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Donations To CMRF
Financial Aid for Medical
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The Chief Ministers Office has declared Section Officer, CMRF as an Information Officer, and Joint Director, Funds and Accounts as Appellate Officer. You are requested to send your RTI appeals to these officers.
The contact addresses are provided in the Contact us section of this website.
It is requested that the applications for information on specific subjects pertaining to Ministries or Departments may be sent directly to the Public Information Officer of the concerned public authority so that the requests can be timely attended to.
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Office Address: : Office of Honourable Chief Minister Of Maharashtra, 6th floor, Main Building, Mantralaya Mumbai - 400032PH. No. - 022 22026948


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It could have been worse, much worse.
In 2013, when the team at Orangetheory was debating how to create a special Fall workout program, they were looking for inspiration. For a while it seemed like the Navy SEALS' Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training seemed like a good place to start. Long recognized as one of the toughest physical and mental training regimens in the world, the program routinely washes out 75% of the elite warriors who sign up.
Thankfully, the Orangetheory team kept looking elsewhere.
"It was apparent we needed to dig deeper and create the ultimate challenging week that members would talk about throughout the year," said John Driscoll, Director of International Fitness. "We spent hours searching the internet for ideas that represented a challenging and demanding week."
Eventually, the focus turned to horror movies, particularly ones with "hell" in the title, and culminated in the concept of Hell Week — a name that sounded intentionally intimidating yet intriguing enough to keep members curious. In the years that have followed there have been other signature workouts added to the Orangetheory repertoire, such as DriTri and All Out Mayhem. But Hell Week was the first.
True to its moniker, the gauntlet of five workouts — with themes inspired by popular scary-movie classics like "Death Row," the first-ever 23-minute rowing block, and "The Hills Run Red," a series of rising inclines — was designed to be far more intense and exhausting than standard classes.
As menacing as that might sound, every workout, whether it incorporates the treadmill, rower or weight floor, was also constructed to be accessible by, and personalized for, both OTF veterans and newbies.
And fun. Although physically taxing, the classes were always meant to be fun, reminds Vincent Emanuele, Orangetheory's Workout Design Specialist, and survival isn't as daunting with the proper mental preparation.
"You take them at your own pace," Emanuele said. "The difference (with Hell Week workouts) is that the design of them is a little bit more elaborate, but there's nothing that says you have to go and work at a certain level you're not comfortable with."
From the very beginning, Hell Week has generated a buzz among members and quickly shattered previous attendance records. Worldwide, it's remained one of the most popular and anticipated programs on the Orangetheory calendar; studios display Halloween decorations, waiting lists overflow with names and many locations operate at full capacity, from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., throughout all eight days.
Halloween has always been a special time at Orangetheory studios, even before that first Hell Week.
"We wanted to make it like the members were out trick-or-treating," Driscoll said, recalling the pre-Hell Week era. "All members would reach into a pumpkin, pull either a 'trick' or 'treat' and perform whatever was on the paper. This was a favorite among the members, as it was different and exciting at the same time."
During the debut of Hell Week, participants needed to attend a minimum of four classes in five days to complete the challenge and earn a T-shirt commemorating the accomplishment. In year three, 2016, the requirements were adjusted to five workouts during an eight-day span.
"It became so popular that members felt a bigger sensation to complete all eight days," Driscoll said. "We kept it at eight days and will continue to do so. Eight days allows rest and recovery, and members are still able to achieve the five classes needed for the shirt."
That annual giveaway has become a coveted collectors' item, as many finishers have accrued all five versions released to date and proudly share photos on social media. The 2017 edition, depicting a skull with Orangetheory logos in place of eyes and orange beads of sweat streaming down its forehead, swelled in popularity. Based on overwhelmingly positive feedback, the design team reintroduced the premise in 2018.
After crafting the 2018 concept — the silhouette of a cranium comprised of inspirational messaging wrapped around spaces for the eyes and nose — Brian Monaco, Orangetheory's graphic designer, paid close attention to the facial expression he wanted to present on the 2019 shirt.
"My goal was to create a skull that you can connect with," he said. "He has a little smirk on his face, almost like, 'I'm intimidating, but you've got this. Yes, this is kind of scary, but you can definitely do it.'"
Detail-oriented members may also notice a familiar graphic, prominent on studio decals and performance-summary emails, concealed in the design, Monaco teases.
"Our iconography set has a bunch of symbols in it, including the 'burn' symbol, which is a flame. That flame icon is actually the shape of the Hell Week logo for this coming year," he said.
"You'd be surprised at what people have done for that T-shirt," Emanuele said with a chuckle. "People change their schedules around so they can get that T-shirt. People call out of work all the time … or get a babysitter for an hour so they can get to class."
"It's the Super Bowl for Orangetheory for a week in the studio," he said. "Each year, we have to kick it up a notch and try to top it from year to year. We always unveil something new."
For Hell Week 2019, the design team first met almost a year prior. "Watching our dreams evolve into reality has been an exciting experience. The result from that meeting was a handful of 'first-evers' in Hell Week history, including a full TV series concept, a first-ever 'To Be Continued' template and a couple of new designs." Said Caitlin Donato, Workout Design Manager.
While workout titles continue to play off recognizable horror motifs, coinciding with the increased propensity for TV binge-watching, the workouts in 2019 followed a narrative structure comprised of storylines unfolding over the length of Hell Week's Season Six.
"The workouts are meant to build on each other, almost like you're watching a series," Emanuele said, right before Orangetheory kicked off Hell Week Season Six. "We'll have some stuff that we've never done. We're doing a 'To Be Continued' workout — a workout that starts on one day and picks up the next day … (The way) you'd binge on a show, we're hoping you binge on Hell Week."
Another new component in 2019 was "US," a partner-workout spinoff in which every member, working in tandem, contributes to the overall score. After a 13.5-minute rowing block, each participant inputs his or her total distance into a global Challenge Tracker. At the end of the day, the system calculates each studio's weighted average and displays its rank across the entire Orangetheory network — including each state and the entire country.
"Everyone is really excited, and the energy is through the roof," Emanuele said. "You get a really good feel for the community vibe we have in the studio. We want you to experience it, work hard and have some fun."

subset: commoncrawl


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You are viewing a 3D printed Geometric Deer for Wall Hanging
The measurements are:
Width 182.1 x Height 193.7 x Depth 5mm
We can print this in a range of colours so if your preference isn't listed please message and we will see what is in stock at no extra cost.
Black, White, Grey, Red and Pink are the main colours
This is a 3d printed item made using PLA filament, is hand finished and as such may have minor imperfections that can only be seen up close. This item really looks stunning on the wall.
If you would like this framed, please message before purchase
Wall fixings are not included but this Deer can be mounted on a nail or even stuck to something using command strips.
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, we are happy to help!


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Selling First Impressions When selling your home there are no guarantees that a buyer will simply walk through the front door. In many cases you may have to bring your home to the buyer! Certainly effective marketing will help ensure that your property receives maximum exposure to attract a ready, willing and able buyer. But the appearance and overall condition of your home contributes to a buyer's crucial first impressions. Appearance and condition apply to the outside of the home as well as the inside. So stand across the street from your house and review its "curb appeal." Then walk into your home with inquisitive eyes of a home-buyer. Try to see your home as a buyer would, and take action accordingly. Tips to improve your curb appeal:
Tips to consider for the interior of your home:
Other important reminders and suggestions:
Follow these tips to create the best first impression of your home. Improving your home's curb appeal and interior appearance can minimize your home's days on market and maximize your financial result! |


