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Church's pro-life advocacy earns IRS audit
Pastor says biblical messages, outreaches will continue
A church whose pastor is a leader in the local pro-life efforts has earned an Internal Revenue Service demand for an audit of the organization's books by posting its biblically mandated support for life on its marquee.
The IRS demand arrived recently for Pastor Mark Holick and the Spirit One Christian Center at which he serves in Wichita, Kan., and he says it's a result of the church's work against abortion in a city that features one of the world's premiere late-term abortionists, George Tiller.
"He not only kills late-term babies but, if parents so desire, he will baptize the babies before he burns them to ashes in his (on premises) incinerator," the church statement said of Tiller.
Tiller's political connections in Kansas have been documented by Operation Rescue, a pro-life organization, and reported by WND.
Holick said local Christian ministries have been effective in bringing an end to the Wichita abortion industry, leaving only Tiller's abortion clinic operating. Now he's also facing criminal charges alleging he failed to follow state law in performing those procedures.
But Holick said the message he's getting is straightforward: "Don't touch abortion – if you do, we will come after you!"
"An examination of your records may be necessary in order to resolve our concerns about your organization's possible political campaign intervention," the letter, from Marsha A. Ramirez, director of examinations for the IRS, said. "Records to be examined include financial and accounting records, such as check registers and/or canceled checks, records of contributions made to candidates, solicitations made on behalf of candidates, and evidence of any in-kind support for political campaigns."
Holick earlier had responded to the IRS demand that he answer 31 questions about the church and its ministries, including a series of pro-life messages posted on the church's marquee, and he did so by citing the biblical instructions for what he was doing.
He suggested at that time that the IRS, perhaps, should brush up on the freedoms assured U.S. citizens regarding religion and speech before making such demands in the future.
An announcement about the IRS crackdown on moral statements by the church
But he confirmed to WND now that all of the evidence that the IRS cited in its demand for documentation related to the pro-life messages and activities Spirit One has participated in.
"This is simply the latest step in an effort to silence our Christian witness outside abortion mills," said Holick. "The IRS is a powerful weapon in the hands of those who desire to censor Christianity and remove gentle Christians from proclaiming Christ at these gates of hell!"
One of the signs on the Spirit One church marquee
"The IRS asked us to answer 31 questions concerning our efforts in the pro-life movement in Wichita," he continued. "We answered every one. Now it wants to audit us based on the 'evidence' it has."
He said every document cited in the IRS demand relates "directly and specifically" to the sanctity of human life which is taught and affirmed in the Bible, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, "and a plethora of other Scriptures from Moses and the Prophets to Jesus and the Apostles."
"This is a blatant act of tyranny by the federal government to silence the Christian Church, to deny religious freedoms, and to treat the First Amendment and the Constitution as so much trash," Holick said.
Holick told WND he isn't sure of the impact of the IRS demands, but he's waiting for a meeting to be scheduled that he hopes will clarify some of the questions the IRS has raised.
He said the organization's books are in order, so that is not a problem. But he questioned why "every single one of those pieces of documentation" had to do with his pro-life efforts.
When Holick responded to the IRS' initial demand that he answer 31 questions, he did so, but he said the church would not stop teaching and preaching the Bible "even if it relates to contemporary issues in the world."
Holick said one sign into which the IRS is inquiring read: "Sebelius accepted $300,000.00 from abortionist Tiller, price of 1000 babies."
A Christian organization needs to be able to talk of the moral issues of the day – including abortion, Holick noted. The sign just told of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' connections to the abortion industry.
"They felt like they had a reasonable concern that we had been involved in political activity," Holick said. But he said politics are of no interest to the church; issues of moral character addressed in the Bible are.
"The church does not intend to engage in political intervention activity as prohibited by federal law and the United States Constitution," he told the IRS. "But the church will not stop communicating its Biblical message, even if it relates to contemporary issues in the world.
"Thus," Holick continued, "the church cannot agree to not engage in any activity that may favor or oppose a candidate. Simply preaching the word of God on a moral issue which a candidate is opposed, may be deemed to oppose a candidate. While it is the church's policy not to oppose or endorse a candidate for office, it will not stop preaching God's word."
He continued: "The United States Constitution guarantees that Spirit One will be able to freely exercise its religion, and that Congress will not pass any law restricting that right. This is all Spirit One wants to do – communicate God's word.
"The 1st Amendment of the Constitution is a respected and renowned oracle celebrated all over the nations of the world. It is quite specific and clear; 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…,'" Holick said.
He said the IRS also raised questions about a voter information guide that was handed out in Wichita, although his church did not sponsor it, as well as an abortion-issue related e-mail he had forwarded.
He said he didn't know who would have filed a complaint about his church with the IRS. "We're a very vocal pro-family, pro-life church," he said. "That creates enemies."
"These are not political issues, these are Gospel issues, Christian issues," he said.
To another question about whether certain signs were "political," Holick wrote:
"The signs were not political activities, but rather, were examples of how Spirit One communicates its religious message. The signs all pertained to respect for life and family, a key and fundamental teaching of the scriptures (see Ps. 139:13-15, Jer. 1:4-5, Lk. 1:41-44, Lk. 1:15, Ge. 25:23, Gal. 1:15, Ge. 1:27, Job 10:12, Pr. 24:11-12, Jr. 7:2, Jr. 22:3, 17, Ex. 23:7, Ex. 20:13, Rv. 21:8, Ge. 9:6, 2 Ki. 17:16-20, Jr. 32:35, Jr. 7:31, Mt. 19:5.)."
Holick said the congregation of about 100, meeting as a church for 16 years already, has been strong throughout the challenge by the federal government.
Holick also told the IRS that the signs all "are spiritual messages that communicate God's truth, or are directly related to messages in the Bible." And to the question "why," he said: "The purpose is to obey the Lord, proclaim His Word (the Gospel), and establish His kingdom."
"The following are just a few of the many Scripture references related to the purpose of the signs:
-to lift up Jesus (Ps. 24:7-9)
-to rebuke sin (Lk. 3:8)
-to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8)
-to save babies (Lv. 20:1-5)
-to be honest (Is. 59:14)
-to take a righteous stand (Ps. 9:8)
-to rescue the weak and needy (Ps. 12:5)
-to demonstrate true religion by loving preborn neighbors (Jm. 1:27)
-to call a wicked city to repent (Ex. 23:7)
-to educate and inform about Jesus who IS truth (Jn. 14:6)
-to obey the call to preach, including rebuking (Acts 16:10)
-to stand in the gap against evil (Ez. 22:30)
-to confront hypocrites (1 Ki. 18:17-18)
-to confront immoral politicians (1 Ki. 18)
-to declare the whole counsel of God (Jn. 14:26)
-to disciple children (Pr. 22:6)
-to save America (Dt. 28)
-to stop the shedding of innocent blood (Jr. 22:17)
-to not allow the city to be comfortable while babies are murdered (Pr. 1:32)
-to glorify God (Ps. 86:12)
-to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8)
-to make the Pastor's calling and election sure (2 Pe. 1:3)
-to work out the Pastor's salvation with fear and trembling (Ph. 2:12)
-to take dominion for King Jesus over this wicked city (Dn. 7:14)
-to promote the fear of God, for it is the beginning of wisdom (Pr. 9:10)
-to spark a Revival (Jl. 2:12-13)
-to separate the wheat from the chaff in this church and other churches (Is. 40:24)
-to obey Ephesians 5:11 and reprove the fruitless deeds of darkness (Ep. 5:11)
-to act like a Christian (Jm. 1:27 – what the Bible calls true religion)
-to train others how to act and speak (Jm. 2:22)
-to expose and confront evildoers (Ez. 20:4)
-to prophesy against wickedness (Is. 58:1)
-as an act of worship (Jn. 14:15)"
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Not long after awakening the other day, I stood in the shower, musing on what I should blog about next, and This Is Spinal Tap seemed like a logical, obvious choice. My favorite music-related movie AND my favorite comedy? Honestly, how could I go wrong?
However, I soon came to realize that, much like the subjects of many of my previous blog posts, any attempts to personally review it would be detrimental to future viewers of this fine piece of cinema-I truly feel hesitant shedding light on any number of the hilarious moments that occur, and would rather let those who haven't seen the film yet check it out with a clean slate. Plus, I've already touched on some of those moments in my review of Anvil! The Story of Anvil.
What I WILL say is that Michael Mckean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest play their roles as, respectively, David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel (the members of Spinal Tap) quite beautifully, under the direction of Rob Reiner, who himself co-stars as Marty DiBergi, a long-time fan of, "Tap, " who's self-enlisted to document the band as they hit to road in support of their new album Smell the Glove. From there, the band runs into problems too numerous to mention, all the while discussing their past accomplishments (and failures), all with humorous, sarcastic wit. Various elements like their flat-out unusual drummer situation and the entrance of St. Hubbins' controlling, manipulative girlfriend help drive the, "plot, " if there even is one. And there's no denying that the ending is just plain awesome, one that's been referenced frequently since then in forms of media like Weezer's music video for, "Perfect Situation. "
The music itself also helps to carry the film, and it's EXTREMELY refreshing to see a movie about musicians in which the actors actually play their own instruments, and play them well. The scenes of the band rocking out live in concert are convincingly shot, and while still ripe with hilarity, are mostly hard to distinguish from many, "actual, " concerts I've seen. Milwaukee residents should take note of their performance at Shank Hall, which is clearly NOT the real Shank Hall-the one we're all familiar with opened in the years following the movie's release.
This is where I shall stop-I don't want to get too much further into some elaborate plot description and end up giving away too many of the jokes. If you haven't already seen This Is Spinal Tap, do check it out, especially if you're a musician. Chances are you'll love it, as I do.

