text: Anne-Marie Slaughter: Support Obama on Syria In his 2008 inaugural address, Obama called for a new era of responsibility in this country, "a recognition … that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world." We have those duties not because the United States has some unique role or mission in the world, but because we are the world's most powerful nation. Other nations take their cues from our action or inaction, whether we want them to or not. If we do not act, we are signaling that the world has suddenly become a far more permissive and dangerous place, that taboos can be broken, and that despite the pious words of the international community, leaders can do whatever they like within their own borders. If we lead, other nations that take their responsibilities seriously as great powers will join us. Read more… Anne-Marie Slaughter is president and CEO of the New America Foundation. She was director of policy planning in the U.S. State Department from 2009 to 2011. David Rothkopf: Obama, ignore the polls on Syria Most Americans don't want the United States to launch military strikes against the Syrian government. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll says 59% of the American people oppose such an intervention, while 36% support it. Even more oppose supplying weapons to the Syrian rebels, with 70% against and 27% in favor. Many have welcomed President Barack Obama's move to bring the decision before Congress as giving the issue the kind of national debate it deserves. And hearings this week may move the needle of public opinion to give the president more confidence that he has the backing of U.S. voters. Read more… David Rothkopf writes regularly for CNN.com. He is CEO and editor-at-large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Follow him on Twitter. Gloria Borger: Obama's irony, McCain's agony All presidential decisions are, in the end, difficult and complex. And under any circumstance, the decisions on issues of war (surgical strikes included) are agonizing. The decision to use force – the repercussions, the cost in blood and treasure, the geostrategic implications – is complicated and the implications obviously immense. But as the Syria story unfolds, there is an almost Shakespearean drama beneath the surface – one of political careers made and broken, of past positions held and almost abandoned. Not to mention the political enemies now finding themselves – awkwardly – on the same side of history. Read more… Gloria Borger is a chief political analyst at CNN. Frida Ghitis: 5 reasons the U.S. must intervene in Syria Syria feels far away; a tragedy, no doubt, but to many who strongly oppose any kind of intervention, it is simply too removed, too complicated, too foreign to view as an American problem. Military action, the skeptics rightly say, has consequences, often unpredictable ones. But so does inaction. Inaction is more dangerous – potentially riskier and costlier – than smart, limited intervention. Syria may seem far away, but every passing day, every calamitous, explosive, hate-infused day, makes it more America's – and the world's – problem. Read more … Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter: @FridaGColumns. Opinion: Don't use Syria to pump up Pentagon spending David Frum: Questions for backers of Syria mission A war between Bashar al-Assad's regime, Hezbollah and Iran one side and al Qaeda-style Islamic radicals on the other is a fight in which the United States has no dog. Hurting the al-Assad regime inevitably means helping the rebels. True, some of the rebels are nicer than other rebels. It's also true that the nasty rebels are the faction likelier to dominate if the al-Assad regime falls. In June, the nasty rebels and the nicer rebels came to violence over control of strategic checkpoints in northern Syria. The conflict ended with the nasty rebels assassinating one of the top leaders of the nicer rebels and consolidating control over the disputed territory. So much of the debate about Syria is a debate about "how"? We are in real danger of skipping over the more important questions: "Why?" and "For whose benefit?" Read more … David Frum, a CNN contributor, is a contributing editor at The Daily Beast. He is the author of eight books, including a new novel, "Patriots," and a post-election e-book, "Why Romney Lost." Frum was a special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002. Newt Gingrich: Syria is distraction from real U.S. challenges President Barack Obama did the right thing in going to Congress for a debate and a vote on a proposed national security action. He could have followed precedent set by presidents of both parties and launched missiles under his powers as commander in chief. In an America tired by 12 years of continuous warfare (the longest in our history), however, it was wise to engage the American people through their elected representatives in the Congress. Unfortunately, the president picked the wrong topic on which to have a national debate. Launching a few missiles at Syria is a tactical action that will not change history. Obama has already pledged that he is seeking a limited engagement and is not trying to replace the dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad. Read more … Newt Gingrich is the new co-cost of CNN's "Crossfire," which makes its debut on Monday. Opinion: GOP shouldn't bail out Obama's floundering foreign policy Rand Paul: Obama, don't rush into war From a strategic standpoint, there are three questions that should always be asked and sufficiently answered before going to war: What is the U.S. national interest? What is the military objective? What is the exit strategy? Concerning Syria, these questions not only haven't been answered, they haven't even been asked. War should never be treated as a crapshoot. Our troops deserve better. America deserves better. Read more … Rand Paul, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Kentucky. Fareed Zakaria: Obama team has mishandled Syria I don't think that this strike, should it eventually take place, will be as damaging as its critics fear. The al-Assad regime will likely hunker down, take it and move on. It will make little difference one way or the other. But the manner in which the Obama administration has first created and then mismanaged this crisis will, alas, cast a long shadow on America's role in the world. Read more … Fareed Zakaria is the host of GPS, which airs Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN. Peter Bergen: Obama, a realist and risk-taker We can be sure that in the next days, the administration will make the argument that if you let Syria take a pass on its large-scale and repeated use of chemical weapons, you can forget any chance of slowing or ending Iran's nuclear program, something that is a matter of great importance for much of the Republican Party. For those on the left of the Democratic Party in Congress who are generally skeptical of U.S. military actions, Obama can essentially ask, "If not now, when?" At what point will self-described liberals intervene to stop the use of weapons so vile that they have been banned by the civilized world for almost a century? Read more … Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, a director at the New America Foundation and the author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden – From 9/11 to Abbottabad." Laurie Garrett: Chemical weapons are a nightmare for Syrians According to Vice President Joe Biden, there is "no doubt" that chemical weapons were used by the regime – and not, as the al-Assad government has claimed, by rebel forces. The victims suffered terrible and painful deaths. Many experts are concluding that most likely, a nerve agent such as sarin was deployed. Sarin is a type of organophosphate, a class of chemicals used for making herbicides, insecticides and nerve gases. The effects of sarin and other organophosphates on the human body are profound and shocking and can be long-lasting. Some exposures have left the surviving victims paralyzed for weeks, with perhaps permanent liver malfunctions and lingering neurological dysfunctions. Organophosphates disintegrate in a matter of hours. But during their comparatively brief period of volatile danger, the deadly molecules can pass through human skin, nostrils, lungs and eyes to enter the bloodstream and then the brain. If enough of it gets inside the brain to saturate the nervous system, an agonizing