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Some news items don't need translation. That's why DPJ launched the From the Wire series, so we could serve the destinations here by posting information and announcements – in their own words.
The basic ingredients couldn't be simpler—earth and water, plus a few mineral and vegetal dyes. But in the hands of a gifted artisan, guided and inspired by a long and rich tradition, these humble elements are transformed into stunning works of art possessing exceptional beauty and grace. Elegance From Earth: Hopi Pottery is a new exhibit at the Heard Museum that tells the story of the centuries-old Hopi pottery tradition. Opening on March 24, Elegance >From Earth will offer a comprehensive view of Hopi pottery's fertile legacy. The exhibition closes September 30, 2012.
"Hopi pottery is famous for its intricate painting," comments Heard curator Diana Pardue. "There is nothing else quite like it. By exhibiting both historic as well as contemporary work, Elegance From Earth will illustrate the great range and scope of this wonderful tradition."
Elegance From Earth explores the intertwined matriarchal artistic legacies of the Nampeyo, Naha and Navasie families. The Hopi-Tewa potter Nampeyo (c.1859-1942) was the first American Indian potter to be known and recognized by name. She revived a style of low-shouldered spherical jars based on those made at the village of Sikyatki in the 1600s, evolving detailed and complex designs inspired by Sikyatki pottery. In more recent times, her great-granddaughter Dextra Quotskuyva has received much recognition for her innovative designs and has taught some techniques to other family members, including her daughter Camille and her nephews Steve Lucas and Les Namingha.
The exhibit will also showcase the work of another great Hopi pottery matriarch, Paqua Naha (Frog Woman), who developed a distinctive style of white-slipped pottery with black and deep-red designs that was later adopted by her daughter Joy Navasie, who passed the tradition on to her children and grandchildren. Other significant makers represented include Helen Naha and her two daughters Rainy and Sylvia.
"Pottery traditions, like those of other American Indian art forms, change and become reinvented through time," said Pardue. "Imaginative potters continue to work in centuries-old techniques using clay, paints and firing methods learned from their ancestors, while creating new shapes and painting unique designs."
If you go
Exhibit: Elegance From Earth: Hopi Pottery
When: Opens March 24, closes September 30.
Where: Heard Museum – Native Cultures and Art, 2301 N. Central Ave., Midtown
Contact: 602-252-8840 or visit heard.org


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Joke Shop is a place for comics to workshop and develop their material. For the first time ever, comedians perform online for a panel of critics, who provide feedback, suggest new tags, etc. A one-of-a-kind learning experience, Joke Shop invites the creative process onto the stage so we can all learn together. This show is a must-see for comedians and fans of stand-up comedy alike!
This event has passed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Playlists and Tracks List
You can download these playlists for our Monday and Saturday sessions, and a list of the tracks we've played.
These are NOT recordings of the music, just Excel lists of the dance names.
These playlists are extracted from iTunes. They are not an accurate record of what has been taught or played - a track can be added to a playlist but not played, and a track can be played without being added to a playlist.
Note also that these lists are not updated immediately, and could be a couple of months out-of-date.
2023 Playlists |
2022 PlaylistsMonday 2022 |
2021 PlaylistsMonday 2021 |
2020 PlaylistsMonday 2020 |
2019 PlaylistsMonday 2019 |
2018 PlaylistsMonday 2018 |
2017 PlaylistsMonday 2017 |
2016 PlaylistsMonday 2016 |
2015 PlaylistsMonday 2015 |
Tracks played more than once, and the date last played.
Monday 2008-2014
Monday 2008-2014 Teaching
Saturday 2008-2014
Saturday 2008-2014 Teaching
Monday 1995-2009 Teaching as collected by Martin Williams
Our web hosts
[What's Up] [Classes] [Grapevine] [Performance] [What Was] [WA Links] [World Links] [P I D] [Committee] [Contact Us]
Last updated
Comments? E-mail email@example.com


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Perth have arrested an alarming form slump with a thrilling 84-79 win over Melbourne United, who've lost top spot on the NBL table.
A game-high 27 points from Bryce Cotton and 18 points and 14 rebounds from Nick Kay allowed the Wildcats to hold off a fast-finishing United on Sunday afternoon at RAC Arena.
If a Casper Ware lay-up had fallen with six seconds remaining, the outcome might have been different.
Melbourne surrender their NBL ladder lead to Sydney, but the result will leave just one win separating the top five teams when round 14 ends on Monday night.
Perth will remain third, but the result was the difference between them fighting to extend their streak of playing finals to 33 years and challenging for home advantage in the finals.
It was the Wildcats' third win in 11 outings, but their 13th for the season - the same as the Kings.
Adelaide put themselves right in the mix with big wins this round against Perth and Sydney. Brisbane remain one spot ahead of them in fourth spot, on the back of a demolition of Cairns to extend their own winning streak to three.
At halftime, Perth led Melbourne by seven points, having earlier held a 16-point advantage.
Scoring had been their Achilles heel over the past two months, but Kay (11 points) and Cotton (13) were hitting the scoreboard early regularly against United.
Kay's block of a Chris Goulding lay-up seconds before halftime and a successful jump shot of his own at the other end, on the buzzer, were crucial.
Josh Boone's seven rebounds in the half ensured Melbourne stayed in touch. Mitch McCarron's 14 points in the third term not only brought United back into the game, but briefly gave them the lead.
Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson couldn't hide how he was feeling after the game.
"A little bit of relief," he said.
"It was a big game for us; coming back for a double-header after Adelaide; Melbourne coming here fresh.
"The boys really stepped up to the plate."
United coach Dean Vickerman said the two fouls to David Barlow in the opening two minutes of the game put his side immediately on the back foot.
"Barlow is really important for us and him picking up early fouls was an issue when you see his time on the floor and him down the stretch with some huge threes," he said.
"For them to have only seven fouls for the game is on us a little bit though. We have to make an assessment of how the game is being called and play the right way."


