text:
As the world celebrates World Environment Day, the Coca-Cola System in Nigeria comprising Coca-Cola Nigeria and its bottling partner, Nigerian Bottling Company, reaffirms its commitment to making the country and the world a more sustainable place by supporting plastic recycling and other key environmental protection initiatives to help create a world without waste.
World Environment Day was founded by the United Nations Environment to promote worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. The theme for World Environment Day 2020 is, 'Time for Nature,' with a focus on its role in providing the essential infrastructure that supports life on earth and human development.
In January 2018, the Company launched a global goal to fundamentally reshape its approach to packaging through its World Without Waste initiative. This initiative aims to help collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of its packaging by 2030. This year's World Environment Day theme, 'Time for Nature', rightly ties into the ambitious goal that Coca-Cola set for itself since 2018 and its efforts in investing in the planet and its packaging towards environmental protection.
The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners are pursuing several key goals:
• Investing in the planet: By 2030, for every bottle or can the Coca-Cola System sells, we aim to help take one back so it has more than one life. The Company is investing its marketing dollars and skills behind this 100% collection goal to help people understand what, how and where to recycle. We will support the collection of packaging across the industry, including bottles and cans from other companies. The Coca-Cola system is working with local communities, industry partners, our customers, and consumers to help address issues like packaging litter and marine debris.
• Investing in our packaging: To achieve its collection goal, The Coca-Cola System is continuing to work towards making all of its packaging 100% recyclable. The Company is building better bottles, whether through more recycled content, by developing plant-based resins, or by reducing the amount of plastic in each container. By 2030, the Coca-Cola system also aims to make bottles with an average of 50% recycled content. The goal is to set a new global standard for beverage packaging. Currently, our returnable glass bottle and PET packaging in Nigeria is 100% recyclable.
"Bottles and cans shouldn't harm our planet, and a litter-free world is possible," Onyemelukwe Nwamaka, Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Manager, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited explained. "Companies like ours must be leaders. Consumers around the world care about our planet, and they want and expect companies to take action. That's exactly what we're doing, and we will continue to lead in this space. We invite others to join us on this critical journey."
The World Without Waste campaign represents Coca-Cola's commitment to doing business in a way that eliminates waste which causes damage to the environment and supports job creation and financial empowerment. Under this campaign and through the Coca-Cola Foundation, the company has sponsored and supported projects geared towards proper waste management and infrastructure that supports life on earth and human development.
With grants of over $800,000 from the Coca-Cola Foundation to multiple local NGOs, several recycling and women empowerment programs are being implemented to address the issue of environmental protection while empowering women who are significant pillars of the environment.
Additionally, through Coca-Cola's System investment in one foremost recycling company in Nigeria, Alkem, more than One billion PET bottles were collected and recycled in Nigeria into fibre and other products from 2005 to 2011; more than 1,800 people directly employed on an average income of $6 per day (3 times the national average); as well as the creation of synthetic fibre for local industries and export.
Coca-Cola has further invested in building an industry coalition that has birthed the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA). FBRA is an alliance of responsible and forward-looking companies united by a shared concern for the environment and a commitment to collaborate with all stakeholders in building a sustainable recycling economy for food and beverage packaging waste. These efforts have so far led to over 55 million bottles recovered from the environment and recycled into other products.
Some of the notable NGO grants towards building environmental sustainability includes the $150,000 grant to the Initiative for the Advancement of Waste Management in Africa, which is aimed at helping them establish eight 'Cash for Trash' recycling hubs in communities around Abuja, a $100,000 grant to the Mental and Environmental Development Initiative for Children (MEDIC) for its Recycling Scheme for Women and Youth Empowerment (RESWAYE) program, $56,000 grant to Global Shapers on Plastics 2 Resources designed to change the behaviour of citizens on waste disposal and about $170,000 grant to the African Clean-Up Initiative, which has birthed two key programs — RecyclePay and Clean-Up Naija.
The RecyclePay program has supported children with funding to attend low-tuition schools by exchanging plastic bottle waste donated by their parents for school fees while solving a key climate issue as well as SDG Goals 4 and 10. Currently, the African Clean-Up Initiative is using a similar approach to support low-income families affected by the coronavirus pandemic by giving them cash, double the value of plastic bottles recovered.
Coca-Cola is surely leading the way and making a difference towards preserving nature thereby supporting life on earth and human development.


text:
Update 3: The service has been restored.
The following repositories could not be recovered:
Owners are asked to push again, the repositories have been emptied.
Update 2:
While all SVN repositories have been successfully restored, there are still
multiple Git repositories displaying failures. Until we can rule out further
data loss, write access will not be restored.
We advise users not to clone repositories to avoid receiving corrupted data
until further notice.
Update: A few of the git repositories have had issues, we are currently verifying them. If you encounter issues such as missing data, or an inability to write to your git repo, it is likely due to this cleanup work we are performing. We will post an update when the maintenance has concluded.
The overlays.gentoo.org service has been restored after a hardware failure.
In the process, the service had to move to a new machine. The SSH keys have changed to:
The DNS records have been updated. Should you still have problems reaching the service, flush your DNS cache or manually set overlays.gentoo.org to point at 184.108.40.206.
The old front page as well as the Trac repositories have not been set up again due to low demand. Should you require an SVN browser still, or would like to report anything else, please contact us at email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Light in the wrong place at the wrong time can be intrusive. Light pollution is artificial light that is allowed to illuminate or intrude upon areas not intended to be lit. Light pollution and nuisance is a growing problem to many residents due to the large numbers of security lighting around domestic properties. This is classified a nuisance when it interferes with an individuals use and enjoyment of their home.
Before you report a complaint we advise you to speak to your neighbour as they may not be aware of the light troubling you. Please do approach them first by politely requesting:
- moving or partially shading the light;
- fitting an infra red sensor;
- using a lower wattage bulb as they are much cheaper and far more efficient.
Making a compliant
We can investigate complaints of light nuisance. The light nuisance must be substantial (for example; preventing you from sleeping) for us to investigate the problem. Most commonly reported complaints are from lighting being installed poorly in both commercial and domestic properties.
If you wish to complain about light pollution please contact the Regulatory Services team. Your case will be allocated to an officer who will write to the light owners to ask them to address the problem, at the same time we will send you diary sheets. If the problem is not resolved with the initial letter, you will need to return your completed diary sheets so a visit can be arranged to assess the light levels.
Enforcement action
If we do find the light pollution is a statutory nuisance and the person responsible for it is unwilling to do anything about it then we will serve an abatement notice. This is a legal document that we serve on the person responsible for the light nuisance, or the owner or occupier of the premises. It requires them to stop the light nuisance and not allow it to restart.
How to avoid causing light nuisance
- Think about the position of the light. Is it shining directly at a neighbour's bedroom window?
- Use a low Watt, low energy bulb. Some security floodlights are 500W whereas 150W is adequate for most situations; this will also help reduce your running costs.
- Reduce the amount of time a light is on by fitting a timer, and if a sensor is fitted, think about the area covered by the sensor, so that it does not cause the light to come on more often than is needed.
- Use a shield or hood so that the light is directed to the area it is intended for.
- Does the area need a light? Sometimes lights can create shadows for criminals to work in.
Advice on security light installation
Advice and recommendations on how to minimise the intrusion and glare from lighting installations has been produced by the Institution of Lighting Engineers and DEFRA to assist householders when installing security lights.
New developments
The best method of dealing with light pollution is at the planning stage. This is an ideal time to influence the design or installation of lighting schemes.


text:
Saral, Krista Jabs (2010): Speculation and Demand Reduction in English Clock Auctions with Resale.
Download (623kB) | Preview
Many auctions are followed by a resale market which occurs when the winner of the auction resells the item won to one of the participants from the original auction. The existence of such transactions may initially appear counter intuitive. However, this paper will show that active inter-bidder resale results from payoff maximizing decisions in the auction that take into account the incentives of a resale opportunity. Specifically, I examine how the existence of an inter-bidder resale opportunity impacts bidder behavior in an English clock auction, and to what extent altering the bargaining power of the final buyer and reseller in the resale market determines the strategies followed in the initial auction, in an attempt to understand the existence of these inter-bidder transactions. Theoretical and behavioral analysis is used to develop hypotheses of speculation (bidding above value) and demand reduction (bidding below value) which are directly tested in a controlled experimental setting. While value bidding is a dominant strategy in a standard English clock auction without resale, when resale is allowed, this theoretical claim is weaker. Demand reduction is observed when the bargaining power is shifted to the final buyer in resale and when the bargaining power is shifted toward the reseller, speculation is observed. The revenue achieved in the initial auction depends on the behavior observed in the auction. Regardless of bargaining power, revenue is shown to decrease below what would have been earned in an English auction without resale due to demand reduction. When the reseller has the bargaining power, and speculation is observed, this loss in revenue is somewhat mitigated by increased speculation.
|Item Type:
|MPRA Paper
|Original Title:
|Speculation and Demand Reduction in English Clock Auctions with Resale
|Auctions, Resale, Demand Reduction, Speculation, Experimental Economics
|D - Microeconomics > D4 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design > D44 - Auctions
C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C90 - General
|Item ID:
|Depositing User:
|Krista J. Saral
|Date Deposited:
|20 Sep 2010 02:44
|Last Modified:
|30 Sep 2019 20:31
1.Alsemgeest, P., Noussair, C., and Olson, M. (1998) "Experimental Comparisons of Auctions Under Single- and Multi-Unit Demand," Economic Inquiry, Vol. 36, Issue 1, January.
2.Burtraw, Dallas, J. Goeree, C.A. Holt, E. Myers, K. Palmer, and W. Shobe (2008), "Collusion in Auctions for Emission Permits: An Experimental Analysis" RFF Discussion Paper No. 08-36.
3.Coppinger, V.M., V.L. Smith, and J.A. Titus (1980), "Incentives and Behavior in English, Dutch and Sealed-bid Auctions" Economic Inquiry 43, 1-22.
4.Cox, J.C., B. Roberson, and V.L. Smith (1982), "Theory and Behavior of Single Object Auctions" Research in Experimental Economics, Vernon L. Smith, ed., Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.
5.Lange, Andreas, John A. List, and Michael K. Price (2004). "Auctions with Resale When Private Values Are Uncertain: Theory and Empirical Evidence" NBER Working Papers 10639, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
6.Fischbacher, U. (2007). "Z-Tree: Zurich Toolbox For Readymade Economic Experiments" Experimental Economics 10 (2), 171--178.
7.Garratt, Rod & Thomas Tröger (2006) "Speculation in Standard Auctions With Resale," Econometrica, 74 (3), 753--769.
8.Garratt, Rod & Thomas Tröger & Charles Zheng (2009) "Collusion via Resale" Econometrica, 77 (4),1095-1136.
9.Georganas, Sotirios (2007) "English Auctions with Resale: An Experimental Study" working paper
10.Goeree, Jacob (2003) "Bidding for the Future: Signaling in Auctions with an Aftermarket" Journal of Economic Theory, 108(2),345-364.
11.Greiner, Ben (2004) "The Online Recruitment System ORSEE 2.0 - A Guide for the Organization of Experiments in Economics." University of Cologne, Working Paper Series in Economics 10.
12.Haile, Philip A. (1999). "Auctions with Resale" Working papers 33, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems
13.Haile, Philp A. (2001) "Auctions with Resale Markets: An Application to U.S. Forest Service Timber Sales" American Economic Review, vol.91, issue 3, 399-427
14.Haile, Philp A. (2003) "Auctions with Private Uncertainty and Resale Opportunities" Journal of Economic Theory 108, 72-110
15.Kagel, J.H., R.M. Harstad, and D. Levin (1987), "Information Impact and Allocation Rules in Auctions with Affiliated Private Values: A Laboratory Study" Econometrica 55, 1275-1304.
16.Pagnozzi, M. (2008), "Bidding to Lose? Auctions with Resale" RAND Journal of Economics, 38(4), 1090-1112, Winter 2007
17.Porter, David , S. Rassenti, W. Shobe, V.L. Smith, and A. Winn (2009), "The Design, Testing, and Implementation of Virginia's NOx Allowance Auction" Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 69, 190-200.
18.Salmon, T. C. and B. J. Wilson (2008) "Second Chance Offers vs. Sequential Auctions: Theory and Behavior" Economic Theory 34:47-67


