text: I need some guidance on how to structure a large library with lots of packages and sub-packages. Using the library should be as effortless as possible. It's your average beast of a catch-all for sharing code across applications at our company. Let's call it "the_library". In my attempt to structure the library, I was following two principles: - The complete library is contained in a single package. This is to avoid polluting the top-level namespace. - Only modules and sub-packages directly under the top-level package should be imported directly. This means that any class or function in the library is accessed using the same qualified name everywhere inside the library or the application. This makes moving code around easier. Following this, using a module from the library is pretty straight-forward. A typical file in the application code could start with: from the_library import sip, rtp, sdp This works from any module or script in the library or application. Then I decided to split the "sip" module into smaller modules, e.g. "message", "transaction", "dialog", all contained in a package named "sip". Ideally, an application would still import the sip package using the import above and then, for example, access the "DialogID" class using "sip.dialog.DialogID". Currently this is only possible when also explicitly importing the "dialog" module: from the_library import sip import the_library.sip.dialog This is ugly and seems unnecessary to me as, for example, having all the modules in the "sip" package available using a single import would not pollute the local namespace. So I tried to enable this by importing all the modules in the "sip" package from the package's "__init__.py": from . import message, transaction, dialog … which doesn't work. Some of the modules reference other modules in the same package. I'm not talking about cyclic references, but, for example, the "dialog" module uses the "transaction" module. The problem is that the "dialog" module uses the same mechanism shown above to import the other modules from it's package. This means that modules and packages are imported in this order: - Application code executes "from the_library import sip" - the_library/__init__.py is executed. No imports here. - the_library/sip/__init__.py executes "from . import [...], dialog" - the_library/sip/dialog.py executes "from the_library import sip" During the last import a problem arises: The module object for the package "the_library" does not yet have a "sip" member (as it is still executing the import) and so the import fails. It is still possible to import the "transaction" module directly from the "dialog" module using: from . import transaction But this would make the "transaction" module available under a different qualified name as anywhere else (where it's accessed using "sip.transaction"). What path would you take to circumvent this problem? Would you break the rule that any module should be accessed using the same way, no matter from where it is accessed, or would you maybe structure the library entirely different? Thanks for any suggestions! Michael


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Ed. note: This post is part of the Spotlight on Commerce series highlighting members of the Department of Commerce and their contributions to an Economy Built to Last.
Guest blog post by Ana Valentin, Survey Statistician, Fisheries Statistics Division of the Office of Science and Technology, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.
My dearest friend Albert Einstein said, "The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable receiving." Giving is the driver that motivated me to pursue a public service career. My parents, who proudly retired from the Puerto Rico government, encouraged me to enter public service for our country. Being educated in the Puerto Rico public system and graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a bachelor in Secondary Math Education and a Masters in Public Health in Biostatistics, I prized the significance of professional education in the workplace. Today, as a doctoral candidate in Information Assurance, I embrace how diversity presents innovative solutions for the challenges of our competitive world market.
My career started in academia, where I worked as a clinical researcher in a School of Medicine, and mathematics, statistics and computer science professor for undergraduate and graduate programs in public and private universities. My experience in academia led me to accept a position as a survey statistician at the Census Bureau, where I revised statistical and mathematical protocols and the translation of census materials written in Spanish to assure the Agency's mission. Through the observation of Spanish field interviews, I valued the contribution of Hispanics population into United States' economy. Currently, I work for the NOAA Fisheries Service, where I manage a survey that produces catch-effort estimates of recreational fishing activities and help oversee the budget allocated for recreational and commercial survey operations. As a Hispanic woman, I cherished the importance of a diverse workforce to outreach growing minority populations in accountability of fishery stock assessment and management in the United States and its territories.
Through non-profit organizations, I was able to reach out to diverse groups of cultures, expertise, education, and political interests to focus on the discussion of common needs and challenge in our life. As a member of the Federal Training Institute (FTI) of the League United of Latin American Citizens (LULAC), I collaborated with other FTI members from NOAA, Commerce and other Departments to develop leadership and management workshops that trains Hispanics Federal government employees, students, veterans, and general public at no-cost for our Agencies. Through the University of Puerto Rico Alumni and Abroad Friends (UPRAA), I had the opportunity to mentor and coach students, friends, veterans, and colleagues to improve their horizons by pursuing their goals and the American dream. This non-profit organization collects and disburses scholarships to Hispanics graduate students with socio-economic needs to pursue their college careers. As co-chair of the Noche Boricua Committee, I annually organize educational and cultural events in the Metropolitan Washington Area. In these events, I invite influential Hispanics leaders from the public and private sector to donate services or resources toward the scholarship program. As a Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of the Blacks In Government NOAA Chapter, I was able to improve financial management best practices that oversee the Chapter's budget toward our scholars, social and professional development programs. I truly believe that fostering young Hispanics through affinity groups is a way to outreach, educate, and attract professionals in our workforce.
Affinity groups are vital venues to promote collaboration and innovation among diversity groups. The collaboration of affinity groups may assist the Department to develop strategies to find alternatives for common problems, while innovation helps with the development of strategies for building a diverse workforce. As a collateral duty, I actively participate in the planning of the NOAA Hispanic Heritage Month Observance Program and NOAA Black History Month Program. Participating in the planning of observance months had increased my network and coalitions to engage NOAA staff in the execution of the programs. Working closely with the Civil Rights Office and affinity groups has helped me to understand the importance of a Blueprint for an America Built to Last through diversity and inclusion. My involvement is to build and share responsibilities of strengthening America's people with our Agency leaders in the construction of a diverse workforce that reflect United Stated population.
I am very proud of being a Hispanic woman who pursues a career with an employer that provides you many job opportunities. I encourage young Hispanic to accept the daily challenges with courage by putting your skills and talents on your professional career. As a Hispanic, I invite you to cuddle diversity as a path that open minds, expand knowledge, improve expertise, and develop tolerance in our society.
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text: Technology marketing budgets will be down an estimated 0.5% this year compared with last year, according to International Data Corp.'s 2013 "Tech Marketing Benchmark Study," released earlier this month. The 11th annual study was based on an online survey of 90 senior marketers at large technology companies, conducted between June 1 and Aug. 21. The respondents represent companies with average annual revenue of $9.1 billion. "Part of the decline might be due to efficiencies related to digital marketing—we are definitely seeing efficiencies happening with regard to automation," said Kathleen Schaub, research VP-CMO Advisory Service at IDC, in an interview with BtoB. "We are also seeing a distinct shift in marketing between what we call the third platform and traditional marketing technologies," she said. "Companies that are more in social, mobile, cloud and Big Data are moving ahead aggressively [with their budgets], while hardware companies are declining much faster in marketing spend than everyone else." IDC projects that over the next 10 years, 90% of revenue growth at technology companies will come from the "third platform"—mobile, social, Big Data and cloud computing. For IDC, the second platform is LAN/Internet technology, client/server computing and PCs; the first platform is mainframe computing. This year, 63.0% of technology companies in the services sector plan to increase marketing budgets, and 59.0% of software companies plan to increase marketing budgets. Meanwhile, only 34.0% of hardware companies plan to increase marketing budgets, according to the survey. At the same time, 52.0% of hardware companies plan to decrease marketing budgets this year, compared with only 38.0% of services companies and 22.0% of software companies that plan to decrease budgets. The average marketing budget ratio (marketing spending/total revenue) is 1.9% this year. Software companies have an average marketing budget ratio of 3.9%, while hardware companies have an average of 1.9% and IT service providers have an average of 0.6%. Advertising, including digital, still makes up the bulk of marketing spend (28.3%), followed by events (19.6%), marketing support and sales tools (12.0%), direct marketing (10.4%), website (5.7%), branding and content (5.7%), market intelligence (4.8%), marketing automation (3.9%), PR (3.8%), social marketing (1.9%), analyst relations (1.1%) and other (2.8%). Over the next three years, the top marketing spending area for tech companies will be website development, with 44.0% of companies planning to boost budgets in this area. The No. 2 investment area is direct marketing, including email (41.0%), followed by marketing automation (35.0%), advertising, including display and search (31.0%) and social marketing (28.0%).


