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What a month it's been – and the Patch Tuesday patches have only been out for 24 hours. There are many February patching foibles to report.
Every version of Windows 10, stretching back to the beginning of time (except for the long-neglected version 1511) got patches this month.
Welcome to the new, improved, paid-for Win7 patches
There was no free Windows 7 update this month, even though Microsoft released a Monthly Rollup Preview in January. Anyone concerned about the well-documented "Stretch" black wallpaper bug caused by last month's Win7 Monthly Rollup apparently can pound sand – or manually download and install the fix. Your choice.
It looks as if Microsoft has repaired the part of the KB 4539602 manual patch that was deleting boot files, although the official explanation (SHA-2 enablement) still doesn't make sense to me.
Those of you who paid for Win7 Extended Security Updates have these patches on offer (Thx, RDRguy.) :
- 2020-02 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 (KB4537820)
- 2020-02 Security Only Quality Update for Windows 7 (KB4537813)
- 2020-02 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 (KB4537767)
Two problems. First, you'll only see those updates if you first install the patch Microsoft released yesterday:
- 2020-02 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Licensing Preparation Package for Windows 7 (KB4538483)
Second, you won't be able to see them until you get January Servicing Stack Update installed, KB 4536952. Many folks report that they were never offered the January SSU – remember you have to completely clear out the patch backlog before Windows Update will even show you an SSU. Alternatively, you can download and install it manually. Sound familiar?
Once you have the January Servicing Stack Update installed and the next for-pay patches appear, you should also get
- 2020-02 Servicing Stack Update for Windows 7 (KB4537829)
Of course, we haven't had enough time to test any of the patches, so it's best to wait. Who knows? Maybe Microsoft will have another surprise pre-patch patch waiting.
By the way…, it looks as if Microsoft has backtracked on another part of its Windows 7 end-of-life saber rattling: I'm seeing many reports that Win7 machines are getting the latest Malicious Software Removal Tool, even though MSRT updates were supposed to expire last month.
Another big, bad, horrible sky-is-falling 'exploited' IE bug
Let's hear it for the "you better patch now or else, bucko" contingent. This month, the patching blogosphere is alight with dire warnings about the security hole CVE-2020-0674, yet another IE/JScript "Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability."
This time, we're all supposed to get the January patches installed RIGHT NOW because this horrible hole has already been exploited. Yeah, sure.
We've heard that tune before, most recently last month when the Chicken Littles (and the U.S. National Security Agency) said the sky was falling because of the horrendous Crypt32.dll security hole, known as "Chain Of Fools" or "CurveBall." That one fizzled out, too, in spite of the government-funded hype. I don't know of any widespread CurveBall attacks – not yet, anyway.
Think you need to fix CVE-2020-0674 right away? Consider. The new, new IE/JScript "exploited" security hole is so threatening and ominous that Microsoft itself held back on releasing the fix. Microsoft first warned us of the security hole on Jan. 17 in Security Advisory ADV200001, which included a manual workaround (disabling JScript). It didn't release a fix until yesterday. If Microsoft could wait a few weeks to release the patch, my guess is that you can handily wait a few weeks to install the patch.
Oh. If you followed the ADV200001 advice and manually disabled JScript, you have to manually re-enable it before installing this month's patch. Joke's on you.
0patch problems
Many of us are hoping that the micro-patching company 0patch will be able to plug the security holes in Win7, without paying for (or hassling with) Microsoft's Extended Support Updates. As of this writing, 0patch has issued a fix for the "exploited" Internet Explorer JScript bug, but I haven't yet heard of a fix for all of the other ESU-related patches.
There's a problem in paradise, though. In some cases, Firefox can crash on start if you have 0patch installed – there's a conflict between Firefox 73 and the 0patch agent. Mitja Kolsek has a workaround posted on the 0patch blog.
The UEFI mystery of KB 4524244
Microsoft seems to have a specific UEFI manufacturer in its sites. KB 4524244, the "Security update for Windows 10, version 1607, 1703, 1709, 1803, 1809, and 1903: February 11, 2020" is being offered, independently of the usual Cumulative Updates, on all versions of Windows 10.
By the way, if you think Win10 version 1909 was immune from the KB 4524244 malaise, think again. Microsoft forgot to include 1909 on its master list, but KB 4524244 is included in the 1909 MS Update Catalog listing and in the WSUS listing. (Thx, PKCano.) The KB article – even its title – is clearly wrong.
Here's what's odd about that patch, aside from the fact that it isn't bundled with the cumulative updates. Microsoft is targeting one specific UEFI supplier:
Addresses an issue in which a third-party Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot manager might expose UEFI-enabled computers to a security vulnerability.
I don't know which UEFI boot manager has been singled out for this extraordinary treatment, but if you know, I'd sure appreciate a hint on AskWoody.com
The patch isn't without its hazard. From LordDeath86, on Reddit: "After installing the update for 1909 I got a new pending security update KB 4524244 and it always fails with error 0x800f0922. And again Google and Bing are failing me here because that error code can mean anything from bad VPN software (don't have any) to a too small system partition (also not the case here) to a bad star constellation that sends cosmic rays into my PC and let the update fail."
We're only starting to collect and collate the problems with this month's patches. If you have a tale to tell – or a question – hit us on AskWoody.com.


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Woodridge Named to the 2020 Inc. 5000 List
3-Year Growth Lands Woodridge on Inc. 5000
Inc. Magazine revealed that Woodridge Software placed at #2954 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segment—its independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.
Woodridge stands proud among 5000 of the countries most innovative up-and-coming businesses. Representing the booming Denver technology industry, we are honored to be among those companies- both local and national- that have fostered substantial growth in the past three years.
The 2020 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2016 and 2019. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2016. The full list can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000, Woodridge Software's profile can be found at https://www.inc.com/profile/woodridge-advisors

subset: commoncrawl


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Regular price
Sale Price:
Product Code: 7862-Black
The Zip-N-Go Neoprene Wine Bag is a handy black sleeve that holds a 750ml bottle of wine safely. It's zipper closure, carry handle and gusset bottom keeps your bottle secure. Includes a handy side pocket for wine accessories like a foil cutter, bottle stopper, travel opener, etc. Black.
Imprint area: 2-1/4" X 1-1/4". Screen/Pad Print.


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Commentary: Pulling Out of the Death Spiral
The Federal government spends close to $100 billion each year on Information Technology (IT). That's a lot more than the $80 billion figure that shows up in the President's annual budget and reports from Deltek and others. The latter number only shows spending from the 24 so-called Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies. It does not include IT expenditures by the legislative branch, the judiciary (including the court systems around the country), small agencies (a goodly sum when aggregated), independent and quasi-government agencies like the Federal Reserve and the Postal Service, or the $9 billion that we now know the intelligence community spends on IT.
But behind those budget figures is a death spiral of spending on legacy IT systems – a crisis we must confront.
The President's FY 2016 budget suggested that 70 percent of the government's IT budget is spent on what is called Operations and Maintenance (O&M) of legacy IT systems – as opposed to Development, Modernization, and Enhancement (DME), which is focused on establishing new technology to reduce duplication, driving cost savings and enhancing citizen services.
But in a recent FCW article, Dave Gwyn cites a Government Accountability Office claim that the O&M spend is more than 75 percent of the IT budget. And at the recent FITARA Forum, sponsored by MeriTalk, Federal CIO Tony Scott upped the ante, stating that the government spends "more than 80 percent of the…IT budget on operations and maintenance for legacy systems."
Cheeky Brit and MeriTalk Founder Steve O'Keeffe recently went on a tirade, dubbing Federal IT systems "aging," "decrepit," "insecure," "dysfunctional," a "rusting hulk," and "a crisis." In this case, O'Keeffe may have been understated. He went on to call for a .usa2020 initiative – replacing our aging Federal IT infrastructure by 2020, the end of the next President's first term. But how can we get there?
A recent McKinsey Insight article, "Two Ways to Modernize IT Systems for the Digital Era," provides a roadmap with two potential routes. So with proper thanks to authors Juan Garcia Avedillo, Duarte Begonha, and Andrea Peyracchia, here are some thoughts on alternative paths and governance principles.
There are two approaches for successfully realizing improvements in the short term while transforming the IT architecture in the long-term: Two-speed and Greenfield.
Two-Speed Approach
Under the two-speed approach, the IT organization produces quick iterations and launches of front-end customer-facing applications while continuing to ensure the stability of slower, back-end systems that handle foundational transactions. The agency would need to limit the number of fast-track initiatives. But it would also need to set critical milestones for the long-term transformation and have a comprehensive plan and investment strategy. Without such a plan, they will be caught up in a change cycle that has no end.
Greenfield Approach
As the name suggests, this is a replacement of core legacy IT systems. The approach works best when an agency requires a total transformation that the existing legacy system simply can't support. Implementing this approach also requires a bit more lead time, substantial capital, and business process redesign to fit the IT tools and packages being acquired.
Governance Principles
Regardless of which approach is chosen, agencies would need to adhere to certain governance principles:
- Ensure that agency leadership plays an active role;
- Have a clear long-term vision and plan;
- Simplify processes and IT at the same time;
- Maintain good housekeeping, implement IT standards, freeze legacy investments, and prevent shadow IT offerings from being introduced;
- Make clear and frequent communications a priority;
- Dedicate the best internal resources to the transformation project; and,
- Choose industry partners that prioritize your account.
Hopefully with these McKinsey insights we can begin our .usa2020 transformation journey.
Alan P. Balutis (@AlanBalutis) is a Senior Director and Distinguished Fellow at Cisco Systems U.S. Public Sector.


