text:
The weather today was beautiful. Sunny, with no chance of rain. It was a bit warm, but there was a nice cool breeze constantly blowing throughout the day. It was a great day for a hike.
Beast and I left the shelter this morning around 8:15, planning to reach Bryant Ridge Shelter after about 21 miles. In a move that would turn out to be oddly prophetic, Beast started off by hiking down the trail to the shelter's water source. (I was about 30 seconds behind him, and would have assumed he was already far enough down the trail to be out of sight had I not seen him coming back up the water trail.)
I normally try to stop every five miles or so for a snack break; I've found that makes me a lot less tired and more clear-headed, especially later in the day. That's taken on a bit of extra urgency, since with the warmer temperatures, Beast is sweating even more than before, and really needs to take the opportunity to attempt to air out his shoes and socks so they can have some chance of being dry for a reasonable part of the day.
Early in the day, the trail began following the Blue Ridge Parkway, roughly paralleling (and crossing a few times) the road for about seven miles before the parkway veered off to the east. We should meet up with the Parkway again sometime tomorrow.
Following the Parkway gave us some scenic views when the trail crossed the road. To the west, there were a series of mountains that were wearing a cloud along their midsections, like a 20 mile wide tutu.
Although I've seen deer before on my hike, I had not actually seen deer from the trail. Today, we saw deer twice: first, there was a white-tailed deer ahead of me on the trail that took off running when it saw me; later, there were two deer standing to the side of the trail that I didn't even see until Beast pointed them out after they moved.
We stopped for lunch after about ten miles at a nice shaded creek near a road. Probably the second best water source of the day, we elected not to get water here (me, because I didn't need more, and didn't want to carry more weight; Beast because it was also fed by road runoff, which generally is pretty undesirable). We hung around a little longer than we usually would so Beast could attempt to dry his socks and shoes out, but it was clear that was only going to work so well. I decided to take my shirt off and let it dry off as well (it didn't, really, but at least I dried off), but in a first, I found myself standing shirtless by the side of a road, just waiting.
Beast ran out of water shortly before second shelter of the day, which has no water, and about five or six miles to a major water source, Jennings Creek. In addition to his already soaked shoes squishing with water with every step, this made for a very uncomfortable hike for Beast.
Adding insult to injury, a nasty biting fly began attacking beast over the course of half a mile or so, attracted by the copious quantity of sweat. Onlooking, it was really kind of comical, but also sad and painful, to watch Beast take his frustration out on the fly, yelling, swerving around the trail, and flailing wildly, even at one point grabbing a small tree and trying to swat the bug by hitting himself with the branches.
We remedied the situation with some bug spray, which Beast fully expected to sweat off in ten minutes, but it seemed to work well enough until we got to Jennings Creek.
On our way to the creek, about half a mile earlier, we passed a small mountain stream. I was kind of surprised Beast didn't want to stop and get water there, but the creek was also at a road crossing, and due to dehydration, he was physically and mentally exhausted and needed to get somewhere where he could just stop. He was done for the day.
I got Beast water from the creek, which he drank just about as fast as it would filter, and then sat down for my own overdue snack. Meanwhile, Beast's Spot device began to malfunction, refusing to shut off after sending the non-emergency distress message, possibly causing it to be sent multiple times. It was already acting somewhat spotty before, so this was its last straw.
Beast arranged, via his parents, for Cynthia and Philip to pick us up from the parking area we stopped at, about 3.8 miles short of our goal for the day (but still, we went a respectable 17 miles). But, this, along with a shelter closure due to bear activity will force us to adjust our plan for tomorrow (the first time bear activity has done so). Probably, we will go 21 to the Marble Spring campsite, with a fallback about four miles earlier at the Harrison Ground Spring campsite.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
We have relaxed some filters to show properties broadly matching your requirements. Please scroll down to find more related properties.
Establishes a premium 1 RK House ranging 317 Sq Feet for sale in Singaperumal Koil, Chengalpattu. This residential abode offers peaceful living with great connectivity and access to all the necessary social utilities in Singaperumal Koil. This UnFurnished House is situated on the of the building complex and offers you distinguished contemporary amenities like Security, Park, Rain water harvesting, Feng shui / vastu ,Car Parking, Two Wheeler Parking . Own this ideal home at an affordable cost of Rs. 15.55 Lakhs for a comfortable living!Read more
1 RK Independent Villa in Singaperumal Koil, Chengalpattu is available for people who wish to lead a peaceful life, with great connectivity to the city. The 1 RK Independent Villa ranging 438 sqft of area has 1 bathrooms . This spacious Independent Villa is UnFurnished and is situatedoff the 1 floor with good ventilation and natural lighting. You can own one without any hassle. This Independent Villa is available at Rs 23 Lac. The available amenities are 24*7 power backup, Drainage facility.Read more
Form land available at sithambur near madhurandhagam with 10 1/2 achers Developed and maintained 14 years of trees and per sq ft 180/- only. Fully covered by mango ,jack fruit ,coconut ,goa ,sapota ,amla trees.Read more
Sri Matru Home,Sri Matru Smart Home,Cheyyur taluk are some of the best residential projects that offer affordable 3BHK residential properties in Adyar, Chennai.
Sri Matru Home,Sri Matru Smart Home,Cheyyur taluk are some of the top upcoming residential projects that offer classy 1 BHK
Sri Matru Home,Sri Matru Smart Home,Cheyyur taluk are the some of the top residential projects offering cozy 2 BHK properties for sale in Adyar, and other nearby areas in Chennai.
Sri Matru Home,Sri Matru Smart Home,Cheyyur taluk are some of the newly launched 1BHK residential projects available for sale in Adyar, Chennai.
In Adyar, there are around 1+ semi-furnished 2BHK properties available for sale. The semi-furnished properties give you the liberty to add or remove items as per your wish. Buy your own home now!


text:
We are Jacalyn Burke (left) and Kate Fitzgerald (left) and we both LOVE France. Jacalyn has family here, and as a child she spent many summers on vacation in France.
Kate, a native New Yorker, first visited France in 1993 and felt an immediate affinity with the French culture and people. She is a filmmaker and performer who loves to travel and always enjoys a good adventure.
Jacalyn and Kate love the rolling sunflower fields, the powdery blue skies, the rustic villages and the surrounding vineyards and coastline. Together they decided to create an opportunity for others to enjoy this in France too.
They are featured in Complete France Magazine, here: https://www.completefrance.com/living-in-france/real-life/british-american-first-time-buyers-in-france-1-5717411
Agudelle is 5-miles from the mediaeval spa town of Jonzac. (Note its proximity to Paris and Bordeaux). You can fly into Bordeaux, Paris and La Rochelle. Train service also available to Jonzac
The village of Agudelle is located in the Charente-Maritime region, near Bordeaux (1-hour drive south) and Cognac (30-minute drive north). It's also only a 40-minute drive to the Atlantic Ocean's gorgeous beaches and quaint marine villages dotting the Gironde Estuary. Although Agudelle has a modest population of 131 people, the larger historic town of Jonzac is a mere 5-mile away.
Jonzac boasts a medieval castle complete with a moat; a small winding river; several high-end restaurants and bistros; blinds; weekly outdoor markets; a Roman geo-spa spa; a cinema; and an art center. The stunning vineyards of Bordeaux stretch to Agudelle. These include such treasures as St. Emilion, Margaux and the Medoc. View a map of the vineyards here: http://www.bordeaux.com/us/vineyard/appellations
Local Attractions
Sunflower fields
Live cultural events
Local Vineyards
Quaint villages
Cognac and Wine Tours / Tastings
Email us on Contact us for more information.


text:
Since the early 1980s I have been trying to get people to understand that the "problem" with practical fertility (as opposed to academic fertility) is that we force cows to calve out of sync with the environment. The result is that we try and rectify the symptom of low reconception by extending the breeding season from anywhere between 2 months and 12 months.
Body condition at calving is the most important determinant of cow fertility.
Body condition is determined by genetics (inherent body condition) and nutrition. The graph below shows the seasonal influence on nutrition / body condition / fertility. Bear in mind that the results shown are from a seasonal rainfall area where the rains normally start mid-November and end mid-March.
Looking at the above graph:
- The difference in interval between calving and first heat (PPAP) from 135 days (September) to 40 days (January) is solely due to naturally occurring nutrition (dry / green grass).
- The importance of genotype. With a fatter genotype, in this environment, the figures on the graph could change to something like 100 days in September to 40 in mid-November – that is the influence genetics.
By breeding mid-March for calving beginning January one only requires a 42 day (2 heat cycles) breeding season for high practical fertility. Such a timetable also coincides with maximum yearling heifer fertility.
The advantages of a 42 day breeding season are:
- Higher practical fertility / profitability.
- Effective supplementation.
- Effective Selection.
- Easier management.
- Effective AI. I have achieved 60% calves born within 2 weeks via partial synchronization and AI.
Combine the above with a strategy of 4 month weaning and we have solved most of the current cow fertility problems.


text:
What Is Mediation Without Attorneys?
What is mediation without attorneys? Barkus Law offers mediation without attorneys. A mediator is a neutral parties that meets with both sides to help them come to a resolution without dispute. Barkus Law serves Broward County and other areas of South Florida. Lori Barkus is a family attorney. Barkus Law offers services in the practices of divorce, collaborative divorce, mediation, alimony, time sharing, child custody, child support, adoption, prenuptial agreement, and unbundled legal services.
If you're looking for a divorce attorney, this law firm provides legal advice and representation to clients through the practices of divorce, collaborative divorce, mediation, alimony, child support, time sharing, prenuptial agreements, and more. If you have further questions or want more information, click here.