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LaVar Ball will coach his sons' Lithuanian team, which seems like a terrible idea
The Ball family circus continues.
LaVar Ball, the blowhard father of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball, will coach his other two sons as an assistant for their Lithuanian team in Tuesday night's game, according to multiple reports.
"He will be an assistant coach on game protocol but will drive the team through the game and make many of the decisions," a team spokesman for Vytautas Prienai-Birstonas told ESPN. "The style the team is going to play is going to be LaVar's choice."
In yet another marketing play, LaVar will join Vytautas coach Virginijus Seskus' staff for the fourth installment of the Big Baller Challenge — a five-game series of meaningless exhibitions promoting the Ball family. LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball, who respectively dropped out of high school and UCLA for this, are now tying their professional development to a team willing to hand the reins to their father.
"LaVar wants the team to play fast," Seskus told ESPN through a translator. "He also has an idea for a new way for the team to play defense, so we're going to try it out tonight. Today we'll be like two equal coaches, but this will only be for the friendly match. We'll see how it goes today."
"Why not let him do it? It's only a friendly match. It will end and everyone will forget about it."
LaVar's bench experience consists of coaching his sons on a not-so-great traveling AAU team. He ripped the Chino Hills (Calif.) High School coach who guided his sons to a state title, blamed UCLA's staff for LiAngelo's shoplifting arrest in China and suggested Lakers coach Luke Walton lost the locker room.
LaVar Ball will not step aside after this exhibition game. He will try to steal the show at every turn.
Through three games of the Big Baller Challenge, Vytautas is unbeaten against other Lithuanian teams you had never heard of before, and the two younger Ball brothers are averaging 42 combined points. In the Lithuanian Basketball League, where the games actually count and EuroLeague stakes are on the line, Vytautas (4-16) is in last place, and LiAngelo and LaMelo finished scoreless in their debut.
Surely, LaVar will keep quiet once the curtain comes down on the Big Baller Challenge sideshow.
– – – – – – –
Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at firstname.lastname@example.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
More from Yahoo Sports:
• New Titans coach reveals a poorly kept NFL 'secret'
• Report: Cavs accuse KevinLove of faking illness
• Kidd: Giannis offered to save my job
• Abuse victim says MSU is billing her for Nassar visits


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It was not shocking to see the "Islamist lobby," both Muslim Brotherhood and pro-Iranian regime operatives, attacking Walid Phares for his new masterpiece -- The Lost Spring: US Foreign Policy in the Middle East and the Catastrophes to Avoid -- that will come to light next week. Observers were expecting a serious reading and critique of the book, which projects more of the Middle East's future, especially after Phares accurately predicted the Arab Spring in his book The Coming Revolution that was published before the upheavals.
However, the first shot by the "lobby" was in the form of a ludicrous blog posted on a South Florida social medium under a secret name; "Fire Ant." The producer of the smear has a pen name that tells it all: mental and intellectual chaos. Did the "secret blogger" inform his readers about the content of the book? No. Did he present counter arguments to Phares' findings? Of course not. The "ant-blogger" compiled an exhibit of online material disseminated in 2011 by Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian regime operatives in the United States, intended to tarnish Walid Phares' reputation and avenge his appointment by presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as one of his national security and foreign policy advisors.
During the months of October and November of 2011, the Brotherhood fronts and Hezbollah propagandists filled the net with false, despicable and fictional information about Phares, an author of 14 books and hundreds of articles pertaining to Middle Eastern politics. All smear material was countered swiftly, and the campaign receded due to lack of facts and unsupported argument. However, from time to time, as Dr. Phares is continuously interviewed by national and international media, Jihadophile propagandists and apologist allies periodically revert to such unfounded allegations and defaming information as space filler, for their unsubstantial blogs.
Trending: How Could Stanley Ann Dunham Have Delivered Barack Hussein Obama In August Of 1961 in Hawaii, When Official University Of Washington Records Show Her 2,680 Miles Away In Seattle Attending Classes That Same Month?
Tom Harb, a co-director of the Middle East American Coalition for Democracy, stated that:
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"The propaganda machine of the Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] and the Iranian regime is embedded online and is often tasked with attacking intellectuals, lawmakers and opinion makers who expose these extremist forces. In 2011, Walid Phares was attacked online because his book The Coming Revolution had predicted the Arab Spring and warned about the hijack of these revolts by Islamists and Jihadists. A prediction that has happened. Now they will be attacking his new book because it is educating Americans about the mistakes of their foreign policy."
The "controversy" that the New Broward Times' agitator wanted to produce, was generated by the fact that Dr. Phares was invited to speak at Florida Atlantic University where he taught for 11 years. The "hidden blogger," or rather the "mole," aired his complaints about the invitation. He began by classifying Phares -- an accredited advisor to many congressmen and to members of the European Parliament and whose book was endorsed by conservatives and liberals -- as "controversial." Perhaps he is "controversial" in the eyes of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Ayatollahs, but he is an academic who has been writing and publishing treasured material on international affairs for over three decades, making his insight indispensable to the international media globally.
The "little fire ant" has no discerning capacity to understand what Phares publishes or talks about. The "secret blogger" rehashes his masters' voice by operating the propaganda machine spewed four years ago, without a glimpse of originality or genuineness.
Ironically, "The propaganda ant" criticizes the low level of publicity by FAU for this event, while overlooking the promotional campaign his misdeed has provided. Just as his predecessors have attempted to accomplish in 2011, the "Ant" tries to depict Phares negatively and irrationally. He accordingly stated:
In the course of his career Phares has been denounced as a "radical, right-wing, sharia-phobe" and praised as "a true gentleman and one of the world's top analysts on terrorism, jihad, and the Middle East."
Over the past decades, many radicals such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Hamas, Syrian regime operatives and others have tried to label Phares, a guardian of human rights, as "radical" simply for exposing their radical ideologies. Successively, the "Ant" uses the term 'Sharia-phobe' while Phares' expertise and work do not debate the Sharia. Mr. Ant should read Phares' new book before unleashing his resentment, for he will stumble upon an entire chapter devoted to the "industry of Islamophobia," which he depicts as political intimidation against dissent.
We will leave the readers to enjoy and judge that chapter among the others.
The "Jihadophile ant" insists that "criticism of Phares exploded in October 2011 when Mitt Romney announced Phares' appointment as a foreign policy advisor, a move interpreted as a dog whistle to the neocon community."
"Walid Phares is advising Romney on Middle East policy? For real? That's terrifying," tweeted one Middle East expert. "I have nothing against Gov. Romney," tweeted another, "but appointing Walid Phares your M.E. advisor is NUTS." The uninformed blogger ignores that the critics of Phares are themselves sympathizers of Muslim Brotherhood or apologists for outreach to Iran's regime. Criticism from that crowd, which populates the internet and some campuses, is in fact evidence of the substance found in The Lost Spring.
The "Ant" added: More detailed objections to Phares came from publications like The New Republic and especially, Mother Jones, who reported that Phares had been "a high ranking political official in a sectarian religious militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's brutal, 15-year civil war."
How outlandish! The "Ant" refers to Mother Jones, a statement constituting radicalism per se, where another unprofessional blogger, part of the "network," used quotes from Hezbollah allies in Lebanon to criticize Phares. "Sectarian religious militia?" He is referring to a local coalition of political parties, one of whose leaders was a President of the UN General Assembly! Hezbollah and the Brotherhood have attempted to use the Lebanese Christian origin of Phares to connect him with historical events, he is entirely exempt from. If this is not sheer national-socialist and Bolshevik type propaganda, I do not know what is.
The New Times Broward blogger further alleges: Right-wing and GOP writers and publications rushed to Phares' defense, most coherently in National Review, where it was argued that Phares' critics had overstated his role in the Lebanese Christian militia, whose massacres were, in any case "the war crime of a small rogue group."
This is simply another failed attempt to mix up a scholar with an ethnic conflict in his motherland Lebanon. The Hezbollah-Ikhwan axis online lacks credibility, and accordingly bloggers who continue to feed on these canards fail as well.
Mr "Ant" goes on by adding that a very savvy analysis of the affair's political fallout came from Politico, which noted "the extent to which Phares is now aligned with an 'anti-jihad' movement that sometimes shades into being flatly anti-Islam."
This professional propagandist lie slaughtered the credibility of this fired up hidden blogger. Walid Phares has been the most vocal advocate of the Arab revolutions and of Muslim moderates for years, and yes, indeed, against the radical Islamists and Jihadists. He espouses what millions of moderate Muslims feel regarding the Jihadists--in Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, and around the world. Despite his dedicated career and efforts, the US-based Islamist lobby tries to spread lies, knowing that Phares has never addressed Islam as a religion or theology in his writings.
Nevertheless, "The ant" quotes an apologist blogger at Politico during the Presidential campaign, as follows:
Phares may be viewed as mainstream, but he doesn't avoid the more vocally anti-Muslim segments of the right. He has been a columnist for David Horowitz's arch-conservative Frontpage magazine, and he endorsed two books by Robert Spencer, whose writings frequently posit that American Muslims are part of a conspiracy to establish Taliban-style Islamic law in the United States. Phares also serves on the advisory board of the Clarion Fund, which has released a series of films warning of an Islamist fifth column in the United States. In a YouTube video released by anti-Islam activist Brigitte Gabriel, herself a Maronite Christian whose views of Islam were shaped by harrowing experiences in Lebanon's civil war, Phares tells Gabriel that "there is a cold war infiltration acquiring influence and the lands of what they call the infidels." When Gabriel's cohost asks Phares for examples of this vast conspiracy, Phares quietly assures him, "We can't give names, because it's operational, it's happening now."
That is flagrant evidence that Phares is a political scientist who addresses Jihadism, while shunning core theological issues. Publishing on various sites, endorsing books, appearing on TV shows of all natures, from Fox News to al Jazeera, is what Phares does. Does that mean he endorses the philosophy of any of these media? Does the "lobby" seek to approve of and/or authorize an author's interviews and media appearances?
"The inquisitor-ant" then attacks the FAU Professor and the associations that organized the event as if the "ant" is a thought gestapo. He states:
New Times only became aware of Phares' FAU appearance when we received an email off an FAU internal email list, in which Professor Robert Rabil announced Phares' lecture--"co-sponsored by the Peace Studies program and the College Republicans at FAU"--on behalf of the school's Political Science Department, where Rabil teaches. Asked about the scant publicity for Phares' appearance, Rabil said he had expected Phares' publisher to handle that. Otherwise, he said, "If you're not on an email listed with FAU, you won't get [an announcement]." About attendance by the community at large he said, "I'm not concerned. It's an open space." Asked if he supports Phares' thinking on the Mideast and Islam, Rabil replied, "I tell my students to never follow one line of thought. I don't endorse anything [Phares] says." Rabil, who has co-authored several papers with Phares, took a much different tack when Phares was under attack during the Romney campaign. At that time Rabil wrote that the charges against Phares constituted: an attack on Lebanon's Christian community as a whole, and perhaps against all minorities and liberal Muslims in the Middle East. They explicitly attacked Dr. Phares on the misleading basis of guilt by association without even considering either the political context in which the Lebanese Christians operated or the collective angst of the Christian community.
Having said that, we have consequently investigated this alleged interview of New Times with Professor Rabil, via direct inquiry. Rabil insisted that
"There was no interview. A man who never identified his name called my office and started to ask about our guest and the event. Then started to ask me about my ideas, though my books and articles are out, so are Dr. Phares many publications. I asked him why doesn't he come and ask his questions at the event? He just quit the conversation without giving his name. Today I saw a man write a blog and cite our conversation."
Clearly, the "ant-blogger" never interviewed Dr. Rabil, concealed his identity and that of the publication, depicting unethical and unprofessional journalism, contiguous with illegal libel.
The "ant" didn't stop here. He added: Phares has a well-oiled publicity machine at his disposal, but his vaunted predictive powers are non-existent (see what he said would happen after the US exited Iraq) and his policy prescriptions are a lot of empty blather about winning the "war of ideas."
Obviously, the "ant" has never read The Coming Revolution, which was the only book that predicted the Arab Spring, or any of Phares' hundreds of articles. Besides, the only article he cites from 2007 asserted that Iran will dominate Iraq's central power after US withdrawal. Now that did happen, did it not?
The "ant" interviewed another FAU professor. He wrote:
We expected a similarly critical comment from Professor Eric Hanne, faculty advisor to the FAU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. In an email, though, he wrote: "As I've not read the book, or kept up with Phares' work (being a medievalist myself), I wouldn't be able to add anything substantial to the conversation regarding his discussion of the Arab Spring or US Foreign policy. Having followed the coverage of the Arab Spring from its inception, and having read a number of pieces from a variety of scholars, I would say that the 'jury is still out' regarding an assessment of the 'Arab Spring.' There is much more at work here, going beyond the confines of the Arab world (a problematic monolithic term in and of itself) and it would be premature to make predictions or judgments."
Hanne concluded exactly as Phares does in his book; a very interesting critique indeed.
The "ant" went on:
Asked if Phares' controversial history was problematic or likely to color his message and analysis, Hanne wrote back: "I wouldn't presume to prejudge his upcoming talk; his career has tied him to particular mindsets (Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Romney campaign) in which there are very clear parameters for discussion and analysis, but where he stands is still a mystery to me (as someone who looks elsewhere than the FDD, Romney crowd for analysis)."
Undeniably, these are facts we do not object to.
In the end, the reader should clearly see the "ant" for what he truly is: a "lobby-mole" with a publishing spot at the New Times, evidently not vetted by the publisher, even worse, given that spot to puff with fire his intentions to attempt to tarnish the reputation of scholars. Now, one can freely agree or disagree with authors, academics, and even politicians. However, to employ propagandist material disseminated by lobbies defending terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood inspired fronts, is alarming. To say the least, New Times Broward owes an apology to Dr. Phares, Dr. Rabil, and to the community of FAU for the unprofessional handling of event coverage.Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook, Google Plus, & Twitter. You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here.


