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Anthony A. Adole1, Dr. Chris Bearchell2 and Prof. Eran Edirisinghe1, 1Department of Computer Science, EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Embedded Intelligence, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK, 2Surface Intelligence, Oxford, UK
In recent years detection and recognition of Off-line handwriting character has being a major task in the computer vision sector, researchers are looking on to developing deep learning models to avoid the traditional approaches which involves the tedious task of using the conventional methods for feature extraction and localization. However, state-of-the-art object detection modelsrely upon region proposal algorithms as a result, they settle for object locations principles, such network reduces thetime period of those detection network, exposing region proposal computation as a bottleneck. Faster-RCNN is a popular model used for recognition purpose in many recognition tasks, the goal of this paper is to serve as a guide for Multi-Classification on offline Handwriting Document using Pre-trained Faster-RCNN with inception resnet v2 feature Extractor. The result obtained from the experiments shows improved pre-trained models can be used insolving the research question concerning handwriting detection and recognition.
Offline Handwriting recognition and detection, faster-RCNN, inception resnet v2, Kanji handwriting, Japanese offline document, recognition and detection
Yueqi Han1,2, Bo Yang1,2, Yun Zhang1, Bojiang Yang1 and Yapeng Fu1,2, 1College of Meteorology and Oceanography, National University of Defense Technology, Nanjing, China, 2National Key Laboratory on Electromagnetic Environmental Effects and Electro-optical Engineering, PLA Army Engineering University, Nanjing, China
Data assimilation (DA) for the non-differentiable parameterized moist physical processes is a complicated and difficult problem, which may result in the discontinuity of the cost function (CF) and the emergence of multiple extreme values. To solve the problem, this paper proposes an inner/outer loop ensemble-variational algorithm (I/OLEnVar) to DA. It uses several continuous sequences of local linear quadratic functions with single extreme values to approximate the actual nonlinear CF so as to have extreme point sequences of these functions converge to the global minimum of the nonlinear CF. This algorithm requires no adjoint model and no modification of the original nonlinear numerical model, so it is convenient and easy to design in assimilating the observational data during the non-differentiable process. Numerical experimental results of DA for the non-differentiable problem in moist physical processes indicate that the I/OLEnVar algorithm is feasible and effective. It can increase the assimilation accuracy and thus obtain satisfactory results. This algorithm lays the foundation for the application of I/OLEnVar method to the precipitation observational data assimilation in the numerical weather prediction (NWP) model.
Ensemble-variational Data Assimilation, Non-differentiable, Inner/Outer Loop
Ting-Yu Lin, Chia-Min Lai and Chi-Wei Chen, Institute for Information Industry, Taipei, R.O.C
Due to the advent of the Internet of Things era, the number of related wireless devices is increasing, making the abundant and complex information networks formed by communication between devices. Therefore, security and trust between devices a huge challenge. In the traditional identification method, there are identifiers such as hash-based message authentication code, key, and so on, often used to mark a message that the receiving end can verify it. However, this kind of identifiers is easy to tamper. Therefore, recently researchers address the idea that using RF fingerprint, also called radio frequency fingerprint, for identification. Our paper demonstrates a method that extracts properties and identifies each device. We achieved a high identification rate, 99.9% accuracy in our experiments where the devices communicate with Wi-Fi protocol. The proposed method can be used as a stand-alone identification feature, or for two-factor authentication.
Internet-of-Things (IoT), Authentication, RF fingerprint, Machine Learning (ML), Device Identification
Hasara Maithree, Dilan Dinushka and Adeesha Wijayasiri, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Many researches have been carried out for change detection using temporal SAR images. In this paper an algorithm for change detection using SAR videos has been proposed. There are various challenges related to SAR videos such as high level of speckle noise, rotation of SAR image frames of the video around a particular axis due to the circular movement of airborne vehicle, non-uniform back scattering of SAR pulses. Hence conventional change detection algorithms used for optical videos and SAR temporal images cannot be directly utilized for SAR videos. We propose an algorithm which is a combination of optical flow calculation using Lucas Kanade (LK) method and blob detection. The developed method follows a four steps approach: image filtering and enhancement, applying LK method, blob analysis and combining LK method with blob analysis. The performance of the developed approach was tested on SAR videos available on Sandia National Laborataries website and SAR videos generated by a SAR simulator.
Remote Sensing, SAR videos, Change Detection
MinhTri Tran, Anna Kuwana and Haruo Kobayashi, Division of Electronics and Informatics, Gunma University, Kiryu 376-8515, Japan
Proposed derivation and measurement of self-loop function for a low-pass Tow Thomas biquadratic filter are introduced. The self-loop function of this filter is derived and analyzed based on the widened superposition principle. The alternating current conservation technique is proposed to measure the selfloop function. Research results show that the selected passive components (resistors, capacitors) of the frequency compensation of Miller's capacitors in the operational amplifier and the Tow Thomas filter can cause a damped oscillation noise when the stable conditions for the transfer functions of these networks are not satisfied.
Superposition, Self-loop Function, Stability Test, Tow-Thomas Biquadratic Filter, Voltage Injection
MinhTri Tran, Anna Kuwana, and Haruo Kobayashi, Division of Electronics and Informatics, Gunma University, Kiryu 376-8515, Japan
Proposed stability test for RLC low-pass filters is presented. The self-loop functions of these filters are derived and analyzed based on the widened superposition principle. The alternating current conservation technique is proposed to measure the self-loop function. An active inductor is replaced with a general impedance converter. Our research results show that the values of the selected passive components (resistors, capacitors, and inductors) in these filters can cause a damped oscillation noise when the stable conditions for the transfer functions of these networks are not satisfied.
Widened Superposition, RLC Low-Pass Filter, Stability Test, Self-loop Function, Voltage Injection
Ye-Shun Shen, Fang-Biau Ueng* and Hung-Sheng Wang, Department of Electrical Engineering,National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan
Single carrier-frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) has been adopted as the uplink transmission standard in fourth generation cellular network to enable the power efficiency transmission in mobile station. Since multiuser multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) is a promising technology to fully exploit the channel capacity in mobile radio network, this paper investigates the uplink transmission of MU-MIMO SC-FDMA system with orthogonal space frequency block codes (SFBC). It is preferable to minimize the length of the cyclic prefix (CP) to improve the transmission energy and spectrum efficiency. Several techniques for block transmission without CP have been investigated. CP removal at the transmitter is compensated by a CP reconstruction at the receiver where only the past interference components are considered. In this paper, the chained turbo equalization with chained turbo estimation is employed in the designed receiver. The chained turbo estimation employs short training sequence (TR) that can improve the spectrum efficiency without sacrificing the estimation accuracy. In this paper, we propose a novel spectrally efficient iterative joint channel estimation, multiuser detection and turbo equalization for MU-MIMO SC-FDMA system without CP and with short TR. Some simulation examples for uplink scenario are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
MU-MIMO SC-FDMA, chained turbo equalization, chained turbo estimation
Abdulhamit Subasi, Saeed Mian Qaisar, Effat University, College of Engineering, Jeddah, 21478, Saudi Arabia
In the cerebral surgery the positioning of epileptic foci is an elementary step. It is carried out by detecting the seizure in the electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings. In this framework, EEG Signals are composed of two classes, focal and non-focal. The focal signals are captured from brain areas in which the initial modifications to ictal EEG are sensed. The non-focal signals are recorded from brain areas that are not included at the seizure onset. A new focus area localization method is introduced based on various ensemble machine learning strategies and signal processing approach. The efficiency of the proposed method is assessed using classification accuracy, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), and the F-measure. The system attains 98.8% accuracy. It confirms the potential of using the proposed solution in modern EEG analysis systems.
Electroencephalogram (EEG), Auto regressive (AR) method, Ensemble Machine Learning Methods.
Tubonimi Jenewari and David Mulvaney, Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
The aim of the research is to provide a framework for prototyping executable model for distributed embedded system, it includes both hardware and software, in this way the modelling and implementation process will allow seamless execution of distributed system at functional, hardware simulation and hardware realization levels. An example of the setup will be an ABS (anti-lock braking system) that comprises of system components; sensor, actuator, ECU's which are interconnected through the vehicle communication bus. Software automobile vehicle model will provide the vehicle dynamics and the model of the ABS that will mimic the functionality of ABS. Multiple processors (ECU) will be interconnected in a distributed format to reduce the time of execution.
All this is captured in a Unified Modelling Language (UML) a standard for the idea of the design to be captured, expressive enough to be understood. The UML notation will be converted to Extensible Markup Language (XML), and a parser code written to extract all the necessary class information (to get the classes where the simulation code will come in) from the overwhelming lines of XML to be transferred to the ECU for execution of the simulation. The simulation is carried out using GDB.
Prototyping, distributed embedded system, executable model, UML
Sudeep Kumar, Deepak Kumar Vasthimal, and Musen Wen, eBay Inc., 2025 Hamilton Ave, San Jose, CA 95125, USA
Today, a plethora of distributed applications are managed on internally hosted cloud platforms. Such managed platforms are often multi tenant by nature and not specifically tied to a single use-case. Smaller footprint of infrastructure on a managed cloud platform has its own set of challenges especially when applications are required to be infrastructure aware for quicker deployments and response times. There are often times and challenges to quickly spawn ready to use instances or hosts on such infrastructure. As part of this paper we outline mechanisms to quickly spawn ready to use instances for application while also being infrastructure aware. In addition, paper proposes architecture that provides high availability to deployed distributed applications.
cloud computing, virtual machine, elastic, elastic search, consul, cache, java, kibana, mongoDB, high performance computing, architecture.
