text:
By Wendell Roelf
BREDASDORP, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's women's minister called on Tuesday for the toughest possible sentence for two men accused of raping and murdering a teenage girl, a crime that shocked a nation hardened by some of the world's highest rates of sexual violence.
At a hearing in the sleepy town of Bredasdorp, 130 km (80 miles) east of Cape Town, Minister of Women Lulu Xingwana hugged and offered condolences to the family of murdered 17-year-old Anene Booysen, who was left to die on a building site 10 days ago after being raped. Her stomach had been slit open down to her genitals.
"We are saying to the court today there must be no bail for these criminals and monsters," Xingwana told reporters.
"We expect the toughest and the harshest sentence that can act as a deterrent to other criminals that abuse and kill our women and children," she said.
Her unusual intervention follows widespread condemnation, including from President Jacob Zuma, of a crime that has brought attention to the shockingly high levels of violence against women and children in South Africa.
The incident has echoes of the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus late last year, although so far there have been few signs of the mass protests against the violence that gripped India.
A crowd of 100 people protested outside the magistrate's court in Bredasdorp, carrying placards saying "Show no mercy to rapists" and "No bail to murderers".
"As an activist I strongly push that there should be no bail for these monsters. What would they do if this happened to any of their family members?" said Faraah September.
The magistrate ordered the pair, who hid their faces from television cameras and photographers in court, to remain behind bars until February 26 when the bail application will be heard. The suspects face a maximum life sentence if found guilty.
Police freed a third man arrested after the incident due to lack of evidence linking him to the crime, but said they were investigating whether there were others also involved.
South Africa has the highest number of reported rapes per capita of any Interpol member country with more than 64,500 reported in 2011/2012 in a population of 50 million. Even when suspects are caught only 12 percent of cases end in conviction, despite government attempts to beef up its justice system.
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Jon Hemming)


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
William Stuart Nelson writes Dr King prompting him to take into consideration a request from Mr. G. L. Mehta as will as to visit Africa. Nelson comments on the importance of the non-violence concept being propagated across India and Africa.
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text:
If you consider performance important, you really should use one of the many caching plugins to do page caching. Some good candidates to complement Autoptimize that way are e.g. WP Super Cache, HyperCache, Comet Cache or KeyCDN's Cache Enabler.
Premium Support
We provide great Autoptimize Pro Support and Web Performance Optimization services, check out our offering on (http://autoptimize.com/)!
(Speed-surfing image under creative commons by LL Twistiti)
Just install from your WordPress "Plugins > Add New" screen and all will be well. Manual installation is very straightforward as well:
- Upload the zip file and unzip it in the
- Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
- Go to
- What does the plugin do to help speed up my site?
It concatenates all scripts and styles, minifies and compresses them, adds expires headers, caches them, and moves styles to the page head, and scripts (optionally) to the footer. It also minifies the HTML code itself, making your page really lightweight.
- But I'm on HTTP/2, so I don't need Autoptimize?
HTTP/2 is a great step forward for sure, reducing the impact of multiple requests from the same server significantly by using the same connection to perform several concurrent requests. That being said, concatenation of CSS/ JS can still make a lot of sense, as described in this css-tricks.com article and this blogpost from one of the Ebay engineers. The conclusion; configure, test, reconfigure, retest, tweak and look what works best in your context. Maybe it's just HTTP/2, maybe it's HTTP/2 + aggregation and minification, maybe it's HTTP/2 + minification (which AO can do as well).
- Will this work with my blog?
Although Autoptimize comes without any warranties, it will in general work flawlessly if you configure it correctly. See "Troubleshooting" below for info on how to configure in case of problems.
- Why is jquery.js not optimized
Starting from AO 2.1 WordPress core's jquery.js is not optimized for the simple reason a lot of popular plugins inject inline JS that is not aggregated either (due to possible cache size issues with unique code in inline JS) which relies on jquery being available, so excluding jquery.js ensures that most sites will work out of the box. If you want optimize jquery as well, you can remove it from the JS optimization exclusion-list (you might have to enable "also aggregate inline JS" as well or switch to "force JS in head").
- Why is Autoptimized JS render blocking?
If not "forced in head", Autoptimized JS is not render blocking as it has the "defer" flag added. It is however possible another plugin removes the "defer"-flag. Speed Booster Pack was reported doing this, but the behavior has not been confirmed yet.
- Why is the autoptimized CSS still called out as render blocking?
With the default Autoptimize configuration the CSS is linked in the head, which is a safe default but has Google PageSpeed Insights complaining. You can look into "inline all CSS" (easy) or "inline and defer CSS" (better) which are explained in this FAQ as well.
- What is the use of "inline and defer CSS"?
CSS in general should go in the head of the document. Recently a.o. Google started promoting deferring non-essential CSS, while inlining those styles needed to build the page above the fold. This is especially important to render pages as quickly as possible on mobile devices. As from Autoptimize 1.9.0 this is easy; select "inline and defer CSS", paste the block of "above the fold CSS" in the input field (text area) and you're good to go!
- But how can one find out what the "above the fold CSS" is?
There's no easy solution for that as "above the fold" depends on where the fold is, which in turn depends on screensize. There are some tools available however, which try to identify just what is "above the fold". This list of tools is a great starting point. The Sitelocity critical CSS generator and Jonas Ohlsson's criticalpathcssgenerator are nice basic solutions and http://criticalcss.com/ is a premium solution by the same Jonas Ohlsson. Alternatively this bookmarklet (Chrome-only) can be helpful as well.
- Or should you inline all CSS?
The short answer: probably not.
Back in the days CSS optimization was easy; put all CSS in your head, aggregating everything in one CSS-file per media-type and you were good to go. But ever since Google included mobile in PageSpeed Insights and started complaining about render blocking CSS, things got messy (see "deferring CSS" elsewhere in this FAQ). One of the solutions is inlining all your CSS, which as of Autoptimize 1.8.0 is supported.
Inlining all CSS has one clear advantage (better PageSpeed score) and one big disadvantage; your base HTML-page gets significantly bigger and if the amount of CSS is big, Pagespeed Insights will complain of "roundtrip times". Also when looking at a test that includes multiple requests (let's say 5 pages), performance will be worse, as the CSS-payload is sent over again and again whereas normally the separate CSS-files would not need to be sent any more as they would be in cache.
So the choice should be based on your answer to some site-specific questions; how much CSS do you have? How many pages per visit do your visitors request? If you have a lot of CSS or a high number of pages/ visit, it's probably not a good idea to inline all CSS.
You can find more information on this topic in this blog post.
- My cache is getting huge, doesn't Autoptimize purge the cache?
Autoptimize does not have its proper cache purging mechanism, as this could remove optimized CSS/JS which is still referred to in other caches, which would break your site. Moreover a fast growing cache is an indication of other problems you should avoid.
Instead you can keep the cache size at an acceptable level by either:
- disactivating the "aggregate inline JS" and/ or "aggregate inline CSS" options
- excluding JS-variables (or sometimes CSS-selectors) that change on a per page (or per pageload) basis. You can read how you can do that in this blogpost.
Despite above objections, there are 3rd party solutions to automatically purge the AO cache, e.g. using this code or this plugin, but for reasons above these are to be used only if you really know what you're doing.
- "Clear cache" doesn't seem to work?
When clicking the "Delete Cache" link in the Autoptimize dropdown in the admin toolbar, you might to get a "Your cache might not have been purged successfully". In that case go to Autoptimizes setting page and click the "Save changes & clear cache"-button.
Moreover don't worry if your cache never is down to 0 files/ 0KB, as Autoptimize (as from version 2.2) will automatically preload the cache immediately after it has been cleared to speed further minification significantly up.
- Can I still use Cloudflare's Rocket Loader?
At the moment (June 2017) it seems RocketLoader might break AO's "inline & defer CSS", which is based on Filamentgroup's loadCSS, resulting in the deferred CSS not loading.
- I tried Autoptimize but my Google Pagespeed Scored barely improved
Autoptimize is not a simple "fix my Pagespeed-problems" plugin; it "only" aggregates & minifies (local) JS & CSS and allows for some nice extra's as removing Google Fonts and deferring the loading of the CSS. As such Autoptimize will allow you to improve your performance (load time measured in seconds) and will probably also help you tackle some specific Pagespeed warnings. If you want to improve further, you will probably also have to look into e.g. page caching, image optimization and your webserver configuration, which will improve real performance (again, load time as measured by e.g. https://webpagetest.org) and your "performance best practise" pagespeed ratings.
- What can I do with the API?
A whole lot; there are filters you can use to conditionally disable Autoptimize per request, to change the CSS- and JS-excludes, to change the limit for CSS background-images to be inlined in the CSS, to define what JS-files are moved behind the aggregated one, to change the defer-attribute on the aggregated JS script-tag, … There are examples for some filters in autoptimize_helper.php_example and in this FAQ.
- How does CDN work?
Starting from version 1.7.0, CDN is activated upon entering the CDN blog root directory (e.g. http://cdn.example.net/wordpress/). If that URL is present, it will used for all Autoptimize-generated files (i.e. aggregated CSS and JS), including background-images in the CSS (when not using data-uri's).
If you want your uploaded images to be on the CDN as well, you can change the upload_url_path in your WordPress configuration (/wp-admin/options.php) to the target CDN upload directory (e.g. http://cdn.example.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/). Do take into consideration this only works for images uploaded from that point onwards, not for images that already were uploaded. Thanks to BeautyPirate for the tip!
- Why aren't my fonts put on the CDN as well?
Autoptimize supports this, but it is not enabled by default because non-local fonts might require some extra configuration. But if you have your cross-origin request policy in order, you can tell Autoptimize to put your fonts on the CDN by hooking into the API, setting
truethis way;
- I'm using Cloudflare, what should I enter as CDN root directory
Nothing, when on Cloudflare your autoptimized CSS/ JS is on the Cloudflare's CDN automatically.
- How can I force the aggregated files to be static CSS or JS instead of PHP?
