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Chemin de Fer25 April 2006
Over the years, I've written many times that baccarat is the best no-brainer bet in the casino. The house edge is low at 1.17 percent if you bet on banker and 1.36 percent on player, and you have no hit/stand decisions to make. Draws are made according to set rules, posted on the table. Your only decision is choosing your wager.
That prompted a call recently from a man who introduced himself as Rich. He'd been to Monte Carlo, and decided to play baccarat. He felt as if he were stepping into an alternative universe.
"It may still have been a good bet, but it wasn't quite a no-brainer," said Rich, who said had played baccarat often in Las Vegas. "Players WERE making decisions. They weren't hard decisions, and mostly they were the same as if they were following the rules here, but still, there were choices to make."
I asked if a player was banking the game --- were players betting against another player, rather than against the house?
"That's exactly what was happening," he said. "The house was getting its edge by taking a commission."
The baccarat game he had found, I told him, was chemin de fer. In the United States, you might see a chemin de fer table from time to time, but nearly all American baccarat is the version called punto banco.
Just as in punto banco, chemin de fer is played with two two-card hands, banker and player. Aces through 9s are counted as their face value, while 10s and face cards are counted as zero. When cards are totaled, only the last digit counts --- a 9 and a 4 isn't 13, it's 3. Highest total wins, with 9 being a perfect hand.
Chemin de fer as played in high-limit salons can be a tradition-laden game, with ceremony that goes right down to shuffling of the cards. Usually, six decks are used. After the croupier shuffles, the cards are passed around the table, with each player having the right to shuffle again before the croupier gives the cards a final shuffle.
In chemin de fer, a player then has the right to act as banker --- a twist you'll sometimes find in American high limit games, but which you'll certainly never find at your local mini-bac table. The croupier gives a portion of the cards to the player/banker, who then places in front of him the amount of money he is willing to risk --- the bank. He then acts as dealer and the other players --- or "punters" --- bet against his bank.
After players make their bets against the bank, the banker deals a two-card player hand and a two-card dealer hand, both face down, and slides the player hand to the punter making the highest wager. If either the banker or player has an 8 or a 9, that ends the hand. Cards are flipped up, and wagers are settled.
If neither banker or player have 8 or 9, the player then makes a decision on whether to take a third card, dealt face up. The decision is almost always automatic. With 6 or 7, he must refuse a third card, and with 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 he must take one. Oh, some casinos allow contrary plays, but with the money of other punters on the line … well, it just isn't done.
Only with a point of 5 is there a true option. The player can take a third card or not, at his own discretion. The best play is to take a third card when starting 5.
After the player has accepted or declined a third card, it's the banker's turn. If the player has declined a third card, the banker knows the player has at least 5, and probably 6 or 7. In that case, the dealer with a low total knows he had better take a card. If the player has taken a third card, the banker knows the starting hand was no higher than 5, and he also has seen the player's third card. All that bears on the dealer's decision. If the player's third card is a zero-value, for example --- and 30.8 percent of the cards are zeroes --- then the banker knows the total is still 5 or less.
That the player's "decision" can influence whether the banker takes a third card is similar to the situation in good old baccarat punto banco. In our American version, a banker hand of 7 stands pat; 6 gets another card if the player's third card is 6 or 7; 5 gets a card if the player draws 4-5-6-7; 4 gets a card if player draws 2-3-4-5-6-7; 3 gets a card if the player draws anything but 8, and the bank always draws to 0, 1 or 2. If you find yourself acting as the bank in chemin de fer, that's a good guideline to follow.
I explained all that to Rich, with a few shortcuts. He seemed happy.
"That's all more similar to our baccarat than it seemed," he said. "Maybe not the same no-brainer … but close enough."
Listen to John Grochowski's "Beat the Odds" tips Saturdays at 6:20 a.m., 2:50 p.m. and 7:41 p.m. and Sundays at 8:20 a.m., 2:50 p.m. and 10:42 p.m. on WBBM-AM, News Radio 780 in Chicago, streaming online at www.wbbm780.com, and to his casino talk show from 7 to 8 p.m. Saturday on WCKG-FM (105.9).
This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at email@example.com.
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Introduction to Classic Rock
Classic Rock – Influence on Culture
During World War II, everything was rationed – including fabric – and this greatly affected the fashion industry as a whole. Following the end of the war, fabric excess was back, prompting inspirations for new fashion trends. During the 1950s women began to wear free-flowing "balloon" skirts and pretty tops, while men go sleek, comfy and casual with suits and ties, as well as sweaters and cardigan shirts.
Don't hesitate to learn more by checking out leather bags.
Then with new influences such as the popularity of rock and roll, and films like as Rebel without a Cause starring James Dean, a whole new fashion trend ushered in that primarily aimed at teenagers and young adults. Teen boys in particular began to sport leather jackets, tight denim pants, sneakers and greased-up hairstyles which many of their elders began to consider as gesture of rebellion and non-conformity.
Elvis Presley's popularity is enduring not just because of his voice and music, but also because of his smart and fun dressing style – he's got the whole package, so to speak. As he performed his hits such as "Jailhouse Rock," "All Shook Up" and "Blue Suede Shoes" on stage, he swiveled his hips and wore wide-shouldered jackets and loose free-flowing slacks that went with his "suggestive" gyrations. Whenever he was off the clock, he would go for a more casual style — high-waisted trousers and a striped shirt or a Cuban collared shirt.
Men's fashion during the 1950s was conservative, mostly consisting of a coat-and-tie ensemble. It was sleek but it could be drab and boring at the same time. But Elvis broke the fashion mold by experimenting different combinations of colors, textures and patterns to create a look that was truly his own – no wonder, young men wanted to copy his style. Truly, Elvis is not only "The King" of rock and roll, but also of fashion. His signature looks never go old; even in the 21st century, many style-conscious men (singers or not) can be still seen sporting the "Elvis look."
Many people would argue that the greatest moments in fashion history come from the 1960s. After all, many of the prevailing styles of today have their roots in 1960s fashion. Although television was invented earlier, it started to rule during this decade as the "boob tube" had become commonplace in American households. Because of television, many people were now able to watch music artists and groups in the comfort of their homes. They would copy not just their idols' musical style and onstage mannerisms, but also their sartorial style.
It just came at the right smack when the Beatles made their first major TV appearance at The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 and 73 million people tuned in to watch these four young Liverpudlians charm the American audience. Fans would be enchanted not just by the fresh sound that they brought to American shores – that would be later known as "Merseybeat" or "beat music" — but by their appearance too: tight trousers, pointed boots (which they called "winklepickers") and most especially their haircut which became popularly known as "Arthur" or "mop top." Fans quickly wanted to grow their hair long like the Beatles. Exasperated parents saw the new hairstyle as a form of rebellion or disrespect, and they would do anything just to cut their kids' hair!
The Beatles' stratospheric rise to fame signaled a phenomenon called the "British Invasion" where bands from the UK such as The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, as well as solo acts like Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark, started to occupy the American charts and airwaves – and the Western fashion scene as well. London quickly became the center not just for pop music but also for fashion and art, and a cultural phenomenon was borne out of the English capital called "Swinging London." A notable subculture also sprang up in London called "Mod" (short for "modern") which quickly spread in the United States and elsewhere. "Mod" was mostly focused on the "new" and the innovative, and adherents to this sub-phenomenon typically wore stylish and tailored clothing that featured bright and bold colors, geometric shapes, pastels as well as lots of black and white. Mods had a predilection towards the Vespa. Groups like The Who, The Small Faces and others were the proponents of the Mod fashion, which was quickly adopted by fans across the Atlantic and elsewhere.
But it won't be long as hippie and psychedelic fashion became prevalent as the 1960s were nearing its end. This is where young people in particular became dissatisfied by the societal norms and values, while others strongly opposed the Vietnam War. But whatever their reason was, they began adopting and embracing the values such as peace and love (and free love as well), and this movement was reflected by the songs during that time. The use of psychedelic drugs became prevalent and this effect extended to the rock and folk songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles, "Purple Haze" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, and many others.
Hippie and psychedelic music and fashion quickly became the rage. Hippies favored dresses inspired by non-Western clothing styles such as Native American, Asian, African, and Latin American. Natural and tie-dyed garments, long, full skirts, loose and flowy pants, and clothes with paisley or floral prints became all the "in" thing at the time. In defiance to corporate culture, hippies often made their own garments and accessories such as beads and headbands; they often walked barefoot or with sandals. Men began to grow moustaches and beards, while both men and women started to grow their hair long, leaving them untreated and natural as they had been.
Like in the past decade, music greatly influenced 1970s fashion. The eclectic, free-handed clothing styles of the late 60s fashion continued to dominate well into the early 1970s. While there were still plenty of hippies in the 1970s, the decade is mostly remembered for one thing – disco. Polyester was the hottest clothing material during this decade, alongside corduroy, velour, and white suits. Platform shoes, bell-bottom pants and sequined material also became popular in 70s fashion and are mostly associated with the disco genre.