subset: commoncrawl


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July 1999 Issue
Letters 07/99
Good Money After Bad
Larry Anglisanos article on avionics had some good information but I have a question: My Viking has a Collins Microline VHF251/VIR351 as the number 1, which has the ILS. Number 2 is an Apollo GX60. More about that later.
He mentioned in his article that the Collins gear should have a high mod status before paying for expensive repairs. How does one determine the mod status of the Collins Microline? Can the 720 comm be converted to 760 channels?
About the Apollo GX60. I find this unit to be not very user friendly. Previously, I used a KLN 88, IFR-approved, with little or no problem. The GX60 is just not as intuitive or logical. Ill eventually get...
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Jenny and Johnny hit Glasgow and Edinburgh on UK tour
- Malcolm Jack
- 16 November 2010
Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice
'Jenny and Johnny just looks good on a T-shirt,' drawls Johnathan Rice in his lazy transatlantic way down the phone from the Laurel Canyon home that the Scots-American singer-songwriter shares with his romantic and musical partner Jenny Lewis, the former child actress and frontwoman for LA indie rock darlings Rilo Kiley. He rather captures the no-nonsense essence of this matter-of-factly-monikered duo.
The pair have played together frequently since meeting in 2005, and Rice contributed heavily to Lewis's 2008 solo album Acid Tongue. But their Mike Mogis-produced debut LP I'm Having Fun Now – a breezy, uncomplicated mix of West Coast power-pop and warm Nashville harmonies - represents the first time Jenny and Johnny have shared equal billing.
They're still very much in the honeymoon period of their collaboration by the sound of things. 'We really are having fun,' he says. 'We get to travel all over the world; the wine is for the most part free. We get to play every night. At the moment we're just at the stage where we truly enjoy it.'
Rice was born and largely raised in Virginia, but his parents are both Scottish and he spent part of his childhood in Bishopbriggs. Glasgow represents something of a home-from-home for him and Lewis, and a favourite touring destination, where audiences – unlike in LA, Rice stresses – are never 'too cool for school'. A staunch Celtic fan, he uses a sporting non-sequitur worthy of a pro pundit to reinforce his point. 'It's like when you go to see the LA Lakers play basketball,' Rice muses, 'the crowd isn't singing for the entire 90 minutes'.
Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sat 27 Nov; Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Tue 30 Nov


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Here is a quick question to ponder, are you a right handed golfer that is very right side dominant?
If the answer is yes, then this article may well help you.
Take a look at the first picture and you will see that I have placed a small golf towel around the socket of my six iron. Then I will place it roughly one foot outside my right shoe, before dragging it along the ground towards my target.
This drill requires the towel to be pulled by the left side of the body, rather than being pushed by the dominant right side. There will be quite a lot of resistance as the towel is dragged across the carpet/floor. This is good as it makes the weaker left side do much more work than it has previously been used to.
If you are feeling especially strong, simply wet the towel slightly. This will then create even more resistance. This must be done if you are doing the drill on a wooden floor.
Now have a quick glance at the second picture. This time I have completed the short swing and as you will clearly see the towel is hanging down in line with my shoes. My left arm especially is nice and straight, no sign of any unwanted chicken wings, as the club points directly towards the target.
At this point my body weight is entirely on my left side, with my hands at the three o'clock position. My head has correctly come up to follow the ball flight, as my right shoe begins to climb up clear of the ground.
So there we are, a simple drill designed to get your weaker left side going, give it a try over the holiday period. I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy New Year. Next week: Golf ball talk.


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This event has now finished
Harborne Night Market
Source https://www.harbornenightmarket.com
With up to 20 vendors each month Harborne Night Markets give local independents the platform to sell their wares. Boosting Harborne's foodie credentials even further, we play host to multiple street food traders as well as some great local designers, artists, handmade experts and more. Harborne Night market covers 1000 square feet, taking in The New Inn's huge garden and indoor spaces. selection of bars, street food trucks, designers, artist and handmade items as well as live music come together for long evenings of eating, dancing, shopping and then eating some more. In a world where fried chicken and bao buns reign supreme it it's about time street food, came to the suburbs.
Friday 7 4.00PMSeptember2018-09-07T16:00:00Z2018-09-07T17:50:00Z
The New Inn, Harborne
74 Vivian Road
0121 792 6027
Cycle there (external link)


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By phone
Prefer to make your reservation via phone? You can make a reservations by calling (404) 233-9755 between 11 AM and 10PM.
Special Events & Private Parties
Catering and Events are opportunities for us to work more closely with our guests, and occasions for us to share our dedication to celebration in exciting new ways.


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Join Us On Facebook
Buffalo, New York – July 18, 2012– Feed The Children, PepsiCo and Tops Friendly Markets are partnering with The Buffalo Dream Center, The Belle Center & Buffalo AmeriCorps to deliver 3 semi tractor-trailers full of food and essentials to help 1200 families in Buffalo. The distribution is taking place 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. July 25, 2012 at The Belle Center located at 104 Maryland St. Buffalo, NY 14201.
Longtime Feed The Children supporter PepsiCo is generously donating products along with Tops Friendly Markets. Buffalo area employees from these companies, Buffalo AmeriCorps, the FBI-Federal Bureau of Investigation, Erie County Sheriff's Mounted Unit and others will donate their time to help distribute boxes of food and products to families.
The Buffalo Dream Center and The Belle Center pre-identified families to receive the boxes. Each family will receive a 25-pound box of food, a 10-pound box of personal care items and a box of Avon products. The boxes are designed to help a family of four up to one week.
The distribution is part of Feed The Children's Americans Feeding Americans Caravan, which has helped more than 300,000 families across the country since it began in 2009.
More than one in three children living in Buffalo (41.7 percent) is at risk of hunger. The number of impoverished children living in New York (881,663) could fill Ralph Wilson Stadium more than 12 times.
"We sincerely appreciate the tremendous contribution by PepsiCo, Tops Friendly Market and their employees to help children and families in Buffalo," said Tony Sellars, spokesperson for Feed The Children. "Our Americans Feeding Americans project is geared toward people who are still being affected by the economic downturn, including many who until recently considered themselves middle class. A lot of these people for the first time in their lives have not been able to provide for their families and this distribution will provide relief for them at a crucial time."
To see the impact of Feed The Children's Americans Feeding Americans Caravan in your area visit www.AmericansFeedingAmericans.org .
Feed The Children:
Founded in 1979, Feed The Children is consistently ranked as one of the 10 largest international charities in the U.S., based on private, non-government support. Our mission is providing hope and resources for those without life's essentials. In FY 2010, Feed The Children distributed more than 133 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and their families in all 50 states and internationally. For more information, visit www.feedthechildren.org
About PepsiCo:
PepsiCo offers the world's largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 19 different product lines that generate more than $1 billion in annual retail sales each. Our main businesses -- Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi Cola -- also make hundreds of other enjoyable and wholesome foods and beverages that are respected household names throughout the world. With net revenues of approximately $60 billion, PepsiCo's people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet, which we believe also means a more successful future for PepsiCo. We call this commitment Performance with Purpose: PepsiCo's promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages for local tastes; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment, including by conserving energy and water usage, and reducing packaging volume; to provide a great workplace for our associates; and to respect, support, and invest in the local communities where we operate. For more information, please visit http://www.pepsico.com/
About The Buffalo Dream Center:
Since 1994 the Buffalo Dream Center has been actively involved in changing the lives of economically disadvantaged people residing in Buffalo. Its services include several free programs for children and youth, a mobile food pantry, home visits, holiday distributions, large scale food and personal distributions, neighborhood beautification, furniture and household essentials distributions, mentoring, tutoring, and seniors programs. In 2011 more than 7,000 households were reached through one or more programs offered by the Buffalo Dream Center.
About The Belle Center:
The Belle Center is a non-profit community center that bridges the gaps to success for youth and families. Headquartered on the Lower West Side of Buffalo, NY The Belle Center has over three decades of service to the community. It provides over 15 premier programs and services to the citizens of Western New York. Our vision is to: "improve lives, create opportunities and foster self-sufficiency" for the hundreds of youth & families who frequent The Center on a daily basis. Our Center offers services with the flexibility to grow along with our children and youth. For more information join us for one of our bi-weekly tours, visit: www.thebellecenter.org/tours.
104 Maryland St. Buffalo, NY 14201 | P: 716.845.0485 | F: 716.845.0486
Copyright ©2019