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MarineMax dealership renovates showroom in Florida
By Webmaster MarineMax Pompano Beach in Florida hosted guests at a grand opening in its renovated waterfront showroom. A second-floor water main break led to the decision to remodel the 7,500-square-foot showroom and second-floor office spaces. The showroom was built in 1989. "Our renovations were significant, both financially and cosmetically, considering both …read more
Source:: Trade Only Today


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German, female, 19 years old, student
1. Explain yourself in a few words.
I love ballet, judo, movie projects, good books.
2. What countries have you visited?
|Germany, Netherlands, England, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Cyprus, Greece.
|Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos.
3. Where do you plan to travel to next?
I'm going to Hanoi, Vietnam to teach English for 2-3 months. Then Hong Kong, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Myanmar.
4. Can you give me a list of all necessary items required for your travel?
Soap, German shoes, books.
5. May I ask your advice on guidance? What do you advice me not to do while I'm traveling?
- Do not rush.
- Try to choose villages instead of cities.
- Try to use bicycles, motorcycles, trains instead of buses.
- Show your respect to locals by learning a few words from their language.
- Try to avoid tourists, travel alone.
6. Have you got any slogans to describe yourself?
"Take everything as it comes. Don't regret anything".
7. What questions would you ask a more experienced traveler?
8. In your experience how is traveling now in comparison to the past (let's say 50 years ago) and do you expect things to change much in the future (let's say in a 100 years, 1000 years)?
|There was a much deeper understanding of the countries, more contacts with locals, everything had to be organised by yourself.
|It's quite easy to travel.
|It will be easier to travel, flights will be cheaper. In the distant future – teleportation.
9. What brings joy to your life?
Seeing others being happy. Help people.


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THE response of the fans to the "Kalyeserye" wedding of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza was so overwhelming. It was the number one trending topic worldwide on Twitter and "Eat Bulaga's" ratings soared to the roof. To think it was just make-believe, but the fans treated it like it's real and looks like they're going to be more possessive of their idols from now on.
The wedding was held at Christ the King Church which the grannies frequent. The ceremony started at 1:30 p.m. with Rodjun Cruz as best man, followed by Alden and Ai Ai de las Alas as his Lola Babah who walked with him to the altar. The principal sponsors include Joey de Leon, Helen Gamboa, Mike Enriquez, Irma Adlawan (the couple's co-star in "Imagine You and Me") while the secondary sponsors were "Trops" stars Kenneth Medrano-Toni Aquino (for veil), Miggy Tolentino-Taki (for candle), and Jake Ejercito (Maine's classmate)-Aicelle Santos (for cord). Ring bearer is Baste while coin bearer is Sandro Sotto.
The flower girls include Ryzza Mae Dizon and Scarlet Mago (daughter of Pia Guanio). The maid of honor is Maine's sister, Coleen Mendoza. The choir sang "God Gave Me You" while Maine walked to the altar in her beautiful new (not recycled) gown.
Wally Bayola as Lola Nidora and Ai Ai as Lola Babah now call each other "balae." Everyone thought the wedding was off because of a call Maine received the day before, but it turned out the caller had said, "hindi matutuloy ang honeymoon in Hong Kong" because they'll be going to Europe instead. The fans swooned and shrieked when the couple exchanged "I do's." Some even cried when they put on each other's wedding rings and read their wedding vows. And when they kissed each other on the lips, everyone was in kilig mode.
The fans who were lucky to be invited to the wedding dressed up and behaved like they were going to a real ceremony. They even had gifts for the newlyweds. The question now on everybody's lips is: What is next in the "Kalyeserye" after the wedding? Will Maine get pregnant?
Let's leave it to the writers of "Eat Bulaga" to cook up more exciting episodes for today's number one love team! (M. Bautista, Malaya)
Anne Curtis shines in new movie
Anne Curtis shines in "Bakit Lahat ng Gwapo, May Boyfriend?" simply because she's not afraid of making fun of herself or being the butt of jokes, like in that scene where she rebuffs Joross Gamboa and he tells her, "Hindi ka naman kagandahan. Maputi ka lang, ang kapal ng labi mo." The movie itself has no dramatic pretensions, unlike "The Third Party" where the major characters get to shed tears in a number of drama scenes. It just wants to make people laugh and has plenty of feel-good scenes, like when Anne and Dennis sang "May Minamahal."
Anne is Kylie, a wedding planner whose exes all turned out to be gay and just used her as a cover up. Her boss, Benj (Paolo Ballesteros), is a straight acting gay who asks her to use her "gaydar" to prove that his lifelong secret crush, Diego (Dennis Trillo), is also a closet gay. All the supposed signs of being a beki is in Diego (like he can identify the color of Anne's lipstick and he screams like a girl while watching a horror flick), but Anne, who's very bitter about gays because of her past experiences with them, still finds herself also drawn to him and worse, slowly falling for him.
The film is from writer-director Jun Lana, who makes sure that gays are not just made fun of but treated with understanding. Dennis is now the believable object of affection of gays in this movie, while Paolo is an effortlessly hilarious scene-stealer. But it is the charming and lovable Anne who holds the movie together. (M. Bautista, Malaya)


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Calculator for the Power-Mate in Home Energy Audit Toolkits
All Tasmanian councils have Home Energy Audit Toolkits to borrow for free. Contact your local. We have created a simple calculator to help you use the Power-Mate. Use the calculator Continue reading
Should I install a home battery system?
Almost certainly not. Here's why... Continue reading
Should I switch to the new energy retailer in Tasmania?
With the arrival of a new energy retailer 1st Energy, Tasmanians finally have a choice. Should you switch? Continue reading
Solar basics
Confused about solar? Start here... Continue reading
The biggest and cheapest battery you didn't know you already have
The vast majority of Tasmanian households already have a battery (of sorts) that stores more energy than a Tesla Powerwall 2 at only a few percent of the cost! Continue reading
Which Tariff should I use?
You can reduce your electricity bills by making the most of the (relatively) new time-of-use Tariff 93. Continue reading
How does solar panel orientation affect performance in Tasmania?
Solar panels work best when they face the sun, but the sun's position changes with the time of day, and it changes seasonally too. Big solar farms use fancy tracking systems to keep panels facing the sun, but for home systems, it's best to fix them to your roof. So then how does the slope and orientation of your roof affect the output of your solar panels in Tasmania? Continue reading
The most detailed techno-economic modelling of solar and batteries in Tasmania ever
In late 2018 we performed the most detailed techno-economic modelling of solar and battery systems in Tasmanian conditions ever undertaken. Continue reading
Compostable plastics
Are they the solution to plastic pollution? Well, they are certainly less bad, but unfortunately they're no silver bullet. Continue reading
Plastic pollution and what to do about it
Tips on what you can do about plastic pollution for each type... Continue reading