Despite disco taking the music scene by storm, classic rock wasn't left behind – in fact, it became popular than ever with the emergence of ace bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Eagles and Queen. Other sub-genres of rock like glam rock, space rock, progressive rock, space rock, heavy metal and punk rock also sprang up, with each of the artists and bands not only brandishing their own sound but also their own stage presence. Most of the band members sported long hair and presented a combination of the laid-back hippies style of the 60s and sartorial sensibilities of the 70s. Flared jeans, velvet trousers, fringed boots, jackets, distressed denim clothing, blazers and Oriental/Native American-inspired jewelry and accessories became the stylistic order of most of the 70s bands. Some front men could even walk in front of their audience half-naked wearing only jeans and perhaps a long necklace on, and still managed to rock the stage.
Most classic rock bands kept things pretty simple and laid-back during their downtime, but whenever they were onstage, it was a totally different story! Some bands like KISS and Alice Cooper even wore garish makeup as part of their on-stage stunts – you won't recall these bands without mentioning their make-up as it became part of their identity and fame.
David Bowie was also a trendsetter during his time. Like his music, Bowie's fashion sense continued to evolve throughout his life and career. He was an innovator in fashion as much as he was the same in music. From the androgynous spaceman Ziggy Stardust to his well-dressed, theatrical Thin White Duke persona, his style file mostly reflected the music that he made. Whether that either raised eyebrows or launched trends, there's no doubt that his style was unique – only his and his alone.
As punk rock became rose to popularity by the mid-1970s (spearheaded by bands such as Ramones and The Sex Pistols), along came punk fashion which was characterized by the negation of anything excessive and pretentious that was typically exhibited by "hair" rock bands of the era (or even mainstream music and culture in general). Sporting unkempt, simple shirt-and-jeans ensemble, and haircuts as short as their songs, the dressed-down look was the characteristic style of punk fashion, although there are some things like jackets and vests that were added with studs and/or logos that expressed their musical preferences or socio-political views.
Among the many other fashion and styles that reflect the many sub-genres of rock, punk rock fashion is probably the most commercialized, with noted designers such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood and Anna Sui using punk elements in their own clothes.
80s rock fashion is considered by many people as the most outrageous (and ridiculous); it was the era of enormous hairs, mullet hairs, mohawks, Spandex, bandanas, sequined gloves, fingerless biker gloves, tight leather pants, oversized leather jackets, ripped clothing, technicolor denims, and padded-shouldered blazers. If you had been a member of the any of the 80s bands and wore any of these things mentioned earlier, then you were considered a cool and bad-ass rocker.

subset: commoncrawl


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Volume 13, Number 1, January-March 2007
|1 - 34
|Published online
|14 February 2007
A complete characterization of invariant jointly rank-r convex quadratic forms and applications to composite materials
Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Roma "La
Sapienza", Italy; email@example.com
Revised: 30 June 2005
The theory of compensated compactness of Murat and Tartar links the algebraic condition of rank-r convexity with the analytic condition of weak lower semicontinuity. The former is an algebraic condition and therefore it is, in principle, very easy to use. However, in applications of this theory, the need for an efficient classification of rank-r convex forms arises. In the present paper, we define the concept of extremal 2-forms and characterize them in the rotationally invariant jointly rank-r convex case.
Mathematics Subject Classification: 74Q20 / 49K20 / 35J50 / 74E30
Key words: Compensated compactness / rank-r convexity / effective conductivity / quadratic forms.
© EDP Sciences, SMAI, 2007
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IKEA is running in ad in "Amelia" magazine that also doubles as a pregnancy test. If a woman pees on the the ad and is pregnant, she gets a discount on the advertised baby crib.
Ikea is using some creative marketing to feel cribs. The Swedish furniture giant has asked women who think they may have a bun in the oven to urinate on its latest print ad to find out for sure. If the test is positive, discounts on baby furniture await!
Here's how it works. The ad is running in Swedish magazine "Amelia" and has a picture of a baby crib with the text, "Peeing on this ad may change your life" at the top of the page. If the test is positive, a discount code is revealed for the advertised crib.
"This ad is also a pregnancy test. Pee on the marked area and wait a moment," the print says. "If you are expecting, you will get a surprise right here in the ad."
The agency behind the campaign said there were even "technical advancements made" while crafting the pregnancy test technology to work from a magazine page. Apparently, those advancements may have the potential to improve medical diagnostics in the future.
Source: UPI.com


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As President Trump calls the opioid crisis an emergency, it's emerged that a US social services agency has secretly run supervised drug injections at an undisclosed location. We speak to Maia Szalavitz, author of "Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction."
Story Transcript
AARON MATE: It's The Real News. I'm Aaron Mate. President Trump says he will declare a national emergency over the opioid epidemic. President Trump: We're going to draw it up and we're going to make it a national emergency. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had. When I was growing up they had the LSD and they had certain generations of drugs. There's never been anything like what's happened to this country over the last four or five years. AARON MATE: Drug overdoses are the leading killer of Americans under 50, about two-thirds of them from opioids. A national emergency declaration would marshal federal resources to address it. But this comes amid news some are taking bold action on their own. According the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a US social services agency is secretly running a supervised injection site at an undisclosed location. The underground facility has over seen more than 2,500 injections by around 100 people. Joining me is Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction. Her new piece for VICE is called "There's been a secret safe injection site in the US for three years." Maia, welcome. MAIA SZALAVITZ: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. AARON MATE: Let's talk first about this site that you've written about. Shocking news that somebody here in the US, we don't know where, has been running a safe injection site on their own. MAIA SZALAVITZ: Yeah, I mean I think there's probably more than one. There certainly was a bathroom in the Bronx that was sort of unofficially serving as such a place. When people see people at risk, they have to, people feel moved to do something to help. AARON MATE: What is going on at this facility? MAIA SZALAVITZ: Basically what happens is people who inject drugs can go there. They have clean equipment, a nice mellow place to just do their thing. They don't have to rush. They can properly find a vein and not just sort of stab at themselves. That allows people to practice safe injection technique and be safer about what they do. AARON MATE: This is a practice that is legal in many other countries. Can you talk a bit about what happens there and what the research has shown about its efficacy? MAIA SZALAVITZ: Sure. There about 66 such facilities in at least nine countries. The most important statistic is that there has never been an overdose death, even though they have had thousands of injections and at least hundreds, perhaps thousands of people through these places. AARON MATE: Looking at this news now of this secret site in the context of Trump appearing to be poised to declare the opioid crisis a national emergency, your thoughts on the conversation around addiction right now and this potential federal response to it. MAIA SZALAVITZ: Well there's a good thing that could happen from declaring an emergency and there's bad things that could happen. The good thing would be that when you have a state of emergency for health, you can cut through a lot of red tape. One of the things that has really been hampering the response to this epidemic is we have two treatments that we know of that cut the death rate 50% or more. We are not, only about 10% of treatment programs offer these treatments and we create all these barriers because we have just too much regulation on this. Ironically, the sort of Republican let's cut red tape and let's get rid of bureaucracy and let's stop overregulation, that is a really important aspect of this because basically methadone and buprenorphine, we know that if you use them long term, they cut the death rate 50% or more. Yet we have limited access to those substances only to people who are willing to show up at a certain time and go through counseling and get urine tested and all these kinds of things, when really we should be giving those substances to anybody who wants a dose as long as we know that they haven't gotten another dose from another site the same day. Because even if they're going to use illegal drugs on top, if they maintain their tolerance and at least have some access to something of known dose and purity, they will be at far less risk of dying. The research shows that if you, regardless of whether you provide counseling or other things, these medications save lives. AARON MATE: I'm sure you've gotten this question though before. How can you give people a dose of something that is bad for their health? MAIA SZALAVITZ: Well it's not necessarily bad for their health and if the alternative is taking poison, it certainly is appropriate to do. I think what we have to do is we have to think about drug related harm, not about is somebody taking a substance I believe to be immoral or the law has decided is immoral? We have laws that were made because of racism. Our drug laws, nobody sat down and said, "Yeah tobacco and alcohol should be legal and marijuana and all these other substances shouldn't be legal based on clear science." The way we got our drug laws was a series of racist panics. If we're going to be rational about substance use, what we need to realize particularly about opioids is that most of the danger associated with them is associated with illicit use. This is not to say that you can't overdose on pain pills. It's more to say if you want to avoid overdose, and you know the dose and purity of something, you are much more likely to be able to do so than if you are taking something that you have no idea what it is. AARON MATE: What do you make right now of the efforts to hold big pharmaceutical companies accountable. There have been lawsuits against some … MAIA SZALAVITZ: I think that actually, I think … The drug companies did serious wrong here. They should be fined. They did terrible marketing things, but the crime here is what's legal for them to do. It's not that … I mean they, like I said, I'm not justifying anything they did, but one cannot become a person with addiction without taking drugs not as prescribed. You have to repeatedly use drugs despite negative consequences in order to meet criteria for addiction. You can become physically dependent on a substance if you just take it every day, but that's not addiction. Addiction is compulsive behavior despite negative consequences. If the consequences of taking a substance every day are I get out of bed and function really well, I'm not addicted to that substance. With opioids what we have done is basically chased people from having a supply that they know the dose of and they know the purity of, to fentanyl which is thousands of times stronger often, depending on the variant, and it's, what we have done is simply increased harm. AARON MATE: Finally Maia, if you were on the president's commission, what would have been your top recommendations for how we should address the epidemic on a federal level? MAIA SZALAVITZ: Sure, so I mean immediately lift all the regulations that prevent prescribing of buprenorphine and methadone to whoever wants it in a controlled fashion. Do not say that you may only get methadone for addiction in X clinic. Allow all doctors who want to prescribe to prescribe and the only requirement for participation in maintenance programs should simply be we know your name. You show up. You get your dose. You can do your thing. Now there are certainly people who want to stabilize their lives and want to move on and who could benefit from counseling and psychiatric care and all kinds of other good services that we can give them. We should triage those services to people who actually want them rather than forcing people into them who don't want them. If we do this, we will get access to a far greater number of people and we know that if people have access to these drugs, people who stay on them have a 50% less risk of dying or overdose. If we get this to as many people as possible, we can cut this thing in half. AARON MATE: Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction. Her new piece for VICE is called, "There's Been a Secret Safe Injection Site in the US for Three Years." Maia, thank you. MAIA SZALAVITZ: Ah, thanks so much for having me. AARON MATE: And thank you for joining us on The Real News.


