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Can't stand the thought of another date you meet online? Don't worry, you don't have to put yourself out there again. If you let our expert Oakville matchmakers do the hard part of dating for you, you'll never have to sign up for another online dating site again. Luxury Introductions paves the way for hardworking professionals looking for a soul mate but who are unable to find them on their own. Our company has a long track record of success. We have thousands of happy couples and matches to back it up. Our company has been operating for nearly three years and have thousands of happy relationships under our belts.
Luxury Introductions has become the number one matchmaking service in Oakville because our matchmakers really care about each and every one of our clients. We get to know you personally and listen to you and what you want in a partner. We will then make introductions the old-fashioned way—using our matchmaking intuition and instinct. All our clients are 100% ready to start a relationship. They don't want to waste their time like people do on dating sites. If you're looking for a more dignified and personal way of meeting local singles, you'll love our service.
Our matchmakers here at Luxury Introductions will meet all your introductions in person, just like we do with you. This ensure you're meeting the type of people, the quality candidates you're looking for. You'll experience a professional matchmaking team that will be there with you from beginning to end. If you were wondering if there's an alternative to online dating, now you know there is—and just easy it is. Now is the time to take action, reach out, and speak to one of our dedicated matchmakers who will gladly answer any of your questions. Come in today and find your special someone. They're waiting for you in our database!
Let Luxury Introductions lead you on the right path on your dating journey. To get started and meet elite singles who are perfect for you, simply fill out the private form at the bottom of the page and one our matchmakers will be in touch with you shortly.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Chicken & Pumpkin
Choose the type of food that fits your dog's lifestyle and breed: puppy, adult or senior dog; small breed, all breeds or large breed. Each type of food is specially formulated to encourage your dog's optimal growth and development throughout its life, no matter its lifestyle. Special attention is given to the balance of minerals and vitamins in each of our dog food recipes, in order to help maintain your dog's health good on all aspects, from its intestines, to its teeth, nervous system, and brain.


text:
Shaping Skylines
China has emerged as one of the fastest-growing countries on earth. And along the way, Carrier has introduced the innovative and sustainable cooling solutions necessary to keep pace with the country's rapid expansion.
Shanghai, a financial and cultural center of China, is a powerful engine that helps fuel the rapid economic growth of the country – and Carrier is able to innovate as fast as one of the world's largest cities can grow.
Since introducing air conditioning to the Bank of China in Shanghai in 1937, Carrier has built a reputation for excellence and innovation. From airports to transportation systems, Carrier has worked with local businesses to create new infrastructure in Shanghai.
Today, government buildings, commercial facilities and transportation centers that utilize Carrier energy-efficient cooling products attract an ever-increasing number of tourists and business travelers to Shanghai. We are honored to be a part of a large number of landmark buildings that define the city's rapidly changing, iconic skyline – buildings such as Shanghai City Hall, the Shanghai International Financial Center, the Shanghai Futures Exchange Zhangjiang Data Center and Shanghai South Railway Station, to name a few.
As a company that recognizes the value and importance of natural resources and maintains a focus on sustainability and green building, Carrier is in position to assist with tailor-made, energy-efficient air conditioning systems, building controls and green building services for the vibrant and dynamic city of Shanghai, including those found in three of the Shanghai World Expo's five permanent venues.
Carrier's work in Shanghai is not yet done. We will continue to grow together. With the help of Carrier's automated building controls and green building consulting services, even more sustainable buildings will rise. People around the world will continue to look to Shanghai with wonder and amazement. And Shanghai will continue to turn to Carrier's innovation and expertise.
While it may be one of the largest in the world, Shanghai is just one of the many cities that trust their most advanced projects to Carrier – a company that is committed to shaping a better future, one skyline at a time.


text: Rockwell Automation is committed to the highest standards of ethics, integrity, and compliance. Our culture of integrity is a pillar of our global success and one of the key reasons we have been a respected business leader for over a century. It is another reason why we have been named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies on numerous occasions.


text:
Patrolmen Without Borders
A Commentary By John Stossel
If I drive across a U.S. border, I expect to stop at a Border Patrol checkpoint. But imagine driving to the grocery store, or Mom's house, well inside America, and being stopped by the Border Patrol. Many Americans don't have to imagine it -- it's how they live.
Even as the federal government fails to control the southern border, it sends the Border Patrol farther into the interior, where Americans complain that agents harass people who are already U.S. citizens.
It's legal. The Supreme Court ruled that the Border Patrol can set up "inland" checkpoints anywhere up to 100 miles from an external border of the United States. That's what government now considers a "reasonable distance" from the border.
But that means the zone within which you could be stopped and searched includes much of Florida and California, and all of Maine and New Hampshire. Two-thirds of America's population lives that close to the border.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer James Lyall argues, "Interior checkpoints fundamentally fly in the face of what it means to live in a free society, where you don't have to answer to federal agents when you're going about your daily business."
The Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol agents at these checkpoints can "conduct brief stops for the limited purpose of verifying residence status" but cannot "conduct searches of individuals or the interior of their vehicles." But the experience of members of my staff and videos on YouTube show that Border Patrol agents do exactly that. They often demand answers to lots of questions and search cars, too.
The reason these videos are posted on YouTube is because increasing numbers of Americans consider the searches unconstitutional. They refuse to answer the extra questions. Some refuse to roll down their windows. Then agents sometimes break the window. Sometimes they tase the driver.
Pastor Steven Anderson was stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint 60 miles from the Mexican border.
Officers say their police dog alerted them to something in his car, but Anderson says the dog never reacted to anything. Anderson wouldn't let them search his car, so officers broke both windows and tased him.
People in Arivaca, Arizona, 25 miles from border, told us that living there is like living in occupied territory. Apache helicopters fly overhead. Dozens of Border Patrol trucks cruise their streets. Children in Arivaca must go through checkpoints every day just to go to school.
"Agents tell people," says Lyall, "that all residents are suspect simply by virtue of living in southern Arizona."
The Border Patrol wouldn't respond to my questions about these issues, so Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., spoke up for them: "I'm not aware of any significant abuses. I'm on the Homeland Security Committee. If anything, the complaint we get is there's not enough strict enforcement."
He points out that "when people come into this country illegally, they don't stay on the border; they keep going."
That's true. But that doesn't justify harassing people who just want to drive home from work.
Rick Rynearson, an Air Force pilot who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told me he's furious about being repeatedly stopped. Once he was detained for over half an hour when, after answering 17 questions from agents, he refused to answer more.
I asked Rynearson: "Why not? The Border Patrol agents would say, come on, Rick, this is hardly a threat to your liberty. Just tell us where you're going."
But Rynearson told me he sees himself as "a person who's having to stop in the middle of a road, who's done nothing wrong, and finds himself surrounded by armed government agents with dogs."
As an Air Force pilot, Rynearson understands that protecting our safety and freedom sometimes requires a police presence or military action. But he offers this reminder: "Real freedom lies in the thin space that separates an American citizen from an armed member of their government."
Unfortunately, as domestic policing grows, that space gets thinner.
John Stossel is host of "Stossel" on the Fox Business Network. He's the author of "No They Can't: Why Government Fails, but Individuals Succeed." To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
See Other Political Commentary.
See Other Commentaries by John Stossel.
Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports. Comments about this content should be directed to the author or syndicate.
Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.
We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.
Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.
To learn more about our methodology, click here.


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The first pre-order of new 2015 club apparel has shipped and is now closed. But there is inventory on hand available for purchase. If interested, please contact Kermit Ganier by telephone at (310) 367-0458.
Welcome to the Voler Online Ordering System
The Los Angeles Wheelmen Bicycle Club has decided to use the Voler Custom Online Order System for collecting and processing your cycling apparel order. Please follow the steps below to place your individual order for inclusion in the overall club order.
1. Click on this link to access your club order site: Voler Custom Orders
2. Click on "LOGIN" to enter your Login/Billing Info. Click on "Create Account" to save the information and to create your new User ID and Password. You will automatically be directed to the home page for your club order. If you are a returning customer, please use your original Login and Password.
3. Click on "Begin Shopping" to gain access to the orderable products page. To place items in your shopping cart, click on the item you want to order, then the options you want to select, then the "Add to cart" button. You can choose to "View Your Bag" or "Continue Shopping" after adding each item. Repeat these steps for each item you want to order.
4. After placing the last item you want to order in your shopping cart, click on "View Your Bag" to display the items. Carefully review the items and make any necessary modifications or deletions. Because each item is custom built, refunds and exchanges will not be accepted. After you have confirmed your order is correct, click on "Proceed to Checkout" to complete the secure checkout process by entering your credit card payment information.
5. After you have completed the secure checkout process, an Order Confirmation will automatically be displayed and e-mailed to you for your records.
6. After the order deadline date has passed, you will no longer be able to access the order site. If you have not completed the checkout process for your order by this date, any items in your cart will be removed. The Order Deadline and the Order Ship Date are displayed on the order homepage. The Ship Date is the date that your order will be shipped from Voler.
Thank you for your order. If you have any questions, please call 800-488-6537 and ask for assistance from a Voler Customer Service Representative, or send us an email at email@example.com.