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Over the past 12 months, Pinterest has been slowly but surely building itself up as an advertising alternative to Google and Facebook. While some advertisers have been skeptical about whether this social network could possibly monetize their efforts, Pinterest has recently made some fascinating moves to become a top priority for online marketers.
Still think of Pinterest as a place where people pin recipes and inspirational quotes to their boards? That's totally wrong. Here are 6 steps to make Pinterest drive traffic to your website.
Your first essential step to leverage Pinterest is to create a business profile. Make sure to carefully fill out the "About Me" section, giving us much information as you can, and stuffing it generously with keywords relevant to your business.
Let your website's visitors share (or what we call "Pin") images from your website to Pinterest and at the same time promote your business. A best practice is to add the "Pin It" button to your site's product or catalog pages. Pinterest guides users through a simple process for uploading all buttons to their site's pages via its "widget builder".
Think of Pinterest boards as virtual bulletin boards where you can group and store your posts. Divide them based on a specific topic, e.g. a bakery store might have an "How-To" board as opposed to "New Items in the Menu" board. When you name a board and add a description, keep keywords in mind and stay specific. A title "recipes" is much wider and less specific than "low-carb recipes" with a description "Delicious low calories meals that makes losing weight less depressing".
Recent data show that pins related to How-To guides and tutorials bring a 42% higher click through rate compared to other topics. So consider coming up with educational material for you next pin. When choosing a picture for tutorial pins do not hesitate to add an overlay text to your image, so people will get your point quickly.
Rich Pins is one of the best ways to increase a success of your Pinterest marketing campaign. It enables you to add extra relevant information to your pin, like an item price, recipe ingredients, and a link to an app, all updated in real time. For example if an item in your store goes on sale, the price will be automatically marked down on Pinterest as well. The extra information from rich pins will help you drive more relevant traffic to your website, since users will already know what they are looking for. If you want to learn how to add Rich Pins to your Pinterest Account talk to us today and we can get you get set up.
75% of all pins come from businesses, so to stand out of the crowd you may consider Promoted Pins option. While they look the same as regular pins, they are shown to users at the right time and at the right place based on their interests. To put a Promoted Pin into play simply choose an existing pin from your boards, target an audience and set up a CPC bid. Don't forget to measure results.
Many Pinterest users use a platform as a shopping destination, not a social media site; a study showed that over 60% of people have purchased a product they found on Pinterest. Keep in mind that most users are in the discovery stage of their buyer's journey, and having your company's strong presence on Pinterest might become a great alternative or addition for your digital ad dollars.
Let us know how we can help improve your online marketing and social media strategy today, with our in-house experts we can help transform your Pinterest account into a website driving traffic tool.
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Good posture is important for many reasons. When you slouch, you put a lot of stress on your spine. In turn, the muscles, joints, and bones that are required to hold your backbone in the right position will be affected. Bad posture won't only damage your back, but it will also squash your organs. This will make it harder for your intestines and lungs to work correctly. Over time, you will start to experience issues when digesting food and inhaling air. Bad posture can change the way you look as well as harm your health. As you can see, it is important to have a good posture and today, we will be taking a look at six steps on how to improve your posture.
Sleep the Right Way
A firm mattress will help to support the natural shape of your spine by holding it in place while you sleep. Fortunately, there are several good options for you to consider. If you sleep on your side, then you should not hug your knees. Instead, bend them slightly. Whether you sleep on your back or your side, you should have the right size and number of pillows to keep your head in line with your spine.
Stand Up Straight
Straightening up is a great way to prevent problems with your posture. Standing up tall will make you look and feel better, and it can even make you look slimmer. To do so, you need to pretend you are standing with your back against the wall like you would to measure your height. Stand with your knees straight, shoulders back and tuck in your tummy. Keep your hips in and straighten your neck upwards.
Don't Slump at Work
Sitting in a slouched position at your work desk may feel comfortable, but this is not good for your posture. Instead, you should be sitting all the way back in your chair. To help protect the natural curvature of the spine, you can place a rolled-up towel or a pillow behind your mid-back. Your knees should be bent at a right angle and should be in line with your hips, with your feet flat on the floor.
Stretch Your Neck
Many of us are obsessed with our smartphones. When we stare at our smartphones all day long, it is common for many of us to experience 'text neck.' Tilting your neck to read a text message puts a lot of strain on your spine. Over the course of the day, this pressure adds up. To avoid this unnecessary strain, take a break to stretch your neck out and move the phone or your eyes instead of your neck.
Stick to Wearing Flats
Wearing flat shoes that provide a high-level of support to the shape of your feet can do wonders for your posture. Stilettos and pumps may be in fashion, but unfortunately, they will push the base of your spine frontward, which will cause your back to over-arch, affecting how your backbone lines up. It will also put pressure on your nerves, which will lead to back pain, so save the heels for a night out.
Work Your Abs
Toning your abs through exercise is a great way to provide that extra support to your spine. Losing weight will also reduce the amount of stress those added pounds put on your back. Having a workout plan that has been designed well will ensure your body and your spine remains strong and in good shape. Always make the effort to exercise safely and consider non-impact exercise, such as tai chi.
Having good posture will better your health as well as the way you look. It usually takes time to adjust and improve, but the results will definitely be worth it and will benefit you in the long-term.
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Geeky shirts galore! You know what they say: go geek or go home. And seeing how no one likes to go home early, let us help you do geek right. You've landed yourself in the right spot if you can quote every Star Wars movie ever made, love a witty math joke and are a comic book aficionado. Perhaps you're just looking to learn a bit more about all things geek. No problem there; our tshirts provide a crash course in geekdom. After studying up a bit, you'll no longer feel inferior when hanging out with friends – even if their IQs far surpass your own.
Either way, our wide selection of tees allows you to embrace your inner geek at any time, anywhere. You'll look effortlessly cool while rocking our comfortable tees, which are made from the softest cotton we could get scientists to invent. In fact, these tees are so comfy, you'll probably never want to take them off. Just make sure to wash them every now and again, tshirts need love too.
So quit your analyzing ways and just pick a few tees already. Our brilliant staff can't wait to send out an order to a great mind like yours. We know how important it is to always look like a knockout when working on disproving the Pythagorean Theorem.
When it comes to choosing the best geeky shirts, don't overanalyze a thing. That's right; put away those charts, graphics and quadratic equations. All you need to know is this: Bears eat Beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. Any questions? Yeah, we didn't think so. You just can't beat solid logic.
Perhaps music is more your thing. You still own cassette tapes and listen to them with your band after your weekly jam session. We applaud you, but get a load of this – Stromtroopers marching one by one in Lord Vader's Imperial Marching Band. Here's to hoping they know all the classics.
Let's talk politics. Those might be the three boldest words ever spoken in the English language (at least when strung together). However, there's no need for talking when it comes to political alliances. Simply choose your side wisely and put their name on a tshirt – Gaius Baltar for President!
So take our advice – we worked really hard to get you this far. Go out there and embrace your inner geek like it's meant to be embraced. Besides if all else fails, you know who to call… the Boo Busters! You didn't really think we'd give you our number, did you?


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A Rose Made of Galaxies
A Rose Made of Galaxies - a Picture from Hubble taken on December 17, 2010. Synchronicity right here. Today's Synergy...On 17th December, 497 BC, the first Saturnalia festival was celebrated - the date marking the dedication anniversary of the Temple to Saturn. The Saturnalia festival paid tribute to Saturn, the agricultural God of Sowing and was associated with the Renewal of Light and the Coming of the New Year.
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Rose Cortez is sharing her creative process through poetry, photos, nature walks, theatre, collaborations, yoga, movements, voice, young artists, master artists, everyday teachers, life encounters, philosophy, cats, dogs, chickens, and everything else in between. She is an observer of life, creative collective collaborator of body and soul movements and expressions.
December 2020


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The 6PM Recap With Gary Wagner: This Ain't No Party, This Ain't No Disco, This Ain't No Panda "Bear"
by admin / Friday, 26 June 2015 / Published in Gold & Silver
The Shanghai stock index fell 7.3% today, taking mainland China's equities to 4193, now off almost a thousand points from their high only eighteen days ago. That's down 20% from June 8th. Trading was suspended for almost two hours to stem the drop but to no avail.
Source: Kitco


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"Where did I get off?" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells the New Yorker's David Remnick in a new profile of the 28-year-old democratic socialist for Congress. "I mean, I'm going to tell people that I, as a waitress, should be their next congresswoman?"
By now I suspect most people in the United States, or at least those on the left, know about Ocasio-Cortez's stunning 13-point victory over Congressman Joe Crowley, the man who has served parts of Queens and the Bronx since 1999, is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives and, as Remnick and others have put it, "the most powerful politician in Queens County." Most people may also know that Ocasio-Cortez is a second-generation Puerto Rican American born in the Bronx, was waiting tables at a taco-and-tequila bar late last year, and, come November, will mostly likely become the youngest woman ever elected to the United States Congress.
I wouldn't say her primary win surprised me. The demographics, for one, were on her side: if a young, socialistic Latina from a working-class background was going to win a Democratic primary, New York's 14th district — which has changed a lot since Crowley's early days in Congress, and is now almost 50 percent Latino and over 11 percent black — would be the place for it. (My native district, Illinois' 4th, also comes to mind.)
But Latino voters don't merely elect Spanish names, and many Latinos, especially the older ones, flinch at any socialist rhetoric, their families having emigrated from countries where charismatic men sought public office promising everything to the poor and oppressed, only to see those same men turn Trumpish once in power. So while demographics almost certainly helped Ocasio-Cortez win, demographics alone don't explain why she won. As Kshama Sawant's election to the Seattle City Council in 2013 showed, and as Remnick suggests in his piece, Ocasio-Cortez whipped Crowley because people are growing more and more open to socialism — especially young people:
In 2016, the Institute of Politics, at Harvard's Kennedy School, polled people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine, and discovered that support for capitalism was surprisingly low. Fifty-one per cent of the cohort rejected capitalism; thirty-three per cent supported socialism. A later edition of the survey found that fifty-one per cent were 'fearful about the future,' while only about twenty per cent were hopeful. John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the institute, told me that he was so surprised about the results of the survey that he repeated it to make sure they were accurate.
Everyone talks about how progressive we millennials are. Our progressivism springs from various sources — the ascendancy of media and information technology is a glaring one — though two causes seem the most immediate, at least to me. First, there is no denying that the world we millennials inherited was a product of the equal-rights movements of the 1960s, as well as the birth of neoliberalism in the 1970s, which ushered in nearly half a century of widening economic inequality. Second, and related to the latter part of the first, we came of age during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, seeing everyone around us lose their homes, lose their jobs and, thus, lose faith in capitalism. Add to these the devolution of the mainstream media, the partisan warring that has practically sabotaged our system of government, the nation's increasing awareness of police brutality toward every sector of society not rich and white, including the resurrection of white nationalism itself, all of which has led most of my cohorts to believe that the status quo must go.
Ocasio-Cortez, as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, provides yet another harbinger of the looming shift toward social and economic justice. But she is only the beginning, and not nearly what will be required in the end. Her socialism, while better than Bernie's social democracy, still counts plutocratic populists like Bobby Kennedy among its highest heroes; never will you hear her utter the name Trotsky, Luxemburg, or even old man Marx himself. This is all calculated on her part, to be sure: she wants to win elections, doesn't she? Yet for all her talk about abolishing I.C.E., tuition-free college and "Medicare for all," she, like Bernie, still focuses her efforts on relieving the symptoms of late capitalism ("capitalism in extremis"), instead of on replacing capitalism altogether. Hers is a politics of the could be, not of the should be. And while the co-editor of Dissent and D.S.A. member Michael Kazin doesn't expect to see "a socialist transformation of America in [his] lifetime," nor I in mine, no future generation will see one either unless we stop talking about what's possible and start talking about what's necessary.
Featured image: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Jesse Korman/Wikimedia Commons)