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Here's a rational way to approach the data on COVID-related deaths.
A good piece on excess mortality data with further links can be found here.
Transcript Below!
Hey everybody, Dr. Z, it's Sunday June 26th. All right, quick COVID update. Many people have asked me, hey, could we be over-counting deaths from COVID? Because, on the coroner's death certificate, you list COVID if it's any suspicion of it, if it's been tested for and you die of something else it doesn't matter, you're still seeing COVID, so could we be over-counting since we're testing a lot more now, and could this be leading to an overreaction and an over dramatization of how dangerous this pandemic really is?
Well, I think let's look at that, because these are valid questions. Death certificates in general, in the best of times, are kind of sketchy, and again, if you die with COVID-19 of something else, it's still gonna be listed on the death certificate and counted in the total tallies. Also we are testing extensively as opposed to in the beginning, so could we just be, again, over diagnosing it?
People dying of different things, sure! It's entirely possible, so how do we tease this out and how do I think about this as a doctor and how should you critically evaluate these ideas? Because, listen, put all ideas on the table, argue them, a lot of them are politicized and all that, so that's fine though. Politicize it all you want, and then look at the data rationally. And here's how you look at this.
Yes, it's entirely possible that we're over-counting deaths. It's also possible that we're under counting them, and that despite all of this, there are a lot of people that aren't tested who die of the disease at home quietly and it's called something else. That's totally possible. In fact, prevalence data, using antibodies, really indicates that there's been a ton of infection, probably 10 times or more, in the community than what we've been able to test for.
So already we know we're kinda maybe under counting the number of cases, but are we under counting or over-counting fatalities? Well, there's a clean way to look at this. Because we know this data is garbage. It's really not great data. So, what can we do? Well there's something called excess death rate. What does that mean? It means look at the entire death rate for an area, in this case let's say the United States. And compare that death rate during a period of time to previous years during the same period of time. Why does the period of time matter? Well, because, in the winter you may have more deaths from influenza, there may be different periods, so you have to compare apples to apples, and you can do that year over year over year. And we have this data. Other countries have this data too. Not everybody does, so you can't do it for the whole world, but you can do it for places that have it, like here.
So what do we find when we look at that data? Well, and I'm gonna link to all this stuff in the show notes on zdoggmd.com, so you can check my references there. There was a JAMA article that looked at the period from March 1st through the end of May, May 30th, and that's three solid months in the center of the pandemic when things were locking down and there was a lot of drama, right? We're not looking at June and July when things have been picking up again.
What did they find? They found roughly 122,000 excess deaths in the US during that time, compared to previous years. So that's a lot of excess deaths. And so we go, okay, well, how many of those were actually labeled as COVID-19, in other words what was the COVID-19 death rate at that time? Well, guess what. The COVID-19 death count over that period of time was 30% less than the total number of excess deaths, in other words deaths you wouldn't have expected to happen that year. That's a lot of deaths.
So what does that mean? Well this is where we have to put on our thinking cap and our reasoning cap and think of the different possibilities, because we can't know the answer for sure, since the testing and accuracy of our data isn't great, but we do know there was 30% more deaths that we shouldn't have expected during this time.
Well, okay, option one, is that these deaths were actually COVID-19. Directly related, that we did not test for, that died maybe at home, or that we misdiagnosed. So we've missed 30% of the deaths, which means, it's 30% more damaging than what we were estimating. Now this has obviously impacts on what our policies are, et cetera. Okay, so that's possibility 1 on one extreme.
Another possibility is that what we're seeing is the effect of the pandemic on death rates that is not directly due to infection with COVID-19. Let me explain what I mean. During this period of time, we shut down our economy, we generated a ton of fear in the population of hospitals, healthcare workers, in general. And what happened? We saw plummeting rates of ER visits for heart attacks, strokes, very very very serious illness. Now, do we have any reason to believe, in a period when excess deaths were 122,000 or something, that there were less heart attacks and strokes? Especially since we know that this virus can actually also cause heart attacks and strokes, and be misdiagnosed, which would fall us into that first bucket we talked about, but let's say that didn't happen. People could be avoiding the hospital and dying, in a way that is recorded as, you know, heart attack, stroke, or nothing, 'cause we never get an autopsy, most of the time. We don't get autopsies, we don't know what people died of. Cardiac arrest, we have no idea. And that's directly due to the fact that this virus exists in the world right now causing the havoc that it's causing on our response.
So, the response to the virus, of fear, actually could have cost those excess lives. So that is a very real possibility. We know people are avoiding the doctor's, we know they're avoiding regular screening, we know they're avoiding vaccination for their children. All these things were happening, especially during that early time period. And so, the excess death rate could partially be explained by that.
The third possibility is that there's something else going on that's killing Americans that we don't understand. Little far fetched. If anything, what we could see is a delay. There's always a lag in death reporting. Could it be that we're seeing more substance abuse? Depression, mental illness, suicide? We're not seeing those numbers yet, but could that excess death rate be foreshadowing some of that, when we actually get data? And diseases of despair due to economic turmoil, isolation, again, all the mental and social fabric disruption that's happened, and economic disruption that's happened from our response to the virus. Entirely possible.
So, this is kind of the spectrum. So well, what's going on in other countries? Well, it turns out in the UK, their excess death rate is higher than their tested positive COVID death rate by 20%. In Spain, it's 40% higher than their tested death rate, meaning there is a ton of excess death that isn't accounted for. Do you think that they're actually testing everybody and getting a correct diagnosis? No, I suspect, it really feels like there's more COVID causing havoc, and the incidental havoc.
Now, here's a twist that makes it even more uncomfortable. During this period, traffic deaths and homicides dropped quite a bit. Because we're locked down. So, despite the drop in traffic deaths and homicides, which are major killers, the excess death rate was still really high. So it tells you, any speculation that we're over-counting the deaths from COVID-19, is really far fetched. And it's much more likely that we're under counting COVID-19 deaths. Either the direct deaths, or the results of our response to the pandemic. The fear, the economic shutdown, the societal disruption. And I think as we get more data, it's gonna become clear what's going on.
So, I think the punchline of this video is, looking at excess deaths, and applying it to the question, are we over or under counting COVID-19 deaths, leads us to a pretty clear answer, in terms of, yes I think we're under counting the deaths. We're certainly not over-counting them. And then what you do with that information becomes important.
Well, does it mean that we shut everything down again? Well, would that then lead to a trade-off in increasing the deaths of economic despair, substance abuse, isolation? Do we wear masks, social distance, wash our hands, continue to test, get the data, science the crap out of it, open the economy? Think about what to do about schools, which is so important, for economic and mental health, and our education and our future. And use this data to then empower our decisions rationally, instead of in such a politically charged way, which, everybody is guilty of doing at this point. Everybody, even the most rational scientist, is politicizing this because of the fact that they're humans.
So let's try click by click by click to do better. All right guys, I love you, share this video, and we out. Peace.
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You either have to be very brave - or very stupid - to troll a professional mixed martial artist.
On February 24 Paddy 'The Baddy' Pimblett and 'Meatball' Molly McCann will have bigger fish to fry when they fight at Cage Warriors 90 at the ECHO Arena, but this week the duo took some time out of their busy training schedule to respond the some of their haters.
The duo had to deal with digs about their abilities, looks and Paddy's haircut.. but they found the perfect responses to the Twitter tough guys.
'The Baddy' steps back into the cage for the first time in almost a year when he takes on Alex Savvidis in a lightweight bout, while McCann fights Bryony Tyrell in a history-making bout for the Cage Warriors Women's Featherweight Championship.
Pimblett knows all about dealing with haters - the 23-year-old has done so right throughout his career and proved them wrong more often than not.
He told the ECHO recently that he'll silence more of his critics on February 24.
"I have always got a target on my back no matter what. I am Paddy The Baddy Pimblett, people love chatting sh… talking pony about me," he said.
"It doesn't matter what weight I'm at. Featherweights talk about me, lightweights talk about me, welterweights talk about me. Just people who do MMA in general talk about me. It's the way I am. I am outspoken. But I won't change. I'll always be like this. Like it or leave it."
McCann is one of the most popular fighters on the Cage Warriors roster, having been voted by the fans as Cage Warriors Fighter of the Year 2017.
She promised to put on a show for her fans against Tyrell, saying: "Showing up for the cameras, showing up for myself is one thing. Showing up in front of 6,000 Scousers is a whole other level. When we have to entertain we take it to the next level.
"I know I rise to the occasion. The fans are in for a treat. Everyone who has supported me is in for a treat."


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"The Doctor's Role in the Accommodation Process - Employer's Right to Medical and Other Evidence", as Tab 4 of The Law Society of Upper Canada's Continuing Professional Development conference on June 16, 2016 titled The Duty to Accommodate in the Workplac
View of adjudicator's attempt to balance between right to privacy and right to information regarding accommodation needs; discusses cases where employee refuses to provide the necessary documents during the process.
Accommodation Issues in the Workplace; on behalf of Filion Wakely Thorup Angeletti LLP (Wolters Kluwer)
Overall focus on expectations that employers should have for themselves when accommodating applicants, employees or third parties. Includes best practices, case law examples; addresses mental health and addiction; family status.


text: When you need to hire more pairs of hands to handle your expanding workload and the needs of your growing company, which is the more cost effective choice: Paying overtime to your current teams so they can stay late and get the job done? Or hiring new teams of employees? The answer will depend on… Read more »


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Tom Cruise joined Instagram yesterday. Normally I wouldn't give a couch-jumping poop about the social media comings and goings of the diminutive superstar, but Cruise got his Instagramming life off to a high-flying start as he revealed the official title for the upcoming sixth Mission: Impossible film. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation writer/director Christopher McQuarrie will once again return with Cruise for the next chapter which is titled Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
Just what the Fallout title is about is anybody's guess right now, but there are some clues to be found in the film's first official synopsis which was also revealed by Paramount Pictures.
The best intentions often come back to haunt you. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby also join the dynamic cast with filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie returning to the helm.
I'm going to hazard a guess that the "mission gone wrong" involves some kind of nuclear element, thus the title of "Fallout" pulls double duty as a warning about some kind of devastating destruction as well as the repercussions of something the IMF team does. It also appears that Michelle Monaghan's Julia Meade – the wife of Cruise's superspy Ethan Hunt – will also be getting in on the action somehow.
In Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol it was initially stated that Julia had been killed in an attempt on Hunt's life but it was revealed in the end to have all been a ruse to provide Julia with a new identity to protect her from Hunt's enemies. She didn't show up for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and she isn't a field agent, so it will be interesting to see why she shows up now – especially since she's mentioned in the same breath as Rebecca Ferguson's ex-British agent Ilse Faust, easily the breakout star of the previous film.
Along with the title and synopsis reveal, Cruise also unveiled the first official press image for the film, which in typical fashion for the death-defying actor and this franchise, has him hanging out of a helicopter in the sky. You may recall that production on M:I6 was halted last year when Cruise broke his ankle during one of the film's more tamer stunts. I say "tamer" because the 55-year old actor – infamous for doing all his own insane stunts for real – promises that "We've upped the ante for the sixth #MissionImpossible. I can't wait for you guys to see more."
It was reported last year that Mission: Impossible – Fallout will boast Cruise's biggest stunt yet in the franchise. That's really saying something based on this franchise's stunt history, which includes Cruise dangling on the side of a cargo plane hundreds of feet in the air, scaling the outside of the Burj Kalifa, holding his breath underwater for six minutes and much more death-defying antics. McQuarrie teased on Twitter just a few days ago that the film's first trailer has been approved for classification which means its arrival is imminent, and maybe then we can get a glimpse of what he and Cruise have cooked up.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is scheduled for release on 27 July 2018 and also stars Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, and of course Justice League star Henry Cavill and his super-mustache.
Last Updated: February 5, 2018


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WENGS Solutions LLP is a Software Development company in India based in New Delhi (Delhi). Established in 2019, we have worked extensively for more than 4 years to provide software solutions to clients & startups. We are doing our all projects with professional and trained team.
Ans: WENGS Solutions LLP is a team of software engineers willing to help startup, and well established companies.
Ans; WENGS Solutions LLP was formed in 2019 by RJ Raawat, together with Bharat Kumar. Initially, special attention was given to the Indian startups and thier IT requirements. RJ Raawat started the WENGS Solutions LLP to nourish startups who are struggling for affordable IT solutions like Website, Portals, Mobile Applications, Professional Emails and etc. RJ Raawat, Founder Director, Sr. Software Engineer, WENGS Solutions LLP is the head of the company which is governed by 2 board members.
Ans: Yes, WENGS Solutions LLP is registered under The Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. This act was enacted by the Parliament of India to introduce and legally sanction the concept of LLP in India.
Ans: WENGS Solutions LLP has its head office in Delhi, at B-115 Ground Floor, Bhagwan Nagar, New Delhi 110014
Ans: Yes you will get GST invoice for each and every service.
Ans; For interning with WENGS Solutions LLP, Kindly note that the minimum duration of internship is of 2 month and interns have to work closely with team from Monday to Saturday (11 am – 5 pm).You can send us your application on email@example.com
Ans: On request we will surely issue a certificate for the work and duration of time that a person intern with WENGS Solutions LLP on the tasks assigned by us.
Ans: With its primary focus on nourishing startup companies, WENGS Solutions LLP works on following services :
• Website Development
• Website Maintanance Services
• Android Application Development
• CRM and other portal development
• Professional emails
• SEO and Digital Marketing
No third party agency is working on behalf of WENGS Solutions LLP for any recruitment, training, or other activities related to WENGS Solutions LLP. Please check/consult with WENGS Solutions LLP directly to get correct information or assistance. Please beware of any unwarranted claims made by anyone on our behalf. Kindly bring any such claims to our notice for immediate attention and action. WENGS Solutions LLP doesn't charge any money from anyone for these activities. So if you come across any individual/organization making a monetary demand in our name please bring it to our notice immediately on firstname.lastname@example.com or call us on 011-41727998 / +91-9999537998
WENGS Solutions LLP B-115, Ground Floor, Bhagwan Nagar Near Manokamna Mandir New Delhi - 110014 Ph. 011-41 727 998 Email: email@example.com Web: www.wengs.in
Call: 011-41727998 Email : firstname.lastname@example.com WhatsApp :+(91) 9999537998 "