text:
No Products in the Cart
Cotton festive lehenga choli set. The lehenga also converts to a summer dress and the top works great with shorts and leggings for casual look..
Within 7-10 days of placing the order.
Weight: 0.5 grams
Kindly note: Return and Exchange Terms
Our return and exchange policy covers only products received by buyer with manufacturing defects or received in a damaged condition. It also applies to products which are wrongly shipped and doesn't match with your original order invoice.
The products requested for return or exchange must be in its original condition as received with its original packaging and labels. Hygiene products are not exchangeable unless there is a manufacturing defect and the product is completely kept in an unused format exactly as received by the buyer.
For a detailed read on our policies please visit the policies page in our website.


text:
Vashoot is a digital advertising company that provides a multi-screen solution.
We are specializing in the planning and buying of digital media across all channels.
Vashoot established at 2014 and since then we are providing our partners the best solution for their digital activity advertising activity.
Become our partner
We believe that long-term partnerships are the keys to our success. When you are joining our network, you are joining to our family.
What we do
We welcome publishers, advertisers, and exchanges
to partner with us at.
We are offering to our clients a complete
video, display, and XML solutions, to increase their sales and revenue.
Need more details? Contact us
We are here to assist. Contact us and let's create a unique and exciting partnership.


text:
- Independent pharmacists have been facing a changing industry for decades but have managed to maintain a presence in communities around the US.
- As reimbursements dwindle, pharmacists are starting to get creative, looking for new ways to get paid by health plans.
- There are massive changes coming to the pharmacy industry. From CVS Health's $69 billion merger with Aetna and Cigna's $67 billion deal for Express Scripts, to the entrance of Amazon, independent pharmacists face tough competition.
- Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen independent pharmacists about the pressure their businesses are facing, and what they're doing to fight back.
Roger Paganelli's business in the Bronx is bustling.
Mt. Carmel Pharmacy stands at the corner of Beaumont Avenue and 187th Street, near the Bronx Zoo and Fordham University.
On a rainy Tuesday morning, shoppers are running errands, and employees, speaking Spanish and English, are helping patients pick up their prescriptions at the counter.
Behind the counter the operation is just as busy.
"It's controlled," Paganelli said. "I wouldn't even call it controlled chaos. I'd just call it controlled."
Orders are going out on delivery to other areas in the Bronx, to Fordham's campus, and even beyond New York City, into Westchester. All in, there are 40 employees working in close quarters.
Paganelli, a third-generation pharmacy owner, would like to keep things busy. But plenty of outside forces — retail behemoths such as Amazon and health giants like CVS, among others — are putting pressure on independent pharmacies. Amazon and CVS are two of the top 10 companies in the Fortune 500 list.
It's not just that consumers can buy paper towels, toilet paper, and milk online now. Healthcare, too, is going digital, with Amazon acquiring an online pharmacy that can send pills straight to your door.
Meanwhile, middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are gaining leverage by teaming up with health insurers, which threatens to put even more pressure on payments to independent pharmacies.
CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the US and also a PBM, agreed to acquire health insurer Aetna in a $69 billion deal, while health insurer Cigna is buying the pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts for $67 billion.
Getting paid for more than just dispensing pills
Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen independent pharmacists about the challenges their businesses are facing. Pharmacists, including Paganelli, say they're getting paid less and less for the prescriptions they're dispensing, while losing customers to mail-order systems they say their patients feel pressured to join.
To survive, pharmacists are getting creative, looking to get paid for providing healthcare to their customers, rather than solely for the pills they dispense.
Paganelli, for instance, is working to get health plans to pay him to help care for their patients.
He's already helping to strike a similar deal in Brooklyn, as part of his work with a group called the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network.
Under that arrangement, independent pharmacists will help make sure that patients leaving the hospital are getting the right doses of their medications, and ensure that their medical support outside the hospital is looped in.
In the Brooklyn deal, the hospital is paying the pharmacists. The hope is to do more such deals around the city, and eventually at his own pharmacy.
He already does a lot of work to keep his patients healthy that he doesn't get paid for.
Mt. Carmel follows up with patients if they haven't come in for a refill. It has employees on the phone all day working to help patients sync up their prescriptions, so that instead of coming in for refills a few times a month, they might have to come in only once or twice.
That also helps the pharmacy get a better picture on the medications they've stopped taking or switched off of.
All of the work is integral to keeping the lights on at the pharmacy.
Big competition
Still, thanks in part to competition from massive retail chains and prescriptions directed through mail services rather than getting picked up in person, the number of independent pharmacies is declining.
According to the National Community Pharmacists Association, there were 22,041 independent pharmacies like Paganelli's around the US in 2016, down about 1,000 since 2011.
Randy McDonough who runs Towncrest Pharmacy, in Iowa City, Iowa, isn't a stranger to competition from retail pharmacies. The store sits across from a CVS and around the corner from a Walgreen's. There's a grocery store with a pharmacy inside just across the parking lot too.
"Someone asked me once, 'Aren't you concerned it's awfully crowded?' And I said, 'Well, it must be a good location for pharmacy," McDonough told Business Insider.
The truth of the matter is that being forced to compete with the likes of CVS and Walgreens has given McDonough a head start on preparing for the changes shaking up pharmacies, particularly small independent shops like his own.
McDonough was a professor of pharmacy at the University of Iowa until 2005. Just four days after getting tenure, he left to start Towncrest, and put into practice the ideas he was teaching.
McDonough worked to renovate the pharmacy, automating in areas he could, and synchronizing prescriptions so that patients wouldn't have to come in as often. He delegated work to technicians so that he could focus on taking care of the patients who came in for prescriptions.
But in 2013 he faced a big problem. The largest insurer in the state, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, lowered its reimbursement rates for prescription drugs by 50%. The pharmacy lost thousands on the prescriptions it was filling. Briefly, McDonough considered finding a new job.
Instead, he wrote a letter to the CEO of Wellmark, arguing that the insurer needs to treat community pharmacies differently. When that CEO looked into Towncrest Pharmacy, he noticed that was the pharmacy was treating a sicker group of patients at a lower cost than other pharmacies around the state.
So, the two struck up a pilot program to see if Towncrest could keep the health plans' members healthier while saving money on healthcare costs. By the end of it, McDonough and his colleagues were able to show that the patients seen at his pharmacy were more likely to take their medications, and ultimately saved the health plan $300 per member each month.
Wellmark has since expanded the program into a three-year trial that kicked off in April 2017. Towncrest is participating as part of a group of 72 pharmacies — independent and regional chains alike — in South Dakota and Iowa.
Matt Hosford, Wellmark's chief pharmacy officer, said the program's seen success in managing high cholesterol by making sure patients are on the right dose of their medication, and in helping patients with mental health issues by ensuring they're taking their antidepressants and that side effects from those medications are under control.
What pharmacists are up against
Declining reimbursement rates from health insurers and the middlemen, the pharmacy benefit managers, are a constant problem for pharmacists. For patients who have insurance, the pharmacists agree to contracts that stipulate how much they'll be reimbursed by the insurer or PBM for dispensing that medication.
If the insurers or PBMs set those rates too low, it's hard for pharmacists to push back. If a pharmacist turns down a contract, they stand to lose a big chunk of business because patients won't be able to use their insurance at the pharmacy.
For example, on one prescription, Paganelli asked for a health plan to pay him back $203 for dispensing a drug. In the end, the pharmacy was paid $6.75 for a prescription of 90 tablets.
That's not enough, Paganelli said. He figures that it costs his pharmacy at least $11 to fill a prescription. Anything less than that and he's losing money.
In Mt. Carmel's computer system, prescriptions where the reimbursements don't cover the costs to fill the prescription are colored red. And there's a lot of red on the computer screen.
"We see these all day long," Paganelli said.
Independent pharmacists have very little leverage to push back on reimbursement rates from giant PBMs and insurers. Even big pharmacies can struggle. Nearly a decade ago, Walgreens and Express Scripts cut ties in a dispute over reimbursement rates. Ultimately, the two came to an agreement, but analysts estimate the dispute cost Walgreens $4 billion in annual revenue.
Doing something about it
To alleviate these pressures, pharmacists in retail stores are seeking to get paid more like doctors or nurses, and less like sales clerks.
Here's the thinking: You might see your doctor a few times a year. But you probably pop into your local pharmacy once a month, if not more. So why not check in on your health there instead of setting up a separate appointment with your doctor? The visit won't be as comprehensive as a full yearly physical, but could help fill in the gaps in between visits.
Already, when pharmacists dispense medications, their job is not just to put the pills in the tube. It's also to check whether the prescription will mix poorly with any other drugs a patient might be taking, counsel a patient on how to take the medication, and answer any outstanding questions they may have thought of on their way from the doctor's office.
Pharmacists are heavily trained to do the work. They tend to go to school for four additional years after college to obtain their Pharm.D, the same duration as medical school.
Right now, though, pharmacists who work in retail stores typically don't get directly paid for that medical work.
"Pharmacists can't be dispensers; they need to be healthcare service providers that happen to dispense," said Troy Trygstad, executive director of the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network.
CPESN, as its known, aims to help pharmacies reach deals with health plans to care for their patients. The group estimates that there are almost 2,000 pharmacies working under that type of arrangement. Trygstad said the number of pharmacies in CPESN's network has been growing at a rate of about 100 pharmacies a month for the past 18 months. McDonough and Paganelli are both members of CPESN.
The US population is growing older, and we're facing a shortage of primary-care doctors. Pharmacists could be key in helping patients and their doctors stay on the same page.
There are a growing number of pharmacists in the US, though many work in hospitals, not retail stores. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 312,500 pharmacists in the US in 2016, a number that's projected to grow to 329,900 by 2026.
"I think remunerating pharmacists for helping to manage care is a great idea," Carolyn Long Engelhard, a public-health expert and professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, told Business Insider.
Where it's all heading
That could ultimately reshape the role of pharmacists in the next few years.
The addition of health services is something on the minds of big pharmacies as well. CVS Health, after its acquisition of Aetna, plans to add more health services to its pharmacies, including chronic disease management as well as primary care services. The company already has more than 1,000 in-store clinics, typically staffed by nurse practitioners.
Not everyone is convinced this will work. Owen Sullivan, who owns Sullivan Drugs in Carlinville, Illinois, a town of about 6,000, has been making less and less money over the past few years from reimbursements for the prescriptions he dispenses.
Now, the money he's paid back in reimbursements no longer covers the cost of the medication he dispenses.
As the Bronx pharmacist Paganelli sees it, the transition from getting reimbursed based on the volume of prescriptions to getting reimbursed for services that keep patients healthier has to happen.
The transition period will be rocky.
"It has to be the way of the future because reimbursement can't do it," Paganelli said. "Reimbursement alone can't do it, but we're in a transition phase and we can't get the paid-for services up to speed fast enough to cover for the losses on the pharmacy side."
When asked how bad the pressure of lower reimbursements is getting, Paganelli answered: "catastrophic."
Are you a pharmacist with a story to tell? Email the author at email@example.com.