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Samsung R6 Wireless 360° Multiroom Speaker
points was 88,750 points
SKU code 1007-65
The R6 is a portable, 360° wireless multiroom speaker which will play any music, in any room with a studio sound quality. With a rechargeable battery, this chic design is the ideal companion for relaxing in the garden or picnicking in the park. Colour: black
Delivery to Mainland UK, N Ireland, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Channel Islands, Shetland Islands, Orkney Isles, Hebrides Isles only. Please provide an address where a signature can be obtained during working hours. For further delivery details, please refer to the T&Cs tab.
Rewards are subject to availability. If an item is not available, a similar item of equal value will be substituted whenever possible. If a substitution is not available, your Membership Rewards points will be credited back to your Account. New rewards will be added to the programme on a regular basis.
Please allow up to 10 working days for delivery receipt. If your order is not received after this timeframe, please escalate within 30 calendar days via Customer Services. If an escalation is received after 30 days, we cannot guarantee resolution. Please note that upon importation to the Channel Islands, your delivery may be subject to applicable local taxes which will be borne by the redeeming Cardmember.
Redeemed rewards are not refundable, exchangeable, replaceable or transferable for cash or credit. If your reward arrives damaged, has missing pieces or is the incorrect item, please contact Membership Rewards Customer Service.
For Full Membership Rewards terms & conditions, visit www.membershiprewards.co.uk. For contact details please click here.


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Man dies in A47 Scarning crash
PUBLISHED: 08:23 01 October 2017 | UPDATED: 13:55 01 October 2017
A man has died after a three-vehicle crash on the A47 at Scarning which blocked the road overnight.
The crash happened at 7.50pm on Saturday, September 30, just outside Dereham, close to Cattle Arch Farm.
It took place on the Norwich-bound road which was closed between the A1075 and A1065 until about 5am on Sunday, October 1.
A Norfolk Police control room supervisor confirmed a man had died in the accident and his next of kin had been informed.
MORE: Resident recalls hearing the "loud bang" of fatal Scarning collision
The victim had been in a blue Vauxhall Vectra at the time which crashed into a silver Vauxhall Zafira.
The Vauxhall Zafira went on to collide with a white Mercedes, according to the control room supervisor.
He added a woman and child were in the Vauxhall Zafira at the time and taken to hospital but described their condition as "fine".
Police officers, paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service Trust, firefighters and Norfolk Accident Rescue Service critical care paramedic Carl Smith were called.
MORE: Police launch appeal for information as Scarning fatality revealed to be man in his 60s
The East Anglian Air Ambulance was also scrambled to the scene.
Officers from the Norfolk Police serious collision unit are investigating the crash.
Witnesses or anyone with information should contact the team on 101.


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Movie review: 'Beatriz at Dinner' takes blunt, hilariously uncomfortable shots at Trumpism
Beatriz at Dinner is a small film with huge scope: A short dinner party takes aim at the Trumpist vision of America.
Salma Hayek plays Beatriz, a Mexican massage therapist and holistic healer. Beatriz mostly works with sick patients at the Arendale Cancer Center, but she also makes house visits to healthy clients like Cathy (Connie Britton), an obscenely rich woman who first met Beatriz when the former's daughter had cancer. Given the history, Cathy considers Beatriz a friend of the family. So when Beatriz's jalopy won't start, Cathy invites her to the dinner they're having with her husband's boss, coworker, and their wives.
Beatriz, whom Cathy describes as a saint, awkwardly hobnobs through a couple glasses of wine and learns she's in the presence of Doug Strutt (John Lithgow), a combination of Donald Trump and our hometown villain, Walter Palmer, the dentist who killed Cecil the Lion. He's an unsympathetic mogul who says what he wants, hunts big game for sport, and makes ethically questionable business deals without a second thought. Beatriz, who loves all living creatures dearly and recently found her pet goat strangled in her yard, isn't having any of it.
There's no delicateness here. From the young associate (Jay Duplass) who suddenly realizes how rich he's going to be at the sight of the hosts' house, to Strutt grilling Beatriz about where she's really from, every move is a blatant condemnation of conservative America, the 1 percent, and Donald Trump. To say the movie lacks subtlety is not a knock, just an assessment of director Miguel Arteta's narrow focus and aversion to pussyfooting.
With Beatriz's premise, writer Mike White (probably best known for movies like Orange County and School of Rock) found the perfect setup to unload criticism on the Right. To that effect, it would have been easy for White to Mary Sue the hell out of Beatriz. But she's imperfect—and a better character for it. Beatriz and Strutt are simply firm ideological opposites who fate, upon which the two later muse, has seated together at a dinner table. It's Sartre's No Exit simplicity, and save for an unsatisfying ending, the movie works because of it. This is the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object.
Of course, White's track record tells you the movie will be funny, though given the backdrop of our political reality, there's a bitter aftertaste. Laughs come at the expense of Lithgow's character, who always seems to be saying or doing something so racist or uncaring that it's comical—until you're hit with the sobering realization that essentially this character is the president of the United States. This underlying sense of existential dread pokes its head into a lot of White's movies with varying degrees, but comes out full frontal here. At times, Beatriz at Dinner is an extremely uncomfortable movie, and White clearly wants us to squirm.
But what's most interesting about Beatriz at Dinner is the portrayal of its wealthy characters' seemingly innocuous lives. Sure, Lithgow clearly got a kick out of playing an immoral blowhard and Hayek is equally fantastic as his weird yet righteous evening nemesis, but Arteta and White's scrutiny of the banal side of 1 percent life shouldn't be overlooked.
These characters don't believe they're the bad guys. They don't necessarily act out of malevolence. They certainly don't think themselves evil. And the fact that they've benefited from inequity, at the expense of other people, doesn't cross their minds. That they don't see it is Beatriz at Dinner's most salient point.
Beatriz at Dinner
Writer: Mike White
Director: Miguel Arteta
Rated: R
Theater: Uptown Theatre, starts Friday


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- Oral presentation
- Open Access
Non-renewal Markov models for spike-frequency adapting neural ensembles
- Eilif Muller1Email author,
- Johannes Schemmel1 and
- Karlheinz Meier1
© Muller et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2007
- Published: 6 July 2007
- Animal Model
- Markov Model
- Markov Process
- Master Equation
- Variance Adaptation
We present a continuous Markov process model for spike-frequency adapting neural ensembles which synthesizes existing mean-adaptation approaches and inhomogeneous renewal theory. Unlike renewal theory, the Markov process can account for interspike interval correlations, and an expression for the first-order interspike interval correlation is derived. The Markov process in two dimensions is shown to accurately capture the firing-rate dynamics and interspike interval correlations of a spike-frequency adapting and relative refractory conductance-based integrate-and-fire neuron driven by Poisson spike trains. Using the Master equation for the proposed process, the assumptions of the standard mean-adaptation approach are clarified, and a mean+variance adaptation theory is derived which corrects the mean-adaptation firing-rate predictions for the biologically parameterized integrate-and-fire neuron model considered. An exact recipe for generating inhomogeneous realizations of the proposed Markov process is given.
Authors' Affiliations
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd.


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Friendlies Chemist Subiaco is proud to offer podiatry services every Friday.
Our podiatrist, James Popescu has worked in both the private and public health sectors in Perth, with exposure to a diverse range of lower limb and foot complaints.
Podiatry consultations include:
At your first session, the podiatrist will gather information relevant to your presenting complaint or reason for seeking treatment. This initial assessment may include detailed history, taking a physical examination of your alignment and joint mobility, and/or visual analysis of your walking technique (gait). Often, a recommendation will be provided regarding the suitability of your footwear and other potential inhibiting factors.
The podiatrist will then develop and implement a treatment plan – which may include recommending a specific exercise program and/or certain products or mechanical appliances. Where necessary, the podiatrist may also refer you to other health professionals for further assessment.
James Popescu
Studied at Curtin University of Technology
Registered DVA provider
Registered Medicare EPC Program provider
Medibank Private preferred provider
To book a podiatry appointment contact here
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You would expect it to be green, and the International Environment House (IEH) doesn't disappoint. A recent USD 3.1 million retrofit has helped gain it the coveted MINERGIE certificate – a Swiss standard for building materials and energy efficiency excellence.
The IEH is the Geneva home of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It also hosts a range of other United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in the field of environment and sustainable development. It was built in the late 1990s to incorporate the sustainable building features that were current at the time, but its environmental performance was falling behind when measured against the latest regulations and best practice. An audit conducted by the Canton of Geneva led to the decision on the retrofit, funded by the renovation fund of the Building Foundation for International Organization (FIPOI), a joint Swiss federal and Geneva cantonal body whose purpose is to make premises available to intergovernmental organizations.
With waste management already covered (UNEP having implemented a separation and recycling system in the IEH from the outset), the main focus of the retrofit was on reducing energy and water consumption. Its achievements were striking. A new heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system and improved insulation has helped to reduce energy consumption by 58%. Further savings in emissions are ensured by the IEH opting for the local electricity utility company's green all-hydroelectricity tariff. Meanwhile, water savings amount to almost 25%, thanks to the installation of low water consumption taps and toilets throughout the entire building, combined with savings attributable to the new HVAC system.
The USD 3.1 million investment will thus produce significant cost savings as well as sustainability improvements. The building has gained its green certificate – and the International Environment House is living up to its name.


