text:
Senior Associate Director, Arts & Humanities
- Recruiter
- University of Cambridge
- Location
- Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
- Salary
- Up to £70,000 for an exceptional candidate
- Posted
- 24 Sep 2018
- Closes
- 24 Oct 2018
- Ref
- 1406
- Function
- Fundraising, Alumni, Major Donor/ Gifts
- Sector
- Education
- Contract Type
- Permanent
Senior Associate Director – Arts & Humanities
University of Cambridge
Grade 10, £54,765 - £63,462 per annum
In exceptional circumstances, it may be possible to offer a supplement to the salary range of up to £70,000 for a 5 year period. Any such supplement would be awarded on the basis of a demonstrable history of exceptional achievement and is entirely at the discretion of the University.
The University of Cambridge seeks an outstanding individual for the position of Senior Associate Director, Arts & Humanities. This is an exceptional opportunity for a senior fundraiser who is interested in funding world class research and teaching in the Arts and Humanities.
The University of Cambridge publicly launched its £2 billion campaign in October of last year; it is the biggest and most ambitious Europe has ever seen. The campaign will enable Cambridge to address some of the biggest issues facing society today, and make a major impact on the world in the 21st century. It will ensure the University's research and teaching stays at the cutting edge by providing world-class infrastructure and attracting great minds to study and work across the University and Colleges, meaning the University can continue to thrive and serve society at large.
The Senior Associate Director for the School of Arts & Humanities will play a leading role in this, European higher education's most momentous campaign. The School of Arts & Humanities is undertaking some of the University's most interesting and varied research, encompassing areas such as the societal impacts of artificial intelligence to Islamic art, film studies, sustainable cities, the philosophy of hate speech, the politics of sport and gender in the classical world.
With responsibility for the design, management and execution of the University's major gifts fundraising strategy for the School, the postholder will be a senior member of the Major Gifts team. S/he will raise significant financial support for the University's fundraising priorities, generating six- and seven-figure gifts from individuals, trusts and foundations, and corporations in the UK and internationally.
The University of Cambridge seeks an exceptional candidate for this position who will possess the following essential knowledge and skills: proven track record in major gift fundraising and/or management of key relationships with the specific donor constituency (internationally based high net worth individuals, corporates or trusts & foundations respectively); a proven track record of securing major gifts/income; demonstrable capacity to analyse, think critically, strategically and to innovate; demonstrable ability to build empathetic relations with high net worth individuals; outstanding negotiation and communication skills, credible across a variety of audiences; culturally sensitive; a strong natural drive to go out into the field; a successful track record of operating at a senior level with multiple stakeholders and an ability to relate effectively to the academic community and its aims.
This role is based in central Cambridge.
Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.
For further information, including details of how to apply, please click the 'Apply' button. You will be redirected to the Execucare website.
Execucare is a recruitment and executive search company working in the not-for-profit sector.


text: During the 3rd International Meeting of Human Rights Education Experts organised by CIFEDHOP in 2007, the first president of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Luis Alfonso de Alba, gave a presentation on the origins of the UPR. The idea of a UPR was proposed by the Canadian delegation. This idea was in turn supported by Switzerland, however, Mexico was opposed since the Canadian proposal was limited to a mere review process lasting approximately one hour. With little substance, the proposal never received any backing from the UN headquarters in New York. In addition, other countries were opposed to the actual idea of a UPR to the extent that the project was nearly abandoned all together. Thanks to the efforts of the Latin American nations, it remained on the agenda. According to Mr. de Alba, this was followed up by abandoning the Canadian proposal of informal discussions in order to attain something more binding and permanent. The ensuing resolution on the UPR is a step in this direction, a review that would be universal and held on a regular basis.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Sunshine Coast Ukulele Festival is gearing up for its fifth annual gathering at Kennilworth.
Titled The Ukulele Fiesta it will be just that, a colourful fabulous event that brings artists from all over the world and all around Australia.
There will be heaps of great workshops to suit all standards of players, workshops on singing and harmonising, as well as learning to dance the Samba, and a drumming workshop.
Add the event into your Noosa holiday at Munna Beach, for a little taste of some musical fun, Noosa style.


text:
Here is my sermon from Sunday. The passages were 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 and Mark 1:21-28:
weeks ago as I was looking at the upcoming scripture readings, I was a little
surprised to see today's gospel passage; because I'll be honest and say that I
didn't remember this story. I certainly
remember different times in which Jesus cast a demon outside of someone,
although we shouldn't think of this like the exorcist, this is not Linda Blair
with her head spinning around, but I didn't remember Jesus ever casting out a
demon in a synagogue. There is a
duplicate of this story in the gospel of Luke, but as far as I can tell in my
research this is the only time in the gospels that something like this happens
within the walls of the synagogue, or for our purposes within the walls of the
church. And, I think there is something
significant about this because it means that there is evil even inside the
church, or at the very least there are disruptions and behaviors inappropriate
enough that Jesus feels that he needs to call them out, and that is not
something we are really good at addressing or talking about. Some of it is because we are not good at
naming evil, or at least naming it appropriately.
We could probably all agree that Hitler and Stalin were
evil, but then that attribute gets applied to others. It wouldn't take much to find people
comparing President Obama to Hitler or Speaker of the House John Boehner to
Stalin, well maybe not so much for Speaker Boehner. But we've sort of come to believe that if we
disagree with someone that first of all that must make them wrong, and second
it must make them evil. How did we get
to that point? I use those two names
because over the past two weeks I have been called both of those things by
someone who is disgruntled with me, although since I started out as Hitler and
then became Staling I'm not sure if I'm moving up or down the scale of
evilness. But how do we deal with things
like this is the church? How do we deal
with people who disagree with us? How do we deal with things with which we
disagree in the church? Can we name
them? Can we call out wolves in sheep's clothing? And how do we make such decisions and
distinctions? Can we make those distinctions?
And if we do, how do we know that we are right and not just
overreacting? And do we respond to with
hatred and loathing or do we respond to it with love and compassion? What role do individual desires, beliefs and
opinions have in and against those of the community?
Now I'm going to be totally honest and say that I don't
believe in the devil or in demon possession.
It's okay if you do, you don't have to believe everything I believe,
just as I don't have to believe everything you believe, and we'll come back to
that. I certainly know people who do and
have some pretty strange stories to tell that I can't quite explain. But, the reason I don't believe is because I
don't need something to be the personification of evil in order to believe that
there is evil in the world. I think that
we as humans are quite capable of doing some incredibly terrible things to each
other, and even to ourselves, all by ourselves.
We don't need to have anything else to blame it on when we can do these
things just fine by ourselves, there doesn't need to be a scapegoat. One of the things I like about the movie the Lion
King is that although the hyenas are shown as being the bad guys, the really
evil person is scar who is also a lion, that is that the good guys and the bad
guys are of the same type, but a difference in degree. We can be good lions or we can be bad lions, we
can even be Detroit Lions, but I think we also have to be prepared to name the
bad ones, the truly bad ones for what they are, and not call them that just
because we happen to disagree with them.
And that's where Paul and the passage we heard from 1st Corinthians
comes into play, and sort of muddies the waters a little.
The idea of having to argue over whether to eat meat sacrificed
to idols just doesn't really have the same import in 21st century America as it
did in the 1st century. But, Paul
actually writes about this issue for 3 chapters in his letter to the
Corinthians because of what it represents and everything that goes along with
it. So just a little background. There were a constant series of community
celebrations that would be taking place in most major cities, all related to
worship of the various gods and as part of these rights, there would be animal
sacrifices made, remembering that the same thing was taking place at the Temple
in Jerusalem, and then either the meat would have been eaten there as part of
the celebration, sort of like a community Super Bowl party, and/or the meat
would then be taken to the stores and sold to those who could actually afford
to buy meat. So if you were going to be
eating meat in most cities, the great likelihood is that it had first been made
as a sacrifice to some god or another.
Now some in the community are saying that everyone in the
church knows that there is no God but God, and thus there is not any danger in
eating meat that was sacrificed to pagan idols, because those idols don't
exist, and so the sacrifice in which the meat was offered was itself
meaningless. It is crucial to note that
Paul agrees with that argument. He
agrees with those he is about to rebuke, he is on their side, except Paul says,
not everyone understands this point.
There are some who are weak in the faith, we might say immature, or
those who are still children in the faith, who do not have the knowledge or the
maturity to see things the way one group does.
And so to them, eating this meat themselves or seeing other Christians
eating this meat might cause them to slip back into their old habits and patterns
and thus slide away from their recent conversion to Christianity.
So Paul says, while knowledge is important, and he is not
castigating knowledge here, it is not everything and it can lead not only to
the destruction of others but even ourselves because, Paul says, knowledge
puffs up. That is that knowledge, or at
least the belief that we have knowledge, can lead us to believe that we are
better than others, that we know more than others and that we are right and
they are wrong. It causes us to become
braggarts, sort of like those people who talk all the time about how they went
to Harvard and you just want to smack them around. In addition, knowledge can emphasize the
individual over the community, which is really the heart of this matter. Are we going to value the individual over the
group, or are we going to value the group over the individual?