text:
For information more relevant to your location, select a region from the drop down and press continue.
Log in to your account or subscribe to FreeAgent ›
FreeAgent is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (register no. 799763) for the provision of account information services.Registered in sunny Scotland No. SC316774 - One Edinburgh Quay, 133 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK EH3 9QG
Copyright © 2022 by FreeAgent Central
PrivacyTerms & Conditions


text:
On this page, you can manage the currently edited user's friends. Four sub-tabs are offered : Friends, Friends waiting for approval, Rejected friends and Pending requests. Detailed context help on what you can do on each tab will be displayed after clicking the context help icon () on each of the tabs.
Detailed information about the Friends module can be found in Developer's Guide -> Modules -> Friends.
Page url: http://devnet.kentico.com/docs/5_5r2/contexthelp/index.html?friends_tab.htm


text:
Imagine you're an author. Your first publication—a long poem—is a huge success. Within a year, you publish a second poem, another hit. You write plays, too, which have been staged and well-received. Since your published poems are doing well, you're ready to see how the plays do in print. Readers will see your name on them, right?
Nope, not if you're William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare plays, but no Shakespeare
William Shakespeare first achieved fame as a poet. His narrative poem, Venus and Adonis, was published in 1593 and went through seven printings in as many years. His other long poem, The Rape of Lucrece, appeared in 1594. It, too, had good success. Both poems had Shakespeare's name on them.
His plays appeared in print beginning in 1594 with Titus Andronicus. However, that play didn't name an author. For several more years, none of the first editions of Shakespeare's plays showed he had written them.
In addition to Titus Andronicus, these anonymous plays were Henry the Sixth, Part 2 (1594); Henry the Sixth, Part 3 (1595); Richard the Second (1597); Richard the Third (1597); and Romeo and Juliet (1597).
It's baffling why a publisher would leave off a best-selling author's name from that author's work. There are several explanations, but no definitive answer.
Shakespeare emerges as a playwright
Finally, in 1598, readers who frequented London bookstalls could purchase the first play attributed to Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost.
Over the next five years, other plays bearing Shakespeare's name followed: Henry the Fourth, Part 1; Much Ado About Nothing; Midsummer's Night Dream; Merchant of Venice; Henry the Fourth, Part 2; Merry Wives of Windsor; and Hamlet.
Oddly, however, further editions of most of Shakespeare's plays printed before 1598 remained unattributed, including Titus Andronicus, Henry the Sixth Parts 2 and 3, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry the Fifth.
Most of these anonymous plays (including the five listed above) were not attributed to Shakespeare in print until a collection of his plays was published in 1623.
Traditional Explanations
Why were some of Shakespeare's most popular plays printed without attribution, even while others did name him as the author? Traditional explanations include:
- Elizabethan plays weren't thought of as literature until after 1600.
- The title page of most plays during the 1590s didn't name an author.
- Some playwrights were never named on a title page while they were alive.
- In the case of John Lyly, some of his plays were published over a dozen years until his name appeared on a title page in 1597.
When it comes to Shakespeare, however, these explanations are unsatisfactory. His name appeared on some of his plays after 1597. The question is, why not on all of them?
Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594), each of which showed Shakespeare as the author, were back-to-back best-sellers. Publishers were profit-motivated. They should have been keen to attach the poet's name to his plays.
To increase sales, why not attribute Titus Andronicus, Henry the Fifth, Henry the Sixth, and Romeo and Juliet to William Shakespeare?
By 1598, Love's Labour's Lost had been printed with attribution to Shakespeare, followed by Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, and other popular Shakespeare plays. Yet second editions of most of the anonymous Shakespeare plays remained unattributed, including the second edition of Romeo and Juliet (1599).
These facts distinguish Shakespeare from the case of John Lyly. It simply makes no sense that publishers didn't attribute Shakespeare's plays because they didn't consider them "literature."
After 1598, it would seem foolish for publishers not to attach the Shakespeare brand to his previously unattributed plays—unless they had other reasons not to do so.
A Different Theory
The content of the certain plays may explain why Shakespeare's name wasn't attached to them, even after 1598. The plays in this category are Titus Andronicus, Henry the Sixth Parts 1 and 2, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry the Fifth.
In each case, one can argue that the play contained material that offended the authorities—in particular, Queen Elizabeth I—such that Shakespeare or the publisher, or both, concluded it was best the play's author remain anonymous.
Shakespeare and Elizabeth: No Love Lost?
Shakespeare mirrored real persons in his plays. In Love's Labour's Lost, even the characters' names mimic the people they reflect.
Scholars have long associated the windbag Polonius in Hamlet with Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth's closest adviser. In the same play, Elizabeth can be seen as Queen Gertrude, the incestuous adulteress, and Elizabeth's long-time consort, the Earl of Leicester, as Claudius, the notorious poisoner.
It's easy to understand why Hamlet wasn't published until after the deaths of Burghley, Elizabeth, and Leicester. I have argued that the Crown banned Hamlet during Elizabeth's lifetime.
Marc Shell has observed, "Shakespeare apparently was not a great admirer of Elizabeth. Unlike most English poets of the age, for example, he did not write a word of direct mourning on her death."
In The End of Kinship, Shell speculates that the character Isabella in Measure for Measure is modeled on Elizabeth, though "[o]ne cannot make an airtight case . . . [W]ere that possible on the basis of what is said in [the play], Shakespeare might have been open to charges of treason."
Mark Anderson, in Shakespeare By Another Name, calls Elizabeth "the leading candidate" for Lady Macbeth.
This may help explain why Measure for Measure and Macbeth, like Hamlet, didn't appear in print until after Elizabeth's death.
Elizabeth the Adulteress
Titus Andronicus (1594) is another play which appears to mirror Elizabeth and Leicester, in this instance in the characters of Tamora and Aaron the Moor. In the play, Tamora and Aaron engage in adultery, which produces a child.
Charles Beauclerk, in Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom, says:
Tamora, a composite of Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, is ruled by her passions, creating chaos in government and devouring her own children. Her affair with Aaron the Moor threatens to become a national scandal when she is delivered of a child by him. Bearing in mind that the Queen of England used to call the Earl of Leicester her "Moor," we can conclude that the incident is clearly meant to reveal one of the darker secrets of the Elizabethan state.
Though Shakespeare may not have been a big fan of Elizabeth, he likely had a close connection with her court. Both of his poems published in 1593 and 1594 were dedicated to the highly popular Earl of Southampton. Many believe Southampton is the "lovely boy" of Shakespeare's Sonnets.
Southampton's dealings with Elizabeth were rocky—she imprisoned him for treason—and he may have had a not-so-positive attitude towards her similar to Shakespeare's.
Readers knowing that the court-connected Shakespeare wrote Titus Andronicus could have more easily seen the parallel between Elizabeth's relationship with Leicester on the one hand and Tamora's relationship with Aaron on the other. Leaving Shakespeare's name off the play would have been the wise thing to do.
Elizabeth the Amazon
Elizabeth and Leicester show up again in Henry the Sixth, Part 2 in the characters of Margaret and Suffolk, illicit lovers who dominate affairs of state and mirror the real-life power duo of Elizabeth and Leicester. There are a number of markers that identify them as such, which I discuss in detail in another blog post.
In the play, Elizabeth once more is mirrored as an adulteress and Leicester as a poisoner—a good reason for Shakespeare not to have his name on the title page.
Likewise, in Henry the Sixth, Part 3, Shakespeare continues to mirror Elizabeth as Margaret in an unflattering way. As I've shown in a separate post, Margaret is a cruel Amazonian warrior who leads one of the armies in the War of the Roses.
This could have been reason enough not to attribute the play, but there may be an additional one. As I've also demonstrated, Shakespeare, in Henry the Sixth, Part 3, may have been commenting on Elizabeth's succession which, like Measure for Measure, would have subjected him to accusations of treason.
Elizabeth the Envious
In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo sees Juliet at a window above him and says:
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
The moon was a familiar symbol for Elizabeth. Percy Allen, in his 1932 biography of Edward de Vere (whom many believe was Shakespeare), observed:
[t]he references [in Romeo and Juliet] are unmistakable for when it is remembered that the Tudor livery was green and white, the envious moon, or Diana as she was so frequently called, whose vestal livery is sick and green," can be none other than Queen Elizabeth.
In subsequent decades other scholars, such as Charlton Ogburn and Charles Beauclerk, have agreed with Percy, noting parallels between the story in Romeo and Juliet and de Vere's love relationship with Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor.
There's strong evidence that de Vere and Elizabeth were also romantically involved. In this view, Shakespeare, through the character of Romeo, calls Elizabeth envious (not once, but twice) and in a rather vicious manner—"Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon."
With such an insult aimed at the Queen of England, it would be no surprise that an author with court connections and/or his publisher chose to publish the play anonymously. Indeed, none of the four separate editions of Romeo and Juliet bear the author's name.
Elizabeth the Queen, but who's next?
Henry the Fifth (1600) was published during a time when factions in Elizabeth's court were jockeying for position in preparation of her succession. She had only a few years left to live.
One of those factions favored Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, a charismatic soldier who got in a lot of trouble with Elizabeth after the military campaign he led in Ireland failed. Ultimately, Essex was executed.
Around the same time, the historian John Hayward wrote a book about how King Richard the Second was deposed. The book contained a dedication praising Essex. The Crown feared Hayward intended Richard of Second to serve as a model for overthrowing Elizabeth. For years Hayward was jailed in the Tower of London.
Many scholars agree that Shakespeare gives cryptic praise to Essex in Henry the Fifth. I've proposed that Shakespeare, in the same play, was supporting Essex's ally, the Earl of Southampton (the same courtier to whom Shakespeare dedicated the long poems) to be the next King of England.
Shakespeare sent this message by using markers in the play—including the name Southampton and the earl's military role in Ireland—which link him to King Henry (Southampton's birth name was Henry Wriothesely). This also suggests that Shakespeare was showing (very subtly) that Southampton was Elizabeth's son, a dangerous business indeed.
For these reasons, anonymity was the better part of wisdom when it came to publishing Henry the Fifth.
Of course, all of this is only a theory, based on the content of certain Shakespeare plays, to explain why they remained anonymous even after others began showing his name.
As time goes on, one may hope that research in this area extends beyond traditional explanations, as well as beyond orthodox assumptions about who Shakespeare really was.