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Drivers are the big winners as Apple kicked off the virtual 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference with news the iPhone and Apple Watch will be able to unlock and drive your car and new Maps features for electric car drivers.
New Digital Key technology will enable iPhones and Apple Watches to become a car key to lock, unlock and start cars.
BMW will become the first car company to integrate this technology with its upcoming 540i model.
BMW will roll out the Digital Key for iPhone in 45 countries for a broad range of its models manufactured after July 1 2020.
Digital Key will work with the iPhone XR, iPhone Xs and newer phones along with Apple Watch Series 5 and later.
Although Digital Key was introduced as an iOS 14 feature, Apple says it will also add it to iOS 13 to get it into people's hands sooner.
Digital Key doesn't even require your iPhone to be unlocked to unlock and start the car but a user can opt to require Face ID or Touch ID to enable it.
But what happens if your iPhone is low on battery?
When Power Reserve is activated the digital key will continue to function for up to five hours even of the iPhone shuts down because of low battery.
And you'll also be able to share your keys with friends and family through Messages and even set driving limitations when sharing with teen drivers, for example.
Users can also disable them through iCloud if you lose your iPhone.
Apple has been working with industry groups to use ultrawide band technology so this feature will work when your device is in your pocket or in your bag.
Apple Maps also saw a significant update which now include routing for electric cars.
EV drivers can now avoid range anxiety with these new routes which will display all charging stations along your journey.
Maps in iOS 14 will also factor in things like elevation and the user's EV's current charge levels and determine whether stops are required along your route.
Tesla drivers already have a similar feature with the vehicle smart enough to plot routes, especially longer road trips, with stops at Superchargers and community chargers along the way.


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Frequently Asked Questions About Paying for Care
What does 'self-funding' mean?
Self-funding is where you fund your personal care or social care needs from your own resources. If you have savings and assets valued over the threshold amount set by the government, you will be required to pay the care home fees from your own funds until your wealth reduces to the threshold set. After this point, social services will carry out a financial assessment to calculate the amount of contribution they will put towards your care.
How would a care home place be funded if I can't pay for care myself (and don't have any assets)?
If, after conducting both the social/healthcare needs assessment and the financial means test a local authority agrees that a person is eligible for weekly contributions they will then look to pay a published maximum contribution to the weekly care costs on behalf of the person needing care.
From the maximum weekly amount available it is usual for local authorities to deduct any private income the care recipient has.
If a person is awarded local authority contributions of £550 but wishes to live in a care home costing more, it isn't unusual for a family member to be asked to make up the difference. This is done through a "third-party top-up agreement" and generally needs the approval of the local authority.
What is a top-up?
A top-up (also known as a third-party top-up agreement) may be payable to the care home when there is a gap between the contributions awarded by a local authority and the fee that the care home or nursing home is charging each week. It isn't unusual for the family to be asked to bridge the gap. This may need the approval of the local authority.
The care home's Terms and Conditions will make the circumstances around top-ups clear.
What benefits can you claim when living in a care home (for private funders and publicly-funded residents)?
- NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC)
- although it is subject to strict eligibility/assessment criteria it is not financially means-tested
- Funded Nursing Care (FNC)
- You need to be residing in a registered nursing home to be awarded this.
- It isn't financially means-tested
- Personal Care Allowance (Scotland only)
- Available to Scottish residents aged 65 and over
- It isn't means-tested
- Attendance Allowance [stops after 28 days for publicly funded residents]
- Available to people 65 and over
- It isn't means-tested
- Personal Independence Payment paid to those people under state retirement age
Do I need to sell a jointly owned house/property to pay for care home fees?
There are two distinctly different answers to this question which will fundamentally depend on whether the property in question is the main residence of the person needing care.
If it is and the person sharing the ownership and living in it meets the exclusion criteria then no the property will not be included in the capital means-test assessment.
To help clarify the situation, a person's home is not included in the means test if:
- the spouse or partner still resides there
- a relative aged 60 or over lives at the house
- a disabled relative lives in the house
- a dependent child aged 18 or under lives there
- the person is in the first twelve weeks of needing permanent care
- the care is being provided on a temporary basis
However, if the property isn't a main (only) residence and/or the joint owner of the main resident is excluded from the eligibility list then it is possible that the value owned by the person needing care would be included.
Whether it needs to be sold to fund care fees will ultimately depend on the overall financial situation of the care recipient.
Is there an eligibility criterion for funding and is this available for families?
As the various payments are made from differing departments each individual allowance/payment/benefit has its own set of published eligibility criteria and these are all readily available.
One of the most complex assessment processes relates to Continuing Healthcare Funding (CHC).
By far the most comprehensive and complex document is the one covering the various roles played by the local authorities, which includes all the information on how all assessments (health, social and financial) are based.
Here are some useful links that cover in more detail the eligibility criteria:
Advice about paying for care
It's important to get professional advice on the best way to fund the cost of care and we suggest that you take advice from a care fees expert to make sure that you have explored all the options available to you.
In order to make life easier we have contacted a national care fees planning specialist, Symponia, who is dedicated to the financial issues of later life, in particular the payment of care fees. Read more about how Symponia can help you and download their helpful handbook.
All information contained on this page was correct as of 20/4/22*


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Do you have animals invading your home? Skunks, squirrels, mice, birds a problem? Call X-Terminator Ohio and learn more about our wildlife trapping services. We can help keep Mother Nature outside your home. Learn more about our Trapping and Exclusion. Animals we remove:- Skunks
- Mice
- Rats
- Squirrel
- Chipmunk
- Birds
- Raccoons
- And more


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Enjoying your outdoor space is no longer a seasonal treat. With our wide range of enclosure products, you get 365-day, 24/7 access to your outdoor living spaces, minus the hassle of unbearable weather conditions.
Perfect for any outdoor living space such as your patios, sunrooms, and even dining spaces and carports, our clear porch curtains keep the rain, snow, and dust away, but the view the same.
Away from the heat and glare of the sun, create the perfect outdoor environment for your home with our sunshades and screens, with total control over your choice of fabric and materials.
Fully retractable, our awnings provide a great and flexible way for you to enjoy your outdoor space when you want to. This is a great investment that helps you save on energy and costs in the long term.


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Hydreco 2200 pumps are roller bearing cast iron gear pumps. They feature a very rigid, doweled two-piece construction and contain pressure-balanced wear plates. The design results in especially high overall efficiency.
These pumps are rated to 3000 psi and to 3000 rpm. Rotation may be changed in the field with no new or additional parts.
Contact us for further technical details and configuration options on the Hydreco 2200 series.


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Brittany Frompovich is a highly regarded musician, clinician, and music educator who currently resides in the Northern Virginia region. She has performed and given clinics at Musicians Institute in LA, NAMM, Gerald Veasley's Bass BootCamp, Adam Nitti's Music Dojo, The Bass Coalition's Summer Workshop, The Rappahannock Music Summer Camp, The RVA Girls Rock Camp, the Washington Music Bass Day Summit, The Virginia Bass Forum, and numerous other events. She has been featured as a clinician at bass community events alongside artists like Bryan Beller, Adam Nitti, David Dyson, Steve Jenkins, Anthony Wellington, Norm Stockton, Donovan Stokes, and Rufus Reid.
Jazz luminary Gerald Veasley introduced her to bassist Jimmy Haslip as "a beautiful player on both electric bass and double bass." Her solo performances are unique, poignant, earthy, and highly creative. As a working bassist, she regularly does shows on double bass and electric bass covering a wide range of genres like orchestral music, rock, jazz, blues, and pit work for theater productions. She has shared the stage with Ron Holloway (Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi), Jason Everett (solo artist), Ashleigh Chevalier (solo artist and singer-songwriter), and Toby Fairchild (Keller Williams, James Moody, Erin Marienthal). As a solo bassist/solo artist she has opened for UK solo bassist Steve Lawson. She has also shared the stage with solo bassists Michael Dimin, Stewart McKinsey, Darren Michaels, Aaron Gibson, Edo Castro, Scott Varney, Scott Fernandes, Bill Clements, Trip Wamsley, and Kent Beatty.
Brittany also has a gift for community building. She combined that talent with her love for bass, leading her to create the Virginia Bass Forum. The Forum is an organization that hosts events to build bass community and assist bass players in the NoVa/DC/MD areas in improving their craft. Through the Forum, she has had the privilege of hosting major artists such as Stu Hamm, Bryan Beller, Adam Nitti, Michael Dimin, Kevin Walker, Steve Lawson, and Trip Wamsley.
Ms. Frompovich is passionate about music, music community, and the bass; she is always advancing her creative journey as a musician and as an educator.