Mridula Korde, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur, India
Increasing Internet data traffic has driven the capacity demands for currently deployed 3G and 4G wireless technologies. Now, intensive research toward 5th generation wireless communication networks is progressing in many fronts. 5G technologies are expected to be in use around 2020. Moving toward 5G, network synchronization is expected to play a key role in the successful deployment of the new mobile communication networks. Synchronization is an essential prerequisite for all mobile networks to operate. It's fundamental to data integrity, and without it data will suffer errors and networks can suffer outages. 'Loss of synchronization' problems can be difficult to diagnose and resolve quickly and add to operational costs. Poor synchronization affects customer satisfaction and is therefore revenue affecting too. This paper presents synchronization requirement and related aspects in upcoming 5G technologies.
5G, MIMO, Synchronization
Rosli Uzairi and Ir. Badrul Zaman Adnan, Department of Research and Development, MIMOS Berhad, Malaysia
The implementation of communication technology and infrastructure has it challenges especially in the rural area when there are issues that needs exploration such as the basic infrastructure, size of coverage and the right application to suit the local flavour in order to bridge the digital divide plus mitigating the gap between urban and rural in terms of internet literacy. The project in Kiulu, Sabah presents our involvement in planning, wireless infrastructure design, site survey, interaction with local authorities and communities, site preparation and implementation, operations and management of community based communications solution. There was no internet access in this area prior to this project therefore this effort receive overwhelming support from the public. The contribution of this exercise includes the sharing of deployment experience together with the successful execution of a locally developed high tech radio in mesh and point to point topology.
Community Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Mesh rural area, Solution Wi-Fi rural area
Mason Chen, OHS, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA
This paper will address Altitude Sickness risk when hiking on the high Mountains. It's very risky if the people are not aware of their altitude sickness symptom such as Fatigue, Headache, Dizziness, Insomnia, Shortness of breath during exertion, Nausea, Decreased appetite. The consequence of altitude sickness could be dangerous on the inconvenient high mountains. Pulse Oximeter was used to monitor the Oxygen% and Heart Beat at different altitude levels from near-sea level in San Jose, Denver (5,000 Feet), Estes Park (8,000 Feet), Rocky Mountains Alpine Center (12,000 Feet). 2.5-mins Jumping Rope exercise was conducted to analyze the fatigue behavior associated with Altitude Sickness. Statistical analysis was conducted to verify several hypotheses to predict the Altitude Sickness Risk as well as the Exercise Fatigue Behavior. This paper has demonstrated how to assess their body strength and readiness before they may take a strenuous hiking on the high mountains.
JMP, Statistics, Altitude Sickness, Data Mining, AI
Emeka Ogbuju, Federal University Lokoja, Nigeria
Big data has been defined in terms of the V-dimensions, namely volume, variety and velocity to mention a few. It is within the context of this definition of big data that some database models have been faulted and departure from their usage contemplated by the database community. The drive towards a one-size-fits-all the dimensions of data as proposed by several researchers may end up as a mirage given that the application area determines the priority each dimension gets in a software development project. A transaction-laden application may demand more of the volume dimension of big data and a guarantee of the ACID properties of its transaction than a variety of data types. Given that it is not always the case that all the dimensions are required on every application, this paper is of the view that it may yield more results if database models are rated and used on the basis of their inherent strengths augmented by the extent to which they can be made adaptive to some or all the V-dimensions of data. Based on this submission, a volume-adaptive big data model of the relational database model is proposed. The model partitions a relation such that the sum of all partitions makes up the original relation. The query times of equivalent queries on the original and any of the partitions show that the query time of the partitions are well optimised relative to the query time of the original relation. The partitions are scalable across several servers and in this way, the model adapts to the volume dimension of data and at the same time, takes advantage of the ACID properties of the relational database model.
Big Data, V-dimensions of data, adaptive model of relational DBMS, application prototypes, NoSQL, ACID properties
Wei-hong WANG, Hong-yan LV, Yu-hui CAO, Lei SUN, Qian FENG, School of Information Technology, Hebei University of Economics and Business, Shijiazhuang, China
Student behavior analysis plays an increasingly important role in education data mining research, but it lacks systematic analysis and summary. Based on reading a large amount of literature, this paper has carried out the overall framework, methods and applications of its research. Comprehensive combing and elaboration. Firstly, statistical analysis and knowledge map analysis of the relevant literature on student behavior analysis in the CNKI database are carried out, and then the research trends and research hot spots are obtained. Then, from the different perspectives of the overall process and technical support of student behavior analysis, the overall framework of the research is constructed, and the student behavior evaluation indicators, student portraits and used tools and methods are highlighted. Finally, it summarizes the principal applications of student behavior analysis and points out the future research direction..
Student Behavior, Knowledge Graph, Behavior Analysis, Student Portraits, Data Mining
Fred N. Kiwanuka, Louay Karadsheh, Ja'far alqatawna, and Anang Hudaya Muhamad Amin, Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai Men's College, Dubai
The problem of developing a high quality employee schedule has been studied by many researchers and is now widely used by many organization in an attempt to automate and achieve high quality scheduling. The challenge is how to develop a proper quality schedule that e?ectively caters for employee needs and satisfaction. During process of employee scheduling many constraints have to be considered and may require negotiating a large dimension of hard and soft constraints. These constraints make scheduling a complex task. The problem with current scheduling models is that, they are rigid and always sacri?ce the soft constraints. Current scheduling algorithms are mostly modeled as NP problems or constraint optimization problems and this comes with massive computational complexity. In this research, we propose a machine learning approach that takes advantage of mining user-de?ned constraints or soft constraints and transforms these constraints into a classi?cation problem. We propose automatically extracting employee personal schedules like calendars in order to extract their availability. We then show how to use the extracted knowledge to formulate a machine learning problem in order to generate a schedule for faculty sta? in a University that supports ?exible working. We show that the results of this approach are comparable to that of a constraint satisfaction and optimization method that is commonly used in literature. Results show although our approach achieved a performance of 86.4% of satisfying all constraints as compared to 92.7% of a common SAT Solver approach, it was simpler and faster to implement.
Schedulin, Constraint Programming, Data mining, Machine Learning, Deep Learning
Gustavo A. Lado and Enrique C. Segura, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires
This paper presents a new technique for efficient coding of highly dimensional vectors, overcoming the typical drawbacks of classical approaches, both of the type of local representations and those of distributed codifications. The main advantages and disadvantages of those classical approaches are revised and a novel, fully parameterizaed strategy is introduced to obtain representations of intermediate levels of locality and sparsity, according to the neccesities of the particular problem to deal with. The proposed method, called COLOSSUS (COding with LOgistic Softmax Sparse UnitS) is based on an algorithm that permits a smooth transition between both extreme behaviors -local, distributed- via a parameter that regulates the sparsity of the representation. The activation function is of the logistic type. We propose an appropiate cost function and derive a learning rule that happens to be similar to the Oja's Hebbian learning rule. Experiments are reported that show the efficiency of the proposed technique.
Neural Networks, Sparse Coding, Autoencoders
Haixin Wang1,2 and Jianxin Shen1, 1College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China and 2School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
One of the challenges for autonomous aircraft is safe and reliable navigation in urban or indoor environments. The path planning of aerial robot is a complicated task due to the factors such as the decreasing accuracy of global positioning system (GPS), the narrow space and the dynamic movement of obstacles. To navigate effectively in such an environment, one of the skills an agent needs is to develop the ability to avoid collisions. In this study, we investigated a possible approximation (called a partially observable Markov decision process) to improve the performance of autonomous UAVS in GPS-free environments by combing the newly developed A3C reinforcement learning approach. Developing and testing algorithms in the real world is expensive and time consuming for drones. In addition, taking advantage of current research and advances in machine intelligence requires the collection of extensive training and testing to determine changes in conditions and environment. This article leverages open source tools such as Microsoft's state-of-the-art drone simulator Airsim, a machine learning framework that leverages TensorFlow, a tensor library of Google. The main method of the paper is Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic network.
Unmanned aerial vehicle, Asynchronous advantage actor-critic algorithm, Simulation, Path planning
Hung Lay2, Peiqi Gu1 and Yu Sun2, 1University High School, 2California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA 91768
Web Application, ReactJS
F. Barbato and M. Giacalone, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
This paper aims to show how Big Data analysis can direct scientific investigations in the field of astronomy, of which a considerable amount of data is available. The goal is to use Big Data and statistical approach to make decisions about the events to be investigated regarding a specific problem, in particular the analysis of celestial bodies that could meet the conditions of planetary habitability. In particular, starting from an initial number of 120000 celestial bodies, the statistical approach will allow to consider only 2367, reducing scientific analyses, and therefore times and costs, by 98%.
Astronomy, Stars, Big Data, planetary habitability
Sheikh Mohamad Arsalan and Farooq Hussain, Department of Computer Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Nsw, Australia
The blockchain innovation is accepted by numerous individuals to be a distinct advantage in numerous application areas, particularly monetary applications. While the origin of blockchain innovation (i.e., Blockchain 1.0) is used exclusivel y for digital currency purposes, the later era (i.e., Blockchain 2.0), as described by Ethereum, is a transparent and decentralised stage that empowers another authentication paradigm — Decentralized Applications (DApps) running through blockchains. DApps ' rich applications and semantics inevitably pose numerous vulnerabilities to protection, which have no partners in unadulterated digital money systems like Bitcoin. Since Ethereum is another, yet intricate, framework, it is basic to have an orderly and far reaching understanding on its security from an all-encompassing point of view, which is inaccessible. As far as we could possibly know, the present review, which can likewise be utilized as an instructional exercise, fills this void. In particular, we systematise three parts of Ethereum's security frameworks: vulnerabilities, assaults, and resistance. We bring bits of knowledge into, in addition to other things, powerlessness underlying drivers, assault outcomes, and barrier abilities, which shed light on future research.
Blockchain, Ethereum, Security, Smart Con-tract, Network
Kevin Wallis, Jan Stodt, Eugen Jastremskoj, and Christoph Reich, Furtwangen University of Applied Science, Germany
The digital transformation of companies is expected to increase the digital interconnection between different companies to develop optimized, customized, hybrid business models. These cross-company business models require secure, reliable and traceable logging and monitoring of contractually agreed information sharing between machine tools, operators and service providers. This paper discusses how the major requirements for building hybrid business models can be tackled by the blockchain for building a chain of trust and smart contracts for digitized contracts. A machine maintenance use case is used to discuss the readiness of smart contracts for the automation of workflows defined in contracts.
Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Industry 4.0, Digitized Agreements, Maintenance
Jan Stodt and Christoph Reich, Institute for Data Science, Cloud Computing, and IT Security at the University of Applied Sciences Furtwangen, Furtwangen, Baden-W¨urttemberg, Germany
Increased collaborative production and dynamic selection of production partners within industry 4.0 manufacturing leads to everincreasing automatic data exchange between companies. Automatic and unsupervised data exchange creates new attack vectors, which could be used by a malicious insider to leak secrets via an otherwise considered secure channel without anyone noticing. In this paper we reflect upon approaches to prevent the exposure of secret data via blockchain technology. We show that previous blockchain based privacy protection approaches offer protection, but give the control of the data to (potentially not trustworthy) third parties, which also can be considered as a privacy violation. The approach taken in this paper is not utilize centralized data storage for data. It realizes data confidentiality of P2P communication and data processing in smart contracts of blockchains.
blockchain, privacy protection, P2P communication, smart contracts, industry 4.0
Heba Almorad, Sara Helal, and Abdulhamit Subasi, College of Engineering, Effat University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT A chatbot is an intelligent conversation simulator that interacts with users utilizing natural languages. This technology has the power to give the illusion of a true human-to-human interaction in a wide application, i.e., health consultation. Due to the exclusively explosive demand for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) awareness guidelines, this paper proposes an Arabic chatbot (Arabot) that answers any question regarding this disease to take the burden off consultation centres. Many websites and organizations have provided tips and advice to prevent spreading the virus to others. However, none were in an Arabic, interactive, and intelligent approach. Thus, Arabot is a retrieval based self-learning program that is trained based on the World Health Organization (WHO) database to provide reliable assistance.
Artificial intelligence (AI), chatterbot, Arabic chatbot, Python, chatterbot corpus, neural network (NN), heuristics, coronavirus disease (COVID-19), World Health Organization (WHO).
Copyright © BDML 2020


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10 Years Ago in the Soaps - remind yourself of all the soap drama that was happening in EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks 10 years ago this week!
Sean Slater got a black eye in EastEnders, Audrey Roberts crashed her car in Coronation Street, Andy Sugden gave Sam Dingle a beating in Emmerdale and Jack Osborne was back from the dead in Hollyoaks – 10 Years Ago in the Soaps…
10 Years Ago in the Soaps – EastEnders
Sean Slater (Rob Kazinsky) knew just how to push Phil Mitchell's buttons but got a black eye for his pains when he wound him up once too often. Sean carried his pregnant new wife Roxy (Rita Simons) into The Queen Vic, snogged her in front of everyone, and couldn't stop talking about their baby being "strong and a real fighter." Phil (Steve McFadden) took this to be a slur on his own son, Ben, who was into musicals and dancing rather than fighting! Phil lost his temper and punched Sean…Luckily Roxy was on hand to make it better!
Gary Hobbs (Ricky Groves) couldn't believe his luck when Clare Bates (Gemma Bissix) invited him back to her place – or rather, Dot Branning's place! But he soon realised he was way out of his depth when Clare started talking about how the men in her life had let her down, and was looking for a way to escape when Dot, Bradley and Stacey came home. Seeing Gary with Clare wearing just a skimpy robe, they assumed they had been getting up to no good. Gary wished!
10 Years Ago in the Soaps – Coronation Street
It's hard to imagine Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls) going on a booze cruise but that's what she did 10 years ago in the unlikely company of Janice Battersby and Kevin Webster's dad Bill (Peter Armitage). The trip had been an endurance test for Audrey and by the time they were on the way home, she was the only one sober enough to drive. But disaster struck when she took her eyes off the road and crashed their people carrier. Audrey came of worst in the accident, but recovered after a stay in hospital.
David Platt (Jack P Shepherd) was determined to be the best boyfriend ever for Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan) but he went a very odd way about it. He started hacking into Tina's emails to get hints on how best to treat her, but it backfired dramatically when she found out and accused him of trying to control her. David tried to explain he'd had the best intentions but it was too late. Tina packed her bags…
10 Years Ago in the Soaps – Emmerdale
Andy Sugden (Kelvin Fletcher) had a violent temper. He regularly lashed out at his wife Jo (Roxanne Pallett) and his fury knew no bounds when he walked in to catch Jo planting a kiss on Sam Dingle's forehead. Sam (James Hooton) had just told Jo that he loved her and she was telling him she loved him, but only as a friend. Sam ran off, but after giving Jo a beating, Andy tracked Sam down – and gave him a vicious beating, too.
Jimmy King (Nick Miles) was bemoaning the lack of choice on the opposite sex front and declared himself a firm bachelor. But his brother Matthew had other ideas. After getting Jimmy tipsy in the pub, Matthew got him home just in time for the arrival of a woman called Roberta who'd given him her phone number. Jimmy was edgy as Roberta tried to seduce him but when she dissolved into tears, Jimmy sympathised – and before he knew it, they were kissing… and more!
10 Years Ago in the Soaps – Hollyoaks
Jack Osborne (Jimmy McKenna) was meant to be dead. At least that's what his hapless son Darren (Ashley Taylor Dawson) had told everyone. Yet here he was, large as life, standing over his own grave! Darren had talked Jack into this crazy plot as a way of claiming insurance and solving their money problems. But the reality of the situation started to hit him as he gave the eulogy at Jack's funeral service and he broke down under the weight of his guilt. Later, at the graveside, he and Jack weighed up all the grief they'd put the family through and realised they were in way too deep…
Barry 'Newt' Newton (Nico Mirallegro) was convinced that HE had killed Jack Osborne and, in front of everyone, confessed to the crime and said he wanted to be arrested. The poor man was tormented by Jack's death (though, of course, he wasn't dead) and was terrified when he picked up Darren's phone and heard Jack's voice on the end of it! He did everything he could to block out Jack's voice – dismantling every bit of electrical equipment in his room – but it continued to haunt him.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cheerleader of the Week:
Arissa A.
Arissa is a member of our Junior 2 team, Tsunami. She joined United Elite after a year with our sister gym, Mile High Elite. Arissa's big heart, hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm will knock your socks off! Arissa comes into practices each week with one of the best attitudes. You will usually find her running her warm up laps while holding hands with a teammate, and yelling out counts to encourage her teammates during their routine. Arissa has really stepped up this year while working on her top girl skills and positions in the air. Her progress shows every week and at each competition. The United Elite staff is thrilled to have such a hardworking, encouraging athlete to work with day in and day out. Way to go Arissa, we are proud of you!
Congratulations to Arissa on being this week's cheerleader of the week! Keep up the hard work!
Get to know our Cheerleader of the Week:
What grade are you in?
"2nd grade"
What school do you attend?
"Grant Ranch Elementary School"
How long have you been cheering?
"2 years"
How long have you been apart of the United Elite Family?
"1 year with Mile High Elite and 1 year with United Elite"
What do you like to do with your free time when you are not cheering?
"Play on the trampoline, go to friends houses and watch TV on the Ipad."
What is your favorite part about being at United Elite?
"We're a family, we work well together and have a fun time at practice. I also like seeing all of my friends."
What is your favorite part of a cheerleading routine and why?
"My favorite part of a cheerleading routine is the pyramid because everyone works together to keep it up."
What is your favorite tumbling skill?
"My favorite tumbling skill is my front walkover round off back handspring."
What do you want to be when you grow up?
"A teacher."


text:
Yesterday Dencia said she didn't know the African actress nominated for an Oscar However, Lupita
does know Dencia thanks to her whitenicious cream..Lupita was at Essence Magazine's seventh annual Women in Hollywood luncheon and gave a moving speech on black beauty..The likes of Oprah,Kerry Washington ,Brandy and top black actresses were present.....
I wrote down this speech that I had no time to practice so this will be the practicing session.Thank you Alfre, for such an amazing, amazing introduction and celebration of my work. And thank you very much for inviting me to be a part of such an extraordinary community.
I am surrounded by people who have inspired me, women in particular whose presence on screen made me feel a little more seen and heard and understood. That it is ESSENCE that holds this event celebrating our professional gains of the year is significant, a beauty magazine that recognizes the beauty that we not just possess but also produce.
I want to take this opportunity to talk about beauty, Black beauty, dark beauty. I received a letter from a girl and I'd like to share just a small part of it with you: "Dear Lupita," it reads, "I think you're really lucky to be this Black but yet this successful in Hollywood overnight. I was just about to buy Dencia's Whitenicious cream to lighten my skin when you appeared on the world map and saved me."


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Visual Processing for Stroke Patients
Team 5: Improved Processing for Stroke Patients
Problem: Need a cell phone app for post-stroke or post TBI individuals that provides therapy-centric virtual reality to be used in a low-cost virtual reality device like Google Cardboard. This device would be used as a rehab enhancement tool for therapists to challenge a patient's balance, eye movements, and ability to orient themselves to vertical.
Organization: Rochester Regional Health
Sponsor and Coach: Chris Streeter and Clark Hochgraf
Students: Tanmay Songade (Human-Computer Interaction), Nathan Bash (Finance), Joe Waldron (Computer Science), Eliza Austin (Communication), Daniel Sinclair (Computer Science), Gerald Garavuso (Mechanical Engineering), Varshini Pramod Kumar (Electrical Engineering Technology), Dante Harris (Electrical Engineering Technology)


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Strand Woven Bamboo Floating Floor, 1850x135x14mm
For pricing information or a quote on this product, give us a call on (07) 3855 8107 or contact us via our contact page.Enquiry
As the name indicates,Natural Bamboo is the go to, for that cool clean look that evokes coastal living, Natural bamboo creates a background that accentuates valued furniture and fittings. The anti slip backing will prevent your bamboo floors from movement. All our bamboo is protected with a German protective coating to improve the scratch and water resistance. Similar to our Laminate Flooring, the Bamboo flooring uses the simplified version of the Valinge 5G (Drop Lock) system. This system will be a perfect DIY solution if you were wanting to install it yourself. The planks are 1850mm long x 135mm wide x 14mm thick. Our Bamboo Flooring Planks contain a 25 year manufacturer's warranty to ensure your peace of mind.