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Have you been told you have astigmatism?
Are constant headaches and eyestrain impacting your life?
Astigmatism is a common eye condition characterized by an irregular curvature of the cornea that causes blurry, fuzzy, or distorted vision.
While astigmatism can certainly be a nuisance, there is no reason to suffer from it. It can be easily corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses, or laser eye surgery.
For astigmatism treatment, contact Kivlin Eye Clinic in Menomonie today!
How We Can Help
- Come in for an eye exam and we'll determine what type of lens correction will offer you the clearest vision possible.
- We'll discuss all your treatment options so you can feel confident that you've chosen the best option for your visual needs and lifestyle.
- During your follow-up visit, we'll make sure that you're comfortable with your new eyewear and we'll check that your new lenses are providing you with crisp, clear vision.
4 Ways to Treat Astigmatism
Prescription eyeglasses
Mild to moderate levels of astigmatism can often be corrected with eyeglasses that contain a unique optical power (cylinder) to combat blurry vision caused by astigmatism.
Toric contact lenses
Toric contact lenses are customized to your corneal shape and contain varying corrective powers throughout the lens. These soft contact lenses provide clear, sharp vision for people with mild to moderate astigmatism.
Scleral contact lenses
Scleral contact lenses are ideal for moderate to severe astigmatism. These specialized rigid lenses are designed to arch over your irregular shaped cornea and rest on your sclera (the white part of your eye), to deliver clear vision.
Laser eye surgery
If you're looking to free yourself from eyeglasses and contact lenses, laser eye surgery offers permanent astigmatism correction. Candidacy for laser eye surgery depends on your age, and the type and severity of your astigmatism.
No matter your level of astigmatism, Kivlin Eye Clinic in Menomonie has the perfect solution for your needs.
Astigmatism Diagnosis Treatment FAQs
Astigmatism occurs when either the cornea or the lens inside the eye has mismatched curves, causing the eye surface to be egg-shaped rather than round.
While astigmatism causes blurry vision at all distances, it can also cause:
- Wavy or distorted vision
- Eye strain
- Headaches
- Squinting
- Poor night vision
If you have astigmatism, corrective lenses (contacts or glasses) specifically designed for astigmatic eyes are an effective way to correct your blurry vision. They contain your optical prescription along with a specific cylinder lens power to target astigmatism and provide you with crystal clear vision. Laser surgery is another effective option to correct astigmatism.
About 20% of babies are born with astigmatism. In most cases, it disappears by around age 5. In others, astigmatism can become permanent and even worsen over time, generally stabilizing once the eyes reach their adult size (at around age 20).
Your Astigmatism Treatment Specialist in Menomonie
Meet our Eye Doctors
- Monday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Wednesday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Thursday 8:30 am - 7:00 pm
- Friday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Saturday Closed
- Sunday Closed
- Medicare
- United Healthcare
- Aetna
- Cigna
- Spectera
- Superior Vision
- Davis Vision
- EyeMed
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield


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Welcome To Bottlestore.com
The Enduring Wholesale Resource
As one of the leading packaging solutions experts in the world, Bottlestore.com is the enduring wholesale resource for bottles, jars, and nearly every other container you could imagine. We specialize in furnishing small businesses, entrepreneurs, and burgeoning brands across a broad spectrum of industries with plastic, glass, metal, and an enormous variety of caps/closures. Our expansive inventory of Food / Beverage bottles and jars is unparalleled in the U.S. Our extensive array of packaging capabilities for cosmetic manufacturers in search of creative or eye catching containers is second to none. Small businesses from dozens of industries, motivated entrepreneurs, and ambitious startups rely on Bottlestore.com for premium packaging products, when quality standards can be nothing less than exceptional.
BottleStore.com strives to be the most comprehensive bottle and container resource available. We are here to make your search for high-quality packaging as simple as possible. We'll work with you every step of the way to ensure you are completely satisfied with your purchase. Our goal is to earn your business for the long haul.
Need a custom order? Our parent company, O.Berk, is the industry leader in designing, developing, and manufacturing custom packaging solutions. The O.Berk team of packaging experts are available ready to discuss your customization requests and help you reach your manufacturing milestones with each order.
What Do We Provide
Bottlestore.com is the most adaptive, reliable, and customer-service focused packaging solutions provider in the U.S. We provide an extensive inventory of glass, plastic, metal, and custom containers to support the production and packaging efficiency of countless retailers in the USA. Aside from delivering premium quality packaging products at wholesale prices, we provide our customers with over 100 years of expertise in the packaging industry. Our dedicated team of packaging experts specialize in working directly with brands of all varieties to deliver a perfect packaging solution, designed to support "the bottom line" while captivating consumers.
Speaking of the bottom line, Bottlestore.com prides itself on delivering the bottle or container you need, with the cap or closure you want. Our expansive inventory of caps and closures were selected based on the latest packaging trends and are ready to pair with your preferred container. Are you looking for innovative packaging design? You've come to the right place : we provide the inventory, expertise, pricing, and reliability you need to be successful in business. It's just that simple.
What Can You Expect From Bottlestore.com?
Aside from our first-class customer service and team of packaging experts who are ready to assist you, you can expect premium quality products at wholesale prices. With hundreds, upon hundreds, of in-stock and ready to ship containers to choose from - Bottlestore.com can deliver the packaging solution you need, when you need it.
Undecided between a few different products or closures? Not sure whether a particular product meets compatibility standards? No problem. BottleStore allows you to order samples for compatibility testing so you can have confidence of knowing your product will perform the way you need it to.
Who Buys From Bottlestore.com?
Our customers are as diverse as our inventory. From craft beer brewers, spirit distillers, beekeepers, farmers, juice makers, and beverage entrepreneurs to hot sauce specialists and an entire universe of small business owners - Bottlestore.com delivers packaging solutions to a broad spectrum of industries. We specialize in working with Food & Beverage manufacturers, Health & Beauty brands of all varieties, and companies which produce Industrial products or home goods. Discover the variety of speciality products we stock by visiting our Industry Catalog. Looking for something unique that doesn't fall within our current industry catalog? No problem. Contact us now - we can assist you with locating a product that suits your needs, within our existing in-stock inventory. Many of our customers come to us with in need of packaging solutions which can be quickly fulfilled - no other resource online maintains a larger, in-stock, inventory of ready to ship bottles, jars, jugs, and vials!
Leading Through Innovation
We are defined by our industry focused approach to packaging solutions. What does that mean? Whether you're looking for an ergonomically designed beverage bottle or a distinctive candle jar, we are committed to providing our customers with an in-stock and ready to ship inventory of containers, perfectly paired with caps or closures. Our extensive inventory of practical and affordable containers was selected by our packaging experts to help your business entice consumers and build brands. The versatility of our packaging solutions empower manufacturers with containers made from resilient materials. Our expansive inventory of plastic, glass, and metal containers are produced using the most reliable, time-honored and tested manufacturing technology - guaranteeing that each and every container reflects premium quality standards.
A Century of Packaging Solutions
As a division of the O.Berk Company, Bottlestore.com benefits from over a century of packaging industry expertise. Founded by Osias Berk in 1910, the O.Berk Company evolved over the past 110 years to become one of the leading wholesale container purveyors in the United States.
Experience is the best teacher, and you would be hard pressed to find a packaging resource with more industry specific experience than O.Berk and BottleStore.com. One of the distinctive qualities which sets O.Berk apart from other industry retailers is actually quite simple : adaptability. Despite the challenges of the past century, O.Berk has remained a resilient enterprise that supports countless businesses across the U.S.A. From humble beginnings in the 1900's, O.Berk has evolved to become one of the leading innovators in manufacturing custom packaging solutions.
Many O.Berk customers arrive with nothing more than a vision, which quickly becomes an iconic product that stands out on the shelf. Utilizing state-of-the-art technology to design packaging solutions and create custom containers, O.Berk can support enterprise product manufacturers as they strive to bring new product lines to market. If you're looking for an enterprise level partner with unsurpassed product customization and design capabilities, be sure to explore OBerk.com.
Looking Ahead to The Future
As thought leaders in the packaging industry, we are constantly striving to improve our products and packaging solutions to furnish business pioneers and innovators with the resources they need to grow. Consumers expect quality and innovation in just about everything they purchase, which is why we strive to provide products which reflect nothing less than impeccable and unwavering quality.
As the U.S. economy shifts in favor of sustainable packaging, creative containers that engage niche audiences, and delivery efficiency - Bottlestore.com is 100% committed to providing our customers with the packaging solutions that foster growth and meet tight manufacturing deadlines. We are adapting key areas of our supply chain management and warehouse logistics to ensure our customers can depend on our products for decades to come.
While we are a retailer of containers, adapting to market conditions and delivering practical business solutions is what we do best. We look to the future of the packaging industry with confidence, knowing that no matter how the manufacturing market pivots, or the expectations of consumers evolve, we will rise to any challenge and support the businesses who rely on us to be their packaging supplier.