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Awesome Fun Ideas: 23 Custom Novelty Pens
Our novelty pens UK made right here in Northampton are just that: writing instruments with a flare to them. We have this incredible talent for the lathe. Why not incorporate that with a bit of fun and whimsical style? Perfect for school, home or office, whether correspondence or drawing.
These all offer a special look to our hand-turned barrels and have some special materials. For example, I turn our steampunk creations from resin with the watch components and cogs embedded in the resin itself. I do this right here at the shop to make the raw material for these amazing pens.
Since this is a complete hand-done process, each will be unique to its own. However, each one finished with amazing bright colours and chrome accent details.
Besides the steampunk pens, we offer other custom novelty writing pens and designs. These are different and unusual, including the dragons. These have dragon clips and accent points around them with a posted cap.
Great Ideas To Express Yourself
As with all our items, each one is meant to last a lifetime and is refillable. There are stamps, pasta, real playing cards and even some made from an original whiskey barrel. Everything is ideal for novelty Christmas pens your husband or wife will love.
All present here use black ink standard refills or cartridges, as with big brands available online or from high street shops. For confidence, see what our other customer says on the product page. Free delivery is an option on most products at the checkout.
Whitlock-Wooden-Designs prides itself on offering awesome gifts that are handcrafted right here in my workshops. If you're not interested in our handwriting implements as gifts, look around! We have all kinds of Xmas gift ideas and stocking fillers for him and her to choose from. Our large collection is not only fun novelty pens and pencils; we have other quirky ideas.


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Alecia Beth Moore, better known by her stage name "Pink", is an American songwriter and singer. Having sold more than 90 million records across the world, she is among the best-selling artists worldwide.
What Is the Net Worth of Pink?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Pink has an estimated net worth of $200 million.
Early Life
Alecia Beth Moore was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania on September 8, 1979. Her mother is Judith Moore and her father is James Moore. Her mother was an emergency room nurse whereas her father was an insurance salesman.
Despite being a perfectly healthy baby during birth, she got asthma when she was young and that troubled her during her early years. Pink's parents started facing issues in marriage when she was a toddler and when she was age 10, they divorced.
During the ages of 4 and 12, she got competitive gymnast training. Pink went to attend Central Bucks High School West. She joined her first band when she was in high school, though it got terminated after it lost a Battle of the Bands competition.
When she was in her teenage years, she penned lyrics as a medium for her emotions, and upon that, her mother said, "Her initial writings were always very introspective. Some of it was very black and very deep, almost worrisome."
Personal Life
At the 2001 X Games in Philadelphia, Pink met professional motocross racer Carey Hart and broke in 2003 for a short period of time. In 2005, during a Mammoth Lakes motocross race, she proposed to Hart, who was helping in his race, and penned on a pit board, "Will You Marry Me? I'm serious!" Initially, Hart didn't observe that and went on for the next lap.
Later, when he actually noticed, he turned aside the track to accept her proposal right then. On January 7, 2006, the couple got married in Costa Rica.
Following months of circulating rumors, in early 2008, she confirmed her separation from Hart. Later, Hart was featured in the video for her 2008 song entitled "So What", which copes with their separation.
With the expectations of reconciliation, the couple wanted marriage counseling during their separation. She announced that both of them were back together in early 2010.
Later, in the music video for her songs entitled "Just Give Me a Reason" and "True Love", Hart also appeared with her. Both the songs were from her 2012 album entitled "The Truth About Love," and "Just Like Fire".
On The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2010, she confirmed that she is expecting their first child with Hart and the couple welcomed their daughter, Willow Sage in June 2011. Pink welcomed her second child, a son named Jameson Moon in December 2016.
Pink and Hart's primarily used to stay in a large mansion in a gated community in the Point Dume area of Malibu for so many years. In 2016, they sold their 8,000 square foot house for a consideration of $12.5 million and they bought it for an amount of $11.85 million in 2010.
Later, they relocated to their 200+ acre ranch in the Santa Ynez valley. In 2013, the couple purchased this specific property for consideration of $12 million. The property has 25-acres of vineyards that they have utilized to make a wine launch called Two Wolves.
Last year in June, Pink bought an oceanfront home in Malibu for $13.7 million.
At the age of 14, Pink started performing in Philadelphia clubs, and around this time, she took on her stage name "Pink".
At the same age, she was encouraged to give an audition for becoming a member of the all-female group titled "Basic Instinct," and she got a spot in the queue. The group eventually terminated without releasing any material.
When she was 16, she founded the "R&B group Choice" in collaboration with two teenage girls named Sharon Flanagan and Chrissy Conway.
"Key to My Heart" which was their first song, a copy of it was sent to LaFace Records in Atlanta, Georgia, and there, L.A. Reid listened to it and made arrangements for the group to get there to see their performance. Later, they were signed by him to a record pact.
As all the three girls were below the age of 18 during the time, the contract had to be co-signed by their parents. The group moved to Atlanta and recorded an album, which actually never came out, however, "Key to My Heart" featured on the soundtrack of the film titled "Kazaam" which was released in 1996.
Pink received an ultimatum from Reid during a Christmas party, to either go solo or go home. In 1998, Choice also dissolved.
LaFace offered her a solo recording contract in 1995. RIAA certified double-platinum to Pink's R&B-influenced debut studio album entitled "Can't Take Me Home" in the U.S and her songs titled "There You Go" and "Most Girls" peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs.
The collaborative single titled "Lady Marmalade" from the Moulin Rouge! The soundtrack brought her further recognition and the single dominated several charts across the world.
With her second studio album entitled "Missundaztood" which came out in 2001, she refocused her sound to pop-rock, and over 13 million copies were sold for the album throughout the world and brought the number-one song internationally, titled "Don't Let Me Get Me", "Get the Party Started", and "Just Like a Pill".
Whilst her third studio album entitled "Try This" which came out in 2003, sold extremely less than compared to her earlier projects, the album brought her the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Pink got back to dominate the record charts when she released her fourth and fifth studio albums entitled "I'm Not Dead" and "Funhouse", and ranked the top-ten entries "Who Knew" and "U + Ur Hand", and also the number-one single titled "So What".
Her sixth studio album titled "The Truth About Love", became her first album that ranked at number one on the Billboard 200 and formed her 4th number-one single in the United States titled "Just Give Me a Reason".
She recorded an album entitled Rose Ave. in collaboration with Canadian musician Dallas Green in 2014, under a folk music duo, "You+Me". Pink's other studio albums entitled "Beautiful Trauma" and "Hurts 2B Human", both the albums dominated the Billboard 200 chart, and the former became the third best-selling album of the year worldwide.
Pink is popular for her unique raspy voice and acrobatic stage appearance, she has sold more than 135 million records across the world among which 60 million consists of albums and 75 million singles, and this made her one of the best-selling music artists worldwide.
She received several accolades throughout her career including 3 Grammy Awards, a Daytime Emmy Award, 2 Brit Awards, and 7 MTV Video Music Awards, along with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
Pink was named the Pop Songs Artist of the Decade by Billboard in 2009. Furthermore, during the 2000s decade, she was the second most-played female solo artist in the U.K after only Madonna.
She was ranked number 10 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music and in 2013, she was also the recipient of the Woman of the Year award by Billboard 2013.
Pink won the BMI President's Award for "her outstanding achievement in songwriting and global impact on pop culture and the entertainment industry" at the 63rd annual BMI Pop Awards.
We will keep you updated with all the latest information until then stay tuned to our website.


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Gwinnett Police investigate deaths of mother, son as double murder
Gwinnett County Police are investigating the deaths of a women and her adult son whose bodies were found in their apartment Sunday night. Officers identified the victims as 61-year-old Nicola Sramek and her son James Sramek, age 29.
Police went to the Barrington Hills Apartments on Chelsea Park Lane in the Norcross area after family members called, concerned because they could not get in touch with the Srameks. Investigators said they were treating the case as a double homicide.
Monday, police asked neighbors to come forward with any information about suspicious activity in the area, or any sounds coming from the apartment over the past week.
Police said the cause of the Srameks' deaths would be determined by an autopsy. It was not immediately known how long the two had been dead. Investigators said they believe the deaths are an isolated incident. Police said Monday they were following several leads in the case and had interviewed a number of witnesses.