death follows. Read more … Laurie Garrett is senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Opinion: The only road to peace in Syria Alex Castellanos: GOP shouldn't bail out Obama's floundering foreign policy Our president is lost at sea again, in an ocean of equally bad options. This president is an intellectual. He seems to believe war is the failure of lesser minds to find a reasonable alternative. Does President Barack Obama take America to war in Syria when, by disposition, such barbarism is not in him? Or does our president do nothing, permitting the continued slaughter of innocents while Bashar al-Assad dances across the bright "red line" painted by the leader of the free world? Bad options all around. It was not out of character for this uncertain man to leave even his cherished golf game to reverse the course his secretary of state charted only 24 hours before. Read more… Alex Castellanos, a CNN contributor, is a Republican consultant and the co-founder of Purple Strategies. Follow him on Twitter: @alexcast David Gergen and Michael Zuckerman: On Syria, Obama must show strong grip For Obama, it is also possible that the delay for a congressional vote will one day be seen as tactically shrewd. Already, he is receiving more help internationally. Saudi Arabia has come out publicly for military action, the Arab League has toughened its stance, and the NATO secretary general has now called for punishment of the al-Assad regime for using chemical weapons. Obama's trip to the G-20 next week gives him a chance to round up more support. But there is no doubt that he and his team still have a lot of work to do to convince the skeptics, and nowhere is that more important than with the American public. Members of Congress know full well how uneasy many of their constituents are. They will soon be demanding that the president win over more of the public as a price for their own support. There is a good chance we will hear an address from the Oval Office on the eve of congressional voting. Read more .. David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has been an adviser to four presidents. He is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Follow him on Twitter. Michael Zuckerman, David Gergen's former research assistant, is on staff at the Kennedy School and will be entering Harvard Law School. Patrick M. Regan: Syria strike would put peace further out of reach An attack on the Syrian military by the United States would send a message to al-Assad, but it is not clear if Obama has any strategic objective beyond that. Whether he has such a plan or not, any U.S. attack will have implications for the civil war, no matter how much Obama says otherwise. Read more… Patrick M. Regan is a professor of peace studies and political science at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. He is the author of "Civil Wars and Foreign Powers" (University of Michigan Press, 2000) and "Sixteen Million One" (Paradigm, 2009), which examines the causes, consequences and possible solutions to civil wars. William Hartung: Don't use Syria to pump up Pentagon spending Using Syria as an excuse to hold off on Pentagon cuts would be an endorsement of the tens of billions of dollars in waste that exist in the current Department of Defense budget. And it would postpone a long overdue reshaping of the U.S. military to address a world increasingly dominated by non-traditional threats like cyber-attacks, climate change, epidemics of disease, and the spread of nuclear weapons. Read more… William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. Follow him on Twitter: @WilliamHartung Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.


text:
Take a walk through the past, back to 2005, along the streets of Orange County, CA. What would you see?
That was then. This is now.
That bustling, happy Orange County is not so healthy anymore. The bitter dry wind that blew through in the form of the 2008 financial crisis changed things. Tremendously affected was the real estate market, and a turnaround in residential real estate is something the entire county dreams about.
When people dream, there is no lack of peddlers promising to make those fancies come true. So dream peddlers now abound in the county, pointing to blue skies, and rainbows to reassure the people that good times are here again. But, pink clouds, and blue skies s don't change mathematical facts, and the dismal facts are what led to the downturn.
The facts are that the bubble in housing, the credit boom connected to housing, the massive numbers of borrowers qualifying for home purchases were illusory and unsustainable.
Much as we might like to dream of a return to Orange County halcyon days, we live in the present and must face reality. Back away from Orange County dreaming for a moment, and let's talk about that.
Things are getting better are they not? Haven't we heard that, here in Orange County, inventory is low and resulting in higher sales prices? Isn't the complaint from realtors that there are buyers, but not enough sellers? Hasn't this lack of inventory even resulted in multiple offers and sale prices higher than list? And isn't that supply and demand imbalance and reaction a sign of improving market conditions?
Actually, no, this recent drop in inventory is not a good sign.
According to Zillow's last numbers, nearly 16 million American homeowners are underwater, which equates to 1.2 trillion dollars worth of mortgages. Being underwater will shut the door on any future plan of selling one's house unless you want to short sale the home or just walk away from it. This isn't a healthy reality in housing and wasn't the case back in Orange County, 2005. This large pool of underwater homes is another reason home sales are much lower than in 2005, in spite of the much lower interest rates of today.
Secondly, homeowners who don't have a strong reason to sell aren't likely to sell into a market with depressed prices. Some want to hold off making any kind of move, until the market prices have gotten better.
This is contrary to a healthy market in which there are a number of reasons people choose to sell (as opposed to a forced short sale or foreclosure). Reasons to sell in a healthy climate include moves for job relocations , a desire to move up into a larger home or, for those nearing retirement, into a smaller home. For now, these sellers are waiting on the sidelines.
What this has meant is lower inventory. Laws of supply and demand still apply, so that if supply is lower than demand, prices will rise. Since supply has dried up, even though demand is weak, supply is even weaker. Hence, a rise in home sale prices year over year.
This recent rise in home prices has dream peddlers calling for the market turnaround and the start of a bull market in housing.
That imbalance between supply and demand would be cause for cheer in a normal market, but a normal market is not what we have.
In a healthy market, we would not see actions being taken by the NAR and California state congressmen who are trying to block Freddie and Fannie REO bulk sales for rentals. And whereas before, nobody was calling for this, now the cry now is to bring the foreclosure homes onto the market.
Nor would we see realtors knocking on doors with the suggestion to homeowners that they short sell their house, in order to take advantage of new short sale rules . Today this is not an uncommon occurrence. Is this effort to create inventory in such a manner a sign of a healthy market? No, it is not.
Actions like the above, taken in order to create market inventory, outside of the normal market forces, creates a propped up housing sector that looks clumsy and inefficient. When we abandoned all market principles in housing, this type of chaotic mad behavior is what we have to deal with.
I remember Orange County in 2005 very well and can assure you, the housing market today bears no resemblance to the market in 2005. FHA loans weren't popular, we didn't have a shadow inventory, rates weren't as low as they are today, there were no ideas for bulk sales for rentals and real estate agents weren't asking you to short sale your home. Please don't be fooled into thinking that the low inventory is a strong housing indicator. It is a by-product of a dysfunctional housing market, leading to multiple bids on a limited number of homes. Organic sellers have become ghosts, and there are yet long delays in getting distrssed homes into the market.