If your webserver is properly configured to handle compression (gzip or deflate) and cache expiry (expires and cache-control with sufficient cacheability), you don't need Autoptimize to handle that for you. In that case you can check the "Save aggregated script/css as static files?"-option, which will force Autoptimize to save the aggregated files as .css and .js-files (meaning no PHP is needed to serve these files). This setting is default as of Autoptimize 1.8.
- How does "exclude from optimizing" work?
Both CSS and JS optimization can skip code from being aggregated and minimized by adding "identifiers" to the comma-separated exclusion list. The exact identifier string to use can be determined this way:
- if you want to exclude a specific file, e.g. wp-content/plugins/funkyplugin/css/style.css, you could simply exclude "funkyplugin/css/style.css"
- if you want to exclude all files of a specific plugin, e.g. wp-content/plugins/funkyplugin/js/*, you can exclude for example "funkyplugin/js/" or "plugins/funkyplugin"
- if you want to exclude inline code, you'll have to find a specific, unique string in that block of code and add that to the exclusion list. Example: to exclude
<script>funky_data='Won\'t you take me to, Funky Town'</script>, the identifier is "funky_data".
- Configuring & Troubleshooting Autoptimize
If your blog doesn't function normally after having turned on Autoptimize, here are some pointers to identify & solve such issues using "advanced settings":
- If all works but you notice your blog is slower, ensure you have a page caching plugin installed (WP Super Cache or similar) and check the info on cache size (the solution for that problem also impacts performance for uncached pages) in this FAQ as well.
- In case your blog looks weird, i.e. when the layout gets messed up, there is problem with CSS optimization. In this case you can turn on the option "Look for styles on just head?" and see if that solves the problem. You can also force CSS not to be aggregated by wrapping it in noptimize-tags in your theme or widget or by adding filename (for external stylesheets) or string (for inline styles) to the exclude-list.
- If your theme or plugin require jQuery, you can try either forcing all in head and/ or excluding jquery.js (and jQuery-plugins if needed).
- If you can't get either CSS or JS optimization working, you can off course always continue using the other two optimization-techniques.
- If you tried the troubleshooting tips above and you still can't get CSS and JS working at all, you can ask for support on the WordPress Autoptimize support forum. See below for a description of what information you should provide in your "trouble ticket"
- Help, I have a blank page or an internal server error after enabling Autoptimize!!
First of all make sure you're not running other HTML, CSS or JS minification plugins (BWP minify, WP minify, …) simultaneously with Autoptimize or disable that functionality your page caching plugin (W3 Total Cache, WP Fastest Cache, …).
In some rare cases the CSS minification component currently used by Autoptimize crashes due to a lack of resources (see detailed technical explanation here). You can in that case either disable CSS optimization, try to exclude specific CSS from being aggregated or activate the legacy minifiers which don't have that problem. The latter can be accomplished by adding this to your wp-config.php:
The "legacy minifiers" will remain in Autoptimize "for ever" and changes to wp-config.php are not affected by core-, theme- or plugin-upgrades so you should be good to go.
- But I still have blank autoptimized CSS or JS-files!
If you are running Apache, the htaccess file written by Autoptimize can in some cases conflict with the AllowOverrides settings of your Apache configuration (as is the case with the default configuration of some Ubuntu installations), which results in "internal server errors" on the autoptimize CSS- and JS-files. This can be solved by setting AllowOverrides to All.
- I get no error, but my pages are not optimized at all?
Autoptimize does a number of checks before actually optimizing. When one of the following is true, your pages won't be optimized:
- when in the customizer
- if there is no opening
- if there is
<xsl:stylesheetin the response (indicating the output is not HTML but XML)
- if there is
<html ampin the response (as AMP-pages are optimized already)
- if the output is an RSS-feed (is_feed() function)
- if the output is a WordPress administration page (is_admin() function)
- if the page is requested with ?ao_noptimize=1 appended to the URL
- if code hooks into Autoptimize to disable optimization (see topic on Visual Composer)
- if other plugins use the output buffer in an incompatible manner (disable other plugins selectively to identify the culprit)
- Visual Composer, Beaver Builder and similar page builder solutions are broken!!
Disable the option to have Autoptimize active for logged on users and go crazy dragging and dropping 😉
- Help, my shop checkout/ payment don't work!!
Disable the option to optimize cart/ checkout pages (works for WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and WP eCommerce).
- Revolution Slider is broken!
Make sure
js/jquery/jquery.jsis in the comma-separated list of JS optimization exclusions (this is excluded in the default configuration).
- I'm getting "jQuery is not defined" errors
js/jquery/jquery.jsto the comma-separated list of JS optimization exclusions.
- I use NextGen Galleries and a lot of JS is not aggregated/ minified?
add_filter( 'run_ngg_resource_manager', '__return_false' );or you can tell Autoptimize to initialize earlier, by adding this to your wp-config.php:
- What is noptimize?
Starting with version 1.6.6 Autoptimize excludes everything inside noptimize tags, e.g.:
<!--noptimize--><script>alert('this will not get autoptimized')></script><!--/noptimize-->
You can do this in your page/ post content, in widgets and in your theme files (consider creating a child theme to avoid your work being overwritten by theme updates).
- Can I change the directory & filename of cached autoptimize files?
Yes, if you want to serve files from e.g. /wp-content/resources/aggregated_12345.css instead of the default /wp-content/cache/autoptimize/autoptimize_12345.css, then add this to wp-config.php:
define('AUTOPTIMIZE_CACHE_CHILD_DIR','/resources/'); define('AUTOPTIMIZE_CACHEFILE_PREFIX','aggregated_');
- Can the generated JS/ CSS be pre-gzipped?
Yes, but this is off by default. You can enable this by passing ´true´ to ´autoptimize_filter_cache_create_static_gzip´. You'll obviously still have to configure your webserver to use these files instead of the non-gzipped ones to avoid the overhead of on-the-fly compression.
- What does "remove emoji's" do?
This new option in Autoptimize 2.3 removes the inline CSS, inline JS and linked JS-file added by WordPress core. As such is can have a small positive impact on your site's performance.
- Is "remove query strings" useful?
Although some online performance assessement tools will single out "query strings for static files" as an issue for performance, in general the impact of these is almost non-existant. As such Autoptimize, since version 2.3, allows you to have the query string (or more precisely the "ver"-parameter) removed, but ticking "remove query strings from static resources" will have little or no impact of on your site's performance as measured in (milli-)seconds.
- (How) should I optimize Google Fonts?
Google Fonts are typically loaded by a "render blocking" linked CSS-file. If you have a theme and plugins that use Google Fonts, you might end up with multiple such CSS-files. Autoptimize (since version 2.3) now let's you lessen the impact of Google Fonts by either removing them alltogether or by optimizing the way they are loaded. There are two optimization-flavors; the first one is "combine and link", which replaces all requests for Google Fonts into one request, which will still be render-blocking but will allow the fonts to be loaded immediately (meaning you won't see fonts change while the page is loading). The alternative is "combine and load async" which uses JavaScript to load the fonts in a non-render blocking manner but which might cause a "flash of unstyled text".
- Should I use "preconnect"
Preconnect is a somewhat advanced feature to instruct browsers (if they support it) to make a connection to specific domains even if the connection is not immediately needed. This can be used e.g. to lessen the impact of 3rd party resources on HTTPS (as DNS-request, TCP-connection and SSL/TLS negotiation are executed early). Use with care, as preconnecting to too many domains can be counter-productive.
- When can('t) I async JS?
- Where can I get help?
You can get help on the wordpress.org support forum. If you are 100% sure this your problem cannot be solved using Autoptimize configuration and that you in fact discovered a bug in the code, you can create an issue on GitHub. If you're looking for premium support, check out our Autoptimize Pro Support and Web Performance Optimization services.
- I want out, how should I remove Autoptimize?
- Disable the plugin (this will remove options and cache)
- Remove the plugin
- Clear any cache that might still have pages which reference Autoptimized CSS/JS (e.g. of a page caching plugin such as WP Super Cache)
- How can I help/ contribute?
Just fork Autoptimize on Github and code away!
Awesome plugin, awesome support!
Nothing more to say here!
SImple and powerful
I love the power behind the simplicity of this plugin.
Great plugin – great and fast support
Thanks a lot!
Flexible features and a great optimization result!
I'm using the plugin on several sites for more than a year now and must say that this optimization plugin should be a MU plugin for every website.
I tried for a while Comet Cache Pro, where the features for code minification are included, but after a while I stopped using that plugin and went back to Autoptimize + Supercache. Why? because I like to have control about the optimizations.
I can't forget to mention that Frank the developer is always helpful (and fast) if you have any questions.
Thanks to Autoptimize (a well written theme and some other tweaks) my website has got a 100 score!
Love it since first day. Reduces page load times by seconds.
I've been using this plugin for a long time now and it has never let me down. Cuts page load times by many seconds on heavier pages. Easy to set up and very powerful. Can not thank the author enough for sharing this free plugin with the world 🙂
Must use plugin for shared hosting
I like the fact gains are tangible / measurable. Besides helping my site cut down about many http requests, AutOptimize has gotten rid of expensive Google Web Fonts. On a shared server, this is gold and, recommend it to pretty much everyone.
Contributors & Developers
"Autoptimize" is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.Contributors
"Autoptimize" has been translated into 22 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.
Translate "Autoptimize" into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
- bugfix: is_plugin_active causing errors in some cases as reported by @iluminancia and @lozula
- bugfix: added language domain to 4 __/_e functions, un grand merci à Guillaume Blet!
- improvement: updated to latest version of Filamentgroup's loadCSS
- improvement: by default exclude
wp-content/uploadsfrom CSS optimization (Divi, Avada & possibly others store page-specific CSS there)
- bugfix: stop double try/catch-blocks
- misc. bugfixes (see GitHub commit log)
- heads-up: this is (supposed to be) the last minor release of the 2.3 branch, 2.4 is a major change with some big under-the-hood and functional changes
- workaround for stale options-data in external object cache such as Redis, Memcached (core bug) resulting in Autoptimize continuously executing the upgrade-procedure including clearing the cache and trying to preload it with HTTP-requests with "cachebuster" in the query string, thanks to Haroon Q. Raja and Tomas Trkulja for their great assistance!