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Why is the geth sync so slow?
I keep hearing this question again and again from Ethereum node operators. Why is it still so difficult to fully sync an Ethereum full node?
Users have been complaining forever now about the notoriously slow geth sync on the official Ethereum wallet.
Some even question the level of scaling capabilities of a cryptocurrency which requires several hundred gigabytes of hard drive space and which may take weeks to fully sync with the rest of the network.
While geth syncs, full Ethereum node admins may end up seeing a screen, such as the one below, for a very long time:
There are countless valid arguments in the "Ethereum sync is too slow" camp – and the Ethereum core devs did take note of the issue.
They've since created a light client mode and deprecated the old "–fast" switch, adopting a new algorithm using the –syncmode "fast" command line switch instead.
But these changes did not solve the problem. Full Ethereum nodes are still notoriously hard to sync.
Why does this happen?
How can you mitigate the effects? In this article we discuss a few known issues, why they happen and how you can try to circumvent them.
There are currently a few known issues which make Ethereum syncing very slow:
Let's take a quick look at each of these factors.
There's very little we can do about this issue. Discovering initial peers is an inherent difficulty in all P2P networks. There have been other fully decentralized P2P systems and most were also notoriously slow when unable to bootstrap initial connections to enough peers on the network.
There have been decentralized anonymous systems like Freenet (which still exists BTW), but which are also very slow because they depend on nodes talking directly to each other to exchange information on a large scale. There isn't one fast centralized node aiding the network in a truly P2P system.
Many nodes are also run in slow and limited internet connections. When you connect to a slow node, it will drag the entire sync operation slower with it until your node detects a lagging connection and tries a different peer.
There is nothing you can do to avoid connecting to slow nodes a first time. When you find a very slow or incorrectly running node you can blacklist it or quarantine it in your local peer list. But it's impossible to know it's a slow node before connecting to it at least once.
Spam is a problem in every Internet related crowd-driven technology. Be it a Telegram chat, IRC, forums or even cryptocurrencies, spam is everywhere. But every spam operation must be profitable, otherwise there'd be no incentive for it.
What's the incentive for cryptocurrency blockchain spamming? The answer is usually to promote a rival cryptocurrency.
We've seen spam attacks against Bitcoin, Ethereum and against every other mineable and top 100 ranked currency. The spam attacks usually consist of submitting millions of tiny transactions which clog up the network and fill the mempool of unconfirmed transactions. There may be other more sophisticated attacks, but the simplest one is usually what slows the whole network down.
When this kind of attack is perpetrated by actors with high bandwidth and lots of cash and resources, they are almost impossible to deflect. But even so, Bitcoin and Ethereum have held up against most the bombardments received, especially throughout 2017 when big money began to fear the spread of cryptocurrencies.
If there's one good argument against increasing block size in the Bitcoin blockchain, then Ethereum must be it.
Ethereum blocks can be of any arbitrary size, limited only by the GAS limit itself.
GAS is a measure of computational resources spent in processing Ethereum transactions (including smart contract interaction).
A bigger and more complex contract requires more GAS than a small and simple one.
GAS is the computation currency in the "world computer" composed of all Ethereum nodes.
When a contract is very large and complex, it will require large amounts of GAS, which is itself traded for Ethereum.
The amount of GAS limits the amount of contracts and transactions contained in a block. Therefore GAS indirectly limits the physical size of Ethereum blocks.
As we all know, the IPv4 address space has been exhausted.
Therefore, a immense part of the Internet sits behind NAT routers. NAT is a way to multiplex N private IPs into one or a few public facing IPs.
This is how most internet providers are able to offer access to household computers. The provider itself has a small range of IPs it acquires from a backbone operator, and these IPs are distributed to its customers. One small internet provider IP can serve thousands of non-routable private IPs.
The issue with NAT is it must limit what kind of traffic can reach the ISP customers' computers.
Imagine if there were no filtering, everyone's files and insecure configurations would be open to the world. This has, in fact, already been exploited by hackers before. For example, when worldwide printers started spitting out funny drawings, because hackers had found thousands of open and shared printers on unfiltered networks!
So NAT is there to help us. But there's a catch.
NAT is terrible for P2P networks.
P2P networks should be as symmetric as possible, meaning that when a node downloads at 2 Megabytes/s, it should also upload at 2 MB/s. When this does not happen, the uploaders quickly run out of bandwidth and the P2P network slows down.
Most Ethereum full nodes sit behind heavily filtered NAT firewalls and there is very little the core devs can do about this.
Finally, there's the new fast syncing algorithm.
We won't go into the details of how this works, but what you must know is that this algorithm requires the full chain structure to be downloaded before each block can be committed to the local blockchain database.
As we've mentioned, some blocks are gigantic and take days to fully download the whole chain structure. While this chain structure does not finish downloading, the block count sits frozen. Users often report this as a bug or as "frozen wallets", but the fact is if you look at the underlying geth logs you'll see that it is downloading the chain structure for the block in the background.
This, combined with the NAT-filtered network and difficulty to find peers, can make the syncing very slow.
So, what can you do about these known issues? While there is no definitive recipe, here are a few tips to help you speed up your full Ethereum node sync.
Keep in mind that you can use Ethereum without having to download the entire blockchain to your computer.
Online wallets such as MyEtherWallet offer full functionality without requiring a full node.
The tradeoff to using a thin wallet is some loss of trust : you must trust that the chain contained in the node to which it is connected will be the official Ethereum network blockchain.
Otherwise this trusted node could temporarily route your transactions elsewhere or even broadcast invalid TX's.
No such case has been reported for MyEtherWallet that I know of.
We never know when a network may be compromised, so keep in mind that the only secure and legitimately decentralized way to use any cryptocurrency, including Ethereum, is to run a full node that is 100% in sync.
We hope this clears up some questions about the slow Ethereum sync!
In theory, you don't need very powerful hardware to run an Ethereum node. Since it's mostly a network and IO-bound process, you'll need good Internet connectivity and fast hard drives with at least a couple of Terabytes free space.
Hard disk: At least 2 TB. The Ethereum blockchain is huge and growing fast.
Memory: 1 GB is enough
CPU: Any modern CPU with at least 32 bits is OK. Even Raspberry Pi can run geth
Internet: Ethereum requires around 400 kb/s average in/out transfer rate 24×7. If you use your connection for other work, you need at least 10 MB/s for a functional setup. Internet speed is critical for mining.
If you're in a hurry and must send/receive ETH urgently, you can try alternative Ethereum wallets and node implementations.
For instance, OpenEthereum (formerly Parity Ethereum) has been gaining popularity recently.
You may also run web-based light wallets which do not require the blockchain to be downloaded at all. MyEtherWallet is a popular choice in this category, but there are others.
Find an Ethereum wallet that's right for your need
Getting Deep Into Geth: Why Syncing Ethereum Node Is Slow
Geth 1.4.18 syncing is very slow #3207
Ethereum wallet/Geth incredibly slow to sync, help?


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M4 Relief Road Inquiry
The below article, written by Leon Fear, was printed in the South Wales Argus Newspaper on 24th February 2017 as part of a feature about the M4 relief road inquiry.
Accessibility and communications are two key areas which help enable business growth wherever you are in the world.
Despite all the concerns around the proposed M4 relief road I, and our organisation Fear Group, support the plan in principal of a relief road to ease congestion and help improve the economy of Newport and the wider region. With the welcome reduction in the bridge tolls not far away, and the increase in traffic flow between England and Wales generally, the strain on the M4 around Newport is going to become more profound.
We need a mix of transport solutions and creating a well planned relief road is vitally important but in my opinion it must not 'bypass' Newport or dissect it in order for it to be a success for the city, its residents and businesses, as well as the wider region.
Since 1991 the concept has caused huge controversy ranging from concerned businesses and residents in the City of Newport, and environmental groups worried about the effects on wildlife on the Gwent Levels in particular, all of which are valid and must be considered fully and in detail before irreversible decisions are made.
Metro Bus and any increase in the use of the mainline railway is good news in my view, but it is only part of the equation and alone will not provide the solution. The pressure is building up daily and without a relief road ultimately the city itself and wider area will suffer, as businesses need people and people need to be able to get to work. Without business and free enterprise being able to conduct itself without being held back by accessibility issues, the ultimate affect is less productivity which results in fewer jobs and growth.
As Economy Secretary for Wales, Ken Skates AM, has said there is a need, regardless of commuters using alternative methods of transport, to address increased traffic volumes and over capacity on the M4 around Newport and the Brynglas Tunnels. Unfortunately alternative methods only scratch the surface when you consider there are around 100,000 vehicles using the M4 around Newport every day. The reality in my opinion is that all infrastructure, including the mainline railway network need further investment.
The cost of the proposals for the relief road have been widely scrutinised and in general borrowing at the levels indicated when national debt is at all time high isn't good news, however infrastructure spending is a crucially important catalyst to future investment.
For too long infrastructure has taken a back seat in many areas of the UK. It's well know to people driving between Bristol and Cardiff for example that queues of up to 10 and 20 miles around the tunnels are common. This congestion is not good for the economy, jobs, growth, or the environment with thousands of vehicles engines running and often going nowhere.
It is perhaps worth bearing in mind that less than 7% of the entire UK is built on in any form whatsoever, that includes all housing, schools, shops, and infrastructure. Building a few more well thought out roads in certain areas is crucial to the economic activity we need. Improved links between England and Wales are hugely important in the long term to sustain economic growth.


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I'm experiencing sporadic audio problems with a handful of HD channels. Most noticably on HBO.
When the audio is output through the television itself, it sounds OK... however if the audio is output through my home theater receiver and speakers, I can hear a lot of static and "crackling" on certain movies and shows.
The issue isn't the home theater setup, as I have several other components that use it (AppleTV, Bluray, Xbox, etc.) and the audio sounds perfect from them.
The only device that displays that poor audio is the FiOS Set Top Box and even then it's only on a few channels.
I thought maybe that the optical audio cable between the set top box and the receiver may have been bad, so I replaced that. Same problem even with the new cable.
The problem is either with the Set Top Box itself or the audio levels on the stream from the channel provider.
Has anyone experienced anything similar to this, and if so... did you resolve it somehow?
Any help you could provide would be most appreciated.