Certainly in American culture we put the individual
first. That's not true in every culture,
and it's not true in some American sub-cultures, but as a whole for us it is
the dominant force. But Paul says that
in the church we are called to something higher, we are called to something
more, we are called to be in community, but not just any community. We are called to become a part of the body of
Christ, that is that our individualism is subsumed in the collective, but not
just the collective of us as a people, but we are subsumed into Christ
himself. Knowledge puffs up, Paul
argues, but love builds up. And this is
not the love we're already seeing spreading around the grocery store in
preparation for Valentine's Day, this is not a feeling or an emotion, this is
about an action, a way of being in the world, a way of being in community. Socrates, or Einstein or perhaps Dick Van
Patten, said that the more you know the more realize how much you don't know. The inverse of that is also true, that the
less you know the more you think you know.
And so Paul is saying that if someone claims to knowledge in
something, don't believe them, but instead, love God, not as a belief, but as
an action, and when we love God we are known by God. Thus the knowledge we should be seeking it
not really personal knowledge, although that is still important, but the most
important knowledge is of the love of God, being known by God, and then acting
on that in the community by building up, not by tearing down, by working
together for the good of the whole, not for the good of the individual, but
supporting the community, not supporting only ourselves and puffing ourselves
up in showing how good, important or knowledgeable we are, of saying or acting
as if we are the only thing that matters, or believing that without us
everything would fall apart, that we are the most important piece of the
puzzle. What Paul says is that every
single puzzle piece is important and the image that the puzzle represents is
not that of us, or someone else in the group, the image on the puzzle is none
other than God.
And yet, although Paul does not make the argument in this
particular passage, being in community, being one in Christ does not mean the
subversion of everything that we are and everything that we believe. That we are still called to be who we are,
but to understand that role within the greater part of the community. That means that we don't all have to believe
the same things. We can think different
things and still get along. We can root
for the Patriots or the Seahawks, you can even root for the Red Sox, and we can
still be in community and in relationship with each other. Indeed if you and I believe and do exactly
the same thing then one of us is superfluous in this relationship. We need differences within the whole in order
to make the whole, we cannot all be corner or side pieces, and we cannot force
the interior pieces to be something they are not. There is strength in diversity as long as we
understand the purpose of community and are willing to disagree without being
disagreeable and to sometimes subsume who we are and what we believe, our knowledge,
for the good of the whole.
And yet, returning back to the gospel passage we also have
to be willing to call a spade a spade and to name disruptive forces in the body
and to be willing to call them out. The
man that is healed by Christ in the synagogue is disrupting the body, he might
not being intending to, and I suspect that we would probably name his demon as
mental illness or something similar, but it is still a disruptive force and it
needs to be dealt with appropriately and effectively. And so Jesus calls him out, or calls the
demon out. But notice what Jesus does
not do. He does not make disparaging
remarks about the man, he doesn't actually call him evil, he in fact in many
ways deals with him with compassion, and I think this is the teaching we might
be amazed about in hearing this story.
We don't all have to get along, we don't all have to believe or think
the same things, in fact I would argue that it's better if we don't, we don't
even have to like everyone that is here, but what we do have to do is to love
one another, not as a mere emotion, but to love one another in action, and that
means being willing to live in community.
That means sometimes things are not going to go our way and
we're metaphorically not going to be able to eat what we want to eat, and
sometimes loving each other means giving up that meat, giving up things we
think are really important for the good of the community. Not at the tyranny of the majority, but as
the body of Christ. To help those who
need help and to bring down those who need to be brought down, and to realize
that we are all in this together. A
flock loses a lot when it loses sheep, but it also needs to recognize that
sometimes sheep might actually be wolves in sheep's clothing who build themselves
up and by doing so tear the body down.
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, Paul says. Let us be amazed at that teaching and live
into that message this year, that we are all in this together, that we are the
body of Christ, that everyone of us is important and that when we live into
love, when we live out that love, that people will want to be a part of this
flock and that then we will truly by known by God. I pray that it will be so my brothers and
sisters. Amen.


text:
Review: Waves/Abbey Road Reel ADT Plug-In
REEL ADT emulates the seminal double-tracking effect first created using two vintage tape machines during Beatles sessions at Abbey Road Studios in the 1960s. For the uninitiated, ADT is shorthand for automatic or artificial double tracking. The lush effect makes a track sound like separate takes of the same part played back simultaneously.
You can readily produce a generic ADT effect using any plug-in that modulates delay, but Reel ADT is different. Reel ADT's deeper sonic complexity comes from emulating two tube-based tape recorders—one using Varispeed control— working in combination to re-create the historical effect. (Waves wouldn't say which tape machines were modeled for the plug-in or whether they were the same ones used by The Beatles.)
An alternative configuration of the plug-in, dubbed ADT 2V, adds a second effect voice with independent modulation controls to double the effect's intensity. Reel ADT can also produce excellent flanging, phasing, and chorus effects. Note to Pro Tools TDM users: Reel ADT is only available in Native formats.
Tape Operator In the display area at the top of Reel ADT's GUI, you'll see a virtual tape head for the wet (ADT) signal. Drag it left or right along a horizontal time axis to voice the signal up to 20ms before or after the plug-in's input signal, respectively. This is the ADT signal's initial time offset with respect to the plug-in's source or dry signal. It's important to realize that the time axis does not represent your DAW's timeline but rather the relative positions of the source and ADT signals before modulation of the latter; a virtual tape head for the source signal stays immutably parked at the 0ms mark along this time axis, and the ADT's tape head similarly stays parked wherever you place it. (A Varispeed tape head constantly moves along the time axis to illustrate the wet signal's modulation; more on that in a moment.)
You use the LFO's controls—Range, Rate and Shape—to automatically modulate the ADT signal by up to 20ms. Available LFO wave-shape selections include sine, triangular, reverse sine, reverse triangular, and random. You can sync the LFO to your DAW and specify how many bars it will take to complete one cycle; of course, sync-to-host mode precludes random LFO action.
Fig. 1. Waves/Abbey Road Reel ADT provides a Varispeed control that lets you change modulation patterns in real time. Left to its own devices, the LFO will modulate the ADT signal's initial offset earlier and later an equal number of milliseconds. By dragging a rotary Varispeed control to the right or left of its noon position, you move the axis around which LFO modulation occurs either earlier (left) or later (right) in time with respect to the ADT tape head's fixed position (see Figure 1). The sonic result is similar to what you'd get by automating the ADT's tape-head position while keeping the LFO's parameter values unchanged.
Set the Varispeed's range between ±1 and ±20ms to determine how far its rotary control can skew the modulation's axis with respect to the ADT's tape head. Choose either Latch or Touch mode to dictate whether the Varispeed control will jump back to 0ms setting when you release it. In the display area, the aforementioned Varispeed tape head moves along the time axis to illustrate the dynamically changing offset of the wet signal with respect to the source signal.
If this sounds confusing, it is—at least on paper. (The cursory and somewhat vague documentation doesn't help.) But once you start using the GUI's controls, you'll pretty quickly grok how the plug-in works. The main thing to remember is that it's the Varispeed tape-head's changing position, and not the ADT tape-head's placement, that denotes the wet signal's time offset to the dry signal from moment to moment.
Why It's Powerful The beauty of the Varispeed control is that it allows you to dynamically change the plug-in's modulation pattern from moment to moment using only one control and, in Touch mode, instantly snap the wet signal back to the LFO's original range. It lets you "play" the modulation in real time, achieving unusually complex variations that convincingly create the illusion of a recording artist tracking their performance twice and with varying degrees of synchronicity.
Once you've got the wet signal's modulation dialed in, adjust the output level, Pan, and Drive (saturation) controls provided separately for the source and ADT signals. (Setting equal output levels produces the most intense effect.) Mute and phase-inversion switches are also provided for each signal path.
Fig. 2. The plug-in's ADT 2V configuration adds another voice, with independent controls, to awesome effect. In stereo configurations, you can select whether the left, right, or both (summed) channels are input. Another switch lets you monitor the stereo plug-in's output in mono to assess how much phasing the processing is introducing—nice! In the plug-in's ADT 2V configuration, separate level, Pan, Drive, Mute, phase-inversion, LFO, and Varispeed controls are provided for the second ADT signal path (see Figure 2).
Like all Waves plug-ins, Reel ADT also includes multiple levels of Undo and Redo, A and B workspaces and preset management tools. I was really happy to discover the Undo function could even reverse a preset recall. And like the dozens of other Waves plug-ins I use, Reel ADT is apparently free of bugs. Few other manufacturers are so conscientious.