- fixes for "undefined index" notices on Extra settings page
- now removing respective dns-prefetch resource hints when "remove emojis" or when Google Fonts are optimized or removed.
- changed JS code to load webfont.js deferred instead of asynced to make sure the js-file or fonts are not consider render blocking.
- fix for issue with update-code in some circumstances, thanks to Rajendra Zore to report & help fix!
- new: optimize Google fonts with "combine & link" and "combine and load async" (with webload.js), intelligently preconnecting to Google's domains to limit performance impact even further
- new: Async JS, can be applied to local or 3rd party JS (if local it will be auto-excluded from autoptimization)
- new: support to tell browsers to preconnect (= dns lookup + tcp/ip connection + ssl negotiation) to 3rd party domains (depends on browser support, works in Chrome & Firefox)
- new: remove WordPress' Core's emoji CSS & JS
- new: remove (version parameter from) Querystring
- new: support to clear cache through WP CLI thanks to junaidbhura
- lots of bugfixes and small improvements done by some seriously smart people via GitHub (thanks all!!), including a fix for AO 2.2 which saw the HTML minifier go PacMan on spaces in some circumstances.
- roll-back to previous battle-tested version of the CSS minifier
- tweaks to Autoptimize toolbar menu (visual + timeout of "delete cache" AJAX call)
- readme update
- fix for images being referenced in CSS not all being translated to correct path, leading to 404's as reported by Jeff Inho
- fix for "[] operator not supported for strings" error in PHP7.1 as reported by falk-wussow.de
- fix for security hash busting AO's cache in some cases (esp. in 2.1.1)
- new: Autoptimize minifies first (caching the individual snippets) and aggregrates the minified snippets, resulting in huge performance improvements for uncached JS/ CSS.
- new: option to enable/ disable AO for logged in users (on by default)
- new: option to enable/ disable AO on WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads or WP eCommerce cart/ checkout page (on by default)
- improvement: switched to rel=preload + Filamentgroup's loadCSS for CSS deferring
- improvement: switched to YUI CSS minifier PHP-port 2.8.4-p10 (so not to the 3.x branch yet)
- improvements to the logic of which JS/ CSS can be optimized (getPath function) increasing reliability of the aggregation process
- security: made placeholder replacement less naive to protect against XSS and LFI vulnerability as reported by Matthew Barry and fixed with great help from Matthew and Tomas Trkulja. Thanks guys!!
- API: Lots of extra filters, making AO (even) more flexible.
- Lots of bugfixes and smaller improvements (see GitHub commit log)
- tested and confirmed working in WordPress 4.8
- fix for security hash busting AO's cache in some cases (esp. in 2.1.1)
- identical to 2.1.0 except for the security fix backported from 2.2.0
- identical to 2.1.0 except for the security fix backported from 2.2.0
- new: Autoptimize now appears in admin-toolbar with an easy view on cache size and the possibility to purge the cache (pass
autoptimize_filter_toolbar_showfilter to disable), a big thanks to Pablo Custo for his hard work on this nice feature!
- new: An extra "More Optimization"-tab is shown (can be hidden with ´autoptimize_filter_show_partner_tabs´-filter) with information about related optimization tools- and services.
- new: If cache size becomes too big, a mail will be sent to the site admin (pass
autoptimize_filter_cachecheck_sendmailfilter to disable or pass alternative email to the
autoptimize_filter_cachecheck_mailtofilter to change email-address)
- new: power-users can enable Autoptimize to pre-gzip the autoptimized files by passing
autoptimize_filter_cache_create_static_gzip, kudo's to (Draikin)[https://github.com/Draikin] for this!
- improvement: admin GUI updated (again; thanks Pablo!) with some responsiveness added in the mix (not showing the right hand column on smaller screen-sizes)
- improvement: settings-screen now accepts protocol-relative URL for CDN base URL
- improvement: new (smarter) defaults for JS (don't force in head + exclude jquery.js) and CSS optimization (include inline CSS)
- Misc. bugfixes & small improvements (see commit-log on GitHub)
- Minimal version updated from 2.7 (!) to 4.0
- Tested and confirmed working on WordPress 4.6
- bugfix: disallow moving non-aggregated JS by default (can be re-enabled by passing false to the
- bugfix: hook autoptimize_action_cachepurged into init to avoid ugly error-message for ZenCache (Comet Cache) users
- bugfix to allow for Autoptimize to work with PHP 5.2 (although you really should upgrade)
- Improvement: Autoptimize now also tries to purge WP Engine cache when AO's cache is cleared
- Improvement: for AMP pages (which are pretty optimized anyway) Autoptimize will not optimize to avoid issues with e.g. "inline & defer" and with AO adding attributes to link-tags that are not allowed in the subset of HTML that AMP is
- Improvement: refactored the page cache purging mechanism (removing duplicate code, now nicely hooking into AO's own
- Improvement: Re-enable functionality to move non-aggregated JS if "also aggregate inline JS" is active (can be disabled with
- Improvement: script tags with
data-noptimizeattribute will be excluded from optimization
- Bugfix: Better support for renamed wp-content directories
- Bugfix: Multiple fixes for late-injected CSS/ JS (changes in those files were not always picked up, fonts or background images were not being CDN'ed, …)
- Misc. other fixes & improvements, go read the commit-log on GitHub if you're that curious
- Tested & confirmed working with WordPress 4.5 (beta 3)
- On average 30% faster minification (more info in this blogpost)!
- New: Option to (de-)activate aggregation of inline JS and CSS.
- New: Option to remove Google Fonts.
- New: Cache-size will be checked daily and a notice will be shown on wp-admin if cache size goes over 512 MB (can be changed by filter).
- New: Small autoptimized CSS (less then 256 characters, can be changed by filter) will be inlined instead of linked.
- New in API: filters to declare a JS and CSS whitelist, where only files in that whitelist are autoptimized and all others are left untouched.
- New in API: filters to declare removable CSS and JS, upon which Autoptimize will simply delete that code (emoji CSS/JS for example, if you prefer not to dequeue them).
- New in API: filter to move fonts to CDN as well.
- lots of small and bigger bugfixes, I won't bother you with a full list but have a look at the commmit log on GitHub.
- tested and confirmed working with PHP7
- bugfix: make sure non-AO CSSmin doesn't get fed 2 parameters (as some only expect one, which resulted in an internal server error), based on feedback from zerooverture and zamba
- bugfix: make default add_action hook back into "template_redirect" instead of "init" to fix multiple problems as reported by schecteracademicservices, bond138, rickenbacker, Rick Sportel and wizray. If you do need Autoptimize to initialize earlier (e.g. when using Nextgen Galleries), then add this to your wp-config.php:
- improvement: more intelligent CDN-replacement logic, thanks Squazz for reporting and testing
- improvement: allow strings (comments) to be excluded from HTML-optimization (comment removal)
- improvement: changed priority with which AO gets triggered by WordPress, solving JS not being aggregated when NextGen Galleries is active, with great help from msebald
- improvement: extra JS exclude-strings: gist.github.com, text/html, text/template, wp-slimstat.min.js, _stq, nonce, post_id (the latter two were removed from the "manual" exclude list on the settings-page)
- new in API: autoptimize_filter_html_exclude, autoptimize_filter_css_defer, autoptimize_filter_css_inline, autoptimize_filter_base_replace_cdn, autopitmize_filter_js_noptimize, autopitmize_filter_css_noptimize, autopitmize_filter_html_noptimize
- bugfix: remove some PHP notices, as reported by dimitrov.adrian
- bugfix: make sure HTML-optimalization does not gobble a space before a cite as proposed by ecdltf
- bugfix: cleaning the cache did not work on non-default directories as encountered by NoahJ Champion
- upgraded to yui compressor php port 2.4.8-4
- added arabic translation, thanks to the ekleel team
- tested with WordPress 4.2 beta 3
First of all; Happy holidays, all the best for 2015!!
- New: support for alternative cache-directory and file-prefix as requested by a.o. Jassi Bacha, Cluster666 and Baris Unver.
- Improvement: hard-exclude all linked-data json objects (script type=application/ld+json)
- Improvement: several filters added to the API, e.g. to alter optimized HTML, CSS or JS
- Bugfix: set Autoptimize priority back from 11 to 2 (as previously) to avoid some pages not being optimized (thanks to CaveatLector for investigating & reporting)
- Bugfix (in YUI-CSS-compressor-PHP-port): don't convert bools to percentages in rotate3D-transforms (cfr. bugreport on Github)
- Bugfix: background images with a space in the path didn't load, reported by johnh10.
- Bugfix: SVG image with fill:url broken after CSS optimization as reported by Tkama
- Updated translation for Swedish, new translation for Ukrainian by Zanatoly of SebWeo.com
- Updated readme.txt
- Confirmed working with WordPress 4.1
- hard-exclude the sidelink-search-box introduced in WP SEO v1.6 from JS optimization (this broke some JS-optimization badly)
- bugfix: first add semi-colon to inline script, only then add try-catch if required instead of the other way around.
- "Inline and defer CSS" allows one to specify which "above the fold CSS" should be inlined, while the normal optimized CSS is deferred.
- Inlined Base64-encoded background Images will now be cached as well and the threshold for inlining these images has been bumped up to 4096 bytes (from 2560).
- Separate cache-directories for CSS and JS in /wp-content/cache/autoptimize, which should result in faster cache pruning (and in some cases possibly faster serving of individual aggregated files).
- Autoptimized CSS is now injected before the -tag, JS before (and after when forced in head). This can be overridden in the API.
- Some usability improvements of the administration-page
- Multiple hooks added to the API a.o. filters to not aggregate inline CSS or JS and filters to aggregate but not minify CSS or JS.