text:
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Acne vulgaris - a skin disease of the face and chest causing pimples, papules and scarring in adolescent children; has been found to be concomitant with the commensal skin bacteria Propionibacterium acnes. The commonly used drugs for the treatment of acne have many detrimental side-effects. For centuries Curcuma longa and lauric acid have been used in herbal medicines for various ailments including acne. The current study aimed to deliver Curcuma longa through the skin by a lipid vehicle lauric acid to inhibit acne more effectively than Curcuma longa or lauric acid being used as a single drug. Curcuma longa extract was prepared from the dried rhizomes and lauric acid was separated from coconut oil. The lipid vehicle was prepared by Curcuma longa, lauric acid and isopropanol. The Organoleptic properties of the lipid vehicle were studied. The antimicrobial properties of Curcuma longa loaded lauric-acid vehicle, along with the individual extracts of Curcuma longa and lauric acid were studied against Propionibacterium acnes by microdilution broth method. Cell viability assay on Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells by Dye Exclusion Method and the Cytotoxicity on HaCaT cell line by MTT assay were studied on the Curcuma longa loaded lauric-acid vehicle, as well as with the individual extracts of Curcuma longa and lauric acid.It was found in the study that the combination of Curcuma longa and lauric acid in a lipid form proved to be more beneficial than the individual extracts.


text:
Gold Winner James Taylor
Silver Winner Lauryn Hill at Halifax Jazz Festival
Bronze Winner July Talk at the Backlot Bash
James Taylor's May 17 Scotiabank Centre show sold out within hours, which is not all that surprising considering he is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and has sold over 100 million records. He seems like a really nice guy but do you ever think he just dives straight into a pile of gold coins Scrooge McDuck-style? Tickets started at $97.50, guys! The mellow troubadour was promoting his #1 album Before This World and Halifax ate it up, crowning this stadium-packing set as the best live show all year.


text:
- Name :Adolf
- Meaning :A noble wolf, title of Hitler, A noble wolf, title of Hitler
- Gender :Boy
Similar Names For Adolf
- Adolphadolph how a young man name is said to dolf. it is of old german origin, and the importance of adolph is "noble, majestic wolf". the latin form adolphus, in the mid-19th century, with a german and swedish royal name and also the name of a saint. the name is now less common, as the infamous adolf hitler and the second world war. the filmmaker adolph zukor; actor adolphe menja; the fashion designer adolfo; beer magnate adolph coors.,noble wolf
Select the collection list Create +
Create New CollectionCollection Name


text: Hello, [switching to debian-project] On Thu, 2010-04-01 at 09:57 +0200, Frank Lin PIAT wrote: > > Debian project raise it's expectation every year: higher quality, more > package, more architectures, more Desktops, etc... (cool). > > How do we face the challenge to do more every year? This first email introduce a series of emails, which aims to find some super-hyper-mega-brilliant[1] ideas to help the DPL. My first idea will focus on how people can help the DPL without stepping up for a whole year. The second email, will introduce an idea of how to make large/non-technical/boring projects happen. (well maybe) Do you have more 2¢ for the DPL? Franklin [1] I know, April first is over, it may not be so brilliant.


text:
|Almageddon Begins: Diaz Proves His Bigotry by Posting "Fake" Comments in MabuhayRadio
|Sections - Filipino-Veterans' Lobby
|Tuesday, 03 July 2007 15:13
Part VI of the "FilVets' Lobby" Series
The MabuhayRadio.com's webmaster, Allan Albert, traced nine entries in the Users' Comments posted today after the articles written by Bobby Reyes in his series about the Filipino Veterans' (FilVets') Lobby. The postings were supposedly done by nine separate readers. All the comments, however, were traced to a particular computer located in Elk Grove, California, where Perry Diaz resides.
The nine comments naturally defended Mr. Diaz and lambasted Bobby Reyes, Col. Frank Quesada and Jay Caedo. The postings from Mr. Diaz's computer again raised the supposed immorality of Bobby Reyes and his spouse of almost 38 years, the alleged status of Mr. Reyes as an illegal alien and other personal matters about the Reyes Couple's son, who had twin brain operations, which medical condition the Reyes Family used allegedly to obtain welfare illegally.
One of the nine postings also tried to "explain" why Mr. Diaz called Mr. Reyes as "gay." The sender said that Mr. Reyes and the Media Breakfast Club (MBC) that he founded use the e-mail address, firstname.lastname@example.com, and "bacla" is the Filipino term for a gay person. What the postings proved (unwittingly on the part of Mr. Diaz) was that—as Mr. Reyes alleged in his investigative report—Perry Diaz is not only being ostracized by his fellow Filipino-American Republican leaders due to his character flaws and but also is a bigot. It appears that Mr. Diaz carries a lot of hatred against gay people, it being obvious in his frequent reference to the MBC and its founder as being a club composed of gays and lesbians. Reyes reasons out that if Mr. Diaz is not a bigot, then he would not have repeated his oft-quoted line that the "bcla" in Mediabcla referred to "bacla." Mr. Diaz did not realize that nowadays postings on the Internet could easily be traced.
What perennially eats the goat of Mr. Diaz was the Reyes' report in 2004 that Asian-American Republican leaders removed Mr. Diaz as treasurer of the Asian-American National Republican Council for alleged impropriety in handling the association funds. Further leaks showed that Mr. Diaz commingled the Republican funds with his personal deposits in a Bank of America account in Northern California. Mr. Diaz could not dispute the Reyes' report, which obviously was fed to the reporter by Filipino-American Republican leaders.
The MabuhayRadio.com's webmaster decided to change the method of posting comments in the web site. Those wanting to post comments have now to log in as registered members.
Mr. Reyes also reproduced a posting in the firstname.lastname@example.com, where Mr. Caedo confirmed that Mr. Diaz called his mother a "prostitute" at the height of their heated online debate. Mr. Caedo also related that Mr. Diaz insulted likewise two other participants in the online debate. Here is the reproduction of Mr. Caedo's posting: QUOTE.
From: Jose Caedo <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Mr. Moderator:
Just two items for public notice:
1. Regarding the references to Mr. Cesar Torres, I have responded directly to him regarding his record at the Filipino-American Council executive committee. (Editor's Notes: We will post in another series our investigative report about the now-disputed Filipino-American Council. So, we will delete this part about the brewing Fil-Am scandal in the Bay Area.)
2. Mr. Diaz in this, and other list serves openly, and publicly called me a child of a Pasay prostitute who was picked up in the trash. Likewise he also wrote an E-mail to a certain Dindo Generoso to "f_ck a Kangaroo" in Australia, and Mr. David Martinez in Los Angeles, whom he wrote "Okinam" over the list serve.
Mr. Denoga, it is rather hilarious that Mr. Diaz is now complaining to you of my "habit". Sanctimonious hypocrites really amaze me no end.
BTW, if I am not mistaken you have met my parents, as I have yours. Our fathers were both associate Medicare Commissioners under Dr. Pacifico Marcos, you will recall. As to my mother, that is likewise of public record.
Just let this ride lightly. I suspect they are just reacting to the fullness of the moon.
Jay UNQUOTE. # # #
Newer news items:
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|Last Updated on Tuesday, 11 September 2007 18:28