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Through the diminishing sparkle, new glimmer is being forged. Have patience. Be observant. And ready yourself to share your light.
So the other day this came to me. Call it wisdom. Label it ignorance. Tag it a desperate attempt to hold on. Despite how you choose to see/read it, what truly matters is how I do.
How much value do you put in others' opinions? How do you see yourself? Your life? Your writing?
Interacting with other writers, reading and critiquing others' work, and writing on a consistent basic is ultimate to our success in the publishing industry. But so is our mirror-image, the way in which we perceive ourselves.
That diminishing sparkle in my quote has been me lately. I've shared a bit about the encouraging movement MARKED BEAUTY has had over the last few months. Still in limbo with a few agents, and waiting on another publishing houses verdict. I know my agent is waiting in the wings; it's only a matter of time before a match is solidified.
In the meantime, I've been hammering out line-edits for close writer friends and a few fellow YAlitchaters. I've been reading a ton. Some for personal pleasure, some for reviews asked of me, and some for inspiration with my two current WIPs. Honestly, I've been up to my eyebrows in research.
One is a YA dystopian/paranormal, GYPSY DOLLS. Way back three years ago when I started writing, I wrote a full script, went through the typical newbie stuff, and realized I needed to improve myself. As I took writing classes, I started on a sequel to that first book, (just for the heck of it). It turned into quite the story, just over 50,000 words with a strong plot, sub-plots, and plenty of characters and world-building. But it was written in 3rd POV. So recently I decided to start converting it to 1st POV, which I write more strongly.
Great! Yay me!
Garf! NOT. The story was a continuation of the first one, so there's lots I need to change. I wrote the first two chapters, then had a very talented writer crit for me. I like this new start...BUT...I became stumped, not sure what direction I wanted to take the story. I wanted to diviate from paranormal romance, spreading my wings. But I LOVE paranormal romance and my heart tends to lend that way no matter what I write.
So I set it aside and began a new MG series titled MOTLEY EDUCATION: 1st Assignment. Looky, I even cranked out a cover. It's quirky and fun, even a bit silly. I've got Ebony Charmed--the unsure-of-herself 12yr-old lead with her cat Midnight that can see the same ghosts she can but can also talk with them (something Ebony as a apprentice witch is suppose to be able to do), Fleishman--her BGuyF who's anything but a jock and is constantly hurting himself, Cain--simply put 'the arrogant jerk' with an ax to grind, and the mysterious guy who's, well...still a mystery to me; haven't written him in yet. I love the younger characters, only the same thing happened. After the first chapter, I got stumped. Grrr....
Throughout all my stumptness, I've deepened a belief I've always had.
When it seems as though nothing is happening with you, when you feel stagnant and dry, change is calling, luring you to bigger and better things. Your future is brighter than your weak mortal eyes can handle. Just believe.So yeah, something miraculous is happening in me, through me, and around me right now. Perseverance is my key.
How about you? Is something secretly happening with you that you may have been overlooking?


text:
Thursday's Daily Update at The Ojai
A look at what you won't want to miss on Thursday at The Ojai:
WEDNESDAY'S PAC-12 QUARTERFINAL RESULTS: The University of Oregon defeated the University of Arizona, 4-1, in the first match.
- Highlight: Oregon won the doubles point and got wins in singles from Simon Stevens (No. 3), Jayson Amos (No. 4) and Cormac Clissold (No. 5).
- In the day's second quarterfinal match it was the No. 6 Washington Huskies over No. 7 Utah, 4-0.
- Highlight: The doubles point was a close victory for UW, as they won on court No. 3 but lost on court No. 2 and the top court saw a tough battle that ended in a victory for Emmett Egger and Jeff Hawke, 8-6. The Huskies got singles victories in straight sets from Egger at No. 3, Jake Douglas at No. 2 and Gal Hakak clinching the match for the Huskies with a 6-2, 6-1 win on court No. 4.
- TODAY'S QUARTERFINALS AT LIBBEY PARK: Starting at 12 noon, No. 5-seeded Oregon takes on No. 8 Arizona. At 3 p.m., No. 3 UCLA meets No. 6 Washington.
- CCCAA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS DECIDED: In the men's championship match, the No. 1 team from the South Irvine Valley College defeated the No. 1 from the North Foothill, 5-2, at the Pierpont Racquet Club. On the women's side, the No. 1 from the South Mt. SAC defeated the No. 3 from the North Modesto College, 5-4, at Ventura College.
- PAC-12 WOMEN AT OJAI VALLEY ATHLETIC CLUB: Defending champion and UCLA sophomore Jen Brady is unseeded in the event that begins on Thursday at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club. USC's Giuliana Olmos is the No. 1-seeded player. UCLA's Chanelle Van Nguyen is the No. 2-seed.
- MEN'S OPEN AT OJAI VALLEY INN: The Men's Open Division begins play at The Ojai on Thursday. Six-time Ojai Open singles finalist Lester Cook is the No. 5 seed and plays Victor Leite of Long Beach at 12:30 at the Ojai Valley Inn. The Women's Open division begins on Friday at the Inn.
- Boys' CIF Divisions
The CIF Boys' Singles and Doubles divisions begin Thursday in Ojai. Each competition sports a bracket of 64 entries and concludes with finals Saturday at Libbey Park in Ojai. Stanford-bound Harvard-Westlake senior Michael Genender goes into The Ojai's CIF Boys' Singles draw as the headlining favorite among a short list of contenders. Genender defeated Austin Rapp (now a freshman at UCLA) to win the 2014 CIF-Southern Section Individual tournament and avenge his three-set loss to Rapp in last year's Boys' CIF final at The Ojai – Genender's only high school defeat in 2014.
Those also serving as primary contenders to the singles crown are two Palos Verdes-area products – Peninsula sophomore Connor Hance and Palos Verdes junior Brandon Holt, who is the son of past Ojai and U.S. Open (1979 and 1981) champion Tracy Austin and won last year's CIF Boys' Doubles championship at The Ojai – as well as San Marino senior Danny Gealer, Corona del Mar junior Bjorn Hoffmann, big-serving Los Alamitos junior Riley Smith, Torrey Pines sophomore Jacob Brumm and Palm Desert's Ryan Marker.
Hance, Smith, Gealer and Brumm, representing the best singles entry from San Diego County, hope to improve on their CIF Boys' Singles quarterfinal appearances at last year's Ojai. Smith is the son of USC men's tennis coach Peter Smith. Westlake sophomore Brandon Lam will also test his mettle in the CIF Boys' Singles draw after winning The Ojai's Boys' 16 Singles crown last year.
In the CIF Boys' Doubles draw, San Diego County is represented with a pair of title-contending doubles teams in Torrey Pines' Raul de la Torre and Charles Pei, and Point Loma's Keegan Smith and Ivan Thamma.
In its bid to win both CIF draws at The Ojai, Los Alamitos fields a strong doubles entry through senior Kyle McCann and junior Vatsal Bajpai, which blazed a trail to the quarterfinals at the CIF-SS Individuals and a Round of 16 berth at The Ojai in 2014. Orange County's top boys' tennis program, University (Irvine), will likely pin its hopes for Ojai glory and a return to The Ojai's CIF Boys' Doubles final on Konrad Kozlowski and Amirardalan Safi.
Newport Harbor senior Reese Stalder, committed to TCU, has chosen to forego the CIF divisions in favor of competing in the Men's Open Division singles and doubles draws at The Ojai.