- Updated translations for Dutch, French, German, Persian and Polish and new translations for Brazilian Portuguese (thanks to Leonardo Antonioli) and Turkish (kudo's Baris Unver)
- Multiple bugfixes & improvements
- Tested with WordPress 4.0 rc3
- Updated to lastest version of CSS minification component
- Improvement: for multi-sites the cache is now written to separate directories, avoiding one site to clean out the cache for the entire installation. Code contributed by Joern Lund, kudo's Joern!!
- Improvement: add WordPress plugin header to autoptimize_helper.php_example to make it easier to enable it as a module
- Improvement: nonce and post_id are added to default configuration for JS exclusion
- Improvement: explicitely exclude wp-admin from being Autoptimized
- Bugfix: plupload.min.js, syntaxhighlighter and "adsbygoogle" are excluded from JS aggregation.
- Bugfix: avoid double closing body-tags when Autoptimize adds JS to HTML as reported by Can
- Bugfix: make .htaccess compatible with both Apache 2.2 and 2.4 (https://wordpress.org/support/topic/feature-request-support-generating-htaccess-files-for-apache-24?replies=3)
- Bugfix: code in inline JS (or CSS) can be wrapped inside HTML-comments, but these got removed since 1.8.2 as part of a bugfix.
- Bugfix: avoid useless warnings on is_callable to flood php error log as reported by Praveen Kumar
- Improvement: more graceful failure when minifier classes exist but method does not, based on bug-report by Franck160
- Improvement: deferred CSS is also outputted in noscript-tags
- Improvement: differentiate between Apache version in .htaccess file as suggested by iMadalin
- Improvement: also aggregate protocol-less CSS/JS URI's (as suggested by Ross)
- Improvement: disable autoptimization based on parameter in querystring (for debugging)
- Bugfix: some CSS-imports were not being aggregated/ minified
- Bugfix: add CSS before <title instead of to avoid breakage when title includes other attributes (e.g. itemscope)
- Bugfix: make sure javascript or css between comments is not aggregated as reported by Milap Gajjar
- Tested with WordPress 3.9 (beta 1)
- Updates in FAQ
- bugfix: CSS in conditional comments was not excluded from aggregation as reported by Rolf and bottapress
- New: Option to inline all CSS as suggested by Hamed
- New: set of filters to provide a simple API to change Autoptimize behavior (e.g. replace "defer" with "async", disabling Autoptimization on certain pages, specificy non-aggregatable script to be moved after aggregated one (cfr. https://wordpress.org/support/topic/feature-request-some-extra-options?replies=14), size of image to be data-urized). More info in the included autoptimize_helper.php_example.
- Improvement: exclude (css in) noscript-tags as proposed by belg4mit
- Improvement: switch default delivery of optimized CSS/JS-files from PHP to static files
- Updated upstream CSS minifier
- Improvement (force gzip of static files) and Bugfix (force expiry for dynamic files, thanks to Willem Razenberg in .htaccess
- Improvement: fail gracefully when things go wrong (e.g. CSS import resulting in empty aggregated CSS-files reported by Danka or when the theme is broken as seen by Prateek Gupta)
- Updated translations and Polish added (thanks to Jakub Sierpinski).
- Bugfix: stop import-statements in CSS comments to be taken into acccount hat tip to Josef from blog-it-solutions.de
- Bugfix: fix for blur in CSS breakeage as reported by Chris of clickpanic.com
- improvement: remove cache + options on uninstall as requested by Gingerbreadmen
- improvement: set .htaccess to allow PHP execution in wp-content/cache/autoptimize when saving optimized files as PHP, as suggested by (David Mottershead of bermuda4u.com)[http://www.bermuda4u.com/] but forbid PHP execution when saving aggregated script/css as static files (except for multisite).
- bugfix: avoid Yoast SEO sitemaps going blank (due optimization of Yoast's dynamically built XML/XSL) as reported by Vance Hallman and Armand Hadife. More info on this issue can be found on my blog.
- smaller changes to readme.txt
- improvement: extra checks in CSS @import-handling + move import rules to top of CSS if not imported successfully, based a.o. on bug reports by ozum and by Peter Stolwijk
- improvement: check if JS and CSS minifier classes exist and only load if they don't to avoid possible conflicts with other themes or plugins that already loaded minifiers
- tested and approved for WordPress 3.8 (beta1)
- New: support for mapped domains as suggested by Michael for tiremoni.com
- Added an .htaccess to wp-content/cache/autoptimize to overwrite other caching directives (fixing a problem with WP Super Cache's .htaccess really, as reported by Hugh of www.unitedworldschools.org)
- bugfix: Autoptimize broke data:uri's in CSS in some cases as reported by Josef from blog-it-solutions.de
- bugfix: avoid PHP notice if CSS exclusion list is empty
- moved "do not donate"-image into plugin
- New: exclude CSS
- New: defer CSS
- Updated minimizing components (JSMin & YUI PHP CSSMin)
- Updated admin-page, hiding advanced configuration options
- Updated CDN-support for added simplicity (code & UI-wise), including changing background image url in CSS
- Updated/ new translations provided for French: wordpress-hebergement.fr, Persian: Hamed Irani, Swedish: Jonathan Sulo, German: blog-it-solutions.de and Dutch
- Removed support for YUI
- Flush HTML caching plugin's cache when flushing Autoptimize's one
- fix for BOM marker in CSS-files as seen in Frontier theme, kudo's to Download Converter for reporting!
- fix for protocol-less 3rd party scripts disappearing, thanks for reporting p33t3r!
- fix for stylesheets without type="text/css" not being autoptimized as reported by renzo
- tested with WordPress 3.7 beta2 (admin-bar.min.js added to automatically excluded scripts)
- New: disable autoptimizatoin by putting part of your HTML, JS or CSS in between noptimize-tags, e.g.;
alert('this will not get autoptimized');
- Added extra check to prevent plugin-files being called outside of WordPress as suggested in this good article on security.
- Added small notice to be displayed after installation/ activation to ask user to configure the plugin as well.
- Added Persian translation, thanks to Hamed T.
- new javascript-debug option to force the aggregated javascript file in the head-section of the HTML instead of at the bottom
- YUI compression & CDN are now deprecated functionality that will be removed in 1.7.0
- fix for PHP notice about mfunc_functions
- fix for strpos warnings due to empty values from the "Exclude scripts from autoptimize" configuration as reported by CandleFOREX
- fix for broken feeds as reported by Dinata and talgalili
- fix for IE-hacks with javascript inside, causing javascript breakage (as seen in Sampression theme) as reported by Takahiro of hiskip.com
- fix for escaping problem of imported css causing css breakage (as seen in Sampression theme) as reported by Takahiro as well
- fix to parse imports with syntax @import 'custom.css' not being parsed (as seen in Arras theme), again as reported by Takahiro
- fix for complex media types in media-attribute as reported by jvwisssen
- fix for disappearing background-images that were already datauri's as reported by will.blaschko
- fix not to strip out comments in HTML needed by WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache (e.g. mfunc)
- added check to clean cache on upgrade
- updated FAQ in readme with information on troubleshooting and support
- tested with WordPress 3.6 beta
- Yet another emergency bugfix I'm afraid: apache_request_headers (again in config/delayed.php) is only available on … Apache (duh), breaking non-Apache systems such as ngnix, Lighttpd and MS IIS badly. Reported by multiple users, thanks all!
- fixed stupid typo in config/delayed.php which broke things badly (april fools-wise); strpos instead of str_pos as reported by Takahiro.
- You can now specify scripts that should not be Autoptimized in the admin page. Just add the names (or part of the path) of the scripts in a comma-separated list and that JavaScript-file will remain untouched by Autoptimize.
- Added support for ETag and LastModified (essentially for a better pagespeed score, as the files are explicitely cacheable for 1 year)
- Autoptimizing for logged in users is enabled again
- Autoptimize now creates an index.html in wp-content/cache/autoptimize to prevent snooping (as proposed by Chris)
- bugfix: removed all deprecated functions (reported by Hypolythe and diff by Heiko Adams, thanks guys!)
- bugfix for HTTPS-problem as reported by dbs121
- bugfix for breakage with unusual WordPress directory layout as reported by Josef from blog-it-solutions.de.
- bugfix: add CSS before opening title-tag instead of after closing title, to avoid CSS being loaded in wrong order, as reported by fotofashion and blogitsolutions (thanks guys)
- first bugfix release by futtta, thanks for a great plugin Turl!
- misc bug fixes, a.o. support for Twenty Twelve theme, admin bar problem in WP3.5, data-uri breaking CSS file naming
- Add support for inline style tags with CSS media
- Fix WordPress top bar
- Add workaround for TinyMCEComments
- Add workaround for asynchronous Google Analytics
- Add workaround for Chitika ads.
- Add workaround for LinkWithin widget.
- Belorussian translation
- Add workarounds for amazon and fastclick
- Add workaround for Comment Form Quicktags
- Fix issue with Vipers Video Quicktags
- Fix a bug in where some scripts that shouldn't be moved were moved
- Fix a bug in where the config page wouldn't appear
- Fix @import handling
- Implement an option to disable js/css gzipping
- Implement CDN functionality
- Implement data: URI generation for images
- Support YUI CSS/JS Compressor
- Performance increases
- Handle WP Super Cache's cache files better
- Update translations
- Add workaround for whos.among.us
- Support preserving HTML Comments.
- Implement "delayed cache compression"
- French translation
- Update Spanish translation
- Add workaround for networkedblogs.
- Add workarounds for histats and statscounter
- Add workaround for smowtion and infolinks.
- Add workaround for Featured Content Gallery
- Simplified Chinese translation
- Update Spanish Translation
- Modify the cache system so it uses wp-content/cache/
- Add a clear cache button
- Add workaround for Vipers Video Quicktags
- Support tags without media.
- Take even more precautions so we don't break urls in CSS
- Support adding try-catch wrappings to JavaScript code
- Add workaround for WordPress.com Stats
- Fix a bug in where the tags wouldn't move
- Update translation template
- Update Spanish translation
- Add fix for DISQUS Comment System.