text:
Cadeaux d'Amour – An Exhibition of Tokens of Affection
Private View: Friday 20th January 2012
Exhibition dates: Saturday 21st January – Saturday 3rd March
This exhibition features the work of a group of several artists and in anticipation of Valentine's Day will celebrate the theme of Love with a desirable selection of unique artworks, all individually made by hand. The exhibition features a range of different media including a delightful collection of jewellery, ceramics and textiles. The focus of the exhibition is upon items, which might be given as a 'love token' to someone special.
Exhibitors include Alan Ardiff, Helen Beard, Hilary Brock, Jane Charles, Virginia Graham, Michelle Holmes, Naomi James, Anja Lubach, Adele Taylor and Liverpool based artist Elizabeth Willow.
Elizabeth's practice combines elements of sculpture, installation, poetry and performance, and draws upon diverse methods and techniques including flower-arranging, taxidermy, embroidery, dance and bookbinding. Her work is often inspired by myths and stories, exploring memory, a sense of longing and the notion of contradiction. Elizabeth's works are painstakingly created from found and reclaimed materials, making use of a life-time's accumulation of old paper and love of flowers. She has exhibited locally and nationally.
Entry is free
Bluecoat Display Centre
50-51 The Bluecoat,
College Lane Entrance,
For more information about this exhibition call 0151 709 4014 or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com
For more information about the exhibition and these artists please visit www.bluecoatdisplaycentre.com/exhibitions


text:
Gusset plate
From StructuralWiki
Gusset plateOverview
Related Software
A large connecting plate used at panel points to join the chord and the web members.
Design Procedure
Traditional methodology employs general beam theory structural mechanics to analyze the gusset plates and estimate design stresses along a critical section. One of the assumptions of beam theory is that the individual components of stress caused by shear, axial force and bending can be decoupled from the aggregate complex stress state and analyzed independently without a significant loss in accuracy.[1][2] Below is outline of the design steps:
stress check:
- determine axial forces in members connecting to a joint with gusset plate
- determine gusset plate critical sections
- consider portion of the gusset plate on one side of the critical section and determine (from equilibrium with member forces using free body diagram) shear, axial force, and moment (V, P, M) acting on the critical section
- using V, P and M, calculate stresses in the gusset plate and compare with allowable stress
unsupported edge adequacy:
- unsupported edge must meet slenderness criteria to prevent buckling under compression loads
- ↑ Reggie Holt and Joseph Hartmann: Adequacy of the U10 & L11 Gusset Plate Designs for the Minnesota Bridge No. 9340 (I-35W over the Mississippi River), INTERIM REPORT, January 11, 2008 - provides detailed description of procedures used for gusset plate design, including limited historical background with focus on AASHTO specificiations
- ↑ J.J. Roger Cheng, Gilbert Y. Grondin, and Michael C.H. Yam: Design and behavior of gusset plate connections


text:
Imagine There's No [Christian] Religion
Jeremiah said of ancient Israel: "Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush" (Jeremiah 8:12).
Since the Sixties, pagan religion has permeated our thinking in once-Christian Western society. Those who remember the days when our moral principles were generally based on God's commandments are shocked by the takeover of morality, exhibited even in rulings from our highest courts. Increasingly, we hear of "non-binary" actions and judgments that relativize truth and morals. There is no either/or; no external measure of right and wrong—only a blend that fits our personal choices.
The Media
In the media, "fake news" (a deliberate misrepresentation of facts to support certain political ideas) has become the norm. The crying baby on the Southern border proves the inhumanity of the US president, until….we discover that, according to its father, the baby was never separated from her mother, and, in addition, the mother had abandoned three other children in Honduras to come make money in the USA.
In academia, the open exchange of ideas in a climate of free speech, once the essence of academic life, is often deliberately suppressed in our centers of higher learning. Wake up, folks! We send our young people to these colleges and universities at enormous personal and government expense, to be educated for mature adulthood. But they enter ideological centers of cultural neo-Marxism, identity politics and uninhibited sexual license, which ridicules and suppresses any other opinions. The dormitories have become brothels, and barbaric sex orgies are normal fare for university students. The annual Sex Week at Northwestern University will feature Lady Sophia, a Chicago-based dominatrix who will teach the students bondage, discipline, and sadomasochistic practices. At the venerable Oxford University in the UK an "annual bash sees students whipping virgins, engaging drug-fueled orgies and watching live sex shows."
On questions of free speech, even the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), historically committed to the preservation of free speech, is beginning to capitulate to the anti-speech left, arguing that "progress toward equality" (which includes sexual excess) trumps freedom of speech.
Speech about traditional (largely Christian) sexual morals is no longer "free speech." It is under attack. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a suggested presidential candidate, reveals how upside-down our moral judgments have become. Warren was infuriated by Rudolph Giuliani 's remarks on porn star Stormy Daniels: "I don't respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman, or a woman of substance, or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman, and as a person. And isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation." Said Warren in reaction: "Insult to a porn star is an insult to every woman." Our culture insists that Daniels is a noble "sex worker," free, like Lady Sophia (above), to ply her trade at Oxford or any other university. All work, including prostitution, is "good" work. Morals have vanished.
We have taken the Bible off its place at the family dining table, the living room and (especially) the bedroom. We've tossed it (Good Riddance) in the Goodwill dumpster. We are now free to search for moral authority elsewhere—say…to witchcraft, why not? David Salisbury, a self-identified witch, rises up as a defender of cultural values, blaming the NRA for recent school killings. He and seven other witches sit around a table on which a cauldron sits atop a pentacle, accompanied by "a five-dollar bill painted red—to symbolize blood—and a piece of paper with the huge block letters 'NRA.'" These witches were engaged in the ritual of "Binding," of casting spells as a new form of defending cultural values. Salisbury stridently hurls curses at those he characterizes as "merchants of mayhem, profiteers of pain, dealers of death," who "fatten on the blood of innocents and feast like demons on their corpses!" He continues, "May your thoughts and prayers turn to poison in your mouths." Witches are rising as paragons of moral virtue, though their practice of human sacrifice is ignored.
Not to be outdone, the Brotherhood of the Unnamed Path also offers a moral solution. It's source for determining morals is a "spiritual tradition revealed to its members from the ancestors of men-who-love-men, employ age-old techniques practiced around the world that foster relationships with the divine, the ancestors, the spirits in the land and with each other." These Brothers rise up, morally indignant, to oppose the separation of children and parents at the southern border: "We stand against these policies as dictated and enforced by the attorney general and the current administration. We condemn in the strongest terms the justification of these actions by statements of religious scripture or by indicating a need to intimidate and provoke fear." These spiritualists, by their sexual choices, reject the very possibility of having children, yet publicly propose themselves as the moral defenders of children.
From Binary to Non-Binary
In the revamping of our culture, Christianity no longer defines morality. Indeed, the very notion of morality has shifted. A new kind of thinking is afoot, a "non-binary" approach, which eliminates clear distinctions. "Binary," meaning "two," emphasizes clear definitions, whereas "non-binary" considers everything to be relative. At truthXchange we use the terms "Oneism" (the merging of all distinctions) and "Twoism" (the acceptance of God's created distinctions). In sexuality, our culture no longer sees male and female as essential; in spirituality, our culture blends God and nature into one vague spiritual whole. Such thinking is widespread and comes from the invasion of Eastern spirituality and morality. Sociologists write of The Easternization of the West, "quite unlike anything previously experienced."[1] "As large numbers of Americans have arrived at the worldview of Hinduism," says sociologist Phillip Goldberg, author of American Veda, the change is compared "in power to the Christian Great Awakenings of the 18th century."[2] Goldberg says that everyone is now asked to believe in the Hindu "Advaita" way. "Advaita" in Sanskrit means "not two." That is, nothing is "binary." Nothing is Twoist! In this world, Christianity does not belong. It is possible to be quite specific as to how this change in thinking has occurred.
Eastern techniques of Advaita spirituality require a different way of thinking. When Westerners spend billions of dollars in the pursuit and practice of Hindu yoga and Buddhist mindfulness meditation, with the full endorsement of the popular Dalai Lama, you can be sure that the culture will be deeply changed. Mindfulness practices have skyrocketed in the West recently. Magazines feature it, celebrities swear by it, scientists study it, monks still practice it and business leaders use it for stress relief (e.g. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Steve Jobs of Apple and Jeff Weiner, founder of LinkedIn). Apple, Google and Nike provide meditation rooms that encourage brief sessions during the workday, though a recent study shows that mindfulness is demotivating for employees, so it does not always work!
Cultural Effects
Here is proof of its effects.
Christine Chandler, an academically trained psychotherapist was a disciple of Tibetan Buddhism who practiced mindfulness meditation for hours each day for nearly thirty years. In her book Enthralled: The Guru Cult of Tibetan Buddhism, she provides an indisputable, objective witness to the effects of such practice on the mind.
Simple mindfulness meditation for the Western beginner asks you to stop thinking, stop analyzing right and wrong, and to live in the moment to relieve stress. However, the deeper you get in mindfulness, under the instruction of lamas (holy men), you learn that the real intention of mindfulness is to show, as Buddhism has always believed, that the world is "just an illusion" (100). Eventually, the self and the other must be destroyed (36) via the "esoteric logic of non-duality" (37). "Non-duality" is another way of referring to the "non-binary" mentioned above. In this logic, "facts do not exist" (14), "lying is allowed" (8), and "history is not real" (9). Christine Chandler finally realized that "the lamas can do whatever they want, because they [are] already dwelling in a state of nonduality" (xxii). They taught that the use of reason is the "obstacle to compassion and enlightenment" (17), that "moral judgments about right and wrong…[are] the enemy," and that "basic goodness…[is] beyond any judgment of good and bad" (xxi). She saw this as a manipulation of language in the service of spiritual power. Also, the ultimate goal of mindfulness, which Chandler, as a non-Christian does not see, is the classic Buddhist goal of denying the objectivity of created reality and its role of witnessing to God, the Creator of reality.
Chandler does realize, however, that this way of thinking and spiritual practice becomes a form of brainwashing, which is how she finally experienced it. She left the group after almost thirty years, having understood that "your reasoning mind, objectivity, and ability to judge, starts to slowly turn off" (102). "Part of my mind had definitely fallen asleep for nearly thirty years," she says (104). Her conclusion is that mindfulness meditation is "mind-control," and that "…if you can diminish the ability to reason and think objectively…you can eventually weaken the foundation of Western civilization…" (preface). This, she believes, is the intention of Eastern Buddhism.
How is the project working?
Three Canadian Events
I was in Ontario, Canada, recently. If Canada is an example of what will happen everywhere in the West, Christians will soon be shut out of any significant cultural roles. Clearly something has happened to Western civilization that makes Christianity a dangerous threat, which must be criminalized and eliminated. Mindfulness is everywhere in Canadian culture and receives the favor of the courts.
Three events stood out:
1. The Huffington Post shows pictures of twenty policemen in dress uniform, sitting on prayer stools, deep in meditation in a Buddhist temple. These officers, from Ontario's Peel Regional Police Force, were in the temple for a lecture on mindfulness meditation and Buddhist philosophy. The deputy abbot, Bhante Saranapala, observed with satisfaction: "They were very nice and they liked it and they think it should be part of their daily practice." But how will law-enforcement professionals, trained in "binary" right/wrong Western laws, do police work using the "non-binary" principles of Buddhist spirituality? Can they issue a "fake" parking ticket marked "guilty and not really guilty" in order to avoid stress?
2. Canadian Bill Whatcott, long-time anti-abortion and pro-family activist, was informed in mid-June, 2018 that a national criminal arrest warrant has been issued for him. He is wanted for a "hate speech" crime that took place two years ago in Toronto! His "hate speech" crime was distributing leaflets that present the Gospel and the biblical truth about homosexuality to Toronto's homosexual pride parade in 2016. The authorities had to think a long time before inventing this crime, for which he faces a minimum of two years in jail.
3. Also in June, 2018 a ruling came down from the Supreme Court of Canada, concerning a case against a Christian college, Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. In 2012, Trinity Western announced its plan to open a law school. The Law Societies of British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia, objected because the school would require students to sign a covenant restricting sexual relations to those between a man and woman within a lawful marriage. TWU's mandatory covenant demands classically-defined holy Christian living "characterized by humility, self-sacrifice, mercy and justice, and mutual submission for the good of others." It requires members to abstain from using vulgar language, lying or cheating, stealing, using degrading materials such as pornography, and "sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman."
The Court stated that law graduates from Trinity who model their lives this way would not be recognized as valid lawyers. Trinity appealed for reasons of religious discrimination. Last week, while I was there, the Supreme Court of Canada concluded in a 7–2 decision that tolerance of LGBTQ was required of TWU, but the LGBTQ community did not have to tolerate Christians' constitutional rights, which could be overridden. The court determined that LGBTQ's rights and non-binary Oneist sexual thinking were paramount to the "public interest" and required the infringement of religious rights and the living out of biblical moral principles, thus the denial of Christians to freely practice law according to biblical binary or Twoist principles. In the words of Michael Brown, "the court ruled that Christianity and higher education are incompatible" and that any Christian living this way in Canada is a threat to the culture. "The majority judgment said the covenant would deter LGBT students from attending the proposed law school, and those who did attend would be at risk of significant harm." The significant harm would be exposure to Christian truth about sexuality which may not be allowed to flourish in modern cultures that claim to be civilized. Canadian Christians have concluded: "…there is little space left in our political culture for religious institutions to fully and equally participate in the public square since their beliefs and moral values whether at work, in education or in politics are now subject to determinations by administrative bodies." Needless to say, this decision also denies the very basis of modern society, namely pluralism and diversity, what we call free speech. The Supreme Court of Canada, like the ACLU, has become an embarrassment to its own values—if one were still to think in binary terms!
One of the judges defended his judgment against Christian norms as being "what's best for Canadian society." He never said how he knows what is best, and there is no discussion, because his judgment is a classic example of religiously-inspired, pagan, non-binary, power-driven, social engineering. The deep soul of the West, so long under the binary either/or influence of the Bible, has been utterly transformed in the minds of its leading jurists, who have come to believe that diversity means "all views are welcome other than biblical Christian views." For this judge, biblical views, including those of the Queen (who is still Queen in Canada), are not what is best for Canadian society.
Christians in the West must be sobered by Canada's suffering but must not remain silent. All nations need to understand that the Bible alone contains what is best, both for a blessed life in this world and a blessed life in the next, based on the promise of Scripture: "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him" (Gen 18:18). One day this blessing will come when Jesus will reign unopposed over his creation and at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:10–11).
[1] Colin Campbell, The Easternization of the West: A Thematic Account of Cultural Change in the Modern Era (Boulder London: Paradigm Publishers, 2007), 39–41.
[2] Philip Goldberg, American Veda: How Indian Spirituality Changed the West (New York: Harmony Books, 2010), 5.