text:
Dem candidates balk at ending tax cuts for rich
Sam Stein digs through the internals of the new CNN poll and finds that support for letting the tax cuts for the rich expire has strong support among virtually all voting blocs. Strikingly, only 50 percent of Republicans support keeping the tax cuts for the rich.
And yet, here and there around the country, we're starting to see more Dem Senate candidates come out against letting them expire. Robin Carhahan, the candidate in Missouri, came out for extending them yesterday, arguing that now's not the time to raise taxes. Jack Conway, who's running in Kentucky, also came out against letting them expire for the same reason.
Brad Ellsworth, the Senate candidate in Indiana, favors keeping all the Bush tax cuts. And a spokesperson for Charlie Melancon, the candidate in Louisiana, tells me Melancon favors extending them, including the tax cuts for the wealthy.
The dynamic is an interesting one. The Democratic leadership in the Senate is set to stage a big push this fall for letting the tax cuts for the rich expire -- and Dems intend to make this argument a centerpiece of their broader case against Republicans. Yet a number of leading Dem Senate candidates are not on board with the leadership on this issue.
Clearly, Dem candidates in red states are concluding that they can't win an argument over ending tax cuts for the rich, because Republicans will too easily portray it as a tax hike. And this is one of the issues that individual candidates may use to achieve separation from the Dem leadership.
What I'm really curious to know is how this issue polls in these individual red states. Interestingly, the internals of the CNN poll show support for letting the Bush tax cuts expire in all regions of the country except the south. It's supported by 56 percent in the northeast, 54 percent in the midwest, 53 percent in the west -- and only 43 percent in the south. So it's unclear whether this is really a losing issue for Dems, even in certain red states.
If you've seen signs of other Dem candidates taking a position, please let me know. This is going to be a very interesting dynamic to track as the debate over the tax cuts heats up this fall, and as more Dem candidates take a stand on them one way or the other.
UPDATE, 5:04 p.m.: Jeff Giertz, a spokesman for Melancon, tells me Melancon favors extending the Bush tax cuts -- including the tax cuts for the wealthy. So that's one more.
UPDATE, 6:29 p.m.: I noted wrongly above that Melancon had not yet taken a position on the Bush tax cuts; in fact, his spokesman just wanted to verify his position before getting back to me. I've edited the above to correct.
Greg Sargent
August 20, 2010; 4:13 PM ET
Categories: Senate Dems , economy
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Any politician talking about expanding tax cuts for the middle class? Anybody? Bueller?
It seems like a vote winner. Let the tax cuts for the rich expire while simultaneously giving everybody who makes under $250k a big fat tax break. I can imagine a majority of Democratic voters support extending tax cuts for the rich, but would probably respond favorably to a tax cut for themselves.
Surely, I must be missing something.
Posted by: Kevin_Willis | August 20, 2010 4:27 PM | Report abuse
* I can't imagine that a majority of Democratic voters support extending tax cuts for the rich . . . I should say. But surely, with the middle-class hurting, they'd see more money in their paycheck as a net-positive and a good thing. But neither party seems to be interested in going that direction.
Posted by: Kevin_Willis | August 20, 2010 4:30 PM | Report abuse
This is the kind of thing that stops me from joining the Democratic Party.
Grow a freakin' spine!
Posted by: nisleib | August 20, 2010 4:33 PM | Report abuse
Can you say "tax cuts for the rich" ten times fast? BTW, you were doing a great job on the propaganda front right up until the last sentence when you mistakenly said "tax cuts" instead of "tax cuts for the rich". Tsk, tsk. Work on it.
Also, I suggest in the future you just skip the spaces and simply make it taxcutsfortherich. Definitely more efficient. Or perhaps if that is not subtle enough you can refer to the takefromthepoorandgivetothedirtyrottengreedybastards debate. That's the ticket.
Posted by: ScottC3 | August 20, 2010 4:36 PM | Report abuse
Krauthammer isn't dodging anything but he did call you a sycophant and a fool today. I bet you didn't like that. You deserved it though after your mosque debacle.
Posted by: Truthteller12 | August 20, 2010 4:38 PM | Report abuse
"Let the tax cuts for the rich expire while simultaneously giving everybody who makes under $250k a big fat tax break"
There was a tax break for the Middle Class in the Stimulus bill (that I'm sure you opposed).
Posted by: Ethan2010 | August 20, 2010 4:39 PM | Report abuse
"Let the tax cuts for the rich..."
Et tu, Brute?
Posted by: ScottC3 | August 20, 2010 4:39 PM | Report abuse
This poll is of adults. I think political decisions are generally driven by "likely voter" results. Why, this late in the cycle, do you think CNN is doing an "adults" poll versus the "likely voter" model?
Posted by: TrollMcWingnut | August 20, 2010 4:46 PM | Report abuse
Scott, obviously, the debate in the Senate this fall is over the broader issue of the "tax cuts," not just the "tax cuts for the rich."
Posted by: Greg Sargent | August 20, 2010 4:47 PM | Report abuse
Other Dems who are in doubt:
Connolly: "I think the recovery is sufficiently fragile that we ought to leave tax rates where they are," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a freshman Democrat from Virginia.
"Connolly said Democrats should not allow the 2001 Bush tax cuts to expire for anybody."
Conrad: "...Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.), a senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said he could support a short-term extension of the Bush tax cuts for the highest income earners.
"...My reaction would be don't cut spending, don't raise taxes and that would mean on anyone," he said."
Bright: "Rep. Bobby Bright, a Democrat facing a tough reelection race in Alabama, said tax increases, even if limited to the wealthiest families, could imperil the recovery.
"I don't care if it's the wealthiest of the wealthy, you don't raise their taxes," he said. "In a recession, you don't tax, burden and restrict. The economy is like a ship, and if you sink the ship, all the good you might do goes down with it."
And some other Dems want to shield the rich in *certain* sections of the country:
"Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from Manhattan, has proposed legislation that would provide adjustments in income tax rates to reflect regional costs of living.
"The legislation is sponsored by five Democrats representing New York City, its suburbs and Long Island where living standards and incomes are high.
"They are Reps. Tim Bishop, Steve Israel, Nita Lowey, Carolyn Maloney and Carolyn McCarthy."
Posted by: sbj3 | August 20, 2010 4:48 PM | Report abuse
Those Dems who are against this need to be asked to explain how they can claim it's not a good time to raise taxes on anyone when this was, one, the Republicans sunset date and two, if keeping those tax cuts for the wealthy will add 35 billion dollars to the deficit next year, how the hell is that a good thing. Finally, they need to explain why they can't seem to separate the gains of keeping the cuts for the lower and middle class which will stimulate the economy vs keeping them for the rich which doesn't. They've had these tax cuts since 2001 and 2003 and just how much have the rich contributed to job growth in the private sector? They didn't. They lost 7 million jobs over that period which is perhaps the best argument of all for letting theirs expire!
Posted by: roxsteady | August 20, 2010 4:50 PM | Report abuse
This debate over taxes is just surreal.
The Republicans want to balance the budget by giving Paris Hilton a tax break.
The Democrats are afraid of their own shadows, and therefore tend to say nothing.
Meanwhile taxes are at their lowest point in 50 years! We cut taxes in a time of war and then we act surprised when the economy falls off a cliff and the national debt balloons.
And now that the economy has cratered what do the Republicans want to do? They want to give more tax cuts to the super rich. We tried that, it led us to this predicament, and you want more of the same?
Posted by: nisleib | August 20, 2010 4:51 PM | Report abuse
Troll: these adults aren't voting on anything. it's an issue poll. no?
Posted by: Greg Sargent | August 20, 2010 4:51 PM | Report abuse
If tax cuts were so important, why did they create them with an expiration?
Why didn't they make them permanent?
Posted by: mikefromArlington | August 20, 2010 4:53 PM | Report abuse
I will say this. Reading the comments here give me hope. Many of you are very well informed. I also suspect that judging by the polling, you're not alone in this. The only people who seem willfully ignorant on this are the ususal suspects. The South wich is the only place where the GOP is viewed favorably. Sadly, these people are living up to their sterotype!
Posted by: roxsteady | August 20, 2010 4:54 PM | Report abuse
I agree it's an "issues poll", however, what's more important to a politician desiring re-election? All adults or likely voters? What I'm saying is that politicians tend to want to please, or at least avoiding offending, those that vote. One explanation for incumbent Dems not wanting to repeal the tax cuts is that the "likely voter" model(s) show a majority of likely voters support some, if not all the tax cuts. Thus, incumbent Dems support would be an attempt to gain re-election. Adult samples are irrelevant to re-election in a tight race.
Posted by: TrollMcWingnut | August 20, 2010 4:59 PM | Report abuse
@Ethan2010: "There was a tax break for the Middle Class in the Stimulus bill (that I'm sure you opposed)."
I mean straight forward, old school, more-money-in-the-paycheck-for-everybody kind of tax cuts, and big ones, particularly without an expiration date.
That being said, it's interesting that you're sure I opposed the stimulus bill. I was neither for nor against, because, with stimulus, the devil is in the details. And I was not familiar with all the details at the time. Indeed, I hoped it would be more WPA--I liked all the talk of shovel-ready jobs--than perhaps it turned out to be. But the tax breaks were, in my opinion, very narrow and not very deep.
@ScottC3: "'Let the tax cuts for the rich...' Et tu, Brute?"
I'm not committing to anything, but some serious tax cuts for the middle class might have more of an economic stimulative effect than maintaining tax cuts for the rich.
I don't think I shared my plan for a wealth tax here before, but see what you think about this: a confiscatory tax on all personal wealth (i.e., increase in net worth) on politicians, elected and appointed, amassed after they make it to DC. So if a senator is elected with $200k in the bank, and ends up with $14 million in the bank, all that newly acquired wealth is taxed at tremendously confiscatory rates. Not as income, but taxing the networth of the individual politician as a form of property tax.
I don't object to a more progressive tax structure, so that folks who make a million bucks a year pay 1% more in taxes, and folks who make 5 million pay 2% more in taxes, and so on. It would make sense to me that folks who earn $10 million a year could pay 2 or 3% more in taxes than folks who make $500,000.
I don't object to trying various tax structures--including cutting capital gains and corporate taxes--to stimulate the economy and increase government revenue. I was all for the Bush tax cuts, but they clearly don't have the sustained effect on the economy that I would have hoped. We'd be better off now if they had.