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To the Congress of the United States:
You are confronted at the threshold of your legislative duties with a condition of the national finances which imperatively demands immediate and careful consideration.
The amount of money annually exacted, through the operation of present laws, from the industries and necessities of the people largely exceeds the sum necessary to meet the expenses of the Government.
When we consider that the theory of our institutions guarantees to every citizen the full enjoyment of all the fruits of his industry and enterprise, with only such deduction as may be his share toward the careful and economical maintenance of the Government which protects him, it is plain that the exaction of more than this is indefensible extortion and a culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice. This wrong inflicted upon those who bear the burden of national taxation, like other wrongs, multiplies a brood of evil consequences. The public Treasury, which should only exist as a conduit conveying the people's tribute to its legitimate objects of expenditure, becomes a hoarding place for money needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people's use, thus crippling our national energies, suspending our country's development, preventing investment in productive enterprise, threatening financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of public plunder.
This condition of our Treasury is not altogether new, and it has more than once of late been submitted to the people's representatives in the Congress, who alone can apply a remedy. And yet the situation still continues, with aggravated incidents, more than ever presaging financial convulsion and widespread disaster.
It will not do to neglect this situation because its dangers are not now palpably imminent and apparent. They exist none the less certainly, and await the unforeseen and unexpected occasion when suddenly they will be precipitated upon us.
On the 30th day of June, 1885, the excess of revenues over public expenditures, after complying with the annual requirement of the sinking-fund act, was $17,859,735.84; during the year ended June 30, 1886, such excess amounted to $49,405,545.20, and during the year ended June 30, 1887, it reached the sum of $55,567,849.54.
The annual contributions to the sinking fund during the three years above specified, amounting in the aggregate to $138,058,320.94, and deducted from the surplus as stated, were made by calling in for that purpose outstanding 3 per cent bonds of the Government. During the six months prior to June 30, 1887, the surplus revenue had grown so large by repeated accumulations, and it was feared the withdrawal of this great sum of money needed by the people would so affect the business of the country, that the sum of $79,864,100 of such surplus was applied to the payment of the principal and interest of the 3 per cent bonds still outstanding, and which were then payable at the option of the Government. The precarious condition of financial affairs among the people still needing relief, immediately after the 30th day of June, 1887, the remainder of the 3 per cent bonds then outstanding, amounting with principal and interest to the sum of $18,877,500, were called in and applied to the sinking-fund contribution for the current fiscal year. Notwithstanding these operations of the Treasury Department, representations of distress in business circles not only continued, but increased, and absolute peril seemed at hand. In these circumstances the contribution to the sinking fund for the current fiscal year was at once completed by the expenditure of $27,684,283.55 in the purchase of Government bonds not yet due bearing 4 and 41/2 per cent interest, the premium paid thereon averaging about 24 per cent for the former and 8 per cent for the latter. In addition to this, the interest accruing during the current year upon the outstanding bonded indebtedness of the Government was to some extent anticipated, and banks selected as depositories of public money were permitted to somewhat increase their deposits.
While the expedients thus employed to release to the people the money lying idle in the Treasury served to avert immediate danger, our surplus revenues have continued to accumulate, the excess for the present year amounting on the 1st day of December to $55,258,701.19, and estimated to reach the sum of $113,000,000 on the 30th of June next, at which date it is expected that this sum, added to prior accumulations, will swell the surplus in the Treasury to $140,000,000.
There seems to be no assurance that, with such a withdrawal from use of the people's circulating medium, our business community may not in the near future be subjected to the same distress which was quite lately produced from the same cause. And while the functions of our National Treasury should be few and simple, and while its best condition would be reached, I believe, by its entire disconnection with private business interests, yet when, by a perversion of its purposes, it idly holds money uselessly subtracted from the channels of trade, there seems to be reason for the claim that some legitimate means should be devised by the Government to restore in an emergency, without waste or extravagance, such money to its place among the people.
If such an emergency arises, there now exists no clear and undoubted executive power of relief. Heretofore the redemption of 3 per cent bonds, which were payable at the option of the Government, has afforded a means for the disbursement of the excess of our revenues; but these bonds have all been retired, and there are no bonds outstanding the payment of which we have a right to insist upon. The contribution to the sinking fund which furnishes the occasion for expenditure in the purchase of bonds has been already made for the current year, so that there is no outlet in that direction.
In the present state of legislation the only pretense of any existing executive power to restore at this time any part of our surplus revenues to the people by its expenditure consists in the supposition that the Secretary of the Treasury may enter the market and purchase the bonds of the Government not yet due, at a rate of premium to be agreed upon. The only provision of law from which such a power could be derived is found in an appropriation bill passed a number of years ago, and it is subject to the suspicion that it was intended as temporary and limited in its application, instead of conferring a continuing discretion and authority. No condition ought to exist which would justify the grant of power to a single official, upon his judgment of its necessity, to withhold from or release to the business of the people, in an unusual manner, money held in the Treasury, and thus affect at his will the financial situation of the country; and if it is deemed wise to lodge in the Secretary of the Treasury the authority in the present juncture to purchase bonds, it should be plainly vested, and provided, as far as possible, with such checks and limitations as will define this official's right and discretion and at the same time relieve him from undue responsibility.
In considering the question of purchasing bonds as a means of restoring to circulation the surplus money accumulating in the Treasury, it should be borne in mind that premiums must of course be paid upon such purchase, that there may be a large part of these bonds held as investments which can not be purchased at any price, and that combinations among holders who are willing to sell may unreasonably enhance the cost of such bonds to the Government.
It has been suggested that the present bonded debt might be refunded at a less rate of interest and the difference between the old and new security paid in cash, thus finding use for the surplus in the Treasury. The success of this plan, it is apparent, must depend upon the volition of the holders of the present bonds; and it is not entirely certain that the inducement which must be offered them would result in more financial benefit to the Government than the purchase of bonds, while the latter proposition would reduce the principal of the debt by actual payment instead of extending it.
The proposition to deposit the money held by the Government in banks throughout the country for use by the people is, it seems to me, exceedingly objectionable in principle, as establishing too close a relationship between the operations of the Government Treasury and the business of the country and too extensive a commingling of their money, thus fostering an unnatural reliance in private business upon public funds. If this scheme should be adopted, it should only be done as a temporary expedient to meet an urgent necessity. Legislative and executive effort should generally be in the opposite direction, and should have a tendency to divorce, as much and as fast as can be safely done, the Treasury Department from private enterprise.
Of course it is not expected that unnecessary and extravagant appropriations will be made for the purpose of avoiding the accumulation of an excess of revenue. Such expenditure, besides the demoralization of all just conceptions of public duty which it entails, stimulates a habit of reckless improvidence not in the least consistent with the mission of our people or the high and beneficent purposes of our Government.
I have deemed it my duty to thus bring to the knowledge of my countrymen, as well as to the attention of their representatives charged with the responsibility of legislative relief, the gravity of our financial situation. The failure of the Congress heretofore to provide against the dangers which it was quite evident the very nature of the difficulty must necessarily produce caused a condition of financial distress and apprehension since your last adjournment which taxed to the utmost all the authority and expedients within executive control; and these appear now to be exhausted. If disaster results from the continued inaction of Congress, the responsibility must rest where it belongs.
Though the situation thus far considered is fraught with danger which should be fully realized, and though it presents features of wrong to the people as well as peril to the country, it is but a result growing out of a perfectly palpable and apparent cause, constantly reproducing the same alarming circumstances--a congested National Treasury and a depleted monetary condition in the business of the country. It need hardly be stated that while the present situation demands a remedy, we can only be saved from a like predicament in the future by the removal of its cause.
Our scheme of taxation, by means of which this needless surplus is taken from the people and put into the public Treasury, consists of a tariff or duty levied upon importations from abroad and internal-revenue taxes levied upon the consumption of tobacco and spirituous and malt liquors. It must be conceded that none of the things subjected to internal-revenue taxation are, strictly speaking, necessaries. There appears to be no just complaint of this taxation by the consumers of these articles, and there seems to be nothing so well able to bear the burden without hardship to any portion of the people.
But our present tariff laws, the vicious, inequitable, and illogical source of unnecessary taxation, ought to be at once revised and amended. These laws, as their primary and plain effect, raise the price to consumers of all articles imported and subject to duty by precisely the sum paid for such duties. Thus the amount of the duty measures the tax paid by those who purchase for use these imported articles. Many of these things, however, are raised or manufactured in our own country, and the duties now levied upon foreign goods and products are called protection to these home manufactures, because they render it possible for those of our people who are manufacturers to make these taxed articles and sell them for a price equal to that demanded for the imported goods that have paid customs duty. So it happens that while comparatively a few use the imported articles, millions of our people, who never used and never saw any of the foreign products, purchase and use things of the same kind made in this country, and pay therefor nearly or quite the same enhanced price which the duty adds to the imported articles. Those who buy imports pay the duty charged thereon into the public Treasury, but the great majority of our citizens, who buy domestic articles of the same class, pay a sum at least approximately equal to this duty to the home manufacturer. This reference to the operation of our tariff laws is not made by way of instruction, but in order that we may be constantly reminded of the manner in which they impose a burden upon those who consume domestic products as well as those who consume imported articles, and thus create a tax upon all our people.
It is not proposed to entirely relieve the country of this taxation. It must be extensively continued as the source of the Government's income; and in a readjustment of our tariff the interests of American labor engaged in manufacture should be carefully considered, as well as the preservation of our manufacturers. It may be called protection or by any other name, but relief from the hardships and dangers of our present tariff laws should be devised with especial precaution against imperiling the existence of our manufacturing interests. But this existence should not mean a condition which, without regard to the public welfare or a national exigency, must always insure the realization of immense profits instead of moderately profitable returns. As the volume and diversity of our national activities increase, new recruits are added to those who desire a continuation of the advantages which they conceive the present system of tariff taxation directly affords them. So stubbornly have all efforts to reform the present condition been resisted by those of our fellow-citizens thus engaged that they can hardly complain of the suspicion, entertained to a certain extent, that there exists an organized combination all along the line to maintain their advantage.
We are in the midst of centennial celebrations, and with becoming pride we rejoice in American skill and ingenuity, in American energy and enterprise, and in the wonderful natural advantages and resources developed by a century's national growth. Yet when an attempt is made to justify a scheme which permits a tax to be laid upon every consumer in the land for the benefit of our manufacturers, quite beyond a reasonable demand for governmental regard, it suits the purposes of advocacy to call our manufactures infant industries still needing the highest and greatest degree of favor and fostering care that can be wrung from Federal legislation.
It is also said that the increase in the price of domestic manufactures resulting from the present tariff is necessary in order that higher wages may be paid to our workingmen employed in manufactories than are paid for what is called the pauper labor of Europe. All will acknowledge the force of an argument which involves the welfare and liberal compensation of our laboring people. Our labor is honorable in the eyes of every American citizen; and as it lies at the foundation of our development and progress, it is entitled, without affectation or hypocrisy, to the utmost regard. The standard of our laborers' life should not be measured by that of any other country less favored, and they are entitled to their full share of all our advantages.
By the last census it is made to appear that of the 17,392,099 of our population engaged in all kinds of industries 7,670,493 are employed in agriculture, 4,074,238 in professional and personal service (2,934,876 of whom are domestic servants and laborers), while 1,810,256 are employed in trade and transportation and 3,837,112 are classed as employed in manufacturing and mining.