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Check out the on-demand sessions from the Low-Code/No-Code Summit to learn how to successfully innovate and achieve efficiency by upskilling and scaling citizen developers. Watch now.
Conversational AI is a catch-all term for natural language models for artificial intelligence that can interpret human words, speak to people, or carry out tasks or computation with natural language.
But talk to any of the best-known AI assistants today — Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant — and they're not exactly conversational. They can tell you jokes, answer factual questions, and even respond to multiple queries without the need to keep repeating a wake word, but conversation or chit-chat is still very much a human endeavor.
To share progress towards deep learning designed to carry a conversation, Google today introduced Meena, a neural network with 2.6 billion parameters. Meena can handle multiturn dialogue, and Google claims it's better than other AI agents built for conversation. It even told an off-the-cuff joke.
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Learn the critical role of AI & ML in cybersecurity and industry specific case studies on December 8. Register for your free pass today.
Google today also released Sensibleness and Specificity Average (SSA), a metric created by Google researchers to measure the ability of a conversational agent to maintain responses in conversation that make sense and are specific. Humans rank around 86% in SSA, and in initial tests, Meena scores a high of 79%. Mitsuku, an AI agent created by Pandora Bots that's won the Loebner Prize for the past four years, got a 56%, while Microsoft's XiaoIce, which speaks Mandarin Chinese, got a score of 31%.
The work is detailed in "Towards a Human-like Open Domain Chatbot," a paper published Monday on preprint repository arXiv.
Meena is trained on 40 billion words and utilizes a seq2seq model and a variation of the popular Transformer architecture. Google first released Transformer in 2017, but since then the language has grown to rank among the highest performing language models around.
SSA evaluates dialogue based on static performance with a fixed set of prompts or interactive performance, which allows for free-flowing conversation. Each evaluated conversation was required to last at least 14 turns and no more than 28 turns. Results are then arrived at based on the percentage of turns considered specific or sensible. SSA penalizes responses with generic responses.
Google may make Meena available to researchers in the coming months but decided to avoid making a demo available immediately, the company said in a blog post.
The SSA standard Google proposes is different than the metric other AI assistants have set for assessing a truly conversational AI.
Now in its third year, the Alexa Prize is a challenge for teams of student developers to create AI that can hold a conversation for up to 20 minutes. The finalist last year got up to about 10 minutes. The latest round of finalists will be announced in May. You can speak with last year's finalists by simply saying "Alexa, let's chat."
Amazon is already beginning to grow its multiturn dialogue offerings. Conversations is a feature that packages voice app recommendations in conversational multiturn dialogue. At the time of launch last summer, Amazon VP of devices David Limp called it "the holy grail of voice science."
Microsoft acquired the company Semantic Machines in 2018 and last year began to showcase more multiturn dialogue for users of the Microsoft Bot Framework.
AI assistants that can maintain a conversation may be able to secure closer bonds with humans and do things like provide emotional support to people, or cure the loneliness epidemic, as former Alexa Prize head and current Google Research director Ashwin Ram put it in 2017.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings.


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Heavy-hearted Angels win their 1st game after Skaggs' death
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Tyler Skaggs weighed heavy on the minds of Mike Trout and all of the Los Angeles Angels in their first game since death of the much-loved 27-year-old pitcher.
"I can't explain it man. Lost a teammate, lost a friend, a brother. Just got to get through it," a visibly shaken Trout said after the Angels 9-4 win at Texas on Tuesday night.
"It's tough. My first at-bat, I get up there, all I do is think about him," added the All-Star center fielder, who was in the same Angels draft class as Skaggs in 2009. "Just a different feeling, just in shock, it's like walking around the hotel, you're just always thinking about him."
The Angels decided to play a day after the postponement of the series opener against the Rangers. Skaggs was found unresponsive in his hotel room in Texas on Monday. A cause of death has not been reported.
Before Angels starter Jose Suarez threw his first pitch in the bottom of the first inning, the left-hander appeared to write something in the dirt with his finger. He then touched the No. 45 painted on the back of the mound and tapped his heart.
Justin Bour pointed skyward after his two-run single in the sixth inning, when the Angels went ahead to stay with four runs to break a 3-3 tie. Kole Calhoun was more emphatic with his reaction when crossing home plate after his two-run homer in the eighth.
"No, it wasn't normal. And it felt like there was much more urgency to win," manager Brad Ausmus said. "It's been a rough 24 hours, and we haven't had a lot to smile about, so a win would give us something."
There was a moment of silence before the game, with the players followed their coaches lined up outside the dugout. Pitchers Andrew Heaney and Cam Bedrosian held Skaggs' No. 45 jersey.
"It was just kind of something unplanned. His jersey was hanging in his locker. We wanted to take him out there with us one more time," Heaney said. "He was definitely my best friend. There's probably about 100 other people out there that would say he was their best friend too. Because he treated everybody like that."
Trout and his teammates said Skaggs, who brought so much energy to the clubhouse, wouldn't have wanted them to take another day off.
"It's going to be tough these next couple of days, the rest of the season, the rest of our life, to lose our friend," Trout said.
"Today it was just different, and there's no playbook on how it's supposed to go today and you're supposed to act and react," Calhoun said. "But getting back to the game definitely is what he would have wanted. Today was a day that we leaned on each other like we really needed to do."
Bour hit the only pitch he faced after taking over the full count of All-Star second baseman Tommy La Stella, who fouled off a pitch that hit him squarely on his right shin. La Stella didn't put any pressure on his leg while helped off the field.
Public address announcer Chuck Morgan introduced the moment of silence by saying the Rangers offered their deepest sympathies and condolences to Skaggs' family, his teammates and the entire Angels organization.
The introductions of the starting lineups by Morgan before that were uncharacteristically subdued, and the Rangers ran to their positions for the start of the game quietly without any music playing in the stadium.
When Rangers batters were introduced, there was no walk-up music played. Also missing were the normal between-inning shenanigans and the fireworks that usually marked Texas homers — Delino DeShields went deep in the third inning.
"There are no words to express our sadness today," Angels owner Arte Moreno said before the game.
Ausmus said the team gathered together a couple of times Monday at the team hotel about 20 miles from the ballpark. He wiped away tears when speaking about Skaggs before the game.
Asked about his message to his players, Ausmus said that was a "family conversation" that would remain between them.
General manager Billy Eppler described Skaggs as a teammate, a brother, a friend and most importantly a husband and a son who "brought joy to everybody around him."
Angels players wore a black encircled patch with No. 45 above the heart of their uniforms.
With the team out of town, fans went to Angel Stadium, where they left flowers, hats, baseballs, signs, photos and other memorabilia in a makeshift memorial mound.
The poignant display resembled the fan-created memorial for Nick Adenhart in 2009 after the rookie pitcher was killed by a drunk driver. That tribute stayed out front of the Big A through the summer.
Team president John Carpino said the Angels would pay tribute to Skaggs in much the same way they did Adenhart, who was killed after only his fourth major league game.
"The way we'll honor them both is just watching these guys play," Carpino said, referring to the players sitting to his left before the game. "As far as the stadium, just typical with a patch and all that, but honoring him so much more with our thoughts and our hearts is the most important thing."
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports


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IPiB/SFLC Tea Time
Thursday, July 21, 2016 - 7:00pm to 8:00pm
The Student Faculty Liaison Committee (SFLC) will be hosting Tea Time this Thursday, July 21st at 2pm in the Hector F. DeLuca Biochemistry Laboratories East Atrium. We will be providing coffee, tea, and cookies for your enjoyment. We look forward to seeing you all there!
Last Updated: Jul 18, 2016 - 10:47 AM


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As our nation stumbles ever closer to the brink of a war launched via tweet from a man who can't locate the target country on a map, Americans are turning to one another and saying, "What can I do?"
Unless you're a high-level executive at Twitter who can delete President Trump's account (and if you are, for the love of God, please contact The A.V. Club, we have some questions for you), the answer is, "Not much." But when it comes to building a gigantic border wall, Trump's second-worst idea (running neck and neck with roughly every other idea he's had in the past couple years), there's an opportunity to put your money where his insipid architectural plan is. Cards Against Humanity has announced a holiday promotion, "Cards Against Humanity Saves America," designed to throw a giant geographical wrench in the works of the border wall. We'll let the company explain it:
Donald Trump is a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans. He is so afraid that he wants to build a twenty-billion dollar wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing. So we've purchased a plot of vacant land on the border and retained a law firm specializing in eminent domain to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built. On Day 1, all Cards Against Humanity Saves America recipients will get an illustrated map of the land, a certificate of our promise to fight the wall, some new cards, and a few other surprises.
Yes, for just $15, you can contribute to a small section of land that will stand in between Donald Trump and his dream of a tall—just huge really, the absolute tallest, everybody agrees—border wall symbolically flipping the bird to our neighbors to the south, with extra emphasis on "symbolic," given the projected efficacy of this wall at its intended goal. In exchange, over the course of December, the company will send you six surprises in the mail. Is this a business marketing strategy? Absolutely. Is it working? We're writing about it, aren't we? Does none of that really matter because it's an excellent idea? Hell, we'll even make an official endorsement of the promotion.
No word yet on the location of the plot of land, but we should know soon enough. In the meantime, don't worry, everyone who thinks Cards Against Humanity is trying to somehow be politically correct. As the company itself says, "We're just being regular correct."


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When it comes to healthy eating, cheese has a pretty bad reputation. It makes people think about pizza and mozzarella sticks. But did you know that cheese is high in protein? It's also rich in calcium, a mineral that many people don't get enough.1 So you might not want to give it up so soon! It comes down to the type of cheese you eat. These 9 types of cheese can actually be a healthy part of your diet.
1. Ricotta Cheese
This light low-sodium cheese is an amazing partner for crackers, veggies, and fruit. You can even use it in pancake and pastry recipes. For a healthy meal, try stuffing it into whole grain pasta shells topped with homemade tomato sauce. It's a great source of antioxidants and fiber, too.
2. Cottage Cheese
If you're trying to lose weight, cottage cheese should be your new best friend. This light cheese is full of protein, calcium, and vitamin A. The protein will keep you full and prevent overeating later on. You can also turn it into a dip for your favorite vegetables. Just add some spices, mix, and enjoy.
3. Neufchatel Cream Cheese
Love cream cheese? Eat Neufchatel, a healthier alternative. You'll still get the same creaminess without the crazy calories. For a healthy breakfast, spread Neufchatel on an English muffin and top with cucumbers and tomatoes.
4. Parmigiano-Reggiano
This cheese is a healthy option because it's made with skim milk. The grated form is easy to eat with salads and pasta. And since Parmigiano-Reggiano has a strong flavor, you won't be tempted to eat too much or add extra salt.
5. Feta
Feta is extremely versatile. It is also made with sheep's or goat's milk, which has more calcium than cow's milk. And like Parmigiano, it has a strong taste that will stop you from adding more salt. Feta can be eaten on everything from pasta to watermelon.
6. Camembert
If you adore brie, you'll love camembert. This creamy cheese has fewer calories, making it an ideal substitute. Try it with crackers, veggies, or fruits.
7. Mozzarella
Mozzarella is light and easy to eat. It's also low in sodium, making it a nutritious option. It works best in simple recipes like light salad or even as a spread. Toss it with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar for a refreshing side dish.
8. Swiss
For a cheese that is low in salt and fat, try Swiss cheese. It has a good deal of protein and calcium, too. The flavor is mild enough to satisfy a cheesy craving. Eat it in a sandwich, wrap, or casserole.
9. Cheddar
The high-protein content of cheddar will keep you full for a long time. It also has calcium and even some vitamin A. To get a lot of flavor in a small amount, choose sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese.
If you can, try to buy good-quality cheeses. Their strong flavor will make it easier to use just a little bit. Don't be afraid to try new kinds, too. You never know what you will love!
|Nutrients in Cheese. Dairy Council of California.


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Syracuse, NY -- A man was wounded by gunfire tonight on Syracuse's Southside.
Multiple shots were fired about 10:15 p.m. in the 200 block of Hudson Street, just north of the intersection with Sterling Avenue. The wounded man, believed to be in his twenties, was taken by ambulance to University Hospital. His wounds were not believed to be life threatening, police on the scene said. His name was not immediately available.
Police are investigating the shooting at this hour. A house for sale in the 200 block was roped off with police tape and officers are interviewing neighbors and looking in the street for evidence.


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From Canada to Georgia, behind every project and every acre OSI protects, there are people. Whether they're lifelong environmentalists or new to conservation, each person has a connection to the land that has inspired them to protect it. Their stories are as diverse as the landscapes they are dedicated to protecting.
In this installment of From the Ground Up, OSI's Southeast Field Coordinator, David Ray, hikes the Highlands of Roan in North Carolina with Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell and U.S. Senator Richard Burr.
September 2014 - I was yards away from the rocky summit on the Tennessee/North Carolina line when a member of my hiking party stopped to oblige a pair of backpackers' request to be photographed in front of a sign reading "Jane Bald 5,807 ft." The photographer
made sure they were ready, urged them to smile, and then counted to three and clicked.
That's a relatively common occurrence in the open balds and spruce fir forests of the Highlands of Roan—a spectacular Southern Appalachian landscape that is rich both biologically and historically. But today something uncommon was afoot here in the Roan. As my group continued northward along the Appalachian Trail, I couldn't resist stepping back to ask the backpackers: "Did anyone tell you who just took your picture?" "No," they said. "Who was it?" "The U.S. Secretary of the Interior," I told them. "Sally Jewell."
Natural history giants like Elisha Mitchell and John Muir visited the Roan in centuries past. They were drawn by the variety and rarity of plant life and the healing effects of the high elevation, which creates what is essentially a boreal climate in a southern location. Such visits are a source of local pride. But what stands out the most for me about this place are the actions of ordinary people, and the bond created among them by their experiences here.
I first hiked to the top of 6,165 foot Grassy Ridge, Secretary Jewell's destination for the day, when I began my land trust career in 2002, carrying my 4 week-old daughter Esther inside my fleece jacket. Our family fell in love with the place, and we venture back to this spot annually for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy's (SAHC's) weekend-long work trip called the "Grassy Ridge Mow-Off." For two decades, with weedeaters and loppers in hand, volunteers have formed a special bond as they pitch in to help the U.S. Forest Service maintain the open balds on this land held in the public trust.
On this day, Secretary Jewell was blending in like an ordinary citizen. But she had brought the extraordinary standing of her office to talk about a groundbreaking American institution—legislation known as the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).
Ever wonder how the ground beneath your favorite national forest trail came to be a place where you and I can take a walk? Ever wonder how the views and streams at a state park were able to remain places of enchanting beauty? How about the new ballparks and playgrounds in your town? In many cases, LWCF played a critical role in bringing these projects to fruition.
Enacted by Congress in 1964, LWCF just celebrated its 50th birthday. The idea was simple, and Congress was virtually unanimous. Take a portion of the royalties that were already being earned by the United States government from offshore oil and gas leases in public waters and use them to secure the future of America's forestland and parkland, as well as the services that they provide to Americans—like recreational opportunity and flood control.
LWCF has made America's quality of life better. Now LWCF needs help. At 50, it's on life support. Next year it expires, unless Congress reauthorizes it. Furthermore, Congress has in only one of those 50 years actually left the annual authorized amount of $900 million in the fund. Full LWCF funding can do a world of good. Working with partners in the LWCF Coalition, OSI's Outdoors America Initiative has provided instrumental leadership for the full-funding and reauthorization campaign.
Conservationists consider Sally Jewell a friend of their cause. Her pace on our hike and eagerness to reach Grassy Ridge—where we could glimpse SAHC's 600-acre LWCF funding candidate that OSI helped finance with a bridge loan in 2012—told me she was no stranger to the rugged outdoors. But this former REI CEO, who also worked in the banking and oil and gas industries, is also no stranger to business. In explaining why LWCF matters to everyone, she proclaimed from the top of 5,826 foot Round Bald that "there is a reason why REI keeps opening stores in North Carolina." We were looking at the reason. Experiencing it all around us.
Reaching across the aisle to join Secretary Jewell on the grassy balds this day was U.S. Senator Richard Burr (Rep.-NC). Senator Burr has been an ardent supporter of LWCF. He has been known to push for more than just what we tend to call "full funding," noting that $900 million in 1964 dollars would be a lot more dollars today. "Some people say LWCF is just a government play for land, but it's not," Senator Burr told our hiking party, "This is the people getting together, finding the places that matter, and finding a way to keep them protected."
As he said this, the Senator scanned our party. Here was staff from land trusts like SAHC, The Nature Conservancy, and the Open Space Institute. Here was the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Here was lawyer, Mike Leonard, an OSI fund advisor and Chair of The Conservation Fund, who long before that recognition, made an unpaid side career out of his passion for bringing people of all walks of life together to make hundreds of conservation projects happen across the southeast. And here was Fred Stanback, a private citizen whose belief in land conservation and prolific generosity as a donor has time and time again matched public funding, stretching the public's investment far beyond where it could reach alone.
Here before our eyes was a representation of the people, as Senator Burr had said, who all across this country come together in public-private partnerships to secure, with the help of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the future of the outdoors in America.
As I drove down the slopes of the Roan and back to Asheville, the places I passed conjured reminders of many special moments from my dozen years of conservation work in this region. Those moments are almost invariably connected with one or another of the ordinary—but in many ways extraordinary—people I've had the privilege to meet in this work. They are landowners, national forest and park rangers, donors, nonprofit staff, researchers, and volunteers. We all shared a love for the land. And a common thread that has activated us all, as we've sought to secure the future for that land, is the promise and hope embedded in Land and Water Conservation Fund.