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This contemporary geometric Moroccan Beni Ourain design rug is hand-knotted with an all-wool pile on a cotton foundation. This rug is new and in excellent condition.
- Pile: Wool
- Foundation: Cotton
- Weave: Hand-Knotted
- Background Color: Blue
- Border Color: None
- Other Colors: Black
- Size: 6'2" x 9'8"
- Origin: India
- Condition: Excellent
- Age: New
Moroccan rugs are recreated in the original style by skilled artisan weavers. These rugs are woven with a plush wool pile with classic patterns and styles inspired by nomadic Moroccan tribes.
* The images provided are as accurate as possible. Due to the differences in computer monitors, smartphones, and tablets, the rug's colors may vary slightly.


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Arm Enables Custom Instructions for Embedded CPUs
News highlights:
- Arm Custom Instructions enable partners designing SoCs to differentiate through optimization for specific embedded and IoT applications
- Architected to support intelligent and rapid development of fully integrated custom CPU instructions without software fragmentation
- Builds on key benefits of Armv8-M architecture including a strong software ecosystem, security and greater processing acceleration – with no additional costs
Arm TechCon, San Jose, Calif. – Oct. 8, 2019 – Today at Arm® TechCon 2019, Arm CEO Simon Segars announced Arm Custom Instructions, a new feature for the Armv8-M architecture. Arm Custom Instructions will initially be implemented in Arm Cortex®-M33 CPUs starting in the first half of 2020 at no additional cost to new and existing licensees, enabling SoC designers to add their own instructions for specific embedded and IoT applications without risk of software fragmentation.
"A world of a trillion secure intelligent devices will be built on a diversity of complex use cases requiring increased synergy between hardware and software design," said Dipti Vachani, senior vice president and general manager, Automotive and IoT Line of Business, Arm. "We have engineered Arm Custom Instructions to fuel closer hardware and software co-design efforts toward achieving application-specific acceleration while unlocking greater device differentiation."
The CPU: A chassis for Arm silicon partner innovation
Architected as part of the evolution of the Armv8-M architecture with secure Arm TrustZone™ technology, Arm Custom Instructions are based on a simple guiding principle; the CPU is a chassis for Arm silicon partner innovation. This approach gives chip designers the opportunity to push performance and efficiency further by adding their unique application-specific features into Cortex-M33 CPUs.
Arm Custom Instructions are enabled by modifications to the CPU that reserve encoding space for designers to easily add custom datapath extensions while maintaining the integrity of the existing software ecosystem. This feature, together with the existing co-processor interface, enable Cortex-M33 CPUs to be extended with various types of accelerators optimized for edge compute use cases including machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).
Greater ecosystem flexibility and differentiation
Arm Custom Instructions, combined with the recent introduction of Arm Flexible Access, underscore Arm's increased commitment to enhance silicon partner flexibility and differentiation in support of new edge computing opportunities in ML, AI, self-driving cars, 5G and IoT. Further strengthening this commitment, Arm will offer Custom Instructions as a standard feature in future Cortex-M CPUs, which are among the most successful Arm CPUs ever, having shipped in more than 50 billion chips from Arm silicon partners to-date.
Partner quotes:
"SoC vendors often need optimized tools to extend the capabilities of their designs without compromising on safety, security or the existing development tools investments such as IAR Embedded Workbench. Arm Custom Instructions provides them with a simple, but powerful mechanism for addressing their unique requirements while maintaining the integrity and efficiency of the processes already in place."
Stefan Skarin, president and CEO, IAR Systems AB
"Arm's new Custom Instructions capabilities allow silicon suppliers like NXP to offer their customers a new degree of application-specific instruction optimizations to improve performance, power dissipation and static code size for new and emerging embedded applications. Additionally, all these improvements are enabled within the extensive Cortex-M ecosystem, so customers' existing software investments are maximized."
Geoff Lees, SVP and GM of Microcontrollers at NXP®Semiconductors
"The world of one trillion securely connected devices poses several challenges to silicon designers due to the expanding demand for extremely energy-efficient devices. The introduction of Arm Custom Instructions in the Cortex-M portfolio will enable Silicon Labs to design systems uniquely optimized for specific tasks within a wide range of connected IoT devices."
Alessandro Piovaccari, chief technology officer, Silicon Labs
"ST's STM32 Arm-based microcontrollers are already at the heart of millions of smart objects in industrial, consumer and medical markets. The relentless demand for ever greater performance, power efficiency and security require an evolution of the design approach where hardware is designed alongside software from the beginning. With Arm Custom Instructions in future Armv8-M cores, Arm is enabling hardware/software co-design. This will in turn enable ST to bring additional differentiation and value to the next generation of IoT devices designed by our customers with the STM32 hardware, software and tools ecosystem, with features including optimized security and signal processing at core level."
Ricardo De Sa Earp, general manager of STMicroelectronics' Microcontroller Division
Any re-use permitted for informational and non-commercial or personal use only.