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From NMN:
Fannie Mae wants out of its defaulted residential mortgage holdings as quickly as possible and is warning loan servicers not to stand in its way.
The government-sponsored enterprise notified servicers Tuesday that it will begin monitoring them to determine why there are delays in moving delinquent loans into foreclosure. If servicers cannot properly account for the holdups, it will perform on-site reviews and assess fees to give servicers "a financial incentive to comply with Fannie Mae policies and improve the overall quality of their performance."
All year, the so-called shadow inventory of home loans that are delinquent but not yet in foreclosure has been growing. The buildup has been widely interpreted as a sign that banks and servicers are intentionally delaying foreclosures, in part to avoid taking losses on loans that they hold.
About 2.9 million homes have been repossessed by banks or are in the foreclosure process, according to Lender Processing Services. But 4.5 million borrowers are at least 30 days delinquent on their mortgage.
With the economic recovery stalled and housing prices expected to fall further, Fannie appears to be making the first move.
"This is a shot across the bow that servicers have to start paying attention," said Kevin Kanouff, a founder of Statebridge Co., a Denver special servicer. "Now they're going to put their feet to the fire and expect to move these loans along as opposed to throwing them in a program and just collecting the fees."
Holding servicers accountable for unwarranted delays is not a new concept, Fannie spokeswoman Janis Smith said. The potential for such fines has long been in Fannie's servicing guide.
But delays have been commonplace in the past few years because of federal, state and industry efforts to facilitate modifications and other foreclosure alternatives.
While Fannie said legitimate efforts to work out such arrangements as well as unavoidable delays will not be punished, the timing of the guidance suggests the GSE believes the process has grown unaccountably sluggish.
"I think it's fair to say that considering the volume of delinquency activity, and the volume of loans at some stages of this process, it was appropriate to issue this reminder," Smith said.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie's conservator, would not discuss the issue.
Fannie's inventory of repossessed homes doubled from a year earlier to 129,310 properties at the end of the second quarter. The assets had a carrying value of $13 billion.
Repossessing a property can be expensive for a servicer, because it then must front property taxes and maintenance expenses until the home is disposed of. Homeowner association dues, grass-cutting and winterizing can run an average of $6,000 a month while a property sits on the market waiting to be sold.
Conventional servicers "are responding to incentives that encourage minimizing servicing costs," said Steven Horne, the president of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a specialty servicer in Carrollton, Texas.
But delays force Fannie to incur bigger losses — the longer it takes to foreclose, the worse shape the property may be in.
"What you're seeing is a tremendous level of frustration at Fannie, because the servicer is not pursuing foreclosure," Horne said.
In its second-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fannie said, "We have seen an increase in the percentage of our properties that we are unable to market for sale in the first half of 2010 compared with the first half of 2009."
Another potential disincentive for servicers to foreclose is that the four largest ones also are the largest holders of second liens. Many big banks have been unwilling to take losses on second liens even though a significant percentage of borrowers are underwater and the second liens are essentially worthless, critics have said.
"It does pose an accounting problem for the banks because they don't want to write those [second liens] down," Horne said.
Not everyone is certain that Fannie's announcement amounts to big news.
Vicki Vidal, vice president of public policy at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the delays in foreclosure can be explained by external factors like state and local regulation and court delays. "I don't think they'll apply it across the board for minor infractions," Vidal said of Fannie and its "compensatory" penalty fees.
Greg Hebner, the president of MOS Group Inc., an Irvine, Calif., company that contacts troubled borrowers on behalf of lenders and servicers, said the move by Fannie was an indication that servicers have been dragging their feet. "You have so many loans in workout and in limbo that the servicers are probably pretty far behind," Hebner said.
He said he expects an increase in both notices of default and of foreclosure. "It's a good tactic by Fannie because it will bring more borrowers to the negotiating table," Hebner said


text:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2kkNNUQ
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From New York Times bestselling author, Penelope Ward, comes a sexy, STANDALONE second-chance romance.
They called him Mack Daddy. No, seriously, his name was Mack. Short for Mackenzie. Thus, the nickname. Perfect, right?
So was he: perfect. The perfect physical male specimen.
At the private school where I taught, Mack Morrison was the only man around in a sea of women.
Everyone wanted a piece of the hot single father of the sweet little boy.
I was riddled with jealousy, because they didn't know that—to me—he was much more.
They didn't know about our past.
He'd chosen my school for his son on purpose, because Mack and I, we had unfinished business.
As my friend Lorelai so eloquently put it: "Unfinished business between two people who are clearly attracted to each other is like an eternal case of blue balls." And I was suffering in pain from my case.
I was still intensely attracted to Mack. I tried to resist him, immersing myself further into a relationship with another man just to protect my heart.
Not to mention, getting involved with a parent was strictly against school rules. But seeing Mack day in and day out was breaking me down.
And soon I might be breaking all the rules.
Author's note – Told in alternating points of view, Mack Daddy is a full-length standalone novel.
Penelope Ward is a New York Times, USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling author. She's a fifteen-time New York Times bestseller of twelve novels. Having grown up in Boston with five older brothers, she spent most of her twenties as a television news anchor, before switching to a more family-friendly career. She is the proud mother of a beautiful 12-year-old girl with autism and a 10-year-old boy. Penelope and her family reside in Rhode Island.
Connect with Penelope Ward Facebook Fan Group | Facebook | Website |Twitter | Instagram
Other books from Penelope Ward
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Sins of Sevin
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Stepbrother Dearest
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My Skylar
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Items where Author / Artist / Editor is "Rout-Hoolash, Sweta"
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Rout-Hoolash, Sweta and Coowar, Rukayyah (2019) Use of ICT tools (Tablet PC) to promote innovative teaching & learning and to develop students' 21st century skills at O' level: An action research case study in Mauritius. Journal of Education, 10 (1) . pp. 77-100. ISSN 1694-3643 [Article]
Rout-Hoolash, Sweta (2018) Theorising group work as an assessment tool in Higher Education at foundation level in Mauritius. Journal of Education, 9 (2) . pp. 74-81. ISSN 1694-3643 [Article]


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Why Are Some Not Supporting this Father's Purported Rights?
Some wonder why Capobianco supporters don't side with a father whose child is being taken from him. Some have even questioned the authenticity of Christians who would support the Capobiancos. (Forgetting that even Jesus was raised by an adoptive father.)
One must understand that many Capobianco supporters have been there since the day they first saw, either in person or on video, the horror of not only having one's child taken, but –
1) taken without the benefit of a caring transition, and –
2) taken solely due to 1% heritage, (as the father's admitted abandonment of the child would have prevailed otherwise.)
Just 1.12% heritage.
Since then, the Cherokee Nation has put on a show, shaking signs that claim "genocide" and claiming that "white people" are stealing "Indian" babies.
1.12% heritage.
If a C supporter brings up the 1% heritage, their statement is twisted and they are accused of racism – despite that it was the Cherokee Nation that brought the 1% into issue.
1.12% heritage.
As much as the Cherokee Nation, 'Indian Country Today', NICWA, NARF, and others want to spin it as a "citizen" issue – it is not spinning. Very few people – including many tribal members in Oklahoma and elsewhere – are falling for the "citizen" claim – especially when "citizenship" is being forced on children.
At 1.12% heritage.
Ardent supporters of the Cherokee Nation, either purposefully spinning for PR or snowed by their own rhetoric, fail to see how disgusted many others are by the claim that "white people" are stealing "Indian" babies.. Many Americans can see that claim for the dishonesty it is – but few have wanted to speak it. While it is okay for a tribal entity to speak in terms of race and percentages, it is deemed "racist" for anyone else to. But I will say what is on the hearts of many. This was no Indian Child being stolen by "White" people.
It was a Caucasian/Hispanic child, stolen by a tribe.