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Court Rules for SunTrust Defense on Fiduciaries' 'Actual Knowledge' Question
The district court found "the mere fact that the plan included the affiliated funds—and defendants were aware of that fact—is not sufficient to charge them with constructive knowledge of their predecessors' alleged improper selection process."
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia's Atlanta Division has ruled once again in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) lawsuit filed against SunTrust Bank.
The underlying lawsuit alleges that SunTrust Bank's 401(k) plan engaged in corporate self-dealing at the expense of plan participants. The lead plaintiff suggests that plan officials violated their fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence by selecting a series of proprietary funds (referred to as the STI Classic Funds) that were more expensive and performed worse than other funds they could have included in the plan—and by repeatedly failing to remove or replace the funds.
In 2014, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled in this matter. Although the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with the District Court's initial dismissal of certain claims based on ERISA's three-year statute of limitations, it found all the claims were nonetheless time-barred by ERISA six-year statute of limitations.
The latest ruling out of the Georgia District Court comes on the defendants' motion for summary judgment on Count VIII of the plaintiffs' second amended consolidated class action complaint. In its ruling, the District Court grants summary judgement on behalf of the defense.
Case documents show Count VIII alleges certain defendants "were aware that their predecessor fiduciaries had breached their duties in selecting funds and thus breached their own duties by failing to take adequate steps to remedy, within the class period, their predecessors' breaches in selecting the funds at issue."
Though it ultimately sides with the defense, the text of the decision goes into significant detail regarding the lack of detail included in committee meeting minutes with respect to genuine deliberation over the investment menu during the class period. The text of the decision also recounts substantial details from the depositions of numerous individual fiduciary defendants.
In its analysis of the facts and legal standards applying in this case, the District Court states that "the issue on this motion for summary judgment is a narrow one." It concerns simply concerns the predecessor fiduciaries' initial selection process for the affiliated funds and whether the successor fiduciary defendants may be held liable for failing to remedy those allegedly imprudent selections.
To make this determination, the District Court first considers whether the successor fiduciary defendants needed actual knowledge of their predecessors' imprudent selections for liability to attach, or whether constructive knowledge is sufficient. Then, the District Court determines whether plaintiffs have sufficiently demonstrated the successor fiduciary defendants had the requisite state of mind regarding their predecessors' selection process.
"Defendants argue that, for them to be held liable for breaches by the predecessor fiduciaries, they need to have had actual knowledge of the predecessor fiduciaries' breaches," the decision explains. "Defendants further argue plaintiffs produced no evidence of actual knowledge by the successor fiduciaries; thus, Count VIII must fail. In response, plaintiffs contend they need only produce evidence that the successor fiduciary defendants had constructive knowledge of or were willfully blind to their predecessors' breaches. Plaintiffs further submit that summary judgment is generally inappropriate where a party's state of mind is at issue, as is the case here, because of the critical role of the fact-finder in assessing and weighing such evidence."
At the core of the plaintiffs' argument is the theory that Count VIII involves successor fiduciary liability, which they argue is separate and distinct from co-fiduciary liability. Thus, they argue, Count VIII "arises under ERISA's general fiduciary duty provisions, 29 U.S.C. § 1104, as applied through 29 U.S.C. § 1109." Furthermore, plaintiffs argue Section 1105 cannot apply, as defendants argue, because "predecessor and successor fiduciaries are not 'co-fiduciaries' because they are not fiduciaries at the same time and do not act jointly to manage the plan."
In ruling for the defense on this complex set of issues, the District Court states that none of the cases cited by plaintiffs use the "constructive knowledge language" the plaintiffs rely on in their arguments. Moreover, the decision states, the cases do not appear to otherwise suggest constructive knowledge is the appropriate standard to apply in this matter.
Plaintiffs argue that, viewed collectively, summary judgement is inappropriate here because there exists a genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendants should have known of the alleged fund selection breaches. The District Court disagrees.
"First, the Court agrees with defendants that plaintiffs' alleged showing of constructive knowledge assumes defendants had a duty to scour past meeting minutes and interrogate benefits plan committee members for any indication of prior breaches," the decision explains. "Plaintiffs fail to cite any case justifying such a stringent obligation for defendants, however, and the availability of meeting minutes to defendants does not give them constructive knowledge of everything therein. Moreover, as defendants suggest, there is nothing inherently improper about the inclusion of proprietary funds in the plan."
This means that, even if the affiliated funds were underperforming during the defendants' tenure, that would not necessarily spur one to view their original selection as inherently suspect.
"Thus, the mere fact that the plan included the affiliated funds—and defendants were aware of that fact—is not sufficient to charge them with constructive knowledge of their predecessors' alleged improper selection process," the decision concludes. "In short, plaintiffs have failed to adduce evidence that defendants had actual knowledge of their predecessors' breach; defendants thus cannot be liable for failing to remedy the allegedly imprudent selection process for the affiliated funds."
The full text of the opinion is available here.
« Investment Product and Service Launches


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I've been reading a bit concerning the position of humour in group learning, and it seems that there is a good bit of evidence that funny tutors and amusing lectures have a constructive impression on the scholars and their learning. Nevertheless, an goal is very useful if a job seeker is in search of a career change. She began her leisure career in the Forties as a mannequin and burlesque dancer however did handle to get some roles in tv shows, usually as a sensible-cracking side-kick.
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NBC Universal is determined not to let Project Runway become the one that got away. Or, if the network must kiss it good-bye and release the show to Lifetime, NBC is at least going to make sure that Lifetime won't be getting the best possible goods. You'll recall the network filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Co. when it sold the show to Lifetime, but yesterday the network struck a deal that would merely prevent the show's producers from following Project Runway over to Lifetime. Sneaky! The Wall Street Journal explains:
So the show's executive producers are gone, half the episodes are moving to L.A., and Marie Claire might replace Elle. This is going to make for one disheveled mess of a show. But you know what? It will probably be perfect for Lifetime. May the pouting commence.
'Runway' Producers Sign Deal to Stay With NBC [WSJ]
Related: 'Marie Claire' to Replace 'Elle' on Project Runway?
Breaking: 'Project Runway' Moving to LA