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Abstract—The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance of a new macro scale electrostatic harvester model linked to a micro wind turbine. The harvester consists of a multi-poles rotary capacitor and a converter circuit. First, the model of the harvester is implemented in Matlab/Simulink. Next, the validated model device parameters such as the passive elements and the battery capacitance are varied to extract the optimal harvested power. Results indicate that maximum harvested power is 4.76mW at a wind speed of 10 m/s with harvested energy of 219 µJ per cycle.
Index Terms—Electrostatic harvester, energy harvesting, variable capacitor, wind energy.
Rita T. Abdulmunam is with Emirates Aviation College, Dubai, UAE (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com).
Luay Yassin Taha is with the Engineering Department, Emirates Aviation College, Dubai, UAE (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com).
Paul Ivey is with Engineering and Computing Department, Coventry University, Coventry, CV15FB, UK (e-mail: email@example.com).
Cite: R. T. Abdulmunam, L. Y. Taha, and P. C. Ivey, "Modeling of Low Power Electrostatic Wind Energy Harvester for Macro-Scale Applications," International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 912-917, 2012.


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Electronic literature book features Portsmouth sf authorBy John McDaid | Monday, 1 June 2015
Portsmouth science fiction writer John McDaid's 1993 hypermedia novel "Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse" is one of four examples of early digital literature included in a just-released scholarly resource called "Pathfinders," which aims to preserve and explore these innovative electronic fictions. Electronic Literature Organization president Dene Grigar and board member Stuart Moulthrop were co-principal investigators on this National Endowment for the Humanities funded effort to make these works available to a broader audience. Here's their announcement:
In the decade between 1985 and 1995, as personal computers grew familiar and the Internet became a presence in everyday life, assumptions about reading, writing, and text began to change. Digital tools allowed increasingly powerful combinations of media. The ancestors of blogs and social networks appeared. Experimental writers began to use tools like hypertext as the basis for fiction and poetry.
In the face of all these changes, the idea of the book remained essential in understanding the new nature of writing. Yet the book could no longer be limited to traditional forms. To understand the early history of electronic writing we would need a new kind of book; but what would it be like? How would it capture the interactivity the effort now required of readers? How would it reflect the graphics, movement, and sound that that had become important narrative strategies? How would such a reinvented book make accessible works meant to run on an Apple IIe or early Macintosh computer, in these days of tablets and smart phones?
Pathfinders: Documenting the Experience of Early Digital Literature, by Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop, answers these questions in the form of a multimedia, open-source web-book created for a wide array of digital devices. It features 173 screens of content, 53,857 words of text, 104 videos, 203 color photos, and various audio files, providing readers with access to four important computer-based works of literature that were among the first to be sold commercially in the U.S. — but are now seriously threatened by obsolescence.
The book, whose production was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, will be released June 1, 2015 and made available free of charge through the open-source platform Scalar, created by the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture at the University of Southern California.
Using video and still photography, Pathfinders captures demonstrations of four groundbreaking works, performed by their authors on vintage systems. Readers accessing the book will watch Judy Malloy walk through her database novel Uncle Roger, originally published on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link and considered by some the first example of social-media literature. They will also see a tour of Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse, a revolutionary hypermedia novel-in-a-box by John McDaid, and a demonstration of two classics in the early hypertext system Storyspace, Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl and William Bly's We Descend. Extensive interviews with all four authors add an important dimension of oral history to the project.
All four are acclaimed works of fiction representing the cultural impact of digital technologies that resonate today in experimental writing, video games, cinema, and virtual reality experiences.
Pathfinders was created by Dene Grigar, Professor and Director of the Creative Media & Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver, and Stuart Moulthrop, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Demonstrations and research took place in the Electronic Literature Lab (ELL), a working collection of electronic literature and vintage computers dating from1983 assembled and directed by Grigar. The designer of the Pathfindersbook is Will Luers, faculty member in the CMDC Program. Madeleine Brookman, a junior in the CMDC Program, served as the Research Assistant to the project.
The formal book launch party is scheduled for Friday, June 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Nouspace-Angst Gallery, located at 1015 Main Street, Vancouver, WA. The works of these authors will be displayed on vintage computers and copies of the book will be on view to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Dene Grigar, dgrigar at wsu.edu.
The book will be available at http://scalar.usc.edu/works/pathfinders.
Editorial note: Written from a press release.
"Umbrella Men" meets the Common CoreBy John McDaid | Friday, 24 October 2014
I was delighted to take part yesterday in a workshop with local authors and teachers on writing and the Common Core State Standards sponsored by the East Bay Educational Collaborative and the Association of Rhode Island Authors (ARIA). As part of the preparation for that workshop, Karen (who has her M.S. Ed. in Reading and Literacy) put together a study guide for high school teachers for my most recent short story, "Umbrella Men," with assignments aligned to the CCSS. I showed the materials to teachers at the workshop and got some good feedback.
To try to make this a helpful package for educators, I've created a printable PDF of the story with line numbers to facilitate reference, and a educator's epub version to make it easy to download and read (which could also be used by students, if you don't care about the numbering.)
It's all available for free under a Creative Commons license over on a new page for educational materials. If you're an educator, and have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Oh, and if you want a chance to meet some of Rhode Island's great local writers and check out their work, ARIA hosting the second annual Authors Expo on November 8 — more info on the web site.
Educational materialsBy John McDaid | Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Teachers may freely download all material on this page for classroom use. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Umbrella Men
Originally published as the cover story of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2012.
Alonso Caua, a Brooklyn librarian, inherited an ancient, magic umbrella that spreads peace in its shadow, but its presence now seems to be changing his 10-year-old son in unpredictable ways.
Curricular materials developed by Karen McDaid, M.S. Ed., Reading and Literacy.
Appropriate for grades 9-12
Lexile score: 980
Interests: science fiction, secret history, urban fantasy, contemporary fantasy, conspiracy theories, secret societies, New York City, Brooklyn
Note: The version of the story included on this page has several minor editorial changes from the published version to make it appropriate for a student audience.
Full text (with line numbers) — 120K printable PDF
Study guide aligned to Common Core State Standards — 70K PDF
Teacher e-book review version (no line numbers) — 390K epub
Reminder: Tomorrow is "Pynchon in Public" DayBy John McDaid | Tuesday, 7 May 2013
|Thomas Pynchon (photo: a friend)
In case you've forgotten (and how easy it is to forget, eh, folks like us who spend all our time at the movies) tomorrow is the birthday of pre-eminent American author Thomas Pynchon, and many of like mind (though what it is that mind is "like," exactly, few can say) opt to celebrate by wearing their affection on their sleeves, slid out of bookbags, unearthed from under a scumble of desktop detritus, on t-shirts, pie crusts, animated gifs, stickers, post horns surreptitiously chalked on girders to be hoisted skyward, retro-hip dayglo posters, skin art, nanofabricated movies starring individual atoms of Carbon (heh-heh, 6 protons, 6 neutrons, 6 electrons, I guess we all know what that means, eh?), or, even, the transgressive act of carrying the Rainbow in public...