That is the bottom line.
As the Cherokee Nation continues to encourage and assist Mr. Brown in defying state and federal law, it is an overtly obvious fact. And that is why the Cherokee Nation and tribal governments in general aren't getting the traction on their genocide spin (outside of 'Indian Country Today') that they somehow thought they would.
When you are talking about OUR children – which this child was – NOT an Indian child – you should expect hostility when trying to claim that child as the Tribe's.
AND if 60 more tribal governments attempt to lower their membership criteria – as 60 are talking about doing – to CN levels and begin to target children of minute heritage – as the Cherokee Tribe has – they should not expect to get sympathy. They should expect a strong push back.
They should expect push back because now, due to the Veronica horror – a whole lot of Americans who would have otherwise remained oblivious to the issue, have woken up to what is happening and are outraged by the ICWA stories they are hearing. Many now want ICWA to be repealed.
Americans' are not buying the rhetoric that tribal governments should have jurisdiction over children of 1% heritage. It is hard enough to justify ICWA jurisdiction over a child who is 25% tribal heritage – as the child is still 75% another heritage. Even children of a parent who is 100% – such as my own – have a right to be free from tribal government jurisdiction. Even individuals of 100% heritage have a right to be free of tribal government interference in their lives and families – if that is what they choose.
So do we feel angry? Yup.
Is there a Christian purpose and righteousness in that anger? Absolutely.
– "And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them." (Mark 10:13-16 ESV)
Having raised nine tribal members, five of whom are my birth children, and seen much tragedy, child abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, and other horrors on more than a few reservations – and having an advisory board and membership of parents who have raised, adopted and witnessed the same – we know far too much about tribal governments seeking children for the federal dollars, then showing little or no interest in what happens to them once they have been "retrieved" for the tribe and placed with a member. We won't be bullied or intimidated.
We have known of far too many kids abused in ICWA homes, and some even murdered.
(Don't even try to argue that point with me; I had been an ICWA approved home myself for 17 years. I know how little the tribal social services paid attention.)
So, concerning this particular case, in summary – for those who are flabbergasted that we would not be supporting the father – understand this: from the get-go,
1) Mr. Brown has been seen as an extremely selfish man.
2) The Cherokee Nation has been seen as an extremely selfish organization – using this child as a political pawn.
What appalls us is that not only were Mr. Brown and the Cherokee Nation willing to hurt this child deeply the first time a transfer took place – by taking her without any concern for her need of a transition – but even worse, Mr. Brown and the Cherokee Nation are now willing to do it to her a 2nd time.
How in the world are we expected to sympathize with people who do that?
– https://caicw.org/2013/09/01/taking-veronica-from-a-loving-father/
Elizabeth Sharon Morris is Chairwoman of the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare, columnist for Women's Voices Magazine, and author of 'Dying in Indian Country.' http://dyinginindiancountry.com a dramatic true story of transformation and hope.


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A letter of intent summarizes the key terms of a leasing deal that's still subject to negotiation. A well-crafted letter is a road map that will not bind either party to the deal, but it will reflect everyone's serious intent to get this lease signed.
Writing a Non-Binding Letter of Intent
Tenants occasionally want to write their own, non-binding letter of intent, to confirm preliminary understandings and set the stage for negotiations. It's important to make sure that the letter does not turn into an enforceable contract, like a lease.
Responding to a Letter of Intent
Knowing how to respond to a letter of intent, especially one that might bind you to its terms, is key to keeping lease negotiations open. A landlords binding letter of intent needs to be addressed immediately, lest you end up being bound by its terms.


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Adelard: Euclid
In 1992 an edited edition of Adelard's Euclid was published. However, although the work had long been believed to be due to Adelard of Bath, it is now believed to be due to Robert of Chester. The work Robert of Chester's (?) redaction of Euclid's Elements, the so-called Adelard II version. Vol. I, II. (Latin), was edited by Hubert L L Busard and Menso Folkerts and published by Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel. We quote from the Preface:-
The Latin 'version II', till now attributed to Adelard of Bath, is edited here for the first time. It was the most influential Euclid text in the Latin West in the 12th and 13th centuries. As the large number of manuscripts and the numerous quotations in other scientific and philosophical texts show, it was far better known than the three Euclid translations made from the Arabic in the 12th century (Adelard of Bath, version I; Hermann of Carinthia; Gherard of Cremona). Version II became the basis of later reworkings, in which the enunciations were taken over, but new proofs supplied; the most important text of this kind is the redaction made by Campanus in the late 1250s, which became the standard Latin Euclid in the later Middle Ages.
The introduction deals with the questions of when and by whom version II was written. Since Marshall Clagett's fundamental article (1953) it has been generally accepted that version II is one of three Euclid texts attributable to Adelard of Bath. But a comparison of the text of version II with those of versions I and III yields little or no reason to assume that Adelard was the author of version II. Version II must have been written later than version I and before version III; its author was acquainted with Euclid texts of the Boethius tradition and with two of those transmitted from Arabic, version I (almost certainly by Adelard) and the version by Hermann of Carinthia. It seems that in the formation of version II the definitions, postulates, axioms, and enunciations (with corollaries, if any) were collected first and the proofs added later. We are able to give almost exact time limits for the first of these procedures: a terminus post quem is Hermann's translation of Euclid's Elements, which seems to have been made shortly before 1140, and a terminus ante quem is provided by the oldest extant version II manuscript, Chartres 498, which was written by Thierry of Chartres probably not later than 1141. Thus the enunciations must have been compiled about 1140. There are good reasons to suppose that Robert of Chester was the author of this compilation. Of these the most compelling are that he was one of the very few who at this early stage could have been acquainted with Hermann's translation, and that Hermann, Robert's friend and associate in Spain, was a pupil of Thierry. The question of the authorship of the proofs is more difficult. In manuscript München, Clm 13021, written between 1163 and 1168, the diagrams in some propositions of book X are lettered in the same way as in our text, and therefore the proofs must have existed at that time. From the style it is clear that they were written by only one person, and it is possible that this person was Robert of Chester. He may have added the proofs after the translation of the Quran, finished in 1143.
There are 61 manuscripts which transmit the complete text of version II or parts of it. We give some account of the scientific parts of all of them, identifying the mathematical items and giving their incipits, and describe the general characteristics of the text of version II that it contains. It seems impossible to construct a traditional stemma of the manuscripts, but in the chapter 'Relationships between the manuscripts' some groups and subgroups within the manuscript tradition are noted and the more striking agreements and differences among the manuscripts are listed. To facilitate further research on the style of version II and its author, an index of Latin words is added. This gives a reference to every instance of every word (and some terms consisting of several words) except numerals and diagram-letters, though very common words of no mathematical interest are listed with no references.
Because of the size of the critical apparatus, the variant readings are given in a separate volume. This volume also contains an appendix ('Addenda') in which larger additions or alternative readings and alternative proofs found in many manuscripts are given.
Last Updated March 2006


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- The National Company Law Tribunal ("NCLT") admits the S.7i application against Essar Steel, moratorium on legal proceedings declared, and an Insolvency Resolution Professional ("IRP") has been appointed and directed to make a public announcement;
- An order passed by the NCLT is a judicial order which should be in accordance with the provisions of the IBC and the principles of natural justice, and must take the consequences of the order into consideration;
- NCLT not bound to admit a bankruptcy application under Section 7(5)(a) of the IBC, to have discretionary powers while admitting an application;
- Essar Steel's ongoing Debt Reconstruction Scheme not a bar to proceedings under IBC and may be taken into consideration by the Committee of Creditors.
The Ahmedabad Bench of the NCLT has admitted an application for the initiation of insolvency resolution proceedings filed by State Bank of India ("SBI") and Standard Chartered Bank ("SCB")ii against Essar Steel India Limited ("Essar").
The RBI vide its Press Note dated June 13, 2017 ("Press Note") had identified Essar as one of the 12 accounts which had to be proceeded against in the NCLT. Following the Press Note, Essar approached the Gujrat High Court to challenge (i) the validity of the Press Note; (ii) the decision of the Consortium of Lenders to initiate action under the IBC; and (iii) the Consortium of Lender's failure to implement the restructuring plan which had been approved by the Board of Directors of Essar. Although the Gujrat High Court stayed the proceedings in the NCLT during the pendency of the challenge proceedings, it was eventually held that the creditor-banks could proceed before the NCLT ("GHC Ruling"). Further details about the Press Note and the judgment of the Gujrat High Court can be found here.
Consequently, SCB and SBI initiated a Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process ("CIRP") under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ("IBC" or "Code") in respect of Essar's outstanding debts.
SCB had provided a loan to Essar's fully owned foreign subsidiary, Essar Steel Offshore Limited ("ESOL"). Essar was a guarantor to this loan.iii Accordingly, SCB had issued a demand notice to Essar on ESOL's failure to pay the amount due to them. Since Essar failed to respond to the demands of SCB, it sought to initiate the CIRP and proposed a name for an Interim Insolvency Resolution Professional ("IRP").