Domestic Warranty: 25 years
Brand Golden: Elite
Colour: Natural
Surface Finish: Treffert German Polyurethane
Style : 1 strip
Thickness : 14mm
Width : Classic
Dimensions : 1800mm x 135mm
Pack Size: m2
Pack Weight: 22kg
Edging : Micro Bevelled Edges
Installation Method: Valinge
Domestic Warranty : 25 years
Brand: Golden Elite


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It's been some time since I wrote. Life often gets in the way. Other times, I don't feel inspired. I wouldn't say I'm a writer, I'm more of a relayer. I relay things that happen to me and others around me on a random basis. I'd love for it to be more often, but you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.
However, it's a fit that brought me here today.
When my daughter was born, I promised myself that this wouldn't become a parenting blog. Little did I know that my existence would be consumed to the point that blogging would mostly become a thing of the past. She turns four tomorrow and she has a 6-month-old baby brother to help her out with the duties of engaging my wife and I with worries, joys, and tomfoolery on a minute-by-minute basis. Still and all, the goodness outweighs the badness, and there are no Bedouins nearby for me to sell them to.
Lately, she's been testing our patience on pretty much a daily basis. Some of this we attribute to being a 3 (nearly 4) year old. Some of this can be attributed to sensory processing disorder. Unfortunately, you won't find SPD in a manual anywhere because it's not really a recognized thing, just yet. And, because it manifests itself as behavior problems, it seems as if you're just bad at parenting. The true trick of all this is to define which behavior is SPD and which is just general limit-testing.
Last night, it was a struggle of wills between her and myself. I don't need to go into all the details, but it resulted in her screaming and crying on the bathroom floor while I sat on the side of the tub, sweating and counting to 4,398,432 in my head. It lasted a good 20 minutes, at least. Another frustrating part of this is that mere hours before, we were engaged in quality outdoor time with each other that resulted in both of us getting much needed exercise and sunshine. My worry is that the behavior I was dealing with last night is a genetic remnant of my temper which I am all too familiar with. Aside: Parenting has enabled me to deal with my own demons on a regular basis! Much like my parents were unwilling to allow my temper to manifest and control the house, I refuse to allow my daughter to dictate our lives through tantrums. However, when I was growing up the "spare the rod, spoil the child" dictum was in force and we live in a different time now. I'm not saying I was beaten, but I was spanked on occasion (deservedly so) and, believe me when I say this, the threat of such was more than enough to quell most of my anger issues.
In addition to all of this, my wife and I want desperately to be on the same page regarding how we parent. But, we spend so much time parenting that we have precious little time to discuss how it's going. We're not the first, or the last, parents to be too exhausted for anything other than a simple "good night" at the end of the day; much less a dialogue on how to address various behaviors.
The good news is that my daughter is in a wonderful school that handles these issues capably through a variety of means. We are the recipients of both the benefits of her being there and the informative attentiveness to our questions. And, I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job as a parent, although her future therapy bills may be the final tally on that score. I guess my point in all of this is to say that it's hard out here for a dad (or a mom) and we're parents who actually give a damn. I'm not sure what life will be like for kids whose parents don't realize that parenting is a lifetime job.
On a lighter note, life is still pretty good. The job is good. I'm reading great books these days. I enhanced my karma by helping a lady change her flat tire this morning. And, my wife and I even got to see a movie in a theater the other night…so y'know, it's not all bad.
See you in the funny papers!


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Senator and former presidential candidate Ted Cruz weighed in on President Donald Trump's firing of acting Attorney General Sally Yates, saying she "refused to enforce the law."
Claiming the Obama appointee, like other attorneys general before her, "put brazen partisan interests above fidelity and law," Cruz agreed with the Trump administration's decision saying the call was "exactly right."
Read his statement below:
"After eight long years of a lawless Obama Department of Justice, it is fitting–and sad–that the very last act of the Obama DOJ is for the Acting AG to defy the newly elected President, refuse to enforce the law, and force the President to fire her. Sally Yates now joins the ignominious succession, from Eric Holder to Loretta Lynch, of Attorneys General who put brazen partisan interests above fidelity to law."
"President Trump was exactly right to fire an acting Attorney General who refused to carry out her constitutional duty to enforce and defend the law. Yates' lawless partisanship highlights why the Senate needs to act now–and Senate Democrats should end their extreme political obstruction and delay–and confirm Jeff Sessions immediately. America needs and deserves an Attorney General who will be faithful to the Constitution and uphold the law."
Arguing Democrats were unjustly holding up Jeff Sessions' AG nomination, the Trump administration announced Yates' firing Monday night, explaining she was "weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration."
"It is time to get serious about protecting our country. Calling for tougher vetting for individuals travelling from seven dangerous places is not extreme. It is reasonable and necessary to protect our country," the Trump team said in a statement.
"Tonight, President Trump relieved Ms. Yates of her duties and subsequently named Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve as Acting Attorney General until Senator Jeff Sessions is finally confirmed by the Senate, where he is being wrongly held up by Democrat senators for strictly political reasons."
Watch: Ted Cruz Reveals True Thoughts on Donald Trump to Alex Jones
Experience the massive benefits of our Ultimate Krill Oil now at 60% off!


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Get well soon
Get well soon
Your imagination is your only limit
Ouch, hope you get well soon. :c
Wow, this thread is super impressive! Ive always wanted to try putting silicone caulk in a mould like that, but wasn't sure if it would work. Im glad to see that it does! Keep it up!
~Merman Rett Of Georgia~
(Formerly Known as Risingmermaid)
finally got around to sculpting again!! it was too cold to work with the clay for a while, then that good ol' executive dysfunction got in the way all of march :/ but im good now! will post pics when im done!
only need the spines and detailing then time to cast! also messy messy work space...
Sent from my [device_name] using MerNetwork mobile app
Did u ever get the fluke design done?
~~~Mermaid Auquita~~~
Sent from my Shell Phone
Sent from My Shell Phone
***Mermaid Auquita***
AT LONG LAST i finally finished my fluke cast!!!! I used cement this time, suuuper heavy, but really strong!!! Im gonna pour my silicone tonight!!!!!!!!!!! I can finally move to more steps!!!
Sent from my Shell Phone
Im back!!!! I took a long break because of mental health and i also got back into writing! I plan on working on cadting my fluke soon! I discovered one of the problems eith my mold was that the chicken wire i used to strengthen the cement poked through the clay, im gonna try cutting the exposed wire and sanding it, then using petroleum jelly or wax to keep the silicone from sticking!!!
pronouns are they/them/their
Ahh! How did you make those scales?! I'm going to be putting silicone scales on my neoprene tail possibly tomorrow, and I was planning to just us a plastic spoon to smash-and-scrape a glob of silicone. I love the scallop-look of yours! Also the headpiece is amazing!


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SpongeBob SquarePants is an American television show created by Stephen Hillenburg. There exists an original Albanian dub that aired a few years before the partially found BobSfungjeri PantallonaKatrori dub, which airs on Cufo.
Barely any confirmed information is known about this dub. All that is known is that the title was SfungjerBob PantallonKatrori and it aired on Bang Bang around June 2013 (ending in July of the same year). Unconfirmed information about the dub is that seasons 1 & 2 were also aired on Top Channel before the dub aired on Bang Bang.
The 1st movie was sold on eBay on DVD early August 2016, to fellow members Bow Down097 and BMan78. Although, neither of them has received the DVD as of August 22, 2016.
Update, September 4, 2016: user BowDown097 has finally received the DVD! The dub is now considered partially found because the 1st movie is now found.
UPDATE: On September 5, 2016, user BMan78 has received the DVD and has uploaded the entire film onto Archive.org and MEGA. There is an audio issue at the end of the movie which affects part of the closing credits and the very final scene after the credits, in where the audio is muted.[1]
Yet another update, September 8, 2016: BowDown097 has contacted the seller of the DVD "all collect" and he has identified 3 different DVDs, them being Sponge Out of Water (found), the 1st movie (found), and another DVD with possible episodes on it. More info will be given as time passes.[2]
UPDATE (14 August 2019): 3 years have passed and I have not received any new news.


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As mentioned, rail participants must be able to demonstrate that the governance of their organisation ensures their rail activities are consistently as safe as they can be.
The key methods to do this are outlined below.
In order to be approved, your safety case must demonstrate:
The section should also outline the governance arrangements your organisation has in place, including:
For more information on safety cases, see our Rail safety cases section.
The Transport Agency undertakes ordinary and special safety assessments on a risk-based schedule covering all licence holders. These assessments give you, as the licence holder, the opportunity to show that you're safe and prove you're fulfilling the commitments outlined in your safety case.
While your safety case contains high-level statements and descriptions about how you manage safety, your safety system contains the standards, policies and procedures (details). These are reviewed during assessments to check appropriateness and compliance, and to confirm they are put into practice.
The internal audit your organisation undertakes should provide you with the assurance that you're able to verify and demonstrate you're fulfilling your commitments before a Transport Agency assessment. By looking at your operations and practices regularly, in depth and in detail, you give yourself the opportunity to correct anything that's not right before it's too late.
Ensuring you have the documentation that allows your practices to be verified will not only stand you in good stead for assessments, but also enable you to demonstrate good governance.
Good business documentation benefits the governance of your organisation by:


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As expected, following this morning's (July 7) terrorist attack in LONDON, gigs across the city have been called off.
So far Sum 41 have announced that their show at the Astoria is cancelled, along with Nate James whose Shepherd's Bush Empire gig is also off.
Prodigy were due to play London Carling Brixton Academy, but that is also off.