For present purposes, however, the last number given should be considerably reduced. Without attempting to enumerate all, it will be conceded that there should be deducted from those which it includes 375,143 carpenters and joiners, 285,401 milliners, dressmakers, and seamstresses, 172,726 blacksmiths, 133,756 tailors and tailoresses, 102,473 masons, 76,241 butchers, 41,309 bakers, 22,083 plasterers, and 4,891 engaged in manufacturing agricultural implements, amounting in the aggregate to 1,214,023, leaving 2,623,089 persons employed in such manufacturing industries as are claimed to be benefited by a high tariff.
To these the appeal is made to save their employment and maintain their wages by resisting a change. There should be no disposition to answer such suggestions by the allegation that they are in a minority among those who labor, and therefore should forego an advantage in the interest of low prices for the majority. Their compensation, as it may be affected by the operation of tariff laws, should at all times be scrupulously kept in view; and yet with slight reflection they will not overlook the fact that they are consumers with the rest; that they too have their own wants and those of their families to supply from their earnings, and that the price of the necessaries of life, as well as the amount of their wages, will regulate the measure of their welfare and comfort.
But the reduction of taxation demanded should be so measured as not to necessitate or justify either the loss of employment by the workingman or the lessening of his wages; and the profits still remaining to the manufacturer after a necessary readjustment should furnish no excuse for the sacrifice of the interests of his employees, either in their opportunity to work or in the diminution of their compensation. Nor can the worker in manufactures fail to understand that while a high tariff is claimed to be necessary to allow the payment of remunerative wages, it certainly results in a very large increase in the price of nearly all sorts of manufactures, which, in almost countless forms, he needs for the use of himself and his family. He receives at the desk of his employer his wages, and perhaps before he reaches his home is obliged, in a purchase for family use of an article which embraces his own labor, to return in the payment of the increase in price which the tariff permits the hard-earned compensation of many days of toil.
The farmer and the agriculturist, who manufacture nothing, but who pay the increased price which the tariff imposes upon every agricultural implement, upon all he wears, and upon all he uses and owns, except the increase of his flocks and herds and such things as his husbandry produces from the soil, is invited to aid in maintaining the present situation; and he is told that a high duty on imported wool is necessary for the benefit of those who have sheep to shear, in order that the price of their wool may be increased. They, of course, are not reminded that the farmer who has no sheep is by this scheme obliged, in his purchases of clothing and woolen goods, to pay a tribute to his fellow-farmer as well as to the manufacturer and merchant, nor is any mention made of the fact that the sheep owners themselves and their households must wear clothing and use other articles manufactured from the wool they sell at tariff prices, and thus as consumers must return their share of this increased price to the tradesman.
I think it may be fairly assumed that a large proportion of the sheep owned by the farmers throughout the country are found in small flocks, numbering from twenty-five to fifty. The duty on the grade of imported wool which these sheep yield is 10 cents each pound if of the value of 30 cents or less and 12 cents if of the value of more than 30 cents. If the liberal estimate of 6 pounds be allowed for each fleece, the duty thereon would be 60 or 72 cents; and this may be taken as the utmost enhancement of its price to the farmer by reason of this duty. Eighteen dollars would thus represent the increased price of the wool from twenty-five sheep and $36 that from the wool of fifty sheep; and at present values this addition would amount to about one-third of its price. If upon its sale the farmer receives this or a less tariff profit, the wool leaves his hands charged with precisely that sum, which in all its changes will adhere to it until it reaches the consumer. When manufactured into cloth and other goods and material for use, its cost is not only increased to the extent of the farmer's tariff profit, but a further sum has been added for the benefit of the manufacturer under the operation of other tariff laws. In the meantime the day arrives when the farmer finds it necessary to purchase woolen goods and material to clothe himself and family for the winter. When he faces the tradesman for that purpose, he discovers that he is obliged not only to return in the way of increased prices his tariff profit on the wool he sold, and which then perhaps lies before him in manufactured form, but that he must add a considerable sum thereto to meet a further increase in cost caused by a tariff duty on the manufacture. Thus in the end he is aroused to the fact that he has paid upon a moderate purchase, as a result of the tariff scheme, which when he sold his wool seemed so profitable, an increase in price more than sufficient to sweep away all the tariff profit he received upon the wool he produced and sold.
When the number of farmers engaged in wool raising is compared with all the farmers in the country and the small proportion they bear to our population is considered; when it is made apparent that in the case of a large part of those who own sheep the benefit of the present tariff on wool is illusory; and, above all, when it must be conceded that the increase of the cost of living caused by such tariff becomes a burden upon those with moderate means and the poor, the employed and unemployed, the sick and well, and the young and old, and that it constitutes a tax which with relentless grasp is fastened upon the clothing of every man, woman, and child in the land, reasons are suggested why the removal or reduction of this duty should be included in a revision of our tariff laws.
In speaking of the increased cost to the consumer of our home manufactures resulting from a duty laid upon imported articles of the same description, the fact is not ever looked that competition among our domestic producers sometimes has the effect of keeping the price of their products below the highest limit allowed by such duty. But it is notorious that this competition is too often strangled by combinations quite prevalent at this time, and frequently called trusts, which have for their object the regulation of the supply and price of commodities made and sold by members of the combination. The people can hardly hope for any consideration in the operation of these selfish schemes.
If, however, in the absence of such combination, a healthy and free competition reduces the price of any particular dutiable article of home production below the limit which it might otherwise reach under our tariff laws, and if with such reduced price its manufacture continues to thrive, it is entirely evident that one thing has been discovered which should be carefully scrutinized in an effort to reduce taxation.
The necessity of combination to maintain the price of any commodity to the tariff point furnishes proof that someone is willing to accept lower prices for such commodity and that such prices are remunerative; and lower prices produced by competition prove the same thing. Thus where either of these conditions exists a case would seem to be presented for an easy reduction of taxation.
The considerations which have been presented touching our tariff laws are intended only to enforce an earnest recommendation that the surplus revenues of the Government be prevented by the reduction of our customs duties, and at the same time to emphasize a suggestion that in accomplishing this purpose we may discharge a double duty to our people by granting to them a measure of relief from tariff taxation in quarters where it is most needed and from sources where it can be most fairly and justly accorded.
Nor can the presentation made of such considerations be with any degree of fairness regarded as evidence of unfriendliness toward our manufacturing interests or of any lack of appreciation of their value and importance.
These interests constitute a leading and most substantial element of our national greatness and furnish the proud proof of our country's progress. But if in the emergency that presses upon us our manufacturers are asked to surrender something for the public good and to avert disaster, their patriotism, as well as a grateful recognition of advantages already afforded, should lead them to willing cooperation. No demand is made that they shall forego all the benefits of governmental regard; but they can not fail to be admonished of their duty, as well as their enlightened self-interest and safety, when they are reminded of the fact that financial panic and collapse, to which the present condition tends, afford no greater shelter or protection to our manufactures than to other important enterprises. Opportunity for safe, careful, and deliberate reform is now offered; and none of us should be unmindful of a time when an abused and irritated people, heedless of those who have resisted timely and reasonable relief, may insist upon a radical and sweeping rectification of their wrongs.
The difficulty attending a wise and fair revision of our tariff laws is not underestimated. It will require on the part of the Congress great labor and care, and especially a broad and national contemplation of the subject and a patriotic disregard of such local and selfish claims as are unreasonable and reckless of the welfare of the entire country.
Under our present laws more than 4,000 articles are subject to duty. Many of these do not in any way compete with our own manufactures, and many are hardly worth attention as subjects of revenue. A considerable reduction can be made in the aggregate by adding them to the free list. The taxation of luxuries presents no features of hardship; but the necessaries of life used and consumed by all the people, the duty upon which adds to the cost of living in every home, should be greatly cheapened.
The radical reduction of the duties imposed upon raw material used in manufactures, or its free importation, is of course an important factor in any effort to reduce the price of these necessaries. It would not only relieve them from the increased cost caused by the tariff on such material, but the manufactured product being thus cheapened that part of the tariff now laid upon such product, as a compensation to our manufacturers for the present price of raw material, could be accordingly modified. Such reduction or free importation would serve besides to largely reduce the revenue. It is not apparent how such a change can have any injurious effect upon our manufacturers. On the contrary, it would appear to give them a better chance in foreign markets with the manufacturers of other countries, who cheapen their wares by free material. Thus our people might have the opportunity of extending their sales beyond the limits of home consumption, saving them from the depression, interruption in business, and loss caused by a glutted domestic market and affording their employees more certain and steady labor, with its resulting quiet and contentment.
The question thus imperatively presented for solution should be approached in a spirit higher than partisanship and considered in the light of that regard for patriotic duty which should characterize the action of those intrusted with the weal of a confiding people. But the obligation to declared party policy and principle is not wanting to urge prompt and effective action. Both of the great political parties now represented in the Government have by repeated and authoritative declarations condemned the condition of our laws which permit the collection from the people of unnecessary revenue, and have in the most solemn manner promised its correction; and neither as citizens nor partisans are our countrymen in a mood to condone the deliberate violation of these pledges.
Our progress toward a wise conclusion will not be improved by dwelling upon the theories of protection and free trade. This savors too much of bandying epithets. It is a condition which confronts us, not a theory. Relief from this condition may involve a slight reduction of the advantages which we award our home productions, but the entire withdrawal of such advantages should not be contemplated. The question of free trade is absolutely irrelevant, and the persistent claim made in certain quarters that all the efforts to relieve the people from unjust and unnecessary taxation are schemes of so-called free traders is mischievous and far removed from any consideration for the public good.
The simple and plain duty which we owe the people is to reduce taxation to the necessary expenses of an economical operation of the Government and to restore to the business of the country the money which we hold in the Treasury through the perversion of governmental powers. These things can and should be done with safety to all our industries, without danger to the opportunity for remunerative labor which our workingmen need, and with benefit to them and all our people by cheapening their means of subsistence and increasing the measure of their comforts.
The Constitution provides that the President "shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union." It has been the custom of the Executive, in compliance with this provision, to annually exhibit to the Congress, at the opening of its session, the general condition of the country, and to detail with some particularity the operations of the different Executive Departments. It would be especially agreeable to follow this course at the present time and to call attention to the valuable accomplishments of these Departments during the last fiscal year; but I am so much impressed with the paramount importance of the subject to which this communication has thus far been devoted that I shall forego the addition of any other topic, and only urge upon your immediate consideration the "state of the Union" as shown in the present condition of our Treasury and our general fiscal situation, upon which every element of our safety and prosperity depends.
The reports of the heads of Departments, which will be submitted, contain full and explicit information touching the transaction of the business intrusted to them and such recommendations relating to legislation in the public interest as they deem advisable. I ask for these reports and recommendations the deliberate examination and action of the legislative branch of the Government.
There are other subjects not embraced in the departmental reports demanding legislative consideration, and which I should be glad to submit. Some of them, however, have been earnestly presented in previous messages, and as to them I beg leave to repeat prior recommendations.
As the law makes no provision for any report from the Department of State, a brief history of the transactions of that important Department, together with other matters which it may hereafter be deemed essential to commend to the attention of the Congress, may furnish the occasion for a future communication.
Grover Cleveland, Third Annual Message (first term) Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/204041