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Pesquisa de Desejos da Comunidade de 2015/Leitura
Faça a qualidade/confiabilidade de um artigo mais clara para o leitor
Atualmente, esboços de fora e predefinições adicionadas pelo usuário, não são a maneira de fazer a qualidade/confiabilidade de um artigo clara para o leitor casual. Este é um problema, dado o aumento da infiltração de spam e outros (veja en:User:Doc_James/Paid_editing). Uma solução seria a 1) habilitar dispositivos metadados para todos os leitores, por padrão, 2) desenvolver um script complementar, que também exibe (talvez a pedido, acessível a partir de uma barra de ferramentas ou cabeçalho) informações sobre o número de vigiadores, os principais contribuintes e, talvez, um dos inúmeros valores de confiança que são discutidos em vários trabalhos acadêmicos e 3) adicionar uma lista de verificação de artigo para problemas comuns - veja minha proposta abaixo). --Piotrus (talk) 05:21, 10 November 2015 (UTC)
Earlier discussion and endorsements |
- Support--Shizhao (talk) 09:30, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support This bit of literacy is incredibly important for readers - understanding that we have a process for creating content and quality Sadads (talk) 16:07, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Especially the number of watchers would be interesting and a decent simple measure of page quality. Is that number currently publicly available anywhere? Gap9551 (talk) 23:03, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support #1 only as it gives an overview of the article's quality pretty succinctly. I don't think readers generally would care about the number of watchers or the other info. Stevie is the man! Talk • Work 00:47, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support--Manlleus (talk) 15:40, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support -- SantiLak (talk) 10:47, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Halibutt (talk) 00:35, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Yeza (talk) 16:56, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Zamaster4536 (talk) 12:54, 6 December 2015 (UTC)
- Comment An interesting approach that could be investigated is providing automated metrics based on the age of the page, number of edits, number of contributors, shape of the distribution of number of edits by contributor and average size of edits by contributor, (c.f. xContribs), average age of words in the page, etc. This would be similar to the "factoids"/"in a nutshell" feature of OpenHub/Ohloh, e.g. https://www.openhub.net/p/mediawiki#factoids --Waldir (talk) 15:47, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Abyssal (talk) 16:49, 10 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Tgr (talk) 22:20, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
- Comment: (support) -- The user needs a simple (automated) facility to help them understand a significant number of issues (some listed above per Waldir) related to quality. When people ask me if they should trust Wikipedia, I try to remind them of how to assess trust in other areas of their life. This facility should seek to be an intelligent guide to trust; not a certification of correctness.
This might include tool-tip like cautions of the more significant issues for the article. Such a system should recognize the age and number of editor templates already on the article. When this system is implemented, the current editor templates should be disabled for IP readers but still appear for IP editing and for logged-in users.
Both the age and distribution distribution of references in the text affects current topics. However, the scoring must recognize that historical topics more than ~50 years old shouldn't discount quality because of non-current references.
SBaker43 (talk) 20:02, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
Mobile-friendly framework for multi-column portal and project pages
On many portals and WikiProjects, front pages are designed with a multi-column arrangement of boxes. This allows a neat and compact distribution of related and/or unrelated contents on large desktop displays. However, these designs unfortunately rely on wikitables as structural elements in the majority of cases and for this reason they are intrinsically incompatible with small devices. This is an experience from de-wiki, but I think the situation is not much better on other wikis (arbitrary portal examples with poor performance on mobile: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]; to test their mobile behavior, open these links in your webbrowser and resize the window width to smartphone dimensions).
There are many reasons for these poor results. Besides the fact that many portals have been established in a pre-mobile time, we still suffer from the unavailability of a frameset of easily comprehensive technical solutions to build mobile-friendly portal/project pages out-of-the-box without the need of complex CSS hacks. I would therefore propose to develop a framework, consisting mainly of CSS classes on a suitable site in Mediawiki namespace and therefore available for common usage, with the following properties:
- a flexible set of CSS classes, separated for style and positioning of content boxes; users can add classes to portal elements and define style and positioning by doing so
- boxes can be encapsulated by the usage of templates with parameters, which I think are better known to wiki users than plain HTML
- once compiled to a portal/project page, the box arrangement intrinsically adapts to display size, regardless of whether standard frontend, mobile frontend, or a Wikimedia app is used
- a detailed documentation including use cases will complement this frameset; an average wiki user shall be able to create a mobile- & desktop-friendly portal page
- bonus task: enable modern CSS techniques in portal namespace, like for instance media queries and whatever is useful; technically skilled users can enhance mobile and desktop experience by using this feature
—MisterSynergy (talk) 20:01, 11 November 2015 (UTC)
Earlier discussion and endorsements |
- Support MisterSynergy (talk) 09:08, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
- Support --g (talk) 15:13, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Not supportive, mostly because portals should more likely be deprecated as out-of-date and generally of poor quality. We are not hearing from many projects that use them, and they have been useless to readers for many years on (at least) several of the large Wikipedias. A bit of history: on Enwiki, portal creation became popular for a period because it was easy to develop a 'featured portal', and evidence of having contributed "featured content" was a relatively quick way to becoming an administrator. Those portals were then promptly ignored by their creators, and most have not been revised in years. While the motivation may have been different on other projects, it seems they are essentially historical artifacts today. Risker (talk) 23:02, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Comment I agree with Risker that portals should probably be decommissioned as they are hulks nobody has the time to work on, and I don't think they get much reader attention anyway. The true portals are the main subject articles themselves, because those are what people find when they search. WikiProjects, however, are the "portals" through which some editors go to find out how to help with particular subjects. I wouldn't oppose efforts to make them mobile-friendly, but I think the way to go is to provide a way of having alternative display code for mobile devices, rather than changing the designs of existing WikiProject pages. At any rate, many WikiProjects are short-staffed and will consider mobile access a low priority in my estimation. Stevie is the man! Talk • Work 12:32, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- I disagree with deprecating portals. They are a great way to show interesting things to readers. I have developed several sports portals in Spanish Wikipedia, with heavy use of random sections. Hey, nitable competitors appear on their birthdays!
- The problem with portals, other than lack of editors, is that we need to writhe the summaries of articlesvand update them manually. A nice tool would be insetion of page sections, therefore we could just insert the zero section. --NaBUru38 (talk) 04:05, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
- I would support some portal-like features built into main subject articles. The current separated portals are hulks that very few visit (I've looked at pageview stats) and almost nobody has the time to maintain. If we have to keep portals around, they need to be "advertised" better from main subject articles. Stevie is the man! Talk • Work 17:29, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support--Manlleus (talk) 15:41, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support —Beleg Tâl (talk) 17:02, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Oppose - Do many readers/editors using mobile phones want this? I've just looked at some of the above examples using a small laptop (large tablet) size screen and had no problems; the material may not have been laid out quite as neatly as on a larger screen, but you can't have everything. If this went ahead then either (1) existing projects/portals would need to be converted to the new system or (2) we would have a mix of projects/portals using the old and new systems - both would increase complexity for editors. Many projects have some tabbed pages that are pointless (or worse). DexDor (talk) 20:02, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support A nice first step would be optional linebreaks. If a row has two columns with an optional linebreak, the two boxes would appers side by side if the screen is wide, and top to bootom if the screen is narrow. --NaBUru38 (talk)
Reading List
Sometimes readers (but not ususally editors) stumble upon an interesting article and would like to read it later, maybe because they don't have enough time at that moment. That would be great if they could add it to their Reading List so that they wouldn't forget it! I know there are lots of ways to bookmark webpages (both by browser and online service providers) but this idea is worth considering.
4nn1l2 (talk) 10:28, 10 November 2015 (UTC)
Earlier discussion and endorsements |
- Support 4nn1l2 (talk) 02:59, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
- Support בנימין (talk) 07:37, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
- Support Ldorfman (talk) 22:23, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
- Support Alleycat80 (talk) 09:04, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Shizhao (talk) 09:31, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support -- AvatarFR (talk) 13:30, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support simple: non-watching watchlists. --Purodha Blissenbach (talk) 14:32, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Martinligabue (talk) 15:04, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support -- reader focused watchlists? Or something that entices these readers to engage the already available system, but make that list more visible? Public reading lists (maybe the books extension reoriented towards IPS?) could be a good social media tool as well, Sadads (talk) 16:09, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Urbanecm (talk) 17:46, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Wesalius (talk) 19:10, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Jules78120 (talk) 19:57, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Strongly oppose --Usien6 (talk) 20:52, 1 December 2015 (UTC) // Can be designed by the community as a "gadget" or browser extension: no reason to burden WMF with it. By the way, Safari is already shipped with such feature with the bonus of off-line caching and cross-client syncing. Actually, every major browser (and most of the minors...) have the bookmarking feature, which does the job pretty well. Seriously, guys...
- Oppose Redundant to the bookmark functionality in your browser and does not improve wiki content or editor productivity. And if you're on a public computer, improvise! A piece of paper, writing on your hand, sending an email to yourself, adding it to a wiki page/watchlist are all easy workarounds. MER-C (talk) 20:58, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Oppose Not related to improving and maintaining wiki projects. Easily done by browser, as mentioned before. Gap9551 (talk) 23:05, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Helder 23:40, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Comment If someone wants to develop a gadget or extension for this, that would be all right, but I don't see this going into the core wiki code. Also, Wikipedians can create a reading list on one of their user pages, prettied up using the Todo template if they like. Stevie is the man! Talk • Work 12:43, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Why not? Regards, Kertraon (talk) 13:19, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support--Manlleus (talk) 15:41, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support--MisterSanderson (talk) 01:00, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support YBG (talk) 06:36, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Rzuwig► 10:57, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Orbwiki107 (talk) 17:24, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support SantiLak (talk) 10:47, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Chenspec (talk) 21:16, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Lester לסטר (talk) 18:09, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Zamaster4536 (talk) 12:54, 6 December 2015 (UTC)
- Oppose per opposes above. Don't add unnecessary clutter to readers screens. DexDor (talk) 20:07, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Alkamid (talk) 22:33, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
Subpages: suppress links to ancestor pages
Wikibooks uses Subpages in order to structure a book in chapters. Wikiversity does the same for a course and lessons. Each subpage shows links to ancestor pages automatically. Nevertheless the authors offer to navigate between chapters and the content page using navigational templates. In these cases, you see the link to the ancestor page as well as the navigation bar -- e.g. b:en:Geometry for Elementary School/Introduction. I'ld prefer to suppress the automatically created link if a navigation bar is shown. Double information may disturb users.
Users: Wikibooks, Wikiversity and other projects that use subpages. Current situation: Links to ancestor pages can't be suppressed. Solution: Add a behavior switch __NOANCESTORLINK__
or something like that.
-- Juetho (talk) 10:45, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
Earlier discussion and endorsements |
- Support - This would be useful occasionally on English Wikipedia, too - for example, there is no reason for Talk:P/poly (the talk page of the P/poly complexity class) to link to Talk:P (the article being about the letter). עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 21:21, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
- Support, and only with the magic word or a comparable feature that works page-by-page. Having it added automatically by algorithm (e.g. "if the page displays X, don't display the ancestor page") would risk its omission by a false positive, but merely making it suppressible page-by-page wouldn't be a problem. If a project needs to remove ancestor links from a whole batch of pages, it can run a bot to add the magic word to the pages in question. Nyttend (talk) 21:49, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
- Support using magic words, with a wiki-by-wiki default setting variable, for wikis like Wikiversity where these links tend to be unhelpful. --YodinT 02:43, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Shizhao (talk) 09:31, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Oppose or make it a user preference option with appropriate wiki-wide default. I !@:#\ things being too different between wikis I am using. --Purodha Blissenbach (talk) 14:30, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Oppose --Usien6 (talk) 20:55, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Oppose Helder 23:40, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support per Nyttend. Stevie is the man! Talk • Work 12:49, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Oppose -- Overall wiki navigation should remain consistent throughout. Navigation templates can be redesigned or moved to resolve this issue. -- Dave Braunschweig (talk) 22:20, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support--MisterSanderson (talk) 01:00, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
- Support Juetho (talk) 07:32, 8 December 2015 (UTC) -- I dont't want a wiki-wide way to suppress these small links. I only want a page-by-page option set by an author manually.