El Presidente have also cancelled their gig this evening at the The Underbelly in Hoxton.
This evening's Queens Of The Stone Age gig at Somerset House is also off, although organisers say they're looking to rearrange the show.
A statement reads: "Somerset House has announced that tonight's concert by Queens of the Stone Age will be postponed, due to the current situation in central London. Somerset House and the band's management are in discussion about re-scheduling the date, and an announcement will be made early next week. The rest of the Somerset House Series is unaffected at this time."
NME.COM has been told their club date at Koko in Camden will not take place.
Stay tuned to NME.COM for the latest music news.


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NIC invests $3.5m more in Tanzania banking subsidiary
Tuesday April 23 2019
NIC Group invested an additional Ksh350 million ($3.5 m) in its Tanzanian banking subsidiary last year when the regulator in that market introduced new prudential rules that put a strain on institutions' capital.
The move left the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm's stake in NIC Bank Tanzania unchanged at 69.84 percent, indicating that minority shareholders in the subsidiary could have also provided their proportionate share of new capital.
NIC's cumulative investment in the loss-making subsidiary in the review period stood at Ksh2 billion ($20 million), up from Ksh1.6 billion ($16 million) in 2017.
The Bank of Tanzania last year published rules requiring lenders to write off any loan that has not performed in four consecutive quarters (one year) instead of the previous 12 consecutive quarters (three years).
The rule ignored the value of securities held for bad debt written off under the more conservative international accounting standards, IFRS9, putting a strain on banks' capital.
Besides the Tanzanian subsidiary, NIC also invested Ksh100 million ($1m) in its motor vehicle leasing arm NIC Leasing, bringing its total capital expenditure last year to Ksh450 million ($4.5m).
NIC Bank Tanzania's loan book stood at Ksh3.4 billion ($34 m) last year and the lender made impairment allowances of Ksh311.3 million ($3m) or nine per cent of the total.
The institution met all the capital requirements in the review period when its net losses widened to Ksh113.6 million ($1.12m) from Ksh107.2 million ($1.12m) in 2017.
The Tanzanian subsidiary will be merged with CBA Group's banking unit in that market.


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Wow, quite the announcement day….. not what I would expect for a Monday.
– Rock Band 2 has been officially announced. Coming to the 360 in September, other platforms… later. Very odd. Microsoft must have handed out the cash again for a slight bit of exclusivity.
– The 2.4 Firmware upgrade for the Playstation 3 comes out on Wednesday. In game XMB. Trophy Support. Customizable soundtracks.
I only wonder if some of the older games will go back and create patches for Trophy support. I'll give Super Stardust HD a look to see how the trophy stuff works though.
– Jonah, you're seriously thinking that Diablo III will be out this year? Me thinks that you've been drinking. No matter how long it's been in development, there is no way that game makes it to stores before late '09… and that's being generous. Blizzard has a reputation of 'when it's done' for when they release their games. It'll be a while.
– Burnout Revenge for the 360 is $12.99 in store today. Not a bad price for a Burnout title.


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This month there have been lots of movie and music billboards filling L.A.'s skyline and the only real challenge has been capturing them in clear skies, as the past few weeks have certainly lived up to the seasonal reputation of 'May grey'.
Movie billboards
If you like these outdoor ads, be sure to also check out even more Mad Max: Fury Road movie billboards.
Thinking of better futures, and Disney was bringing a movie based on its Tomorrowland theme park to the big screen with George Clooney in the starring role. Be sure to also check out this giant-sized Tomorrowland movie billboard along the Sunset Strip.
Spy movie billboards. This ad creative reminds me of James Bond's Skyfall movie billboards from 2012 and if you like this, be sure to check out the other Goldfinger spoof billboard.
Meanwhile, not so funny is David Oyelowo's new film project, Nightingale, about a lonely war veteran unravelling at the prospect of a visit from an old friend.
Be sure to also check out these Selma movie billboards, in which he portrayed iconic Civil Rights activist, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Be sure to also check out these Selma movie billboards, in which he portrayed iconic Civil Rights activist, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Music billboards
As you can see there's been lots of variety to dispel the gloom this month, so stay tuned in the coming days for even more snapshots of the fashion, lifestyle and TV billboards crowding L.A.'s sprawling skyline...


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VIRGINIA - The same smell of warm milk chocolate still greets visitors when they walk through the front door of the iconic red-and-white striped Canelake's Candies on Chestnut Street in Virginia - and now, those treats are being made by the third generation of the Canelake family.
"It's really nice to get the family store back," said Pamela Matson, granddaughter of one of the candy store's founders, Gust Canelake. Pamela, her husband Dennis, her twin sister Patricia Canelake, and siblings John and Chris Canelake recently bought back the Virginia store from longtime owner Jim Cina, who retired in October.
The Virginia store reopened on Saturday.
Pamela Matson and Patricia Canelake opened their own seasonal candy store in Knife River in 2007. Great! Lakes Candy Kitchen sells many of the original Canelake recipes, including chocolate and caramel turtles, fudge and caramel.
When they heard the original Virginia store might be for sale, it wasn't a hard decision for the sisters and their siblings to step up, even though many of them are at or close to retirement age themselves.
"Candy is a happy thing," Pamela Matson said. "It's something that makes people happy."
Seeing the Canelake tradition continue in Virginia is exciting, said Laurentian Chamber of Commerce CEO and president Melissa Cox.
"They have such a special niche in our community," Cox said. "It means a lot to have these businesses continue (their) legacy here."
The Virginia store, originally called the "Virginia Candy Kitchen," was founded in 1905 by brothers Christ, Gust and Tom Canelake. Eventually Christ and Tom opened their own candy stores, one down the street in Virginia and one in Hibbing. Gust Canelake brought his own two sons, Leo and John, into the business. And, eventually, John Canelake had his own family, including twin sisters Patricia and Pamela.
Some new treats, such as a salted caramel turtles, will migrate in from the Great! Lakes Candy Kitchen, Pamela Matson said. A few days before the store reopened, Canelake employee Nina Krahl was busy dipping new peanut butter meltaways in a river of melted milk chocolate.
Pamela and Dennis Matson were busy making their first batch of caramel in one of Gust Canelake's original copper kettles. They stirred steadily with a long wooden paddle as the mixture of butter, cream and sugar bubbled and steamed. As the caramel cooked, they kept a close watch on a digital thermometer that hung on the wall nearby. When the thermometer hit the magic temperature of 239 degrees they donned thick gloves to lift the heavy kettle off the heat.
"Ooh," Pamela Matson said as her wrist accidentally touched the hot copper. In her father and grandfather's day, they cooked more by feel. Gust and John Canelake would wet their bare hands, swipe two fingers through the boiling caramel, and quickly roll it into a ball. If the ball stood up firmly, "like a soldier," Pamela Matson said, the caramel was ready.
As the Matsons stirred caramel and Krahl dipped chocolate, retired Canelake's owner Jim Cina walked in the back door. Since selling the business in early October, he still drops by to pick up mail and check in on the new owners.
"This has come full circle," Cina said. "That's pretty good."
Cina apprenticed as a candymaker for nine months with John Canelake before buying the business in 1983. He used all of the original candy recipes, though he brought in a few more modern techniques.
"Talking to Jim is just like talking to my dad," Pamela Matson said.
John Canelake didn't encourage his children to follow in the family business.
At the time, Pamela Matson said, families were more interested in seeing their children go off to college or other secondary education.
"My dad loved the store," she said. "But he worked very hard, he worked seven days a week, and we were not encouraged to take over the family business."
But later in life, John Canelake was thrilled to see his twin daughters open their own candy shop using the family recipes, and in his later years, he loved to talk candy with his daughters. John Canelake died on Christmas day in 2012, at age 92.
As Pamela Matson set those fresh peanut butter meltaways on sheet pans to dry, she reminisced about her family's history with candy.
"I feel like my dad and Uncle Leo would be really happy," she said.


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ويکيسفر:د کارنانو شورا
- en: Requests for the bot flag should be made on this page. This wiki uses the standard bot policy, and allows global bots and automatic approval of certain types of bots. Other bots should apply below, and then request access from a steward if there is no objection.
Bot policy[سمول]
Hello. To facilitate steward granting of bot access, I suggest implementing the standard bot policy on this wiki. In particular, this policy allows stewards to automatically flag known interlanguage linking bots (if this page says that is acceptable), which form the vast majority of such requests. The policy also enables global bots on this wiki (if this page says that is acceptable), which are trusted bots that will be given bot access on every wiki that allows global bots.
This policy makes bot access requesting much easier for local users, operators, and stewards. To implement it we only need to create a redirect to this page from Project:Bot policy, and add a line at the top noting that it is used here. Please read the text at m:Bot policy before commenting. If you object, please say so; I hope to implement in two weeks if there is no objection, since it is particularly written to streamline bot requests on wikis with little or no community interested in bot access requests. Rschen7754 ۲۳:۳۷, ۳۰ مارچ ۲۰۱۹ (UTC)
Read-only mode for up to 30 minutes on 11 April[سمول]
Wikimedia Foundation Medium-Term Plan feedback request[سمول]
مهرباني وکړئ خپلي ژبې ته د ور ژباړلو لپاره مرسته وکړئ
Re-thinking where to put the focus on - the collaborative creation of the "List of articles every Wikivoyage should have" on Meta[سمول]
One of the issues with any wiki site is that unless the editor community agrees upon where it is mostly important to put most efforts, usually everyone just improves random articles without knowing what to prioritize... this becomes a bigger issue with the smaller communities where if there are only two or three active editors... they would usually create mostly random stubs that aren't of much interest to their readers, just because most people wouldn't know on the top of the head what travel destinations are of most interest to people.
In order to tackle this issue, some wiki sites develop a vital/core article list based on the consensus in that community, which could be used both as a way to focus most efforts where they are most needed (for example, by encouarging the editors to make as many Guide articles and Star articles from all the articles on the core articles list) but also as a way to encourage the other parallel editions of that wiki to create the articles deemed to be the most vital articles as well.