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Let's say you've revised many, many times and you've begun the process of sending out your manuscript. You get one personal rejection from an editor of a big house and one personal rejection from an agent, neither of which explain why they've turned it down. The editor says it was a pleasure to consider the work.First of all, you're rethinking your approach after two rejections?! Readers, please help this sweet, demented person.
At this point, do you keeping trying for the big leagues or go for the smaller presses? Or return to the revising process?
Secondly, unhelpful, non-specific rejections are not exactly what I'd call "personal".
But we do need better names for these things. Readers, will you help me name the following rejection categories, please? Points for imagination and humor, but also points for clarity and usability.
Rejection Categories:
1: no response or a pre-printed rejection
2: a rejection letter with your name on it, but no meaningful feedback
3: a rejection letter with your name on it and meaningful feedback
4: a rejection letter with your name on it and meaningful feedback and an invitation to resubmit


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Time may be running out for that blue and red neon sign at LeRoy's Fried Chicken; rumor has it that there's trouble in fried chicken land for chef Julia LeRoy and her Westside chicken hut. According to a a few people very close to the situation, Clay Harper and Mike Nelson, the La Fonda/Fellini's duo who backed LeRoy, are considering shutting down LFC.
Thanks in part to fried chicken that has never been good, the food stand is struggling to draw crowds. Word around the campfire is that Harper and Nelson are looking close down LFC and replace it with a second Ringside Franks & Shakes, their recently opened Roswell Road hot dog stand.
Hot dogs are super trendy right now, so the rumor certainly makes sense in that respect. However, the space doesn't seem to have much in the way of indoor seating (not without some remodeling), so we are left to wonder exactly how a concept change would come to fruition. Keep in mind that this is simply a rumor (albeit one with some real teeth), so until something official gets released… it's business as usual for the troubled food stand.
[post 1,000!!!!!!!!!!]


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All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodiesDo something for our planet, print this page only if needed. Even a small action can make an enormous difference when millions of people do it!
We need initiatives that protect the environment as an overall system. The choice between either clean air or mitigating climate change is a false dichotomy - Europe needs both.
Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director
The shipping sector needs an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification system for emissions in European waters to systematically address both types of emissions together, the report says.
Air pollutants emitted by shipping can affect air quality in many areas, particularly around ports and busy shipping channels. The release of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from international shipping has a complex effect on the climate - greenhouse gas emissions have a warming effect, while on the other hand some air pollutants lead to cooling.
Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director, said: "This study shows the complex effects different emissions are having on the planet. We need initiatives that protect the environment as an overall system. The choice between either clean air or mitigating climate change is a false dichotomy - Europe needs both. By avoiding unnecessary movement of goods and improving transport efficiency, we can address both air pollution and greenhouse gas mitigation together."
At the global level, the combined emissions from ships have a net cooling effect on the climate, according to recent scientific literature. This is because these aerosols directly scatter some radiation and indirectly lead to cloud formation. The overall cooling effect is rather uncertain. Nevertheless, it seems that the cooling effect of aerosols is currently larger than the warming effect of greenhouse gas emissions.
The EEA has also carried out a model simulation which shows that the direct aerosol cooling effect may be slightly reduced by new EU rules on sulphur content in ship fuels. However, there is still some uncertainty as changes in cloud formation and other direct and indirect effects are not taken into account in this modelling.
Compared to other economic sectors, shipping is currently one of the most unregulated sources of air pollution. The report highlights that some success has been achieved through EU legislation, especially on sulphur content of marine bunker fuels where limits are stricter than the international standards.
Air pollution from shipping harms health, increasing heart disease, respiratory illnesses and premature death in some cases. Some of these air pollutant emissions also damage the environment through acidification and eutrophication.
While some air pollutants are emitted far from land, around 70 % of the global emissions from ships are within 400 km of coastlines, and this rate is much higher in European waters. Moreover, some pollutants from ships can travel hundreds of kilometres in the atmosphere.
In some areas, ships can contribute up to 20-30% of the local fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations. Around some busy ports and shipping channels ships can contribution as much as 80 % of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution. The report highlights that there are relatively few measurement data available to attribute shipping's contribution to local air pollution, although there are some modelling studies.
In 2007 national and international shipping was responsible for 3.3 % of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – and around 30 % of this is emitted on routes passing through European ports. Emissions from the sector are projected to grow by up to 4 % per year over the next decade.
There is a clear link between economic growth and the movement of goods, so emissions from shipping currently change in step with the level of economic activity. Carbon dioxide emissions from international shipping departing from EU ports increased by approximately 35 % between 1990 and 2010. Other key pollutants have increased between 35 and 55 % over the same period. However, most emissions types have decreased since 2006, possibly due to the economic downturn and the legislation reducing SO2 levels.
The report shows that reducing fuel consumption is the best way to reduce emissions. Better fuel efficiency may be the easiest way to cut both air pollution and greenhouse gases, the report says, recommending technical improvements and also different ship operating procedures. If ships reduced their speed by 10 %, known as 'slow steaming', it could cut energy demand by approximately 19 %, according to one study. Some shipping sectors are already switching to liquid natural gas (LNG), leading to an eradication of SO2 emissions, 80 % reduction of NOx and 20 % reduction of CO2.
'End-of-pipe' emissions reductions technologies such as sea water scrubbing can also reduce air pollutants, but would not address greenhouse gases.
Against the background of challenges presented by global trade operations, ships registered in many different countries and marine fuel bunkered in any location in the world, there is currently considerable debate on the regulation of emissions from the shipping sector. The report provides an overview of the various topics that need to be addressed, ranging from ship registration to atmospheric modelling of air quality and climate impacts.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/international-shipping-should-cut-air or scan the QR code.
PDF generated on 25 Jul 2024, 03:16 PM
Engineered by: EEA Web Team
Software updated on 26 September 2023 08:13 from version 23.8.18
Software version: EEA Plone KGS 23.9.14