So perhaps corporate tax cuts, or radically cutting taxes on the middle class (not just enough to technically meet a campaign promise) would be a better strategy, and letting the Bush tax cuts expire on folks making over $250k would be a reasonable tradeoff for that. In the end, if the economy was better stimulated with more money in the middle class, everybody would benefit, including the rich. And the very rich.
Posted by: Kevin_Willis | August 20, 2010 5:00 PM | Report abuse
@roxsteady: I live in the South. Have all my life. We're really not as bad as you think. Or have been lead to believe. ;)
Posted by: Kevin_Willis | August 20, 2010 5:02 PM | Report abuse
"So it's unclear whether this is really a losing issue for Dems, even in certain red states."
So your basing this on one poll but take a look at question #27 in the most recent NBC/WSJ poll.
71% support extending all the cuts for one additional year.
Only 46% support eliminating the cuts for those over 250K 51% oppose.
The bottom line is that you can make a poll come out with any result you want. But the fact that Dems are coming out against raising them tells you more than any poll can.
Posted by: Truthteller12 | August 20, 2010 5:02 PM | Report abuse
Question: My dog got hit by a truck, what should I do?
Republican Answer: Give your dog a tax cut.
Question: My girlfriend won't shower and her stench is scaring my dog, what should I do?
Republican Answer: Give your girlfriend a tax cut
Question: 10 armed men broke into my house and demanded I hand over my stuffed panda, what should I do?
Republican Answer: Give the armed men, and you stuffed panda, a tax cut.
Question: My mother in law has irritable bowel syndrome and keeps messing in my kitchen, what should I do?
Republican Answer: Give your mother in law a tax cut
Question: Which way is up?
Republican Answer: Give up a tax cut
Posted by: nisleib | August 20, 2010 5:04 PM | Report abuse
Reagan cabinet member on the current GOP's economic policy: "This approach has not simply made a mockery of traditional party ideals. It has also led to the serial financial bubbles and Wall Street depredations that have crippled our economy. "
What we have to look forward to when the Republicans once again dupe the country into voting them into office over nonsense like mosques in NYC and how much of a Christian Obama appears to be.
Posted by: spongekill | August 20, 2010 5:05 PM | Report abuse
I dont want to say that I know of "likely voter" models showing a majority supporting keeping the tax cuts, because I do not know if they exist, and if they did, do they correlate to each individual states electorate. What I am saying is that the "likely voters" in states where Dem Senators are wobbly on repealing the tax cuts may support the keeping of tax cuts. I'm offering an explanation of behavior.
I'll also say that this close to an election, "adult" model polls just drive news, not policy. It's the media generating news rather than reporting on it.
Posted by: TrollMcWingnut | August 20, 2010 5:06 PM | Report abuse
Your right they're not voting, which is why Robin Carnahan doesn't care what they think.
Posted by: Truthteller12 | August 20, 2010 5:09 PM | Report abuse
"Why didn't they make them permanent?"
Because they were so unpopular -- even in the REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED Congress at the time -- that they could only pass the tax cuts through Reconciliation.
And any bill passed through Reconciliation has an automatic built-in 10 year sunset.
Posted by: Ethan2010 | August 20, 2010 5:09 PM | Report abuse
mike: If tax cuts were so important, why did they create them with an expiration?
Why didn't they make them permanent?
Because they had to use the budget reconciliation process...you know.."jam them through." Budget rec has a sunset provision.
Posted by: suekzoo1 | August 20, 2010 5:10 PM | Report abuse
This John Stewart clip should be watched by 300 million Americans.
Posted by: mikefromArlington | August 20, 2010 5:14 PM | Report abuse
John Stewart is our modern day Walter Cronkite. Seriously, he's great.
Posted by: Kevin_Willis | August 20, 2010 5:25 PM | Report abuse
the tax structure is only one piece of the puzzle. Among the others is the new regulatory burden that congress has laid on the American people.
It will take a long time for the unelected, unvetted, unfireable federal bureaux to develop the necessary CFR updates to, as Dingell said, "Control the people". Who knows what surprises are in HCR or Dodd the crook's bill?
Not raising taxes will help, to be sure. But the regulatory impact of the obama agenda should scare the spit out of business people. Getting that under control can only improve our chances going forward.
Posted by: skipsailing28 | August 20, 2010 5:31 PM | Report abuse
Rich people are lucky. Somehow they've convinced the other 95% of Republicans to fight for their tax cuts.
They must be so thankful!
Posted by: mikefromArlington | August 20, 2010 5:50 PM | Report abuse
Not too surprised about Melancon. The guy is basically running as Vitter sans prostitutes.
Posted by: DDAWD | August 20, 2010 5:54 PM | Report abuse
Mike - The true irony is that Rich people consider poor people lucky because they don't pay much in federal income tax.
If I make 100K a year and have an effective tax rate of 30%, my take home is 70k. (Yes, I realize it is more complicated than that.) Somehow, for some of these rightwing know-nothings, it is better to bring home nothing than it is to bring home 70K.
I find the right's bed wetting over taxes a cause of constant amusement. They complain about taxes incessantly, yet insist the government do everything. Newsflash, regardless of who fixes the highways it will cost money. And if you mention cutting military expenditures (which account for something like 40% of all military spending in the world) you are a pinko commie.
They want their cake, but they want to eat it too. And that darn cake best come with a fully loaded gun!
Posted by: nisleib | August 20, 2010 6:03 PM | Report abuse
"the tax breaks were, in my opinion, very narrow and not very deep."
Here is the impact of the tax cuts and credits in the stimulus:
Under $19K -- $476 -- -95%
$2.8M plus -- $39,350 -- -1.4%
That's pretty broad and deep, not sure what you would have preferred.
To make matters worse for your "opinion," Obama wanted the Making Work Pay credit to be $500 not $400, but the REPUBLICAN PARTY -- including all three of your Senators/Reps -- complained so much about the overall cost of the bill that they slashed money for the Middle Class.
Heckuva job, Kevin.
Posted by: Ethan2010 | August 20, 2010 6:04 PM | Report abuse
Uh-oh. GOP American Except-them-ism is causing another rift.
"Black Republicans tell John Avlon that Sarah Palin's tweet in defense of Dr. Laura was ridiculous and indefensible—and that she may be "no longer fit to lead."
Sarah Palin's post-VP nominee career has so far benefitted from bomb-throwing. The process follows a tight script—a crude, semi-calculated comment is shot into the middle of a political debate via Facebook or Twitter. It gains national attention. Liberals are outraged. Conservatives rush to her defense. Sarah Palin dominates a news cycle and becomes more beloved by her base.
But by unnecessarily rushing to the defense of Dr. Laura Schlessinger—after she dropped the N-bomb 11 times and told the caller "don't marry outside of your race"—Sarah Palin might finally have gone too far and picked a fight she cannot win."
The few black conservative candidates, columnists, and media figures—who represent the GOP's only hope for reclaiming the legacy of Lincoln and, with it, long-term demographic relevance—are not amused. They're now saying what many in the GOP increasingly believe: Sarah Palin is not fit to be a serious leader of the Republican Party.
I spoke to Michel Faulkner, the former NFL player and Harlem preacher challenging Charlie Rangel for a House seat, and he was unsparing in his criticism: "Why Sarah Palin feels she needs to join in to Dr. Laura's personal meltdown is beyond me. She's sounding like she just likes to hear her own voice—and the voice that she has is no longer credible. It says that a leading voice among conservatives has joined the ranks of the entertainers—trying to shock us each day with more and more outlandish commentary. And at that moment that person is no longer fit to lead."
"The constitutional stuff she's saying doesn't even make any sense," Faulkner said. "She doesn't know what real shackles are… But 'don't retreat, reload?' Lady, are you kidding me? That is scary language in anyone's terminology. Sarah Palin scares me."
Posted by: suekzoo1 | August 20, 2010 6:10 PM | Report abuse
more from the above link:
"When I first heard this stuff, what came across was an extremely lame white chick trying to school this other woman about the N-word. … So I'm certainly not one to try and defend Dr. Laura. She has a history of being a negative and nasty persona. But Sarah Palin's comments? Well, this is confusing stuff coming out of a woman who would have been the vice president if McCain had won. … Palin seems to be as equally detached from the real world where people operate and where race is a really volatile topic."
"First Amendment rights? Of course. But [Dr. Laura] wasn't fired—she decided to drop her show. So I'm not exactly understanding what Sarah Palin's understanding of the Constitution is here. And it isn't completely out of character, which is very unfortunate. She keeps dropping this bizarre stuff," Hicks said. "It says this woman really has no larger vision of what she is trying to do in a political sense—there's a pretty narrow intellect at work here ... Attempting to defend the indefensible is just kind of insulting."
Posted by: suekzoo1 | August 20, 2010 6:13 PM | Report abuse
All, Happy Hour Roundup posted:
Posted by: Greg Sargent | August 20, 2010 6:27 PM | Report abuse
Anyone else miss the days when the Democrats would actually fight to build up the middle class?
Posted by: Patrick_M | August 20, 2010 6:34 PM | Report abuse
"I'm not committing to anything, but some serious tax cuts for the middle class might have more of an economic stimulative effect than maintaining tax cuts for the rich."
I'm all for tax cuts for the poor, the middle class, for everyone.
What I was objecting to was the loaded phrase "for the rich". Is a single income family of 5 making $260k living New York City "rich" whereas a single man making $200k living in High Point, North Carolina not "rich"? "Taxcutsfortherich" is pure political propaganda designed to tilt the terms of the debate before it starts.
BTW, I like your plan for taxing politicians as a special class.
Posted by: ScottC3 | August 20, 2010 7:00 PM | Report abuse
"What I'm really curious to know is how this issue polls in these individual red states..."
FWIW, having grown up in southern Indiana, it's been my observation that in terms of attitudes and political behavior it's not a bad rule of thumb to regard anything below I-70 as the south. That always seemed true of southern IN, OH and IL and I'd bet it works fine for MO as well.
Bear in mind also that the midwestern numbers are going to be a little skewed toward the great lakes industrial belt, only a small corner of which falls in Indiana and none of which is in MO. There are around 8 million people in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet division of the Chicago MSA (excluding the IN and WI portions) and another 4.4 million in the Detroit metro area. The entire population of the state of Indiana is 6.5 million and Missouri is a tad under 6. The midwestern border states also have that scandinavian thing going on and tend to be more liberal than points farther south
So anyway, I-70 runs through Indianapolis and everything north of there is pretty much corn fields until you get to the Calumet valley industrial region. I would therefore tend to look more at the southern piece of that CNN poll in trying to figure out Ellsworth and probably Carnahan as well. Or maybe split the difference between the midwestern and southern numbers.