Logan Mohtashami is a senior loan officer at his family owned mortgage company AMC Lending Group, which has been providing mortgage services for California residents since 1988. Logan is also a financial columnist for Benzinga.com and contributor for BusinessInsider.com
If you can't attend the Traders Expo Dallas in person, attend the eTradingExpo LIVE from your computer June 7 – 8, 2012!
(c) 2012 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Tags: California, Housing Market, Orange County, Real Estate
Posted in: Psychology, Topics, Economics, Markets, General, Best of Benzinga

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Thanks for signing up for restock notifications!
There was an error signing up for restock notifications. Please try again.
Cuff Me Icon Mono, Col. 14 by Hamburger Liebe-Albstoffe
$ 12.75 $ 10.00
Designed by Hamburger Liebe for Albstoffe.
The Cuff Me's open up countless new design possibilities and limitless creativity for you and your customers. The cuff fabric is perfect for cuffs of T-shirts & pullovers and much more.
95% certified organic cotton, 5% elastane. Sold in units measuring 1.4 m long by 7 cm tall. OEKO TEX 100 certified free from harmful substances.
Made in Europe.


text:
Thank you for your patience while we retrieve your images.
Key Bridge Marriott Wedding-Arlington Virginia-Rodney Bailey Photography
Rodney Bailey Wedding & Event Photography
"Key Bridge Marriott Wedding"
Arlington Virginia
Monumental photographs?
Have your heart set on wedding day photographs in front of the monuments on or near the Mall? Then choose a venue for your wedding in a DC neighborhood near the monuments, preferably in Foggy Bottom, downtown or Capitol Hill. If you are not getting married nearby to the monuments, those photographs may not work with your wedding day schedule. You will need to plan at least double the amount of time you might expect for travel as traffic can be unpredictable. The last thing you want is the extra stress of possibly being late to your ceremony or reception.
Searching for the perfect reception?
Hotels, restaurants or Clubs, which provide all in one service and facilities many times can be less expensive, and relieve you of the stress of coordinating the wedding reception.
Be sure you see the room or locations where the reception will take be.Have the room name, or description, written on your contract to confirm the area you will be using.
Manor homes or gardens can offer more flexibility with regard to personal desires and time schedules. However, the task of coordinating is on you, and may require the assistance of a wedding coordinator.
Interview a few caterers and reception location managers; compare the cost and and services provided
When comparing cost of different locations, don¡¯t forget to add in the cost of rental equipment, such as tables, chairs, glasses, plates, silver and serving dishes, if you are considering a location that has none of these items included.
Photography by Rodney Bailey
© Photojournalism by Rodney Bailey
Photojournalism by Rodney Bailey
Client Access
Enter your Gallery ID:
1133 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
United States
send message
Powered by
User Agreement


text:
Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice. In particular the Mexican Street Corn Salad took my interest. It was something fun to make with the corn in the fridge. And I had yoghurt, the lime, the avocado and some tofu feta. I wanted it less creamy, less spicy and to use the gnocchi I had in the pantry. Mine looked like a distant cousin of the Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice salad.
More fusion pasta dishes at Green Gourmet Giraffe:
- Immunity boost spaghetti
- Red Russian pasta
- Spaghetti pie
- Vegetarian enchilada pasta bake
- Zucchini and noodle slice
Gnocchi with Mexican Corn
An original recipe by Green Gourmet Giraffe
Serves 4
3-4 tbsp olive oil, divided
kernels of 3 cobs of corn
500g packaged gnocchi
2 spring onions, sliced
1 handful parsley (or fresh coriander), finely chopped
1 tbsp hot sauce (I used Franks)
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1-2 pinches of chilli powder
1 avocado, diced
1/4 cup tofu feta or feta
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes or parmesan
juice of 1-2 limes
2 dessertspoons plain yoghurt
To serve:
Refried beans
Plain yoghurt
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat in a large frypan and fry for a few minutes or until the corn until cooked. (Alternatively you could BBQ or roast the corn if you had time.) Remove cooked corn from frypan and set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the frypan. Fry gnocchi for about 5 minutes or until cooked and soft with some crispy edges from frying. Add more oil if needed. Return corn to frypan with spring onions, parsley, hot sauce, smoked paprika, salt and chilli powder. Stir for a minute or so to heat through. Stir in remaining ingredients and remove from heat. Check seasoning.
Serve gnocchi with refried beans, lettuce and extra yoghurt.
On the stereo:
Live Concert Recordings: The Dead: Dec 30 and New Year's Eve Oakland CA. (The Grateful Dead)


text:
Home Page Chess Life Online 2010 September Mauricio Flores Wins U.S. Class
|Mauricio Flores Wins U.S. Class
|By Franc Guadalupe
|October 5, 2010
GM Mauricio Flores, a second-year student at University of Texas at Brownsville, was the big winner at this weekend's U.S. Class Championships, held in Houston, Texas. Going into the last round, he was a full point ahead of the field and his fifth-round draw against fellow UTB student and top seed GM Timur Gareyev clinched the title for Mauricio. This was a hard-fought, 40-move game among teammates, as Timur had a chance to tie for first with a win.
For his efforts, Mauricio, originally from Valparaiso, Chile, earned the Champion's plaque and the $1,200 check! See two of his critical wins, over University of Texas at Dallas graduate Keaton Kiewra and UTD student IM Salvijus Bercys.
Seven other Class Champions were crowned in Houston.
Masters Champion -
GM Mauricio Flores (4.5/5)
Experts Champion -
Mark Dejmek (4.5/5)
Class A Champion -
Frank Brack (4.5/5)
Class B Champion -
Donald Briggs, Jr (4.5), on tie-breaks over Don Burrus.
Class C Champion -
Josh Pruett (5/5!)
Class D Champion -
Ted Ingram (4.5/5), on tie-breaks over Malik Coleman.
Class E Champion -
John Warren (5/5!)
Unrated Division Champion -
Mario Acero (5/5!)
The Scholastic winners were:
K-12 - Nathan John (4.5/5)
K-9 - Nick Troutman, Nancy Zhou, Vishnu Thiagarajan, Yovanni Cervantes, and Brian Chau (4/5)
K-6 - Vikram Mullick (4.5/5)
K-3 - Zachary Guo (5/5!)
The U.S. Class was held at the Hilton Houston Hobby Airport Hotel, the site of this year's record-breaking U.S. Junior Open.