How's It Sound? I first tested Reel ADT on female lead vocals, busing the track to a stereo aux channel where the plug-in was instantiated. I dragged the ADT tape head's position to +20ms, or 20ms later than the source. Setting the ranges for both LFO and Varispeed to 10ms, this made the effective modulation range +10 to +30ms when the Varispeed control was parked at 0ms. I liked these initial settings because they precluded the wet signal ever getting too close in time to the dry vocal to cause flanging. I raised the Drive controls for dry and wet signals a bit to add a little velvet. Panning the source and ADT signals to nine and three o'clock, respectively, the sound was lush and wide. But this was just the beginning.
On phrases where I wanted the vocal's double tracking to sound looser, I cranked the Varispeed control fully clockwise (+10ms), instantly changing the modulation range to +20 to +40ms. Because I had the Varispeed control set to Touch mode, I could simply release my mouse at any moment to return to the original modulation range instantly and tighten the effect. I also lowered the ADT signal's output fader a bit during verses to dry up the effect slightly. Whenever the song's chorus began, I option-clicked the fader to snap it to 0 dB and parity with the dry signal, maximizing the effect's intensity and putting an exclamation point on the vocal.
The Drive controls' effect sounded more like tube than tape saturation. It varied in intensity from subtle distortion to overload, responding very dynamically to input level. For best results and to avoid over-the-top distortion and compression from happening occasionally, I automated the Drive controls, riding them lower during the loudest and brightest vocal passages. Other plug-ins provide more euphonious tube emulation, but Reel ADT's is useful when you want to add a little grit.
The plug-in's ADT 2V configuration lent the best fidelity to vocals when one of its ADT voices was earlier and the other later than the dry signal. Otherwise, the signal tended to sound phase-y at times. But if your vocal—or guitar, keys, whatever—needs an outstanding flanging effect, drag the ADT's tape head position to less than 0.5ms offset relative to the source signal. To create phasing, activate the ADT's phase button and plunge its LFO rate. I also created great chorus effects with the ADT 2V plug-in by boosting LFO and Varispeed ranges to the max and hard-panning the two ADT signals away from the center-panned dry output. Boost the Drive controls on electric guitar for extra attitude. Waves offers terrific phasing and flanging presets.
Two Thumbs Way Up I won't mince words—Reel ADT sounds awesome. Whether doubling, flanging, phasing, or chorusing, this plug-in delivers the goods. Reel ADT is going to make a whole lotta mix engineers very happy.
Michael Cooper is a recording, mix, mastering and post-production engineer, a contributing editor for Mix magazine and the owner of Michael Cooper Recording (myspace.com/michaelcooperrecording) in Sisters, Ore.
STRENGTHS Unique. Modulation effects sound terrific. No apparent bugs.
LIMITATIONS Saturation effect adds more distortion than sparkle. Operation manual is vague in key places.
($99 introductory price)


text:
Lady Miners win heated sets
"I am exhausted, I don't know if they are," Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School Volleyball Coach Jackie Jones said after her team beat Wyoming Indian School in five long sets. "Without a doubt, it was a grow-up game for us."
The Lady Miners lost the first set 26-24. HEM redeemed itself in the next set by pulling ahead to win 25-18.
The homecoming crowd was loud with their praise at the end of the second set, but on the third set, the cheers were constant as the score favored the Lady Miners 27-25.
The fourth set was like another team was on the court as the Lady Miners saw the Lady Chiefs pull ahead and not be in any danger of losing the set. The set score: 16-25.
"They whupped us pretty good in that fourth set," Jones said. "I honestly think in that fourth set, the girls were just trying to take that breather, but unfortunately they took it out on court."
Jones said before the fifth set, she told her team, communication and aggressiveness was going to be the key of winning.
The Lady Chiefs seemed to be pulling away at 8-10, then the Lady Miners pulled together and took the fifth set.
"For them to be able to push that fifth set and go point for point and then we were down 8-10 and for them to come back and do what they did, I am thrilled."
The Lady Miners had good rallies in all the sets and the competitive spirit was evident. Amy Campbell had a very good game again to Jones' delight.
"At the net she takes care of business. She gets behind the serving line and she is composed," Jones said. "But Amy will be the first to say, it is team and that is what makes her a very unique player."
Wyoming Indian School is a 2A team and this helps HEM score more conference points, which made it a huge game said Jones.
The Lady Miners will travel to Guernsey to take on the Lady Vikings at 5 p.m. Sept. 28.
HEM beat Guernsey the last time the teams met up, but the Lady Miners had the advantage of being home. Jones knows the Guernsey team will be looking for revenge and having the home court advantage means the Lady Miners will have be ready for a competitive game.
"This week we go to Guernsey and this team has to be aggressive," Jones said. "If we can build on this, good things will happen."


text:
Caramelised sea bass with ground fennel and garlic sauce
- Serves: 4
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Effort: medium
- 4 large aubergines
- salt, and freshly ground pepper
- 12 tbsp olive oil
- 4 sea bass, each 200g, skin on
For the garlic sauce:
- 12 clove garlic, peeled, boiled and drained
- 4 egg whites
- 800 ml vegetable oil
- 4 pinches of ground cumin
For the chilli tomato pesto:
- large bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 200 g toasted almonds
- juice of 4 lemons
- 400 g pecorino cheese, grated
- 4 red chillies, finely chopped
- 4 tomatoes, chopped
- 800 ml olive oil
For the fennel sauce:
- 4 tsp fennel seeds, finely ground
- 4 tsp white sugar
- juice of 4 lemons
- 8 tbsp olive oil
Tips and Suggestions
This recipe contains raw or lightly cooked eggs. Raw or lightly cooked eggs should not be served to young children, elderly people, invalids and pregnant women because of the risk of salmonella poisoning.
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.
2. Score the aubergine flesh with a sharp knife, sprinkle with salt and set aside for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.
3. Place the aubergine halves on a roasting tray, drizzle with 4 tablespoons of olive oil and roast for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
4. Meanwhile, make the garlic sauce. Place the boiled garlic and the egg whites in a food processor. Blend together, gradually adding in the vegetable oil until the sauce achieves a shaving foam consistency. Blend in the cumin. Cover and refrigerate until serving.
5. To make the chilli tomato pesto, blend together the parsley and almonds in a food processor. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the lemon juice, pecorino, chilli and tomato. Stir in the olive oil.
6. To make the fennel syrup, place the ground fennel seeds, sugar, and the lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and then remove from the heat.
7. Heat the remaining olive oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan. Add in the sea bass fillets, meat side down, to the pan.
8. Fry for 4 minutes on each side, at a moderate heat. While frying, brush the fillets on each side generously with the fennel syrup.
9. To serve, place two aubergine halves each on 4 serving plates. Liberally spoon the pesto over the aubergine halves. Top each portion with a sea bass fillet, then add a large spoonful of garlic sauce on top of the sea bass. Drizzle over any remaining fennel syrup and serve at once.
Rate This Recipe


text:
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|Middle School Maker Mondays (11-14 years or grades 6-8) KR
Event Type: Children's Program
Age Group(s): Children, Teens
Date: 2/25/2019
Start Time: 6:00 PM
End Time: 7:30 PM
Do you like to make things? Create crafts? Experiment with tech? Then you're a MAKER. The Maker movement is all about trying new things and making new creations. On Middle School Maker Mondays, we'll experiment with different tools and techniques for making stuff. Each session will have 1 main activity as well as other optional activities to choose from.Library: Greensburg Hempfield Area Library
Come enjoy snacks, meet new friends, and make stuff!
Sign up for each session individually.
January 28: Duct Tape Creations
February 25: Perler Bead Pixel Crafts
March 25: to be determined
April 29: Making Mazes
May 20: Littlebits
Location: Greensburg Area Library
Registration Ends: 2/23/2019 at 12:00 PM
Status: Closed
|Please Note


text:
Fueling athletes fun and fulfillment by balancing body, mind, spirit and sport.
Whether seasoned, elite or weekend warrior athlete, nutrition is the key to improving or undoing the damage created by stress – stress of training, work and life. Finding the balance can be a challenge, and even more so when symptoms appear.
You may feel overwhelmed, stressed and tired. You just aren't recovering like you used to, or feel like you are getting injured a lot.
Your heart rate is sky high, you lose motivation or you may feel sluggish, overweight and every joint hurting.
You may have GI distress, IBS, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, mystery symptoms or auto-immune issues.
You may feel like you developed all sorts of food sensitivities, and are limited now to 3 foods.
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I'm not here for the bug, I'm here for the rant. My hate towards GTK.
Using Manjaro XFCE x32 18:0.0, if I selectively upgrade GTK from GTK 3.24.1 to 3.24.4, various applications show garbage and even freeze the system.
For example the welcome screen shows no content but glitches, and opening the package manager settings freezes the system. Menulibre switches become garbage after clicking on them while using a stock XFCE theme.
I won't report to GTK developers because they shuck. This happens over and over again, and when I report they always tell me the same bullshit: that everything is all right.
Bless you for having to deal with such crap, dam them to hell. On XFCE, outside the desktop environment tools, I will be using QT applications as far as I can.
Hello and welcome.
Can you offer some more specific examples of these issues? I'm running Arch and GTK 3.24.5 and I'm not noticing any breakage.