But I really think Ellsworth is likely in for a butt-kicking anyway, regardless of what he may say about taxes. Bayh probably would have had no trouble holding that seat but Democrats generally have a high hill to climb in any statewide race there and this year, in an open seat race, that's going to be more like a cliff wall.
Posted by: CalD | August 20, 2010 7:01 PM | Report abuse
"American Except-them-ism"
Nice one, Sue.
Posted by: wbgonne | August 20, 2010 7:04 PM | Report abuse
"American Except-them-ism"
wbg, please use it liberally! :o)
Posted by: suekzoo1 | August 20, 2010 7:08 PM | Report abuse
"American Except-them-ism"
That is classic, Sue. Meant to say something on the other thread :)
Posted by: Ethan2010 | August 20, 2010 7:40 PM | Report abuse
Since the tax cuts are set to expire on January 1st, 2011, it really does NOT matter what anybody who is currently NOT in Congress but is running for it thinks.
It is really up to the Congress of 2010 who will decide the taxes starting Jan 1st 2011.
Obama isn't going to sign a bill that makes the tax cuts for the rich permanent. That isn't going to happen.
The bill that will be coming forward will be one of extending tax cuts for the middle class. There may be an amendent to extend tax cuts for the rich but that won't get 60 votes in the Senate.
I just don't see tax cuts for the rich being extended past Jan 1st 2011 unless there is a compromise to extend it for a year and then that's it or something.
Posted by: maritza1 | August 20, 2010 8:43 PM | Report abuse
Of course, the other interesting part of this dynamic is that a vote is required to actually extend the tax cuts and the action has to be taken during the term of the current Congress. Presumably, 41 Democrats are enough to block the extention in the Senate. It is also likely that the Republicans will try to block any extention that does not include all of the tax cuts. In the case, that the extention does not happen this year, the choice next year would be a new tax bill that might open some new can of worms.
Posted by: dnjake | August 20, 2010 9:54 PM | Report abuse
Greg, you are absolutely an ignorant leftist idiot. 70%+ of employed people work for small businesses. Since you are clueless, and spend your days fantasizing about the President's poster over your bed, I will try and teach you a bit on a subject you habitually ignore: reality. Most delusional people like you, believe small business pertains exclusively to a mom and pops store. In reality, per the IRS code a small business is a business with 500 or less full time employees, not including executives, upper management or any individuals perform services for the company who are subcontracted from another firm.
Now that even someone as delirious as you sees how the majority of Americans are employed by small businesses, it is time to give you a quick tax lesson. The vast majority of small businesses file as sole proprietorships to avoid corporate taxes. Next, consider this example: You get a $300,000 bank loan, which you add to your savings and but open a Starbucks. After all is said and done, you hire 6 people for $2000 per month and 2 managers for $4,000 for 2 managers, Your rent, utilities, equipment lease expenses and supplies comes to $15,000 per month. Therefore, you annual gross expenses without drawing one penny in salary for yourself are: $144,000 + $96,000 + $180,000 = $420,000.
Earth to Greg, so in our example, your business must gross $420,000 per year, plus your salary, just to break even. Since Obama (your idol, fantasy lover and President) has categorized "Rich people" as anyone earning $200,000 or $250,000 per year or above (depending on which time of the many times Obama broached the topic during his continuous campaign).
Therefore Greg, if your Starbucks has a bad year and only grosses $250,000 total, according to Obama (filing as an individual) you will be considered a "Rich Person" even though you lost $170,000!
Greg, now try hard to imagine you are a regular human being in the really world. Do you really believe that increasing the tax rates on small business (from the rates they have been taxed since 2003), which are simultaneously being saddled with new Obamacare tax & expense increases, is going to increase the likelihood that more risks will be taken and that businesses will expand and hire more people than they world without such a tax increase?. Remember, small business constitutes 70% of American's job market. 75%-85% of small businesses file as an individual to avoid corporate taxes.
Posted by: Cris1 | August 21, 2010 9:07 AM | Report abuse
Who would be against renewing The Bush Tax Cuts?
After all, they did create millions of new jobs.
That is why, at the end of 2008, unemployment figures were so low, almost allf unemployment offices around the country were being phased out.
Posted by: Liam-still | August 21, 2010 9:14 AM | Report abuse
Why would anyone be against renewing The Bush Tax Cuts?
After all, they did create millions of new jobs.
That is why, at the end of 2008, unemployment figures were so low, almost all unemployment offices around the country were being phased out.
Posted by: Liam-still | August 21, 2010 9:15 AM | Report abuse
It sheer ignorance of the people commending on here is astounding! Kevin_Willis you are priceless! What planet are you commenting from? Have you no shame? It is incredible that you can comment on so many different topics of which you know nothing about. Look at who will be effected by the expiration of the 2003 tax cuts. The lowest person on the totem polls taxes go up from 10% to 15%. i'm sorry, is someone making $20K per year rich?
Read my other post, which i posted as a service to educate dimwits, who lack any real world experience.
Posted by: Cris1 | August 21, 2010 9:18 AM | Report abuse
"Totem Polls"?
"Commending on here"?
"Look at who will be effected by"?
Is that you Sarah, posting to refudiate Kevin?
Posted by: Liam-still | August 21, 2010 10:06 AM | Report abuse
The rich have the tax cuts now and are doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with them but racking up cash and shuffling it around at the top. I'm willing to let my pittance expire to have their extavagant cuts expire if that's what it takes.
Posted by: wd1214 | August 22, 2010 12:08 AM | Report abuse
Sarah Palin is hypocritical, supports racist, misinterprets Constitution and is clinically diagnosed as retarded...this surprising anyone yet?
Read this article and enjoy a completely fresh interpretation of the First Amendment, Palin-style!
Posted by: eye95 | August 22, 2010 2:55 AM | Report abuse
Not raising taxes will help, to be sure. But the regulatory impact of the obama agenda should scare the spit out of business people. Getting that under control can only improve our chances going forward.
Well said, and BP would certainly applaud this.
Posted by: bvision | August 22, 2010 3:19 PM | Report abuse
@roxsteady and everyone else:
Tax Cuts don't add to the deficit, spending way more than you should ,adds to the deficit. I get what you're saying, but it's not how it works.
Posted by: sschultz0956 | August 25, 2010 1:27 PM | Report abuse
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Rare groove
Rare groove is soul or jazz music that is very hard to source or relatively obscure.[1] Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, jazz and pop, but is also connected to subgenres including jazz fusion, Latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco.[2] Vinyl records that fall into this category generally have high re-sale prices. Rare groove records have been sought after by not only collectors and lovers of this type of music, but also by hip-hop artists and producers.[3] Online music retailers sell a wide selection of rare groove at more affordable prices, offering fast downloads in digital format.[4] This availability and ease of access has brought about a resurgence of the genre in recent years.[4]
History and development
The term was coined by British DJ Norman Jay[5] after his The Original Rare Groove Show on pirate radio station Kiss 94 FM (the progenitor of Kiss 100 London).[6] The show was a collaboration with DJ Judge Jules and featured a mainly urban soundtrack from the 1970s and 1980s mixed with early house music.[6]
Tracks similar to "rare grooves" had begun to see a following in the 1970s northern soul movement, which curated a collection of rare and obscure soul records for play in dance clubs. The rare groove scene began when DJs presented an eclectic mix of music that placed a particular emphasis on politically articulate dance-funk recordings connected to the Black Power movement.[7] Pirate radio stations and DJs participated in a "recovery, repackaging and retrieval" of obscure music that reflected, related to or translated inequalities of race and gender and the struggles of the civil rights movement. Music that had failed to gain acceptance in a previous time was given a "new lease of life" by DJs on pirate radio stations. Rare groove also provided a musical space where the "symbolic capital" of the music became very important.[8]
The longest-running rare groove radio show in the United States is Soul Power on WWOZ 90.7 FM (New Orleans) and wwoz.org, and is hosted by DJ Soul Sister, who is cited as the "queen of rare groove." The show began in 1996.
Rare groove was written about by former LWR pirate DJ and NME writer Paul Wellings in his book I'm A Journalist...Get Me Out Of Here (Progressive Press).
Sampling is one of the biggest aspects of hip hop and rap, and these types of records provide breaks for artists to use in their songs.[9] Examples of rare groove samples, such as Eazy-E's "Eazy Duz It" (which samples The Detroit Emeralds, Bootsy Collins, Funkadelic, Isley Brothers, Sly & the Family Stone, The Temptations and even Richard Pryor), can be found in modern hip hop (notably G-funk's heavy sampling of Funkadelic) and drum and bass (notably the Amen break). After the collapse of funk-influenced disco, many musicians who had made a name for themselves under disco's mainstream success had the spotlight taken away from them. Many of these artists have had their songs remixed and remastered by house music artists. Much of the obscure music "rediscovered" as samples in newer house or hip-hop tracks is labeled "rare groove" retroactively.[4]
Northern Soul is a part of the rare groove scene since the term was first given by Dave Godin from the record shop Soul City in Covent Garden, London. The scene has many record collectors and DJs who pay large sums of money for rare songs from the 1960s/1970s/1980s/1990s that are original copies.
- ↑ "December 2008 New Words". Oxford English Dictionary. 11 December 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
- ↑ Heller, Jason (17 April 1998). "There's a whole lotta rhythm goin' down". The Yale Herald. New Haven, CT: Yale University. XXV (12). Retrieved 28 December 2010.
- ↑ Schloss, Joseph G. (2004). Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip Hop. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6696-9.
- 1 2 3 Lynskey, Dorian (7 April 2006). "Dorian Lynskey meets the vinyl collectors". The Guardian. London: GMG. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
- ↑ Partridge, Eric; Tom Dalzell; Terry Victor. The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, p. 530. Psychology Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-415-21259-5
- 1 2 "Profile". Official website of Norman Jay MBE and the Good Times Sound System. n.d. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
- ↑ Gilroy, Paul (1987). There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack. London: Hutchinson, p. 40.
- ↑ Bakare-Yusef, Bibi, "Raregrooves and Raregroovers - a matter of taste, difference and identity", in Heidi Safia Mirza (ed.), Black British Feminism: A Reader, Routledge, 1982, Chapter 10.
- ↑ Schloss, Joseph G. (2004). Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip Hop. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6696-9