SBI, unlike SCB, had been a part of the Joint Lenders' Forum ("JLF") whereby SBI had been authorized by other Banks of the JLF to file the CIRP Application. Based on JLF recommendations, SBI proposed an IRP.
Essar did not raise any objections regarding the existence of the debt. It was admitted that they were in default, but they claimed that they were not willful defaulters. Essar also contended that the application ought not to be admitted as prejudice would be caused to the company and its employees.
- Whether the NCLT has any discretion to reject an application under S. 7(5)(a) of the IBC even if the criteria therein has been met by the applicants, and whether it can look at factors beyond the ones described in the section itself;
- Whether the GHC Ruling had given any special reliefs to Essar;
- Approach to be followed for appointment of IRP.
Applicant's Contentions
- SCB argued that the word "may" in Section 7(5)(a) of the IBC ought to be read as "shall" and not a discretionary "may". Therefore, once a financial creditor was able to satisfy the NCLT about all requirements under the Section itself, it did not have the discretion to reject an application.
- SCB and SBI contended that the GHC Ruling did not grant any special relief to Essar. Accordingly, once the NCLT was satisfied that (i) a default exists; (ii) the application is complete; and (iii) no disciplinary proceeding is pending against the proposed IRP, the application under S. 7 must be admitted.
Essar's Contentions
- Essar argued that the legislature had intentionally used the expression "may" in Section 7(5)(a), which signified a discretionary power. However, in Sections 9(5) and 10(4), the relevant provisions used the expression "shall", which signified legislative intent to differentiate between financial and operational creditors. The intention of the legislature herein was to give discretion to an adjudicating authority strictly in cases involving Financial Creditors.
- Essar submitted that the GHC Ruling had directed the Adjudicatory Authority to take into consideration the Debt Reconstruction Scheme and the complex situation that arises in case of admission of the application, and whether an IRP will be equipped to manage the affairs of Essar.
- An Adjudicatory Authority need not appoint an IRP on the same day on which the application under Sections 7, 9, or 10 is admitted. Thus, an IRP should be appointed at a later date. Essar relied on the scheme of the Code to argue that 14-days' time limit was granted for admission of an application and hence, NCLT was not bound to appoint an IRP on the same day that the application was admitted.
Essar did not contest the existence of their debt and default, and the NCLT rejected all their technical objections. It was also held that admission of the application and appointment of an IRP would not cause prejudice to a corporate debtor.
Interpretation of Section 7(5)(a)
It is a settled position in law that the expressions 'may' and 'shall' by themselves do not convey legislative intent. The NCLT applied these principles and the GHC Ruling to hold that it had discretionary powers and that applications ought not to be mechanically admitted. An order admitting an application would be a judicial order and hence, it would have to comply with the provisions of the IBC, principles of natural justice, and must take into consideration the consequences of the order. It is a settled position under Indian law that courts and tribunals have limited discretionary power and that courts and quasi-judicial tribunals may, in exercise of discretionary power, mould relief according to applicable facts and circumstances.iv
Implications of the GHC Ruling
Relying upon a ruling of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, ("NCLAT")v the NCLT observed that although they have discretion under the Code, an Adjudicatory Authority does not need to look into any factor beyond the ones mentioned in Section 7. Further, as was held by the Appellate Tribunal, an Adjudicatory Authority ordinarily does not need to consider a Restructuring Arrangement either. However, the NCLT noted that the GHC Ruling directed that it must take into consideration all relevant facts, including the Debt Restructuring Plan, in Essar's case. In that light, the NCLT considered whether Essar's Debt Resolution Process ("DRP") would make the Insolvency Resolution Process redundant.
Implications of Essar's ongoing Debt Resolution Process
The NCLT noted that the DRP could be taken into consideration by the Committee of Creditors as one of the proposed Resolution Plans. NCLT held that a DRP was not a bar to initiate CIRP. Essar's contention that when a DRP is on-going there is no need to commence a CIRP under the IBC was rejected.
Appointment of an IRP
The NCLT noted that IBC did not expressly provide for appointment of an IRP on the day when the application was admitted. NCLT also considered the object of IBC – expeditious resolution of the insolvency process and hence, deferment of the appointment was not warranted unless there were exceptional circumstances.
Further, with respect to two different suggested IRPs, it was held that the time when an application was made before the NCLT was irrelevant for these purposes. Accordingly, since (i) the JLF had spent considerable time deciding who the suggested IRP must be; and (ii) SBI's debt was of greater value than that of SCB, the IRP suggested by SBI was appointed.
The ruling is a pragmatic and judicious approach to resolution of applications for CIRP. The NCLT, by rejecting Essar's dilatory objections,vi has reaffirmed the object of the Code and applied sound judicial principles to admit the application. NCLT's observations on a pending DRP are helpful in providing clarity to the nature and enforceability of rights pending other resolution measures.
Additionally, NCLT's observations on the scope of the Adjudicatory Authority's discretion under S. 7(5)(a) of the Code will help creditors evaluate merit of applications in the future. While making applications, the creditors must keep in mind that (i) their application be complete under S. 7(5), (ii) the admission of their application must be justified subject to compliance with principles of natural justice, and (iii) and the consequence of the admission must be justified.
The NCLT has upheld both the spirit and the letter of the Code in holding that technical barriers must not come in the way of speedy recovery under the Code.
i 7. Initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process by financial creditor
(1) A financial creditor either by itself or jointly with other financial creditors may file an application for initiating corporate insolvency resolution process against a corporate debtor before the Adjudicating Authority when a default has occurred.
Explanation. —For the purposes of this sub-section, a default includes a default in respect of a financial debt owed not only to the applicant financial creditor but to any other financial creditor of the corporate debtor.
(2) The financial creditor shall make an application under sub-section (1) in such form and manner and accompanied with such fee as may be prescribed.
(3) The financial creditor shall, along with the application furnish—
(a) record of the default recorded with the information utility or such other record or evidence of default as may be specified;
(b) the name of the resolution professional proposed to act as an interim resolution professional; and
(c) any other information as may be specified by the Board.
(4) The Adjudicating Authority shall, within fourteen days of the receipt of the application under sub section (2), ascertain the existence of a default from the records of an information utility or on the basis of other evidence furnished by the financial creditor under sub-section (3).
(5) Where the Adjudicating Authority is satisfied that—
(a) a default has occurred and the application under sub-section (2) is complete, and there is no disciplinary proceedings pending against the proposed resolution professional, it may, by order, admit such application; or
(b) default has not occurred or the application under sub-section (2) is incomplete or any disciplinary proceeding is pending against the proposed resolution professional, it may, by order, reject such application:
Provided that the Adjudicating Authority shall, before rejecting the application under clause (b) of sub-section (5), give a notice to the applicant to rectify the defect in his application within seven days of receipt of such notice from the Adjudicating Authority.
(6) The corporate insolvency resolution process shall commence from the date of
admission of the application under sub-section (5).
(7) The Adjudicating Authority shall communicate—
(a) the order under clause (a) of sub-section (5) to the financial creditor and the corporate debtor;
(b) the order under clause (b) of sub-section (5) to the financial creditor, within seven days of admission or rejection of such application, as the case may be.
ii Standard Chartered Bank Ltd. v/s Essar Steels Ltd, IA 153/2017 with C.P. (I.B) No. 39/7/NCLT/AHM/2017
iii As per facts recorded, SCB appears to be an unsecured financial creditor.
iv Hindalco Industries Ltd. v. Union of India (1994) 2 SCC 594.
v M/s. Innovative Industries Ltd. vs ICICI Bank & Anr, Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No. 1 & 2 of 2017.
vi The Tribunal shot down several of Essar's technical grounds, seemingly submitted only to delay the process- for instance, (i) SBI's authorized signatory was held to be competent; and (ii) the IRP was appointed on the same day. It is clear that the NCLT will not be easily bogged down by the creditors dilatory tendencies.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.


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OK. Once again, I'm not a scientist, an epidemiologist, a doctor, etc. But I have a personality quirk that compels me to research interesting (to me) topics and then write about them. You may feel free to ignore my post, or take it with a grain of salt. But as usual, I will try to provide the best information I can have. If you can find ample evidence to contradict me on this, please feel free to share. I love learning (weird for a person who struggled with school grades, I know) and information and ideas always intrigue me enough to listen.
I've seen a LOT (and I mean an insane) amount of posts regarding face masks and the corona virus on Facebook. Some of them have been pretty well reasoned, even if somewhat flawed or incomplete. In some cases, they're memes with the line "I'll wait". People post these things up and think they're so snappy, or witty… and in most cases, they've tried to distill a topic that is fairly elaborate and complex down to a sentence or two, and overlook a lot of facts that actual change quite a bit.
Face masks have been a particularly complexly debated topic. Are they effective against the coronavirus? Are they helping or harming us? What is the point of using them? Which ones work, which ones don't, etc.
I can't offer you sound medical guidance, but I can try to explain the scientific reasoning behind the face mask. There is sound medical logic, but you need to understand that it's not something you can sum up with a sentence; not unless you understand that the sentence will likely only answer a single direct question, and not provide details on a more complicated question on their own.