The main event attracted 234 players and an additional 105 students played in the Scholastic event. With four Grandmasters and six International Masters in attendance, it was probably the strongest U.S. Class ever. The games were hard-fought and full of excitement. Also exciting to the players was the fact that inasmuch as we had 195 full-paid entries, we paid 100 percent ($10,750) of the b/200 full-paid entries prize fund. All players in the Unrated and Class E divisions, and Juniors in the Class C and D paid a reduced rate. Also in attendance, as a player, was the Executive Director of the USCF, Mr. Bill Hall. A last-round defeat cost Bill a share of second place among Experts, but he still finished with a respectable 3/5.
For the rated results, please see the USCF MSA page. Also keep your eye on this link for the list of winners and prizes.
The event was organized and directed by Franc Guadalupe. Susan Breeding was the Floor Chief and Leonard Fusselman assisted her. Many of the top games were transmitted live and are available on Monroi. Luis Salinas from the Dallas Chess Club took care of the Monroi transmission and assisted on the floor.


text:
Global dairy prices are off 20 to 30 percent from their spring 2011 peaks as swelling milk production worldwide has turned supply deficits into surpluses. As a result, rising inventories are expected to keep downward pressure on international dairy markets in the second half of 2012, according to presenters at the U.S. Dairy Export Council's (USDEC) spring Board of Directors and Membership Meeting May 2 in Chicago. The meeting attracted a record turnout – a reflection of the broad understanding of the need to operate more effectively in international markets.Current soft conditions are "a painful re-affirmation that market cycles will continue, even as demand, over time, outstrips supply," said USDEC president Tom Suber.
"In fact, it's this period of temporary retrenchment that many of our work programs are intended to address."
USDEC marketing, technical and research activities are supported by U.S. dairy producers through their checkoff program.
Suber urged U.S. suppliers to protect volume and market share gains accrued in 2010-11. "We can't take the hit and balance the world market through our own inventories every time supply and demand run into an imbalance," he said.
Speakers at USDEC's 16th annual spring board meeting emphasized that although challenges to U.S. global dairy growth remain, ongoing USDEC trade policy and market access efforts continue to bear fruit.
The March implementation of the South Korea FTA, the upcoming entry into force of U.S. FTAs with Colombia and Panama, progress on regaining market access to Russia (spurred by its accession to the WTO), and further steps to iron out the Chinese health certificate all bode well for U.S. dairy export efforts.
The imminent launch of eTDE, a system for electronic transmittal of export documentation, will facilitate smoother transactions.
USDEC is also leading U.S. dairy industry efforts to extract maximum benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement talks.
The negotiating text includes provisions to tame the spread of non-tariff trade barriers that currently hinder trade. On the other hand, sharing a free-trade agreement with the artificially distorted dairy industry structure in New Zealand is problematic, Suber said.
"USDEC supports TPP, especially as the prospect grows for the inclusion of Japan and Canada.
"Yet, it's also gratifying that the U.S. government is paying close attention to our concerns over the unbalanced market advantage the New Zealand government has provided to Fonterra," he explained.
"Fonterra has tried to trivialize this issue, but its special pricing privileges – which would in fact increase under proposed structural changes in New Zealand – enable Fonterra to cherry-pick the highest value markets.
"Wide-open, unrestricted bilateral trade between New Zealand and the United States is simply inappropriate under that set of rules."
Pricing soft for now
In the meantime, near-term market conditions are challenging.
Spurred by near-perfect weather and strong farmgate prices, milk production from the five major exporters (the European Union, U.S., New Zealand, Australia and Argentina) is up more than 3 percent in the current production season (beginning June 2011), USDEC says.
"International demand has proved insufficient to soak up all the increased surplus generated in export regions," added Rabobank analyst Tim Hunt.
"More milk is being channeled into storable commodities as a result, and there are some early signs of stock accumulation as the spring flush builds in the EU and United States."
On the plus side, however, import demand has held up well and the import market "has shown exceptional depth," Hunt said.
Last year, when the world's largest dairy buyers Algeria, China and Russia collectively pulled back in the second half, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and others more than made up for their absence.
Hunt expects market conditions to improve in late 2012 or early 2013 as the supply balance improves. "Structural growth trends remain intact," he said.
The spring board meeting also provided an opportunity for USDEC members and staff to begin formulating their 2013-15 Business Plan. A number of key assumptions will go into the plan:
- Lower GDP and food inflation will slow dairy demand, but growth remains positive and resilient.
- Inventory will overhang the market into 2013.
- A weaker Euro is increasing returns to EU suppliers in the export market (vs. the internal market).
- Prices will remain under pressure, and U.S. commodity trade will remain exposed.
- Food and beverage companies' interest in enhanced nutrition through dairy ingredients will increase.
USDEC's fall Board of Directors and Membership Meeting will be held October 18-19 in Washington, D.C., where the rolling three-year Business Plan will be approved by the membership. PD
—From U.S. Dairy Export Council news release


text:
short text here
song title list
There are no reviews yet.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Your review *
Name *
Email *
Notify me of new posts by email.
This is a demo store for testing purposes — no orders shall be fulfilled. Dismiss


text:
Bluetooth watches that sync up to phones aren't anything new, but this iWatch concept does what all the rest fail dismally at—look beautiful. It figures then that it's just a concept, cooked up by an Italian design firm.
ADR Studio has "tried to imagine a new Apple style product," called the iWatch. It has an aluminum casing, with 16GB of internal storage and connects to iPhones or iPads by Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It could answer calls that come through on the iPhone in your pocket, or display RSS feeds, weather or photos. An inbuilt pico projector for beaming photos and video sounds awesome but my wrist feels sore already just thinking of being held up in order to project a full movie.
It's definitely one of the most fun and beautiful Apple concepts I've seen in a long time, and manages to shit all over the last iWatch concept we saw from a few years ago. [ADR Studio via iPhoniPad via Technabob]


text:
Catoctin Creek Distillery, Old 690 Brewing Company and Mad Horse Brewpub
$39 for transportation + $38.32 for tasting fees = $77.32total per person
The Tour begins at Catoctin Creek, the first distillery in Loudoun since before prohibition, where you can sample — and purchase! — their lineup of award-winning spirits. The next stop is Old 690 Brewing Company, Hillsboro, VA's oldest brewery- newly opened on Loudoun County's Brew Trail. While at Old 690 grab some lunch at the food truck that they have on site. We then head to Mad Horse Brewpub, Lovettsville's only brewery which brings the craft- brew/micro-brew experience to Northern Virginia.
Food Options: Catered boxed lunches are available to purchase for $15. Your lunch will contain a choice of sandwich or salad served with chips, a pickle spear and a fresh-baked cookie. All sandwiches come with lettuce, tomato, red onion and provolone cheese. All condiments are provided on the side, lunches are provided as is.