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The Doctor is in.
Doctor Then has just received notice that someone is lodging a fraudulent insurance claim against her. Grrrrr. [Hackles rise] Dr Then wishes their pants would spontaneously ignite, but in the abscense of an ability to control fire (or pants), she has instead been drawn to pondering criminality. And medical history has a fair bit to say on that subject.
The most famous contributor to the notion that criminality could come under the purview of medicine was Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), an Italian. A one-time army surgeon and asylum keeper, Lombroso was of the opinion that criminal tendencies were written on the body, and that a trained observer would be able to tell a career criminal from such details as the slope of the person's forehead, or the posititioning of his or her (Lombroso recognized female criminality) ears. In his published works, he assembled a gallery of uglies who demonstrated the criminal features he had in mind. Criminals, said Lombroso, were throw-backs to a more primitive stage of human evolution. Just look at those long arms! Those hairy knuckles! (Arthur Conan Doyle was well versed in Lombroso's theories–his hero, Sherlock Holmes, often does battle with deformed villains, and reads people's habits–including moral persuasion–from their bodies.)
Lombroso's photos of criminals, allegedly showing physical signs of their criminality (as opposed to simple ugliness)
Lombroso's interest in the shape and distinctions of criminals' bodies laid foundations for attempts to accurately identify arrested criminals. In the late 19th century, it was a major difficulty for the police to positively identify people who had been arrested and charged on previous crimes. Without a solid means of knowing 'This person is Mr Black who has been arrested for burglary four times before', people charged with a repeat offense could simply give a false name–'I am Mr White'–and skip on off, leaving their long record of housebreaking behind them.
To try to deal with the identification problem, it was standard procedure in London for example, for policemen to drop by the exercise yard outside the criminal courts. From a special viewing platform, officers would look and see if there was anyone up on a charge who was–as the phrase goes–already 'known to the police'.
In the 1880s, using Lombroso's work as the starting point, the French police officer Alphonse Bertillion developed a system known as Bertillionage as a way of assigning a person a unique identifier. Bertillionage used bodily measurements–the length of the arm, the circumference of the skull and so forth. When crunched in a formula, the measurements would make a code that was, Bertillion believed, characteristic of a single individual. Knowing a criminal's Bertillionage classification could therefore be used to identify him again. (The system didn't work particularly well – it took ages to measure up a person and was not nearly accurate enough anyhow.) Fingerprinting eventually replaced Bertillionage from the start of the 20th century.
The twentieth century offered new medical insights on the issue of where criminality came from and what it looked like when it arose. In the 1920s, New York physicians Max Schlapp and Edward Smith suggested that criminal behavior was often caused by malfunctioning endocrine glands – pancreas, pituitary, suprarenals, and most especially the thyroid gland. Endocrinology–the medical specialty that deals with glands–was an emerging field at that time, and the excitement about 'all things glandular' was comparable to what genetics holds for us today.
With great enthusiasm, glands were thought to hold the keys to solve aging, sexual dysfunction, delinquency, obesity, mental impairment and…crime. Dr Schlapp in fact appeared in a number of court cases as an expert witness for the defense. In one case, young Archie Daniels (22), of New York, had taken his fiance out to an icecream parlor and a romantic walk and then shot her through the head with his .22 pistol. The girl had, it turned out, been about to leave him for an older and wealthier man. Dr Schlapp testified that Archie had been the victim of his glands. The worry over his fiance's infidelity had made his glands secrete excessively. His excessive glandular activity had lowered his 'explosion point', lessening his ability to control himself, and making him act out on violent impulses. Shooting the girl wasn't his fault. His glands made him do it, your Honor. Archie avoided the electric chair as a result of Schlapp's testimony.
Now of course medicine still tries to help the courts today in the tendentious and difficult job of deciding between the mad and the bad, the culpable and the not responsible, the I-wasn't-there and the blood-all-over-his-hands. The criminal mind fascinates, abhors and puzzles us today in equal measures, and spawns a thousand cop and forensic pathologist/psychologist/anthropologist/forensic-anything TV shows. But where does that leave us with the non-romantic, liar-liar-pants-on-fire insurance fraudsters of the type who are trying to get a new bumper bar out of me? What should one say to them? All I can say is, while my insurance company may indeed fold and give you that new bumper bar, you'll still have a neanderthal forehead, gorilla arms, lopsided ears and a pulsating thyroid. So hah de hah!
Till next time, stay well,
Dr Then
Interested? Want more?
On fingerprinting and its history
Sengoopta C. 2004, Imprint of the Raj, New York: Pan Macmillan.
Cole S. A. 2002, Suspect Identities, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sengoopta C. 2006, The Most Secret Quintessence of Live: Sex, Glands, and Hormones, 1850-1950, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hamilton D. 1986, The Monkey Gland Affair, London: Chatto and Windus.
Mohr J. C. 1993, Doctors and the Law, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Watson K. D. 2011, Forensic Medicine in Western Society, London: Routledge.
Theories 'in action'
Doyle A. C. 1887-1904, The Celebrated Cases of Sherlock Holmes, 1981 Edition, London: Octopus Books.


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By Tricia Slipacoff
and Caroline White
© 2002 Tricia Slipacoff, Lambton Kent District School Board
Building a Personal and Career Portfolio is a support for teachers and a guide for students in the development and maintenance of a portfolio. The ideas in this resource have been designed primarily for use by teachers of Career Studies courses, but are useful to all teachers who wish to use student-developed portfolios in their programs. The materials consist of a series of steps that can be used as a guide for teachers and students in the collection and organization of materials for individual student portfolios. Evidence of accomplishments is organized and inserted into a binder to become part of an up-to-date portfolio. This evidence can provide a focus for parents, teacher advisors, and guidance counsellors when discussing with students the preparation and revision of their Annual Education Plan (AEP). Portfolios may also be useful for students when applying for admission to a college or university program, applying for a scholarship or bursary, or for developing a
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