I especially like Wikipedia's vital articles list... but also Meta's List of articles every Wikipedia should have.
I think that the existence of such a list, that might even be of use here at the Peshto Wikivoyage, would be especially important as it would inspire all the smaller editions of Wikivoyage to make sure that the articles which are of the most interest to their readers are the ones in which most efforts are directed towards + that a priority would be given to improving the quality of the most prominent and sought after articles.
As such I decided to plunge forward and create a draft for this list at Meta. It currently includes exactly 1,000 articles. The list isn't finished! Please help us improve the list by going over it, making note of the articles you think are missing from it, and suggesting them at the discussion page of that page at meta. ויקיג'אנקי (خبرې اترې) ۱۳:۳۵, ۱۵ جون ۲۰۱۹ (UTC)
New tools and IP masking[سمول]
Hey everyone,
The Wikimedia Foundation wants to work on two things that affect how we patrol changes and handle vandalism and harassment. We want to make the tools that are used to handle bad edits better. We also want to get better privacy for unregistered users so their IP addresses are no longer shown to everyone in the world. We would not hide IP addresses until we have better tools for patrolling.
We have an idea of what tools could be working better and how a more limited access to IP addresses would change things, but we need to hear from more wikis. You can read more about the project on Meta and post comments and feedback. Now is when we need to hear from you to be able to give you better tools to handle vandalism, spam and harassment.
You can post in your language if you can't write in English.Johan (WMF)
The consultation on partial and temporary Foundation bans just started[سمول]
In a recent statement, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees requested that staff hold a consultation to "re-evaluat[e] or add community input to the two new office action policy tools (temporary and partial Foundation bans)".
Accordingly, the Foundation's Trust & Safety team invites all Wikimedians to join this consultation and give their feedback from 30 September to 30 October.
How can you help?
- Suggest how partial and temporary Foundation bans should be used, if they should (eg: On all projects, or only on a subset);
- Give ideas about how partial and temporary Foundation bans should ideally implemented, if they should be; and/or
- Propose changes to the existing Office Actions policy on partial and temporary bans.
We offer our thanks in advance for your contributions, and we hope to get as much input as possible from community members during this consultation!
-- Kbrown (WMF) ۱۷:۱۴, ۳۰ سپټمبر ۲۰۱۹ (UTC)
Feedback wanted on Desktop Improvements project[سمول]
مهرباني وکړئ خپلي ژبې ته د ور ژباړلو لپاره مرسته وکړئ
سلامونه. The Readers Web team at the WMF will work on some improvements to the desktop interface over the next couple of years. The goal is to increase usability without removing any functionality. We have been inspired by changes made by volunteers, but that currently only exist as local gadgets and user scripts, prototypes, and volunteer-led skins. We would like to begin the process of bringing some of these changes into the default experience on all Wikimedia projects.
We are currently in the research stage of this project and are looking for ideas for improvements, as well as feedback on our current ideas and mockups. So far, we have performed interviews with community members at Wikimania. We have gathered lists of previous volunteer and WMF work in this area. We are examining possible technical approaches for such changes.
We would like individual feedback on the following:
- Identifying focus areas for the project we have not yet discovered
- Expanding the list of existing gadgets and user scripts that are related to providing a better desktop experience. If you can think of some of these from your wiki, please let us know
- Feedback on the ideas and mockups we have collected so far
We would also like to gather a list of wikis that would be interested in being test wikis for this project - these wikis would be the first to receive the updates once we're ready to start building.
When giving feedback, please consider the following goals of the project:
- Make it easier for readers to focus on the content
- Provide easier access to everyday actions (e.g. search, language switching, editing)
- Put things in logical and useful places
- Increase consistency in the interface with other platforms - mobile web and the apps
- Eliminate clutter
- Plan for future growth
As well as the following constraints:
- Not touching the content - no work will be done in terms of styling templates or to the structure of page contents themselves
- Not removing any functionality - things might move around, but all navigational items and other functionality currently available by default will remain
- No drastic changes to the layout - we're taking an evolutionary approach to the changes and want the site to continue feeling familiar to readers and editors
Please give all feedback (in any language) at mw:Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements
After this round of feedback, we plan on building a prototype of suggested changes based on the feedback we receive. You'll hear from us again asking for feedback on this prototype.
مننه! Quiddity (WMF) (talk)
Community Wishlist 2020[سمول]
The 2020 Community Wishlist Survey is now open! This survey is the process where communities decide what the Community Tech team should work on over the next year. We encourage everyone to submit proposals until the deadline on November 11, 2019, or comment on other proposals to help make them better.
This year, we're exclusively focusing on smaller projects (i.e., Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikispecies, Wikivoyage, and Wikinews). We want to help these projects and provide meaningful improvements to diverse communities. If you're a member of any of these projects, please participate in the survey! To submit proposals, see the guidelines on the survey page. You can write proposals in any language, and we will translate them for you. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing your proposals!
IFried (WMF) ۱۹:۳۰, ۴ نومبر ۲۰۱۹ (UTC)
Making the Content Translation Tool available for Wikivoyage[سمول]
I don't know if you all have ever tried Wikipedia's Content translation Tool, but i'll just say that this is a very strong tool that has helped the Wikipedia community translate A LOT of articles between the various Wikipedia editions (mostly translations of articles from the English Wikipedia to the smaller Wikipedia editions).
So far this tool is only used in Wikipedia.
As part of the current Community Wishlist Survey, a suggestion has been brought forward to make this tool available for all Wikivoyage editions as well:
If you support making this tool available for Wikivoyage as well, please add your vote in that page. ויקיג'אנקי (خبرې اترې) ۲۰:۳۴, ۲۹ نومبر ۲۰۱۹ (UTC)
Wiki Loves Folklore[سمول]
Hello Folks,
Wiki Loves Love is back again in 2020 iteration as Wiki Loves Folklore from 1 February, 2020 - 29 February, 2020. Join us to celebrate the local cultural heritage of your region with the theme of folklore in the international photography contest at Wikimedia Commons. Images, videos and audios representing different forms of folk cultures and new forms of heritage that haven't otherwise been documented so far are welcome submissions in Wiki Loves Folklore. Learn more about the contest at Meta-Wiki and Commons.
Kind regards,
Wiki Loves Folklore International Team
— Tulsi Bhagat (contribs | talk)
sent using MediaWiki message delivery (خبرې اترې) ۰۶:۱۵, ۱۸ جنوري ۲۰۲۰ (UTC)
Movement Learning and Leadership Development Project[سمول]
The Wikimedia Foundation's Community Development team is seeking to learn more about the way volunteers learn and develop into the many different roles that exist in the movement. Our goal is to build a movement informed framework that provides shared clarity and outlines accessible pathways on how to grow and develop skills within the movement. To this end, we are looking to speak with you, our community to learn about your journey as a Wikimedia volunteer. Whether you joined yesterday or have been here from the very start, we want to hear about the many ways volunteers join and contribute to our movement.
To learn more about the project, please visit the Meta page. If you are interested in participating in the project, please complete this simple Google form. Although we may not be able to speak to everyone who expresses interest, we encourage you to complete this short form if you are interested in participating!
-- LMiranda (WMF) (talk) ۱۹:۰۱, ۲۲ جنوري ۲۰۲۰ (UTC)
Come have a friendly chat with other Wikivoyagers at the Wikivoyage Discord server I opened[سمول]
Please join us at the unofficial Discord server Wikivoyage Hub and have a friendly non formal chat with many other Wikivoyagers. Although you would be able to access this server immediately without installing any software/app, simply by clicking this link, I warmly recommend first installing the Discord software and registering your username to get a much better experience with Discord.
I am currently inviting Wikivoyagers from all other Wikivoyage editions to join this server as well. I hope to see you all there! ויקיג'אנקי (بحث) ۱۵ آوریل ۲۰۲۰، ساعت ۲۱:۱۱ (UTC)


text:
Under the Social Security disability insurance program (title II of the Act), there are three basic categories of individuals who can qualify for benefits on the basis of disability:
- A disabled insured worker under full retirement age.
- An individual disabled since childhood (before age 22) who is a dependent of a parent entitled to title II disability or retirement benefits or was a dependent of a deceased insured parent.
- A disabled widow or widower, age 50-60 if the deceased spouse was insured under Social Security.
Under title XVI, or SSI, a financially needy person can get payments based on disability under two basic categories:
- An adult age 18 or over who is disabled.
- A child (under age 18) who is disabled.


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I have been working on a bunch of posts to Journal the past 2 months but something notable (to me) happened this morning!
I had a hard time buttoning my fav jeans. This makes me smile and sad all at the same time. I have a couple pairs of dress pants that don't fit but these jeans have been working great. The weight I have gained so far seems to all be in my middle. Not so anymore.
I am not really showing, still in the just looking chubbier stage. I have a pic and will post soon but guessing this means I am on my way! :)
Friday, May 4
Notable Morning
Posted by Kendra at 5/04/2012
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A broadcast receiver is an Android component which allows you to register for system or application events. All registered receivers for an event are notified by the Android runtime when the event happens.
When configuring the Yoti Android SDK you will need to add a broadcast receiver class, this acts as a listener for Yoti to get the callback URL from the Yoti app. Please note there are two callback options:
- You handle the callback to your backend
- You let the mobile SDK manage this for you
For more information please go to our GitHub page:
For any further support please email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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We are the youth ministry of Unaka Avenue Baptist Church. We are a small, but growing youth ministry inviting middle school and high school youth from 5th grade to 12th grade.
So many youth leave the church because they do not find church necessary to their lives. Our vision is to show students what a relationship with Christ is about and how they can grow in their walk. We begin by dealing with their worldview, which will begin to change their belief system, and will begin to change their actions. We strive to reach the core of each young person as they grow in their faith. We want every student to own his/her faith and then make it known to the world around them.