More info on the reclusive but erudite web site Pynchon in Public Day.
Now, everybody...
Umbrella MenBy John McDaid | Tuesday, 18 September 2012
This story appeared in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Umbrella Men
by John G. McDaid
"Tyrants don't respond to any kind of appeasement. Tyrants respond to toughness. And that was true in the 1930s and 1940s, when we failed to respond to tyranny, and it is true today."
—Condoleezza Rice, February, 2003
Fist of the ApeBy John McDaid | Tuesday, 11 January 2011
My 2009 National Novel Writing Month project, to be revised and completed as part of the Clarion 2011 "Write-a-Thon."
Fist of the Ape
In July, 1945, a US weapons expert and his code-talking sidekick are forced to pair up with a Russian spy to track down a Nazi atomic bomb.
Electronic Literature clicks in ProvidenceBy John McDaid | Sunday, 6 June 2010
|State of the Archive panel at ELO/AI
Scores of practitioners and theorists of electronic text assembled at Brown University this weekend for the fourth annual conference of the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO). The conference, whose theme was "Archive and Innovate" was a four-day round of papers, installations, readings, and a Saturday night banquet celebrating the contributions of Rhode Island's own star of American letters, Robert Coover.
During the conference, ELO announced the release of their new electronic literature directory, in keeping with one of the main themes, the problem of archiving electronic texts.
One highlight was a panel on archiving featuring Deena Larsen, Stephanie Strickland, Will Hansen, and Marjorie Luesebrink, talking about the challenges of determining just what constitutes an archive for a digital fiction, and the very real issues with operating systems and software changing out from under efforts at preservation. Respondant Elli Mylonas of Brown showed a very promising start, the Brown Digital Repository, and Hansen talked about efforts underway at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities.
I missed the panel by Jessica Pressman, Mark Marino, and Jeremy Douglass which comprised three approaches to reading a digital text, but had a chance to talk with them later. Jeremy's use of ImageJ, a tool for manipulating 3D medical images like CAT scans and MRIs, as a way of slicing a time-based image stream was just mind-bendingly innovative. Imagine taking a feature film and treating the entire two hours of frames as a three-d object, then taking slices through it. Amazing.
Okay, to be truthful, the real highlight for me was the "unconference" area that Denna Larsen had set up outside the main presentation room. People could just hang out there and talk in between — and, okay, sometimes during — the official panels, and it was an amazing primordial soup of people just dropping in: gearheads, poets, filmmakers, and literary theorists, all in the mix. Got a chance to see folks that I haven't since the digital lit conference I went to, which we all realized was about ten years ago.
There are a bunch of pix up on a Flickr group, and you can get a surprisingly good sense of the flow of the conference from the Twitter stream.
New story BoingBoingedBy John McDaid | Monday, 13 April 2009
When we were invited to the wedding of sf writer Cory Doctorow and Alice Taylor, I immediately wanted to write them a story as a wedding present. I know, I know, it takes big brass ones to think of doing such a thing, but I did. And they seem to have liked it.
Cory has posted a very kind link to the story — which I just released under CC license — on BoingBoing.
The story lives over on the Fiction tab. Some adult themes; not for the kiddies.
Full disclosure: I've had the privilege of workshopping with Cory in addition to having an awesome time at their wedding.
(Nothing But) FlowersBy John McDaid | Monday, 13 April 2009
Author's note:


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Connecting with parents and students has always had it challenges. The learning application Classdojo is working to make this task easier for teachers. Launched in 2011 by Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don, Classdojo has become one of the most widely used tools for connecting with parents. Classdojo is a communication platform that allows parents to communicate with parents unlike ever before. The application is used across the globe in more than 35 languages.
Classdojo allows teachers to communicate with parents and teachers in real time. Teachers can register for a free account and then quickly and easily set up their classroom. Teachers have the ability to invite parents to the community. This allows them to see their child's progress along with important information from the teacher, all in real time. Classdojo even allows teacher to focus their communication on certain skills, leaving feedback in the most important areas.
Classdojo understands that the relationship between teachers, students and parents hinges on trust. Privacy protection is one of their most important focuses. There are three central areas of privacy focus which include the following: control, a 12-month deletion and privacy. The app does not share any student personal information with advertisers or marketers. Additionally Classdojo does nocollect any sensitive information about students such as gender, social security number, or student Id.
It's clear that students are enjoying this app. As of today it is being used in more than 90% of American schools. Students love the ability to create and personalize their own avatar. Their parents can get immediate feedback and the program is accessible outside the school buildings. The app also includes a large number of helpful tools for teachers including things like a timer, a group maker, a random app that selects random students and a think pair share app. Classdojo is an amazing tool that a great and much needed communication platform.


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New York
Radcliffe Bailey: Maroons at Jack Shainman Gallery
The preserved crocodile carcass, pinned against a ratty tarp to form the centerpiece of a work called On Your Way Up, is as good a place as any to begin a review of Radcliffe Bailey's exhibition Maroons at Jack Shainman gallery. Though purportedly on the ascent, this climber has clearly seen better days; its exposed finger bones, protruding between disintegrated flesh, seem unlikely to carry it very far. The gesture exudes a Dadaist absurdity that unites many of the works in this show. It may also present a whiff of home for the Atlanta-based artist, whose practice routinely confronts the heritage of the American South in both its revolting (e.g., slavery) and enlivening (e.g., jazz) aspects. All of the above draw a viewer further and further into the work, right up until the point at which its metaphor-in-waiting, vague but palpably present, becomes impossible to avoid—then, how quickly the work deflates.
Most of the works in Maroons share the seemingly scavenged, pawnshop constitution of On Your Way Up. Not always is the approach fruitful. A piece consisting of a chunk of white coral mounted on a plane of black sand, in which appear the outlines of a dagger, ship, and ladder, abides the poetry of a light-dark contrast and seemingly little else. Several works, however, are startlingly charged—if, like the croc, only temporarily so. Wicker baskets brimming with shards of glass surround a model 19th-century cargo ship in Vessel; a wooden door, gold-leafed by the artist, bears an inordinately massive, medieval-looking lock in Fourth Ward; Congo suggests an ashen version of the Democratic Republic's flag: five-point stars strewn irregularly across a blackened tarp, before which hangs a trio of disembodied wooden limbs. One hardly needs to spell out the gruesome resonances underlying these images. They prove the potential for a powerful symbology to be found in the odds and ends at Bailey's disposal, even if they threaten to bottom out in allegories that fly too easily into the viewer's grasp.
Existing writing on Bailey invariably situates the artist's project as a racial one, concerned as it is with working through personal memory in relation to the African American experience writ large (not that the two can really be de-conflated). In Maroons, a group of three small collage and gouache works on sheet music announce the artist's racial background most explicitly, depicting, for example, West African tribal masks in one and an elderly black woman raising a sword á la Liberty Leading the People in another. They are in a way emblematic of the exhibition's title: In their exuberant color, gestural dynamism, and graphic appeal, they are marooned amid the doom and gloom of the surrounding assemblage. While the gallery clearly prods us to view the latter as providing the exhibition's heft, the lighter pieces hung in the hallway hint at what the leaden centerpieces lack; namely, the lubricant image play that gives rise to slipperiness of meaning—between personal memory and collective history, perhaps—that has animated Bailey's art in the past.
Maroons runs through February 15 at Jack Shainman Gallery.