- Add workaround for mybloglog, blogcatalog, tweetmeme and Google CSE
- Support localization
- Fix the move and don't move system (again)
- Improve url detection in CSS
- Support looking for scripts and styles on just the header
- Fix an issue with data: uris getting modified
- Spanish translation
- Write plugin description in English
- Set default config to everything off
- Add link from plugins page to options page
- Fix problems with scripts that shouldn't be moved and were moved all the same
- Disable CSS media on @imports – caused an infinite loop
- Support CSS media
- Fix an issue in the IE Hacks preservation mechanism
- Fix an issue with some urls getting broken in CSS
- First released version.


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This document contains the Citizens' Crusade Against Poverty Southern Rural Action Project Progress Report. Randolph T. Blackwell, former program director of the SCLC is now director of the Southern Rural Action Project.
Digital Archive brought to you
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Enjoying the Digital Archives? Help us maintain and expand the collection. Donate to The King Center


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Carbon vs. Proton for Innovative Applications of Particle Beam Therapy
William Chu, Berkeley National Laboratory (Moderator)
Stephanie Combs, University Hospital of Heidelberg
Thomas DeLaney, Massachusetts General Hospital
Daniel Gomez, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Eugen Hug, ProCure Proton Therapy Center
Roberto Orecchia, ULICE
Koji Tsuboi, PMRC
Hirohiko Tsujii, NIRS
Kwan Ho Cho, NCC, Korea
A panel discussion ensued regarding the advantages and disadvantages of proton and carbon ion therapy. The most salient points are summarized below, followed by a description of specific questions that were raised and the discussion that followed each.
Proton therapy and carbon ion therapy are both forms of particle therapy that can be used to effectively treat tumors. Studies performed thus far have shown approximate equivalence of both modalities, although the studies are limited by comparison across multiple institutions and different patient populations. The following table summarizes the relative pros and cons of each modality.
Proton Beam Therapy
Carbon Ion Therapy
Proton Advantages over Carbon
Carbon Advantages over Proton
Similarities of Proton and Carbon
- There are several areas in need of future investigation:
- Continued optimization of both proton therapy and carbon ion therapy.
- For proton therapy, this includes implementation of pencil beam scanning and intensity modulated proton therapy.
- For carbon ion therapy, further investigations regarding the relative biologic effect (RBE) and the isoeffective dose should be performed.
- Further research should be performed to see if it is possible to select proton vs. carbon ion therapy based on the alpha/beta values of the target and surrounding normal tissue structures.
- Ongoing randomized trials of proton vs carbon ion therapy include:
- Two randomized trials of chordomas and chondrosarcomas
- Randomized CLEOPATRA trial for glioblastoma multiforme
- Randomized trial for recurrent GBM
- Randomized PINOCCHIO trial for skull base meningiomas
Questions and Answers Addressed during Panel of Proton vs. Carbon Ion
Question 1: Do physical and biological differences between proton and carbon ions influence clinical results?
Answer 1 (Tsuboi): Biology does not sufficiently explain the differences between protons and carbon ions. Biologically, carbon ions have greater potential to cause greater DNA damage, i.e. a greater isoeffective dose. Isoeffective dose can be calculated by absorbed dose multiplied by the weighting factor, which includes radiation quality (linear energy transfer, LET, and relative biologic effect, RBE). Carbon ions are thought to cause less indirect effect (base damage) than protons; however, the double strand breaks may be increased. Therefore, the irreparable cluster damage may be greater with carbon, as well as apoptosis induction, and loss of clonogenicity. Overall, this may lead to greater tumor cell kill.
For skull base chordosomas and chondrosarcomas, results suggest similarity between treatment modalities. Overall survival is similar between fractionated RT, gamma knife, protons, and carbon, with survival approximately 74 to 88% at 5 years. There is, however, a suggestion that local control is higher with carbon at 73% at 5 years (DiMaio J Neurosurg 2011). Given that the patients were treated at different institutions and were different patient populations. Of note, this study excluded data from Massachusetts General Hospital and Paul Scherer Institute.
Continued questions about the biology of carbon ion therapy include optimizing the isoeffective dose and recalculating the quality of radiation based on what is known as microdosimetry. Future research directions include possibly deciding on the optimal ion based on alpha/beta values of the target and normal tissue.
Question 2: What is the radiobiologic effect (RBE) of proton vs. carbon ion therapy?
Answer 2 (Cho): Protons have a better dose distribution but a lower RBE (1.0-1.1) than carbon ions (RBE 1.5-3.4). However, RBE depends on many aspects of a delivery including radiation quality, LET, fraction size, and the biological aspects of the target. Uncertainty in the RBE can cause large variations in the actual delivered dose. While higher RBE is good for tumor control, it is bad for normal tissue toxicity. We learned this in the setting of neutron therapy (J Oral Maxillofacial Surg 2005) where the effects of normal tissues and variation of RBE were underestimated and there were many grade 3 and 4 toxicities.
The theoretical advantages of the carbon ion therapy have not been proven in the clinical setting. The uncertainties of RBE of the carbon beam can be a burden for physicians to make a clinical decision. Proton beam therapy has practical advantages including lower cost and precise geometric delivery of beams by using a gantry.
Counterpoint: The increased RBE with carbon ion therapy is seen in the Bragg peak itself, where the tumor is, and usually not in the lateral penumbra or areas of normal tissue.
Question 3: What is the role of carbon vs. proton for innovative clinical applications?
Answer 3 (Tsujii): Dose distribution may be better with carbon ion therapy, particularly if tumor sites that can be treated with fixed beam lines are compared. In addition, radiobiologic properties of carbon may improve local control of photon-resistant tumors. NIRS in Japan has extensive experience using carbon ion therapy for a wide range of malignancies. Examining carbon ion beam for hypofractionation in prostate cancer, the rates of GI and GU toxicity were very low. Over 1400 patients were treated to 66 GyE in 20 fractions with hormone therapy. Overall survival was found to be comparable to standard RTOG studies, although these are not identical patient populations. In addition, NIRS has treated patients with sarcoma with excellent local control and survival. The speaker states given the excellent local control, carbon ion therapy could theoretically replace surgical resection. NIRS has also started using carbon ion therapy for single fraction SBRT for stage I (T1-2) lung cancer with good early results. The discussants recommended a randomized clinical trial of carbon ion vs. proton therapy within Japan.
Question 4: What are the practical aspects of deciding whether to treat with proton or carbon?
Answer 4 (Hug): Many more patients have been treated with proton therapy (~95,000 patients) versus carbon ion therapy (~13,000 patients). Nonetheless, a greater percent of patients treated with carbon ion therapy have been treated on studies and reported in published manuscripts. All studies on both proton and carbon ion therapy are small and therefore difficult to compare. There are several sites that are suitable for randomized trials between proton and carbon. Sites should be chosen where the optimum treatment schema for both modalities has been established, not sites where the optimal treatment is debated.
Question 5: What is the role of randomized trials in proton and carbon ion therapy?
Answer 5 (DeLaney): Protons have a physical advantage over photons with a reduced integral dose by ~60%. Because the RBE is similar to photons, protons can be easily combined with photons in a course of treatment. While protons are accepted for pediatric patients, the role in the adult setting is more controversial due to the high cost of proton beam therapy. There are two ongoing randomized clinical trials of photon vs. proton therapy in the United Sates, one randomizing patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (MGH, MDACC); in this study, pneumonitis and local control are the primary endpoints. There is also a randomized trial of protons vs. IMRT for prostate cancer with the primary endpoint as EPIC bowel scores at 6 months (MGH, University of Pennsylvania).
One argument for both proton and carbon ion therapy is a reduction in secondary tumors over photon therapy. However, it may not be possible to perform a randomized trial to determine this answer as very large numbers of patients would be needed. Assuming a 60% decrease in 0.5% incidence of secondary malignancies at 15 years, approximately 6000 patients in each arm would be needed. In Ewing's sarcoma, where the absolute rate of secondary malignancies is more common, approximately 600 patients would be needed in each arm to demonstrate a decreased risk in proton vs. photon. This likely is not a practical study to perform prospectively, although a retrospective, multi-institutional study could be performed to compare the rates of secondary malignancies in Ewing's sarcoma with proton vs. photon therapy.
Randomized trials comparing proton and carbon ion therapy are possible, and, as further discussed, ongoing in Europe. In addition, it may be feasible to design a trial randomizing patients to a carbon ion boost.
Question 6: What is the state of randomized trials in particle therapy at the University of Heidelberg?
Answer 5 (Combs): There are currently two phase III randomized trials of proton vs. photon at HIT, one for chondrosarcoma and one for chordomas. Both of these trials are designed as non-inferiority trials. There is also the CLEOPATRA trial which includes GBM patients randomized to a standard arm of proton beam therapy of 60 Gy in 5 fractions versus 6 fractions of carbon ion therapy to the macroscopic tumor of T1-contrast enhancement. There is also a randomized trial of carbon ion radiotherapy versus stereotactic radiotherapy in recurrent GBMs (over 400 patients). The first part of the study will be a phase I dose escalation carbon ion therapy study with 10 Gy (RBE) x 3 fractions or 16 Gy (RBE) x 3 fractions. The winner of that arm will then be randomized against fractionated stereotactic RT to 36 Gy in 2 Gy fractions. Primary outcome will be overall survival. The IPI trial will look at low risk prostate cancer and randomize to protons (20 fractions x 3.3 Gy (RBE)) versus carbon ion (20 fractions x 3.3 Gy (RBE)). Primary endpoint will be toxicity. The PINOCCHIO trial will randomize proton and carbon ion therapy in skull base meningiomas with a primary endpoint of toxicity. This trial will also include a standard fractionation photon arm and a hypofractionated photon arm.