text:
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Sightmark is pleased to announce that they have partnered with Phoenix Weaponry and the National Shooting Sports Foundation to provide a special Gearbox Giveaway as part of the National Shooting Sports Month celebration.
The jointly sponsored Gearbox Giveaway, worth approximately $4,000, includes:
- One Phoenix Weaponry Trouble AR-15 complete rifle in 5.56
- One Phoenix Weaponry AR-15 rifle bag
- One Sightmark Pinnacle 1-6×24 TMD first focal plane scope
- One set of Sightmark tactical mounting rings
- One Sightmark neoprene pad
- Three Sightmark decals
- Two Sightmark tactical pens
- One Sightmark banner
- One Sightmark Can Cooler
"Whether you are already invested in today's MSRs or just getting familiar with this tremendously flexible rifle platform, this Gearbox Giveaway — from rifle to scope to accessories — is one that will definitely up your game," said Zach Snow, NSSF Director, Retail & Range Business Development. "We extend our sincere gratitude to both Sightmark and Phoenix Weaponry for this donation and look forward to having the winner of this Gearbox building a positive connection with these reputable brands."
"At Sightmark we like to say, 'Make your mark,' But it means more than staying on target or even a clean shot on a magnificent game animal, the message also reminds us to make a difference in our industry and to be a positive influence in the lives of the people around us," said James Sellers, Sightmark CEO. "Nothing is possible without good people being free to make a difference and the ability to stand up in defiance of tyranny. The Second Amendment not only assures our freedom, it ensures all other rights remain intact. The NSSF is about more than just shooting sports, hunting traditions and outdoor lifestyles. Supporting NSSF is a great way to continue to keep freedom and liberty in focus."
Phoenix Weaponry owner and designer, Aaron Cayce, added, "As a precision firearm and accessory manufacturer, we take the Second Amendment, education, safety and our shooting heritage quite seriously. NSSF consistently pushes initiatives we can get behind, and this giveaway is just another way we can help make a difference."
National Shooting Sports Month, a celebration of the shooting sports, takes place throughout the month of August. Firearms ranges and FFL retailers across the country have listed hundreds of special events on the calendar at ShootingSportsMonth.org, which interacts directly with NSSF's LetsGoShooting.org website, where the site's users can then discover all the events near them.
About Sightmark
Sightmark manufactures award-winning products including riflescopes, gun sights, laser sights, night vision, flashlights, bore sights and other cutting edge, premium shooting accessories. Inspired by military and law enforcement technology, Sightmark products are designed for competition, shooting, home defense, personal safety and other tactical applications, as well as hunting. For more information about Sightmark products, visit www.sightmark.com.


text:
With help from more than 20 open source community developers, a stable release of Xamarin.Forms 2.4.0 is out, introducing several new features and supporting .NET Standard 2.0 for consistent API usage.
Xamarin.Forms is an open source UI library/framework that allows C# programmers to create native iOS, Android, Windows and macOS apps with Visual Studio and Visual Studio for Mac.
One major feature of the new 2.4.0 release is support for .NET Standard 2.0, which details the set of APIs that all conformant .NET implementations must provide. Its latest version features more than 32,000 of such APIs.
"As support begins to take off for .NET Standard 2.0, we have made sure Xamarin.Forms works seamlessly with both the standard and existing PCL profiles," said David Ortinau in a blog post yesterday. To fully leverage .NET Standard 2.0 APIs, programmers must use Visual Studio 2017 15.3, released last month. Note that the Xamarin.Forms 2.4.0 release notes warn "Not all build features may work" in .NET Standard projects.
Another new addition is an API for feature flags, a setting that programmers can use to enable or disable features. "This will enable you to benefit from features or behaviors that may be of high value to you without introducing changes that you may not want," Ortinau said.
In this initial rollout of feature flags, they only work with what Xamarin calls "fast renderers" for Image, Button and Label controls in Android projects. Fast renderers result from a refactoring of the renderer architecture for performance and memory consumption optimization, doing away with wrapper classes and thus reducing the number of elements in a Xamarin.Forms UI hierarchy.
The 2.4.0 release notes explain more:
This version of Xamarin.Forms includes new Android renderers for Image, Button, and Label, which have been code named "fast renderers". These greatly reduce the render time for these controls, but may also change the behavior of your application if you have created custom renderers or are using third-party controls that override the default renderers. For this release, the default set of renderers will be the legacy renderers to prevent any issues in existing apps, but you may opt in to using the new fast renderers using our new feature flag API.
Also featured is a preview of Xamarin.Forms macOS, fixing bugs discovered in the project's pre-release cycle.
Ortinau thanked "the more than 20 amazing community members that contributed to making this a fantastic release," which he described as " our fastest, most stable release ever."
According to the Xamarin.Forms GitHub site, the overall project to date has benefitted from 79 contributors.
Looking at the Xamarin.Forms roadmap, VNext-previews will be released in the third quarter of this year, with the next stable release set for the fourth quarter.
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.
Printable Format
Visual Studio for Mac v17.4 shipped earlier this month along with its Windows counterpart, with support for .NET MAUI heading a host of improvements.
It has speedier find in files, branch switching, configuration changes, unit testing, C++ indexing and file saving.
A private preview of Visual Studio port forwarding in ASP.NET Core web-dev projects has turned into a public preview of dev tunnels, Microsoft announced this week. So what's a dev tunnel?
"TypeScript posted a doubletake-inducing 2,788 percent gain."
> More Webcasts


