for online publication Vox, journalist Constance Grady reported that Moss had insisted, during a panel discussion, "Honestly, for me it's not a feminist story. It's a human story, because women's rights are human rights."
Actress Madeline Brewer, who also appears in the TV series, agreed. "I think this is a story about women and about humans … The three people hanging on the wall [in a scene depicting the aftermath of an execution] were all men. This story affects all people."
Having interviewed Atwood, Grady wrote that the author "generally frames The Handmaid's Tale as being a book about oppression and dictatorship first and foremost, one that just happens to look at how oppression functions through a woman's point of view.… The Handmaid's Tale shows the form that oppression takes for women, Atwood is arguing, but it could just as easily look at how oppression looks for a gay man, or a poor man."
The #MeToo feminist frenzy is a symptom of a broader assault on democratic and social rights in every country, affecting, above all, the working class and youth. The divisive, anti-democratic methods being employed against well-known men today are setting a definite precedent for the ruthless suppression of opponents of war, social inequality, fascism and dictatorship in the coming period. In her comment, Atwood compares the methods utilised by #MeToo to the Salem witchcraft trials, on the basis that the defendants in those cases, too, were "guilty because accused."
The author's experiences over the past two years indicate the intensity of the pressures confronting anyone wanting to oppose #MeToo's vile and slanderous witch-hunt. Atwood's preparedness, however, to take a principled and courageous public stand against both #MeToo and the conduct of University of British Columbia's Galloway case, should encourage others to do likewise.


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Is R. Kelly Living In His Chicago Music Studio?
R. Kelly received a visit from the Chicago Police Department on Wednesday (January 16), but it had nothing to do with the current criminal investigation launched against him.
According to TMZ, the cops arrived to the R&B star's music studio with the Cook County Building and Zoning Dept. for an inspection because he was allegedly using it as a residence, which is illegal since the building is industrially zoned. When they entered the warehouse, they found that there was not only evidence of him living there but also discovered work done inside that was completed without a permit. To make matter worse, the 52-year-old owes $166k in back rent and is facing eviction.
The city will file an amended complaint against R. Kelly for a future court hearing.
Aside from these legal troubles, R. Kelly is currently under investigation following the accusations made against him in Surviving R. Kelly. Investigators are said to be reaching out to survivors who participated in the Lifetime show, which tells the harrowing tale of seven women who endured sexual abuse at the hands of the singer spanning over two decades.
Since the docuseries aired, many of the singer's collaborators spoke out. The majority apologized working with him, though there are a few artists who have come to his defense.