Additionally, there will be food menus available at the 2nd and 3rd stops on this trip!
Choose your closest pickup location and relax as you get a taste of the Loudoun brew scene without worrying about driving, traffic, or parking. Bring your growlers to fill at any of the breweries or purchase one there – we will have coolers on the bus to keep them chilled!
Please make sure to arrive at least 15 minutes early to allow time for boarding the vehicle
11:45 AM Depart West Falls Church Metro station (Kiss & Ride Loop side off of Haycock Road)
12:20 PM Depart Dulles Town Center Mall (lower level, in between JCPenney & Lord & Taylor)
1:00 PM 1st stop: Catoctin Creek
2:15 PM 2nd stop: Old 690 Brewing Co.
4:00 PM 3rd stop: Mad Horse Brewpub
5:00 PM Depart Mad Horse Brewpub
5:45 PM Arrive Dulles Town Center Mall
6:15 PM Arrive West Falls Church Metro station
*Please note times are approximate and may vary slightly due to traffic, weather or other factors. Times noted are departure times please make sure to arrive at least 15 minutes early to allow time for boarding the vehicle.
Passengers must join the tour at the pickup location they indicated when booking the trip, and they will be dropped off at that same location on the return leg. If all passengers are being picked up at only 1 location, the bus will not proceed to the 2nd location. If you are changing the location of your pickup, you must inform us by calling the Dispatch Department, which can be reached 24/7 at 703.478.0911.
Please be aware that passengers are responsible for their own transportation if they leave the tour at any time or fail to get on the bus at the appointed departure times.
Please click here to view our Brew Tour Rules of Conduct and Policies; by completing your online reservation for this tour, you are agreeing to the Terms & Conditions.
Wineries and vehicles subject to change without notice.
Passenger minimum of 8 must be met by 12 p.m. Wednesday for trip to run. For questions, click here to email a brewery tour specialist.
*By purchasing this ticket I am confirming that I am 21 years or older.
** If you do not wish to purchase tasting fees due to special restrictions/accommodations such as pregnancy, please contact us at email@example.com
Bookings are closed for this event.


text:
Donald G. Saari is a mathematician. Remarkably, "Saari favors a [voting] method called the Borda count." (That was a quote from Dana Mackenzie [Discover Magazine November 2000].) I say "remarkably" because Saari is almost the only voting expert in the world who doesn't think Borda is a very bad voting method. But Saari is a rather prolific and publicity-hungry one, and thus, unfortunately, has an outsized impact on the popular mind.
Borda is worse than range voting in every way I can think of: less expressive, worse for honest voters, worse for strategic voters, extremely sensitive to voter-strategy, vulnerable to candidate cloning, more complicated both for the voter and for voting machines, severely fails irrelevant alternatives, and incentivizes "favorite-betrayal."
So what underlies Saari's view? We now go though various public statements by Saari, showing how they are wrong, miss the point, and/or work at least as well (or better) as a pro-range-voting argument than as a pro-Borda argument. We conclude at the end by showing there was one unified wrongheaded theme in all Saari's work.
Dana Mackenzie, SIAM News (21 October 2000) article on Don Saari's voting accomplishments: "According to Saari's analysis... If you think that the outcome for a profile with cyclic symmetry should be a tie (and everyone questioned by Saari has replied that it should), then you should choose a voting method based on rankings – in any such system, the candidates in a cyclic profile have the same number of firsts, seconds, and so forth. If you believe that the result for a profile with reversal symmetry should be a tie, then you should choose a voting method based on pairwise comparisons, like Condorcet's criterion. And if you think both of the above profiles should be ties? In that case you have one choice; the only voting method that can be expressed both as a ranking method and as a pairwise-competition method: the Borda count. Saari's proof of this fact is a tour de force of linear algebra..."
Saari again saying the same thing (Dana Mackenzie, Discover Magazine Nov 2000): "The reason voting procedures give us paradoxes and unwanted outcomes is that they do not respect the symmetries of data that give us ties," Saari says. Is there any system that would consistently declare the vote of Alice, Betty, and Cheryl a tie, and would do the same for Andrew and Bob? "Only one procedure does that," Saari says. "The Borda count." To prove his point, he published two 50-page papers on the Borda count in the January 2000 issue of the journal Economic Theory. END QUOTE.
Our response: Borda is the "only" such voting method? Wrong. Range voting is another. (Reversal symmetry for [0,1] range voting: x→1-x.) Saari's "proof" simply began by defining range voting as "not" a voting method at all, then proceeded to prove that Borda was the only voting method satisfying his criteria. It is easy to "prove" things by methods of that nature. For example, if I want to prove 1+1=5, I begin by defining 1 "not to be" a number. More precisely, Saari in this and other works, only considers the class of "weighted positional" voting systems, which is a tiny subclass of "rank order ballot" voting systems, which is a tiny subclass of all voting systems. Any results by Saari that Borda is the "best" voting system, or the "only" voting system with some property, mean, therefore, almost nothing. They are kind of like "proving" that milk is the "only" white substance, or the "whitest" substance, by as your first step declaring "we shall only consider liquid edible substances available at Shop-Rite."
Also, Schulze's beatpath Condorcet voting method is based on rank-order ballots, obeys reversal symmetry, and declares an exactly-symmetric cycle to be a tie. Oh gee. I guess that wasn't a "voting method" either.
In a recorded lecture distributed by the American Mathematical Society, Saari remarks that "lost information" is a top culprit behind lots of voting problems. For example if we ignore everything in a set of Borda votes except for the top rankings (i.e. we use plurality voting) that loses information. And that's terrible.
What Saari fails to remark (not only in this lecture, but indeed in all his published work so far): if we eliminate from a set of range votes, all strength information, we get Borda-style votes. So Saari's view is that losing information is terrible – except when that discussion makes Borda voting look bad, in which case he ignores it.
Saari has a pretty picture of 3-candidate Borda voting using an equilateral triangle ABC. You divide it into 6 congruent sub-triangles using angle bisectors. In each sub-triangle you write a number of votes. For example, if there are 5 "A>B>C" votes you write "5" in the subtriangle nearest to A and second-nearest to B. Borda voting consists then in just finding out where the "center of (numerical) mass" lies.
Nice picture.