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Understanding Partitioning
To use partitioned regions, you should understand how they work and your options for managing them.
During operation, a partitioned region looks like one large virtual region, with the same logical view held by all of the members where the region is defined.
For each member where you define the region, you can choose how much space to allow for region data storage, including no local storage at all. The member can access all region data regardless of how much is stored locally.
A cluster can have multiple partitioned regions, and it can mix partitioned regions with distributed regions and local regions. The usual requirement for unique region names, except for regions with local scope, still applies. A single member can host multiple partitioned regions.
Data Partitioning
Geode automatically determines the physical location of data in the members that host a partitioned region's data. Geode breaks partitioned region data into units of storage known as buckets and stores each bucket in a region host member. Buckets are distributed in accordance to the member's region attribute settings.
When an entry is created, it is assigned to a bucket. Keys are grouped together in a bucket and always remain there. If the configuration allows, the buckets may be moved between members to balance the load.
You must run the data stores needed to accommodate storage for the partitioned region's buckets. You can start new data stores on the fly. When a new data store creates the region, it takes responsibility for as many buckets as allowed by the partitioned region and member configuration.
You can customize how Geode groups your partitioned region data with custom partitioning and data colocation.
Partitioned Region Operation
A partitioned region operates much like a non-partitioned region with distributed scope. Most of the standard Region
methods are available, although some methods that are normally local operations become distributed operations, because they work on the partitioned region as a whole instead of the local cache. For example, a put
or create
into a partitioned region may not actually be stored into the cache of the member that called the operation. The retrieval of any entry requires no more than one hop between members.
Partitioned regions support the client/server model, just like other regions. If you need to connect dozens of clients to a single partitioned region, using servers greatly improves performance.
Additional Information About Partitioned Regions
Keep the following in mind about partitioned regions:
- Partitioned regions never run asynchronously. Operations in partitioned regions always wait for acknowledgement from the caches containing the original data entry and any redundant copies.
- A partitioned region needs a cache loader in every region data store (
> 0). - Geode distributes the data buckets as evenly as possible across all members storing the partitioned region data, within the limits of any custom partitioning or data colocation that you use. The number of buckets allotted for the partitioned region determines the granularity of data storage and thus how evenly the data can be distributed. The number of buckets is a total for the entire region across the cluster.
- In rebalancing data for the region, Geode moves buckets, but does not move data around inside the buckets.
- You can query partitioned regions, but there are certain limitations. See Querying Partitioned Regions for more information.


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A former Marine who was awaiting trial on murder charges in the deaths of six people, including four homeless men in Orange County, died after ingesting Ajax in his jail cell, his lawyer told the Associated Press.
Itzcoatl Ocampo, 25, apparently accumulated the cleaning product over time while in custody, said his attorney, Michael Molfetta, who was briefed on the death.
The incident raises serious questions about how well Orange County jail deputies were supervising Ocampo, who had mental health issues, Molfetta said.
Ocampo, a former Marine, was found shaking and vomiting in his single-man cell Wednesday and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead Thursday afternoon, said Orange County sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock.
An autopsy will be performed in the coming days.
The Orange County district attorney's office will investigate the death and autopsy results by an independent pathologist are expected by the middle of next week, Hallock said.
"If you spend three minutes with Ocampo, you are acutely aware of the fact that he has some mental issues. They were severe and they were obvious and they definitely were not contrived," Molfetta said. "With that being said, this was a guy who should have garnered the highest level of scrutiny ... and it wasn't done."
Hallock declined to comment on inmate supervision or the attorney's account except to say jail deputies are required, in general, to walk by each inmate's cell a minimum of once an hour.
"We always want to prove the case in court and have justice for the victims' families," said Susan Kang Schroeder, the district attorney's chief of staff.
Marie Middaugh, mother of victim Lloyd "Jimmy" Middaugh, said in a phone interview Friday that she was relieved to hear the news of Ocampo's death.
"A trial wouldn't have brought our loved ones back," she said. "I'm sorry things happened the way it did for his family because I know they're grieving, too, but I'm just glad that really it's all over."
Someone at a number listed for Ocampo's father hung up repeatedly when a reporter called Friday.
Prosecutors alleged that Ocampo, a native of Mexico, stabbed four homeless men in what they called a serial thrill-kill rampage in late 2011 and early 2012.
Ocampo targeted his homeless victims because they were vulnerable and because he felt they were a blight on the community, authorities said. He was charged in January 2012 with four counts of murder, with special allegations of multiple murders, lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon.
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
Three victims were stabbed more than 40 times each with a single-edged blade at least 7 inches long. In one instance, prosecutors, said, Ocampo selected as his next victim a homeless man who was featured in a Los Angeles Times story about the killings.
Ocampo, who was discharged from the Marines in 2010, also was facing murder charges in the deaths of a school friend's mother and brother in October 2011.
At the time, his family said Ocampo was a troubled man after he returned from Iraq in 2008 and he went to visit the grave of a friend who died in combat in Afghanistan twice a week.
He also began drinking heavily and he suffered from headaches and hand tremors, they said. His parents separated in 2010 and his father became homeless after losing his job.
During the killing rampage, Ocampo visited his father on the streets and warned him about the dangers of being homeless, even showing him a picture of one of the dead men.
In March 2012, Ocampo temporarily was placed on suicide watch after he began banging his head on a metal toilet in the jail. He told his attorney he was trying to stop voices as well as headaches and twitches that were bothering him, according to The Orange County Register.
More Southern California Stories:


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Leak by Helen McGhie :: You need to be a member to contact artists →Join :: Portfolio The series (M)other (2014) explores a performative analogy between the body of the Mother (in this case, a life model), the figure of the 'Monstrous Female' and the interior of a worn English house. Here, photographs of sun-drenched wallpaper and spider webs alongside the visceral surface of the ageing female body become subjects of fascination. The physical security of home is called into question, where leaking ceilings and darkened corners suggest the embodiment of an un-named or unknowable fear. Imperfections in shadowy vein riddled skin present the maternal body as being at once haunted and as the site of nurture.
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Established in 1983, VELP Scientifica is today a growing provider of analytical instruments and solutions that has made an impact on the world-wide market with Italian products renowned for innovation, style and premium materials.
VELP is a reliable partner for the development of advanced analytical instruments for laboratories, universities, research centers and companies involved in scientific research. VELP Scientifica owes its success to a rich patrimony of ideas, conspicuous investments in R&D and ongoing technological development aimed at maximizing productivity and product differentiation and reducing the time-to-market.


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Hometown favourite Chen Long today led a strong Chinese procession into the second round of the Li Ning China Masters.
Lanky Dane Viktor Axelsen may have fancied creating an early upset when he snatched the opening game of his first-round encounter against Chen but the top seed subdued him with power and pace. Conceding just 15 points in games two and three of the Men's Singles match, Chen earned a 20-22 21-7 21-8 victory.
Ironically, the upset of the day was Axelsen's senior teammate Jan O Jorgensen – the fifth seed lost a drawn-out battle against Hao Jen Hsu (Taipei) in an hour and 14 minutes. Hao triumphed 21-13 14-21 21-19.
Chen Long's compatriot Chen Jin triumphed easily over India's Anand Pawar 21-17 21-12. Other Chinese challengers, including world No. 10 Du Pengyu, No. 16 Wang Zhengming and qualifier Zhou Wenlong also advanced to the second round.
However, the day did not go all China's way. There were some notable losses, especially in Women's Singles. Former World Champion Wang Lin, Chen Xiao Jia, Yao Xue, and Gao Huan were among the losers. Xiao Jia's was the longest Women's Singles match of the day, as Busanan Ongbumrungpan outlasted her in an hour and ten minutes.
Gao Huan, who came through two rounds of qualifying, was stopped by India's Parupalli Kashyap 21-13 14-21 21-19. Indeed, the world No. 20, who has enjoyed a resurgence in form since the India Open, led a strong Indian showing into the second round. His compatriots Guru Sai Dutt, Ajay Jayaram, Sourabh Verma and PV Sindhu also progressed. Jayaram, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Olympics, upset No.3 seed Kenichi Tago (Japan) 21-13 21-17, while Guru Sai Dutt accounted for former All England champion Hafiz Hashim 21-18 19-21 21-13. Sourabh Verma beat young Malaysian Liew Daren (19-21 21-17 21-12) and Sindhu accounted for Jamie Subandhi (USA) to complete a near-perfect day for India.
Meanwhile, Qiao Bin continued his impressive run. Having won two qualifying matches, including one over the Asian Junior champion Kento Momota, he got the better of compatriot Chen Yuekun 21-10 21-8 in just 38 minutes. He next faces sixth seed Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark.
Chen Long will take on Israeli Misha Zilberman; the latter a surprise winner over Irishman Scott Evans. Another surprise casualty in the first round was veteran Thai Boonsak Ponsana who was defeated by Malaysian Chong Wei Feng in three games.
Meanwhile, in Men's Doubles, local hopefuls Li Gen/Liu Cheng eased past USA's Phillip Chew/Sattawat Pongnairat to earn a second-round spot against Malaysian pair Teik Chai/ Soon Hock. Thailand's Songphon Anugritayawon/Sudket Prapakamol were the luckiest first-round winners, as they received a bye into the quarter-finals, where they will face either Xu Chen/Guo Zhengdong or second seeds Hong Wei/Ye Shen of China.
Text by Dev Sukumar | Badmintonphoto – Yves Lacroix