For example the welcome screen shows no content but glitches, and opening the package manager settings freezes the system.
What are the names of these packages?
Menulibre switches become garbage after clicking on them while using a stock XFCE theme.
Which theme is the "Stock" Xfce theme? This might be a distro-specfic thing since by default, Xfce will use Adwaita (See: https://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-setting … ttings.xml - "empty" means it will use the GTK3 built-in, which is Adwaita).
To try out the default theme, simply clear out the "ThemeName" setting:
xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/ThemeName -s ""
Are there any other apps that you are finding affected? Can you post screenshots with the name of the theme that you are using? I wonder if this is an issue of themes not be able to keep up with GTK3 changes. I'll have a look to see what recent GTK3 changes occurred.
Edit: Here is a listing of al GTK3 changes. Looks like some changes to the switch element:
- 3.24.3 - switch: Use Unicode symbols for I/O instead of translations
- 3.24.4 - switch: Add fallbacks for symbols
- 3.24.5 - GtkSwitch: Use icons instead of glyphs
Last edited by ToZ (2019-02-10 20:10:17)
so what would you recommend in place of GTK+ that has bindings for programming in Python3?
@es20490446e, a quick way to get rid of the new GtkSwitch glyphs (which I agree look ugly) is to add the following to ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css:
switch image {
-gtk-icon-transform: scale(0.0);
...it will return the switch element to its previous look.
@Skaperen, Xfce is built on GTK, so it's not an easy question to answer.
@Skaperen, Xfce is built on GTK, so it's not an easy question to answer.
i didn't think it would be easy. i'll let @es20490446e answer it, now.
It looks like you have a few different problems going here.
First is the switch issue. I can't replicate this on my manjaro install. I'm using both the Adwaita Appearance and Icon themes like you are and with both gtk3 and gtk3-classic (both at 3.24.4-1). Can you post back the results of :
pacman -Qi gtk3 | grep -E 'Name|Version'
...and the contents of ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css.
Secondly, there is some app that you are trying to start that doesn't start. I can't tell what its called. Can you try running the app manually in a terminal window to see what error messages are displayed?
Thirdly, in the package manager (pamac), you seem to be having an issue entering your password. You seem to try 3 times before the hang. Not sure if this an issue with your authentication agent or something else. In a terminal window, try running:
...and see if any messages are displayed when you try to authenticate.
GTK version is:
Pamac Manager echoes various times:
(pamac-manager:1093): Pango-CRITICAL **: 05:33:00.110: pango_layout_get_pixel_extents: assertion 'PANGO_IS_LAYOUT (layout)' failed
(pamac-manager:1093): Gdk-WARNING **: 05:33:00.146: Native Windows wider or taller than 32767 pixels are not supported
gtk.css doesn't exist.
I was hoping for both the name and the version. Please post back the results of:
pacman -Qi gtk3 | grep -E 'Name|Version'
Can you create a second account on your computer and see if you can replicate the problem there as well?
(pamac-manager:1093): Pango-CRITICAL **: 05:33:00.110: pango_layout_get_pixel_extents: assertion 'PANGO_IS_LAYOUT (layout)' failed
I would research here for the source of the problem. Perhaps open a bug report against pamac-manager.
Name is: gtk3
Any second account suffers the same issues. In fact it also happens using other desktop environments outside XFCE, even non based on GTK. Simply most GTK apps are broken, including the XFCE tools and settings.
Name is: gtk3
Any second account suffers the same issues. In fact it also happens using other desktop environments outside XFCE, even non based on GTK. Simply most GTK apps are broken, including the XFCE tools and settings.
I think you should create a bug report through Manjaro's bug tracking system - I don't think this is an Xfce-specific issue, but rather one related to gtk.
The root cause of this issue is how GTK is versioned. There is no feature freeze, the API can change with each point release. It's simply unreliable software.
What happened here is that with the latest update the GTK API was different, so Pango didn't understand it.
Then Pango drew a layout of unlimited length. And GTK, instead of limiting the window size as it should, it just discarded the content all together but kept drawing some elements of unlimited length, creating a glitch and a hang.
If I post this in the GNOME bug tracker, without cursing, they will just came with some lame excuse. They just want to keep doing it their way, and as long as it fits their own desktop and distros they are happy with that. They have a vision, and that vision is blindness.
Anyway thanks for your help.
Last edited by es20490446e (2019-02-12 00:51:19)
so what you are saying is that incompatible changes are not bumping the major number in the version number? so if i (a Python coder) want to avoid this mess, what SDK should i be using?


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The last three years have been an economic tragedy. Depending on who you believe, we have structurally lost 10-30 million jobs in the U.S.- permanently. Those jobs were lost to cheap labor markets all over the world. That sucking sound that Ross Perot, business and political prophet, warned us about a little over two decades ago.
That leaves us with 30 million people not paying their mortgages, not buying health insurance, not paying federal and state taxes, not paying property taxes. Federal, state, and local governments have been slow to catch on. In fact, they want to maintain their status quo employment levels. Some still want to give themselves "raises." It is as though absolutely nothing concerns government. They are completely self absorbed. They don't give a shit about you- as long as they have theirs. This self absorbed attitude is mind numbing and to deny it's existence- would simply be grossly inaccurate. So government just continues pillaging tax payers.
Governments are raising mill levy rates to recapture lost tax revenue on lower appraisals of existing property. They are passing health care bills trying to recapture healthy and unemployed people no longer capable or willing of subsidizing pooled health care costs. They are raising public pension contribution rates for underfunded plans. They are doubling unemployment insurance costs to businesses, large and small. Government mandated worker's compensation insurance costs are rising. So whether government is directly stealing your money or indirectly stealing your money through insurance programs or other benefits that they have mandated- makes little difference. Government cannot stop nor is it willing to rein in it's gluttony. In the most bankrupt corners of our country, government is finally starting to nibble away at itself. Far too little, far too late.
Welcome to the new US underground economy. A far more efficient economy that evades taxes and government socialism. The economy that says, "We have to find a way to live." If that means food, clothing, health care, and shelter for our families, that's what matters. The underground economy that tells government we are eliminating your claim on our work product. You are like fat and bloated unwelcome guests, guests that have long out stayed your welcome here. It's time to move along.
On the ground here in the real world, people are just trying to survive. They have lost jobs, slashed debt, and yet they still can't avoid the self absorbed gluttony and the shameless excesses of those that think they master us. Government giveaway programs that never stop. The useless and wasteful wars that we no longer pay attention to.
The underground economy is about people helping people. It's about roofers doing cash jobs for people. It's negotiating a cash purchase for a tooth repair or a crown, perhaps a couple hundred bucks cash because we can no longer afford dental insurance. Of course we know that the dentist will not report the income. Some of us leave our borders and obtain health care at a reasonable price, perhaps an elective surgery. It's about swapping labor. It's about running a mom and pop business and dodging workman's comp laws. It's trading a pile of firewood for a paint job on your house. It's about charity and service work for the millions of homeless and hungry that you habitually ignore. The government caters to the rich and elite types, the homeless block their restaurant egress.
I know at least twenty people dodging taxes and working for cash. I know people who dodge taxes habitually. These are not criminals. These are people just trying to survive. These folks are faced with real world choices and decisions. In a world of individuals forced to cut all of the fat from their budgets, government just becomes another layer of fat. The people who cut government out of their lives, some even expatriating, are not criminals. They simply cannot continue to give half of their wealth away, year after year, and survive. They cannot save for retirement. That does not make them criminals. It makes them guilty of trying to live and a have a productive life and a government telling them what they can have and what they cannot have. Coercing them and prosecuting them if they do not pay. That's how the mafia works. That is not freedom, that is extortion.
I'm not talking about the corporate elite and the wealthy who "legally" dodge taxes. They have no excuse and they make most of us sick. I'm talking about real life, average Americans trying to string together enough money to to pay their bills. People who pay minimal costs and are left with virtually nothing left over as opposed to some clown like Wesley Snipes who refuses to pay 2 million in taxes and still has 10 or 20 million left over. Enjoy your three year vacation Wes.
Our government has gone berserk when GE can make 637 billion dollars and pay 5 billion, (less than 3.5%) in taxes and threatens to lock the rest of us up because we can't pay our full 35%. That shit is fair and legal?? http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-ge-paid-total-5-billion-domestic-taxes-betwen-2002-and-2009-639-billion-domestic-revenue
People would pay a fair price in taxes. A fair price left our country long ago.
I celebrate the new underground economy. People helping people again. Re-introducing themselves to each other. People no longer stealing wealth via some some anonymous third party insurer just because they can. People charging a fair price for a fair service, while looking their customers in the eyes- a little less gouging and and a little less greed. A little more compassion and a little more kindness. People finally recognizing who the bully is. A lot of things to like. Maybe we need a whole new economy and perhaps one day, we will thank our thugocracy for delivering one.