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How is your Resilience to Adversity?
The brain is the source of all our emotions and behavior. Although humans have known for many years that all our behavior, feelings, and thoughts come from the brain, there has not been much progress in learning exactly how it works until recently. Researchers have been looking at many aspects of our emotional life and tracing them to specific patterns in particular regions of the brain. In this research, they have found that one size does not fit all. In other words, you have to take into account the individuality of the patient which can often be determined by DNA and also previous circumstances that may have happened during the patient's lifetime.
The first emotional style is resilience to adversity. The adversity can be a wide range of so-called setbacks – from the most trivial things such as someone cutting you off in traffic (but if this happens at the beginning of your day, it could trigger negative emotions starting off your day) to the more significant setbacks such as the passing of a loved one. Under certain difficult periods of people's lives, they may behave and/or react differently during these times.
When you have a setback, and we all do at some point, how do you bounce back from it? Is it pretty quickly or do you wallow in anger, unhappiness or jealousy, or any other negative emotion? Everyone will vary in how well and how quickly they are able to recover from such adversity, and also depending on how significant the setback may be. On one hand, people are resilient – look at how we as humans have survived on this planet for thousands of years. Yet with the more significant setbacks, your resilience could be thwarted (which is completely acceptable), so the resilience relies on the circumstance. Researchers are now seeing particular patterns of brain activity in particular regions that actually show the ability to quickly and easily bounce back or the difficulty to bounce back.
The second emotional style is outlook – meaning whether you have a positive or negative view on life. Do you tend to think that things will work out for the better regardless of the situation? Or are you more of an Eeyore with a gloomy cloud over your head with no hope for better days? There are also particular brain patterns and brain activity at play here that underline whether you have a positive or negative outlook in life.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles and FreeDigitalPhotos.net


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All, During today's call we talked about adopting the click, focus/blur, focusin/focusout from DOM Events. I am wondering if it would makes sense to adopt load/unload [1] as well. The benefit would be the ability to use a shorter and more widely known event name. DOM Events 3 says about load that "If this event type is dispatched, implementations are required to dispatch this event at least on the Document node." This seems to imply that an implementation is allowed to dispatch it to other nodes. Since that event doesn't bubble, it would be safe for an XForms processor to dispatch load to XForms models. One question is at which point in the lifecycle of XForms initialization would this take place. Would it replace xforms-ready? I am not 100% convinced that this would make sense but wondering what people think. -Erik [1] http://dev.w3.org//2006/webapi/DOM-Level-3-Events/html/DOM3-Events.html#event-type-loadReceived on Wednesday, 3 February 2010 20:14:47 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Friday, 17 January 2020 19:48:39 UTC


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Bears kicker Cody Parkey went on NBC's "Today" show on Friday morning to talk about his botched 43-yard field-goal attempt that cost his team a first-round playoff victory Sunday.
Parkey's attempt bounced off the left upright, hit the crossbar and bounced out — dubbed a "double doink" by NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth — to give the Bears a 16-15 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles.
Here are five things Parkey said in an interview with hosts Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin.
1. Parkey said he had "a lot of confidence" as he headed out to attempt the field goal with 10 seconds to play.
He didn't know the kick was tipped by Eagles defensive lineman Treyvon Hester. The NFL changed the missed field goal to a blocked kick in the stats book Monday.
"As a kicker, you live for those moments, and I was 3-for-3 before that," Parkey said. "I had a lot of confidence going into that kick. So I went out there, and my long snapper and holder did a great job. I saw the wind moving a little bit, and I said, 'All right, this is how I'm going to play it.' I didn't know it was tipped or anything. I thought I hit a pretty good kick. It felt good off my foot."
Parkey said he thought from the bounces the football took that it would go in.
"Looking up, I saw it hit the upright and it hit the crossbar, and I'm like, 'Surely it will go in,'" Parkey said. "Unfortunately it bounced toward me. I'm disappointed I let the fans, my teammates and the entire organization down, but I'll continue to keep my head held high because football is what I do. It's not who I am."
2. Parkey said he hasn't been on social media to read any of the angry – or supportive – messages from Bears fans.
"A lot of good can come of (social media), and a lot of bad can come of it," Parkey said. "But at the same time, I've gotten a lot of positive messages. Like I said earlier, I feel worse than anybody about missing that kick because I wanted to make it more than anybody. But at the end of the day, I'm going to hold my head high and when things aren't going my way I'm going to think positive and keep swinging."
3. Parkey thanked defensive end Akiem Hicks and his teammates for standing up for him after the game and on Monday when the Bears were cleaning out their lockers.
Guthrie read a quote from Hicks that said, "That's our guy. I'm going to ride with my guy. If you have that 'C' on your helmet, I'm going to ride with you to the end. I don't care what happens on the field. We are together. That's it."
Parkey responded by calling Hicks "a stand-up guy."
"I think a lot of teammates stood up for me, from what I've heard," Parkey said. "That just shows you what kind of team we have. It's a family. It's a bond. These guys see me working hard every day, and they know all the effort we put into it year round. So it's really awesome to see that Akiem and everyone else stood up for me like that. I really appreciate it."
4. Photos and video captured Parkey pointing to the sky after the miss and kneeling in a postgame prayer circle after the game.
He said the group prayer session is something he looks forward to after games.
Chicago Tribune Sports
"Something I've always tried to do through good or bad is to give praise to the higher power, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," Parkey said. "After the game, one of the coolest things in my opinion is the prayer we do. You get done battling the other team for 60 minutes, and we all join in prayer. We're just praying for safety and health and that the team gets home safely on the plane and stuff like that. It's really encouraging stuff and something I look forward to."
5. Parkey drove back to his Florida home with his wife, Colleen, after packing up his stuff at Halas Hall.
"It gave us time to reflect on the season, get back to people," Parkey said. "We realized how many people are in our corner and love us. It gives us time to reflect and realize how blessed we are with the life we live."
Colleen also made a brief appearance on the show to say she was proud of her husband.
"The kick didn't go in, and we're getting through that," she said. "But just watching his character and everything shine through, which obviously stands above football in my eyes, I'm super proud of him."
Twitter @ChiTribKane
[ Real Talk: So, what exactly was Cody Parkey trying to accomplish with his 'Today' interview? ]
[ Cody Parkey's missed FG changed to a blocked kick — but that won't quiet the social-media storm around one of the most infamous playoff moments ]
[ Kevin Williams: Cody Parkey is better at his job than you are at yours ]
[ From worst to first: A look back at the Bears' 2018 season ]