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Today is May Day, when the world celebrates the struggles and sacrifices of the common worker. Like this cheese seller in Tupiza, Bolivia, photographed by Gadling's resident cheese expert Laurel Miller. After some hard hours making her product, this woman comes to the market hoping to sell it all before the day is through. She uses a plastic bag on a stick to keep the flies away.
A range of unions and workers' parties declared May Day a workers' holiday in 1898. The date commemorated a three-day general strike in the U.S. that started on May 1, 1886, during which workers demanded an eight-hour day. Police fired into a protest by employees at the McCormick-International Harvester Company and killed three. On May 4, workers staged a protest against the killings at Haymarket Square, Chicago. A bomb went off and the police charged into the demonstrators. At least a dozen people died that day, including seven officers. Eight activists were sentenced to hang for the bombing, although there was widespread criticism about the lack of evidence.
American workers eventually got an eight-hour day, but it took several more major demonstrations and lots more people getting hurt. Many countries still don't offer the benefits we now take for granted. Traveling around the world we come across people in lots of different lines of work. Some jobs are good, some are bad, and some are downright grueling. I'll never forget a man I saw on a construction site in Damascus, Syria, back in 1994.
A crew was digging a deep trench into the sidewalk near our hotel, and every day my travel companions and I would pass by. Most of the men were down in the trench digging, but one guy had the job of sitting on an upturned bucket at street level manning a pump to take away water from the trench. He pulled on a rope attached to a pulley overhead, which yanked a crude pump at the bottom of the excavation. He'd set up a rhythm and sat there pulling all day. We saw him, every morning, noon, and evening, for days on end. We dubbed him, "The Man With the Most Boring Job in the World."
I regret I never talked to him. While I've had my share of soul-destroying jobs, I bet he could have taught me a thing or two about what it means to work for a living. So Happy May Day, Man With the Most Boring Job in the World, and Happy May Day to all the other workers photographed in this gallery of shots by Gadling bloggers and members of the Gadling Flickr pool!


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JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
Here's something you might not know. One in three bank employees in New York State are on public assistance. That's according to a new report released by New Day New York Coalition titled Leveraging New York's Financial Power to Combat Inequality. And this news comes almost two months after the University of California Berkeley Labor Center and University of Illinois published a study that said that more than 50 percent of fast food workers rely on public assistance programs due to their low wages.
Here to talk about the report is Deborah Axt. She's on the board of the Make the Road Action Fund, which together with New York Communities for Change, ALIGN, and Communications Workers of America from the Committee for Better Banks wrote the report.
Thanks for joining us, Deborah.
DEBORAH AXT, BOARD MEMBER, MAKE THE ROAD ACTION FUND:Thank you so much for having me.
DESVARIEUX: So, Deborah, can you just described for us the conditions for the average teller in the United States banking industry?
AXT: Yes. I mean, what we're talking about here are jobs that the public generally perceives to be entry-level jobs on a path to a professional career. And what they really are, often, is completely dead-end jobs, where workers are trapped in forcibly part-timed work, low-wage work, with high-pressure sales goals, sometimes wage theft, even. And, you know, these are really rough jobs. Workers report often being pressured to sell deals, products, bank accounts, credit cards that are not necessarily in the best interests of the clients, and that they realize this is true but have no ability to blow the whistle on these kinds of unethical practices at the banks.
DESVARIEUX: So what are your recommendations for alleviating some of these issues?
AXT: Well, the first thing is that we need to make sure that that workers have a path to speak out. We need to make sure that there are whistleblower protections in place in states and cities like New York and that we don't give out subsidies. Right now we're giving out hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to big banks in New York City and New York State alone with very little accountability for the job creation goals that are involved in those deals, and certainly with no checks with workers to make sure that they are being treated well and that their jobs are helping to lift people out of poverty.
DESVARIEUX: I'm sure there are some people listen to this saying that at the end of the day there needs to be some form of unionization. Is that your ultimate goal? Are you hoping that tellers eventually will organize themselves to form a union?
AXT: Make the Road, New York Communities for Change, ALIGN, and CWA that form the Committee for Better Banks have certainly had a long history of helping workers to organize into worker centers, into unions where appropriate. And so we believe strongly that workers need the right to organize and that they should be supported by the community members that we represent as well. And so we are here and would have their backs if that's what they choose.
This is just the first step at looking at this industry. We have been actively organizing in car washes and supermarkets and in fast food restaurants, but we've just turned our attention to the banking industry to see what was going on with workers there and were shocked to discover that the treatment in the banking industry is much like the treatment in other exploitative low-wage industries. But this is a place that you wouldn't expect it. This is the place where the boss, the CEO, is actually the boss of capitalism, right, the boss of our international economic system. You know, they're billionaires. They are well compensated. This is an industry that certainly can afford to treat workers properly, to treat workers with dignity.
DESVARIEUX: And I'm sure the irony isn't lost on our audience as well that you have people that are on the front line of the banking industry, they're the ones who are actually–one in three of them are qualified for public assistance. And then you have CEOs who are making millions, hundreds of millions sometimes. What is your response to that, Deborah? What sort of evidence have you found that supports this?
AXT: Indeed. And we spoke to–we had about 5,000 conversations with bank workers across New York and other places in the country. We did another 200 formal surveys to document the conditions and have had a number of focus groups as well. And we have seen wages somewhere between $9 and $12 an hour. We have seen part-timed jobs that used to be reliable sources of income for bank workers. And we hear a lot about sales goals and sales pressure that really makes the pace of work unsustainable and that pushes workers to feel that they have to sell products to their consumers and their customers that they don't think are in their best interest.
And so what is good for bank workers in this istuation is clearly good for consumers. We believe strongly that the collapse of our economy could have been prevented had we had protections in place allowing workers to come forward and speak up and blow the whistle on the shady practices that this industry was engaging in when we're talking about mortgages and other kinds of products that were being sold to low-income and communities of color.
DESVARIEUX: Alright, Deborah Axt, very interesting report. Thanks for joining us.
AXT: Thank you so much for covering this issue.
DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
To view the original video, click here.


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Thursday, August 13 2020
20:30 - 21:45
IMSc Webinar
Generating Functions for Involutions and Character Degree Sums in Finite Groups of Lie Type
Ryan Vinroot
William and Mary
Webinar link:
Given a finite group G, it is a result of Frobenius and Schur that all complex irreducible representations of G may be defined over the reals if and only if the character degree sum of G is equal to the number of involutions of G. We use this result and generatingfunctionology to study the real representations of finite groups of Lie type, and to obtain some new combinatorial identities. We will begin with examples of Weyl groups, then discuss joint work with Jason Fulman on finite general linear and unitary groups, and then give more recent results for finite symplectic and orthogonal groups.
Download as iCalendar


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Different carabiner shapes
A good choice of carabiner shape can increase ergonomics and security for certain uses.
The shape of the carabiner frame has an influence on:
• major axis strength
• load distribution
• gate opening size, and capacity
• strength in certain positions
• ease of handling
Another less obvious effect is the balance of the carabiner itself: for example pear-shaped carabiners rotate more readily, which can result in poor positioning. D-shaped carabiners tend to stay in place better.
Positioning of the load in the strongest axis, closest to the spine side of the frame. Suited to simple loads (connection of devices, attachment to the anchor...).
Directional carabiner
Two separate attachment areas to optimize loading on the major axis, for specific uses.


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What's always true about MadPea is that there is more than
meets the eye. Instead of telling you what MadPea isn't, let's talk about what
it is: It's a group of people that create immersive games, and it is also a
group of people that have successfully created a community out of the players
of those games.
Eventually, while taking part in any of the MadPea adventures,
a player comes across somehow, somewhere, the MadPeas group. For me, it was
when I was having trouble deciphering a clue, and looked around me desperately.
I saw other avatars also playing the game, but who were wearing
"MadPea" tags. Are they staff members? I wondered. With a little
basic snooping (I have pretty good snooping skills, haha) I discovered there
was an actual group, and it seemed to be for people to ask for hints and help
while playing the game. After only a short time, I discovered that this group was
very unique unto itself. I'd joined other "Hunt Help" groups in the
past, and I have to say, the MadPea group is quite unique.
To help give you an idea, meet Sue Chardin, SuzieQX2 Oh,
Rosie Simca, moi and Pawo. Each one of these individuals is in the MadPea
in-world group, and are active participants in group chat - where Peas chatter
about hunts, ask for hints when there's a game under way, or just generally
hang out and have fun between games.
Rosie Simca |
Sue, Suzie, Rosie, moi and Pawo have been members of MadPea
for varying amounts of time, and they all come from different backgrounds. But
the one thing they have in common, is what they feel it means to "be a
"To me it means to be loyal to the Pea. We all bow to
the Pea," giggled Rosie, betraying the sense of fun most Peas seem to be
equipped with. "The people you encounter have been courteous, respectful
and non-judgmental. To be a Pea you must be a little Mad."
The others agreed. When asked the same question, the idea of
"fun" and being a little "Mad" is at the forefront of their
responses. So is a love of story and puzzles.
"To love solving puzzles but most of all, being
friendly, and helpful and have a sense of community with the other members,"
added Sue.
" You have to be curious, have a slightly warped sense
of humor," said Pawo, and with a grin, added "but warped in all the
right ways!"
moi |
All members also seemed to agree on the theme of community
running through the group - and it's true. If a new member pops in and says
hello, they are always greeted by at least one Pea who says "hello"
in return. Usually from there, friendly chat ensues.
Pawo, one of the newer of the members interviewed, had this
to say about the MadPea community: "Very welcoming, slightly twisted,
immensely amusing and creative. Make sure to bring your sense of humor and your
curiosity, and be ready to explore wondrous things with awesome people."
So, what are these MadPeas expecting out of BURIED, the
newest interactive adventures put on by MadPea Productions?
Moi says that she is "looking forward to another hunt
that makes me forget to check the time!"
" The same I always expect....fun! I enjoy testing
myself to see if I can do it without help," said SuzieQ. "You get so
involved!" she added, agreeing with moi.
What are these players basing their experiences on, you
might wonder. Sue has been playing
MadPea adventures since Lost Treasure of the Incas, which she says has been her
favorite so far. She thought the sim was fantastic, and the game was as immersive
as it could get.
SueQX2 Oh |
Newer players like Pawo and moi were more recently
introduced when they discovered Green Mire, where players were sent around a
swamp to figure out what happened to two boys who seemed to have disappear
In spite of this vast difference in experience, one thing is
clear: They expect great things from MadPea's newest adventure.
" I am hoping to be totally immersed into a realm of
creative storytelling and exploration," said Rosie.
Pawo seemed to agree: " I'm hoping for a great
storyline, one that draws me and makes me not want to depart until I've
explored all there is for me to see and discover."
Be sure to discover this community for yourself as you
explore the adventure that will be BURIED. You won't be sorry, and you will
most certainly be welcomed. Bring your twisted smile with you when you do!