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Editor's Note: This story has been updated.
Lawmakers at a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday questioned whether the Veterans Affairs Department has the authority to change a major deadline for implementing a portion of the Forever GI Bill — and seemingly act as if the original one, mandated by law, never existed.
The questions from House lawmakers came one day after VA Sec. Robert Wilkie announced the department will hold off on implementing changes to housing stipend payments until Dec. 1, 2019. These changes to how the stipends are calculated were supposed to go into effect Aug. 1 of this year, a deadline the VA was unable to meet because of IT challenges.
And while VA leaders plan to correct students' payments from this fall by paying a retroactive cost-of-living increase come January, VA spokesman Curt Cashour confirmed to Military Times that the agency is not planning go back and pay students for another required change, related to a student's physical location, once the IT systems are finally up and running.
But in an apparent contradiction, the VA posted a statement from Wilkie to its website at 4:16 p.m. Thursday, after this story was originally published, stating that it does plan to make "each and every post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiary ...100 percent whole — retroactively if need be — for their housing benefits for this academic year."
Should the VA fail to do so, it would be going back on a promise VA officials had previously made to Congress. The agency's own website states that "VA will correct any discrepancy between what a student was paid and what he or she should be paid once the technology fixes are in place."
In an exchange with VA Undersecretary for Benefits Paul Lawrence, Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., said, "You can't simply change the law yourself if you're unable to meet the obligations that your department agreed to and the Congress of the United States mandated by law and the president of the United States signed."
An aide for the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs told Military Times Wednesday the committee is seeking legal justification from the VA and is awaiting the agency's response.
The provision of the law in question has to do with the location on which housing stipends are based. The Forever GI Bill law requires that — as of Aug. 1, 2018 — students taking in-person classes be paid based on the campus where they attend the majority of their classes. Currently, housing stipends are based on a school's main campus, which is sometimes far from — and may have a very different cost of living than — where the student is living and taking classes.
This change required significant technology updates for the VA, which is resetting "implementation of the law for the next year to ensure we get the technology and formula right to put veterans first," according to a news release. The push should also free up resources to ensure upcoming spring payments to GI Bill users are more timely after reports of mass delays this fall.
Lawmakers and others have been sympathetic to the VA's IT woes. Yet questions remain as to whether the VA can decide not to retroactively honor the difference for students who primarily attend branch campuses or other locations.
Lawrence said it's unclear how many of the roughly 450,000 students using the GI Bill would be affected by this change in the law and what the difference in payments would be, should the VA calculate them retroactively next year. And while he mentioned a significant burden for schools that would have to recertify students' enrollments dating back to August, he did express a willingness to work with lawmakers, schools and others to come up with a final solution.
Veterans education advocates who commented on the deadline change said they understand the need for the 12-month delay but still believe the VA should pay students under the law's current rules when they can.
"Shifting the implementation deadline a year isn't a free pass for the VA to arbitrarily pay student veterans less than they are due simply because it was unable to correct internal problems in time," said VFW National Commander B.J. Lawrence. "I appreciated hearing the VBA undersecretary in testimony this morning address the need to make student veterans whole, and I pledge that the VFW will continue to push for the proper implementation of the Forever GI Bill so that all student veterans receive the prompt and full benefits they earned and deserve."
Going forward, until the Forever GI Bill rules are implemented, students will receive what they would have been paid for housing all along, had the August deadline not been a factor. This means students will receive payments approximately equivalent to 1 percent higher than what the Defense Department pays E-5s with dependents. Any students who have been overpaid will not be held liable, the VA has said.
The VA's Paul Lawrence said it's unlikely students who don't attend classes on a main campus will feel ripped off because not even the VA knows what they would've been getting had the IT updates worked as they should. They will be paid under the same process as previous years.
Yet members of Congress maintained the law must be followed.
"The law states what we must do on 1 August," said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., who heads the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "The question is are we going to follow the law? That's the question. If we're not, then we've got to change the law."
Roe said he would seek more clarity from the VA off-mike.
"We will seek to work with you and your staff to understand whether that's in the best interest of veterans," Lawrence told the committee. "It's not our intention to harm veterans."
Military Times contributor and former reporter Natalie Gross hosts the Spouse Angle podcast. She grew up in a military family and has a master's degree in journalism from Georgetown University.


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Photo by Jeremiah Shilhavy
by Greenderella [1]
After a couple of hours of research in the world wide web, I finally found something that would be so helpful and awesome that I need to write a post about it: All you need, to scare the ticks and fleas away, is coconut oil! I was more than suprised that this insect repellent still seems to be a secret among dog guardians. After all, maybe not that suprising, because the pharma industry is earning millions with their medication and wouldn't like the fact that there might be a much cheaper and natural insect repellent. In fact, coconut oil is not only cheap and natural, it also has a neutral scent and is healthy for the dog and its fur. I didn't read about any negative experiences and the only disadvantages seem to be that your dogs fur might look a bit wet wherever you apply the oil and that you have to apply the oil every day, but with all the advantages, I really don't mind this.
This is how it works:
The tick and flea repellend component of coconut oil is "lauric acid", so it is important to use a pure and unprocessed product. Regular coconut oil/fat from the supermarket works just fine, but the greener option would of course be an organic coconut oil/fat. I rub about half a teaspoon (or even less) of coconut fat in my hand palms until it becomes liquid (takes seconds) and then apply it on my dogs higher and lower back, on the lower legs and the stomache. In the beginning I applied the fat before every walk, but now I found that it's enough if I do it 1-2 times a day. Fritzi hasn't had any ticks or fleas since I use the coconut fat and that 's an even better result than the results we had with Frontline! Oh, how I love to find out about secrets like this one! : )
Read the Full Article Here: http://www.greenderella.com/animals/your-dog-will-love-this-all-natural-tip-against-flees-and-ticks/ [1]
More Research on the Health Benefits of Coconut Oil [2]:
Virgin Coconut Oil:
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At just about 11am on Sunday, September 11, tantalized by our sunrise hike down and up Navajo Trail and sated with our breakfast, we set out on our day's hike. One of the joys of camping in a National Park is the accessibility of the trails and vistas. "Let's go see something beautiful" is what I traditionally say to Sean, particularly when we set out on foot from our campsite.
Ahead of us was a hike along the Rim Trail, then the Fairyland Loop, one of the famous hikes of the National Parks. Although the loop proper was only eight miles, the total mileage we'd end up logging was ten and a half.
As we shouldered our packs and headed out, a Mule Deer doe and two fawns ambled through the campground having their late morning meal.
Out of Sunset Campground and across the park road, we headed north on the mixed-use trail that led to the parking area for Sunset and Sunrise Points and the lodge.
The late morning views of Bryce Amphitheater were something. Add some clouds in the bright blue sky and a Douglas Fir in the frame, and…well…
We walked with purpose among the visitors to the rim. Most were ambling along, taking photos and taking in the view.
The views from up on Sunrise Point were stellar.
We continued along the Rim Trail with all its slanting National Park glory there to our right, slipping off the Paunsaugant Plateau to the town of Tropic, hundreds of feet below. The route down into Fairyland Canyon was off on the other side of Boat Mesa.
The ridge far beyond is protected as part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The rim of the plateau rose as we approached Boat Mesa, jutting out beyond the edge of the plateau, framing Bryce Amphitheater to the south and Fairyland to the north. Out to west, the great stretch of the Paunsaugunt Plateau extended for dozens of miles north to south.
We continued along the Rim Trail, past North Campground, as the elevation began to rise.
Out in the distance to the north, the volcanic Black Mountains marked the transition between the Paunsaugunt and Sevier Plateaus.
Nearer at hand, the Pink Cliffs dropped away beneath us.
We were approaching the highest elevation of our hike, about 8,100 feet as a ridge rose between the cliffs and the plateau
As we began descending, the trail turned away from the very edge of the cliffs into a savanna-like setting of well-spaced pines rising above grasses and wildflowers. It was this sort of habitat that attracted the Park's population of Pronghorn.
We came upon the "Hike the Hoodoos" medal for the Rim Trail, and Sean posed with it.
Out in the distance looking south, we could see what we guessed was the trail we'd eventually be ascending.
Eventually, the trail cut across the northwestern edge of Boat Mesa, as it jutted out into the bowl of Bryce Canyon, and then offered views what was on the other side.
And what was on the other side of Boat Mesa was Fairyland Point and the walls and hoodoos of Fairyland beneath it. Hemmed in between Boat Mesa and a saddle to the northeast, the hoodoos of Fairyland are younger than those in Bryce Amphitheater. Many are still emerging from their walls. Because the cliffs were exposed from south to north along the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau, at the southern edge of Bryce Canyon National Park, the hoodoos are past their most magnificent stage. At the northern edge, they're just emerging.
It was just after 1pm, two hours into our hike, when we reached Fairyland Point and began descending along the saddle. We had only seen a handful of people between North Campground and Fairyland Point. Here at the Point, there were maybe two dozen taking in the view, but few seemed to be heading down into Fairyland Canyon.
Soon we were down among the hoodoos as the trail began a series of casual switchbacks into Fairyland Canyon.
In the shade about two-thirds of the way down, we stopped and had a snack before continuing to the bottom of the canyon, roughly 750 feet down.
Down in the canyon, things opened up a bit. The trail hugged the southwestern walls beneath Boat Mesa. Across the canyon floor, dozens of hoodoos were emerging from the walls.
Soon we were ascending again, about 250 feet up the walls of Boat Mesa. Happily, many of our ascending moments were in the shade.
An hour and a half after Fairyland Point, the trail turned from its generally southeastern trend and pointed us along a somewhat narrow saddle toward Boat Mesa. From this point, we would trend generally westward back toward the rim.
From the saddle, we descended slowly into Campbell Canyon, south of Boat Mesa. The long, meandering switchbacks wound through the hoodoos and offered fantastic views in every direction.
Forty-five minutes later we were down in the shade of Campbell Canyon where a Douglas Firs grew above an understory of Greenleaf Manzanita. It was all very fragrant in the afternoon heat.
A spur trail led east along the canyon floor to Tower Bridge above us to the south. We actually blew right past the formation and only turned around when we realized that the trail was fast turning into a wildlife path.
We also noticed a few caves high up in the cliffs.
Ahead of us was the final mile and a half back up to the rim, a steady ascent some 750 feet up a ridge.
Now Boat Mesa loomed north of us.
The trail, baking in the mid-afternoon sun, led up to and then through a long row of emerging hoodoos called the China Wall, presumably after the Great Wall of China.
On the other side of the wall, the basin was more wooded, which provided some very welcome shade. We passed a couple descending the trail with a small dog, apparently having paid no heed to the signs prohibiting pets on the trails. All told, we'd passed maybe eight other hikers on the loop.
The final ascent was rough. I'll admit it. Fairyland Loop was a huge hike for our first full day in our Grand Staircase adventure. Ultimately it wasn't the distance so much as it was the elevation. 8,100 feet is a far cry from Chicago's 600 feet.
It was shortly after 4pm when we emerged onto the Rim. The General Store was nearby so we headed directly there for some cold drinks (I chugged a Gatorade) and snacks.
Afterward, we walked out along the mixed-use trail to the Visitor Center to stamp our National Park Passports. Then we rode the shuttle back to Sunset Campground.
I think the best indicator of how wiped out I was by Fairyland was how few photos there are once we emerged at the rim. I was too hot and tired to care about snapping images.
Back at camp, we fell into our hammocks and relaxed until it was time to prepare dinner.