We have a Sunday School class that meets on Sunday mornings at 9:45am and we have Wednesday night children and middle school activities, and older student Bible study. We have various events throughout the year.
We are a growing student ministry that enjoys hanging out with each other, eating together, reading the Bible together, and talking about real life issues together. We like meeting new people and getting to know them. Our middle school and youth ministry ranges from 5th grade to 12th grade.
All are welcome to come. We hope to see you soon!
Call the church office, 926-5951, for more info on listed activities.
This includes making sure the permission and liability forms are filled out before the activity.
Upcoming Youth activities:
9:45am - Bible Study
11:00 am - Worship
6:30 - 7:30pm - Student Bible study
We want students to come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior. We have been changed by a relationship with the God of this universe and we want every student to know the same hope, joy, peace, and love that we have received.
We have a burden for the youth of Johnson City and the surrounding areas. We want them to know peace beyond anything they can experience from whatever the world offers. It is a peace beyond all man's understanding, but it comes from the Prince of Peace.
For students who already know Christ as their Lord and Savior, our goal is to equip them to go into their world and make Him known. We train and equip them to do what God is calling them to do as His people.
Heaven is a free gift that cannot be earned-nor is it deserved because of the sins in our lives. We are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. God says we must be perfect as He is perfect if we want to earn our way to heaven, but we cannot save ourselves. God is merciful and does not want to punish us, but sin has to be punished, so He must punish us. God solved this problem in His son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is God in man form. He is the Son of God, but He is God himself. Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross for the sins of the world. Christ became sin on the cross so that our punishment for sin was laid on Him. Faith is not simply agreeing with what the Bible or God says. It is not temporary to get us through a tough time. It is trusting in Christ alone for our salvation and eternal life. Our good works do not get us to heaven, but are a response to what Christ did for us on the cross.
Weekly Schedule
Sunday: Youth Impact Bible Study, 9:45am
Bible Drill - 5:00pm
Youth Connect Groups - 6:00pm
Youth on Mission-6:15-7:30pm


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Pepperidge Farm Baked Goldfish Crackers – 66oz (4.1 lbs)
$18.43 (as of September 10, 2018, 4:08 am)
- Description
- Amazon Customer Reviews
This 66oz box of Pepperidge Farm Baked Cheddar Goldfish Crackers contains 3 resealable bags inside. Contains 0g trans fat. Baked with real cheese. The perfect snack for Young and Old alike!


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Welcome Class of 2021! We will be having our 9th Grade Orientation on July 27th, 2017, from 5:30 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. We are excited to meet all of our parents and incoming students. Students will receive their schedules, laptops, information about Columbia High School, and other information. We are looking forward to seeing you!
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(courtesy of Brian Okstad)
McClellan Spars With Press, Says No Need to Notify Bush
Editor & Publisher staff
On the day after more than 30,000 people -- including the vice president, the first lady, and a former first lady -- were evacuated from their offices or homes in Washington, D.C., but the president, who was biking in Maryland was not notified until the threat passed, reporters grilled Press Secretary Scott McClellan at his daily briefing.
For those who might have missed it on TV -- that is, nearly everyone -- here are some choice excerpts, as McClellan continually refers to "protocols" and reporters essentially ask, "Wouldn't most men like to know when their home is evacuated and their wife is hustled to a secure bunker?" They also wonder about the small matter of the president being commander in chief and the capital, theoretically, coming under attack.
Some reporters also suggested that the off-kilter Cessna had come much closer to the White House than McClellan's claim yesterday of three miles.
Entire Article


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The Flicks Community Movie Theater is the only independent, fully licensed and fully volunteer-run art house cinema in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which offers big screen movies in a comfortable air conditioned movie room to the expatriate and tourist community, since June 2009.
Our main facts:
- The Flicks Community Movie Theater is located at house number 39b on Street 95. Click here to see it on a handy map.
- We do not have a fixed cover charge or ticket price anymore. Our entire movie theater is now simply based on community effort and karma. You leave a donation in the basked on the bar while you can have any or our drinks and popcorn.
- We screen HD quality big screen edition of the latest blockbusters, classics and documentaries on the 6-meter wide screen at The Flicks.
- The Flicks venue is a fully licensed drink and snack bar and offer comfortable air conditioned movie room (mini hall) where you can watch the movies from brand new reclining seats or comfy rattan sofas.
- The Flicks is a fully volunteer-run local community movie theater, fully financed by 109 people after a crowd-funding event and once founded in 2009.
- Profits are re-invested into the movie theater itself and to support social and cultural events in the Phnom Penh expat community (like the Phnom Penh Players amateur theater group, the bi-monthly and highly anticipated Nerd Night Phnom Penh, various comedy shows and annual performances of The Vagina Monologues and art events at various venues) as well as various expatriate-oriented websites and city guides.
- You can reserve your seats for every screening out our venues through our online reservation form. Reserved seats have priority. You can pay for your tickets at the venue, at least 15 minutes before the scheduled time of the movie. After this time your reservations becomes void.
- The movie room is available for private screenings, which is ideal for birthday parties, church screenings or if you just want to have the entire theater for yourself.
- If you wish to volunteer at The Flicks (for a minimum of 3 weeks and including free accommodation), let us know and contact us through this website. We are always in need for fun smiley people to help us out.
- Sign up for our weekly newsletter, this way you receive our schedule every week in your mailbox. Just fill out the form at the bottom of this page.
- We are not available by phone, as too many people then find our number somewhere online and call to ask what we are screening tonight and what these movies are about. Don't worry, we have this all-informing website with various contact options in the menu.
Harsh house rules
If you prefer to use your phone (to check the time, to text a friend, to check your facebook updates or to even make a phone call), we will stop the movie for you. And then we kindly request you to leave the venue. Using any hardware during any of our screenings is simply considered as a rude violation of our house rules.
You are kindly requested not to bring your own food and/or drinks to any of our venue.
A little history
The New-Zealand couple Martin and Jeanette Robinson founded The Flicks Festival Movie House in early 2009. They renovated a pre-Khmer Rouge villa into one with an air-conditioned movie room and a bar on the second floor.
In March 2011 Dutch serial entrepreneur Ramon Stoppelenburg took over the business, after an online fund-raising to save the movie house from closure. The lobby got renovated and fully air conditioned and the front balcony got a large and leafy terrace extension in the years that followed. The Flicks can seat 32 people.


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Kris Soonik celebrates its 10 year anniversary in 2019 and starts with a marvellous Fall/Winter 2018 photoshoot. After a decade of gorgeous girls fronting the campaigns, the Kriss Soonik woman has this time stepped behind the camera to capture a few of their favourite things – lingerie, cats and gorgeous boys!
The collection is to discover in the background, wisely presented on hangers, when cats and mens catches the light to offer tender and romantic pictures, as a perfect evocation of the naughty softness of Kriss Soonik's creations.
A succes!
Although I admire this photoshoot, I can not resist to present you as a bonus some of the beauties you will find on her eshop, to discover absolutely !
Fall / Winter 2018 lingerie collection available on Kriss Soonik


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Tuesday August 14th, 2018
The COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) law has been a mandated burden for employers for over 30 years. It provides rights to health insurance to former eligible employees, spouses and dependent children if coverage was lost due to a specific qualifying event. The employer's responsibility is to communicate those rights at various times, primarily at time of initial enrollment and at the time of a qualifying event. The employer is then required to reinstate coverage to the group health plan for those beneficiaries who properly elect and pay for the coverage.
What many employers still overlook, however, is how many other laws interact with or are affected by COBRA. Review the full overview of how various laws are impacted by COBRA here: https://issuu.com/californiabrokermagazine/docs/california_broker_august_2018/38 (written by Dan Taylor, VP of Sales at Infinisource Benefit Services and included in the August 2018 issue of California Broker)


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Master Programs in Kufstein in Austria 2020
Master-level studies involve specialized study in a field of research or an area of professional practice. Earning a master's degree demonstrates a higher level of mastery of the subject. Earning a master's degree can take anywhere from a year to three or four years. Before you can graduate, you usually must write and defend a thesis, a long paper that is the culmination of your specialized research.
After earning a bachelor's degree, many students decide to increase their experience and education by pursuing a Master. A Master may take about two years to earn, and there are programs offered in many different areas so that students can find an emphasis that works for them and their goals.
Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe.
Kufestein is a welcoming town, especially to students arriving to study there. The institutions in the area offer quality student facilities as well as competitive degree courses.
Masters in Kufstein in Austria
Results Filter
International Business Studies FT
This comprehensive new master's degree, with its international orientation, allows students to choose from one of two specialisations, whilst simultaneously offering a wide ra ...
Master in Sports, Culture & Events Management FT
This Master Degree Program has been developed as a management degree in the synergetic areas of sports, culture as well as events management with a strong international focus.


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Funerals are a natural part of life and no one is ever fully prepared when a loved one dies, even if anticipated. The clergy of the Church and the faith community are the foundation for providing comfort in the midst of grief and for guiding a family through a transition from earthly life and death into eternal life. The death of a member of the Church should be reported as soon as possible to, and arrangements for the funeral should be made in consultation with, the Minister of the Congregation.
To sign up for St. Michael's newsletter, please email Pat at firstname.lastname@example.com.
1219 Ratzer Road, Wayne NJ 07470 • Phone: 973-694-1026 • Fax: 973-872-4757 • Parish Office
© This site and the contents copyright 2020 St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Wayne, NJ. All rights reserved. • Internet Policy


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Obituary of Linda L. Proper
Linda L. Kahle Proper
Linda L. Kahle Proper, of Millcreek Twp., passed away unexpectedly at the age of 64, early Tuesday morning, July 23, 2019. She was born in Venango County on May 1, 1955, the daughter of the late James E. and Phyllis J. Gathers Kahle. Linda was an employee of Citizens Bank as a Senior Relationship Administrator for almost 40 years.