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Through my "neural networks in trading" series of posts I have talked about many issues surrounding the use of neural networks in algorithmic trading including the creation of stand-alone NN systems and the use of neural networks as ways to improve other aspects of strategies (such as money management). Today I am going to be talking about a serious issue any trader attempting to implement neural networks solutions can face which has to do with the fact that neural network solutions need to converge in order to be useful. I will be giving you some hints on how you can reduce and almost completely eliminate this problem and – more importantly – how you can see if your neural network solution suffers from this very bad case of "indecision".
A big problem with any neural network solution is that it relies on the training of a given set of functions (neurons) to fit a given set of output data starting from some random weights. Since the starting point of the network is random the training procedures can have different outcomes and this leads to the problem that the same network can be trained twice on the same data to give completely different out-of-sample results. This is of course a very important problem since the neural network could be giving good results that are just randomly being generated which are then totally different when the neural network is run for a second time. How could you know that your NN works if it can give seemingly any result ?
A well built neural network solution eliminates the above problems through two main ways. First of all the use of neural network committees instead of single networks becomes a priority (as usually a decision taken by a group of networks is more convergent) and using an error threshold and epoch number which is high enough as to provide enough convergence for the networks. However the are several instances where this is not enough, particularly when the neural network decision affects future training sets. For example when using a neural network MM approach which modifies position sizes a small divergence in the beginning of the test between two separate back-tests can cause an increasing effect which in the end can lead to dramatically different outcomes. This is why self-correcting ideas have a much harder time at reaching convergence.
If you're doing a neural network implementation where the outputs of the network will affects its future inputs then the problem can be fixed by keeping a "phantom copy" of what the outcomes without intervention would have been so that deviations in the test will not be magnified in the future by small differences attained by the network committees (there are some other creative solutions to this problem). Once you do this your neural networks will most likely converge much more towards usable solutions. You should also always consider the amount of epochs, errors thresholds and inputs you're using as if your inputs and outputs are not correlated or if your epoch training is not enough you may find that convergence doesn't happen despite some of your other efforts.
As you see the building of neural network solutions is not easy and great care must be taken to analyze and take into account all aspects that could hint at the fact that the neural network is simply doing its job due to random chance. Always run at least 20 tests of your neural network implementation over the same data and determine the standard deviation of the relevant resulting parameters in order to see how your neural network is behavind regarding convergence and reproducibility. It also helps to code UI Components so that you can get the error values and training set convergence results to see if your epoch choice is adequate.
If you would like to learn more about my work in algorithmic trading and how you too can learn more about the world of mechanical trading and the building and evaluation of systems please consider joining Asirikuy.com, a website filled with educational videos, trading systems, development and a sound, honest and transparent approach towards automated trading in general . I hope you enjoyed this article ! :o)


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Alex and Catherine's group discussion
Hi Catherine, I just finished going through all the other dialogues which helped to put our own into context. "Growing Affections" is just after they meet, hence the constant complimenting. "Scheming Girls" refers back to "The Jealous Friend" - Chen Jing is encouraging Fei Fei to go out with Zhang Liang, even though she's Li Li's friend, because she feels like a third wheel since the last two started dating and is jealous of the time they spend together. Given that, it's a bit ironic when she asks Fei Fei if she's envious (it's all getting very complicated!) I think this'll help when we present the dialogues - "GA" could be very flirty and over-the-top because Zhang is still in the process of trying to impress LiLi. What do you think?
Comments (9)
New lesson idea? Please contact us.


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Last update: Saturday 11/14/15Black Girls CODE brought an exciting adventure to Atlanta on Saturday 11/14/15 that was all about ROBOTS!!! The young girls who participate had fun and captivating educational experiences.
In an engaging atmosphere with hands-on activities using Lego WeDo/NXT kits, they learned about robots and how robots communicate. They also interacted with sophisticated robots and learned real-world/business applications and other uses for robotics. More information about this event can be found on the event's registration page.
Note that Black Girls Code also produced an exciting Robot Expo! in the Bronx, NY today ==> See the DLL's Storify of that event
The DLL Storify of tweets that were generated by participants who use hashtags = #BGCRobotExpo, #BGCATL appears at the bottom of this page. As usual, this DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes tweets in chronological order without comment or classification ... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives.


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So I got a Macbook for my birthday and I really needed a case or a laptop bag for it. It is actually difficult to find a stylish or modern looking laptop case or bag. I started looking at retail stores because you can be surprised at what they offer.
I came across ASOS and they had Laptop Cases. They were simple and modern even though it's supposed to be for a guy. I still bought it though. It was a good bargain, just £14! They also have another version were the straps are brown. But I prefer the whole case being one colour. My 15 inch Macbook fit's perfectly in the case with enough room to fit the charger too.
Looks good as a clutch too. Perfect for carrying around campus or just going to the library. Just need to find a bag to fit this in now ha.
- kristalovesx -


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The True Qualities of a Successful Leader
Issue: #31
The True Qualities of a Successful Leader December 2009
"In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."
-Eric Hoffer
This quote by Eric Hoffer, an American philosopher, really speaks true to the times that we are living in today. A leader's ability to adapt to the changes in the environment around him/her is really the key to success, and a recession can be the true test of these abilities. When times are good it is very difficult to judge a person's true character, because it can be so easy to be successful when everything is going the way it is planned. With times the way they are now, it is an opportune time for employers to evaluate and really figure out who the true leaders are within their organization.
What are the qualities that make a person a good leader? Is it the fact that this person is very relaxed and gives their employees a lot of room to be innovative and creative, or is it because this person keeps their employees stuck on a rigid schedule? The truth behind it is that a real productive leader will be all of these things in one single person. For somebody to really provide good direction for the rest of the company, they need to balance the times when the company needs strict direction, and when the company needs time to be innovative. A book called "Primal Leadership" by Daniel Goleman, describes six different leadership styles that will push a company past success and into the Business Hall of Fame. The most effective leaders can actually use each style at the most opportune time, in order to bring success to his/her company.
Visionary. This is the type of person who encourages everybody in the company to be creative and think outside of the box. He/she has many ideas of what direction the company should move towards, but no plan of actually how to get there. This will encourage other employees to take responsibility for the company and its plan for the future, as well as encouraging them to experiment and take calculated risks. A management style like this flourishes when the company is looking for a new direction to head in and the company needs inspiration from someone who has ideas, without any boundaries.
Coaching: A management style like this can be very useful for developing certain qualities in employees, if it is used in the right situation. This person likes to have one-on-one time with individual employees, while using this time to develop the employee, help improve the skills of that employee, and also help to create a bond between the goals of the company and the goals of that individual employee. This can be a very productive method of management if there is somebody on the staff who specifically seems to be open to guidance. It is important not to use this method to walk an employee through every step of a process and feed the employee information that he/she might already understand. This will make the recipient of this information feel as though the company does not have confidence in him/her.
Affiliative: This management style uses an emphasis on maintaining team harmony as a way to promote cohesiveness in the work environment. Managers with an emphasis on keeping the peace are perfect during a time in which a dispute might have taken place and lines of communication have broken down within the department or company. The only problem with having a department that is too "buddy, buddy" is that it may suffer from a disease known as groupthink. This occurs when everybody in the group begins to immediately agree with their peers without question, and it can lead to mediocre performance.
Democratic: A manager with this style is constantly looking to include every employee in the decision making process. This person always wants the process to be fair and equal, which can be a huge morale booster for a company or department. When every employee feels like they are involved in the process, of making an important decision, they are more likely to treat that opportunity as if the livelihood of the company is resting solely on their shoulders. The inclusion of everybody's opinion can be a key to success for companies during uncertain times, but it can also lead to extended periods of time where problems can go unsolved due to the fact that people may be unable to decide on a specific solution.
Pacesetting: This person is obsessed with continuously trying to be more efficient in the work place. Everything needs to be completed at a higher standard and at a quicker pace. This can be the key to motivating certain individuals who tend to do good work, but generally at a slower pace than the average person. Other than using this method for the occasional motivational day, it tends to wear down an individual's self of steam. Employees who are constantly under pressure to perform better tend to feel inadequate, and this can have a real negative effect on their ability to work.
Commanding: This style of management is used by the hard-nosed manager who needs everything done his/her way, with no exceptions. The authoritarian method tends to focus on negative feedback when mistakes are made, instead of positive reinforcement when the job is done well. This can really have a negative effect on morale in the office, and can actually lead to resentment of the manager. As a result, this method should be used only when the company is in a time of crisis and needs strict guidance and direction.
A truly successful leader will not be a blend of all of these different styles of management, but instead have the ability to switch between these different leadership methods. Although, having all of these different methods, in your quiver of leadership styles, will give you a distinct advantage over the competition, it is not the key. It is also essential that the individual who is in the leadership role knows when to pull one of these styles out of his/her quiver. If an individual has the ability to switch between different styles of management, but is not quite sure when to use each style, their abilities are going to be ineffective at motivating employees.
In order to become an effective leader by putting this advice to use, it is important for you to go back, think about, and analyze different situations that occurred in the past. Take this information and think about how these different leadership styles could have been used effectively to improve different business situations in the past. Although, the past is not a direct implication of the future, having planned past events will help get you into the mindset of using these methods and will allow you to deal with similar situations in the future.
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Snippets from tumblr: Being in a fandom can't be... Martin gotcha.
Where season 2 and season 3 spoilers are...
You could also look at the two minor setlock pics in OK! Magazine. Last try here, Ben and Mark with laughter.
Sherlock fan art: Say it with flowers. Coffee from Baskerville, hah!