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Here's another money story, this time from Class 3P. Read it, take the quiz afterwards, read more!
My Debit Card
Noelia Cardoso
When I first got my ATM/debit card, I tried to use it many times, but I was very scared because I had no experience in this method of paying with a card. I went to the Rite Aid Pharmacy. I was ready to pay for my things and I was waiting for my turn, but when I had to use my debit card I didn't know how to swipe my card. But the cashier helped me and was patient with me. Then she asked me, "Would you like cash back?" I didn't understand but I said "Yes'' and she gave me forty dollars and my things. I was so happy that she gave me money.
When I was at home, I told my husband and he said the money was not free. It was from my checking account. It was a big surprise for me. I was confused. I thought I wouldn't use my card again. Then every time I went shopping I always paid with cash, but one time I didn't have the amount in cash, so I had to use my debit card again. After that I continued to use my card.


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Take a typical meditation class. If you expect the same people to show up on the last day as the first, you'll be disappointed.
Some of the learners will bounce straight away. They'll feel awkward, stupid or embarrassed for even considering meditation. After turning up once, they'll say it's not for them and never come back.
People who show up for the second class aren't out of the danger zone. Some will come back a few times. Maybe they improve a little. Maybe they think they haven't improved at all. Either way, they haul their butts off the comfy cushions, never to grace them again.
Others stick with it for a while, get bored and give up. Just like they give up on everything else.
A small cohort knows what meditation can do for them. They put the work in. Some days they struggle, and they know that's part of the process. They turn up early, ask questions and practice during the week.
These people will stick around… right?
Except some get distracted from the practice by personal drama.
And others start to improve… and that scares them. Maybe they're not truly ready to leave their problems. Or maybe they realise that they could have overcome their issues years ago and that freaks them out.
They disappear from the classes without a trace.
Years pass. This isn't a meditation class anymore. It's a community. You celebrate each other's birthdays and babysit their kids. If someone thinks about dropping out, they realise how much they'll miss everyone. They haul themselves to class, even when they're sick, tired or busy.
Even so…
Some of the learners approach an enormous personal revelation. They are about to free themselves from decades-old baggage and live at the next level. But they don't know how to complete the transformation. They trap themselves by mistake, freak out and stop turning up.
Meditation is serious business.
What all these people needed was the right help at the right time. They did the smart thing by going to a class, but they didn't hear the answers they needed.
What they needed was a guide – something that helps every single one of these people. A guide that explains technical points for beginners and advanced concepts for old hands.
A book that not only explains how to meditate, but how to get the benefits of meditation.
And what to do when (not if) things start going wrong.
What everyone in that class needs is a guide like this:
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Welcome to Voucherify's Developer Hub.
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Every day, members of law enforcement risk their lives and spend long, grueling hours trying to catch criminals. They make these sacrifices to protect law-abiding citizens, so shouldn't they be provided with useful technology that would aid them in their investigations?
Calgary Police Service: Investigative Experts Choose NeoFace®
Recently, the City of Calgary (Canada) and the Calgary Police Service (CPS) made the conscious choice to enhance their investigative capability by choosing NeoFace® Reveal facial recognition software. This decision did not come without a rigorous review process of multiple face recognition-based criminal identification systems, but nothing less should be expected from investigative experts.
The implementation of NeoFace Reveal will reduce investigation times and lighten the caseloads through more efficient methods of analyzing images. Additionally, quicker identifications inform investigators of a criminal's identity immediately following a crime, thus preventing the criminal from gaining a significant head start while fleeing. CPS will be able to confidently solve higher volumes of crime in a much more timely and efficient manner. Ultimately, this facial recognition solution gives the Calgary Police Service a valuable tool to serve public safety and security needs.
View Demo:
Bio-Metrics | Life-To Measure
Some may wonder…what is biometrics exactly? Simply, it is the study of identifying and verifying individuals based on their physical characteristics. Not so simply, it includes a person's recognition through biological measurements such as their fingerprints, voice, DNA, the iris of the eye, hair and facial features.
These are but a few examples of characteristics that police departments use to verify and identify persons of interest. The sphere of the characteristics used in law enforcement investigations expands to more specific kinds of measurements, although facial characteristics can be examined and identified much quicker than the other factors. NEC recognizes the importance and usefulness of facial recognition, and through years of experience has developed NeoFace Reveal into a go-to resource for law enforcement.
NeoFace, Revealed!
Facial recognition techniques have existed for some time, but NEC has perfected the process through advanced technology. Investigators are able to process and analyze images rapidly and with unsurpassed accuracy and matching speed. Standard imaging enhancements, such as crop/rotate, brightness, contrast, intensity, smooth, sharpen, histogram equalization, noise reduction, aspect ratio correction, and de-interlacing, are combined with additional highly developed processing methods that allow for superior image quality and matching ability.
NeoFace advanced enhancements include:
· Pose correction on off-centered images improves facial matching score
· Consolidation of multiple images creates the most accurate frontal face image
· Illumination allows correction of shadows from off-center light sources
The images acquired during an investigation do not always provide law enforcement with the clear-cut evidence or positive identification needed in an investigation. Whether the image is too dark or taken at the wrong angle, a number of potential things can slow down an investigation. NeoFace easily addresses these issues. Poor quality images, outdated criminal photos, or images that appear to be unusable are no longer setbacks associated with facial recognition technology when using NeoFace Reveal.
For more information on NeoFace, visit our web site where you can find more information on this solution as well as case studies and white papers. We are proud to serve law enforcement by providing solutions for society that help keep us safe.


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Fantasy and Discipline
Re-discovering the Music of Holger Czukay
I've been (re)discovering the music of Holger Czukay ever since reading Winter Ghosts, David Sylvian's wonderful essay on their collaboration.
I say re-discovering since I vaguely remember some tracks (The Photo Song?) from a cassette that someone gave me during my high-school years. It's only now though that I'm coming to a deeper appreciation of Czukay's music, perhaps something to do with having reached another stage in (creative) life. At the time (the high-school years) it was more his work with David Sylvian that I connected with, particularly the tracks on second side of the Brilliant Trees album – Backwaters with Czukay's spoken dictaphone snippets, for example: "There are always other possibilities", or the collages on Weathered Wall and the closing part of Brilliant Trees.
On the Way to the Peak of Normal was the first Czukay album I started listening to this past summer since it was easily accessible via a Grönland Records re-release also available on Apple Music. (Movie! a version of Czukay's breakthrough 1979 solo album Movies can be found there too.) I somehow came across a series of digital versions of vinyl releases by the Claremont 56 label available on Bandcamp, and realised that some of the versions there (Ode to Perfume, for example) helped the music bloom more fully – they simply sounded better than the Grönland re-release, and that got me started down a rabbit hole of Wikipedia, Discogs, and AllMusic investigations, as well as some peeks at Czukay's own site.
There were other tracks that too came to life in a different way – My Persian Love, a new version of Persian Love from the the Movies album quickly became another favourite. There is also the charm of Music is a Miracle with Czukay's commentary on and over the tracks from On the Way to the Peak of Normal. Amongst those voice-overs there's an interesting clue on the life-long inspiration Czukay found in the early recordings of Les Paul and Mary Ford ("the way Les Paul worked…, how he played the instruments, how he prepared his studio") – another rabbit hole to disappear into. (How electronic some of those early Les Paul tracks sounded!)
Piecing together bits of information from various sources it appears that Czukay started planning a series of remastered re-releases, but that this process somehow got stuck and he ended up creating the new vinyl release versions with Claremont instead – giving up re-creating/re-mastering the entire back catalogue. It's fascinating to trace the process via the news posts on Czukay's own site: 166 entries in all ranging from 1997 to 2012. They're a little difficult to navigate directly on the site but, due to the robustness of HTML, it's possible to bring up the entries by simply changing the number at the end of the URL: czukay.de/legacy/news/166/, czukay.de/legacy/news/148/, czukay.de/legacy/news/123/ etc.
In the mean time, since his death just over a year ago, a box set of many of the old albums has been released, and a re-master of Movies is apparently on the way. John Payne has a fine review of the collection in The Quietus, also covering the techniques of re-splicing multiple mix-downs, techniques that have become a standard part of the present day use of digital technology.
Besides the combination of (serious) playfulness and (adventurous) exploration, listening to these albums has gotten me thinking more deeply about the art of making recordings – something that's been transformed with the endless possibilities and extreme detail of our digital age. Since it's so easy to get lost in the infinite canvas that todays DAWs offer, there's been a move (return?) towards 'pure' documentation, whether it's Aphex Twin simply recording his Cirklon sequences to a Sound Devices recorder or Walker Farrell documenting his improvisations without further manipulation – there is a focus on performance, on being present and in the moment. Czukay is regarded as one of the pioneers of sampling, but for all his innovations in that field there is still, in contrast to the performance oriented sample improvisations of someone like Daedelus, the notion of a (finite) canvas on which the sounds are assembled, and the possibility of drawing attention (through occasional obvious splices for example) to that canvas, to the surface of the music – to the fact that it is a collage. I'm wondering how this sense of recording might be taken up again.
Perhaps even more important than the technical aspects though, is the attitude that informed Czukay's relation to the wide palette of music and sounds that he brought together in his music. As recounted by John Payne in the above-mentioned review, Czukay explained that:
These things are not the type of 'masterpieces' that come by thinking and torturing your brain. That has nothing to do with creativity. These things are in the air, and you just grab at the right time. This idea is based on an ancient way of producing. Very effective, actually – there is a chance to be surprised by something, and accept something that was not to be foreseen.
Earlier this year I took the opportunity to revisit the …
The Path to A Branch in the Path →
I recently revisited one of the first patches I started …