text:
Former science minister Yoshiaki Takaki and other top ministry officials decided to withhold radiation forecast data from the public four days after the March 11 disasters triggered the nuclear crisis, an internal document shows.
Takaki, lawmakers serving as top ministry officials and senior bureaucrats decided March 15 to withhold data about the predicted spread of radioactivity, including an assumption that all radioactive material would be discharged from the crippled reactors' cores at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The prediction of the spread of radioactive substances, compiled through the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI), "could by no means be released to the public," the document, dated March 19, shows.
Continue reading at Ministry hid data on fallout from public


text:
German Homeschoolers Asylum: Home School Legal Defense petitions US Supreme Court
PURCELLVILLE, Va., Oct. 10, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ — Today the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is filing a petition with the United States Supreme Court to hear Romeike v. Holder, the German homeschooling asylum case.
In April 2013, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sustained the Obama Administration's revocation of asylum granted to the family in 2010.
The original immigration judge, Lawrence O. Burman, granted the Romeike family asylum on January 26, 2010, under the Federal Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) because Germany's national policy of suppressing homeschooling violated their religious faith and because German authorities were improperly motivated to suppress homeschoolers as a social group.
In its ruling against the Romeikes, the Sixth Circuit rejected the judge's findings, stating that Germany's harsh treatment of homeschoolers did not amount to persecution and that the German authorities were not motivated by an improper purpose.
HSLDA Chairman and principal author of the petition, Michael Farris, said that the Court should intervene for the sake of justice.
"The United States should be a place of asylum for those who are persecuted because of their decision to follow their core religious beliefs," he said. "Parents, not the government, decide first how children are educated. Germany's notorious persecution of families who homeschool violates their own obligations to uphold human rights standards and must end."
Farris argues that there is a clear split in the treatment of human rights standards among federal circuits and that there is confusion among the circuits about how to determine when a law that applies to everyone and doesn't appear discriminatory can still be used to persecute certain groups.
"In virtually all other circuits," Farris said, "the Romeikes' chances of success would have been decisively higher. But in this case, the Sixth Circuit created a new standard that dramatically departs from its own, as well as the Supreme Court's, jurisprudence in U.S. asylum law. The Supreme Court needs to settle this area of law."
This case is important to HSLDA's mission to advance freedom for persecuted homeschoolers, said Director of International Relations Michael Donnelly.
"Germany's clear violations of human rights standards in the area of homeschooling have been going on for over a decade," he said. "German authorities recently seized the Wunderlich children and are prosecuting others — seeking outrageous jail terms — just because of homeschooling. Germany's repression of homeschooling freedom is infecting other European nations and our country should send a message that the United States will provide a refuge for victims of persecution even from ostensibly free democratic countries like Germany."
Without minimizing the reality of physical persecution and other types of human rights violations in other countries, HSLDA argues that the imposition of crushing fines, seizure of children, and disproportionate criminal penalties over homeschooling amount to persecution. The brief argues that the German Supreme Court's explicit approval for unequal treatment of homeschoolers for religious or philosophical reasons clearly violates human rights standards that the United States must recognize.
The petition places considerable reliance on the statements of the highest courts in Germany that explain that the purpose of the repression of homeschoolers was to prevent "religious and philosophical minorities" from developing into "parallel societies."
Human rights standards make it plain that, although a nation may require compulsory attendance and may impose reasonable rules related to educational quality, no nation my exercise philosophical control over a child's education contrary to the parent's beliefs. "These human rights protections were written in response to Germany's practices in the Nazi era," Farris added. "It is impossible to distinguish the German desire for philosophical conformity today from that of the 1930s. Children do not belong to any government in any decade."


text:
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text:
A simple extraction is a removal of a tooth without the need to cut into the gum. The most common reasons for tooth extraction is removing seriously damaged teeth because of tooth decay, a fractured or broken tooth or it may also be necessary to reduce dental crowding or the risk of infection and in the case of preparing for a denture.
After the tooth extraction procedure
Will I be in pain?
It is likely that there will be some discomfort and swelling both on the inside and outside of your mouth after extraction/surgery. This is usually worse for the first three days but it can take up to four weeks before all the soreness disappears.
You may need to control the pain with tablets. If these have not been prescribed, you can use pain killers you would normally use if you had a headache. Follow the dosage recommended on the packet. If antibiotics have been prescribed, please ensure you finish the course.
What about bleeding?
When you have any teeth removed you are left with a hole (tooth socket) in your jawbone. At first a blood clot forms, before healing over completely.
If bleeding occurs when you go home, apply pressure on the tooth socket with a clean, damp rolled piece of cotton/linen handkerchief. Try this for the first 30 minutes. If bleeding does not stop, please telephone the surgery. If the surgery is closed call the emergency dentist telephone number Emergency Appointment. Keep biting on the handkerchief until you have spoken to or seen the dentist.
Can I eat or drink after treatment?
Try not to eat or drink if possible until after the numbness has worn off. It is advisable to eat on the opposite side of your mouth to the extraction site. For the first 12 hours (after the numbness has worn off) avoid hot drinks (which can break down the clot). Take only warm liquids or soft foods.
Can I smoke or drink alcohol?
It is advisable not to smoke or drink alcohol for at least 24 hours after the extraction. Smoking can prevent healing and cause bleeding to start.
What do I need to do at home?
When you have had a tooth out you must look after the area to speed healing and to reduce the risk of infection. It is important to keep the extraction site as clean as possible for the first few weeks after surgery. It might be difficult to clean your teeth around the sites of the extraction because it is sore.
The day after your extraction you can start using a warm salt water bath to help reduce the risk of infection. Dissolve a teaspoon of salt in a cup of warm water, hold a mouthful in your mouth for about 30 seconds so that the solution floods to the extraction site, then spit it out and continue in the same way until you have used the entire cup. You can do this after every meal or two to three times a day. Keep using the salt water until the extraction socket has healed. Do not use mouthwash as this may harm newly growing cells.
Will I have any problems?
It is uncommon to get an infection, particularly if good oral hygiene is maintained after surgery. If you are worried about infection, the signs would be a raised temperature, a nasty taste in the mouth, increased pain and severe swelling around the extraction site. If you experience any of these, it is important to contact us as soon as possible.