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Florida Lifestyle Homes names designers for Sydney model at Babcock Ranch
Florida Lifestyle Homes selected Luanza Maitland and Sydney Leigh Warren of Norris Furniture & Interiors to create the interior of the Sydney, the firm's latest model at Babcock Ranch, a new eco-centric town being developed in Charlotte County off State Road 31.
A front porch welcomes visitors to the home and invites residents to spend time visiting with neighbors, enjoying the features of this unique community. A great room design, the Sydney includes two bedrooms plus a den and two full baths. The flexible design allows the den to be used as a third bedroom.
"The Sydney has an inviting, spacious gathering area combining living, dining and kitchen, which accentuates the livability of the home," said Maitland. "For the interior, we will be using a palette that is bright and cheerful, drawn from nature with hues of fresh apple green, light sand and warm taupe tones. Organic inspired prints provide a play on the natural surroundings."
Guests enter the Sydney through a traditional foyer. A tray ceiling defines the living space of the great room and dining area. The adjacent kitchen includes a large island and work space with state-of-the-art appliances and a walk-in pantry. The island functions for dining and entertaining.
"We wanted a timeless Old Florida feeling," said Warren, "by selecting weathered wood plank tile, painted white cabinetry and combining with warm wood tones and bright fabrics. We incorporated natural sisal rugs and neutral textiles with current surface and tile offerings for the effect."
The master suite is at the back of the home for privacy and has its own entry to the lanai. The master bath includes two vanities, a walk-in shower and a private water closet. There is a large walk-in closet.
Sliding barn doors provide an impressive entry to the study. Located off the foyer, the guest bath has a shower plus a linen closet.
The covered lanai stretches across the back of the home and provides views of the preserve. A complete outdoor kitchen makes outdoor entertaining easy and convenient.
The Sydney encompasses 2,324 square feet of air-conditioned living space. With the front porch, a large covered lanai and a two-car garage, the home has a total of 3,507 square feet under roof.
Located on the preserve in the Lake Timber neighborhood, the Sydney is within walking distance to Lake House and Founders Square, the downtown area of Babcock Ranch.
The Sydney is priced at $699,500, including furnishings by Norris Home Furniture & Interiors with a model lease-back available. The home is nearing completion.
Florida Lifestyle Homes offers homes in Babcock Ranch ranging from 2,324 to 4,081 square feet of living space. Well versed in custom construction with an in-house designer, Florida Lifestyle Homes can modify or create a home that perfectly fits the buyer's lifestyle with square footage starting at 2,000 square feet.
Honoring the traditions of Southwest Florida architecture in the early 20th century, the Old Florida and Farmhouse architectural style homes at Babcock Ranch are built to Florida's Green Building Coalition standards and are on preserve and lakefront home sites. Babcock Ranch encompasses 17,608 acres and is the first solar powered town worldwide.
Florida Lifestyle Homes, Inc. is a preferred builder within Southwest Florida's premier luxury communities, including Quail West, Naples Reserve and Treviso Bay in Naples, West Bay Beach & Golf Club in Estero, and Cape Harbour in Cape Coral as well as Babcock Ranch in Charlotte County. The company also has large estate home sites available in the private boating riverfront community of Caloosa Preserve and builds custom homes on owners' lots throughout Southwest Florida.
Founded in 1993 by Bill Ennen, Florida Lifestyle Homes Inc. is at 14311 Metropolis Ave., Suite 101, Fort Myers. Visit www.FloridaLifestyleHomes.com.


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Live from Abu Dhabi Connect the World takes you on a journey across continents, investigating the stories that are changing our world.
He's famed for his 'licence to kill', rather than his 'licence to drive', but Britain's most famous spy has driven an incredible assortment of cars.
Becky visited the London Film Museum's 'Bond in Motion', the largest exhibition of James Bond vehicles, gadgets and gizmos to date.
From Alfa Romeos to Aston Martins, these vehicles have survived through some trying times. Even though special effects have improved over Bond's lifespan, the scenes in the modern films are no less dangerous. Vic Armstrong – former Bond stuntman and stunt coordinator – told Becky that there's no "under-cranking" in the films: everything happens at the speed you see it at.
Becky also spoke to Michael G. Wilson, producer and screenwriter, who says he knows what fans of the franchise really care about. "I think people, when they ask what the next film is they say 'who's the girl and what car does Bond drive?"
As '12 Years a Slave' took top honors at the BAFTA Awards, all eyes were on the film's black cast – and especially director Steve McQueen. If he wins the Best Director prize at next month's Academy Awards, McQueen will become the first black director ever to win.
Atika Shubert spoke with John Akomfrah, a Former Governor of the British Film Institute. She asked him what McQueen's BAFTA win meant for diversity in the film industry.
"I think Steve winning is confirmation of a trend taking place anyway," Akomfrah said. "And by that I mean, for instance, 12 years ago, if you had a film called '12 Years a Slave,' the idea would be that it would go to a white director because it's big and so it's appropriate that it should go to a white director. The fact that a major African diaspora story is done by a black director of black British heritage and descent is, I think, significant."
Atika also asked what Akomfrah would consider to be a true sign of diversity in cinema.
"If Steve's example became a trend, so that there were more people like Steve," he replied. "If a range of black acting talent continues to be both affirmed and endorsed by both BAFTA and the Academy."
World renowned child star and former U.S. Ambassador Shirley Temple Black passed away at age 85 on Tuesday.
Max spoke to the Black family publicist Cheryl Kagan about her memories of Temple.
Kagan, who knew Black personally, said that she had lived a happy, full, and busy life.
"I think what you saw on the screen and on the air was the real Shirley Temple. She was a kind, charismatic, wonderful mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and had been married for 55 years to the late Charles Alden Black. She was an amazing actress, author, and ambassador, and I think her movies are timeless."
Kagan also says that America needed Temple Black at the time she rose to stardom as she was able to "take people's cares away."
Her transition to politics and diplomacy also wasn't as unexpected as it might seem. "She actually co-starred in a movie with Ronald Reagan... She was an amazing woman who could recreate herself and reinvent herself."
Black's postings as a U.S. Ambassador included stints in Ghana and the former Czechoslovakia. But her experiences as a child star never left her. "She grew up in Hollywood, that was a part of who she was."
Text: Famed former child actress Shirley Temple dies


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WordPress makes it easy to get the current user's role(s) by using
wp_get_current_user(). But what if you want to get all roles from all users. Like a list of every role that is used on your site. Well good news, WordPress provides a global object named
$wp_roles that provides the information. So if you're looking for a way to get a list of all currently available roles on a WordPress site, here's how to do it.
Get all user roles
Here is an example of how to use
$wp_roles in a function:
function shapeSpace_get_roles() {
global $wp_roles;
$roles = $wp_roles->roles;
return $roles;
Then you can call it like so:
<?php $all_roles = shapeSpace_get_roles(); ?>
And BOOM! You now have an array of all the roles. No modifications are required. The simple get-roles function does what it says on the tin. Nothing more, nothing less.


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Even a few years ago, renewable energy played only a small role in most countries' energy planning. While governments and publics were eager to increase the share of renewables in their energy systems, the economics of doing so were challenging. There were also serious concerns about the impact on the electricity grid of adding too much capacity from variable renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind.
This has all changed. Prices for inputs—particularly for solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbines—have come down so far that renewable power is now cost-competitive with conventional generation in some regions. As of 2014, 144 countries had established national plans to expand renewable energy, and almost hundred had set specific targets and incentives.
And as a new report from the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) makes clear, with the right combination of new policies and investments, countries can integrate unprecedented shares of variable renewable energy into their grids without compromising adequacy, reliability or affordability.
"Renewables are no longer a marginal business," said Anita Marangoly George, senior director of the World Bank's Energy and Extractives Global Practice. "We are talking about levels of energy that can bring light to thousands of households, grow businesses, meet the needs of cities, and drive entire economies."
Making the transition to large-scale renewable energy supply requires substantial shifts in thinking and infrastructure: grid modernization, adoption of new technologies, reworked business models for utilities, and updated policy and regulatory frameworks. The new ESMAP report, Bringing Variable Renewable Energy Up to Scale: Options for Grid Integration Using Natural Gas and Storage, looks at a number of new approaches to facilitate these shifts and ensure the success of this transition.


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Jeffrey Wolin, known for his photographs which incorporate text, abandons the written word in Provence, France, taking us on a journey of the Roman ruins scattered throughout France. For more than fifteen years, Jeffrey Wolin has combined his love of words with his passion for making photographs, producing narrative images which offer the viewer a glimpse into the lives depicted. Whether pointing the camera at himself, his family or strangers, Wolin's stories, written directly on his photographs, weave narratives in and around his subjects, offering the viewer a more complete understanding of the person shown.
In his newest body of work, Ancient Provence, Wolin put down his pen, packed his bags and set out on a four year journey documenting Roman ruins scattered throughout Southern France. Fascinated by Roman history since high school, Wolin researched the area, choosing specific ruins to document, emulating the shooting and printing style of such notable 19th and early 20th century documentary practitioners as Eugene Atget, Edouard Baldus and Frederick Evans.
The result of his pursuit takes us into the obscure towns and villages of Provence, France - towns not found on most tourist maps. In these places, ruins of past empires collide with modern life, offering a reality rife with curiosity, humor, beauty and an odd sense of harmony. In one image we see a roman column stoic among the plastic chairs and umbrellas of an outdoor café (Hotel l'Aréna); an aqueduct stands behind a hair salon, the water it once protected now a concrete street filled with people and cars (Aqueduct with Hair Salon, South of Lyon); a weathered chateau wall stands in contrast to a nuclear power plant in the not-so-distant horizon (Ville Féodale with Nuclear Power Plant, Cruas). By referencing today, Wolin fuses the past with the present, revealing an area which embraces both modern technology and its historical roots.
Wolin received an NEA in 1992 and a Guggenheim Fellow in 1991, among other awards. He has two books published on his work and is part of numerous collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art , Museum of Modern Art (NYC), and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.


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Posted by Joan Phaup
I enjoyed a blog post by Andy Klee of Klee Associates about a recent conversation he'd had with our own John Kleeman, Questionmark's chairman. Klee, whose organization provides JD Edwards and SAP training and consulting, showed a great deal of interest in how good questions and tests can improve learning outcomes.
Click here to follow their wide-ranging discussion, which covers such topics as the challenge of creating high-quality test questions, the correlation between performance on certification exams and future job performance, and trends in exam design and administration.
It's great to see more and more people recognizing that asking questions adds value to learning. If you would like to read more on this subject, check out this paper by Dr Will Thalheimer of Work-Learning Research: The Learning Benefits of Questions.