text: I was thinking about this on the way to work this morning. Years ago, I taught an "intro to microcomputers" course for a ComputerLand store. I made sure that I defined every technical term I used (for me, technical meant any term I wouldn't use in normal conversation with my wife), usually by analogy. I took them through the boot up process step by step, explaining things as I went. By the time we made it to the screen prompt, they had a basic understanding of most computer terms. We later went into more detail about how information is organized on disk drives and how the video systems work. For example, I'd say that when you turn a computer on it's like a newborn baby. It doesn't know anything about itself or the world around it. Like a baby, it has some built-in behaviors. The first one that operates is when the central processing unit (CPU), the "brains" of the computer, tries to boot. "Boot" means to configure itself to be a useful system. It comes from the longer term, "boot-strap loader," which in turn derives from the phrase, "to pull yourself up by your own boot-straps." This meant to make something of yourself without outside help. That's just what the computer is doing when it "boots." I won't go on; you can see the approach I was taking. I hope this helps, Joshua. If I can free up the time, I'll help on this. Let us all (seul-pub and seul-edu) know where you go with this. Joshua S Bernstein wrote: > Hey, > > I agree totally, I'd love to write these papers and such on this. I work > actively in a school with many teachers. If I could get a list of such > ideas and concepts I could start a small paper on it. > > -Joshua Bernstein > Gigahertz Computing > > On Sat, 18 Sep 1999 09:38:45 -0400 Doug Loss <firstname.lastname@example.com> writes: > >firstname.lastname@example.com wrote: > >> > >> But there are a lot of important ideas in computers that aren't > >just > >> little details. If a teacher wants to *understand* what they are > >doing, > >> they need to know these things. They need to understand the concept > >of > >> file types, the notion of folders/directories, the client/server > >aspect > >> of the Internet... there's a bunch of them. > > > >I'm sure there are books out there that intend to teach such concepts > >as these. It's just that they're aimed as Computer Science majors > >rather than at the general public (which teachers count as in this > >discussion). > > > >It's well within the purview of seul-edu, and probably SEUL in > >general, to develop conversational guides to the concepts behind > >current computer use. We'd better use Linux in any examples we use, > >of course, but such guides would apply beyond the Linux comunity > >alone. > > -- Doug Loss Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw email@example.com those in authority off their guard and give (570) 326-3987 you the opportunity to commit more. Mark Twain


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Nina was born in Serbia and emigrated to Australia for a better life with greater opportunities. Unfortunately Nina became involved in relationship that was destroyed by domestic violence, she had to leave her home and spent quite a while moving around from place to place, unable to access affordable long term accommodation.
Nina has loved living at Brisbane Common Ground, she has created a beautiful home for herself. Last year Nina's hours of work were reduced and she was concerned about being able to afford her rent. Common Ground Qld were able to reduce Nina's rent in line with her reduced income, this saved her from becoming homeless again. Nina has now found new employment and loves her new home. Nina featured in a documentary film created to show the benefits of Common Ground supportive and affordable housing. You can view the 2 Lives film and listen to Nina's full story by clicking the link.
This is Nina's Story.


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Expungement Help in Red Bank, New Jersey
An arrest or conviction of a crime can be devastating. These mistakes can impact one's future immensely. Applications for school, employment, and housing often ask if a person has a criminal record and some situations call for a full background check. Many people can resolve this matter through an expungement. An expungement will clear their criminal record, in the simplest terms. This does not mean that your past is fully erased. Your records will be sealed and out of public view, but kept with specific law enforcement agencies. When your future is at stake, it is imperative that you act as soon as you are able. For quality legal support that can help you expunge your criminal record, contact The Law Offices of George J. Mardinly for a consultation.
Expungement eligibility
Violent criminal convictions may not be eligible for expungement. The waiting periods for an expungement in New Jersey are as followed.
- Felony offenses- 5 years
- Disorderly Person's offense- 3 years
- Dismissals after diversion program- 6 months
- Acquittals or dismissals- no waiting period
The expungement process
To start the process of expungement, you must fill out a petition and the number of other forms needed. Our firm can help you complete these requirements and file them correctly. When this is complete, a hearing will take place to consider the allowance of an expungement. In most cases, the hearing is a formality and you will not have to attend. If a person is eligible for expungement and the court agrees to it, the party will receive the paperwork signed off by the judge and an order to all agencies involved in the legal matter. This order will detail every fact of the case and state that the history of the arrest and conviction should be segregated, expunging it from your records. At this point, the document-heavy process of mailing out this information to the applicable agencies must be completed. In some time, a notice will be sent declaring that the information has been expunged.
Contact a New Jersey expungement attorney
New Jersey understands that mistakes are made and people's lives shouldn't be completely ruined by a misstep. Our firm agrees wholeheartedly. We will work to ensure that all expungement documents are drafted and filed correctly and in a timely manner. If you need an experienced law firm to guide you through the complex and document-heavy process of expungement, we would be happy to assist. For further information about your eligibility or the process forward, please contact The Law Offices of George J. Mardinly for a consultation to discuss your legal matter.


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Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Thread Theory Goldstream Peacoat.
I had my (swoon) favourite song from my teens running through my head as I made this latest sew for Beamish.
A Thread Theory Goldstream peacoat, cropped.
Really, really cropped.
80's New Romantic pop star cropped.
Now, The 'Go has a very particular style. I love it, I get to sew him some great clothes... but I wasn't too sure about this one.
For at least a year Hugo has been showing me pictures of cropped, fitted pea-coats.
I picked up some grey woollen coat fabric in Melbourne and with some serious #ninjacutting I was able to cut Tilly's cape, Zara's soft jacket and this number from 3 1/2m.
I sewed the same size as last time (handy) but we cropped that sucker!
We also left off the hood and front pockets but made the interior pocket a wee bit larger.
The signature red button was a must as were the epaulets
The buttons are enamelled coconut shell, lush!
Love these buttons.
The lining is apparel, stretch satin.
I used satin in his last coat and some of the seams had taken some wear so I now use stretch satin when I can.
I applied sheer weft interfacing to the lining sleeve caps as well as the main.
This lining has good ease, the generous back vent helps too.
Hopefully he doesn't split the seams on this one.
Since making Hugo's first coat I have learnt how to bag a lining thanks to Nana Deb's awesome instructions
Seriously, the easiest method I have used.
Thank you Deb!
~Hugo's Verdict~
On our annual pilgrimage to (Elizas?) in Sunshine, Melbourne for fabric, Mum and I found a lovely grey wool that I really liked the look of.
I had been toying with the idea of asking Mum to make me a new coat and when I saw the fabric it was exactly what I was after.
My black Peacoat fits me very nicely still and keeps me nice and warm when commuting to university in the morning but becomes a little cumbersome to carry around the rest of the day when it warms up. With this in mind I asked Mum if she could make me a waist length peacoat.
With the long list of other items to be sewn I expected to wait until next Winter to wear the coat but was extremely lucky due to some machine issues that my coat was bumped up the list and t made before the end of the cold weather.
The coat is exactly what I was after keeping me warm in the mornings and nice and easy to carry around throughout the warmer parts of the day. With the nice structured military styled body it has it makes me stand up straighter and pampers my vanity as I think it makes me look taller. The custom inside pocket for my phone is fantastic too as it makes reaching my phone so much easier when sitting down and when on the move. In short I am over the moon with this coat and somewhat disappointed the cold weather is disappearing.
~My Verdict~
I enjoyed this sew.
Thread Theory are an absolute pleasure to sew and the fact that I did not have to piece that bloody sheet together a second time definitely enhanced the experience.
Bagging the lining made it so much quicker, eliminating hours of hand sewing and making a sturdier garment too.
I can see a glaring mistake with the front. I should have reduced the front slope, I can see it hangs down when fastened.
Not about to fix it though...
Do I like it?
Not really but he does and that is what counts.
Excuse me while I dance away...
Thanks for reading xx N
Photo credit to Zara and a lovely girl Hugo bailed up at Uni.
12 comments:
Love it, very "in" right now! And excellent song reference, listening to it now....ReplyDelete
I love it!! It's so hip and interesting! It does have a 1820s/1960s/1980s Romantic (capital R) military brass band vibe. Hugo has great style, he knows what works and what doesn't.ReplyDelete
Here's a funny (and relevant) story... Jay and I were at a work conference and we were well into sampling the free drinks when the live entertainment started. This guy started belting out Spandeau Ballets best and I commented on how he really did sound like Tony Hadley. Jay spun me round to face the stage and whispered 'that's because it IS Tony Hadley sweetheart' I nearly dropped my Pina Colada!ReplyDelete
Gorgeous sewing as always. I always enjoy your Thread Theory makes!
Ah, Spandau Ballet was my first ever pop concert, at Memorial Drive! Tony Hadley (definite crush at the time!) was wearing a jacket with cut out bits at the front and I remember the review in the paper said it looked like someone had left the iron on it too long :DReplyDelete
I think this looks cool and I love that Hugo is so defined in his style. Great job as always!
You got to a concert? Lucky.ReplyDelete
Love the stories that are being shared.
Thank you, you should see Beamish soon, he is after some more Capel.
xx N
love it, so fab ;o)ReplyDelete
Amazing work, can't believe you got those three garments out of 3.5 m! I have been following your blog for awhile and finally got to Elizas last month and had to show great restraint. Thankyou for the tip! I love your sewing. You are such a kind mum :)ReplyDelete