text:
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Put simply, you should choose ICP Networks to provide your HPE networking solutions because you can trust us.
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text:
The national conversation over health care reform has once again reached a fever pitch, resulting in a government shutdown for 16 days earlier this month. Even after the shutdown and a rocky start to the law's online-enrollment feature, Americans remain divided. Some want to move ahead with Obamacare, emphasizing the shortcomings of the current health care system in the United States.
Indeed, many facets of the American health system were (and still are) dysfunctional. Reform is necessary. In the ongoing critique of our health system, though, we should keep in mind one area where American health care has led; namely, innovation. This innovation is a result of our nation's laws protecting intellectual property and our health system that reward new, valuable ideas.
A 2009 study showed that American scientists won the Nobel Prize in 33 of the previous 40 years, whereas scientists from the entire rest of the world won it in only 25 out of those 40 years (the prize is often shared). Additionally, of the world's top 27 drugs and devices, U.S. physicians, companies and scientists had a hand in developing 20 of them, whereas Europeans only had a hand in 14.
Is this because of Americans' exceptional natural intelligence? Is it a result of our world-class public education system? Clearly, it is not.
Rather, America's free-enterprise system attracts the brightest minds from all over the world. These minds know that their contributions will be rewarded in markets — or discarded in socialist or government-run economies.
A key element is that American patent laws protect the intellectual property of health care innovators. Patents on pharmaceuticals allow companies to recoup their investments in research, development and trials to reach final products. Patents on medical devices do the same. This is critical, because the main cost of creating these new treatments isn't in their production, but in their development. Without these protections, the incentive to innovate would be drastically reduced.
Policymakers overlook this key factor in our medical system at our peril. Our innovations in health care save and enrich lives throughout the whole world, especially when other nations respect our intellectual property as well.
Sometimes, other nations steal American ideas. For American policymakers, stopping this theft — which sometimes results in the peddling of ineffective or even harmful counterfeit drugs — should be a priority. We should encourage countries throughout the world to adopt laws that protect the rights of innovators and the safety of consumers from counterfeit medicines. This way, American innovations can spread to the rest of the world without being misrepresented or misused.
Understanding the economics of health care innovation is also important as policymakers consider prices in medical care. Particularly if the federal government moves forward with micromanaging more and more of the medical system, it will be tempting for it to try to squeeze money out of the system through price controls. Yet the prices we pay for drugs and treatments must reflect the full costs and continued investment that health care companies make during development.
Policymakers have already given in to the temptation of trying to take more from the supposedly deep pockets of health care companies by singling them out for additional taxes. The medical-device tax included in Obamacare, for example, targets not just profits, but sales of medical devices with a 2.3 percent excise tax. This is counterproductive for our economy and nation's health, since many medical-device manufacturers will pass along the cost of this excise tax to consumers.
Manipulating prices through regulations and excise taxes is a dangerous game. Instead of interfering, government should take a step back and allow competition to reward insurers, providers and innovators who provide the highest value.
America's health care system needs reform. Yet when doing so, we should take care to preserve what's best about our health care system, such as our leadership in medical innovation, and consider how to create incentives for greater innovation and efficiency.
Obamacare takes us in the wrong direction, toward even more government meddling and greater inefficiency. That's why we need to restart the reform process and consider how we can truly create a system that helps those in need to access care, but also encourages dynamism and innovation. It's not just our health, but the health and well-being of the whole world that hangs in the balance.
Hadley Heath is a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women's Forum (iwf.org).


text:
There has been robust debate about what Tuesday's municipal election in Ocean City is all about.
The council majority members up for re-election, Jim Hall and Joe Hall, say it's the money and keeping the direction of the city on a "conservative" track. While acknowledging the importance of fiscal responsibility, the non-majority incumbent members, specifically Doug Cymek and Mary Knight, say it's more about pride and character of the town.
To us, it's about leadership, and the council majority in power now in Ocean City clearly does not know how to lead. It's not just a few mistakes in judgment here and there. Its constant errors and costly gaffs that make the majority look completely inept on all fronts.
The majority's idea of leadership is to make decisions with an iron fist without any effort at all at consensus building. When challenged, as evidenced by several notable confrontations in council chambers, some members even show their anger with a beyond reproach mentality.
The most obvious example of pitiful leadership was what ensued during and after the removal of former City Manager Dennis Dare. A "different direction" was the party line response for months after Dare's removal. Only with an election looming and Dare entering the council race did the litany of reasons then surface, most of which had to do with alleged insubordination. That would be a valid reason to terminate a city manager, as the individual works for the council and takes orders from the elected officials. However, that was not the reason given initially. Instead, we were told he's a great leader, swell guy and the majority just wants a new direction, one that ultimately cost almost $300,000 to execute when the retirement package with Dare and finding his replacement were tabulated. All of this to keep the town on a so-called conservative track, which the majority maintains has only come about since October of 2010 when Councilman Brent Ashley unseated former Council President Joe Mitrecic.
Additionally, what we recall most about the city manager removal process comes from the day the surprise council meeting was held and the council majority informed minority members Doug Cymek, Mary Knight and Lloyd Martin — as well as minority friendly Mayor Rick Meehan — that Dare was going to be canned. He was actually told retire or be fired. Before, during and after the meeting, we were at City Hall, trying to confirm whether Dare's days were done in Ocean City. While waiting to see if any official would comment in the parking lot, two council majority members — Brent Ashley and Joe Hall — were seen having a good laugh during a conversation. This was minutes after a 29-year city employee — 21 years as city manager — was terminated. Nobody should be laughing about that or anything else minutes after making that decision, no matter how radically different your views on government may be. That was significant.
To us, the notion that this council is conservative is what's laughable. The opposite of conservative is radical, which is how we would describe this council majority, and it's a time for a change. The city needs to be cleansed of these power mongers. Individually, we like each of the majority members, but they as a governing group have embarrassed Ocean City.
The council majority had no idea what the next step was after Dare was removed beyond the assumption that Public Works Director Hal Adkins would take the job. He didn't because it was not going to be by a unanimous vote. In his letter to the council, he also said the hot political theater was not comfortable for him at that time, leading to a city manager search process that was also disturbing on some levels.
There's no better example of how the council majority is not conservative than the dysfunctional manner in which sweeping changes were introduced to pay and benefits changes. We actually think a couple of those ordinances were smart business moves for the city, but again the majority had no idea how to conduct the process of getting them approved. Instead, the ordinances were brought forward and only four of the 11 actually made it to law. A majority member even later said in a council meeting it was a good thing some of them were vetoed and that it was expected not all of them would pass. Why introduce them then?
The council majority does not get any credit for reining in spending from us. The total budget in 2010 was $112 million and in 2012 was $114 million, down from a high of $121 million in 2008. For perspective, the budget back in 2000 was $67 million. The general fund budget has declined from a high of $80 million in 2009 to $75 million in 2010 to $73.8 million in 2012. Back in 2000, the general fund budget was $40.6 million.
In fact, yes we believe the city was spending way too much money in 2008 and we called for a major change at the time in how the city was operating, specifically suggesting each department should have its spending cut by 5 percent, or come to the council prepared to go to the mat to defend why it can't be done. That didn't happen but some major changes were made, hiring and salary freezes, eliminating a day of trash collection, doing away with shift differentials, increasing eventually the bus fare, dropping its recycling program and closing a division of the costly public works department.
The city was headed in the right direction and many of these changes should have been made prior, but they were not. However, neither were they advocated in a successful way by some of the majority members. The city's budget had a lot of fat, no question, and it should not have been there. There is plenty of blame to go around there. However, changes were being made ahead of the devastating assessment cycle that hit Ocean City with a $10 million-plus drop in property tax revenue over a three-year period.
The council majority took over power after all those spending decisions were made and has reaped the benefits of the budget declining consequently. We do not believe any single decision made by the council majority has saved the city any money. Even if there are a couple sources of savings that may be realized eventually, they are wiped out by all the other decisions that have cost the city so much in financial resources.
Along with the fiscal realities comes a tremendous loss of community pride as we see it. As a whole, the residential and business community does not trust this council and that's because of the way the council majority chooses to govern — with a take it or leave it mentality that's above any sort of questioning and an approach that's not rooted in reality. That has to end.
Another example of how dysfunctional the council majority is came during the last labor contract negotiation with the police officers. Along with prematurely abandoning all subcommittees, sans the Police Commission which is mandated by charter, the council decided the entire body should handle union contract negotiations. What happened was no council member was actually involved in the process. The attorneys discussed the specifics and then reported back and forth between the FOP and the city. The end result a stalemate. Did the council majority meet with the FOP to discuss matters and try to reach a deal? No because there is no leadership whatsoever. The council majority requested Doug Cymek, Mary Knight and Lloyd Martin meet with FOP leadership, for whatever reason, probably because majority members knew they could not get the deal done. That meeting took place at Denny's and 90 minutes a later a two-year deal was in place and the FOP agreed to no pay raises and benefits changes for those two years.
More dysfunction was seen in the city budget process. If the council majority was truly interested in cutting expenses and being "conservative", members would have been all over Mayor Rick Meehan's budget, which he created with city staff while acting as city manager after Dare was removed. By the way, he served in that capacity for 10 months. Yes, it took almost a year to replace Dare, who was getting paid his full salary for most of the time by the way because of the way in which he was removed. Again, no idea on how to govern and leadership flaws exposed.
The city's budget process was a sham. The city's department heads were not permitted to present their usual detailed overview of spending and the process was rushed and hurried and it was clear this was a rubber stamp, but it should not have been. Instead of telling all department heads they needed to cut spending by say 2 percent across the board and saving money — a concept we find would be consistent under the "watch the money" ideal — the council majority said basically nothing. Instead, they at the last minute said let's cut the tax rate a penny by taking money out of the reserve fund and throw city employees a rawhide bone in the form of a bonus — both blatant election year moves that could have been achieved by instituting budget cuts or coming up with new revenue sources.
More judgment issues have arisen in recent weeks with ads painting incumbents Cymek and Knight, as well as Dare and Mitrecic, as in bed with the union man. It's just a ridiculous ploy to try and fool the voters. We hope they don't buy it because it's not true. Cymek and Mitrecic are against the union effort by the employees, while we suspect Dare and Knight are as well, but they don't want to say it. The ads show desperation because the majority members up for re-election — Jim Hall and Joe Hall — understand well they have upset more people over the last two years than they have made happy. Muddying the waters by distorting the facts and providing inaccurate information are signs of desperation.
This council majority makes us uncomfortable with their recklessness, and we think the community deserves better leadership. That's above all why we think incumbent council majority members Jim Hall and Joe Hall, the two most veteran political members of the majority, should not be re-elected. We like Jim Hall and Joe Hall on an individual basis and we think their policies could benefit the town. Their lengthy service shows they care about Ocean City and want what's best for their hometown community. They just don't know how to carry out their visions for the town in a way that makes them amenable to others, and we think each have made major errors in judgment over the last two years that concern us for the days ahead.
As we look ahead to the future, the city is going to need to find new revenues to continue to combat falling property tax revenue. New money along with more cuts is the only way to cope with falling property tax revenue, which make up a majority of the city's cash flow.
The town's strategic planning initiative, led by City Manager David Recor, will go a long way toward figuring out new revenue options. We like this concept that Recor is pushing a lot and we think it's a worthwhile use of city time and funds. The city needs a guiding set of concepts and principles to follow that will eliminate personalities, politics and petty differences.
No matter what happens next week, the strategic plan will professionalize city government at the council level. Every decision will have to be consistent with the strategic plan or it will have to be reconsidered. This will make for a mature council and a professional process. We look forward to seeing that happen, no matter the outcome on Tuesday.
The following are our endorsements:
Rick Meehan is the easy choice here over an overmatched opponent. His knowledge of how Ocean City government operates is unsurpassed and his consensus-building approach serves him well as the town's chief public figure. Perhaps for the first time ever in his 27-year political career, Meehan was powerless to stop decisions he thought ill-advised over the last two years, but he showed he was a team player and can put Ocean City first when he assumed the role of acting city manager for 10 months. By all accounts, he performed admirably and played a critical role in keeping government on track and calming the concerns of city employees during a time of turmoil.
City Council
Doug Cymek: He deserves a second term and is arguably the most prepared council member for the weekly meetings. He studies the issues, talks with city department heads routinely and researches matters to an extensive degree. His small business background makes him particularly keen to revenues and expenditures and the importance of keeping spending in check. His forte is public safety and that's why he was instrumental in getting the latest union contract between the city and the FOP completed when court appeared certain. He has proven worthy of another term.
Dennis Dare: The former city manager will bring an in-depth knowledge to the council that should prove to be a tremendous addition. We expect Dare will be one of the more reserved council members and not one to speak a lot at meetings, but he will be a voice that will be listened to and respected when he speaks. It's important to be well-versed on all aspects of the city as a council person and Dare will be able to step directly into office and not need that year of transition that newcomers usually require to get familiar with their roles. He will be invaluable when it comes to offering historical insights that may be needed for the entire council to make wise decisions, and his budget experience will help during that process. Dare will be a solid addition to the council.
Mary Knight: Over the last six years, she has been perhaps the most high-profile elected official, besides the mayor. We think it's a good thing for city elected officials to be invested in their community, and Knight is certainly that. She attends a wide variety of community functions and that gives her a perspective on what residents have on their minds at all times, not just election years. She is smart and adept at researching matters that come before the council and is also one who likes to delve deep into matters presented at council meetings. Her communication skills and role in the community make her a valuable member of the council, and we think she should serve another term.
Joe Mitrecic: When he lost two years ago, we wrote in this space, "The significance of this election is huge. Whether it was necessary or not, change is here. The council dynamics will be altogether different in the coming months. Whether that's beneficial or detrimental will be determined over the long term." Indeed, Mitrecic's loss was regrettable, and we would like to see him return as a councilman. Behind what many perceive as a stern demeanor is a man who cares tremendously about the overall community. He despises what has transpired since he left office and he is looking to restore some credibility to the council that is lacking currently. His professional, workmanlike approach will help the city and his experience working on budgets and as a former council president will allow him to serve the town well again.
While we understand why they want organization rights after the last two last years, we say no to the general employees' effort to get union rights.
The employees are right to not trust the current council, but union rights are not necessary. They also understandably want to be treated as other employees in town who have union representation, but union dues will put a true hardship on some employees' take-home pay and the cost will most likely not be necessary if voters provide a mandate for change from the current ways.
Rather than vote for the union referendum, we would advise voters to support the candidates we have endorsed because we think they will restore the employees' trust in their government, making organization unnecessary.