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Russian Antitrust body to quiz operators over suspicions of iPhone price fixing
Russian antitrust agency, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, believes that mobile operators in the country may be colluding to restrict the pricing of Apple's iPhone handsets, which when unlocked are among the most expensive in the world.
Dow Jones reports that both OAO Mobile TeleSystems (MBT) and VimpelCom Ltd. (VIP) have priced the iPhone 4 32GB Black and the iPhone 4 16GB Black models identically at the majority of their retail and sales outlets, referencing documentation from Apple that states that the company has not amended its wholesale prices since September and it does not enforce pricing of iPhones by its partners.
MBT and VIP priced the 32GB and 16GB black iPhone 4 handsets at 31,890 rubles ($1,019) and RUB26,690 ($853) respectively, almost double what Apple and its partners charge consumers in other regions worldwide.
Neither Apple or the operators involved wished to comment on the matter, but the mobile carriers are expected to issue statements responding to accusations by Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service later today.


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I love round things.
Irrelevant, but true.
- Order Code: KORES0006CH
- Length: 1.90 cm
- Width: 1.45 cm
- Price: SGD 8.00
- Stock: 1 pc only!
- See this model in brown.
Love this? Proceed to the Order Form for payment via Cash or Internet Bank Transfer. Alternatively, proceed to my Qoo10 page if you prefer to pay via Credit / Debit Card, PayPal, E-Nets, or Q-money.
Due to the relative inconsistencies of various display monitors, the colours you see on your screen may not be an exact reproduction of the actual product. I strive for colour accuracy as much as possible, but product photos are intended as a guide only, and colour variation between the screen images and the actual products is not improbable.


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The Ride | Interactive NYC Bus Tour
All of New York City is a stage when enjoying one of our 75-minute New York bus tours. Onboard host entertain while you comfortably enjoy the street performances. This entertaining interactive theatrical experience gets you closer to the performance all the while you are still taking in the sights.
The Tour | Multimedia NYC Bus Tour
Putting a new view on sightseeing The Tour offers an interactive exploration of New York City most iconic landmarks. With its floor to ceiling windows and simulations you're guided tour will allow you to appreciate the city in a whole new way. You'll be hard pressed to find New York bus tours that match the fun, comfort and excitement of "The Tour."
Big Bus New York | Classic 1 Day Tour
Classic sightseeing at its best, the Hop-on, Hop-off New York bus tours combine the Uptown and Downtown tours with the option of exploring an interested area at your leisure. All tours starting and ending in the iconic Times Square with regular buses departing you have the flexibility to make the most of your visit.
Big Bus New York | Deluxe 2 Day Tour
Have more than one day to explore New York? Your choice of a guide or pre-recorded tour in the language of your choosing is one of the many features this tour offers. When purchasing this ticket you have the option to experience New York at your own pace. Hoping off at any point of your tour to enjoy the many neighborhoods or landmarks that make this city great.


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An overwhelming amount of information is out there about how to get started with online marketing or social media marketing and the platforms and tools to use. Technology advancements are impacting to change the online marketing environment frequently. The landscape of online marketing and customer interaction is changing at such a fast and furious speed that it is almost impossible to know if the same techniques and tools that apply today will work tomorrow. As a result Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques have been forced to change course in order to maintain search rank and deliver cost effective search results. As customer expectation and interaction behaviors are changing, so web usability, accessibility and social media marketing strategies are also changing quickly. That is why it is important to focus on an integrated online marketing approach to optimize and implement website and marketing activities holistically.
Old and New SEO features for 2015 and beyond
Old SEO
New SEO
|Optimization for search engine – creating titles, headlines and anchor text for keywords to influence search engine algorithm
|Optimization for users – creating catchy headlines and engaging content with quality and appropriate format for different delivery channels to influence user mind
|Keyword Research
|Focus on creating and optimizing content against a list of keywords that are found on several keyword analysis tools
|Focus on creating and optimizing content against user generated #tags, topics and queries that are found on several analytical tools and social network sites
|Link building
|Focus on adding links to directories, participating in link exchange programs and buying links
|Focus on guest blogging in industry-trusted sites, establishing relationship and managing social media in terms of content publishing
|Social Media
|Focus on pushing content via social media and getting exposure by liking the content
|Focus on using social media for communication around content and getting exposure by commenting and sharing
What is Integrated Online Marketing Strategy Framework
Integrated Online Marketing Strategy Framework is an approach to optimize design, marketing, and measurement of a website for improving customer interaction and conversion. The core idea of Integrated Online Marketing Strategy Framework is to create a process for analyzing online activities holistically and implementing best practices to engage and acquire customer. The framework approach divides online activities into 4 domains – analysis, development, marketing, and measurement.
The reason for dividing online activities into 4 domains is to implement and manage particular domain thoroughly, and brought back the knowledge in composition with other domains to optimize online marketing activities for higher return on investment. Each of the domain will focus to achieve their specific objectives and targets; and integrate with other domains through mapped and shared documents for achieving ultimate goals of the online business.
Benefits of using Integrated Online Marketing Strategy Framework
The overall benefit of using Integrated Online Marketing Strategy Framework approach is to achieve higher return on investment by optimizing online user interaction and conversion processes.
Specific benefits are -
- Better online business performance by identifying gaps in usable design, quality content, and SEO best practices
- Higher conversion rate by optimizing design and content
- Higher return on investment by optimizing online traffic visits and content sharing
- Quality data and rational decisions by optimizing data collection, configuration, reports and dashboards
Domains of Integrated Online Marketing Strategy Framework
Analysis Domain
Analysis is a process of evaluating performance of your website by comparing against a set of standard guidelines and best practices in the subject domain. There are two main goals of analysis domain – i) Identify gaps in usable design, quality content, SEO and measurement best practices; and ii) make recommendations for improving customer engagement, conversion rate, SEO performance and analytics reports. Analysis activities will use quantitative data from analytical tools and qualitative information from customer's feedback as well as industry best practices.
Analysis/Audit will answer two important questions-
- How well is your website performing?
- What are your website improvement areas?
The Analysis Domain Activities
- Usability and Accessibility Audit
- SEO Audit – onsite and offsite
- Content Audit
- Social Media Marketing Analysis
- Website Measurement and Analytics Analysis
Analyze is the essential first quadrant of Online Marketing Optimization Cycle for benchmarking your online performance and identifying improvement areas in all aspects of your online activities.
Development Domain
The main focus of the development domain is to build or optimize usable, accessible and conversion focus website. The goal is to optimize design and content for improving searchability, usability, conversion rate and branding. The development domain creates optimized content that are user friendly, easily shareable and convertible through social network, blogs and search engine.
The Development Domain Activities
- Develop or redesign website
- Implement usability and accessibility best practices
- Implement technical SEO best practices
- Implement content quality and accessibility best practices
- Implement strategies for content creation, management and delivery
Refine is the second quadrant of Online Marketing Optimization Cycle for improving your online presence in all aspects of design, structure and content. Implement is the third quadrant of Online Marketing Optimization Cycle for applying design changes and refined content types, format, structure.
Marketing Domain
Online marketing is the process of publishing and distributing relevant content to other websites, social media sites and advertising networks for creating inbound links. Online marketing also manage marketing activities on social media sites as wella s advertising on paid medias. The landscape of online marketing is changing at such a fast and furious speed that it is almost impossible to know if the same techniques and tools that apply today will work tomorrow. The focus of the marketing domain is on higher return on investment by optimizing online traffic visits and content sharing. The marketing domain will optimize authority building, social media marketing and online advertising.
The Marketing Domain Activities
- Develop content for different channel strategies
- Deliver content mix strategies for attracting and engaging online audience
- Implement inbound link building strategies
- Implement social media marketing strategies
- Implement online advertising strategies
- Implement email marketing strategies
Refine is the second quadrant of Online Marketing Optimization Cycle for fine tuning marketing activities. Implement is the third quadrant of Online Marketing Optimization Cycle for implementing new marketing strategies and activities.
Measurement Domain
The aim of the measurement domain is to establish an environment for measuring the website performance. The goal of the measurement domain is to provide quality data and support rational decisions by optimizing data collection, configuration, reports and dashboards. The domain will map the purposes of the website and the objectives of content, design and marketing with measurement metrics and KPIs. The domain will create analytical reports that will help decision makers to understand website performance in relation with overall business and marketing goals.
The Measurement Domain Activities
- Develop Performance Measurement Plan
- Implement best practices for data capture and configuration
- Setting goals, segmentations and analysis funnels
- Create reports and dashboards
- Process, analyze and deliver reports to key stakeholders
Measure is the fourth quadrant of Integrated Optimization Cycle for implementing and optimizing data collection, configuration, reports and dashboards.
In summary, Integrated Online Marketing Strategy Framework is a holistic approach to optimize and implement online marketing activities thoroughly; it blends web design, content, social and search engine marketing and analytics comprehensively. The approach will help online team to focus on achieving strategic goals for each of the domain, and integrate results with other domains for a comprehensive understanding of the website and marketing performance.


text: I know this has been asked probably hundreds of times before but I never looked cuz I was never interested. I'm a bass geek, far from an amp geek but working hard at it. Talking strictly combos here, what's the difference btwn 2X10s and 1X15? Specifically: Will one handle a B better than the other? Will one handle more volume than the other? Will one distort more quickly? Will the 15 give more bottom? Will the 2 10s sound a lot thinner than the 15? I'm very close to ordering one of the new Fender 250s, and wanted a 15, but it seems only the 2X10 models are currently available anywhere. All thoughts are welcome. Thanks.