Everything great in the world is done by neurotics; they alone founded our religions and created our masterpieces. ~Marcel Proust
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Celebrating The New Underground Economy
2 comments:
- rawmuse said...
Barter is back, big time. Unfortunately, if you need to pay your taxes, the only legal means of doing so is by Federal Reserve Notes. You can't give them corn, or used cars or lumber. The roots of this type of rebellion go way back, and was among the first responsibilities of our 1st President, see "Whiskey Rebellion".
- December 9, 2010 at 5:50 PM
- Brian said...
Thanks RM. I just looked up the Whiskey rebellion...old men need a refresher now and then.
- December 9, 2010 at 10:25 PM
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By Dave Skretta Aug. 07, 2019 01:41 PM EDT
By Dave Skretta Jul. 26, 2019 03:30 PM EDT
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — First came the sirens of the police escort, then came the guttural roar of the engine, as Chiefs fullback Anthony Sherman arrived at training...
By The Associated Press Mar. 11, 2019 08:50 PM EDT
UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS: OLB Dee Ford (franchise tag), OLB Justin Houston, DT Allen Bailey, TE Demetrius Harris, FB Anthony...
By Mark Long Jan. 27, 2019 08:53 PM EST
By Dave Skretta Jan. 07, 2019 03:01 PM EST
By Dave Skretta Jan. 03, 2019 04:32 PM EST


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Stevie open edition print.
Featuring the subtle blush, white and cream tones of this stunning rose, set on a navy background.
"never have I been a calm blue sea, I have always been a storm " - For all the Fleetwood Mac fans x
Printing on 310gsm Hahnemuhle Archival Rag Smooth. Each print is signed by Kate.
Framing available on request.
Approx two weeks for production.


text:
The mysterious figure pauses for a moment, peering out over the sandy expanse in front of them before continuing on. They follow the undulating sands, ultimately arriving at Max's half-buried form. The figure bends down and brushes aside Max's long hair, discovering that he is still alive. They collect Max and lash him to a makeshift sled, and proceed to drag him through the night and into the day when it's revealed that Max's savior is a young woman.
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King Writes: "Today - on what happens to be Dr. King's birthday - I am proud to endorse the presidential candidate who I believe most embodies the values and ideals of the man who scared the hell out of the American government and was assassinated in 1968 after so bravely fighting against the Vietnam War and for income equality."
Bernie Sanders shakes hands with supporters during a rally at Hec Ed Pavilion that drew an estimated 15,000 people to the University of Washington. The rally filled the arena and left thousands outside. (photo: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)
Why Bernie Sanders Is the Best Candidate in the Running for the White House
16 January 16
oday — on what happens to be Dr. King's birthday — I am proud to endorse the presidential candidate who I believe most embodies the values and ideals of the man who scared the hell out of the American government and was assassinated in 1968 after so bravely fighting against the Vietnam War and for income equality.
As a general rule, I don't trust many politicians, but I trust Bernie Sanders — the man walks the walk and talks the talk. He is, without a doubt, the most consistent politician in America and has been fighting for universal health care, access to education, equal pay, equal rights and the complete overhaul of how we do justice in this country for his entire career. I dig it.
Twelve months ago, I'll be honest with you, I could fit all I knew about Sanders into a few sentences. It went something like this:
"Hey Shaun, what do you know about Bernie Sanders?"
"The senator in Vermont? The disheveled dude? He's the real deal. Not in it for the money. Heard him on TV a few times kicking knowledge about income inequality and he was the truth. I keep hearing that he's a socialist."
That's it. That's pretty much everything I knew about the man.
I didn't know he was born and raised in Brooklyn.
I didn't know anything about his volunteer work in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement.
I didn't know he was one of only two current senators to attend the March on Washington.
I didn't know anything about his eight years as mayor of Burlington.
I didn't know that he went against the Democratic establishment and endorsed Jesse Jackson for President in 1984 and 1988.
Jackson actually won Vermont in '88 with Bernie's help.
I didn't know he is the longest serving Independent congressman in American history.
I didn't know he bravely voted against the Defense of Marriage Act when such a thing was actually controversial.
I didn't know he voted against both wars in Iraq.
Now I know.
But even more than who he has been over the past few decades, it's who Sanders is right now, at this pivotal moment in our country, that hooked me. It wasn't love at first sight, either.
When women from the Black Lives Matter movement interrupted his campaign speeches and demanded he not only acknowledge state violence against black bodies, but that he also needed to have strong policy positions on the issue, I was all for it. At the time, thousands of liberal white folks were irritated to no end when they saw the demonstration.
Looking back on it, I truly think it was the most important moment of his campaign. He took the brave interruption to heart. Instead of simply saying "Black Lives Matter" here and there, he released the most comprehensive, thorough, specific plan of any candidate on either side to address police brutality, economic inequality, voting rights, education, health care, gun safety and more.
It shocked me, actually. I had grown used to politicians shrugging off the pain and pleas of black folks and just assuming we'd vote for them anyway. Bernie didn't do anything like that.
Here hired Symone Sanders, a black woman who has fought for juvenile justice issues her whole life, not as his juvenile justice liaison, but as his national press secretary.
He hired one of the most respected immigration activists in the country, Erika Andiola, to not only connect with Latino voters, but to also shape his campaign on immigration issues.
Those two moves meant everything to me, but three separate moments hooked me once and for all, and got me feeling the Bern.
- Police and political corruption in Chicago is a horrific mess. With both Hillary (and Obama) having deep ties to the city and its mayor, Rahm Emanuel, they have both been rather mum about it. Bernie, on the other hand, came out strong on how leaders at the highest level need to be held accountable there. This is what it's going to take to address police violence in America.
- No presidential candidate has been as clear on what happened to Sandra Bland as Bernie. In addition to meeting with her mother, he came out in December and flat out said "Sandra Bland should not have died while in police custody. There's no doubt in my mind that she, like too many African-Americans who die in police custody, would be alive today if she were a white woman." He gets it. Race is not a coincidental factor in police violence, but is a central, determining factor in much of the brutality. This must be acknowledged and Bernie has done so repeatedly.
- Killer Mike endorsing and campaigning for Bernie actually really matters to me. Hip hop is my heart. I grew up as a hip hop DJ, my best friend is a popular rapper, and I'm a Killer Mike fan. I'm also a Jay-Z and Kanye fan as well, but Killer Mike is more like an activist who raps than a rapper who cares about the world on the side. He's not even the type of dude to endorse politicians.
Killer Mike may be the most anti-authority rapper in the game. When he endorsed Bernie with such passion and clarity, I listened and believed him.
To be clear, I'm in this to win and Bernie Sanders can win this race.
He is leading in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. That's not a fluke. He worked for that. People in those states believe in Bernie.
He is beating every single Republican candidate in head-to-head polls, often at margins even wider than Hillary, and he has the most enthusiastic base of any candidate on either side. He has the biggest crowds, the most love online AND the most support of any candidate from voters (of all races) under 45.
He's raising more small donations from regular people than anybody in the race. He hasn't been bought by corporate interests and never will be.
While he campaigns against for-profit prisons, Hillary Clinton received money from their lobbyists. She didn't stop taking their money until October.
We live in a time when we don't need marginal improvements, we need big changes. Bernie is the right candidate at the right time to bring them.
I believe in him, I believe in his team and I believe he can win.
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I would not put it past Reps. to accuse him of being a Communist if he gains the nomination.
Glenn Beck, of course, already has.
Bernie's biggest problem is not the Republicans; it's the Dem. Party establishment. His supporters and provide Convention insurance against corrupt super delegates by taking the Bernie or bust pledge here:
There it is right there.
And he's STILL fighting the "Democratic Establishment" -a.k.a. Blue Dawg, with but a few exceptions, and it's pet candidate-selec t, who is anything but populist, whereas Bernie Sanders has lived the life of a wobbly-activist very much in the Eugene Debs mold, with his own twist on the current sad state of the Union.
His so-called "Liberal" opponents obviously don't know any of this either, or they'd be deserting Clinton like rats from a sinkin' ship!
Volunteer. Contribute. Help him/us win.
But to be electable , he has to quit the Democratic party.They will not nominate him. just side line him.
He has to go independent. We're ready.
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When you are in a situation and you don't know what to do, you need to be able to hear the still, small voice of God.
One of my prayers is this: "Lord, let me hear You at the slightest whisper at the door of my heart." I've been praying that prayer for many years. It is highly important to be able to hear God at the slightest whisper of His Voice. It is for the saving of lives, to thwart the plans of the enemy, and to change destinies.
God still speaks. He speaks to us however He knows He can get our attention….He speaks to us through dreams, visions, through His Word, through other people and by His still, small voice. God sent His Holy Spirit to help us here on earth.
If you are having a hard time believing God for something or someone right now, take time to read A LEAP OF FAITH (25 Days At The Mercy Seat)….the full account of God raising my husband from death, walking with us through his two open heart surgeries, and how God healed him from two strokes. You won't be able to put the book down. Within the pages of the book, you can read about how God spoke to me in natural ways and how obedience to His instructions brought about supernatural results. AND MORE IMPORTANTLY….it will for you as well.