Now with range voting, not all "A>B>C" votes are identical; some express greater strengths for some preferences. That corresponds, in fact, to placing a point in the cube [0,1]3, located at coordinates (a,b,c). If you look along the 1,1,1 direction then you see a two-dimensional picture of this, which is how Saari got his 2D picture. We can do that for range voting too; then a range vote is a point at (a-μ, b-μ, c-μ), where μ=(a+b+c)/3. This lies in the projection-plane X+Y+Z=0. Then range voting again just takes the center of mass to find out who won the election. We can do this all inside the 2D plane. Saari's set of possible Borda votes is 6 points forming the corners of a regular hexagon (shown pink). In contrast, the set of possible range votes is a solid regular hexagon, i.e. including the whole interior, not just its 6 isolated corners. (If you look at a cube along its diagonal, you see a regular hexagon as its silhouette.)
So with range voting we get a just-as-nice geometrical interpretation, with exactly the same symmetries. Saari forgot to mention that.
The top criticism of Borda voting is its horrible reaction to strategic voters. Borda himself is reported to have cried in frustration that his voting system was "designed for honest men."
To make this clearer: given that A and B are the two "frontrunners" most-likely to win, you are "wasting" some portion of your Borda vote if you do anything other than ranking them "top" and "bottom." In particular in a 12-candidate field if you (honestly) rate them top and 2nd-top, then you are a strategic idiot with over 10× less voting power than such an exaggerator. But if you decide not to waste over 90% of your vote, then you are being extremely dishonest about B, misordering him with respect to every candidate other than A. (And you have no choice about that because the rules of the Borda system force all that misordering. It's the same "fool versus idiot" choice you get with the "lesser evil dilemma" of plain plurality voting, writ larger.) So Borda incentivizes massive voter dishonesty, often resulting in extremely bad election results. In contrast, with range voting, a strategic AB-exaggerator would not be forced to misorder B with respect to anybody and thus would produce a far-more-honest vote without "wasting" any power. The change in rules from Borda to range voting thus may seem minor, but it has a far-reaching effect as far as its interaction with strategic voters is concerned.
When asked about this by William Poundstone (quoted in his 2008 book Gaming the Vote), Saari explained that the reaction of a voting system to honest voters has to be pre-eminent in our considerations, while the reaction to strategic voters must be secondary.
But how did Saari know that? Maybe strategic voters are more important. This is simply an opinion by Saari with no justification offered. And in the field of voting (as Saari himself repeatedly explains throughout his works) intuition is a poor guide.
How can we look at this more objectively? Several ways:
Hypothetical USA 2000 election using Borda (this quoted from Mackenzie's 2000 Discover article on Saari): How would McCain, Bush, and Gore have fared in a general election under the Borda count? The Sacramento Bee poll, plus the official tallies for California's open primary, offers a clue. According to the Bee's results, McCain would have beaten Gore 48 to 43, and Gore would have beaten Bush 51 to 43. But could McCain have beaten Bush among all voters, not just Republicans? Here's one way to figure it out. In the California primary, 60 percent of Republicans voted for Bush and 35 percent voted for McCain. We can assume that those percentages would have stayed the same had they been slated to run against each other in November. On the Democratic side, nearly 800,000 voters broke party ranks in March's primary to vote for Republicans. Of these, 64 percent voted for McCain and 31 percent voted for Bush. Again, the simplest thing to do is assume that the entire Democratic party would have split the same way if they were forced to choose between those two candidates in November.
So in our hypothetical Bush-McCain race, Bush would win by 60 to 35 among the Republican voters, and McCain would win by 64 to 31 among the Democratic voters. Overall, McCain would beat Bush, 50 percent to 45 percent. (To arrive at those figures I first added together each candidate's percentage of the Democratic and Republican vote [60 and 31 for Bush, 64 and 35 for McCain] and divided by 2.) To see how all three candidates would do under the Borda count, we add up the results of the head-to-head matchups:
Hence, in California at least, McCain would have been the Borda count winner. END QUOTE.
Hypothetical France 2007 election using Borda: Essentially the same kind of calculation, with the same error, was done by Prof. Bruce P. Conrad [Jan. 2008 essay "How should we count the votes" on the American Math'l Society web site], now concerning the 2007 French Presidential election. Officially, the top 3 finishers in this election were Sarkozy, Royal, and Bayrou, in that descending order. Conrad knew the official Sarkozy:Royal runoff was won 53-47 by Sarkozy. He also knew from IFOP polls about hypothetical 2-candidate runoffs that Bayrou would have beaten Sarkozy 55-45 and Royal 58-42. Hence he concluded Bayrou would have won if France had run its election using Borda count:
What's wrong with both those calculations? The problem was there were not just 3 candidates. In France 2007 there were 12 candidates. Voting "A>B>C" giving A,B,C Borda scores 2,1,0 is not realistic. Really it'd be (say) this vote "A>x>y>q>z>m>r>s>t>B>u>C" giving them 11,2,0. Or something else. It all depends how the voters rate the other 9 candidates. Those other 9 candidates are not a "minor neglectible" effect. They are "the dominant" effect. A voter who ranks Sarkozy, Bayrou, and Royal at the top of her ballot (the way Conrad supposes) is about 10 times less powerful than one who ranks one top and another bottom. The effect of the 10× more powerful voters swamps out the wimpy voters Conrad was considering. Hence, Conrad's conclusion that Bayrou would have been the Borda winner is unjustifiable. (Perhaps right, but not justifiable.)
So who would have been the Borda winner? Nobody knows. But I can guess. My guess is that the Royal supporters would have ranked Royal top with both her major rivals ranked bottom. That is because they would not have wanted to be 10× less powerful. (Royal would have urged her voters to be "powerful" on her behalf. Not "idiotic" on her behalf.) Similarly the Sarkozy voters would have ranked Sarkozy top with both his major rivals bottom. Finally, the Bayrou voters would have ranked Bayrou top with both his major perceived rivals bottom. And yes, there would have been some voters ranking all three top, but their effect on the election would have been comparatively about 10 times smaller per capita. If we suppose neglectibly smaller, then we can prove this conclusion: Neither Sarkozy, Bayrou, or Royal would have won with Borda voting, because all three would have had below-average Borda score!
In fact this is exactly what happened in my only personal experience with a high-stakes Borda vote (and a similar experience was reported by Salvador Barbera) and another example occurred in the only government known to have employed Borda voting, Kiribati. Also, note in France 2002 under the same postulated voter behavior, none of the Big Three would have been a "Condorcet Winner," although based on those polls Bayrou was a Condorcet winner with honest voting. Bayrou was the range voting winner, which is a good illustration of the counterintuitive fact that range voting actually can be more likely to elect Condorcet winners than Condorcet voting methods!