text:
Changing Phenomenon of TV-Serials and Its Impacts on Bangladeshi Society -By Abdur Rob Razu
The Bangladeshi audiences are very much attached with TV-serials since long time ago. "Kothao Keu Nei" was a Bangladeshi television show, which aired on Bangladesh Television in 1990 and became a super hit TV-serial. But a very surprising thing happened when people realized that the main character which is "Baker Bhai" is going to be executed in the last episode of the drama. Baker was convicted of murder wrongly, which incensed people throughout the country. Protests broke out everywhere, demonstrations were brought out. Letters and petitions urged to the writer Humayun Ahmed and director Borkot Ullah of the drama not to kill off Baker Bhai. But Humayon Ahmed and Borkot Ullah stuck to their storyline and Baker Bhai was hanged. For years afterward, special prayers were held in many localities to pray for the departed soul of this fictional character. This public agitation and sympathy over Baker Bhai's hanging proved that how much the Bangladeshi audiences could be integrated with the fictional story from a long time back.
In the present era, Indian serials and channels are dominating over Bangladeshi serials as well as channels. Main viewers of Indian TV- serials in Bangladesh are women and they prefer Indian TV-serials rather than any other programs telecasted by Indian or Bangladeshi channels which indicates that popularity of Indian TV serials are increasing dramatically. There are more than 50 Indian TV- serials people watch regularly. Among them, some are most popular such as- Milon Tithi, Ichchenodi, Jhanjh Lobongo Phool, Bodhuboron, Ke Apon Ke Por, Punyi Pukur, Potol Kumar Gaanwala, Khokababu, Kusum Dola, etc. "The most popular Indian TV channels in Bangladesh: We listed 39 foreign channels which people of Bangladesh watch frequently. Most of the channels are Indian. Findings of the study show that Star Jalsha, Sony, and Star Gold are the most watched channel. Another study shows that some other Hindi channels in Bangladesh where Zee TV, STAR Plus, were ranked as very popular channels" (Md Jakir Hossain, el,2017). In the era of globalization, we cannot force someone not to watch their favorite shows. But what Indian TV-serials are telecasting is alarming for our society.
Through TV-serials they promote these things; filthy dress up, inflame sexual behavior, provoke premarital relationship, extra marital affair, originate eve-teasing, nurture conflict between daughter in law and mother in Law, educate criminal activity and Familial conflict considering the direct impact of Indian serial in Bangladeshi society. The viewers are blindly following the Indian culture showed in these serials destroying our culture, values, beliefs, and traditions. According to Shuvo, 2009, some women have even reduced the number of dishes and cook in a hurry also. They forget to eat while watching these TV- serials. They can pass a day without eating but they cannot avoid these serials in a day. Bangladesh is the third largest Muslim majority country where about 90% people are Muslims who are being influenced by this showed Hindu culture and history as Hinduism is the dominant faith in India, practiced by over 80% of the population.
According to Mirsha, 2012, it is evident that Islam and Hindu are not only two religions but also two social orders. Because, their eating habit, clothing, speaking, script, sculpture, in a word, their entire culture is totally different. Though Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country mentioned above, her population is losing their local culture gradually due to Indian drama serials.
According to The Daily Star's report, 2014, girls are being influenced by drama serial "Bojhena Se Bojhena" aired by Star Jalsha. Three Bangladeshi girls have reportedly committed suicide for not getting "Pakhi" dress used in the serial. Later on, a writ petition was filed to stop telecast of three Indian television channels–Star Jalsha, Star Plus and Zee Bangla in Bangladesh. The divorce rate is dramatically increased during the last couple of years. According to BD Today in July 2017, every day on an average 20 % separation takes place in Dhaka city. Approximately 70% are women giving divorce to their husband. This incident shows that our social structure is in danger. And directly these TV-serials are influencing them to go through. According to Dhaka City Corporation, 5897 women and 3847 men filed divorce application in 2016.
On the other hand, the TV-serials called "Tarak Mehta ka Oolta Chasma" reflects the life style of the middle-class family of India. The serial depicts neighbours helping each other, housing society members enjoying festivals and events together happily, elderly member of family getting respect from younger members (Not like sas-bahu drama), just like any middle-class housing society friends of the society gather together every day after dinner and have fun in their day to day life, ladies from society enjoy shopping of little things like vegetables, fruits, etc together and they debate with each other but in a respectful manner. It includes many types of religions and professions together with happy gesture. It is not only a comedy show but it gives a very strong social message about all the problems in very humorous manner; corruption, women empowerment, education, environmental problems, black money and exhibiting own culture and beliefs. The TV –serials is being telecasted since 28 July 2008.
Actually this TV- serial is helping the society of India and people are becoming more conscious about their rights and duties to their society after watching this serial. This show influences human's behavior by altering their attitudes towards particular aspect. Now, People are cleaning dust nearby home by themselves rather waiting for government aids. They know how much important the environment and fresh air are for themselves. People also protesting if women and child abuse happens in their region. Considerable changes have been found in Indian society due to this show. People have been concerned about woman rights, education and have realized the importance of girls and stopped killing the girl's embryo in the womb of the mother in many states of India. They stopped wasting water due to shortage supply of water in the city. Though the dowry system is very common in Indian culture, the TV-serials discouraged it. Now, people understand how bad it to take dowry from girl's family is. The serial also depicts how to live with family in a crisis and serious moment. Moreover, this serial is spreading positivity throughout the country and the people of India are cordially accepting the messages from the serial.
In conclusion, the programs should not be telecasted which is hazardous for our cultural values, traditions, beliefs, and norms in Bangladesh. In addition, our local drama serials have to be made more attractive which represent our culture vividly, shows our unity, our mutual respect to each other, promoting our family strong bonding, discuss social problems and give its solution in a dramatic way. Though we have the magazine show "Ittadi" which is very famous in our country spreading the positive message. But one program is not enough at all; we need to make serials like "Kothao Keu Nei" or "Tarak Mehta ka Oolta Chasma" so that people become interested to it and society get a positive message. Today television has become an inseparable part of our life. If we can use it in a proper way by telecasting programs that truly represent our Bangladeshi culture and traditions, then our society will come in a good shape what we have been belonging for hundreds of years. n
M.Sc. at Marketing at Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. Email: email@example.com
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.


text:
MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere."
"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."
The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."
As I've written a few times, I'm not a fan of the "health care" bill, but I think all of the people cheering what the doctor posted are foolish and not thinking.
Suppose a patient of the doctor doesn't do well under the doctor's care. Suppose the patient then sues the doctor saying the doctor was against the "health care' bill while they, the patient, supported the "health care" bill and they think the reason why their treatment didn't do well is because of their opposing political views?
Then what?


text: We are back in the US after spending the entire summer in British Columbia. Although we are not sure how long we will be here, we found a beautiful city right across the border with an amazing playground and awesome views. I hope the food is good when we eat lunch LOL


text:
BabyChakra User
Be happy she is digesting food and passing gas (instead of it all getting trapped inside and causing colic pain) :) ! keep checking and changing nappy regularly and cleaning thoroughly to avoid rashes. use a cotton swab dipped in luke warm water to clean and then a soft cotton cloth to wipe as using wet wipes all the time will make the area moist and prone to infection. make sure to use a good diaper rash cream as well. it may seem overwhelming to change nappies every hr or so, but it's only a phase and will pass in 1-2 months.
BabyChakra User
thanx chitra. . am passing through this :)
BabyChakra User
It is completely normal because at this age the baby does not have bowel control.
Recommended Articles
to open in App


text:
Do you want to work for a caring organisation that believes in people?
Do you want to make a difference?
As a Recovery Coordinator with Change Grow Live you'll work with people who use our services, helping them get to where they want to be.
With this role you'll be working as part of Recovery Service Team based in Bathgate/ West Lothian.
The team supports people with their drug and/or alcohol issues focusing on achieving their individually set Recovery goals.
No two days are the same and we treat every person who comes into our service as an individual, so being flexible, curious and a good listener are key.
You'll have to record information about what you do, so enjoying a bit of paperwork and attention to detail is important. But most of the time you'll be enjoying working with people from all backgrounds, making a difference to their lives.
This is what one of our Recovery Coordinators had to say, "I like the team spirit, that we all bring something different and we always put the people who use our service first".
Our values are to be compassionate, open and bold. If this sounds like you we'd love to hear from you
To find out more about the role or to apply, please visit our website
If you have any questions on this opportunity that you would like to talk through please contact Dave Kelly | firstname.lastname@example.com | 07443143925
This post is subject to a Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme check at an enhanced level.
We believe that having diverse people working as part of our team makes us the organisation that we are.
We actively encourage applications from people from all backgrounds to help us to provide the best possible experience for the people who use our services and to make Change Grow Live a great place to work. If you have any feedback on our recruitment processes (good or bad) we'd love to hear from you so that we can make sure they are fair and we attract and recruit the best, most diverse workforce possible.
The safety of vulnerable children, young people and adults is our absolute priority. We will support you in your role to make sure that you are equipped to support the safety of people who use our services and those around them, to the highest standard possible.


text:
Cebu Daily News: "National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) regional director Efren Carreon said that a mass transportation system is "very much needed" in the city.
"This will save road space, and more people can be accommodated," he said. The use of a public transport system will hopefully get more private cars off the road."


text:
Amy Dertz has been a Registered Nurse since 2007 in Oakland, California. She recently penned this piece about how her work experience has changed under Obamacare.
She describes it as "a killer burden."
"Hospitals delaying and denying care to patients as the ACA enables more Americans to buy into this deeply flawed system. If the ACA is successful in contributing to keeping patients out of the hospital, inpatient care will be reserved for patients with acute, severe illnesses and the number of hospital nurses will drop dramatically."
This influx of patients, combined with an increase in health care costs has put intense pressure on nurses around the country.
"Nurses are working harder than ever with fewer resources," Dertz writes. "My patients are not healthier. With the ACA there are more patients entering hospital infrastructures that have been diminished."
And Oakland, where Dertz works, is not alone. In Gastonia, North Carolina, Nurses are facing a 25% pay cut. The reason? Obamacare.
This week is Nurse Appreciation Week, yet instead of feeling appreciated for their incredible work and strength, nurses are receiving pay cuts and unfair work shifts all because of this health care law.
Our health care system is broken and in desperate need of real, patient-centered reform. House Republicans are pursuing alternatives that provide access to affordable care, while maintaining the high-quality care our nurses strive to provide for patients.


text:
I recently invested in a new portable easel, which came all the way from the USA as no-one in the UK makes anything similar. I really enjoyed getting out, despite the cold and windy weather, to try give it a test run. It's an 'En Plein Air Pro' Easel, made from lightweight aluminium that is easy to carry, quick to put-up/take-down and has a good size mixing area and space for solvent, brushes etc. I was also relieved to find that is pretty stable and by hanging the backpack that it comes in, underneath (with a couple of rocks from the beach), it stood up to fairly windy conditions without me having to hold on for dear life to anything. All in all I'm very pleased!
The little study I did (oil on paper) turned out fairly well considering I was focused more on the easel than the painting. It was a very cold evening with a bitter wind but the colours from the winter light were beautiful.


text:
Pro Bowl center Kalil predicts Panthers win Super Bowl
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Ryan Kalil believes the Carolina Panthers will win the Super Bowl this season - and he put his money where his mouth is to prove it.
The Panthers three-time Pro Bowl center took out a full page advertisement in the Charlotte Observer on Wednesday boldly declaring fans will be rewarded for their unwavering support with a "one hundred-percent, sterling silver victory - the Lombardi Trophy. And it reads: Carolina Panthers, Super Bowl XLVII champions."
That's a bold prediction, particularly for a team coming off a 6-10 season that hasn't won a playoff game since 2005.
But Kalil believes in his teammates.
In the 178-word letter to fans Kalil said something special is happening in Carolina.
"There is a sense of urgency, a winning attitude that I haven't seen before," Kalil wrote. "Fans will see it in the way that we play."
Kalil received support for his decision to go public with his prediction from his teammates, as well as coach Ron Rivera.
"If we don't have 53 guys with the same attitude walking in that building then we have to find 53 guys that do," Rivera said. "What he did is he put how he feels out there. And I think that's great."
Rivera didn't try to downplay Kalil's comments at all.
"I'm right behind him and I feel the same way," said Rivera, now in his second season with the Panthers. "In fact, I'm stepping out in front and saying the same thing. This is a group of men that if they understand and work hard and put it on themselves, who knows, the sky can be the limit."
Panthers linebacker Jon Beason said when he saw ad he snapped a picture on his phone and immediately put it out on Twitter.
"I loved what he did," Beason said.
Beason said the key this year will be to make big strides on defense, a unit that finished 27th in the league last season.
"Watching what took place last year, especially on the offensive side of the ball, I think we're really close," Beason said. "Defense we have to get guys healthy and I think we have more maturity out there this year, which will help us. I don't think we can do worse than last year on defense."
Defensive end Charles Johnson backed Kalil, too.
"I agree with him," Johnson said. "People don't say it publicly, but I agree with him. It's all good with me. We have the potential. We have everything we need to win it."
Rivera said he doesn't believe the advertisement puts a target on the Panthers chest.
"No, because everybody else believes the same thing," Rivera said. "(Kalil) just said it. If you ask all 32 teams, their attitude has to be that. You have to believe that. If you don't you won't work as hard as you should."
Beason said he welcomes the pressure.
"The pressure is great. I love pressure," Beason said. "A lot of times you are doing what you're doing and you get comfortable because you get into a routine. So when you get challenged for something, I like that. Pressure is an opportunity to do something great."
Rivera said he's been around bold predictions before.
When he was a linebacker with the Chicago Bears, Rivera remembers coach Mike Ditka making a similar comment to his players prior to training camp.
"Mike came in his first year and told everybody 'I have good news and bad news. The good news is we're going to the Super Bowl. The bad news is some of you aren't going,'" Rivera said.