We live in such a time of crisis in America that it is vital to hear God. The nation is divided. Jesus warned us long ago of what we are witnessing now. Jesus wants us to overcome and to step out and take territory. We must shine the light of God to the world—not hide out in seclusion.
Remember the account of Elijah in the Bible. God brought Elijah out of the cave and told him to stand on the mountain (see 1 Kings 19:9-12). While Elijah stood there in obedience to God, a mighty wind came, then an earthquake, then a fire and God was not in any of those. Finally…there was a still, small voice….the Voice of God. Trust God…even when you don't understand. God will reveal the answers to the things you don't know in time. Refuse to back off of the Word of God. God does not lie. He always honors His Word. He cannot lie…He is God. God will reveal the answers at the right time.
God is at work behind the scenes on your behalf. Miracles are being set in motion in the waiting. Take time to hear the still, small voice of God–His whisper.
#trustGodinthewaiting #Standstillthroughthestorm #standstrong #GodalwaysWINS #keeppraisingJesus #miracles #divineIntervention #GodSeesAll
Tell the world about Jesus…He is coming back!
GOD'S PRICELESS TREASURE (How To Overcome Challenges, Be Transformed And Know Your Purpose)….move from drama to destiny, pain to purpose, a mess to a message of hope for others. You can turn that trial to triumph through turning to Jesus Christ.
A LEAP OF FAITH (25 Days At The Mercy Seat)…the ways the Holy Spirit led us will keep you turning the pages. God raised my husband from death, healed him from two strokes, and walked with us through two open heart surgeries. You will be amazed at how God goes to extreme detail in the book. It will give you increased faith to believe God for anything.
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR (Will America Turn Back To God?)….a must read for all. Makes a great gift for friends, family, and anyone else. Great stocking stuffers.
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, www.starministriesinc.com etc.
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September 20th 2014 many joined the notorious forex guru Max Idik on for a one of a kind "Max's Forex Intro" seminar at Mariott Hotel in Warsaw, Poland.
This was one of a kind chance to get face to face with one of the top traders with many years of experience under his belt as a Head Trader for CitiBank in London. Max was fund manager and forex coach and this was an opportunity for grabs!
XM forex broker participated in the event, as a mission to equip and prepare its clients towards effective daily trading experience. The event was free of charge! What a treat.


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Our Moulard Ducks are raised on a 200-acre farm in Upstate New York. The Moulard Duck is a cross between a Muscovy male and a Pekin female. They are fed a recipe of an all vegetarian diet made right on the farm. Fossil Farms believes that birds should be able to spread their wings and socialize, that's why our ducks are free roaming. With a great yield, Moulard Duck eats like a steak and has a deep red color. All of our Ducks are 100% naturally raised and are part of the "Never Ever Program", where antibiotics, steroids and hormones are never used.
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IngredientsDuck Breast, water, salt, brown sugar, sodium phosphate, garlic, sodium erythorbate, spices, black pepper, sodium nitrate.
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Narration: The American people elected a new Congress, but an increasing percentage of them think there is a problem with how it was done.
Shawn Steel: They fill out a ballot at home, and then a stranger shows up and asks for their ballot. And so we don't know what happens to that ballot.
George Braun: Fourteen districts in California in Orange County, 7 of them went—were ahead on election day, all of a sudden lost by 5-6,000 votes after the election because of this thing.
Narration: Will the presidential election process be fair in 2020?
George Braun: What you're going to see is they're going to use the same tactics that they used in California, where it worked.
Narration: Is America's democratic system under attack? Can it be fixed?
Title: "Ballot Harvesting": How Was It Played in 2018? Will It Repeat in 2020?
Simone Gao: On the night of Nov. 6, Republicans knew they lost control of the House of Representatives. But one saving grace is that the "blue wave" Democrats touted going into the 2018 midterms did not realize. Technically, at the end of the night, Democrats could not confirm they won at least 23 seats, and others were still pending. Now, six weeks after the election, in virtually every pending House contest, the Democratic candidate was declared the winner, giving House Democrats a net gain of 40 seats. What happened? How did House Republicans go from barely holding on to the lower chamber of Congress to going into the new congressional session with 199 seats to the Democrat's 235 seats in the weeks after the election was over. On the eve of the new congressional session, we'll look at why House Republicans lost the confidence of the American people and what role "ballot-harvesting" played after the polls closed. Let's explore the true story behind the 2018 midterms in this episode of "Zooming In."
Part 1: California Republicans Lose Half Their Seats
Narration: In the five presidential elections between 1968 and 1988, California voted for the Republican candidate. There was even talk that California Republican dominance of the Golden State was part of the GOP's lock on the electoral college. The heart of the Republican Party in California was Orange County. It is a vast stretch of farms, beaches and a legacy of agriculture between Los Angeles and San Diego. It is the home of Disneyland, and also the birthplace of President Richard Nixon and the site of his presidential library. In the 2018 midterms, the Democrats flipped the five seats in Orange County still held by the GOP, making it a clean sweep.
Narration: On Election Day, the state's 52-seat delegation had 39 Democrats and 14 Republicans. In January, it will be 45 Democrats and 8 Republicans.
Narration: Shawn Steel, the former chairman of the California Republican Party, told "Zooming In" that, despite the talk of a blue wave, Republicans were fighting back. In the days before the polls closed, polling showed the Republicans were still holding on.
Shawn Steel: They would have to win half the Republican delegation. There's 14 Republicans. They're targeting seven. They will not win seven. Today, I would say they will win one for sure, and three are undecided. So they're not going to get enough from California to conquer the House.
Simone Gao: Shawn Steel was the chairman of the California Republican Party from 2001 to 2003. He is now a national committeeman from the state. He joins us now to look back at how the 2018 midterms played out for his party.
Simone Gao: Thank you for coming on with us, Shawn. The last time we spoke, it was right before the midterm election, and you were optimistic about Republican prospects. Now, as we are about to begin a new congressional session, there is no way to say the GOP did well. But there is still a big difference between what it looked like by the end of the election night and six weeks later. Tell me when you realized that all the late counts were going against the Republicans?
Shawn Steel: Democrats have reinvented voting. It used to be you go out to vote on election day, and this is where it's true in most of America, but California's different. But you used to go and vote, and about 2 o'clock in the morning on a close race you found out who won. Sadly, in California, you find out who the real winner is about two weeks after the election. It's called a late count. The late count means that there's lots of deals going on, lots of different ways to vote, lots of ballots coming in very, very late. And we have this new mechanism called ballot harvesting. That means professional people can go door-to-door, get ballots, and then turn them in themselves. And that causes a great deal of controversy. In North Carolina, a Republican is accused of ballot harvesting, and he may lose his seat. But the ballot harvesting in California, it's a Democrat state, there's not going to be any professional investigation, although there's some private investigations. Whenever you give your ballot to a stranger, there's nothing good that can come out of that.
Simone Gao: In one of your articles reflecting on the midterms, you said there was no need for voter fraud. Democrats know it's easier to erode voter integrity laws than to stuff ballot boxes. Explain this to me, please.
Shawn Steel: Well, it means—the old idea of Chicago, which is one of the most corrupt cities in the world, you would have dead people voting regularly. Thousands of dead people would vote. It was a miracle. It was like a religious experience. The trouble is you had live people pretending to be a voter who was actually dead. So you'd have people showing up multiple times in different precincts to vote. That's the old-fashioned fraud. Today it's different. Now you have people that are registered to vote. They fill out a ballot at home, and then a stranger shows up and asks for their ballot. And so we don't know what happens to that ballot. Once it's in the hands of a stranger, he can do anything he wants with it. For example, the Republicans are accused of taking ballots from Democrats and not even having them vote, not turning them in. In California, it looks like several of these ballot harvesters were actually writing in the votes themselves, sealing the envelopes themselves, and then turning them in all at once on election day. Some precincts got over a thousand of these ballots on the same day of people that could have mailed them weeks earlier. It's very suspicious and uncomfortable.
Simone Gao: Can you share with us a conversation with a candidate or someone in one of the defeated campaigns? What did they tell you about how they felt about the campaign and the results?
Shawn Steel: I talked to all of them: Congressman Rohrabacher, Congresswoman Mimi Walters, Young Kim, a candidate. They all lost by just a few percentage points. Nobody anticipated ballot harvesting. It's a new animal, a new product in California. Nobody understood how big and powerful of a tool it is for getting the extra votes to win. Remember, on election night Dana Rohrabacher was 50-50, Young Kim was 14 points ahead in her district in Orange County, and Mimi Walters was ahead by 6 points. So we thought that Rohrabacher might be in trouble. Never dreamed that—Mimi Walters was popular, hard-working, and Young Kim, who's a star, would ever lose. But day after day, a couple of weeks would go by and all these late ballots came in and changed the outcome. So it's a new technique that Republicans have to learn and adapt. Most states you cannot do ballot harvesting. As a matter of fact, in Texas they changed the law. It's illegal to ballot harvest in Texas. And other states that have prohibited, if you take some stranger's ballot, you can go to jail. But in California, it's the very opposite. It's great for Democrats.