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Lady Gaga had friends in high places to help her secure a gay pride gig in Rome.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the State Department, particularly U.S. ambassador to Italy David Thorne, was "instrumental in sealing the deal" for the pop idol to perform at an LGBT rally on June 11 called Roma Euro Pride.
"And then there is the work that our embassy team in Rome has been doing," Clinton said at a State Department news conference. "Two weeks ago they played an instrumental role in bringing Lady Gaga to Italy for a Euro Pride concert.
For the event, Gaga sang at Rome's ancient Circus Maximus before marching in a gay pride parade through Rome, according to The Associated Press. She called herself a "child of diversity" and lamented that young people who are gay are susceptible to "suicide, self-loathing, isolation."
Clinton said that Thorne had personally sent a letter to the Queen Monster about the rally.
"Now as many of you know, Lady Gaga is Italian-American and a strong supporter of LGBT rights," Clinton said. "And the organizers of the Euro Pride event desperately wanted her to perform and a letter to her from Ambassador Thorne was instrumental in sealing the deal."
The singer's fans sounded thrilled to see her in Rome, as the crowd screamed when she stepped on stage with a flowing patterned skirt and bright green bob. She played "Born this Way" and "The Edge of Glory," both from her new album, solo at the piano.
The news conference was hosted along with Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) in honor of Gay Pride month.
Selected Reading: The Associated Press, CNS News, Entertainment Weekly


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LSU coach Ed Orgeron says most LSU football players have caught and recovered from COVID-19.
Orgeron says that gives him hope that much of his roster will be eligible play for at least the bulk of the season before Southeastern Conference protocols would require them to test for the virus again.
The SEC currently does not require players who have recovered from COVID-19 to be tested again for 90 days because of antibodies developed while fighting it off.
Orgeron says he doesn't know the precise percentage of players who've had the virus.
He didn't go into detail about whether they've had symptoms or discuss the larger implications of an outbreak on his team.