So to understand the issue here, people are asking "what's the point of wearing a face mask?".
Do they offer any protection against the coronavirus or any other viruses? Do they present more of a risk or hazard than they prevent? Why do we need to do social distancing if we have face masks? Why do we need to wear face masks if we have social distancing. Now I'm going to try to break this down as best I can, and I'm not going to call you an idiot for questioning this. If you've waited for your explanation, this is it. It's long; it's not hard to understand, but it involves a LOT of moving pieces to fully appreciate. So let's get started.
The short version is: the face mask does NOT guarantee you you won't get sick from a virus. It's true that many virus particles on their own are much smaller than most filtration masks handle. But the virus particles do not travel on their own. They can survive on certain surfaces for extended periods of time, some are resistant to UV exposure (sunlight). But to travel, most of the particles that make up a virus need to travel through the air in an aerosol form. And this is where we need to understand what the masks are trying to accomplish.
Here's an experiment to conduct. It's fairly simple, might only cost a couple of dollars, but it will teach you a valuable lesson. Get a spray bottle; the type that you put a household cleaner in, and fill it with water, and add a bit of food dye. Set up a piece of poster board outside. Now, measure out distances of 1 foot, 6 feet and 25 feet. Move to the farthest point out (25 feet), aim the sprayer at the cardboard, and spray. Nothing's appeared on the poster board, unless you have a REALLY strong gust of wind heading in that direction. And even then, it's unlikely to carry that far. Move to the 6 foot range, and repeat. You'll probably seem some light speckling on the poster board, maybe even some moderate spots appear (depending on how strong a spritzer you have). Now, do the same thing at one foot. Obviously this close you'll see a big spot appear on the poster board.
So what happened? Plain and simple, the particles from your spritzer dissipated too much at 25 feet to make it to your target. At 6 feet, the particles were larger, so the concentration of the particles was much greater and could hit the target better; however, the fact that the concentration was so tight means that a smaller obstacle could block a fair amount of it. At 1 foot, the concentration is VERY tight, but again, that means a smaller obstacle will catch and prevent it from passing through to the target.
Now, repeat the sequence of tests, but put a washcloth or dishrag just in front of the nozzle. If the rag gets soaked after a spray, move it so that you have a fresh, dry bit of cloth in front of the nozzle.
The spray will almost entirely end up caught by the cloth or dishrag, and very little if any will end up on the target at 6 foot. A bit more might get through and hit the target at 1 foot, but in all likelihood you'll see less particles from the spray through the mask at 1 foot than you would without it at 6.
For one more test, you can repeat the test by putting the piece of cloth in front, and then holding a piece of wood in front of it. The piece of wood simulates an arm, especially around the inside of the elbow. Again, the amount of spray, if any, that reaches the target, will be VERY minimal.
Now some people might say "Well, yeah, but you moved the cloth in front of the nozzle each time. I can't carry enough masks to keep switching them." Yes, that might seem like cheating. But look at it like this: how often do you have a sneeze that's as high in content of moisture as a spray bottle? Probably you don't sneeze with the volume of liquid coming out. Honestly, if you do, it means a high volume of mucus and other bodily fluids coming out. Without a face mask, you might sneeze into your hands… or the mucus may be coming out of your nose or even (this is always gross) your mouth… and do you just leave it there? No, you go and get some tissue paper, and white it off. Probably if it was fairly bad, you'll wash your hands and face. After all, isn't that what we tell our kids in most cases? Wash your hands if you sneeze into them. More often than not, now, we try to teach them to sneeze into the crook of their arms whenever possible. And we tell them not to give someone a hug after that; forget the virus part – it's just gross to get a hug and be covered in goop, right?
OK, so there's less force coming out of your typical sneeze than a spritzer bottle, and that means that you're not pushing out the volume of moisture that the bottle does. If there's a smaller volume of moisture to begin with, suddenly those obstacles are made much more effective.
So now we have a reason for using some sort of barrier over our mouth or nose.
The next big thing that people bring up is that wearing the mask spreads the disease, because people tough their faces, or the mask, or whatever, and then touch other things, other people, etc. Yes, there is that risk; but the quantity of virus particles making it through a half-way decent mask is already greatly reduced. Further, touching your face, even on the mask, doesn't spread the virus until you start touching lots of other things. That's why stores and a lot of public places have stands and dispensers for sanitizer around, and you're encouraged to apply a bit every so often. This isn't a guarantee to stop this virus (or any virus), but it's a form of redundancy to mitigate the risk.
Look at it this way: most cars now have safety belts, various air bags, and crumple zones designed into to collapse certain parts of a vehicle, while providing greater integrity to the passenger compartment. Safety belts on their owns usually save lives. Admittedly, sometimes they have cost lives, but over the years, as some accidents have happened, engineers and designers have researched improved ways of making the seat belts safer, and the potential for injury or death from the safety belts has generally gone down. Air bags have had the same history. Early designs could have some dangerous flaws – it took careful consideration, sometimes redesign, to fix those issues and mitigate risk factors. Crumple zones have failed, or just not been strong enough to properly handle impact. Again, designs were looked at, testing was performed, the ideas were improved upon.
Any one of those safety devices on their own might save you, or might cause you higher risk. The combination of those safety tools help to reduce the overall risk to a much greater degree. And the reality is that you may not be able to save everyone from a deadly accident. If a train hits your Honda Civic, you're not looking at a high chance of successfully walking away. But if you're a reasonably safe driver, and practice good defensive driving habits, and if other people are doing the same, the risk factor for deadly accidents is reduced, and the outcome of those accidents will likely turn more towards people surviving, possibly unharmed.
Yes, wearing a face mask could cause some of the germs to spread. That's not wrong. But proper hygienic practice means that you combine wearing the mask with other actions to reduce the risk. You wash your hands or use sanitizer whenever possible, you wash your mask or replace them daily, and you have to actively push yourself to be aware of your actions more. This doesn't outright stop the disease, but it helps to mitigate a LOT of the risk of spreading it.
Now some people still ask: why do we need to practice isolation or social distancing if we wear the masks? And if we wear the masks, why do we need to perform isolation and / or social distancing. If you look back to the experiment, the further you were from the target, and the more obstacles you put in front of the "source of a sneeze", the greater the reduction in the spread of the virus particles. The guidelines that the CDC and WHO put out were based on the idea that the more space between people, and the better the barrier protection, the greater a reduction in potentially spreading the germs. To be honest, 6 foot might not quite be enough to entirely eliminate the spread. An article I read recently said that the truth is that a distance of 25 or more feet is probably closer to the necessity to fully eliminate that risk. The reason for the 6 foot rule, though, was to cut down the risk as much as possible, while looking at the reality of space concerns. Supermarkets can't possibly guarantee being able to space things out so that we can always be 25 feet from everyone else. In fact, in most public places, you can't do that; outdoors it's a bit different, but if you're outdoors, chances are that the UV light of the sun will help to kill more of the particles. And remember that UV light rays can still penetrate cloud cover to some extent, so they do get through to help out, even on a cloudy day.
So why is the government mandating lock-down even outside if we have all these precautions? Good question: first, we're not really in a true lock-down, nationally. In a real lock-down, you wouldn't be allowed to leave your house… at all… for any reason. The steps the government took in most cases was to issue an order to remain at home as much as possible, to avoid unessential travel, and to avoid crowded spaces. In some very specific instances, there were period were some locations had stricter requirements. For example, in New Jersey where some friends of mine live, there were restrictions that you had to fill out a form to keep with you when you went out for an errand, such as getting groceries, or picking up a loved one from work. The reason for this was simple. The government saw that people weren't taking the guidance voluntarily, so they needed to temporarily enact some laws to mandate behavior, because they're trying to look out for the best interest of the population.
And that leads to the second part of the answer. The issue with how viruses spread is that it's not usually the severely sick who spread it; it's those with minor symptoms or no symptoms that risk spreading the disease. Similar to how vaccines for diseases like Polio work, if you have 100 people, perhaps 90 percent of people could be infected and never have known. The virus isn't strong enough to even temporarily give them any noticeable symptoms. Another 5 – 7% will show some symptoms, but be able to resist it, and their bodies can recover from it. The last 3 – 5% may fall into the category of immuno-compromised. They can't fight off any infections, or if their bodies are fighting with that, a secondary illness can come in and lead to fatality. That's how AIDS leads to death a lot.
Now people who are immuno-compromised can't even get a vaccine; they could get ill even from an inactive version of any virus being in the body. While their body is trying to eliminate the virus particles, which would normally let the body "learn" how to protect itself, the body is too exhausted to start dealing with a second illness which is active, and that can be lethal. However, people without a compromised immune system can fairly easily "learn" that method of killing / removing the virus particles. If you give them the vaccine, the body learns rapidly to fight the infection, and then can actually kill and remove it rapidly; rapidly enough so that it can't survive long enough for you to pass it on. If enough of the people who can safely receive the vaccine do, it maximizes the chances of preventing the virus from being carried around, and therefore infecting (and potentially killing) the people who cannot.