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A celebrated selection from 3 orchestral suites composed by G.F. Handel(1685-1759). First performed 7/17/1717 by a 50 piece ensemble on a special floating platform riding alongside King George I's barge up (and down) the Thames.
Words & music by one-man American entertainment phenomenon George M. Cohan(1878-1942). From his musical "Little Johnny Jones," 1904.
Oft-performed chamber piece by Baroque era Italian violinist & composer Arcangelo Corelli(1653-1713).


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These bicycle safety tips are adapted from The League of American Bicyclists.
1. Wear a helmet every time you ride
Even if you just ride on bike paths or around your neighborhood, make sure you put on your bike helmet before you go. You don't have to be going fast to risk serious head injuries. (When you buy a helmet, make sure it is designed for bicycling and is approved by ANSI or Snell.)
2. Stop at the end of the driveway and at all stop signs and lights
Most crashes between a car and bike happen when kids don't stop at the end of their driveway to look for cars, or when they are crossing a driveway on a sidewalk and a car pulls out in front of them.
3. Always ride on the right side of the road and single file
Even if you're just going one block or to the end of the street, it is never safe to ride against traffic.
4. Obey traffic laws
Your bike is a vehicle, and just like a car, you must stop for stop signs and stop lights. Obey all traffic signs.
5. Be predictable
Don't do anything that would surprise the driver of a car — don't swerve, don't clown around, and don't run stop signs or stop lights.
6. Signal when making a turn
Let motorists know what you're doing by using proper hand signals for turning and stopping. If you are changing lanes, look behind you first to make sure it's clear.
7. Be seen
Wear light-colored clothes when you ride, and try to get a bright helmet. If you ride at night, you must have a white front light and a red rear reflector. If you are out after dark and don't have a light on your bike, call someone to pick you up or walk your bike home.
8. Don't ride too close to parked cars
Always be aware of parked cars. The driver may suddenly open the door in your path. Leave at least three feet of distance when passing parked cars, and be alert for cars that may be pulling out into the roadway.
9. Yield the right-of-way
Cars have to slow down for walkers, and so do you. When riding on a path, trail, or sidewalk keep your speed down. Call out that you are approaching or passing.
10. Don't Clown around
Never hitch a ride on a moving vehicle or do stunts or wheelies on a road with cars or trucks. Also, one person to a bike, unless it is a bike with two seats.
For more information on bicycle safety, visit these sites:
• National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
• Kids Health's Steering Your Way to Bicycle Safety


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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:02:14 — 112.0MB)
On "Ethics as First Philosophy" (1984).
More existentialist ethics, with a Jewish twist this time! Seth rejoins Mark and Wes to discuss this difficult essay, with a bit of "Time and the Other" (1948) and "There Is: Existence Without Existents" (1946) thrown in, too.
Levinas thinks that the whole train of Western thought with the advance of science and all has left us too aggressive, too self-asserting, as a matter of our culturally held ontology, and that this obsures our view of our fundamental relationship to other people, to time, and to death. However, we do have, right there in our everyday experience, a model of "non-intentional consciousness" in the awareness we have of ourselves when we're not thinking about ourselves, when we're absorbed in some activity instead of self-reflecting.
"Intentional consciousness" makes whatever we're conscious of an object. It's like we're eating it, reducing it to some element in our minds. But if we can get at the more passive kinds of awareness we already have, we can see that "knowledge of" is not really the proper mode of dealing with another person, who is fundamentally Other and can't be reduced without falsification to an object. Ontologically (and probably developmentally), this passive way of relating is primary; it trumps all of our assertions of self and of mastery over our world.
So that's supposed to be a phenomenological account of the primacy of ethics over any other kind of philosophy, over any thought whatsoever. This is interesting to compare with the account of Levinas's contemporary Simone de Beauvoir, whose ethics we just covered in episode 140. She was arguing (in a Kantian sort of way) that ethics is contemporaneous with willing, which is of course prior to any of our particular projects or values. But Levinas is trying to make it even more primordial, with the passive experience that comes prior to willing. In both cases, existentialism is trying to say that a proper phenomenological evaluation of yourself is supposed to reveal that yes, you are subject to this obligation toward others. For Levinas, this obligation is total, whatever that means (our discussion, like the essay, is focused on the foundations of ethics, not so much on what exactly we're supposed to do given this obligation).
Buy the The Levinas Reader, which contains all of the essays we read, or try this online version.
End song: "To Valerie" from The MayTricks' So Chewy (1993). Download the album for free.
Check out the Nakedly Examined Music Podcast at www.nakedlyexaminedmusic.com.
Levinas picture by Olle Halvars Franzen.


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|From: Neil Toronto (neil.toronto at gmail.com)
Date: Wed Oct 5 12:45:11 EDT 2011
I've just pushed the new 'plot' library. Eli and I both forgot that the new 'plot' still needs the old libfit, and removed it along with libplplot. I just added libfit back (the sources are in "src/fit" now instead of "src/plot/fit") along with the proper configure, Makefile.in, and get-libs.rkt changes. I can verify that libfit compiles on 64-bit Ubuntu. It *should* build on Windows and Mac. :D I've taken Matthew's suggestion to make the new 'plot' as backward-compatible as possible. Plots might still break (such as the example at racket-lang.org and on the Wikipedia page). Using the 'plot/compat' module should make these work. This change replaces about 20000 lines of C+support code with 7000 lines of Racket that does a lot more. Racket code for backward compatibility totals only 500 lines. The libfit library is about 500 lines of C+make code. Neil T
|Posted on the dev mailing list.


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New pathway to encourage veteran employment
Veterans and ex-Australian Defence Force (ADF) members can now access resources to help find suitable, sustainable, and meaningful employment within the Queensland public sector.
The new Veterans' employment pathway aims to promote the sector as an employer of choice, and showcase the skills and capabilities of former ADF members to hiring managers and human resource (HR) practitioners.
It also aims to increase the participation of former ADF members in the sector, and support transition to public sector employment.
Giving veterans a fair chance at sector-wide employment is a priority—our goal is retention, not just recruitment. It's about creating an inclusive and diverse workforce that brings together people with a wide range of skills, backgrounds and perspectives.


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Peniel 2
Peniel 2 is a licensed group home which provides residential care for males diagnosed with a I/DD (Intellectual Disabilities).
This home is licensed by, and provides services under contract or agreement with Synergy In Action, Inc. and DHSR (Division of Health Service Regulations).
Provisions are made to appropriately match participants with the specific services provided in this home. Each staff member is screened, trained and monitored by Qualified Professionals.
Peniel 2 is licensed for:
- 3 I/DD (Intellectual Disabilities) Males
- North Carolina Medicaid Recipient


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WARNING: This is a medical blog intended ONLY for medical professionals!!! This blog contains nudity and graphic images of cosmetic surgeries. If you are offended by nudity and graphic images, or if your religion does not allow you to look at such images or to get cosmetic surgery done on yourself, please leave NOW!!!
This extremely slim young woman who weighed just 40 kg, came to Dr Arthur Tjandra of Elixir de Vie for autologous fat grafting breasts augmentation 2 years ago when she was just 20 years old. As she was very slim, Dr Arthur Tjandra of Elixir de Vie advised her to get fat harvested from multiple areas of her body. Fat was harvested from only her right arm, back then. Now, as she is back for her second session of fat transfer to breasts and also buttocks, Dr Arthur Tjandra of Elixir de Vie harvested fat from left arm as well as love handles and lower back. This video shows how beautiful her breasts are even after just 1 session of fat transfer to breasts 2 years ago. This is also a good example that if fat grafting is done properly, the survival rate should approach 100%! Dr Arthur Tjandra of Elixir de Vie harvests fat with only syringes, unlike many other surgeons who prefer to perform machines-assisted liposuction. Powerful machines may destroy and damage fat cells during the harvesting process.
Video 1: Result of autologous fat grafting breasts augmentation, 2 years later.
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