I repeat: I do not know whether this (all three losing with Borda) would have happened. It is just my guess. But I think you can now see it is at least a plausible guess.
This actually is an excellent illustration of two well-known major flaws – clone vulnerability and vulnerability to inserting and removing candidates – in Borda voting.
This kind of strategic voter exaggeration also would be highly impactful with range voting, but range voting, unlike Borda and Condorcet, would not have caused a "dark horse" to win. One of the Big Three still would have won. And in fact we have a pretty good guess who, because a range-voting exit poll was conducted, and Bayrou won it.
Saari in an April 2008 Radio Interview (I have an audio recording) claimed that had either approval voting or range voting been used in the Bush v. Clinton v. Perot US presidential election (1992), then Perot would have won. Saari then indicated this was crazy because clearly Perot was bad and/or unwanted by the USA. This in Saari's view was a big flaw in Approval Voting.
But polls say Saari was wrong: In fact, nationwide approval voting polls were done for this election by two polling organizations (Gallup and New York Times) independently! And a range voting poll was also done! Saari didn't mention all that. The combined poll results show Clinton would have won with both approval and range voting (and Clinton also won with the official plurality voting system). Here is the data:
Approval voting: We combine this New York Times telephone poll of 1854 US citizens (on 23 Oct. 1992) "Is your opinion of Ross Perot favorable, not favorable, undecided, or haven't you heard enough about him yet to have an opinion?" (same question also asked for Bush & Clinton) with the result of an independent Gallup telephone poll of 1579 US citizens (on 31 Oct. 1992) [almost identical question phrasing except "undecided" and "don't know" lumped into one]. The results (for all 3433 pollees; note some rows may not sum to exactly 100% due to integer twice-roundoff effects) are as follows:
|No opinion
|F/U Ratio
|H.Ross Perot
|William J. Clinton
Interestingly, note that no candidate got more "favorables" than "unfavorables." An academic paper by S.J.Brams and S.Merrill "Would Ross Perot have won the 1992 presidential election under approval voting?" PS: Political Science & Politics 27,1 (March 1994) 39-44 (pdf) also independently concluded, this time based on NES "thermometer" data, that Clinton would have won: they estimated Clinton 55%, Bush 49%, and Perot 42% approval.
Range Voting: (Market Facts Inc. telephone poll of 1000 US citizens on 18 Oct. 1992) "First I'd like to know how you feel about some of the presidential candidates. Use a 7 point scale where 7 means that you have an 'extremely favorable' impression, 1 means 'extremely unfavorable' and 4 means 'neither favorable nor unfavorable.' Of course, you can use any number between 1 and 7. How do you feel about Ross Perot?"
|H. Ross PEROT
|(don't know/refuse)
|Geo. H.W. BUSH
|(don't know/refuse)
|Wm.J. CLINTON
|(don't know/refuse)
|Their votes
So by Saari's very own "optimality" criterion, range voting is better than Borda voting.
But Saari did not mention that. (And his "proof" began by defining Range Voting "not to be" a voting system.)
Incidentally, another interesting analysis [Davide P. Cervone, Wm. V. Gehrlein, Wm. S. Zwicker: Which scoring rule maximizes Condorcet Efficiency?, Theory & Decision 58 (2005) 145-185] asks which WPV system maximizes the chance of electing a "Condorcet winner." Surprisingly (and contrary to a previous wrong article) the answer is not the Borda count. See puzzle #88.
One might, therefore, by analogy, speculate that some other voting system than range voting – specifically, involving some monotonic but nonlinear pre-transformation of vote-scores – would be better than plain range voting by this measure (with some utility-generator probabilistic model). However, that does not happen because with range voting any voter is free to perform any such transformation already. Thus plain range voting, if all voters "honestly and altruistically" decided to behave that way, would automatically maximize this (or any other) quality measure over the whole space of transformations. (This remark would, presumably, actually yield even better range voting "Bayesian regret" scores for honest voters than the ones measured, which already were better than all common-rival voting systems.) Meanwhile with Borda, voters cannot effectively "change the rules" in this way; they are stuck with Borda weights.
Saari has his own version of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, and a way to redo it so that Borda is the only voting system the (revised) conditions allow. We now explain that and explain why it is stupid.
Here's Saari's wording of Arrow's theorem:
THEOREM (Arrow): If #candidates≥3 and #voters≥2 then any voting system obeying all these conditions must be a "dictatorship" (meaning a single voter, the "dictator," exists who has the power to decide who wins regardless of what the other voters do).
Saari then considers replacing assumption #3a with his alternative SAARI-ASSUMPTION-3a: The societal ranking of any pair A,B is determined solely by how the voters rank that pair and by the number of candidates they rank between A,B.
CONCLUSION (Saari): With this revision, Borda voting obeys all the conditions, and if a few extra assumptions also are added (the "anonymity" assumption that all voters are equivalent, is one; he says the others are "technical") Saari concludes Borda is the only voting system satisfying these assumptions.
Why this is stupid: Saari is specifically artificially constructing his axiom to get Borda out, rather than constructing reasonable axioms and then seeing what results. His SAARI-ASSUMPTION-3a is preposterous because it is not something we want a voting system to obey, it is something we want a voting system to disobey! Several papers have been written about how immunity to candidate cloning is a desirable property of a voting system. But here Saari is specifically demanding that the voting system be vulnerable to cloning, unlike the previous authors who (more reasonably!) had demanded exactly the opposite.
In other words, Saari just proved Borda is a uniquely bad voting system. But he then failed to cite or mention all of the previous anti-clone authors (e.g. his book Decisions and Elections fails to cite Tideman or mention the whole cloning concept!??) and thus regarded Borda as a "success."
Saari's revised condition 3a is, of course, actually the introduction of an estimate of preference strength. The problem is that it regards "number of candidates" as preference strength. If we genuinely introduce preference strength, you get range voting. Indeed, in a paper by Dhillon and Mertens which Saari as usual failed to mention or cite, a revised version of Arrow's conditions, this time reasonable, is used to show that (normalized) range voting is the unique voting system obeying the conditions. Also, range voting obeys Arrow's original "impossible" conditions with some authors' wordings (but not Saari's wording) of the theorem. And Range voting is cloneproof. Saari fails to mention any of that.
The tongue-in-cheek heading here is based on a paper Saari authored "Is approval voting an unmitigated evil?".
The answer (to both questions!) is "no." Saari has good points. When he proves a theorem, it is usually a valid theorem.