The masks are meant to do the same thing. If the water particles from your sneeze or cough are too big to actually pass through your mask, then they can't get into the air and travel far enough to get to other people. If you're practicing social distancing, that risk is further reduced. If you're avoiding public places and adhering as much as possible to the rules to avoid gatherings and crowds, you've reduced that risk further, still.
The other things about viruses is that they can mutate. So far COVID-19 seems to mutate slowly, so the risk of this isn't high. But enough people passing it around, and enough people's systems fighting it off, it could lead to changes that cause new strains of the virus. By minimizing the risk of exposure while a vaccine does not exist for this virus, we reduce the chance of it being mutated. Then, if / when there is a vaccine, most people's bodies will eliminate it and flush it from their system; if it's happening rapidly in most people, the chances of it changing are reduced even more.
Getting back to the masks, they help to contain the virus if it is being expelled from your body. If you follow proper guidelines, you have contained most of the virus; you've kept distant enough from people to mitigate the risk of a few smaller droplets getting out into the atmosphere; by not being out unnecessarily, you have both allowed for people to not have to go into crowded spaces and risk spreading the disease even more; if we do this for long enough, we may but the time necessary for a safe vaccine to develop and be deployed.
Now while this has lead to a lot of tough situations (people being laid off from jobs, small companies struggling vastly, etc), it was really a matter of making sure that this was contained as much as possible while long-term solutions could be found; and we couldn't be sure exactly how dangerous this was right away. However, given the nature of how this virus could effect people, the concern and caution was wise – it might not have been completely necessary, but what if we didn't take these actions and were wrong? As of today (May 19, 2020) this virus has killed 320,000 worldwide. 92,000 of them here in the U.S.A. Now what if we hadn't taken the precautions, including wearing the masks when we went out in public? There is the potential that the virus could have spread far more, and more people who are at risk could have become symptomatic – including those with critical conditions. Our health system has finite resources, it is entirely possible that some hospitals might have been overwhelmed by cases of this virus; and then the risk is that people with other conditions and injuries could NOT get the help they need. That leads to other people who could potentially have a dangerous issue turn fatal. That could have lead to a much higher death toll. The typical flu season in the United States is considered to run from November through April (sometimes coming on as early as October, and lasting as long as May). That means the flue season, when the risk of infection is high and the degree of fatalities is also high, is 6 – 8 months. You can look at these estimated numbers on flu deaths vs infections. The word season in the last 10 (not including 2019 – 2020) the worst was the estimated value in the 2017 to 2018 season, at 61,000. That is higher than the rest of the years by a margin of at least 10,000 – the next highest year was 2014 – 2015. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html So in a typical 6 month span, the worst outcome was 61,000 – just over 10,000 a month. In the US alone, to date, the death rate was 92,000. And the actual dates being considered start only back on January 22nd. 3 months, 27 days. Half the length of the typical flu season, and 50% more deaths than the typical flu – and that's WITH the extensive protective measures in place. There's no way to be sure what might have happened if this virus went on a full 6 month cycle, and even more, no way to know how bad it could have been had we not put the practices into place to protect people.
So the government largely erred on the side of caution.
There are other viruses that have the potential to spread and cause wide-spread devastation. Ebola is a good example – it takes a number of days to incubate (grow) and then it is extraordinarily dangerous; the mortality rate, depending on the strain of the virus, is anywhere from 25% – 90%. And the average means about 50%. Think that over. Take half the people you know (including family members) and eliminate half of them. And since the incubation period for Ebola is about two weeks, that means that you could be spreading it in all that time. The fortunate thing about Ebola is that it isn't airborne – you can't easily spread it by sneezing or coughing. It usually requires blood or saliva; it's far more vulnerable to UV light, it's not resilient enough for most environments, and the source of the virus is believed to be a region that doesn't have a high degree of air travel – namely nations in central and mid-northern Africa. We're lucky about that.
So the conclusion to this: the masks won't stop you from catching the disease – they stop you from spreading the disease if you do catch it, especially being important if you're lucky enough to be symptom-free. If the population at large all take the necessary steps, then few people if any are spreading the disease before their body can kill and flush it. That means people who have a harder time with illness are less likely to be exposed and infected (because many of them take these measures of staying home or distant as a regular course of action) and we've bought that much more time to find solutions that will let us resume our daily lives. I know it sucks. I want to go out and take train photos and videos. I miss a lot of social activities like going to the train club I belong to, going to movies and going to parks. I'm lucky I have a job that allows for me to work from home. I know a number of people who have made their entire living around a small business that they started and have run for years – and quite a few of them have minimal resources to survive during this time. Some of them are watching their work and effort crumble. I do know what that's like. I've had a small business of my own, before. And I've seen the effects for myself on how fast a lack of work can lead to collapse. I won't tell them they're wrong for wanting to have their life's work survive. Most of them are not rolling in the dough; but they chose the line of work that they did because they enjoyed it. If we really care about helping them out, we'll need to jump back to the opportunity to make use of their services once again when this is over – that may be tough, because a lot of people will still be struggling with their own finances after being furloughed, perhaps laid off permanently… a lot of people are going to feel the economic crunch. It's not selfish of small business owners to want to prevent that; but that means that the population at large needs to follow the guidelines set out for prevention as quickly and as much as possible, until we can get that better solution.
That's not a guilt trip – that's a fact. I doubt anyone wants to see others die. It's not about you being at fault; it's about you contributing to a solution.
I hope that this article has given you some better insights. I hope that you're able to understand better what the masks are for. You can call it a sign of subservience that could lead to eroding of your rights. The Declaration of Independence was set out with the line:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence
Life is the most precious of these rights. It's not about "infringing on the rights" of others; it's about promoting the chance for others to experience things. If you're frustrated, if you're upset, if you're angry, it's OK – the situation is frustrating, upsetting, and being angry about it is perfectly natural. You can't be told it's not any of that reasonably. It is about trying to prevent a much larger and riskier situation. It's unlikely that we'll have this go on for many years. Too many resources are already being directed to eliminating the risk. It's also unlikely that another virus like this could crop up quickly. Even if there is, we'll have a better understanding of what we can do to prevent the spread, and the next time, if people participate in the efforts like masks and social distancing to a greater degree, early on, the more severe lock-down strategies might not come forward. We might be able to go on in a more regular fashion, allowing for time to stop pandemics.
Try to think of this as a chance to contribute to a solution for the welfare of more people. And when we're passed this, make sure you do as much as you can to help out those small businesses that were suffering through this. They are worthy of saving, just like our lives.


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Artifactory provides integration with SBT, allowing you to configure it to resolve dependencies from and deploy build output to SBT repositories. All you need to do is make minor modifications to your
build.sbt configuration file.
Local Repositories
A local SBT repository is used as a target to which you can deploy the output of your
build.sbt script. To create an SBT repository, from the Administration module, under Repositories | Repositories | Local, set the Package Type to SBT.
Remote Repositories
A remote repository defined in Artifactory serves as a caching proxy for a registry managed at a remote URL.
Artifacts (such as JAR files) requested from a remote repository are cached on demand. You can remove downloaded artifacts from the remote repository cache, however, you can not manually deploy artifacts to a remote SBT repository.
To define a remote SBT repository to proxy a remote SBT registry follow the steps below:
In the Administration module, under Repositories | Repositories | Remote, click New Remote Repository.
In the New Repository dialog, set the Package Type to SBT, set the Repository Key value, and specify the URL to the remote registry in the URL field as displayed below:
Click Save & Finish.
The parameters needed to configure remote SBT repositories are identical to those used for Maven repositories. For more details, please refer to Remote Repositories.
Virtual Repositories
A Virtual Repository defined in Artifactory aggregates packages from both local and remote repositories.
This allows you to access both locally hosted JARS and remote proxied SBT registries from a single URL defined for the virtual repository.
To define a virtual SBT repository, from the Administration module, go to Repositories | Repositories | Virtual, set the Package Type to SBT, and select the underlying local and remote SBT repositories to include in the Basic settings tab.
Click Save & Finish to create the repository.
The parameters needed to configure virtual SBT repositories are identical to those used for Maven repositories. For more details, please refer to Virtual Repositories.
Configuring SBT
To configure SBT to resolve and deploy artifacts through SBT repositories defined in Artifactory, simply select one of the SBT repositories in the Application module, go to Artifactory | Artifacts | Artifact Repository Browser and click Set Me Up. Artifactory will display code snippets you can use in the relevant SBT files.
Configuring Proxy Repositories
To configure a repository defined in Artifactory as a proxy repository for SBT, add the code snippet below to your
~/.sbt/repositories file (
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.sbt\repositories on Windows).
[repositories] local my-ivy-proxy-releases: http://<host>:<port>/artifactory/<repo-key>/, [organization]/[module]/(scala_[scalaVersion]/)(sbt_[sbtVersion]/)[revision]/[type]s/[artifact](-[classifier]).[ext] my-maven-proxy-releases: http://<host>:<port>/artifactory/<repo-key>/
<host>:<port> are the host URL and port on which Artifactory is running.