text:
What issues would you like to hear about at our upcoming annual meeting?
For example, our common ground needs to be mowed, but some areas are so wet, the power mowers leave huge ruts that become mosquito-breeding ponds, not to mention higher costs when our contractor has to mow by hand:-\ Other areas are scoured by stormwater runoff, causing erosion problems.
We can continue to try to maintain grass, at higher costs, but a better solution to both these problems is a rain garden.
Another issue is covenants: our standard is the Williamsburg Color Palette, but roof color isn't covered…should we require new shingles to be light-colored, reducing the summertime heat load not only on the homeowner, but also the neighborhood?
Please vote in our poll, or add your own issue:


text:
Evaporative Coolers - Cool-Space
Show Prices
Cool-Space are a range of portable evaporative coolers ideally suited for providing cooling to larger spaces such as stores and warehouses. They provide the ideal option for spaces too large for traditional portable air conditioners.
Need help choosing the right cooler? Check out our cooling calculator.View full details
Useful information
PLEASE NOTE: the special offer on this product is not valid for the hire period you have selected. The price in your basket will reflect this.


text:
Robust Control with Engineering ApplicationsView this Special Issue
Nonlinear Robust Disturbance Attenuation Control Design for Static Var Compensator in Power System
The problem of designing an adaptive backstepping controller for nonlinear static var compensator (SVC) system is addressed adopting two perspectives. First, instead of artificially assuming an upper bound or inequality scaling, the minimax theory is used to treat the external unknown disturbances. The system is insensitive to effects of large disturbances due to taking into account the worst case disturbance. Second, a parameter projection mechanism is introduced in adaptive control to force the parameter estimate within a prior specified interval. The proposed controller handles the nonlinear parameterization without compromising control smoothness and at the same time the parameter estimate speed is improved and the robustness of system is strengthened. Considering the short-circuit ground fault and mechanical power perturbation, a simulation study is carried out. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method.
1. Introduction
With the expansion of the scale of electric network, static var compensators (SVCs) have been employed in power systems for several years in a cost-effective manner [1]. SVCs play important roles in voltage regulation and stability improvement due to simple structures and reactive power compensation [2]. Numerous control techniques with varying levels of success for SVC have been used to enhance power system stability [3, 4]. The fixed-gain PID controllers are designed for improving the dynamic impact of SVCs based on the linearization model without taking nonlinear characteristic into consideration [5]. The exact feedback linearization design depends on the basis of nonlinear SVC model [6]; however, such a solution requires a completely accurate model, which is rarely satisfying from the practical point of view. The Hamiltonian function method cannot only develop nonlinear control for the SVC, but also solve the problem of disturbance attenuation [7], whereas it is hard work to express the nonlinear system into a Hamiltonian system. Adaptive backstepping technique has received a considerable attention in recent robust control literatures of power systems [8, 9].
Several papers have studied the adaptive backstepping SVC control strategies and gave insights into the effect of external disturbance. There are many causes of variations in a power system's operating conditions, such as continual changes in power consumption and changes in the generation and transmission device structure. Significant progress has been made in disturbance treatment linking with backstepping method; the control problem can be solved by inequality-scaling the item including disturbance in energy function [10, 11], while the scaling way may have brought conservativeness. Although many works successfully deal with the disturbances, the disturbances are always restricted with a certain bound or a certain expression [12–14]. The upper bound is difficult to be selected because of the difficulty of exact measurement in some practical applications [15]. It is the objective of this paper to provide an effective way in unknown disturbance treatment to overcome the above disadvantages. The minimax method is an efficient approach to deal with large disturbance attenuation problem by estimating the degree of damage [16, 17]; an in-depth study on the large disturbance attenuation problems of the nonlinear TCSC and STATCOM is conducted via adaptive backstepping and minimax method [18, 19].
References [18, 19] also play a key role in uncertain parameter estimation. However, conventional adaptive controls always ignore the available prior information of the uncertainties, which may lead to poor and slow convergence, because the parameter search process possibly takes place outside the region of true value. It is often reasonable to obtain the knowledge on bounds of unknown parameter of the SVC model. To absorb the prior information, the projection technique can be adopted [20, 21]. A novel adaptive control solution is provided; this approach enforces prior known upper and lower bounds of the uncertain parameters always on their corresponding estimates, without compromising control smoothness or global stability guarantees for the closed-loop dynamics [22].
This paper addresses the nonlinear robust control problem for the SVC system with unknown external disturbances and parameter uncertainties using modified adaptive backstepping and minimax approach. In order to avoid the conservativeness brought by conventional disturbance treatment, a test function related to the performance index is constructed to maximize the impact of the disturbances, and the feedback control is investigated by taking account of the worst case. Moreover, the class- functions are used in the design procedure to keep the balance between transient response and controller gain. For the uncertainties, a projection mechanism is applied depending on the available bounds on the plant parameters, which can promote the efficiency of parameter search process. Compared with traditional adaptive backstepping method, numerical simulations of two kinds of disturbances to the SVC system demonstrate that the proposed control gives superiorities on transient performance.
2. Dynamic Model and Problem Statements
Consider the following dynamic model of single-machine infinite-bus (SMIB) power system with SVC as shown in Figure 1 [11].
The mathematical dynamics of SVC control system can be expressed by the following nonlinear differential equations [11]
In the above equations, is the rotor angle; is the angular speed; and are the inertia constant and damping coefficient; is the mechanical power; and are the axis transient reactance and infinite bus voltage; is the susceptance of the overall system, , , and are, respectively, the direct axis transient reactance of the generator, the reactance of the transformer, and the line reactance, and and are the susceptance of the inductor and the capacitor in SVC; is the time constant of SVC; is the equivalence input of SVC regulator.
Denote , , and , where represent an operating point of the power system. Consider the external disturbance vector ; and are unknown functions that belong to space. Then, system (1) can be transformed into the following form:where , , . Let be an uncertain constant parameter in view of the damping coefficient that cannot be measured accurately. However, it is reasonable to obtain a prior knowledge on its bound, both from literatures and practice [23–25]. Hence, the upper and lower bounds of can also be acquired; we assume .
3. Adaptive Disturbance Attenuation Design for SVC Control System
In the control of large scale power system, one usually faces limited knowledge on plant parameters and the appearance of sudden large disturbances. A well-designed controller should have the ability to perform its desired function in the presence of changes and uncertainties in the system. The proposed approach is aiming to attenuate the external disturbance and estimate the uncertainty. We adopt the minimax method and parameter projection mechanism based on backstepping technique to deal with the problems.
Step 1. Start with (2a); we define and view as a control variable. Design a virtual control law as , where , and is a class- function; we select , . Define an error variable representing the difference between the actual and virtual controls. Then, we can derive the dynamics of the new coordinate
The objective of this step is to make , by considering the Lyapunov function as where ; then the time derivative of becomes
Apparently, if , then , and is guaranteed to converge to zero asymptotically. The coupling term will be canceled in the next step.
Step 2. Consider (2b) by viewing as a virtual control variable. Define a virtual control law and the error variable . Our objective in this step is to make , and then choose a Lyapunov function by augmenting (4):
Before virtual control law design, we plot out a regulated output into system (2a), (2b), and (2c), where and are nonnegative weighted coefficients representing weighting proportion of and . Then, construct a performance index based on minimax theory as where , and is disturbance attenuation constant. Further, construct a test function related to the performance index to estimate the worst case disturbance, which means the highest degree of critical disturbance that can be endured by the system:
Substituting into (8) yields
We assume that the upper value of (7) is . If a disturbance exists and makes no larger than , then the degree of damage is greatest on the system performance. Thus, our task here is to maximize by making the first-order derivative of with respect to equal to zero, which is equivalent to ; then we derive
Furthermore, we compute the second-order derivative; that is, . Therefore, the maximum value of about exists, and
Integrating both sides of (11) yields
Let ; then (12) becomes , and then
When the system suffers sufficiently large disturbances, will not be reduced, in other words, the disturbance is assumed to reduce to 0; that is, . Thus, it proves that , and is the worst case disturbance for the subsystem.
Remark 1. From the equivalent analysis of and , it is obvious that if allows to obtain the maximum value, also allows to obtain the maximum value. That is, system performance damage via is the largest.
The stabilizing function needs to be designed by undertaking the disturbances with such damage degree into system; our approach is to replace in (9) with (10): Suppose that ; , ; . Now we select where is a class- function; we choose , ; is an estimate of , and . If the rotor angle , , synchronism of the power system will be lost. Fortunately, under the normal operating conditions in the system holds, and therefore, the condition can be guaranteed.
Then, . In the final step, the coupling term will be canceled, and the uncertainty item will be dealt with.
Step 3. For the uncertainty, as mentioned in Section 2, it is reasonable to expect availability of a prior knowledge in terms of lower and upper bounds of in (2a), (2b), and (2c). Thereby, we reparameterize the uncertain parameter in an associated uncertain variable as follows [22]:
It is clear that is for all values of , , hence, is restricted to lie within the region of . Consequently, the system governing equation in (2b), which is linear in terms of , immediately becomes nonlinear in terms of . We are in the position to develop a smooth adaptive controller in order to handle the nonlinear parameterization of (16). We define , wherein is the estimate of ; then choose the following nonnegative, and therefore, lower-bounded function of and as
Consider the candidate Lyapunov function as
The time derivative of becomes
The performance index is expressed as
The test function is
Substituting (19) into (21) yields where . A similar procedure is employed to make ; we can obtain the worst case disturbance ()
Taking (23) into account, (22) is rewritten as in which , and then .
For the purpose of making , we select an adaptive controller consisting of an actual control input and a reparameter estimator, which provides the estimate of : where is a class- function. We choose , , and then is generated through the solution of the differential equations governed by (26). And , the estimate of , is indirectly obtained by : Then, we can obtain
If we define as the overall Lyapunov function, then it follows readily that
Equation (29) indicates that all increased energy of SVC system from to any final time is always smaller than or equal to the ones from outside; that is, the system energy is decreasing.