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28 Apr ESSEX COUNTY EXECUTIVE DIVINCENZO ANNOUNCES OPENING OF EXPANDED SAVANNA CAFÉ AND ENHANCED BISON EXHIBIT AT ESSEX COUNTY TURTLE BACK ZOO New 16,500-Square-Foot Dining Facility will Provide Needed Space to Accommodate Growing Attendance Improvements to Bison Exhibit Better Viewing Area for Visitors
West Orange, NJ – Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. officially opened the new Savanna Café and an enhanced Bison Exhibit at Essex County Turtle Back Zoo on Thursday, April 28th. The two-story, 16,500-square-foot dining facility is more than three times as large as Turtle Back's old cafeteria building and provides additional space to accommodate the large crowds at Turtle Back. In addition, changes to the Bison Exhibit provide enhanced viewing areas for the public to see the animals.
"In each of the last 11 years, we set new annual attendance records and last year we welcomed over 750,000 visitors. Turtle Back Zoo has become a destination attraction for school groups, organizations and families, and a larger cafeteria was needed so that we could accommodate the large crowds and continue to provide our visitors with a first-class experience," DiVincenzo said. "The new Savanna Café offers a unique view overlooking our Zoo grounds and offers flexible space that can be used as a dining area or to host larger, special events," he noted.
"The color of the building, the thatched roof – this is really a beautiful place. The way the building is set against the natural beauty of the zoo creates a real connection to the environment," Assembly Speaker Emeritus Sheila Oliver said.
"All the concepts start in Joe DiVincenzo's head. He builds it and then it is our job to keep things as safe as they can be… and this complex is the safest neighborhood. It's a magnificent place," Sheriff Armando Fontoura said.
"It is such a privilege to work with the County Executive to bring his visions to reality. This is a great facility because ultimately it is for our children and for them to have a nice time when they come to the Zoo," said Freeholder President Britnee Timberlake, who was joined by Freeholders Leonard Luciano, Lebby Jones, Patricia Sebold and Cynthia Toro.
"The Savanna Café is another great project at Turtle Back Zoo and it was much-needed. Attendance here has soared year after year and having to build a larger cafeteria building speaks volumes about how popular an attraction our Zoo has become," Turtle Back Zoo Brint Spencer said.
"There is always something new happening at Turtle Back Zoo and the opening of the Savanna Café is a testament to that. There really isn't any reason to leave this complex once you arrive," Zoological Society Executive Director Adam Kerins said, mentioning the Treetop Adventure, miniGOLF Safari, paddle boating and access to South Mountain Reservation.
The Savannah Café has a first-floor dining area that is about 9,125 square feet with seating for 106 people and a second floor dining area that has an enclosed 2,000-square-foot dining area and an outdoor terrace that is about 5,125 square feet, with total seating for 266 people. The kitchen area on the first floor is larger, which allows a greater variety of meals and snacks to be prepared and offered, and a larger area from which patrons can order food and an increased number of check-out lanes will reduce congestion and create less crowded areas to walk. The second floor also has a bar area that can be used for private parties and events.
Named the Savanna Café, the building has thatched roofs and is decorated with bamboo ceilings and pictures of forests, deserts and other habitats on the walls. A retaining wall in front of the building is designed to resemble a 75-foot long snake and there is an outdoor dining patio with seats for 40 people. The facility is completely handicap accessible.
The new building was constructed over the footprint of the old one-story Zoo Café, which was just a 5,000-square-foot building with a walk-up counter to order food and limited indoor seating.
Greg Comito Associates from Newark received a $295,000 contract to design the Savanna Café. John O'Hara Co., Inc., from East Orange was awarded a publicly bid contract for $6,661,907 to construct the facility. The Essex County Department of Public Works monitored the project and answered questions to avoid delays. The building was funded through the Essex County Capital Budget. Construction started in September and took just eight months to complete.
Bison Exhibit Improvements
The County Executive also announced changes were made to the Bison Exhibit located in the Great Plains area. The footprint of the exhibit was enlarged to create a raised boardwalk viewing area that will enable visitors to get closer to see the animals, the façade of the animal holding area was updated with a stone facing and a glass wall was installed so that there are no obstructions to see into the exhibit area.
"We are always looking for new ways to enhance our visitors' experience when they come to Turtle Back Zoo. The Bison Exhibit is one of our largest, and the changes we made will help our guests get a closer and unobstructed view of these gentle giants," DiVincenzo said.
French and Parrello from Wall designed the improvements to the exhibit as part of an existing contract. Zenith Construction Services from East Newark was awarded a publicly bid contract for $549,900 to perform the construction work. The Department of Public Works monitored the project to answer questions and avoid delays. The improvements were funded with grants from the NJ Green Acres program and the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund. Work started in February and was completed in three months.
The ongoing development of natural habitat exhibits has transformed Turtle Back Zoo into a destination. In each of the last 11 years, new annual attendance records have been established. Last year, the Zoo welcomed 755,239 visitors – the first time in the Zoo's history that the 700,000 mark was eclipsed.
Turtle Back Zoo recently earned its second five-year accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which sets the gold standard for animal care and management, has been named best zoo in the state by NJ Monthly magazine four times, and received TripAdvisor.com's Certificate of Excellence the past three years.
Revitalizing Essex County Turtle Back Zoo
Currently under construction is the African Adventure Exhibit, which will feature four giraffes, eland, whistling ducks, ostrich and tortoises. The habitat created will resemble three acres of the African Savanna and will have multiple viewing areas for the public, including areas where the public can view the giraffes feeding. A climate-controlled barn approximately 200-by-100-feet in size to house the giraffes during the winter will be attached to the exhibit. To make the exhibit visitor-friendly during the winter months, closed circuit cameras will be installed so the African Adventure Exhibit can be viewed on a video screen in the Savanna Café. It is scheduled to open on May 10, 2016.
Since taking office in 2003, DiVincenzo has spearheaded over $70 million in upgrades to Essex County Turtle Back Zoo, which have included developing a new Educational Building, the Carousel with 33 figures of endangered animals; building the Sea Lion Sound Exhibit with sea lions, sharks and sting rays; the Big Cat Country Exhibit with jaguars and cougars; Tam-ring Gibbons Reserve with white cheeked gibbons apes, Reeves muntjac and white naped cranes; Australian Exhibit that features kangaroos, wallabies, emus and over 500 birds in the Aviary; Reptile and Education Center, open air dining pavilion and playground, Penguin Exhibit, Otter Exhibit, Wolf Exhibit, Alligator Exhibit, North American Animal Exhibit, Black Bear Exhibit, Animal Hospital, Essex Farm Petting Zoo and South American Animal Exhibit; renovating the Food Pavilion for year-round use and making upgrades to the entrance as well as fencing and infrastructure to meet AZA requirements. Funding has been provided through Green Acres grants, existing capital improvement bonds, or donations from the Zoological Society, Essex County Parks Foundation, corporations or private foundations. Corporations that have provided support include Investors Bank, Prudential Financial, Inc., Wells Fargo (Wachovia Bank), PNC Bank, PSE&G, Verizon, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Coca Cola, Capital One Bank, TD Bank, Aramark, Covanta Energy and OxyMagic carpet cleaning.
The Essex County Park System was created in 1895 and is the first county park system established in the United States. The Park System consists of more than 6,000 acres and has 22 parks, five reservations, an environmental center, a zoo, Treetop Adventure Course, ice skating rink, roller skating rink, three public golf courses, golf driving range, two miniature golf courses, three off-leash dog facilities, a castle and the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens. Turtle Back Zoo is located in Essex County's South Mountain Reservation and was opened to the public in 1963.


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Diddy and LL Cool J Learn About Their Past in 'Finding Your Roots' [VIDEO]
Diddy and LL Cool J both got some shocking news when they appeared on the PBS series Finding Your Roots to unearth their family's history.
While the Bad Boy leader found out that his third-generation grandfather was not born a slave -- despite being born in Maryland, a slave state at the time.
"Make no mistake about it, man, this is not typical of the Black experience," said the show's host, Henry Louis Gates. "For 90% of the African-American people who sat where you've sat when I've done their family tree -- no free ancestors."
As for LL, the legendary emcee learned that his mother, Ondrea Griffith, was adopted. His grandparents, Eugene Griffith and Ellen Hightower, took the young woman in sometime during 1947 and also raised LL.
"This doesn't change how I feel about the people that raised me," said the Lip Sync Battle host of his grandparents. "I have more love and respect for them than I ever did." LL's mother also appears on the show and shared that she understands that her parents "had their reasons" for keeping the secret.
This full episode with Diddy and LL Cool J will air next Tuesday (Feb. 16), one day after LL Cool J is scheduled to host the Grammy Awards for the fifth time. Diddy, on the other hand, will be joining Pharrell's team as a mentor on The Voice.
Check out the trailer for the forthcoming episode above.