text:
Sexual Offences Act The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (c 42) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
It replaced older sexual offences laws with more specific and explicit wording. It also created several new offences such as non-consensual voyeurism, assault by penetration, causing a child to watch a sexual act, and penetration of any part of a corpse.
Major changes Part I of the Act makes many changes to the sexual crimes laws in England and Wales (and to some extent Northern Ireland), almost completely replacing the Sexual Offences Act 1956.
Rape has been redefined from the Sexual Offences Act 1956 (amended in 1976 and 1994) to read:
A person (A) commits an offence if—
(a) he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of another person (B) with his penis,
(b) B does not consent to the penetration, and
© A does not reasonably believe that B consents
Rape previously did not include penetration of the mouth. The Act also changes the way in which lack of consent may be proved, and section 75 and 76 of the Act list circumstances in which lack of consent may be presumed.
A new offence of assault by penetration is defined as penetration with any object to the anus or vagina.
The Act also now includes provisions against sex tourism. People who travel abroad with the intent to commit sexual offences can have their passports revoked or travel restricted. However, this part of the Act has yet to be enforced by a test case in the UK and has been criticised by numerous high-profile litigants due to its complexities.
Group homosexual sex has been decriminalised, in that Schedule 6 of the 2003 Act caused section 12 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 to be omitted, removing the offence of homosexual sex "when more than two persons take part or are present".
Part II of the Act also consolidated the provisions of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 on registration of sex offenders and protective orders. These provisions generally apply throughout the United Kingdom.
Section 45(2) changed the definition of "child" in the Protection of Children Act 1978 (which applies to child pornography) from a person under 16 to a person under 18. Section 45 also inserted section 1A of the 1978 Act, and section 160A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, which create defences which apply where the photograph showed the child alone or with the defendant (but not if it showed any other person), the defendant proves that the photograph was of the child aged 16 or over and that he and the child were married or lived together as partners in an enduring family relationship, and certain other conditions are met.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 creates further offences relating to prostitution.
Sections 47 to 50 prohibit child prostitution. Sections 52 and 53 prohibit pimping for financial gain. Sections 57 to 59 create offences relating to sex trafficking. The Act also inserted a new section 33A into the Sexual Offences Act 1956, which relates to brothels. A new section 51A was inserted by the Policing and Crime Act 2009, which prohibits soliciting. This came into effect on 1 April 2010.
"Consent" The Act made significant changes to the legal definition of consent.
Sections 64 and 65 relate to sexual relationships within the family. Section 64 prohibits penetrating any other family member, and section 65 prohibits consenting to such sexual activities. Initially the legislation did not include uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews but after some debate these were written into the provision.
Section 74 states that:"For the purposes of this Part, a person consents if he agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice."
Section 75 Section 75 of the Act introduces a number of evidential presumptions under which if the prosecution proves certain circumstances existed at the time of intercourse or other relevant sexual act "the complainant is to be taken not to have consented to the relevant act unless sufficient evidence is adduced to raise an issue as to whether he consented, and the defendant is to be taken not to have reasonably believed that the complainant consented unless sufficient evidence is adduced to raise an issue as to whether he reasonably believed it."
Section 76 Section 76 of the Act introduces two conclusive presumptions. These are where the defendant deceives the victim to the nature or purpose of relevant act (i.e. fraud) and where the defendant induces the victim to consent by impersonating someone known to the complainant. When this is proven, the law states that it is then conclusively presumed that the defendant did not believe that the complainant consented to the relevant act, and that the complainant did not consent to the relevant act.
Dual criminality Section 72 provides differing levels of dual criminality for specified offences according to the UK citizenship status of an offender. For UK nationals, acts outside the UK that would amount to an offence in the UK can be prosecuted as if they had been done in the UK, regardless of whether the acts are lawful where they were done. For UK residents, acts outside the United Kingdom have to constitute an offence in the country where they are committed, in order to be prosecuted in Britain.
Criticisms The Act has faced criticism on several grounds, the most controversial of which is the criminalising of various common behaviours, such as laws which, on the face of it, outlaw consensual "sexual hugging" in public places or by underage persons, even when both participants are under age, followed by the issue of guidance notes which countermand this, saying they should almost never be prosecuted.
The Home Office says legalising consensual sexual activity between children "would damage a fundamental plank in our raft of child protection measures". A spokesman said, "We are not prepared to do this. We accept that genuinely mutually agreed, non-exploitative sexual activity between teenagers does take place and in many instances no harm comes from it. We are putting safeguards in place to ensure that these cases, which are not in the public interest, are not prosecuted - by amending guidance to the police and Crown Prosecution Service".
Criticism comes from Action on Rights for Children: "Laws should mean what they say. It's astonishing that the government could consider legislation with the prior intent of issuing guidance to countermand it. I worry about the message it sends to young people - it seems to say that sometimes the law means what it says and sometimes it doesn't.".Spokesperson Terri Dowty also fears that it could lead to unreasonable private prosecutions, such as by angry parents who don't like their child's boyfriend or girlfriend.
Professor Nicola Lacey of the London School of Economics comments: "What the Home Office would say was that they wanted to use the criminal law for symbolic impact, to say that it's not a good thing for kids to be having sex. My counter-argument is that the criminal law is too dangerous a tool to be used for symbolic purposes. With this on the statute book, it will give police and prosecutors a lot of discretion. It could be used as a way of controlling kids who perhaps the police want to control for other reasons. Kids who perhaps are a nuisance or who belong to a group who attract the attention of the police in some way.".
Another criticism given is that the act excludes "made to penetrate" (the act of causing an unconsenting individual to penetrate you sexually) from the offence of rape.
Transition from old to new law The 2003 Act repealed most sections of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 and several other statutes dealing with sexual offences. Section 141 of the Act gave the Home Secretary the power to make rules by statutory instrument to deal with the transition from the old to the new laws, to cover the situation where a defendant is charged with offences which overlap the commencement date of 1 May 2004. However no such "transitional provisions" were ever made. This resulted in cases where, when a defendant was accused of committing a sexual offence but the prosecution could not prove the exact date, and the offence could have been committed either before or after 1 May 2004, he had to be found not guilty, regardless of how strong the evidence against him was. This was because a sexual offence committed before 1 May was an offence under the old law, but an offence committed on or after that date was a different offence under the new law. For example, an assault might either be indecent assault under the 1956 Act, or the new offence of sexual assault under the 2003 Act, depending on when it happened, but it could not be both. If the prosecution could not prove beyond reasonable doubt which offence had been committed, then the defendant could not be convicted of either.
The Court of Appeal first dealt with this problem in December 2005, when the prosecution appealed against the decision of a judge to order a jury to acquit a defendant for precisely that reason. Dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice Rose said: "If a history of criminal legislation ever comes to be written it is unlikely that 2003 will be identified as a year of exemplary skill in the annals of Parliamentary drafting."
This situation was not resolved until Parliament passed section 55 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, which came into force in February 2007.