Narration: Coming up, Democrats and Republicans played different games. Will their strategies affect how voters vote in the 2020 elections?
Part 2: Democrats Went on Offense
Mike Pence: It is my high honor and distinct privilege to introduce to you, the President-Elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
Narration: From the morning Democrats woke up to learn that New York real estate developer Donald Trump was elected president, the 2018 battle for control of the House of Representatives turned on whether Democrats could sustain their passion and bring their voters to the polls.
Narration: It turned out, they were successful.
Narration: In non-presidential election years, there is a routine drop off in voter participation. In 2018, the drop off for the Democrats was 4 percent. It was 20 percent for Republicans.
Narration: Lowered enthusiasm does not just apply to voters. For the 2018 midterm elections, 39 House seats did not have a Republican candidate on the ballot. Their counterparts were obviously playing another game.
Narration: Instead of treating their seats as a fortress, Democrats went on offense. They field-tested this "challenge everywhere and everyone" strategy in Virginia's off-cycle election in 2017. For the first time in decades, Democrats had a candidate on the ballot for all 100 assembly seats. By pressing Virginia Republicans, some who had never dealt with a challenger, Democrats picked up 15 seats, leaving the GOP with a bleak 51-to-49 majority.
Narration: Based on Virginia's success, the Democrats scaled it up nationally.
Narration: At the beginning of the year, both parties announced the incumbents they were targeting. Republicans released a list of 36 Democratic-held targets. Meanwhile, the Democrats had a list of 101 targeted seats. Not a single House Democratic incumbent lost in 2018.
Simone Gao: Are these mistakes by Republican leadership on a strategic level? Here is what Shawn Steel has to say.
Simone Gao: Going into 2020, what is the biggest lesson you learned from 2018?
Shawn Steel: Well, first of all, we have to understand that it used to be a lot of people didn't vote. We're seeing that there's much more interest in voting than ever before, and that's a good thing. I don't care what party they're from if people show up and vote. The bad thing is that, if people vote, but they give their away their ballot to a stranger, that should be discouraged. They should be encouraged to go to the polls themselves to vote. So that's a big lesson. We want people to vote, but do it yourself. Make sure that your vote is safe, not in some stranger's pocket. Secondly, Republicans have a lot more work to do with minorities, more than ever. And minorities need to understand that Republicans are their best and safest bet for real prosperity, or otherwise they're looking at a potential North Korea. They're looking at a Venezuela, a socialist state where very few people prosper or benefit.
Simone Gao: Other than compromise on voter integrity laws, did Republican leadership miscalculate in other areas?
Shawn Steel: Well, I'll tell you, miscalculation is always when you lose, and you have to study everything. And the Republicans lost by very small margins. So it wasn't like a popular uprising where Republicans lost by 20 or 30 percentage points. It was 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent. But what also happened is that the Democrats have mastered what's called dark money. They have several billionaires funding this, wealthy, liberal, left-wing billionaires like Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg Incorporated, and Tom Steyer. They put in lots of money, hundreds of millions of dollars in these political action committees. And we're going to find out in January how much money they spent. So far, what's been reported, the Democrats spent 200 million dollars to take over seven congressional seats. Now, think about that: 200 million dollars is an astonishing number. And that's so much money that you could actually buy countries in central Europe with that, political elections. It's real naked power. But for California, we never anticipated that much money. Now, the Republicans weren't cheap. They had 60 million dollars on their side, but you can see there's a three-to-one advantage on that. So we didn't expect the billionaires to come in in such a big, bold way. It's a very good lesson for us. You know, you talk about the party of big money and big wealth, the key is is that with big money you can go ahead and really change outcomes of elections.
Simone Gao: How do you respond to Democrats' big money in the future then?
Shawn Steel: Well, we know that that big money is not going to be available for the Democrats in California because those billionaires, two of them, the two ones that I mentioned, Tom Steyer of San Francisco and Bloomberg of New York, they're both running for president. That's why they put so much money in. They're going to put their money in their presidential campaigns. So the Democrats are going to have two billionaires running and maybe 18 other people. So they're going to be tied up in their own primary fighting each other and attacking each other and trying to see who their nominee is going to be. So maybe this amount of money is just once in a 20-year phenomena. I don't know. I don't think we're going to see in California that kind of 200 million dollars for seven congressional seats. It used to be a big deal if you had a million dollars for a congressional seat. But 200 is just a number we've never seen in American politics ever in our history.
Narration: Coming up, what ground game have democrats played? Will they be able to win the 2020 election by playing the same game?
Part 3: Democrats' Ground Game Will Likely Repeat in 2020
Simone Gao: Despite strategic mistakes, the fact remains that going into the midterm elections, polling showed the Republicans losing 20-to-25 seats, not 40. So that brings us back to how Democrats operated on the ground to generate a midterm turnout that nearly matched their presidential turnout.
Narration: Fifteen years ago, Republican operatives developed 72-hour teams. They were made up of specialized campaign staffers who would swoop into a campaign in the last three days before voters went to the polls. These teams revolutionized electioneering as they came in without warning and ramped up enthusiasm with get-out-the-vote efforts.
Narration: To counter these 72-hour teams, Democrats worked to change voting laws. Early absentee voting was always available to voters with valid reasons for not voting on Election Day. But the new laws allowed for "no excuse" early voting.
Narration: Early voting changed the dynamic. Instead of 72-hour teams, Democrats developed 30-day teams. Weeks before an election, party operatives could mobilize voters to get to polls with time to follow-up and repeatedly get back to them—instead of the short 12-hour window on election day.
Narration: Early voting has changed campaign strategy and even polling as pollsters now have to ask respondents if they have already cast their vote. The remaining hurdle was that, in early voting, operatives still had to get voters physically to the polls.
Narration: In the 2018 midterms, for the first time, we saw Democrats use a large-scale hybrid tactic called ballot harvesting. Ballot harvesting is the early collection of ballots from voters, so that they do not have to travel to the polling station.
Narration: According to the California Secretary of State's office, during the last midterm election in 2014, California voters turned in 4.5 million absentee ballots. This year, there were 8.3 million.
Simone Gao: George Braun is a Washington D.C. attorney and a member of the Supreme Court bar. George was a law clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and he also worked as White House lawyer for President George W. Bush. For many years, he has been part of a group of Republican lawyers who volunteer as election observers. George is an expert in voter fraud and Democratic tactics. I asked him about ballot harvesting and voter fraud in California.
Simone Gao: So George, why did absentee ballots benefit Democrats more?
George Braun: Well, in California, because of the fact that they didn't—they basically harvested just those places. On the internet you can see a gal by the name of Lulu going to a house. The parents who answered the door and had a camera on her because of the doorbell camera, were Republicans. The daughter was a Democrat. And she said that this was a service to pick up the ballot and we can help you and—but she wouldn't say who she was a service by. And she didn't ask for anybody else's ballots in the house. And since she's not registered with anybody, she's not a registered poll watcher, she's not a registered person from the state, she's just a political operative that we know. The only rule in California is you can't be paid to do this. But who's going to watch that one? So my question is, is that when they come in—and when you see 14 districts in California in Orange County, 7 of them went—were ahead on election day, when 100 percent of the ballots had been counted, all of a sudden lost by 5, 6,000 votes after the election because of this thing. You're seeing insidious voter fraud. And what we saw down in the special election for the Senate, Ron [sic] Moore, we now know that the Democrats were doing the same thing as what the Russians were accused of. They've admitted it. You saw, in numerous states, where—especially Georgia where they had—they brought people in from other states to vote, young people, college students and everything else, and gave them college IDs to vote. We don't know that that college ID, other than it went for somebody's name, we don't know that person is really the person that goes through it. But when you bus in that many people—now, the Georgia governor's race where she said that she was, you know, they disenfranchised and did a number of other things, that was all under the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party originally came up with all these rules that every three years, if you haven't voted, they contact you to see whether or not you're still in the state, haven't moved someplace else, and then will take your vote away. Then you don't get to vote. There was—or if you died, if you're listed on there, we have to purge a number of these so that people don't go through it. I used to vote in San Diego, California. I now vote in Yuma, Arizona. But when I canceled my ballot in California—I've canceled it twice. But this last election I got one in the mail saying that—you know, I shredded it, but the thing is, that even though I canceled it in writing twice, they still sent me an absentee ballot here in Washington D.C., even though I'm registered in Arizona now. And went back and actually went through it. So if I'd wanted to, I could have voted in both states.
Simone Gao: Going into 2020, how will these tactics, legal or illegal, affect the upcoming presidential election?