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Mariah Carey is a solo legend in her own right, but the multi-octave diva has made a career of putting together some of the most eclectic and interesting collaborations in recent pop music history. From soulful R&B to strange rap, Mariah is the collabo queen. We opened the butterfly vault to look back at some of MC's greatest duets of all time (Inspired by "Beautiful" with Migue).
"Fantasy" Remix feat. ODB
"Me and Mariah/Go back like babies with pacifers." In 1995, Mariah shocked the world by hooking up with Wu-Tang's Old Dirty Bastard. A New York collabo made in Puffy remix heaven. MC's good girl-next-door veneer was slowly but surely chipping away with this track and the real diva was coming out.


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Now your just playing with words. All kites stop pulling when they hit the water but not when they are in the air still flying thus the reason you are going to take a bit more abuse on a c-kite. Most kites can and do flag to a single front line when not riding suicide. Doesn't matter if it a c or sle.TheJoe wrote:Completely disagree with this statement. Then again maybe I'm using my Fuels wrong since even though I ride suicide they stop pulling when the kite hits the water. You can all so rig them to flag out on one line if the wind is really strong for safety.noel wrote:
Remember when the shit hits the fan with a c-kite, you can't just let go and wait for depower.


text:
1 killed, 3 injured in Charlotte drive-by shooting
1 killed, 3 injured in Charlotte drive-by shooting
One person has been killed and three others hurt in a drive-by shooting in Charlotte.
Police say the shootings occurred shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday in a neighborhood near Interstate 85. Officials locked down a nearby elementary school for a time. Hidden Valley Elementary was released from lockdown about an hour later.
No arrests have been made.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Capt. Rob Dance says the victims were in a car when another vehicle pulled up beside them and someone began shooting.
Officers found one person dead in the car and another seriously injured. Two others injured in the shooting had been taken to the hospitals by some other people.
The names of the victims have not been released.


text:
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index retreated from a record, set after the Federal Reserve cut stimulus yesterday, as investors weighed economic data that included jobless claims and home sales.
The S&P 500 (CME:SPH14) lost 0.1% to 1,809.52 at 4 p.m. in New York, trimming an earlier drop of 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 9.57 points, or 0.1%, to a 16,177.54, extending a record.
"You had such a sky-rocket yesterday in equities after the Fed announcement and really nothing has changed," Timothy Ghriskey, who oversees $1.5 billion as the chief investment officer at Solaris Group LLC, said by phone from Bedford Hills, New York. "There's a little bit of profit-taking off of that emotional spike."
The S&P 500 rose to 1,810.65 yesterday and the Dow reached a record 16,167.97 after the Fed said it will cut its monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion starting in January as the labor market improves. The central bank also said it will likely keep its benchmark interest rates low "well past the time" that the jobless rate falls below its target of 6.5%.
Three rounds of monetary stimulus have sent the S&P 500 up 167% from a 12-year low in 2009. The equities benchmark has surged 27% this year, on course for the biggest annual gain since 1997.
The S&P 500 has gained 0.1% this month, erasing an earlier decline of as much as 1.7%. December has been the second-best month for U.S. equity returns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that starts in 1928. The average gain for the month is 1.5%, more than twice the overall monthly mean of 0.6%. The last December retreat for the S&P 500 was in 2007.
'Back to Work'
"The market is going higher and everybody knows it's going higher, so when you have any kind of selloff, you put any excess cash you have back to work," Tom Wirth, a senior investment officer for Chemung Canal Trust Co., in Elmira, New York, said in a telephone interview. His firm manages $1.7 billion. "I don't think that pattern is going to change any time in the near term."
Data from the Labor Department today showed applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to an almost nine-month high of 379,000. The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a drop to 336,000.
A separate report showed previously owned home sales declined for the third consecutive month in November to the lowest level of the year as rising mortgage rates and a limited supply of properties discouraged buyers.
'Little Better'
The Conference Board's index of U.S. leading economic indicators, a gauge of the outlook for the next three to six months, increased 0.8% in November, the New York-based group said. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an advance of 0.7%.
"It's clear that the economy is doing a little bit better and at the same time inflation is still low," Michael Strauss, chief investment strategist and chief economist at Commonfund Group in Wilton, Connecticut, said by phone. His firm oversees about $25 billion of assets. "That's sort of like the best of the world to the Fed to begin the tapering process and they did. The market is surprised and miffed by the initial claims data, but the reality is the data is probably not an accurate reflection" because of seasonal effects, he said.
Copyright 2014 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


text:
Web Content Display Web Content Display
Student Services
Web Content Display Web Content Display
Employee Purchase Plan
For Marist Staff and Faculty:
Lenovo and Apple desktops and laptops for personal use are available for you to purchase at educational pricing.
Who is Eligible: Every 5 years full-time employees (after probation period has been satisfied) are eligible for a 20% discount off the purchase of a Lenovo or an Apple computer.
Faculty Development Funds: Cannot be used in conjunction with this discount program.
Adjunct faculty and part-time employees can purchase from the Computer Store but this discount is not available.
To view the models currently being offered, go to our website. Other models are available. You can contact the Computer Store, ext. 3556 for an appointment to see all available models and configure an Apple product for a quote.


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'Black and White' (1999)
Tyson (center) appeared as himself in James Toback's 1999 film "Black and White," about white kids who become fascinated with Harlem's hip-hop culture. Although the film assembled talented actors and musicians Robert Downey Jr., Brooke Shields, Raekwon (left), Ghostface Killah, Oliver "Power" Grant (right) and more, it earned less than $6 million worldwide and was panned by critics. "It's also hard, excuse me, impossible, to watch 'Black and White' and not imagine that what you're watching are the voyeuristic indulgences of a middle-aged filmmaker playing out his most deep-seated and unresolved sexual fantasies and anxieties," reads a Los Angeles Times review of the film. "Easily the weirdest scene in a weirdly disjointed movie is one in which Tyson, playing himself, urges Harlem rapper Rich Bower (Power of Wu Tang Clan) to commit murder. You wonder if Tyson had his parole officer vet the script and doubt Toback ever thought to suggest it."
Theresa Dillion / Screen Gems
Copyright © 2018, Orlando Sentinel


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Fisher Cats drop final home game to Portland, now one loss from playoff eliminationStaff report
August 29. 2013 11:43PM
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats were pushed to the brink after a 9-3 loss to Portland at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium Thursday night.
While the Trenton Thunder lost to New Britain, 4-1, in 13 innings on Thursday, the Fishers' loss pushed the magic number for Trenton to clinch a playoff berth to 1.
If Trenton wins Friday at Portland, or New Hampshire loses at Binghamton, New Hampshire (67-71) is out of playoff contention.
Portland (68-70) remains alive and will play Trenton over the next five games with a shot at second place and the final playoff spot in the East Division.
The Fisher Cats close the season on the road with four games at Binghamton.
The Sea Dogs led 2-0 after one inning, but the Fisher Cats came back to claim a 3-2 lead in the third.
Trailing 2-1 to open the third, New Hampshire's Andy Burns walked, stole second base and then scored on an Adam Loewen double. Kevin Nolan singled Loewen home to make it 3-2.
The Sea Dogs tied the game with a run in the fifth and took a 4-3 lead with one in the sixth before adding two in the eighth and three more in the ninth.
Keith Couch (11-3) got the win for Portland. Reliever Tyson Brummett (1-7) took the loss. Portland's J.C. Linares went 4-for-5 with two RBIs.


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Program Co-ordinator: Dr. E. Warkentin, Department of German and Russian
The Minor in European Studies is a multi-disciplinary program offered to candidates for the general and honours degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Commerce (Co-operative) and Bachelor of Science. The Minor in European Studies requires the completion of at least 9 credit hours at the Harlow Campus or as part of an approved exchange program with a European university. The Minor is an alternative to a Minor offered by a single department and satisfies degree requirements for a Minor.
The objective of the program is to explore contemporary Europe through the study of its politics, society, history and culture. The program consists of a series of inter-related courses in different disciplines focussing on present-day Europe and its recent history (19th and 20th centuries), and is coordinated by a Program Co-ordinator in consultation with the Director of the Harlow Campus.
Students who minor in European Studies shall complete a minimum of 24 credit hours including:
European Studies 2000
History 2310
One of French 3650, German 2901, German 3000, German 3001, German 3005, History 3005, Russian 2900, Russian 2901, Russian 3005, Spanish 3400
One of European Studies 3000-3030 (Special Topics in European Studies) or 3 credit hours from the European Studies Course List below.
Twelve additional credit hours from the European Studies Course List below including at least 9 credit hours completed at the Harlow Campus or as part of an approved exchange program with a European university or an approved study abroad program.
No more than 12 credit hours from any one discipline shall be applied to the Minor in European Studies. Students should consult the European Studies Minor Program Co-ordinator on the availability of courses at Harlow (or in exchange programs or study abroad programs) and at the St. John's and Sir Wilfred Grenfell College campuses.
Courses marked with an asterisk normally may be taken only after completion of at least one prerequisite at the 2000 level or beyond. Other courses, especially at the 3000 level and above, are normally taken after one or more introductory courses in the discipline are completed.
- Economics
- Economics 3610
- English
- English 2001, 2007 (Grenfell College), 2211, 2212, *3022-097, 3710-3729 (available only as part of the Harlow Campus Semester), *4300-097, *4302-097
- Folklore
- Folklore 3601-097, 3613-097, 3710-3729 (available only as part of the Harlow Campus Semester)
- French
- French *3650
- Geography
- Geography 2405, 3710-3729 (available only as part of the Harlow Campus Semester), 3900-097, 3990-097
- History
- History 2340, 3005, *3360, *3380, *3460, *3610, 3710-3729 (available only as part of the Harlow Campus Semester), 3785, 4360-4380 (available only as part of the Harlow Campus Semester)
- Sociology
- Sociology 3710
- Sociology/Anthropology
- Sociology/Anthropology *3242
- Spanish
- Spanish *3400
- Visual Arts
- Visual Arts *3702 (Grenfell College), *4701 (Grenfell College), *4702 (Grenfell College)
Students should consult the European Studies Program Co-ordinator on the applicability of special topics and other courses not listed above to the European Studies Minor program. In particular, courses taught at the Harlow Campus by other academic units and dealing with the broad themes of the program may be applicable to the Minor in European Studies. Such courses may be offered by Grenfell College, the Faculty of Business Administration, the Faculty of Science, the School of Music, and other faculties and schools.