Theorem 2. For the given disturbance attenuation constant , the disturbance attenuation problem of system (1) can be solved by adaptive controller (25) to (27), and a positive storage function exists such that the dissipation inequality holds for any final time , and the closed-loop system is characteristic with disturbance rejection.
When , , the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable. When , , the gain from the disturbance to the output of the system is smaller than or equal to . According to the definition of virtual control, the , , and are bounded convergences.
Remark 3. The class- function is introduced into the selection of stabilizing function , , during the recursive design procedure, in order to keep the balance between transient response and controller gain. This approach promotes convergent speed remarkably without increasing the controller gain.
Remark 4. Exist disturbance treatment usually assumes the plant with bounded disturbance or zooms the items of the energy function about the disturbance, which probably increase the conservativeness. This paper adopts the minimax method to maximize the effects of disturbances. The control law is designed by undertaking the worst case disturbance to ensure the stability of the closed-loop system. Thus, the system is theoretically not sensitive to disturbance effects.
Remark 5. Different from the previous adaptive method in power systems, we fully and properly utilize all the available prior information on the bound of unknown parameter by adopting parameter projection technique. We select a specific uncertain parameter structure to force the parameter estimate to stay within the valid region and generate a smooth adaptive control law. Accordingly, the transient performance is significantly improved.
4. Results and Discussion
We will consider two kinds of disturbances in the digital simulation for the single-machine infinite-bus system with SVC. The physical parameters are selected as follows: s, , pu, pu, s, pu, pu, and pu. The operating point is rad, rad/s, and pu. The control parameters are selected as follows: , , , , , , , , , and . The upper and lower bound of uncertain parameter are and .
In order to show the effectiveness of the proposed modified parameter projection adaptive backstepping minimax (PBMK) controller, we will make comparisons with the adaptive backstepping minimax (ABM) controller [18] and the conventional adaptive backstepping (AB) controller [10] under the same nonzero initial condition. Note that the control parameters for ABM controller and AB controller are selected as , , and .
4.1. Short Circuit Ground Fault
In 4 s, a transient three-phase short-circuit fault occurred on the transmission line. In 4.5 s, the fault disappears, and the system restores to the normal structure. The reactance of the transformer varies in different stages after a short circuit ground fault as follows: the period of pre-fault pu; the period of fault procedure ; the period of after-fault pu; the transient response curves of the system are shown in Figures 2 and 3.
(a) The curves of the angle
(b) The curves of the relative speed
(c) The curves of the susceptance
(d) The curves of the parameter estimation
Figures 2(a)–2(c) show that, under the proposed controller PBMK, the response is improved without remarkably increasing the controller gain; the convergent speed is faster; the system reaches the stable state more rapidly than the ones under ABM and AB controller. Moreover, PBMK and ABM controllers, which are both designed by minimax method, have advantages in the ability of disturbance attenuation. Figure 2(d) shows that the proposed adaptive control in this paper ensures that the estimates of the uncertain parameter are always within the prior bounds, while for the ABM and AB controllers, the parameter search process takes place outside the feasible region where the corresponding "true" parameters lie.
Figure 3 shows that, under PBMK controller, the control input requires bigger energy in the initial period, but it reaches the stable state in short time, and the amplitude of oscillation is relatively smaller. The selected class- functions converge to zero along with the convergence to zero of the errors. Then the control energy also coincides with that of ABM controller.
4.2. Mechanical Power Perturbation
Unrecoverable mechanical power perturbation occurs at 4 s, and the mechanical power changes to another value; that is,
The dynamic responses of closed-loop system are shown in Figures 4 and 5.
(a) The curves of the angle
(b) The curves of the relative speed
(c) The curves of the susceptance
(d) The curves of the parameter estimation
Figures 4 and 5 show that, after the presence of mechanical power perturbation, the states are stable in a new equilibrium point. And the proposed PBMK controller on the convergence time and the amplitude of oscillation still has advantages compared with ABM and AB controllers. The dynamic response of the system does not change significantly with the variety of disturbance form. Therefore, the controller is insensitive to the change in disturbance.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, we present an improved robust disturbance attenuation scheme for the nonlinear uncertain SVC system based on improved adaptive backstepping and minimax method. The proposed control strategy gives some advantages, such as the following. (a) The nonlinearities of the SVC system model are completely retained for no linearization process is put on the original system. (b) Our disturbance treatment does not inquire artificially imposing an upper bound on the disturbance or unequally scaling the disturbance items existing in the energy function; then the conservativeness is greatly reduced. (c) The closed-loop system is insensitive to the disturbances because of taking account of the maximum effect of the damage. (d) The class- functions introduced into the backstepping procedure are helpful to speed up the response without significantly increasing the control gain. (e) We develop a nonlinear smooth function to map the uncertain parameter into in order to restrict to be lying within the prior specified interval, and guarantee that the parameter estimate has a higher convergence rate. Simulation research is under two disturbances that; the results indicate that the proposed control strategy has advantages in terms of the convergence time and oscillation amplitude in comparison with traditional adaptive backstepping approach.
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, under Grants 61304021, 61233002, and 61104074, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, under Grants N110404032 and N110417005.
P. Pourbeik, A. Boström, and B. Ray, "Modeling and application studies for a modern static VAr system installation," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 368–377, 2006.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
L. Wang and D. N. Truong, "Stability enhancement of a power system with a PMSG-based and a DFIG-based offshore wind farm using a SVC with an adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 2799–2807, 2013.View at: Google Scholar
S. Robak, "Robust SVC controller design and analysis for uncertain power systems," Control Engineering Practice, vol. 17, no. 11, pp. 1280–1290, 2009.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
S. Teleke, T. Abdulahovic, T. Thiringer, and J. Svensson, "Dynamic performance comparison of synchronous condenser and SVC," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 1606–1612, 2008.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
J. C. Dermentzoglou and A. D. Karlis, "Development of linear models of static var compensators and design of controllers suitable for enhancing dynamic/transient performance of power systems including wind farms," Electric Power Systems Research, vol. 81, no. 4, pp. 922–929, 2011.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
Y. Ruan and J. Wang, "The coordinated control of SVC and excitation of generators in power systems with nonlinear loads," International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 550–555, 2005.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
Y. Sun, Q. Liu, Y. Song, and T. Shen, "PCH models of facts with adaptive L2-gain control part one theory," Automation of Electric Power Systems, vol. 25, no. 15, pp. 1–6, 2001.View at: Google Scholar
M. Krstic, I. Kanellakopoulos, and P. Kokotovic, Nonlinear and Adaptive Control Design, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, USA, 1995.
J. Fu, "Extended backstepping approach for a class of non-linear systems in generalised output feedback canonical form," IET Control Theory and Applications, vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 1023–1032, 2009.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
W. Li, S. Liu, and Y. Jing, "Nonlinear robust control based on adaptive backstepping design for static var compensator," in Proceedings of the 23th Chinese Control Conference, pp. 1250–1253, 2004.View at: Google Scholar
L.-Y. Sun, S. Tong, and Y. Liu, "Adaptive backstepping sliding mode H∞ control of static var compensator," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 1178–1185, 2011.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
C.-S. Tseng, "Robust fuzzy filter design for nonlinear systems with persistent bounded disturbances," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics B, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 940–945, 2006.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
Y. Wang, T. Chai, and Y. Zhang, "State observer-based adaptive fuzzy output-feedback control for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems," Information Sciences, vol. 180, no. 24, pp. 5029–5040, 2010.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar | Zentralblatt MATH
H. Coral-Enriquez, J. Cortés-Romero, and G. A. Ramos, "Robust active disturbance rejection control approach to maximize energy capture in variable-speed wind turbines," Mathematical Problems in Engineering, vol. 2013, Article ID 396740, 12 pages, 2013.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
X. Zhang, L. Sun, K. Zhao, and L. Sun, "Nonlinear speed control for PMSM system using sliding-mode control and disturbance compensation techniques," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 1358–1365, 2013.View at: Google Scholar
I. Petersen, V. Ugrinovskii, and A. Savkin, Robust Control Design Using H∞ Methods, Springer, 2000.
K. Ezal, P. V. Kokotović, A. R. Teel, and T. Başar, "Disturbance attenuating output-feedback control of nonlinear systems with local optimality," Automatica, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 805–817, 2001.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar | Zentralblatt MATH
N. Jiang, B. Liu, J. Kang, Y. Jing, and T. Zhang, "The design of nonlinear disturbance attenuation controller for TCSC robust model of power system," Nonlinear Dynamics, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 1863–1870, 2012.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar | Zentralblatt MATH
N. Jiang, S. Li, T. Liu, and X. Dong, "Nonlinear large disturbance attenuation controller design for the power systems with STATCOM," Applied Mathematics and Computation, vol. 219, pp. 10378–10386, 2013.View at: Google Scholar
K. S. Narendra, "Parameter adaptive control—the end...or the beginning?" in Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 2117–2125, 1994.View at: Google Scholar
R. Bakker and A. M. Annaswamy, "Stability and robustness properties of a simple adaptive controller," IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 41, no. 9, pp. 1352–1358, 1996.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar | Zentralblatt MATH
M. R. Akella and K. Subbarao, "A novel parameter projection mechanism for smooth and stable adaptive control," Systems & Control Letters, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 43–51, 2005.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar | Zentralblatt MATH
R. T. H. Alden and A. A. Shaltout, "Analysis of damping and synchronizing torques—part 1: a general calculation method," IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, vol. 98, no. 5, pp. 1696–1700, 1979.View at: Google Scholar
E. Abu-Al-Feilat, M. Bettayeb, H. Al-Duwaish, M. Abido, and A. Mantawy, "A neural network-based approach for on-line dynamic stability assessment using synchronizing and damping torque coefficients," Electric Power Systems Research, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 103–110, 1996.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
M. Ranlöf, J. Bladh, and U. Lundin, "Use of a finite element model for the determination of damping and synchronizing torques of hydroelectric generators," Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 44, pp. 844–851, 2013.View at: Google Scholar