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Chapter IV.
A virgin at Antioch, having refused to sacrifice to idols, was condemned to a house of ill-fame, whence she escaped unharmed, having changed clothes with a Christian soldier. Then when he was condemned for this, she returned and the two contended for the prize of martyrdom, which was at last given to each.
22. There was lately at Antioch a virgin who avoided being seen in public, but the more she shrank from men's eyes, the more they longed for her. For beauty which is heard of but not seen is more desired, there being two incentives to passion, love and knowledge—so long as nothing is met with 377which pleases less; and that which pleases is thought to be of more worth, because the eye is not in this case the judge by investigation, but the mind inflamed with love is full of longing. And so the holy virgin, lest their passions should be longer fed by the desire of gaining her, professed her intention of preserving her chastity, and so quenched the fires of those wicked men, that she was no longer loved, but informed against.
23. So a persecution arose. The maiden, not knowing how to escape, and afraid lest she might fall into the hands of those who were plotting against her chastity, prepared her soul for heroic virtue, being so religious as not to fear death, so chaste as to expect it. The day of her crown arrived. The expectation of all was at its height. The maiden is brought forward, and makes her twofold profession, of religion and of chastity. But when they saw the constancy of her profession, her fear for her modesty, her readiness for tortures, and her blushes at being looked on, they began to consider how they might overcome her religion by setting chastity before her, so that, having deprived her of that which was the greatest, they might also deprive her of that which they had left. So the sentence was that she should either sacrifice, or be sent to a house of ill-fame. After what manner do they worship their gods who thus avenge them, or how do they live themselves who give sentence after this fashion?
24. And the virgin, not hesitating about her religion, but fearful as to her chastity, began to reflect, What am I to do? Each crown, that of martyrdom and that of virginity, is grudged me to-day. But the name of virgin is not acknowledged where the Author of virginity is denied. How can one be a virgin who cherishes a harlot? How can one be a virgin who loves adulterers? How a virgin if she seeks for a lover? It is preferable to have a virgin mind than a virgin body. Each is good if each be possible; if it be not possible, let me be chaste, not to man but to God. Rahab, too, was a harlot, but after she believed in God, she found salvation.32343234 Jos. ii. 9. And Judith adorned herself that she might please an adulterer, but because she did this for religion and not for love, no one considered her an adulteress.32353235 Judith x. This instance turned out well. For if she who entrusted herself to religion both preserved her chastity and her country, perhaps I, by preserving my religion, shall also preserve my chastity. But if Judith had preferred her chastity to her religion, when her country had been lost, she would also have lost her chastity.
25. And so, instructed by such examples, and at the same time bearing in mind the words of the Lord, where He says: "Whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it,"32363236 S. Matt. x. 39. she wept, and was silent, that the adulterer might not even hear her speaking, and she did not choose the wrong done to her modesty, but rejected wrong done to Christ. Consider whether it was possible for her to suffer her body to be unchaste, who guarded even her speech.
26. For some time my words have been becoming bashful, and fear to laud on or describe the wicked series of what was done. Close your ears, ye virgins! The Virgin of God is taken to a house of shame. But now unclose your ears, ye virgins. The Virgin of Christ can be exposed to shame, but cannot be contaminated. Everywhere she is the Virgin of God, and the Temple of God, and houses of ill-fame cannot injure chastity, but chastity does away with the ill-fame of the place.
27. A great rush of wanton men is made to the place. Listen, ye holy virgins, to the miracles of the martyr, forget the name of the place. The door is shut within, the hawks cry without; some are contending who shall first attack the prey. But she, with her hands raised to heaven, as though she had come to a house of prayer, not to a resort of lust, says: "O Christ, Who didst tame the fierce lions for the virgin Daniel,32373237 Dan. vi. 22. Thou canst also tame the fierce minds of men. Fire became as dew to the Hebrew children,32383238 Dan. iii. 27 [50]. the water stood up for the Jews, of Thy mercy, not of its own nature.32393239 Ex. xiv. 22. Susanna knelt down for punishment and triumphed over her adulterous accusers,32403240 Hist. Sus. 45. the right hand withered which violated the gifts of Thy temple;32413241 1 [3] Kings xiii. 4. and now thy temple itself is violated; suffer not sacrilegious incest, Thou Who didst not suffer theft. Let Thy Name be now again glorified in that I who came here for shame, may go away a virgin!"
28. Scarcely had she finished her prayer, when, lo! a man with the aspect of a terrible warrior burst in. How the virgin trembled before him to whom the trembling people gave way. But she did not forget what she had read. "Daniel," said she, "had gone to see the punishment of Susanna, and alone pronounced her guiltless,32423242 Hist. Sus. 46. whom the people 378had condemned. A sheep may be hidden in the shape of this wolf. Christ has His soldiers also, Who is Master of legions.32433243 S. Matt. xxvi. 53. Or, perchance, an executioner has come in. Fear not, my soul, such an one makes martyrs. O Virgin! thy faith has saved thee."
29. And the soldier said to her: "Fear not, sister, I pray you. I, a brother, am come hither to save life, not to destroy it. Save me, that you yourself may be saved. I came in like an adulterer, to go forth, if you will, as a martyr. Let us change our attire, mine will fit you, and yours will fit me, and each for Christ. Your robe will make me a true soldier, mine will make you a virgin. You will be clothed well, I shall be unclothed even better that the persecutor may recognize me. Take the garment which will conceal the woman, give me that which shall consecrate me a martyr. Put on the cloak which will hide the limbs of a virgin, but preserve her modesty. Take the cap which will cover your hair and conceal your countenance. They who have entered houses of ill-fame are wont to blush. When you have gone forth, take care not to look back, remembering Lot's wife,32443244 Gen. xix. 26. who lost her very nature because she looked back at what was unchaste, though with chaste eyes. And be not afraid lest any part of the sacrifice fail. I will offer the victim to God for you, do you offer the soldier to Christ for me. You have served the good service of chastity, the wages of which are everlasting life; you have the breastplate of righteousness, which protects the body with spiritual armour, the shield of faith with which to ward off wounds, and the helmet of salvation,32453245 Eph. vi. 14–17. for there is the defence of our salvation where Christ is, since the man is the head of the woman. and Christ of the virgin."
30. Whilst saying this he put off his cloak. This garment has been up to this time suspected of being that of a persecutor and adulterer. The virgin offered her neck, the soldier his cloak. What a spectacle that was, what a manifestation of grace when they were contending for martyrdom in a house of ill-fame! Let the characters be also considered, a soldier and a virgin, that is, persons unlike in natural disposition, but alike by the mercy of God, that the saying might be fulfilled: "Then the wolves and the lambs shall feed together."32463246 Isa. lxv. 25. Behold the lamb and the wolf not only feed together but are also offered together. Why should I say more? Having changed her garment, the maiden flies from the snare, not now with wings of her own, seeing she was borne on spiritual wings, and (a sight which the ages had never seen) she leaves the house of ill-fame a virgin, but a virgin of Christ.
31. But they who were looking with their eyes, yet saw not, raged like robbers for prey, or wolves for a lamb. One who was more shameless went in. But when he took in the state of the matter with his eyes, he said, What is this? A maiden entered, now a man is to be seen here. This is not the old fable of a hind instead of a maiden, but in truth a virgin become a soldier. I had heard but believed not that Christ changed water into wine; now He has begun also to change the sexes. Let us depart hence whilst we still are what we were. Am I too changed who see things differently from what I believe them to be? I came to a house of ill-fame, and see a surety.32473247 The soldier who remained in the place of the virgin is spoken of as being her "surety." And yet I go forth changed, for I shall go out chaste who came in unchaste.
32. When the affair was known, because a crown was due to such a conqueror, he was condemned for the virgin who was seized for the virgin, and so not only a virgin but a martyr came forth from the house of ill-fame. It is reported that the maiden ran to the place of punishment, and that they both contended for death. He said: "I am condemned to death, the sentence let you go free when it retained me." And she replied: "I did not choose you as my surety on pain of death, but as a guarantee for my chastity. If chastity be attacked, my sex remains; if blood is sought, I desire none to give bail for me, I have the means to pay. The sentence was pronounced on me, which was pronounced for me. Undoubtedly, if I had offered you as security for my debt, and in my absence the judge had assigned your property to the creditor, you would share the sentence with me, and I should pay your obligations with my patrimony. Were I to refuse, who would not judge me worthy of a shameful death? How much more am I bound where there is a question of death? Let me die innocent, that I may not die guilty. In this matter there is no middle course; today I shall either be guilty of your blood or a martyr in my own. If I came back quickly, who dares to shut me out? If I delayed, who dares acquit me? I owe a greater 379debt to the laws who am guilty not only of my own flight, but also of the death of another. My limbs are equal to death, which were not equal to dishonour. A virgin can accept a wound who could not accept contumely. I avoided disgrace, not martyrdom. I gave up my robe to you; I did not alter my profession. And if you deprive me of death, you will not have rescued but circumvented me. Beware, pray, of resisting, beware of venturing to contend with me. Take not away the kindness you have conferred on me. In denying me the execution of this sentence, you are setting up again the former one. For the sentence is changed for a former one. If the latter binds me not, the former one does. We can each satisfy the sentence if you suffer me to be slain first. From you they can exact no other penalty, but her chastity is in danger with a virgin. And so you will be more glorious if you are seen to have made a martyr of an adulteress. than to have made again an adulteress of a martyr."
33. What do you think was the end? The two contended, and both gained the victory, and the crown was not divided, but became two. So the holy martyrs, conferring benefits one on the other, gave the one the impulse and the other the result to their martyrdom.
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