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Avid bloggers Vanessa over at The Movie Ness, Steph at The Flick Chick and The Mad Hatter, kind and obliging souls that they are, have seen fit to present me with Kreativ Blogger awards. So without making this sound too "I'd like to thank the Academy, my dog and the Lord Almighty"-ish, let me say thank you, Vanessa, Steph and MH, for reading what I've lovingly dubbed my "movie scribbles" and finding something interesting and worthwhile in them. I'll extend the same appreciation to all the readers who keep dropping in, reading and offering your always insightful comments, which more often than not provide me with fresh ways to think about my favorite (and most hated) films.
Now, on to the rules of the award. They are as follows:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name seven things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate seven Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.
In accordance with KB code, I offer up seven interesting (*crosses fingers behind back*) factoids about M. Carter @ the Movies:
1. At two separate points in my life, men have proposed to me solely because I can sing all the words to "The Ballad of Brave Sir Robin" from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
2. Even though I'm a middle-class (at best) white woman who considers herself something of a feminist, I really like gangsta rap (particularly Notorious B.I.G.).
3. Once I had my breasts autographed by the world's premier Country/Western Vampire Troubador.
4. Though I still don't like clowns, "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" helped cure my fear (fun fact: that's called "coulrophobia") of them.
5. I have to watch Food Network when I work out. Go figure.
6. Flying is one of my favorite things to do, and I love navigating new airports, changing planes, the teensy seats — the whole bit.
7. I have a B.A. and an M.A. in English, but I hate Shakespeare. That's blasphemy for an English major, but I said it. The only things he wrote worth anything to me are his history plays.
And here's a shoutout to seven blogs I can't wait to read every time I log on to the Interweb:
1. Cut the Crap Move Reviews — Nobody breaks it down quite as wittily as Aiden R., who always buries intelligent insights amongst all the humor.
2. Movie Mobsters — Heather's labor of love is one of the coolest-looking review blogs out there, not to mention the fact that she and her crack team post fantastic lists, concise reviews and loads of inventive content.
3. Not Just Movies — Jake consistently blows my mind with his amazingly well-written, astute reviews and the wide variety of films he chooses.
4. The Film Reel — Will's funny, perceptive blog Film Reel has become my go-to source for all things horror, and more than once he's encouraged me to give the genre (not one I've favored) a go.
5. The Robot Who Likes Pretty Things — I can't think of another blogger who reviews a wider variety of films (this guy watches everything, and I mean everything) with more candor. Come for the writing, stay for the "lessons learned" … always priceless.
6. 1000 Movies I Must Comment On Before I Die — Edward has undertaken a massive project — reviewing all the films listed in the book of the same name — with energy and heart, and we should support him.
7. FlixChatter — This site, written and maintained by Ruth, is a veritable font of up-to-the-minute movie news, thoughtful musings, great lists and cool movie trivia.
Filed under: Blog Events, Random Thoughts | Tagged: Kreativ Blogger Awards | 25 Comments »


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We all at some point or another heard the popular saying that practice becomes perfect. This cannot be a truer statement than in the case of soccer. In order To become a very good soccer player, you have to be willing to take time to practice different soccer drills and techniques. Even though you can easily learn a lot on your own, in order to become a true pro, it will be required that you set aside some time to practice. In this article, you will find a few soccer training techniques and drills you can practice that will take your game to a whole new level.
The first and most basic skill we will be starting with is juggling. This might just got you thinking: "how is it possible to juggle while playing the game?" Don't worry, that won't be the case. What happens when you start off juggling, it helps to lay the foundation so it becomes easier to learn the more advance skills later on. Juggling the ball is a lot of fun; it's fairly easy and can be learned while practicing on your own.
Practicing juggling will vastly improve your skill and control of the ball which will make you a lot more balance, and compose while in possession of the ball. Juggling will certainly cause you to be a better dribbler and also improve your game and cause you to grow in confidence as well. So start juggling at least 30 minutes per day, and you will see how quickly your skill level improves.
The next skill practice activity we will be looking at is dribbling. In order to become more effective, dribbling should be practice in pairs. This is because often times while playing in a match, you are challenged by opposition players and you will need good dribbling skills to get away from them. When you practice dribbling, it causes you to have confident and be prepared to take on players while playing in a game.
In order to master using your dribbling skills to get by players, when practicing it's important to play both roles – the defending player and the attacking player that is trying to get by the defender. You can turn this practice session into a game, by giving points to the person you are practicing with, each time they manage to dribble passed you, you assign appoint and the other way around also.
Now let us look at passing. This should be done in different groups of teammates. Training in this fashion will help to improve your handling of the ball and your skill level, and will also help to improve your speed and awareness. How you should go about this drill is to include at least 4 players, two of them on both sides, a few feet apart. Start out by passing the ball back and forth to one another; this should be quick succession of passes between both groups. After a while the tempo of passing of the ball should be speeded up so the skill level and accuracy will be improved.
The world's best soccer players get their great skills and techniques from the amount of time they spend practicing different drills. By practicing the soccer drills that are outlined in this article, you will certainly put yourself on the road to becoming the next great soccer star.


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Dave Bakke: 'Green' invention just needs attention
If Americans are serious about "going green," then Frank Pierce is their man. An artist and amateur inventor, Pierce has come up with the ultimate personal transportation device. His invention is greener than either the Prius or the Segway.
It's the …. the what?
"How about something like The Rollercycle?" Pierce says.
The Rollercycle. We'll go with that until a better name comes along.
If you have spent much time on the north end of Springfield lately, you might have seen Pierce on his Rollercycle. Using the same leg motion as a skater uses, Pierce tools around the streets on wheels at speeds up to 20-25 miles an hour. He does attract attention.
"I almost cause accidents because people are looking," he says. "People want to know about it, where to buy it …
"During the motorcycle races (at the state fairgrounds), I put them on and went past that tavern, Knuckleheads. The motorcycle riders were all out there watching. They started clapping at me, so I cruised up there. It got a lot of attention from them."
Besides attracting attention, Pierce is hoping to attract a company interested in manufacturing The Rollercycle. That is his dream.
In the meantime, he is continuing to refine and streamline his design. Here's how it works: Riders strap a wheel onto each leg. In the current design, people slip into one of their shoes already attached. The next model will let them take their shoes with them when they're done.
The tires are 20-inch, high-performance models. That, Pierce says, gives his invention an advantage over rollerblades. His tires can roll over grass and brick streets.
With the tires strapped onto your legs, you simply skate. When you want to stop, press down on your heel and that engages the brakes. The stability of Pierce's invention is so good that users can stand motionless and not topple over.
Pierce's pitch is that The Rollercycle is good exercise, it saves gasoline, and it improves the overall travel experience when compared to an automobile.
"When you go flying down the road at 40-45 miles an hour in a car, you're missing a lot," he says. "Everything's like a blur. If you want to make a special little trip on these, you get to see more, you talk to people."
He hopes his invention will catch on for short trips or even for getting around town. If it does catch on someday, Pierce can quit his day job as The Drywall Doctor.
"This is just a hobby," he says. "I'm an artist."
The Rollercycle, he explains, is just another extension of his art — which includes a cubed version of DaVinci's "The Last Supper."
"This is fourth-dimensional art," he says of The Rollercycle. "Third dimensional is sculpture. Second dimensional art is a drawing or painting."
The current Rollercycle, then, is the third generation of fourth-dimensional art. Pierce is working on the fourth generation of fourth-dimensional art. It will be improved by replacing the springs on each wheel with small shock absorbers. The springs get squeaky. The shock absorbers will also create a smoother ride.
"It will be more efficient," Pierce says. "It will be quieter."
But it will remain just a quiet, efficient curiosity unless Pierce can get a company interested in producing his Rollercycle. That won't be easy — not that it's not a good invention, but the competition is fierce and it's hard to get noticed.
"But I'm a dreamer," Pierce says.
Everybody has a story. The problem is that some of them are boring. If yours is not, contact Dave Bakke at 788-1541 or email@example.com. His column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.


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In November 2019 some of our MidEastMed team members presented their work at the Middle East Studies Association annual conference that was held in New Orleans. We organized a double panel titled "Medicine on the Move: Medical Agents Crossing Borders," which included colleagues outside the project. The panels dealt with transnational medical [...]
A regional history of medicine is a research project funded by the European Research Council and headed by Prof. Liat Kozma, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The purpose of the project is to write a long-term history of medicine in the Middle East and North Africa from a transnational and multi-layered perspective. A regional approach enables tracing global influences and transnational flows alongside local specificities. A long-term perspective (1830-1960) allows the tracing of continuity and change from the late Ottoman Middle East through the colonial to the decolonization and post-colonial periods. The database was designed to serve this research scheme, as it enables historians of medicine in the Middle East to trace networks and interconnections between people, institutions, organizations and written texts in the region. The database is based on multiple archival and published sources, and is designed to cover thousands of medical professionals, medical and educational institution, hundreds of villages, towns and cities and more.
The MidEastMed team is a vibrant and diverse group of scholars at various stages of their academic careers, from different parts of Israel, speaking and reading a variety of languages, who have come together to study of the movement of people, knowledge and epidemics.


text: Our client, recently recognized as one of the fastest-growing law firms in the country, has asked for our assistance in identifying a senior-level Cannabis Regulatory Attorney with. The ideal candidate will at least five (5) years of experience representing cannabis-industry operators before regulatory boards, though general corporate governance, M&A, or transactions lawyers with at least some exposure to regulatory cannabis law are encouraged to apply. JD degree required, as is Maryland bar membership or ability to waive in since appearing before MD regulatory authorities will be a core responsibility. Portable business preferred (non-equity partnership is a possibility for candidates who can bring in the range of $200k in portable business). The hired lawyer can be housed in any of several offices surrounding the Washington, D.C. market; remote work is also a possibility depending on proximity to this region. Compensation is DOE and highly competitive. Firm is very unconventional in both practice philosophy and compensation structure, and is committed to diversity. For consideration, please submit your resume confidentially to firstname.lastname@example.com. (For a full listing of our job posts, please visit us at http://www.partners-group.com/current-opportunities).