For example, if you are running Artifactory on your local machine, on port 8081, and want to proxy Ivy repositories through a repository called
sbt-ivy-proxy, and proxy Maven repositories through a repository called
sbt-maven-proxy you would use:
[repositories] local my-ivy-proxy-releases: http://localhost:8081/artifactory/sbt-ivy-proxy/, [organization]/[module]/(scala_[scalaVersion]/)(sbt_[sbtVersion]/)[revision]/[type]s/[artifact](-[classifier]).[ext] my-maven-proxy-releases: http://localhost:8081/artifactory/sbt-maven-proxy/
Proxying Maven and Ivy repositories separately
We recommend using different repositories to proxy Maven and Ivy repositories as a best practice described in Proxying Ivy Repositories in the SBT Reference Manual.
To specify that all resolvers added in the SBT project should be ignored in favor of those configured in the repositories configuration, add the following configuration option to the SBT launcher script:
You can also add this setting to your
/usr/local/etc/sbtopts (
C:\Program Files (x86)\sbt\conf\sbtopts on Windows)
For more details on SBT proxy repositories, please refer to Proxy Repositories in the SBT Reference Manual.
Configuring Artifact Resolution
To resolve artifacts through Artifactory, simply add the following code snippet to your
build.sbt file:
resolvers += "Artifactory" at "http://<host>:<port>/artifactory/<repo-key>/"
<host>:<port> are the host URL and port on which Artifactory is running, and repo-key is the Artifactory repository through which you are resolving artifacts
Deploying Artifacts
To deploy SBT build artifacts to repositories in Artifactory, add the following code snippets to your
build.sbt file.
For releases, add:
publishTo := Some("Artifactory Realm" at "http://<host>:<port>/artifactory/<repo-key>") credentials += Credentials("Artifactory Realm", "<host>", "<USERNAME>", "<PASS>")
For snapshots, add:
publishTo := Some("Artifactory Realm" at "http://<host>:<port>/artifactory/<repo-key>;build.timestamp=" + new java.util.Date().getTime) credentials += Credentials("Artifactory Realm", "<host>", "<USERNAME>", "<PASS>")
<host>:<port> is the host URL and port on which Artifactory is running, and repo-key is the Artifactory repository to which you are deploying artifacts.
Sample Project
A sample SBT project that uses Artifactory is available on GitHub and can be freely forked.


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Feb 10, 2020
Rebecca Minkoff moves into children's fashion with debut collection for kids
Feb 10, 2020
Rebecca Minkoff is launching her debut childrenswear collection.
The US fashion designer, whose eponymous womenswear clothing label is known for its polished, easygoing aesthetic, has unveiled the first installment of the brand's new 'Little Minkoff' line.
Spanning separates such as dresses, shirts, a jumpsuit and even a miniature leather jacket, the 20-piece unisex collection runs in ages 4-12, and comes as the brand marks its 15th anniversary. It also focuses on sustainability, aiming to reduce waste and excess water usage.
"Becoming a mother was one of the most transformational and important things that has happened to me," Minkoff is quoted as saying on her label's official website. "This is why in honor of our fifteen year anniversary, we are launching a collection that celebrates the joy and life that children are."
In an interview with WWD, which reports that the collection will be availbale to purchase later this month, Minkoff opened up about the inspiration for the collection, saying: "We wanted to match some of the main themes in the women's ready-to-wear, but also let some of these items stand alone."
Minkoff is not alone in branching out into the lucrative world of children's fashion. The luxury brand Elie Saab also teamed up with the childrenswear company Simonetta to develop 'Elie Saab Junior,' which launched earlier this year.
Copyright © 2023 AFP-Relaxnews. All rights reserved.


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This month, I am proud to present an interview with Chris Howard, author of Seaborn.
It's a pleasure to have this opportunity to interview you, Chris. Please tell us a bit about your writing background.
My mother was a writer and an artist, and growing up I had no concept of a "real job" versus an artistic pursuit–no pressure to take one over the other. (I ended up studying philosophy in school, and have spent the last twenty years developing software). I think, more than anything else, the idea of the arts as a valid career path opened up the world of writing and painting for me. My mother also made it pretty clear that if you don't submit anything, you're never going to get published. My first rejections were from F&SF and Dragon Magazine in the early '80s, and my first publication was a short story, "Diminisher of Peace" in The Harrow in 2006. So, twenty-something years of writing on-and-off before an editor accepted something. I used to collect rejects, stick them in a folder, to go through every once in a while. I don't bother anymore. I know I have well over a hundred and fifty.
That's a lot of rejections, but you've already proven that a writer should never give up. Tell us about your latest publication?
Seaborn, which came out last July, is my latest novel. I'm also an illustrator with some pen and ink work in the last issue of Shimmer (came out a few months ago). Seaborn is actually the middle book in a series that begins with Saltwater Witch (young adult) and ends with Sea Throne. Both of these are complete, the first with a publisher. No idea when they'll see the light of day, though. Sea Throne is presently a victim of the recent shifts in the publishing world, with Juno Books becoming an imprint of Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books division, and with a tighter focus on the popular and key elements of urban fantasy–that's werewolves and vampires, and with people from the sea–any way you define "urban fantasy"–being on the fringe. So, Sea Throne's sort of in limbo at the moment. Time to work on the next series!
I wish you the best of luck with Sea Throne. What project are you working on at the moment?
I have a new fantasy series going. It's quite a bit different than the Seaborn books. It's in the future, so you have nanotech, self-cleaning clothes, and my main character's a dryad–an SF background with magic and demons and forest deities. I like the mix. I think readers will too. Instead of a loose 3rd person POV I used in Seaborn and Sea Throne, the new series, starting with the book I just completed–Winterdim, is all in first person POV, with each book from a different character's perspective.
That does sound like an interesting mix. Do you know how the story will end when you first start writing it?
Depends how broadly you're interpreting "how." I certainly have a good idea of who's going to come out the other end of the story alive, and whether they're going to succeed or fail. I don't have protags fail often–never completely. On the other hand, they never step out of the last chapter unchanged, undamaged, or not without a whole new set of problems.
As far as writing process goes, I typically begin writing the ending before I hit the middle of the story. This works to plant a stake in the ground and gives me a pretty clear direction to move the story. By the time I'm three-quarters done, I may have the ending complete–with minor tweaks when the rest of the writing catches up and then a few more after a post-complete edit pass.
I believe in having a concrete ending and often write the last scene at the beginning of the process. Do you work on more than one story at a time? If so, how do you manage it?
Usually. I may complete a short story or two in the time I write a novel, but I never get into another novel length work. That doesn't mean I'm not thinking one or two books ahead, or even the next series. I'm always doing that. For me at least, it's never the lack of ideas, it's always about the lack of time to pursue them. I keep a journal–I use Moleskine notebooks, unlined so I can draw in them, too. I go through one of these a year, and by the time I've finished one book, I have enough notes, plot ideas, conclusions to get me started on another. I also draw and paint, and I'm usually way ahead of what I'm currently writing. As part of my writing process, I picture scenes from the next book or series and paint them.
I have always been interested in how other writers go about their business so thank you for sharing that part of your writing routine. Do you believe in writer's block? Why?
I'm not sure I do. If we're talking about writer's block being the state writers run into when they don't understand enough about a particular scene, plot direction, character motivation, and can't continue without getting a better handle on these things, then I do believe. Everyone gets that, and the response is to sit back and think about those things that feel fuzzy, that don't make sense, take time to put yourself into a character and play around, try to understand what they're feeling, what they see when they step into that scene. Sometimes it works to try something unexpected. People aren't robots–unless your character actually is a robot. They don't always follow a script–they certainly don't in real life. Why would readers expect a fictional character to behave that way?
I don't think I've ever just sat in front of a blank sheet of paper, pen in hand, or in front of the screen, fingers hovering over the keyboard, waiting for the words to come. Maybe a long time ago, and the cure for that is to put the pen down and go read a book. Get some inspiration, look at some art, photographs, listen to some music. I'm still a newb at this writing thing. I've just completed my fifth novel (worth publishing–have a bunch that aren't), and if I had to give some advice on this: A lot of the writing process relies on trusting yourself to tell the story–and not getting hung up on a particular scene. It could be that you're just not ready to tell that part yet. Move on to the next. Pick a scene later in your story that you've been dying to write. Who says you have to have everything written prior to that scene? Skip ahead and start writing. You can always come back and fill in chapters, and when you do, you'll have a better understanding of your story and characters.
What are your writing goals for the future?
Simple. Novel a year. That's the plan. Do some painting and drawing during and in between–maybe sell a few. Near term I want to pursue this future fantasy thing to the limit. I've plotted three books, but I can take it to more. Beyond that? I have a hundred stories to tell, worlds to build, characters to create and their shoes to step into. I've written two YA novels, Nanowhere and Saltwater Witch. I may come back to writing more YA at some point, and when I do it'll probably be historical fiction.
Thank you, Chris, for a very interesting interview. I'm sure visitors to this site will be as grateful as I am for the time you've given us today.
If you would like to know more about Chris and his writing (and even his artwork) be sure to visit his website – https://saltwaterwitch.com/