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Help your students understand push and pull factors and their impact on Australian migration.
Australia has a rich history of migration. The Australian Curriculum requires Year 6 students to compare the Push and Pull Factors that have caused people to move to Australia (ACHASSK136). This resource is designed specifically for that purpose.
Activities in this resource pack:
- Define what Push and Pull Factors are, in students' own words, on the luggage labels. Watch Justin Howard's Youtube video called Human Migration: Push and Pull Factors. Generate discussion to allow students to develop their understanding of the four categories of Push and Pull Factors (Social, Political, Economic and Environmental).
- Help students to sort short scenarios into Push or Pull factors. Explain which of the four categories they relate to. Then help them cut out these scenarios and put them in the pockets created by cutting, folding and glueing the suitcase pockets into their book. Each pocket should have four scenarios in it.
- Finally, record examples of push and pull factors in each category. Explore further through newspaper or internet research to find primary or secondary sources for examples of situations that may lead to Australian migration. Record their information source. This could also be used as a mini project requiring students to print or cut out their news story. Then help them to present their own understanding, either on a poster or in an oral presentation.
Click here to download a preview of this product.
This resource has been designed to cover the following Australian Curriculum Content Descriptors:
Stories of groups of people who migrated to Australia since Federation (including from ONE country of the Asia region) and reasons they migrated (ACHASSK136)
Examine primary and secondary sources to determine their origin and purpose (ACHASSI126)
Examine different viewpoints on actions, events, issues and phenomena in the past and present (ACHASSI127)


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Internal anti-proratory plug assembly and process of installing the same
A truncated unitary plastic cone shaped plug is provided with a tie line, the ends of which protrude from the minor base of the plug and are tied together around the deltoid ligament after insertion of the plug into the sinus tarsus or opening of the subtalar joint of a person in a subtalar arthroereisis operation to correct pes plano valgus.
This invention relates to an internal anti-proratory plug assembly and to a process of installing the same in a person to correct pes plano valgus.
BACKGROUNDIn the past, it has been common practice to insert a plug of some type into the sinus tarsus or below the subtalar joint at the ankle of a person so as to attempt to correct or modify the angle between the leg and foot of a person.
LaLievre J. in Current Concepts and Correction in the Valgus Foot, p. 43, Clinical Orthopedics 70, 1970, in 1970, reported his findings on 80 cases, including children from 3-6 years old in which the heel was held vertical with a staple across the subtalar joint. In the adults a homogenous bone graft was driven into the tarsal sinus but was not fixated in order to maintain foot flexibility. In this study the youngest patient was 2 and the oldest was 96. He stated that pain on ambulation was abolished in all the patients studied with excellent results in 73 of the 80 cases, during the 11 year period. The remaining 7 patients had esthetically poor results due primarily to cosmesis.
Subotnick, S. in The Subtalar Joint Lateral Extra Articular Arthoereisis, p.3, J.A.P.A. 67, 1977, in 1976, reported on 14 children from 11/2 to 17 years old in which the procedure was performed, nine of which were bilateral. Two cases were in combination with a Kidner type procedure, and two others were unilateral subtalar arthroereisis with a Kidner-Young performed on the contra-lateral foot. He stated the procedure had little morbity and the average calcaneal valgus angle changed from 18.degree. to 6.degree. postoperatively with a 3 year followup.
Lanham, R. in Indications and Compications of Arthroereisis in Hypermobile Flat Foot, p.3, J.A.P.A. 69, 1979, reported randomly sampling 11 of 51 cases of varying ages that were assessed radiographically. Four radiographic measurements were taken from the dorsal-plantar and lateral x-rays of the foot. These measurements were talar declination angle, talocalcaneal (Kites angle), lateral talocalcaneal angle, and calcaneal inclination angle. Postoperatively he reported that in 15 of 22 (68%) the talar declination angle and the lateral talocalcaneal angle decreased. Also, in 13 of 22 feet (59%) Kites angle decreased postoperatively. These researchers were apparently encouraged with these results in light of the relative simplicity of the procedure.
Additional prior art includes DiGiovanni, J. E. and Smith, S. D.: Normal Biomechanics of the Adult Rearfoot, p. 11, J.A.P.A. 66, 1976; Root, M. L., Weed, J. H., Orien, W. P.: Biomechanical Examination of the Foot, Clinical Biomechanic Corporation, Los Angeles, California, 1971; Root, M. L., Orien, W. P., Weed, J. H.: Normal and Abnormal Functions of the Foot, Clinical Biomechanics Corporation, Los Angeles, California, 1977; Grice, D. S.: An Extra-Articular Arthrodesis of the Subastragular Joint for Correction of Paralytic Flat Feet in Children, p. 927, J. Bone Joint Surgery 34-A, 1952; Grice, D. S.: The Role of Subtalar Fusion and the Treatment of Valgus Deformities of Feet, p. 127, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery 16, 1959.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONBriefly described, the apparatus of the present invention includes a truncated, unitary, plastic, cone shaped plug provided with a pair of outwardly protruding tie lines or sutures which extend from the minor base of the plug. The plug is inserted into the sinus tarsus or opening in the subtalar joint in a subtalar arthroereisis operation to correct the pes plano valgus in a primate, namely a person. The operation is usually to be performed on younger persons from 18 months old to 14 years old and preferrably 4 years old.
In the operation, a plug of an appropriate size is provided by having several different sizes of plugs available and after exposing the sinus tarsus, by trial and error determining the proper plug to be employed which limits calcaneal eversion to 0.degree.. A line having its central bight embedded in the plug provides a pair of ends which are threaded through the sinus tarsus and passed outwardly and around the deltoid ligament. The two ends of the line are then tied outwardly of the ligament so as to yieldably hold the plug in place in the sinus tarsus.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an internal anti-proratory plug assembly which is readily and easily installed in the sinus tarsus and will not readily be dislodged therefrom with continued use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process by which flat foot can be corrected in a person.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSFIG. 1 is a perspective skeletal view of a persons foot having installed therein the anti-proratory plug assembly of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the skeletal foot depicted in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of one of the plug assemblies constructed in accordance with the present invention; and
FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are views of additional but different size plug assemblies also constructed in accordance with the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTSReferring now in detail to the drawings, in FIG. 1 and 2, the skeletal foot of a person is denoted generally by the numeral 10. It will be recognized that the foot 10 has fourteen phalanges or toe bones 11 connected to the metatarsus bones 12. There are also seven tarsal bones, of which the talus 14 supports the leg bone (not shown) and the calcaneus or heel bone 15 are the largest and are adjacent to each other. The other tarsal bones include the navicular 20, three cuneiforms 17, 18 and 19 and the cuboid 16 between the metatarsals bones 12 and the navicular 20.
According to the present invention, I prepare a truncated cone shaped, unitary, semi-rigid, plastic (silicon) plug 25 which has the frusto-conical shape of a cork bottle stopper, the plug 25 being produced in various sizes to be received in the various sizes of the sinus tarsus or subtalar opening 26, in FIG. 1, between the talus 14 and the calcaneus 15.
In FIGS. 3, 4, 5 and 6 the various size plugs, which can be employed as the plug 25 above, are depicted in more detail, these plugs being designated respectively by the numerals 25a in FIG. 3, 25b in FIG. 4, 25c in FIG. 5 and 25d in FIG. 6. Plugs 25a, 25b, 25c and 25d are symetrical about their respective longitudinal axes 27a, 27b, 27c and 27d. At the outer ends of the plugs 25, 25a, 25b, 25c and 25d, there are respectively flat, radially extending, major, circular bases 27, 27a, 27b, 27c and 27d and at their other or inner ends there are respectively, flat, radially extending, minor, circular bases 28, 28a, 28b, 28c and 28d. The conical side walls 29, 29a, 29b, 29c and 29d taper uniformly respectively from the perpheries of bases 27, 27a, 27b, 27c and 27d to the peripheries of bases 28, 28a, 28b, 28c and 28d.
Each of the side walls 29, 29a, 29b, 29c and 29d has a taper at an angle a with respect to its longitudinal axis, such as axis 27a, 27b, 27c or 27d, as the case may be. The respective dimensions of each of the preferred plugs 25a, 25b, 25c and 25d are found in Table I.
TABLE I ______________________________________ DIAMETER DIAMETER OF LARGE OF SMALL ANGLE PLUG LENGTH BASE BASE a ______________________________________ 25a 2.00 cm 27a 1.5 cm 28a 1.0 cm 7.degree. 25b 1.75 cm 27b 1 25 cm 28b .75 cm 8.degree. 25c 1.5 cm 27c 1.0 cm 28c .5 cm 9.degree. 20' 25d 1.25 cm 27d .75 cm 28d .25 cm 11.degree. 10' ______________________________________
Embedded respectively in the plugs 25, 25a, 25b, 25c and 25d adjacent to their associated major bases 27a, 27b, 27c and 27d are the bights, such as bights 31a 31b, 31c and 31d, at the mid portions of the flexible securing lines or sutures 30, 30a, 30b, 30c and 30d. The end portions of these lines 30, 30a, 30b, 30c and 30d pass from the bights, such as bights 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d, axially through a major portion of each associated plug and then outwardly through the central portion of respective minor bases 28, 28a, 28b, 28c and 28d to provide the ends 32, 32a, 32b, 32c and 32d.
The lines 30, 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d are preferrably 2-0 sutures, known in the market as TEVDEK, a product of Dek natel Green Braided Tevdek II, Queens Village, New York, 11329 and the plugs 30, 30a, 30b, 30c and 30d are preferrably formed of silicon, known in the market as SILASTIC, a product of Dow Corning Corporation, Medical Products Division, Midland, Michigan 48640.
The procedure of installing a plug, such as plug 30, 30a, 30b, 30c and 30d is similar to that described by Lanham with some significant modifications. General anesthesia is employed on all cases and local hemostasis is obtained utilizing a local anesthetic containing epinephrine.
A linear incision is made over the sinus tarsi after having carefully palpated the central dell. The incision follows the skin lines and runs from the dorsal intermediate cutaneous nerve to the peroneal tendons. The incision is carried through the subcutaneous tissue which requires cutting and ligating several vessels.
The inferior extensor retinaculum is then encountered and transected parallel with the skin incision and the borders of the tarsal sinus are then palpated bluntly. The capsule is then incised and retracted and the fat plug is removed. The posterior facet is always readily visible and the floor and the ceiling of the tarsal sinus are of relatively soft bone. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that a small Metsenbaum scissors be used rather than a scalpel for dissection of the fat plug. This mitigates the insult on the articular cartilage and friable bone.
Once the fat plug is removed the scissors are inserted horizontally into the sinus tarsi and moved medially and anteriorly, transecting the talo-calcaneo ligament. This procedure is extremely important because once the ligament is cut one can immediately detect an increase in supination of the calcaneus 15.
Prior to initiating surgery, plugs 30a, 30b, 30c and 30d of each size should be available. The exact size is selected by trial placement of plugs in the sinus tarsus until the proper size plug is selected which will limit calcaneal eversion to 0.degree.. A portion of the major base of a plug can be removed, if desired. The plug selected has a transverse dimension which enables the plug to be lodged in the sinus tarsus but not pass therethrough.
Before inserting the selected plug, Keith needles may be provided on the ends of the lines or sutures 32, 32a, 32b, 32c or 32d. These needles should then be carefully passed through the sinus tarsus 26 utilizing only digital pressure. If such an instrument is used to insert the needles it is possible to actually pass the needles through the cartilagenous bone. This should not be done.
The medial exit should lie as cephalad as possible, and if meticulously done the line ends such as ends 32 can be consistantly passed above the posterior tibial tendon 36 in FIG. 2. After one needle has been passed, the other Keith needle is passed parallel to the first, with the line end 32 exiting approximately 2-3 mm. from the first to insure that a portion of the deltoid ligament is incorporated. Care should be taken in not criss-crossing the ends 32 as they are passed through the sinus tarsi and then are tied, as this will result in imporper seating of the implant plug 30.
A skin incision between the two needles allows the knot 37 to be tied over i.e., on the outer side of the deltoid ligament 36 with the foot 10 held in the supinated position. Prior to cutting the line 32 the foot 10 is promated to check once again for stability and seating of the implant plug 30 as well as correction of the table. (One cannot overemphasize the care in avoiding the neurovascular bundle in the medial aspect of the foot.) The sutures or lines 32 medialy are then cut and the capsule is closed utilizing preferrably 3-0 DEXON and the subcutaneous tissue closed utilizing preferrably 4-0 DEXON. The skin is sutured utilizing 5-0 stainless steel wire in a subcuticular suture.
Short casts (not shown) are applied to the leg of the patient while the patient is under general anesthesia and while the foot 10 is held in the neutral position and the malleoli are cupped to reduce slipping of the casts. Follow up:
The short leg cast is left in place for two weeks without placing any activity restrictions on the patient. Casting may not be absolutely necessary, but I believe that immobilization of and protecting the foot from external trauma for the initial stages of wound healing outweighted the disadvantages of casting. Since tendo achilles lengthenings, gastrocnemius recessions, etc., have been used in conjunction with this procedure, the cast is to be left in place for the appropriate amount of time required by the additional procedures. When the cast is removed the foot is to be redressed and the wire suture removed.
Subjective results have shown 94% of the patients reported a 50% or better improvement in their flat foot. Objective findings revealed substantial reduction in both the talocalcaneo angle (Kite's angle), and declination angle of the talus. The two most significant changes in the procedure of the present invention, as compared to other procedures include preshaping and sizing the implant plug 30 for selection of an appropriate size by insertion in the tarsal sinus and assuring that implant will remain in place by providing a securing means connected over the deltoid ligament namely the non-absorbable sutures or lines 32. This effectively eliminated the problem of the implant extruding from the tarsal sinus 26.
1. A process of correcting pes plano valgus comprising the steps of preparing a prosthesis by producing a unitary biocompatible plastic plug having a major base, a minor base and a tapered conical sidewall, tapering from said major base to said minor base and securing flexible lines to said plug so that the lines extend from said minor base, exposing the sinus tarsus of a persons's foot, inserting the lines and said plug, minor base first into the subtalar opening between the talus and calcaneous bones of said foot so that said plug is disposed within the sinus tarsus of said foot, continuing the insertion of said lines through said subtalar so that said lines pass above the posterior tendon and thence around opposite portions of the deltoid ligament, adjacent to said sinus tarsus and thereafter tying the end portions of said lines together, sufficiently close to said deltoid ligament that the lines restrain said plug within said sinus tarsus and prevent said plug from being forced outwardly therefrom, said plug being sufficiently large that it does not pass through the sinus tarsus but is wedged therein.
2. The process difined in claim 1 wherein said plug is selected from a group of different sized plugs selectively inserted into said sinus tarsus, said plug being sufficient in transverse dimension that is does not pass through said sinus tarsus.
3. The process defined in claim 1 including producing a plurality of plugs of different sizes, providing each of said plugs with a line embedded by an intermediate portion into said plug, the line having ends which protrude from the minor base of said plug, inserting selectively said plug into said sinus tarsus so as to determine which of said plugs will fit therein and, prior to the time that the line of the selected plug is passed around the deltoid ligament.
Type: Grant
Filed: Dec 10, 1981
Date of Patent: May 29, 1984
Inventor: Mark J. Rappaport (Atlanta, GA)
Primary Examiner: Richard J. Apley
Assistant Examiner: David J. Isabella
Law Firm: Newton, Hopkins & Ormsby
Application Number: 6/329,186
International Classification: A61F 100;