Linda loved American history; specifically, the Civil War, which explains why her favorite movie was "Gone with the Wind". However, she was always ready to see a good movie with her son Brenton, friends and family, or by herself. Linda was an avid reader but also enjoyed watching her "stories", visiting Amish country, and going to craft fairs. Linda and Mark loved going out with each other and with close friends on the weekends. She loved taking family vacations and was looking forward to traveling after her retirement to Ireland and Europe. She was looking forward to spending more time with her friends and with her "sister of heart", Linda Orzehowski. Throughout the years of working at the bank, she befriended many of her customers creating friendships which she would cherish her entire life.
Both Linda and Mark were always ready to open their home and hearts to all; especially for their son Brenton's many friends. She always loved the peacefulness of their cottage and to be able to relax and watch the river go by.
Besides her parents, Linda was preceded in death by her husband Mark on July 15, 2019, one brother Wesley Kahle, her stepmother Marion Moran Kahle, her stepbrother Jim Moran, sister-in-law Sharon Miller, father and mother-in-law Howard and Jean Proper, and her nephew Paul Ross.
Linda is survived by her son Brenton, three brothers; Jim Kahle, Eric Kahle (fiancé Mary Alice), Joel Kahle (Michelle), stepsister Jane Sundberg, brother-in-law Terry Proper (Jill), nieces Rebecca Kahle, Lisa Eliason, Julie Walker, and nephew Steve Proper.
Friends may call at the Dusckas-Martin Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc., 4216 Sterrettania Rd. on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. and are invited there on Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. for the Funeral Service. Private interment Laurel Hill Cemetery.


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If you're living with diabetes, you know that one of the more dangerous side effects is peripheral neuropathy. This condition makes it difficult to feel sensation in your feet, meaning that you might not realize when you've been injured, or developed an ulcer. With diabetic shoes from Happy Feet, you can avoid potentially life-changing foot injuries.
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Prevent complications like ulcers and calluses that can lead to amputations. Our diabetic shoes and custom molded inserts will help improve your mobility and protect your foot from injury. With our pedorthist services, you can get exactly the footwear you need. Call today for a free evaluation. You can also find a selection of diabetic socks for additional support.


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Master Xu-yun's Discourse on the
12 Anniversary of the Death of Dharma-Master Yin-guang,
a Saint of the Pure Land on 21 December 1952.
Today is the twelfth anniversary of the death of the late Dharma-Master Yin-guang, who was reborn in the Western Paradise (of Amitabha). All of you, his disciples, have gathered in this hall to celebration the occasion. As when one drinks water and thinks of its source, so your celebration today is in memory of your fatherly Master. In Buddhism, a Master is the father of one's Dharmakaya, so to commemorate the death of one's Master is to have filial thoughts of him. This filial piety is much deeper than that towards one's parents. I still remember meeting the Master on Pu-tuo Island in the twentieth year of Emperor Guang-xu (1894). He had been asked by Abbot Hua-wen to expound the Sutra of Amitabha at Qian-se Temple and stayed there for over twenty years to read the Tripitaka. He isolated himself to practice the Pure Land method, and although he was an authority on the Buddhist Sutras, he used only the word 'Amitabha', which was recited in his daily practice. He never pretended that, with his deep knowledge of the sutras, he could slight and dispense with this simple practice of the Pure Land School.
All expedient methods taught by the Buddha are good for treating worldly illnesses and the recitation of the Buddha's name is an agada (medicine) that cures all diseases. However, each of these methods requires a firm faith, an inflexible resolution and considerable practice in order to give good results. If you are strong in faith, you will achieve the same perfection whether you concentrate on mantras, practice Chan or repeat the Buddha's name.
If you are weak in faith and rely on your tiny good roots, little intelligence and shallow knowledge, or if you memorize a few Buddhist terms or a few gong-ans and then talk aimlessly, praising and censuring others, you will only increase your karma-producing habits and when death closes in, you will follow your karma to transmigrate again in samsara. Is it not a great pity?
As you commemorate the death of your Master, you should commemorate his true practice and observance of the Dharma. He was firm in his practice and kept in step with the ancients. He understood Mahasthama Bodhisattva's means of perfection, which consists of concentrating all thoughts upon the Buddha; he put it into actual practice and thereby realized the state of samadhi which resulted from his concentration upon Amitabha. He then spread the Pure Land Dharma for the benefit of living beings, unflinchingly and without tiring for several decades. Today, you cannot find another man like him.
A true practitioner always avoids discriminating between self and others, but concentrates and relies on the Buddha at all times and in all situations. He firmly holds on to this single thought of the Buddha, which is intimate and unbroken, until it becomes effective and causes the manifestation of Amitabha's Pure Land from which he will enjoy all benefit. In order to realize this, one's believing mind should be firm and set solely on remembering Amitabha Buddha. If one's believing mind wavers, nothing can be achieved.
For instance, if someone says that Chan is better than Pure Land, you try Chan and stop reciting the Buddha's name; then if others praise the Teaching School, you read the sutras and drop Chan meditation; or if you fail in your studies of the teachings, you concentrate upon mantras instead. If you practice the Buddhadharma in this way, you will be confused and achieve no result. Instead of blaming yourself for this ineffectual practice, you will accuse the Buddha of deceiving living beings; by so doing, you will slander the Buddha and vilify the Dharma, thereby creating an intermittently (Avici) hellish karma.
Therefore, I urge all of you to have faith in the profitable practice of the Pure Land School and to follow the example set by your late Master, whose motto was, 'Only sincere recitation of the Buddha's name,' to develop an inflexible resolution, to develop a bold mind, and to regard the Pure Land as the sole concern of your life.
Chan and Pure Land seem to be two different methods as seen by beginners, but are really one to experienced practitioners. The hua-tou technique in Chan meditation, which puts an end to the stream of birth and death, also requires a firm believing mind to be effective. If the hua-tou is not firmly held, Chan practice will fail. If the believing mind is strong, and if the hua-tou is firmly held, the practitioner will be mindless of even eating and drinking, and is training will take effect. When sense-organs disengage from sense data, his attainment will be similar to that achieved by a reciter of the Buddha's name when his training becomes effective and when the Pure Land manifests in front of him. In this state, noumemon and phenomenon intermingle, Mind and Buddha are not a duality and both are in the state of suchness which is absolute and free from all contraries and relativities. Then what difference is there between Chan and Pure Land?
Since you are all adherents of the Pure Land School, I hope you will rely on the Buddha's name as your support in your lifetime and that you will truly and sincerely recite it without interruption.
(Empty Cloud: Translated By Charles Luk – Revised by Richard Hunn, Element Books (1988) – Pages 152-154)
Ch'an Comment: As there is nothing outside of the mind that perceives it, all has the empty mind ground as its foundation. Chanting, quietly meditating, walking, singing, eating, resting, and all kinds of activities do not depart from it. This being the case, it is the discriminating mind that weighs humanity down and prevents a clear perception of reality. If the mind discriminates, then neither Ch'an nor Pure Land will save you!


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This product utilizes fresh tea leaves of the Jinxuan variety and is processed using a Taiwanese approach of tea making.The finished tea leaves are glossy jade green while the tea liquid is clear yellowish green.It tastes smooth and pure with a milky and floral aroma.
Floral, milky aroma
Light yellow
|Tea Season
|Tea Province
1.Water :
The quality of water used as an impact on the quality of the tea. We are recommended using filtered water. Heat water to the recommended temperature using an electric hot water heater or a stove top kettle.
2.Temperature :
Heat fresh water to rolling boil or to a temperature of 90℃.
3.Loose Leaf :
Use the infuser of your choice, measure 10g of tea . For a stronger brew preference, add an additional teaspoon for the pot.
4.Infusion Time :
Once the water reaches the appropriate temperature, it should be poured immediately over the tea leaves. 1st infusion 40 seconds, 2nd infusion 35 seconds, 3rd infusion 35 seconds. All an additional 5 seconds for each subsequent brew depending on personal


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Make a note of the following ARTHUR dates
Wednesday, 15 April, 2020ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST EVENTS
At locations across Canada
Thursday, 21th May, 2020 THE ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS GALAAt the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto!
Crime Writers of Canada offers sincere thanks to our award sponsors...
Crime Writers of Canada would also like to thank everyone in the Canadian publishing community for making the Arthur Ellis Awards such a success through the years.
Copyright 2019 Crime Writers of Canada


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"Indiscriminate Distinctions," the second ebook by local writer Warren Dunn, is the story of four talented and privileged young people struggling with their not-so-private hopes and dreams in a highly charged political environment. As a newly minted physics professor, Owen Miller is caught up in a White House initiative to keep science and religion separate in the nation's classrooms as he organizes a conference on the design of the universe. At the same time, he is trying to choose between the three women in his life, one of them a promising artist who is the long-distance mother of his child. Increasingly confused and frustrated, he finds himself at odds not just with his colleagues but with a President of the United States determined to bring civility to the colloquy between faith and theory as the crowning achievement of his second term.
"Enchanted by his young and beautiful assistant, Miller discovers that love is not just complicated, but terrifying, especially as he finds his feelings for another colleague change from suspicion to deep admiration. What had begun as an academic inquiry quickly spawns a terrorist plot as zealots enter into a desperate conspiracy to sabotage the conference and kill the Vice President, considered by most to be the willing inheritor of a new and better world in which science and religion make room for each other. As Miller sorts through all that is happening in his life, he gradually finds purpose and determination and finally comes to discover what's important to him.


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Registration now open for 2nd Annual Kicktober Fest. The kickball tournament will take place on Saturday, November 9th. Funds raised through this event will go to support the Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Patient Assistance Fund.
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4th Annual Farm to Table September 17th on the grounds at Rose Hill Plantation.
The 2019 Patrons Gala was held Saturday, March 2, 2019 at Rose Hill Conference Center.
The Pink Party is currently being revamped! Stay tuned for details.
The 2020 Golf Classic will benefit the Nash UNC Health Care Cancer Fund for the Danny Talbott Cancer Center.