text:
Upcoming Convention and TransWeekly Newsletters Transamerica and Transamerica Family Markets has issued the following communications.* Transamerica Family Markets 2016 ConventionTransWeekly for November 25, 2015
FOREIGN NATIONALS IUL May Be a Smart Solution for Foreign Nationals Index Universal Life (IUL) insurance can be an attractive option to meet client needs because some IUL policies offer index interest crediting based on a diverse mix of market indexes, including global indexes. The versatility of the policies can make them a smart solution for Foreign Nationals. Check out Transamerica Sales Leader Laura Morrison's LifeHealthPro article on why this type of policy is a strategy both U.S. and Foreign National clients might want to explore.
COMPLIANCE UT: Updated Written Disclosures for Non-Commission Compensation Utah has updated its written disclosure requirements for non-commission compensation connected to obtaining, placing or servicing an insurance policy. Examples of non-commission compensation would be gifts, sales conference trips, stock options, etc. The updated requirements include: * The signature of the insured or prospective insured acknowledging the non-commission compensation; * The amount of any known non-commission compensation; * The type and amount, if known, of any potential and contingent non-commission compensation; and * The existence and source of any other compensation. This information must be provided to the insured or prospective insured prior to the performance of the service. CA Agents: Minimum Type Size for 'Insurance' in Marketing Collateral California law now requires that the word "insurance" appear in type face no smaller than a 12-point font on business cards, price quotes and advertisements. If the smallest telephone number on these items is larger than a 12-point font, then it must be equal to that. All agents doing business exclusively in California must comply with this regulation.
OPERATIONS Year-End and 2016 Commission Closing & Statement Mailing Dates – AMB 3964 To view important 2015 year-end dates, and 2016 commission closing and EFT payment/check mailing dates, click here or go to TransACT and click Sales Tools, then select the Agency Managers' and Compliance Bulletins link under Resources and check "View All."
TransWeekly for December 2, 2015
FIELD EDUCATION Continuing Education to be Discontinued Beginning January 1, 2016, the Continuing Education (CE) Program will be discontinued. Agencies and producers who want to get certified as instructors and present CE courses will need to work with another CE provider. Scheduled CE courses will continue as planned through December 31, 2015.
OPERATIONS Office Closure December 11 The Cedar Rapids Customer Service Center, along with Contract, Licensing and Compensation, will close at 4:30 p.m. CT on Friday, December 11, due to a company-sponsored employee event. TransACT and My Transamerica will be available to obtain information on policies. Transamerica regrets any inconvenience this closure may cause and appreciate your business. Year-End and 2016 Commission Closing & EFT Payment/Check Mailing Dates – AMB 3964 To view important 2015 year-end dates, and 2016 commission closing and EFT payment/check mailing dates, click here or go to TransACT and click Sales Tools, then select the Agency Managers' and Compliance Bulletins link under Resources and check "View All."


text:
Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations Hints from UHS — Not Your Ordinary Walkthrough
General Investigative Advice
General Courtroom Advice
General Psyche-Lock Advice
Episode One: Turnabout Memories
Episode Two: The Stolen Turnabout
Episode Three: Recipe For Turnabout
Episode Four: Turnabout Beginnings
Episode Five: Bridge To The Turnabout
About these hints / Contact their author
Others Also Read:
This file is a copyrighted work and posted to the UHS web site with permission. The redistribution permissions listed in these hints refer to the original downloadable UHS file, and not to the on-line HTML version. In other words, please don't use any part of this file in your own walkthrough, cheats, codes, or tips without permission.


text:
My bf is visiting for the weekend and we've been blessed with mid 50's weather, thank god! I got my hair done yesterday, 5 hours worth of chemicals and bleach, but I'm loving it! Also did a photoshoot today, pictures will come soon!
So, due to the nice weather and immense sunshine, Cody and I decided to go exploring in my fairly new neighborhood.
We found an awesome new *cheap* liquor store on Lorimer…. $20 for a handle of Bacardi Dragon Berry and we were in! We'll be having an enjoyable night, that's for sure!
Aldo wedges
Target tights
Express shorts
Kiss the Concrete shirt
H&M jacket
And I'll finish with a picture of my new hair. It's really dead… we're going to do a deep conditioning treatment and then more bleach this week, and then I'm adding a surprise!


text:
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad today traded barbs, questioning each other's "desh bhakti" (patriotism).
The war of words was set off following a tweet from Kumar, taking an obvious dig at Prasad in the wake of the Centre recently downgrading the latter's 'Z+' security cover to 'Z' category.
"Jaan, maal aur mall ki chinta sabse badi desh bhakti hai (concern about one's own life and property is the biggest example of patriotism)," Kumar said in the tweet laced with sarcasm.
The JD(U) president's jibe followed a controversy arising out of Prasad's security being downgraded. The RJD leader's elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, even threatened to "skin" Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the "conspiracy".
Not to take Kumar's "desh bhakti" (patriotism) barb lightly, Prasad launched a sharp counter-attack against him by posting a series of messages on Twitter, using certain words which smelt foul.
"Bihar ke 'thesis chor' desh bhakt mukhya mantri bataye ki unhone 20 hazaar rupaiya cheque me diya, RTGS kiya athwa cash me ada kiya (the patriotic Bihar CM, accused of stealing a thesis, should tell whether he paid the penalty of Rs 20,000 by cheque, RTGS or cash)," the RJD chief said.
The comment was in reference to a Delhi High Court judgment passed earlier this year, which had dismissed Kumar's plea to delete his name as a defendant from a lawsuit on copyright violation, filed by a former JNU scholar-turned- politician, and imposed a cost of Rs 20,000 on him.
In the lawsuit, the former JNU student had alleged that a book published by the Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), through its Member Secretary Shaibal Gupta, and endorsed by Kumar, was a plagiarised version of his research work.
"Bihar me desh ka eklauta aisa swayam ghoshit desh bhakt mukhya mantri hain jis par jaghanya hatya ka sangeen aarop hain. Kya desh ke kisi aur mukhya mantri par nirmam hatya ka case aur aise case ko chipane ka sahas hain (Bihar has the only self-proclaimed patriotic chief minister who is facing a murder charge. Is there any other CM who has been accused of murder and does any other CM have the courage to hide such a case)," he continued in his no holds barred attack.
The comment referred to Kumar's name figuring in a murder case of a Congress leader, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the erstwhile Barh constituency in 1991.
The RJD chief also used his pet "pet mein daant" (teeth in stomach) jibe at Kumar to allege that he was being cunning in an another tweet and accused him of being the "murderer of mandate", in a reference to the JD(U) chief walking out of the erstwhile Grand Alliance government in Bihar and joining hands with the BJP.
Prasad has been making sharp comments against Kumar ever since the collapse of the Grand Alliance government, comprising the JD(U), RJD and Congress, in July.
Kumar subsequently joined hands with the BJP to form a coalition government in the state.
With power slipping out of the hands of the RJD, Prasad and his two sons -- Tej Pratap and Tejashwi -- have not been sparing any opportunity to hit out at Kumar.
The JD(U) chief's tweet on Prasad also drew a reaction from the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav.
"There are so many things that the chief minister ought to be concerned about. A police personnel was killed by liquor smugglers in Samastipur two days ago. Journalists are being attacked. MLAs are getting extortion calls. One of our party workers has been threatened over phone by a spokesman of the ruling Janata Dal (United)," he told reporters outside the state Legislative Assembly.
He also claimed that the JD(U) and the BJP had hatched a "conspiracy" against him by lodging graft cases as an excuse to join hands to form the government in the state.
Deccan Herald News now on Telegram - Click here to subscribe
Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Dailymotion | YouTube
Get a round-up of the day's top stories in your inbox
DH Toon | 'The Kashmir Files' film row at IFFI
Most notable volcanic eruptions in the 20th century
JLo's new album inspired by rekindled romance with Ben
Mauna Loa: Facts about the world's largest volcano
Scientists revive 48,500-year-old 'zombie virus'
Cryptoverse: It's Messi v Ronaldo in fan coin world cup
Why have Man Utd, Liverpool been put up for sale?
Explained | What is wet-leasing of aircraft?
In Pics| Effective ways to ensure good eye health
DH Radio | Chilling truths about the Mehrauli murder...