George Braun: Well, what you're going to see is they're going to use the same tactics that they used in California, where it worked, Georgia. They basically have been trying different tactics where they can see where you have large—Florida, they're going to use those in the swing states that they need. That's one of the things that is insidious when you're watching the returns in 2016. All of a sudden there was no returns for a while that were released. Well, one of the reasons is because they're trying to figure out where to get more votes where they need them. And this has been going on. Had Richard Nixon fought the election in 1960, he would have been president. But he didn't want to put the government, the country through that. In 2001 when Bush v. Gore went to the Supreme Court, the Democrats only wanted to count specific counties, recount specific counties. And the Supreme Court said you have to recount all of them if you're going to recount them. That's the law in Florida. And when—and that was the original decision that came down. But what actually happened was they ran into the final part which was, whether you like it or not, by this day all ballots had to be turned in. And that's when we decide. You can't just keep recounting the vote. And it's, as we've seen, in Minnesota when Al Franken ran, if you continued to recount, they did the recount 27 times, he lost 26 times. He won the 27th time and became a Senator. How many times do you recount? And why doesn't it come down to, well, you lost 26 times, the 27th one shouldn't matter. You know, three out of five, that kind of a thing. And you still got to remember, as far as it still goes, it's come down, in a lot of elections, during the primaries. Hillary Clinton had a coin flip on nine different occasions. Unbelievably, she won the coin flip in all nine times. Do you know what the odds are that you would win a coin flip nine continuous times? Astronomical.
Simone Gao: What are your suggestions to Republicans for 2020? Should they copy the Democratic tactics or try to either enforce or change the laws?
George Braun: Well, first off, we've got to change the laws as far as how an absentee ballot is counted. And second thing is, there should be a change—every single state has to have a chain of custody to where you can't just all of a sudden have a whole bunch of ballots show up—or find, like we did in Broward County in Florida, where we're finding ballots in the back of cars, at the airport, we're finding boxes of ballots in classrooms. Why are we finding ballots all over this place? If they get outside of the chain of command, they should immediately be destroyed. And if they got outside of the thing, who let it get outside. Because of the fact that, when I was working in Florida, it's 7 o'clock when the ballot closed—I mean, when the precinct closed balloting. I put somebody in line, the last person there at 7 o'clock. If you were in line before that person at 7 o'clock, you got to vote whether or not it was 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock by the time we finally got to you. But that person was the last person. At that time, there should have been a number. And what happened in 2018 was the gal couldn't say. Within 20 minutes, you're required to be able to tell how many people voted at each precinct. If you can't give that, there's a problem. And so what we saw is because—and then all of a sudden the numbers would go up. Well, this many people voted. Well, how do we know that? And what the Republicans need to do is to count every single ballot at that time. Now, we've got to stop the idea that you can register on the day of the vote. We've got to do something about this provisional ballots. And, more importantly, we've got to do something about the idea that somebody's going to be knocking on somebody's door saying you need to vote. Because the right not to vote in this country is just as important as the right to vote.
Simone Gao: I believe Republicans will learn the lessons from the 2018 midterm elections and do better in 2020. But we should keep one important thing in mind: tactics can't get us too far. For both parties, regaining the soul of the party and winning people's hearts with those principles is the ultimate strategy. I hope leading to 2020, we will have more discussion on those matters. Thanks for watching Zooming In. Please like our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube channel at "Zooming In with Simone Gao." Happy Holidays!


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There's going to be some fun happening at Potts Point Bookstore
on Saturday 29 March.
We're very lucky to be hosting Elmer the Patchwork Elephant between 10:30am and 11:30am. Elmer will pose for a photograph and there will be games and balloons.
And because it's such a colourful event, we also have a colouring in competition for children. There will be two divisions - ages 3-5 and ages 5-8 with a prize for each.
Come into the store and pick up your colouring in sheet today!
And see you on Saturday 29 March!


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A Bewitching Project for Halloween10:00 AM
Good Morning and Happy October!
I have begun decorating the house for Samhain over the weekend. I swear we have more Samhain / Halloween interior decorations than most folks do for X-mas! It took me most of the day on Sunday to put everything in place with a lot of help from my husband and daughter. And it's not even all up yet. The really intense decorations go up about a week or so before Samhain. No room is safe- not even the bathrooms, as we prepare for our annual Halloween party. I wrote about this in my new book, Seasons of Witchery. Check out the Autumn Equinox and Samhain chapters for more information.
For the past three years my husband and I have thrown a Gothic Halloween party. And every year it gets bigger and more elaborate. Last year he built a toe pincher coffin and everyone had their picture taken in it out in the garage. Here is one of the pictures from our "Photo Shoot" last year. This is Noir, me, Ember and Draco. I wish you could see the garage when it was black lit, but alas when the camera flashes you loose the black light and the creepiness.
|2011 Coffin Photo Shoot.
Imagine my 24 year old walking in the house back in early September and casually asking when she hears the buzz of the saw, "What's Dad doing out in the garage?" And my equally casual response of, "Oh, he's building a lid for his coffin."
She didn't even blink.
We are planning to use more backdrops this year in the garage. This year we have black fabric and yards of grey and black tulle to drape the walls with- for the background of the coffin set up. (To cover the walls I snagged some flat black sheets on sale.) Much more economical than buying yards of black fabric and its wider!
This summer I found via Pinterest, some directions for making "candles" out of PVC pipe, hot glue, and battery operated tea lights. I couldn't wait to try it out.
This idea appealed to me for many reasons. First of all when I have a garage heavily decorated with spiderwebs, pumpkins, a coffin, a wine bar, and it's all lit with only black light... and you have lots of folks laughing, dancing and partying- the LAST thing I want to worry about is an open flame.
First he got out his big chop saw and cut the PVC pipe into various lengths. To start, we chose 8 inches, 5 and 3/4 inches and 3 and 1/2 inches. Then I took blue painters tape- (because I had it lying around) and made a sling across the top of the PVC pipe deep enough for a battery operated tea light to fit inside of.
For the long drips I started at the bottom and ran the hot glue up the side of the "candle". Then I would let it pool a bit at the top. Be careful NOT to let the glue drip inside of the pipe. If you do, you may have a tough time getting the battery operated tea-light in and out of the "candle". So keep the inside clean and clear of hot glue.
Then we let the paint dry. Just below and to the left is a picture I took of the candles and tea-lights drying.
|Ellen dry brushing the "drips".
Dab the paintbrush on paper so it is almost dry- like stenciling before you start brushing the candle with it.
Starting from the bottom of the candle and then brushing up, I highlighted all of those simulated candle wax drips. This really makes it pop against the black. And it made the candles look more realistic.
Variations: I have seen PVC candles done in black with red drips or purple drips, but I really like the white against the black. To me it looks the best. Plus it looks creepy. White candles with red drips would be pretty nifty. But we wanted to stick with black.
Finally we gathered them up turned on the tea lights and took a few pictures. They looked amazing when they were all grouped together. As a matter of fact they looked so good that we went and made about a dozen more the next weekend.
Oh, and also if you look around the Halloween stores you can find black battery operated tea-lights. We snagged some of those too, and at last count I think we have about 20 or so of these PVC Halloween candles for the party.
For display purposes they do look better when you group them up in groups of 3 or 4 candles.
These PVC candles would be great for outdoor rituals as well if there was a concern for wildfires or if it was windy outside. I bet you can think of lots of uses for these. Red candles with sparkly white drips would be pretty for Yuletide as well.
Use your imagination and see what you can conjure up.
As for me... I am on the lookout for the next big Halloween decorating idea. Enjoy the month of October and Blessed be,
9 comments
awesome craft project! i may have to do that one myself!ReplyDelete
i saw almost the same thing using toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls, the only difference was you had to tape a weight inside the base to sturdy it up. I think PVC looks betterReplyDelete
I love that you have so much fun with this holiday! To make creepy candles, I might like to use real ones and do something with red food coloring. Hmm. I'd try your ideas if they were more environmentally friendly. :/ But I'm sure you will use your stash for decades to come.ReplyDelete
I hear you about the decorations. I have more for Samhain then for Christmas to. Outdoor lights, grave yard, ghost I made from starch and white cloth and coat hangers to hang in the trees. Lots of pumpkins, that is just out side. Inside every room gets pumpkins, witches, and candles. Yea I love this time of year!ReplyDelete
What a wonderful idea. I will have to try that eventually to add to my growing Samhain collection. I hope to one day have as many decorations as you. For now I will just have to keep making and collecting.ReplyDelete
This is just plain awesome!ReplyDelete
thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
Very nice. Thanks for sharing!ReplyDelete


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I am a Fine Artist, 3D/2D Artist, Animator, Illustrator. I have been drawing my entire life and do 3D, 2D Traditional Animation, Digital Painting and Illustration.
I am intensely passionate about Fine Arts, 3D Modelling/ 3D Sculpting/ 2.5D Painting/ Texturing and Digital/ Matte Painting.
I also am a self taught tattooist and love airbrushing and dry brush painting. I am particularly a portrait artist and love realism/ realistic renders and drawings. Fantasy Art is my love and passion as well.
I work both traditionally and digitally – I love exploring and utilizing different mediums for self expression.