text:
I often use the new answers to old questions page. Mostly I like to seek bad answers that should be voted for deletion. Occasionally the answer itself is a sign that the question is bad and should be closed. I of course vote to close, but being such an old question, it is unlikely to get attention. Historically, I've been also flagging it for moderator attention, and explaining in a custom message why the question should be closed. One moderator has disagreed with this tactic:
The moderator thought that I shouldn't use flags for this -- I should rely on my ordinary close vote. But the difference in practice between the two is large. Previously, old questions that I flagged to close from this process resulted in closed questions. The following are questions that I flagged for moderator attention to close (and that were closed or deleted):
- Code Golf: Conway's Game of Life
- GIS: PostGIS/PostgreSQL vs. MySql vs. SQL Server?
- Version Control for non-programmers
- How to set up a cvs server on windows 7 64 bit [deleted]
These were all consecutive questions I've flagged that were all closed. Since this admonition from the moderator, I've declined to flag questions for closure. None of them have been closed:
- What software should I use for manually drawing schema diagrams?
- How did/would you "force" yourself to do TDD rather than TAD?
- Is Embarcadero C++ Builder a good choice as an IDE?
- Is it correct to use single quotes for HTML attributes?
Most of these close votes have since been (automatically) deleted. I believe it's fair to say that the nature of the questions that I suggested for closure are similar between those that were closed and those that were not. It seems clear that flagging a question to be closed proves decisive for actually getting the question closed. Since I believe it's useful to get these questions closed, and since it's also unlikely that they will get closed unless I flag them, I am requesting confirmation on what the appropriate behavior is.
Should I flag old questions that are unlikely to otherwise be closed for moderator attention?


text:
Book: Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - A Red Velvet Christmas Novel
Author: KE Osborn
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Hosted By:Francessca's Romance Reviews
My name is Amber.
I'm the girl who dated a rock star.
The girl who supposedly tore said rock star and his girlfriend apart.
A love triangle so heart wrenching, I was left devastated and alone.
But that was only the beginning of my story…
I'm a single mother, trying to be a rock chick in a world that hates me, chaos is my middle name.
My mother died at Christmas – the anniversary of her death, just around the corner. I'm on edge.
My name is Brax.
I'm a returned soldier.
A man with dark demons.
I've been hired as a bodyguard for my best mate's sister.
This red-headed goddess had my heart from the moment she walked back into my life.
Amber's life is changing. Can the new man occupying her mind, body and soul, help her realise Christmas is a time for happiness and maybe even... love?
Add To Goodreads
My entire body covers in goose bumps and a shiver runs down my spine. I gasp slightly at the sensation washing over me, as I manage to pull my eyes from his and draw them over the rest of his features. His dirty blond hair is disheveled in just the right way, and his chiseled jaw is lightly scattered with an afternoon shadow. My body tenses at how ruggedly handsome this man is, and it's unnerving. I haven't reacted to simply looking at someone like this before. He truly has taken my breath away. Swallowing hard, I try to rein in my composure, but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to not just step toward him to be closer to his brilliance.
It's like time stops still as his eyes meet mine again and something passes between us, a reciprocal understanding that this attraction is definitely mutual. I can hear Mason talking, but I can't concentrate on anything he's saying as I take a step out of Mason's grip and toward him. Hunter clears his throat breaking the tension and pulls me to him even further.
"Amber, you remember Brax, right?" he asks and I shake my head slightly in disbelief. He's nothing like I remember. "You don't remember, Brax?" he asks again and Brax's lips turn up into a slight smile.
"No. Shit, sorry. I do remember you, it's just you look so…different," I say my pitch a little higher than what I was aiming for.
Purchase Links
Amazon UK
Amazon USA
Amazon CA
Amazon AUS
About The Author
Australian author K E Osborn was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. With a background in graphic design and a flair for all things creative, she felt compelled to write the story brewing in her mind.
Writing gives her life purpose. It makes her feel, laugh, cry, and get completely enveloped with the characters and their story lines. She feels completely at home when writing and wouldn't consider doing anything else.
You can keep up to date with KE Osborn here:
Facebook Profile
Facebook Page
Other Books by KE Osborn
Amazon UK
Amazon USA
Amazon CA
Amazon AUS
A place where book lovers, authors, and bloggers can help spread the word about the books we love! Feel free to contact me at email@example.com
Friday, December 18, 2015
Release Blits: Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
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text:
Alex Chiu's Online I-Ching © 2001 Registered
with the US Copyright Office.
A Free Online I-Ching Book Introduction
What kind of predictions can YOU perform
if you learn I-Ching from Superiching.com?
The above are just some examples of what you can predict after you have finished reading Superiching.com. If you vividly study and practice our I-Ching prediction techniques, one day you can too be as accurate as Mr. Shou who has predicted the death of that young actress. After you have finished learning Superiching.com, you can too predict the future just like how Prophet Wild Crane has predicted the death of the entire family which moved into a new house. This I-Ching book is designed to allow you to predict just about everything: the death of a person, the exact time and date to expect a visitor, the rise and fall of the stock market, the presidential election, the out come of a war, etc. |
I-Ching Index | Chinese Calendar | Forum | alexchiu.com | |
©2001 Registered with the US
Copyright Office. All rights reserved. |
If you would like to write your own I-Ching book after you have mastered I-Ching, please ask the author for permission to use all of our element symbols, date symbols, calendar indications, charts, and the names of the hexagrams. We encourage an unification of English I-Ching symbols so more people can learn about I-Ching.


text:
Wood countertops, a consistent choice for modern kitchens.
The solid wood, as a material of choice for countertops, exhibits incontestable advantages such as:
Imparting a warm, relaxing feeling, the wooden top is the natural complement of any solid wood or veneered cabinetry. The wooden tops will wonderfully go together with hardwood floorings, moldings, cornices and mantels, conferring a genuine sense of balance to your kitchen space.
A hardwood top is very easy to cut to templates and even easier to install. Unlike the solid surface or laminate, wood tops have a minimum of chemical components, which make them extremely safe in contact with foods. Unlike the other countertop materials, any occurring scratch can be easily removed by sanding the area; the wood tops actually constitute the only known surface that can be renewed without employing special tools or requiring special skills. Hardwood surfaces can be used as kitchen island tops, inserted sink covers, sections of the countertop, or as butcher block hidden under the countertop that can be pulled as drawer or cart. Your imagination will surely find plenty of other interesting, visually attractive applications.
If properly sealed and installed, a wooden top can literally last a lifetime. Unlike marble, granite or tile, the wooden tops have a great shock absorbing capacity that further assures a considerable life span.
For a quite few decades, the plastic and laminate surfaces, due to their non-porous structure were considered much safer than wood for applications such as chopping meat or slicing vegetables. The wood, because of its porosity was thought an ideal surface for harmful bacteria like Salmonella, Staphylococcus or Escherichia coli to thrive. However, a study undertaken in 1993 by the microbiologists of Wisconsin Food Research Institute and another one carried out in 1998 at the University of Florida discovered the strong antibacterial properties that wood surfaces exhibit, properties that no other cutting surface appears to possess.
According to these studies and to others that followed them, on wood surfaces, bacterial populations disappear quite fast, without external intervention, while on plastic surfaces they persist and actually multiply. Although these properties vary among wood species, the wooden cutting surfaces are increasingly accepted as the first choice of health-conscious individuals.
Hardwood is usually priced higher than laminate but is far less expensive than stone, granite, solid surface, tile or steel.
The butcher block countertops supplied by Laforet Wood Products (www.hardwoodcountertops.com) come in beech wood, cherry, walnut, oak, whitebeam (hickory look), acacia (black locust) or hard maple with a large variety of dimensions and grades. Mineral oil is supplied for free along to the purchase and helps to finish and preserve the butcher blocks. Availability is immediate and they offer samples of butcher blocks free of charge. Details at www.lafor.ca


text:
At Achema 2022 in Frankfurt am Main, the global process industry finally met again at its leading trade show, after several postponements due to Corona. The numbers of exhibitors and visitors were much lower than usual since circumstances dictated that this event got scheduled during peak holiday time in Europe. Nevertheless, the WIKA trade show team was satisfied with the outcome.
Those responsible in Klingenberg adapted the planning to the circumstances in good time. They reduced the stand area for Achema 2022 from 320 to 120 square metres and moved the stand from hall 11.1 to hall 11.0, as a higher visitor frequency was to be expected there due to the walkways. With the calibration van on the open ground in front of hall 11, they were also able to allocate a dedicated space for service.
"Dry" measuring in-line process transmitter
On the stand itself, the new PURE-480 trade show concept, with a large LED wall, was used for the first time. On the LED wall, new products were presented in line with the motto "Inspiring. Sustainable. Connections." and competence in the field of measurement technology was highlighted. With the "dry" DMSU22SA process transmitter, WIKA also exhibited a world premiere, one that fascinated the public as well as the press. Ten lectures in the digital space complemented the physical trade show programme. Breathtaking provided an informative platform for everyone interested and who were unable to take part in the trade show as a consequence of travel restrictions.
Achema 2022 went well for WIKA
After the five days of the trade show, all colleagues involved were relieved that the first major trade fair after the long Corona break had gone well, despite the still prevailing pandemic. Customers were keen to discuss their projects with WIKA. However, the contact figures of the past could not be achieved − after all, compared to previous years, Achema 2022 only counted about 60 percent as many exhibitors and about 50 percent as many from the public. Nevertheless, the quality of contacts has increased. The new trade show concept, up to modern market standards through the use of digital media, received a very favourable response from the visitors.
An overview of the trade shows and events in which WIKA is participating can be found on the WIKA website. If you have any questions, your contact will gladly help you