The suffix -097 indicates course sections offered at the Harlow Campus by various academic units.
Courses in the series 3710 to 3729 indicate courses which form part of programs offered by the Faculty of Arts only at the Harlow Campus.
Up to 6 credit hours in the discipline of a student's major programs may count towards the minor, but these shall be in addition to the minimum course requirements for the major
Normal prerequisites, policies on the waiver of prerequisites and credit restrictions in the respective departments will apply.
Europe in the Twentieth Century
(same as History 2350 and Political Science 2990) is a social, economic and political history of Europe from World War I to the present. The course examines the shift from war and depression to peace and prosperity. Examining the rise and demise of fascism and communism, postwar reconstruction, and Europe's changing position in the world, it explores the interplay between domestic and international politics and Europe's position in the international order.
Special Topics in European Studies
will be a reflection on modern Europe through the study of one or more of the following: film, comparative literature, art, architecture, music, etc.


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Special Olympics supporters from Portland to The Dalles showed up in numbers last Saturday for the second-annual Step-Up for Special Olympics fundraiser.
Aside from a steady arctic breeze, the weather cooperated for the 100-plus athletes and friends who made the trek to the old scenic highway (Mark O. Hatfield State Park) on the east end of Hood River.
Even a few four-legged supporters jumped at the chance to lend a paw to the Mid Columbia chapter, which is currently involved in swimming and bowling, and will soon start skiing and basketball.
Saturday's event started with a 5K/10K run/walk, continued with Kids on Wheels, and concluded with the Doggie Dash. Cocker spaniels, bull mastiffs, Newfoundlands and even a chihuahua all helped do their part to support this valuable community organization.
"We were really pleased with the dog turnout, but we had hoped for a few more runners and walkers," coordinator Carole Schmidt said. "But overall, it was good to see so many individuals and organizations get involved."
More than 15 local sponsors donated money and supplies to the Step-Up event, which helped raise money for Special Olympics training programs, uniforms, transportation, as well as travel and hotel costs for qualifiers and state competitions.
Saturday's Gold Sponsors ($200 and more) were Kerr-McGee Foundation Corporation of The Dalles, which contributed $350, and Glenn Taylor Real Estate, which donated $250. Silver Sponsors ($100) were Columbia River Bank, Brown Roofing and Siding, Betz Construction, Sprint, and the ARC of the Mid Columbia, an association that provides opportunities for people with developmental disabilities.
In addition, Fruit Loop Pears contributed numerous boxes of pears while Gorge Dog donated plenty of dog bones to ensure that all participants left the park satisfied.
Schmidt said plans for next year's Step-Up event are already in the works. For more information on the Mid Columbia chapter of the Special Olympics, please call 541-478-3716.
Special Olympics bowlers from Hood River and The Dalles will square off this Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at Orchard Lanes.
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Nice niche: Cheaper events herald Paramount's fall season
The Paramount Theater released its fall 2009 season lineup April 20 to a downtown arts community that is still reeling from the larger impact of the economic decline. Despite a growing general trend of slashing arts from a typical family budget, the Paramount remains optimistic about its upcoming season which pares prices and features some lesser-knowns.
"Of course we're worried about the economy, the Jane and John Does not having enough money to give back to the arts," general manager Mary Beth Aungier says. "As a not-for-profit organization, we are of course very worried. The first thing that is cut out is the arts."
The season will include such niche acts as Patty Loveless (September) and Rhonda Vincent (November) for the country lovers, Complexions Contemporary Ballet (January) for the various local dance organizations, and Emanuel Ax (November) for classical music patrons. Even with the threat of lower ticket sales, Aungier and marketing coordinator Katharine Vlcek look forward to high attendance throughout the fall.
"I think Patty Loveless will do really well–- we've already started getting calls a month ago for her," Aungier says. "Emanuel Ax just performed at Carnegie Hall with YoYo Ma, and literally the review in the New York Times was one of the greatest reviews I've read about anyone–- the classical music community will be really excited about that."
Aungier and Vlcek emphasize the importance of arts education for the Paramount; reflected in the fall season are several family-friendly shows, aimed at spreading a love and patronage of the local theater to a wider age group. Highlighted among the family-focused events is the Philadelphia-based Enchanted Theatre's production of the classic children's book The Adventures of Harold & the Purple Crayon. "The Adventures of Harold will blow out the roof–- tickets start at $5," Aungier says.
The lowered ticket price for Harold is just the tip of the iceberg. Feeling some sales softness in recent shows, the theater plans on reducing ticket prices across the board to assist patrons in continuing to enjoy the arts while still sticking to budget. Besides Harold's reduced price, Patty Loveless tickets begin at $30, while $25 will get a ticket to see bluegrass artist Rhonda Vincent.
While the Paramount opened in December of 2004 with a black-tie benefit featuring renowned crooner Tony Bennett, the upcoming season aims wider. The upcoming screening of The Met: Live in HD is among what Aungier hopes to be many filmed events the theater hosts at a lower price point that some of the acts of previous seasons.
"Our hope is that you don't cut the arts out of your life," Aungier says. "And that you come not just to The Paramount, but continue supporting the downtown area."
–last updated 9:19am, April 28
7 comments
When it comes to The Paramount, everything used to be better. I hardly would call this lineup a season. How many Executive Directors have they been through? When I see this year's "scant offerings" I honestly wonder what is going on down there?
There's nothing like a live performance. I was blessed with parents who took me to many outstanding live events growing up and I credit much of my enjoyment in life to this. Always chose live arts over staying home in front of the TV or computer --guaranteed you will be happier
Finally, that John Denver tribute show I've been dreaming of and some opera on a big screen TV. Better get my ticket order in right away though. The website (surprised to find they have one, not surprised to find it doesn't work well) tells me to "Please note that ticket orders may take up to two weeks to process."
Someone please remind me what Millennium we are in.
Modern dance seems to be the poor step-child in this schedule. Every season I am disappointed by the paucity of dance concerts. Charlottesville has a large enthusiastic dance community, but rarely do we have the opportunity to see the many fine major companies: Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris, Martha Graham, ...the list goes on and on, there are also many fabulous lesser know companies as well. Hopefully next year will be better.
Martha Graham was here last Spring. Did you missit? Other spectacular dance performances include the amazing Alvin Ailey, Parsons Dance, Pilobolus, Momix, and Philadanco.
The latest "season" isn't just short on Dance, it's just short. It looks like the Met and a bunch of B-level repeats.
Dance season last year was better, you're right, but this year has scant offerings for dance enthusiasts and yes maybe it's the economy stupid so hoping for more next year
Ed Burton, on WINA is totting that things are definetly going to improve, and bah humbug to all you nea sayers. WINA is playing his comments over and over thinking,I guess, if we hear it enough times we'll believe it --wish I was as optimistic --think Ed's got his head in the proverbial bubble
FINALLY getting that Cray show.


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Like so many other Americans today, struggling in the turbulent financial crisis, I fell on hard times with the mortgage payments. So I called my lender, Countrywide, and I was able to negotiate a modification with them. At the end of July, I received my documents in a FedEx envelope, opened them and then came to see that I only had two days in which to sign these (in front of a notary) and send them back to Countrywide. Luckily for me, I had a notary in my office and the documents were signed and sent back in their pre-addressed FedEx envelope.
I sat back and waited until September when they were due to start automatically debiting my account for my monthly installment. When that never occurred, I called Countrywide and was informed that, "I called in and cancelled my modification." Then the real shock came, "I also see here that when you cancelled your modification that you requested a short sale." I was then informed after a 30 minute conversation of trying to find out what went wrong that I would be receiving a call from a supervisor that day. Well, I waited and waited and that call never came.
So the next day, I called back in basically complete hysterics and was also informed that "my account is now in pre-foreclosure status." WHAT! Through a very long conversation it was stated that Countrywide will have to pull my physical file from offsite storage to see if there are any documents in the file that related to this short sale. Upon asking, "Shouldn't I have had to sign something that gave approval to proceed with something like this?", the representative told me, "No, not at first." "You would only sign the purchase agreement." Upon hearing this I said very simply, "Well if you have a signed agreement in your file, it is a forgery."
So to make a long story short, I am now waiting until Friday when I am supposed to get a call from another supervisor to tell me that Countrywide has messed up. Here is where my annoyance comes in. If my home is in a pre-foreclosure status, and it was done so by an error on Countrywide's part, then how could I possibly lose my home!!! I asked repeatedly that there needs to be a hold placed on this pre-foreclosure as I NEVER agreed nor wanted to do a short sale.
I did NOT call Countrywide to cancel my modification. And, this is NOT my fault. I was then told by the representative that she was not able to stop the pre-foreclosure process until this situation was looked into. I will say this, if I lose my home through this whole mess at the fault of my lender, there will be hell to pay. I will file a lawsuit for everything that I can and I will make sure that I post this situation on every website that I can, talk to every news syndication I can, talk to every news station that I can. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I know Countywide is under Investigation for unfair lending practices, maybe this should be added to the list.
LEHIGH ACRES FT MYERS, FLORIDA -- As the supervisor just told my husband: "What can you do about it, you've already paid it now. You're just contacting us now?" (No, we contacted you all when it happened but we were lied to)... I just got so angry. What I will do about it is warn anyone and everyone to not deal with Countrywide Home Loans.
I've been calling our loan originator for 2 days trying to get an explanation and not surprisingly he's not calling me back. If calls are recorded, is there someway I can ask their supervisor to play mine back? Or surely they are to note our accounts when they have discussions? Some kind of accountability? What makes me really angry is I trusted this guy. Countrywide. A known name. They were my mortgage company before I refinanced so I thought it would be a simple transition. WHY - Things just don't add up correctly.
BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY IN OUR CASE: We were told by our originator that there was no prepayment penalty. We were refinancing because we had a 5 yr arm that was ready to be changed... I thought we were doing the right thing by getting it done BEFORE the rate change - our originator even made a call and NO PREPAY PENALTY. Day we closed we're told to sign a prepay penalty form... what? There's no prepay??? We were told by the lady there well let's just sign it and call your originator and find out what's going on. Again: How Could I have been so stupid?
#2 Called our originator that day. He had no idea what I was talking about.. as a matter of fact he didn't even see it on his paperwork. (I really believe him and until he's not returning my calls now I did)... He said there's no prepay on your loan, I even called about that. He made some more calls. Called me back the next day or so... and explained that the charge was really some kind of tax credit... confusing terms charge but he sounded like he knew what he was talking about and said it was a Drop down menu mistake.
He literally explained the person filling out the form should have chosen another fee, not prepayment penalty. HIS EXACT WORDS!!! And worse yet - I BELIEVED HIM! WITHOUT GETTING PROOF.
I said I'd need some new papers because in a few years this drop down mistake may be forgotten and I'd like my paperwork to be correct. OK he said he'd call back he never did. I lost track of time, believed him and quiet frankly forgot about it or figured I'd get the correct information when I got the pay off notice.....
Came last week -- almost 4 MONTHS after we closed that clearly states we paid $2700 in prepayment penalties. My husband calls the main office supervisor and she tells him the quote that I started this note with and also more or less .....tough your loan said 60 months you knew there was a prepay. She'll send us a copy of it.
Sure enough I got out my loan information and there's no disputing that. In fact it does say sixty months....had I been good at math I might have known all along that there was but my originator from COUNTRYWIDE who I was refinancing THROUGH COUNTRYWIDE made some calls and we sat there looking through it and somehow we came to the conclusion there was no prepay! He said there's NO PRE PAY. Different tune now but as my husband and I both told the supervisor WE WOULD HAVE NEVER CLOSED IN NOV to pay $2700 extra dollars! WE WOULD HAVE WAITED the 3 or 4 months to be in the 60 months to not have a prepay. We got NO CASH FROM THIS DEAL. There was no reason for us to close in NOVEMBER other than the fact that we wanted to get the arm loan out of the way to be responsible. And we had to pay for that....and trusted our Countrywide's rep telling us. And what kind of thanks do we get?
"It's paid now what can you do about it?"
I don't know how they sleep at night. I'd like to think our originator still made an honest mistake and would talk to everyone about it but with him not calling up back .....makes you wonder. PLEASE IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS OR ARE TOLD ANYTHING GET IT IN WRITING! What can I do about it? STOP SOMEONE ELSE FROM LOSING MONEY FOR NO REASON TO A COMPANY THEY TRUSTED! What else can I do since it has closed they got our money and they will continue to get our money.
PLANO, TEXAS -- I financed my home with an ARM with the promise Countrywide would give me a better percentage rate when my 3-year period was up. When the time came, by interest rate went up to more than 9%, resulting in a more than $500 a month increase in my mortgage payment effective Feb 2008. In January of 2008, when I realized I could not handle the payment, I filed paperwork with Countrywide's Home Retention team for a home loan modification. After finally being contacted by my counselor and filling out the loan information, I again called several weeks later to find out the loan had been approved.
However, she did not know this, and it became immediately apparent Countrywide's internal communication methods were and are very poor. She had told me when my application was pending not to make any payments until my loan modification papers were received and, at that time, I should make my new payment. I finally received the papers, signed, and returned them with a check covering late escrow fees and some processing fees to the tune of over $1400. I was also assured my account would be returned to current standing when the loan modification was finalized.
However, I continued to receive phone calls and letters telling me I was delinquent, and even though I have made my first new payment under the loan modification terms, I am still receiving threatening and harassing calls and certified letters.
When I call to complain to customer service and explain the process I started many months ago to avoid just this situation, I am told just to tell the callers, for the umpteenth time, what is going on and explain to them my situation. I am told the letters and calls I have been receiving are automated and cannot be stopped. This is baloney! Countrywide's internal communication methods are extremely poor. Also, since receiving my modification package, I have tried many times to speak with my counselor who is always unavailable. She does not return messages left, and her supervisor has also been left messages in this regard.
The customer service representatives also have left messages asking the Home Retention Office to update my account, and this still has not been done. I just received another call from a debt collector asking what I intended to do about my overdue account, and I "lost it" for the first time.
I am in a customer service field for the US Government, and this is no way to treat your customers, especially those who anticipate they will have a problem, contact the company, do all they are asked to do, and then are still harassed with calls and threatening letters. I never had a late payment on either my first or second mortgage prior to this time, and I will never again work with Countrywide. I will also make sure none of my friends or family do either. This is very sad.
CALIFORNIA -- This company makes many mistakes and it is hard to impossible to fix the mistake once it is made. I have 3 other loans with other companies and no problems in 2 years with countrywide (does not deserve capitals), I have had a 1/2 dozen problems, the last one is they screwed up my SSN and I have spent hours trying to get it resolved. All to no avail. They will say it is fixed and then I get another letter saying it is incorrect from them.
Phone service is bad, mail is worse. Go somewhere else, the hassle isn't worth it! Our loan was sold to them and in the changeover they didn't credit us for a month's payment. It took 3 months to finally straighten that out. They blamed the previous note holder but it was a company that tried to help us and finally was able to. Now I am certain that it was countrywide. One mistake is OK but there have been multiple. And then they always say they will fix it and never do!
Friends, be wary of doing business with Countrywide Home Loans, including their Full Spectrum Lending division for non-conforming loans. In fact, even if you don't originate your loan with these guys, have your loan officer write in a "no sell to or service by Countrywide" stipulation into your loan contract.
In short, Countrywide apparently has numerous unresolved complaints against them across America and as a customer, I've found that if you become persistent in getting them to fix their mistakes, they simply have their in-house lawyer write you a "go away" letter. Check them out... do a google search on "Countrywide Home Loans" and see for yourself. I wish I had never done business with them. You should avoid them no matter what.
76137, TEXAS -- Just as Countrywide was getting ready to be bought by Bank of America, they realized they could no longer afford to pay its employees. So rather than laying them off, they opted to fire everyone for bogus reasons, then deny their unemployment. They even strong armed some long-time employees by telling them they either had to go to their Collections or Foreclosure departments or be terminated, forcing employees to go to a department that paid far less, was more stressful, and had longer hours. Every week I hear of another person losing their job at Countrywide.
This company is the reason for the mortgage industry being in the position its in and now they are making the economy worst with all the people that are now out of jobs, ineligible for unemployment assistance, and can't find a job because of the current job market.
NEW JERSEY -- We were seeking to refinance to get some cash out of our home. Countrywide has got to be the worst experience in mortgage companies ever. Customer service is completely irresponsible. No calls back! The refinance was screwed up right the beginning. We originally were promised/guaranteed/approved for a fast track (one week) refinance with a $23k cash out. After two weeks of abuse, the loan changed to a full doc loan without notice. Then the federal government reduced interest rates and I was told that I've already signed a 30 day lock document. I already was into this nightmare so I again decided to stick with customer service's empty promises.
At closing after 6 weeks, the cash payout became $14k because they decided to increase discount points and take those from the cash payout. There is no communication between Countrywide's departments. There is deceit and misrepresentation from any rep who decides to speak with you. Lending tree here I come.
My husband and I have a mortgage through Countrywide. This company definitely has its issues and we are not too happy with them. BUT the other day I was looking over all our info to make sure it was all in order only to find out they, without knowledge or consent switched out insurance company when we have been paying our premiums. They said it was because we didn't have enough coverage which is ** because I double checked with our agent. Thing is we get discounts through our carrier for different things like non-smokers credit and a credit because we use them for our car as well.
Countrywide does this every year and every year our agent has to fix it. Last year it happened twice, once saying we didn't have any coverage and another because we didn't have enough (again we did). I think they do this because if they pick an insurance for you they must get some referral bonus or something. The companies they pick are also a lot more expensive by about $300-$400.


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What is Moodle?
Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). UMKC Moodle creates courses each semester automatically just like Blackboard. You can access Moodle within Blackboard.umkc.edu or visit the site directly at http://moodle.umkc.edu/.
All UMKC Faculty and Students have access to Moodle. You can also setup sites and/or user accounts for non UMKC users. It is simple to setup and cost less. All requests for external (non-UMKC) user accounts who need access to Moodle must come from the site leader or a designated UMKC faculty or staff member. The following procedure must be followed to have the accounts created:
The person requesting the accounts will contact ITS (235-6700 or email@example.com) to have the users enrolled in the Moodle course or organization site. User accounts can be populated with non-UMKC email. For non-UMKC standard courses, support for Moodle is setup on a case by case basis. Support fee structures range from a flat fee, a per call fee or and additional charge per user. Please provide an excel spreadsheet with the first name, last name, email and phone number for each contact.
Fees for enrolling non-UMKC users into Moodle courses or organization sites are as follows:
- $100 flat fee for setup
- $10 maintenance/access fee per user per semester.
Technical services include the following items:
- Temporary student/participant access to the designated Moodle site.
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Please contact firstname.lastname@example.com with questions regarding these procedures.
Learn more about Moodle
Moodle is developed by a community of educators and talented software developers. It has a great capacity to grow by listening ideas from community and making them a reality. Some of its features are copied in other commercial products, because they were very intuitive and easy to use. UMKC teamed up with remote learner so we can provide quality care course sites with great support.
If you like to try out Moodle then please click on the 'More information' below. Remember if you are a UMKC faculty then your site is already setup by an automatic system. You can access your UMKC Moodle site at: http://moodle.umkc.edu/.
For More Information
More information about how to use Moodle can be found in the UMKC Knowledgebase. Search for Moodle, or ask a question about how to use Moodle.