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Black Mountain: An Interdisciplinary Experiment 1933–1957
Founded in North Carolina in 1933, Black Mountain College ranks alongside the Bauhaus as one of the most innovative schools of the 20th century. Inspired by the forward-thinking pedagogical ideas of philosopher John Dewey, the experimental, interdisciplinary college combined the ideas of radical European modernism with the philosophy of American pragmatism and teaching methods designed to encourage personal initiative as well as the social competence of the individual. Visual arts, economics, physics, dance, architecture and music were all taught on an equal footing, and teachers and students lived together in a democratically organized community. The second director of the school was Josef Albers, and John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, Franz Kline and Charles Olson were among its teachers. As a result, the college played a foundational role in the development of a range of avant-garde practices, and exerted an enormous influence on the development of the arts in the second half of the 20th century. Briefly out of print and quickly becoming a sought-after book, this gloriously designed and illustrated volume was first published for the exhibition An Interdisciplinary Experiment, 1933–1957, held at the Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. It remains unrivaled for its sympathetic design and fulsome documentation. A profusion of archival materials is presented alongside contemporary essays. Happily back in print, Black Mountain: An Interdisciplinary Experiment 1933–1957 traces the key moments in the history of this legendary school.
- Spector Books
- Language English
- Release2019
- Pages463
- Format18.5 x 24.5 cm


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For immediate Release
MERGE for Equality To Join With the North America MenEngage Network
Two gender equality organizations with the specific focus on masculinities and engaging men and boys are joining forces, leaders of MERGE for Equality and the North American MenEngage Network recently announced. MERGE for Equality, a Massachusetts nonprofit noted for its innovative training promoting the emotional and social development of boys, is set to become a program of the North American MenEngage Network (NAMEN), a U.S.-Canadian network of educators, advocates and activists, and regional member of the Global MenEngage Alliance.
"We are delighted for MERGE to become a program offered through NAMEN," said Shane Joseph, Co-Chair of NAMEN's Steering Committee. "Its core program—training early childhood educators about issues related to boys' socialization—is completely in line with our mission - working with men and boys to achieve gender equality, end violence, and promote health for men, women and children." James Arana, MERGE Senior Consultant, concurs, "When boys are equipped with the tools to cultivate their emotional intelligence, they thrive personally, socially and academically, and grow to become caring, engaged and accountable men."
With the program now becoming a part of NAMEN, MERGE founder John Engel is stepping down as executive director. "I can't think of a more fitting organization for MERGE to join than the North American MenEngage Network," Engel said. "It has the expertise, commitment and focus to direct not just our early childhood initiative but also our children's book campaign that promotes positive images of emotionally sensitive boys," Engel said.
"In addition to beneficial program impacts, joining the two organizations brings administrative and financial benefits," said Craig Norberg-Bohm, NAMEN's Administrative Coordinator. "NAMEN becomes a tax exempt nonprofit corporation and can now formally apply for funding to build its operational and programmatic capacity. Sharing administrative tasks will enable all of us to maximize resources available to focus on the shared mission - gender equality."
As a program of NAMEN, MERGE's early childhood initiative will continue without significant change, according to Steven Botkin, Co-Chair of NAMEN's Steering Committee and MERGE Senior Consultant. "MERGE itself carries the legacies of the Men's Resource Center of Western Massachusetts and Men's Resources International," Botkin said. "Joining MERGE and NAMEN together is the perfect next chapter in our evolution."
For more information, contact Craig Norberg-Bohm, MERGE Administrative Coordinator MERGE for email@example.com
Shane Joseph, NAMEN Co-Chair Steven Botkin, NAMEN Co-Chair Contact Form


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Mark Webber: "We did learn a little today – but after nine weeks of anxious waiting it was a shame with the weather. Mother Nature played a big role and it made it quite challenging for everyone. We got some dry running at the end of each session, which was good. The track was drying out reasonably quickly, but there were still a few sections at the end that were damp. In the end we got what we could out of it, but we still have some work to do. It was compromised running for everyone; I'm looking forward to coming back tomorrow."
Sebastian Vettel: "I think obviously with the conditions it's difficult to get a lot of running, but it was the same for all of us. The little time we had in the car this afternoon was okay, but now we have to find the balance and learn a bit more about the car. The important thing now is to make a step overnight and go from there. Track time is important when the car is still young."