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The following comes from a recent blog entry by CBS News anchorwoman, Katie Couric, about a meeting she and other news anchors attended at the White House.
And yet, the meeting was a little disconcerting as well. As I was looking at my colleagues around the room—Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos, Brian Williams, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer, Wolf Blitzer, and Brit Hume—I couldn't help but notice, despite how far we've come, that I was still the only woman there. Well, there was some female support staff near the door. But of the people at the table, the "principals" in the meeting, I was the only one wearing a skirt. Everyone was gracious, though the jocular atmosphere was palpable.
Katie Couric was the only woman seated at the table. *gasp* The horror! How was she ever able to carry on in the meeting? Having identified both the Bush administration and the news shows as being sexist pigs, Ms. Couric continues with an old bromide: sexual equality only comes when employee ratios match population ratios.
The feminist movement that began in the 1970′s helped women make tremendous strides—but there still haven't been enough great leaps for womankind. Fifty-one percent of America is female, but women make up only about sixteen percent of Congress—which, as the Washington Monthly recently pointed out, is better than it's ever been…but still not as good as parliaments in Rwanda (forty-nine percent women) or Sweden (forty-seven percent women). Only nine Fortune 500 companies have women as CEO's.
That meeting was a reality check for me—and not just about Iraq. It was a reminder that all of us still have an obligation to ask: Don't more women deserve a place at the table too?
By Ms. Couric's logic, any business that doesn't employ 50% women is guilty of not being diverse enough. Obviously, that business is being run by sexist pigs. But there is an inherent problem with looking at pure numbers and drawing a conclusion of discrimination. If we were to do so, we would have to condemn the Supreme Court for failing to hire enough minorities. Thomas Sowell wrote about the fallacy of judging based on averages in his book, Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality?.
Even in a random world of identical things, to say that something happens a certain way on the average is not to say that it happens that way every time. But affirmative action deals with averages almost as if there were no variance. If Hispanics are 8 percent of the carpenters in a given town, it does not follow that every employer of carpenters in that town would have 8 percent Hispanics if there were no discrimination. Even if carpenters were assigned to employers by drawing lots (or by some other random process), there would be variance in the proportion of Hispanic carpenters from one employer to another. To convict those employers with fewer Hispanics of discrimination in hiring would be to make statistical variance a federal offense.
To illustrate the point, we can consider some process where racial, sexual, or ideological factors do not enter, such as the flipping of a coin. There is no reason to expect a persistent preponderance of heads over tails (or vice versa) on the average, but there is also no reason to expect exactly half heads and half tails every time we flip a coin a few times. That is, variance will exist. [emphasis by the author]
And based on the blog entry by Ms. Couric, it appears she has a hard time understanding the difference between averages and variance.


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Free Ground Shipping on Orders of $200 or More! Use Coupon Code: MEMORIALDAY
This offer for free shipping and handling applies to ground ship orders over $200 and is valid for orders placed online at www.etundra.com from 05/20/2019 12:00:00 AM thru 05/24/19 11:59:59 PM MST. This offer applies to standard ground shipping and handling within the U.S., excluding Hawaii, Alaska and U.S. Territories (other than Washington, D.C.). LTL/freight shipments are not eligible for this offer and may be subject to additional shipping and handling charges. Customers are responsible for all taxes and for all Rush Delivery upgrade fees for 3-Day Express, 2-Day Express and Next Day Delivery. Tundra Restaurant Supply reserves the right to modify or discontinue this offer at any time. Void where prohibited by law. This coupon does not apply to previous purchases, can only be applied to the website(s) listed above, and cannot be combined with other offers. The coupon code will need to be added to the shopping cart or during the checkout process.
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I am going to be at the Art and Bloom Festival on May 16, 17 and 18th 2009.
There will be a lots of Hummingbird prints, and other nature pictures.
If your in the area this is a great show to go to and the Woodland Gardens with the Rhododendrons blooming makes for a beautiful setting.
Martin Dollenkamp
Kitty Coleman Woodland Gardens


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WOBM/WADB Shifts To Talk
Townsquare Media Oldies 1160 WOBM Lakewood Township/1310 WADB Asbury Park, NJ has dropped the format and shifted to Conservative Talk.
Morning hosts Bob & Marianne Levy will remain with the station in mornings from 5:30 to 9:00 as will the brokered talk shows heard in the 9:00 hour. The new additions to the station are Glenn Beck from 10am-12pm, Rush Limbaugh 12-3pm, Sean Hannity 3-6pm, and Todd Schnitt in evenings.
The Monmouth/Ocean market was one of the few in the country without a locally based syndicated talk outlet. Townsquare sister "New Jersey 101.5" WKXW Trenton regularly leads the market, but listeners to syndicated programs had to rely on New York or Philadelphia stations. As Monmouth County is embedded in the New York market, in the past syndicators wouldn't want a local signal competing with their New York flagships with the same programming.


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History of Question: In November (2007) my boyfriend of 5 years committed suicide with out warning.... he hung himself while I was in the shower and i found him. I was in a semi catatonic state for a couple days followed by intense grief and fear for many weeks, I tried to go back to work and couldn't so I went to a hospital which got me stabilized on medication and diagnosed me with PTSD, generalized anxiety, and major depression.
Question: I am a different person now and I am scared. I no longer have feelings. I have become promiscuous which is completely out of character for me prior to this trauma, i have ruined just about every relationship by my selfish and careless actions and I have no feelings about it. I no longer enjoy my job... and generally feel nothing. Why? I am confused and scared and want to know if this could be from the trauma and will pass or if this is who i am now.


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A unique and biggest-ever Photo Exhibition created by foreigners on India in New Delhi was opened at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture (24, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi) on October 12, 2012. Entitled "Far and Near India—Reality, Impressions, Memories...".
Comprising 200 images, exhibition was created by 27 Russian photographers. Among the participants are Russian journalists, teachers, diplomats, engineers and school children living in India. Russian compatriots from New Delhi, Chennai, Kudankulam and Kolkata took part in the function.
On the inaugural day, all the visitors could participate in the voting and select the best photos. Around 60 images, which got maximum votes, will be displayed in the Poorva Sanskriti Kendra in Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi, from November 3 to 15, and will later be sent to the RCSCs in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Trivandrum.
Addressing the gathering at the opening ceremony, Mr. Fedor Rozovskiy, Director of the RCSC, said: "Despite the fact that this group photo exhibition by compatriots is organized for the first time, it has immediately attracted a fair number of professional and amateur photographers. We believe that this exhibition has become the biggest-ever photo exhibition on India, organised by foreigners in this country".
The exhibition comprises media-oriented photos, photos on national strikes, official summits, national holidays, landscapes, portraits, etc.
"We all have different world views, and that is why this exhibition has become so vivid and diverse. The participants are united by the fact that they are not connected with the world of art professionally, but they are capable of viewing the beautiful and unusual things. They can capture the moments and record them through the camera", said Mr. Rozovskiy.
According to the results of popular votes, mountain landscapes of Ladakh were selected to be the most interesting. These photos are taken by Mr. Mikhail Vorobyev, Head, Consulate Department in the Embassy of Russian Federation in India. In the focus of public attention were also photos by Mr. Alexander Kvasha, Deputy Head of Russian scientists at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, Dmitry Tuchin from MiG representation in India, diplomats Mr. Philip Romanovsky, Mr. Sergey & Mrs. Eugeniya Karmalito, journalists Mr. Evgeny Pakhomov from RIA-Novosti and Mr. Alexander Antipin from ITAR-TASS, Rossotrudnichestvo employee Ms. Dania Sharipova, student of Russian Embassy School Olga Khorkova and compatriots Ms. Marina Kosareva, Ms. Maria Melnikova and Ms. Galina Zagumennova.


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Chile's president Sebastian Piñera has rocky meeting with the Queen as he tours Europe
Since the success of the Chilean miners' rescue mission, President Sebastian Pinera has seen his approval ratings at home rocket.
And he is clearly enjoying his moment in the spotlight.
This week, the Chilean leader landed in the UK where he met with both the Queen and Prime Minister David Cameron – and he didn't arrive empty-handed.
Click on photos for gallery
The 60-year-old former businessman, accompanied by his wife Cecilia Morel Montes, presented the monarch and the politician with a rock brought out of the San Jose copper mine by Mario Sepulveda, the second miner to be rescued.
Mr Sepulverda, 40, took out a bag containing half a dozen rocks from the collapsed mine, which he gave out when he reached the surface.
President Piñera is currently on a European tour, planned well before the mining incident, and will also visit France and Germany.
After speaking to the Queen and Prince Philip in their private apartment for 40 minutes, he was presented with a framed picture of the pair which had been signed by the royal couple.
Earlier that day, he met with Mr Cameron and received 33 bottles of real ale – one for each of the miners – and an early edition of Robinson Crusoe.


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Traffic Alert MCV Campus: Starting Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m. until Sunday, April 28 at 5 p.m., multiple street closures will be in effect on the MCV Campus. For details, visit vcuhealth.org/traffic
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