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Hi, my name is Dana Biviano and I'm the owner of Artful Biv, a hand lettering event signage company. I have a passion for helping people enhance their occasion through special, one of a kind custom pieces of artwork. Ever since I was a little girl I've always loved painting, drawing and anything to do with art. It's always been a creative outlet for me and It's a big part of who I am as a person. I have an educational background in studio art, fashion design, and graphic design and I love to use these skills to connect to people and make an impact on their wedding day. Some services I provide are- creating custom hand lettered signage including acrylic, mirror, and wooden signs, card boxes, place cards, table numbers, seating charts, bridal dress paintings, pet portrait signs, signature cocktail signs, welcome/gift bags, etc. I create this all by hand using my own style of hand lettering/ calligraphy.
Artful Biv
The Wedding Industry
Growing up, I've always worked in customer service/ restaurants and would always do artistic jobs for friends on the side. I've always loved weddings and would buy all the magazines to look through even though I wasn't even in a relationship or engaged yet! Even though I loved everything about weddings I always thought it wasn't realistic for me to be able to work in that industry and have that be my full time job. It wasn't until about 3 years ago that I decided to take the risk and started to work for a wedding planner in Huntington. I loved the creative part of the planning process but to be honest I was not great at the actual planning part! Despite this, I found my passion in making the custom signage and decor for the weddings that were booked and realized that this was the path I wanted to move forward with. From there, I met Heather and she hired me as her signage artist for Wedding warehouse and ever since then I've felt so lucky to be able to be a part of this industry and to actually love what I do for a living.
The Wedding Memories
My most favorite wedding memory from working in the industry would have to be my time working at Wedding warehouse. I felt like I got to connect with so many people and got to help brides with their unique vision and have that vision come to life with their custom signs and how much it meant to them. One signage order that stands out in my memory of my time there was for a bride who wanted a signature cocktail "Margaritaville" sign. She wanted the sign to be a bar sign, but also a memorial to her late father that had passed. Her reaction upon picking it up really affected me emotionally and I was grateful to have that experience.
I mostly specialize in custom signature cocktail signs, pet portrait drink signs, as well as bridal dress paintings!
Personal Hobbies
When I'm not drawing or painting, I'm usually hanging with my family and fiance, scrolling through pinterest for way too long, watching movies/tv shows (mostly netflix and Bravo), listening to good music/podcasts (especially the BOLI podcast!), reading, also love vacations when it's not a pandemic
Additional Info
If you would like to see my past work, please check out my instagram (@artful_biv) as well as my etsy shop (www.etsy.com/shop/artfulbiv)
If you have any questions or would love to work together, please don't hesitate to reach out via email, text, or DMs :)


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Injustices and Miscarriages of Justice Experienced by Indigenous Women
SPEAKER: Senator Kim Pate, Independent Senator for Ontario, Territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg
Three senators are calling for the exoneration of twelve Indigenous women they say endured significant injustices in their interactions with the criminal justice system in a report issued May 16, 2022. The report identifies a number of problematic cases. The lawmakers said the findings in the report are "alarming" and reveal a pattern of systemic racism, misogyny, and abuses of mandatory minimums penalties. Join us as we discuss the report with Senator Kim Pate, which builds a case for a group conviction review and exoneration by the Department of Justice, and calls for the repeal of all mandatory minimums penalties.
You can read the article about the report at: Indigenous women disproportionately experience miscarriages of justice, report says – The Lawyer's Daily (thelawyersdaily.ca) and find the report here: en_full report_injustices and miscarriages of justice experienced by 12 indigenous women_may 16, 202.pdf.
Please RSVP (PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED) to the Manitoba Bar Association online at www.cbapd.org.
If you are having troubles, please email firstname.lastname@example.com.
At approximately 9:30am on Friday, June 24, 2022 an email will be sent from the MBA advising you of the link that you will click on to join the Zoom video conference meeting. So it will be important to register before 5:00pm on Thursday, June 23, 2022.
Attendance at this MBA Section meeting can be applied towards your Law Society of Manitoba's Continuing Professional Development requirement for a maximum of 1.5 hours.
Wendy Martin White
Co-Chair, MBA Criminal Justice Section
Martin White & Associates
Ph: 204-415-9995
Bryton Moen
Co-Chair, MBA Criminal Justice Section


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Case Study: Flying Diamond Ranch
By guest contributor Kevin Alexander Watt, TomKat Ranch. This year, TomKat Ranch began a project to gather and share the stories of ranchers around the country seeing economic benefits from regenerative
Information Access for Rangeland Permits and Management
Many WLA members and landowners throughout the West have grazing leases on Federal lands. There is a great deal of available information regarding these leases and management of your leases—but


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Suivez le Lab de Seville en live!
11-13 Novembre
Le Lab de Séville sera disponible en live-stream pendant les 3 jours de l'événement, afin de permettre à tous les exploitants et professionnels européens non présents de suivre les sessions principales et les études de cas.
(Cette actualité n'est disponible qu'en anglais)
Seville Lab will take place from Thursday 11th to Saturday 13th November. Open to all European exhibitors and entitled "RE-ENERGISING CINEMA-GOING THROUGH COLLABORATION" this Lab will welcome 35 exhibitors from 17 different countries. A joint effort with Europa International will allow, for the first time, 5 sales agents from Charades, Coproduction Office, The Party Film Sales, Wild Bunch International and Les Films du Losange to actively participate to the whole Lab.
Led by Madeleine Probst (Programme Producer, Watershed, UK & Europa Cinemas Vice-President) and Frank Groot (Programmer, Financial Director, Kino Rotterdam, Netherlands) this Lab will focus on exploring the potential of cinemas as vital connectors in their local communities and beyond from local partnerships to international and multipartner collaborations.
Exhibitors and sales agents will have the opportunity to get a sense of perspective of the actual context and share strategies around market positioning, data driven approaches, partnership-working, programming and eventisation (in-venue and online) as well as balancing income generation with sustainable, accessible and ethical practices to create value and navigate the current operating environment.
Timetable for the live sessions:
Thursday, November 11
Facilitated by Madeleine Probst & Frank Groot
9:30 - 10:15am Overview: Where Do We Come From?
Presentations by Madeleine Probst and Frank Groot
11:15 - 12:00pm Market (Re)positioning & (Re)branding
Facilitated by Frank Groot
Curation and the Importance of Feeling Together by Javier Pachón (Cineciutat, Spain)
Displaced – A Cinema in Transition by Rianne Brouwers (Filmtheater 't Hoogt, Netherlands)
Promoting a Film in a Competitive Market by Tess Massé (Les Films du Losange, France)
Facilitated by Madeleine Probst
2:00 - 2:45pm Case studies
Public Living Room by Nina Milošič (Mestni Kino Ptuj, Slovenia)
Film Studies and Collaborations by Rose Butler (Showroom, United Kingdom)
Time to meet. It's Film O'Clock by Mirona Radu (Peasant Museum Cinema, Romania)
3:30 - 4:30pm Collaborate to Innovate: How to Set Up a Multi-Partner Collaboration?
Facilitated by Frank Groot
Introduction by the Europa Cinemas team
Arthouse Cinema Pass by Frédéric Cornet (Cinéma Galeries, Belgium) – Zoom session
Interrail through Europa Cinemas by Barbara Fernández (Golem, Spain)
Friday, November 12
9:30 - 11:00am Joint Session with Europa International: Panel and Open Discussion
Moderated by Madeleine Probst
Katarzyna Siniarska - New Europe Film Sales, Poland
Cristina Mota - Cinema Trindade / Nitrato Films, Portugal
Ramiro Ledo - Cinema Duplex / Atalante, Spain
Frédéric Corvez - Urban Distribution International, France
11:15 - 12:15pm Data driven Approaches to Acquisitions and Audience Development
The Perspective of Sales Agents by Coline Bouret (The Party Film Sales, France)
Data for Audience Development by Marvin Wiechert (Yorck Kino, Germany) – Zoom session
Cineville Netherlands by Frank Groot
Facilitated by Madeleine Probst
2:30 - 3:15pm Building Your Offer around Your Community
Keep Building Your Club! by Simon Blaas (Cinema Middelburg, Netherlands)
My Film Story/Film Club 54+ by Slododanka Mišković (Art-Kino, Croatia)
An LGBTQIA+ Film Festival in Co-creation by Kaat Heynen (Sphinx, Belgium)
4:30pm - 5:30pm SESSION 5: EVENTS & PROGRAMMING: DO IT YOURSELF!
Facilitated by Madeleine Probst
Keeping Films Alive! by Léonie Duflot (Coproduction Office, Germany)
Cinema DIY distribution; premieres and classics by Frank Groot
Saturday, November 13
12:00pm - 1:00pm SESSION 7: SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE STRATEGIES
Facilitated by Madeleine Probst
Cinemarodat: Cinema as Employment Inclusion while Being Green by Javier Pachón (Cineciutat, Spain)
Introducing Accessibility Tools by Zak Ioannidis (Cine Paradisos, Greece) – Zoom session
No Time to Die by Yuliia Antypova (Zhovten, Ukraine)


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Learning to Learn Gradient Aggregation by Gradient Descent
Learning to Learn Gradient Aggregation by Gradient Descent
Jinlong Ji, Xuhui Chen, Qianlong Wang, Lixing Yu, Pan Li
Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Main track. Pages 2614-2620.
In the big data era, distributed machine learning emerges as an important learning paradigm to mine large volumes of data by taking advantage of distributed computing resources. In this work, motivated by learning to learn, we propose a meta-learning approach to coordinate the learning process in the master-slave type of distributed systems. Specifically, we utilize a recurrent neural network (RNN) in the parameter server (the master) to learn to aggregate the gradients from the workers (the slaves). We design a coordinatewise preprocessing and postprocessing method to make the neural network based aggregator more robust. Besides, to address the fault tolerance, especially the Byzantine attack, in distributed machine learning systems, we propose an RNN aggregator with additional loss information (ARNN) to improve the system resilience. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the RNN aggregator, and also show that it can be easily generalized and achieve remarkable performance when transferred to other distributed systems. Moreover, under majoritarian Byzantine attacks, the ARNN aggregator outperforms the Krum, the state-of-art fault tolerance aggregation method, by 43.14%. In addition, our RNN aggregator enables the server to aggregate gradients from variant local models, which significantly improve the scalability of distributed learning.
Machine Learning: Transfer, Adaptation, Multi-task Learning
Machine Learning: Deep Learning