But counterexamples exist. E.g. see puzzle 46(a) for an apparently false theorem "proved" by Saari; Saari would not have made this error had he done some computer simulations, but he seems allergic to them. Saari's section 7.2.1 of part II of his January 2000 Economic Theory paper is entirely wrong. It describes (in a way hard to follow unless you understood the whole rest of his development) how to construct N-candidate IRV (instant runoff) elections which are "basic profiles" (i.e. all weighted positional and all pairwise methods agree on the winner and on the finish order) where the IRV winner is the candidate they all rank last, and the IRV elimination order is exactly their finish order, i.e. IRV is maximally insane in the view of all these other voting methods. Saari's construction is inductive on N. The only problem is that his whole claim is false for every N: Proof: IRV cannot eliminate the plurality-voting winner in the first IRV round (and plurality is a weighted positional voting method). Q.E.D. It would be interesting to know what (if anything) can be salvaged from Saari's line of reasoning.Saari sometimes proves some quite difficult and powerful theorems too. He has ability. His voting books are usually pretty fun to read and have educational value. We are just warning the reader to keep in mind the defects of Saari's work, which unfortunately also are numerous. Specifically, his books are neither complete nor unbiased. They indeed – and to a degree which can be absolutely absurd – fail to cite notions and papers showing results which do not conveniently fit into his biased worldview.
Reviewing the above, there is a unified theme. Saari spent his entire voting-research career solving the wrong problems. Sometimes he did so quite impressively (but so what?). And then, once he'd gotten the idea in his head that Borda was the best voting system, he often ignored and refused to cite (large) evidence to the contrary. If other experts wrote to him who had different views, Saari would insult them and refuse to have anything to do with them. (I know, because I personally experienced this, and I keep encountering others who have experienced the same treatment.) That's sad.
What do we mean by "wrong problems"? The right problem is: what is the best voting method? The way to measure "best" is: Bayesian Regret. This is a large framework within which somebody like Saari could have worked.
As far as I can tell (2008), in Saari's entire (large) publication record, he has never mentioned Bayesian Regret. Ever. Not to praise it, not to criticize it, not to use it at all. I see no evidence he even knows what it is. Indeed, Saari stated during his April 2008 radio appearance he had never read my paper on the subject, despite me bringing it to his attention years previously and him telling me what an idiot I was for writing that paper.
Therefore, without the right yardstick for measuring voting system quality, Saari was forced to employ other, wrong, yardsticks. (Not once in his entire opus did Saari ever make a serious comparative consideration of what a "good yardstick" even would be. As far as I can see, he simply assumed whatever felt intuitively interesting to him, must be a good one.) Examples of wrong yardsticks include: requiring "reversal symmetry." Or requiring a small "dictionary." Or demanding rank-order voting or demanding weighted-positional voting systems while ignoring all others for no reason. These all were moves Saari made at one point or another. Now reversal symmetry sounds good, and presumably has some correlation with something good. But it is not the right thing. And a small dictionary also presumably has some correlation with something good. But it too is not the right thing. (To make an analogy, it is something like deciding grocery store A is better than B because it stocks more kinds of food, while ignoring the quality, price, and demand for those foods. Some correlation with the right judgment? Yes. The right judgment? No. And if you define 90% of all grocery stores not to "be" grocery stores because they do not have a red sign, that makes things worse...) And no matter how many times Saari creates some odd definition of some measure of voting system goodness, and then tries to optimize it, and no matter how ingenious he is when he does so, it will still be solving the wrong problem unless he (one day) makes connection to the correct yardstick, Bayesian Regret. Which Saari, so far, apparently does not understand. One could conjecture that this is because Saari is uneducated about Bayesian statistics and utility theory, which is the area that formulates notions of what it is to be "best."
Not only did Saari employ the wrong yardstick, he also in most or all of his work, optimized that wrong yardstick within a teeny tiny subclass of all voting systems, the weighted positional systems. He then often, in public statements, pretended that subclass was actually the full class. That is simply false. Here is a recent example. In a 15 October 2008 interview of Saari in IndyWeek, Fiona Morgan asked
Q. What system would best reflect voters' views?
Saari's answer: This is a mathematical problem that took well over 200 years to be resolved. I solved it within the last several years. It turns out that the system that most accurately reflects the views of the voters is the Borda count.
That was Saari's full statement. It not only is undefined (what might "most accurately reflects" mean?) it also has the disadvantage of being false. To see that, consider for maximum simplicity, an election with only single voter. The voter with Borda rank-orders all the candidates, e.g. Bush=2, Nader=1, Gore=0. With Range Voting she provides scores for all candidates, e.g. Bush=9, Nader=8, Gore=0. Which is a "more accurate reflection" of the views of that one voter?
And again in a video-recorded lecture "Chaotic Elections" by Saari as the "Scope lecture" on 11 October 2008 at NC State University, he says at 46:46, "The Borda count is the unique choice where the outcomes reflect the voters' views." At 49:31 he was asked "Do I understand you right that a true fair election is to do it by the Borda count?" His answer: "Correct. The Borda count has some anomalies, but we know what they are and we know how to handle them. Any other procedure you have – any other procedure – there is a strong probability that you are going to have an outcome which does not satisfy any consistency statement... where the outcome just clearly is off." This answer by Saari is false and unjustified because his repeated-for-emphasis phrase "any other procedure" is false since his work only was able to consider an extremely tiny subset of all procedures, in particular excluding range voting.
What does Saari think of range voting? In the same lecture at 56:40, Saari was asked about strength of preference. The questioner indicated "Mother Teresa" might be a lot better than somebody, not just 'better,' and Borda offers no way for a voter to indicate that" (unlike range voting). Saari then responds that the system where you have 10 points and can allocate them any way you want (this vague description sounds like cumulative voting) is unbelievably bad. Why do we know it is bad? "Because a version of it was used in figure skating." (Strange: Saari now seems to be mentally switching from cumulative to range voting without realizing they differ? Or without realizing that this difference might be important?) Then Saari laughs and says "enough said." That was his full answer. However, I'm afraid I cannot agree with Saari that this answer suffices. Indeed, figure skating after switching away from range voting got repeatedly embarrassed by events in which A finished ahead of B... until C skated, at which point magically the system decided B was ahead of A. That problem cannot happen with either ordinary or trimmed-mean range voting but can and does happen with Borda. The figure skating association finally decided this "switcheroo" behavior was unacceptable, i.e. Borda was unacceptable, and they switched to another system designed to eliminate it. (However, the replacement was misdesigned and thus actually did not eliminate it, but that is another story.)
I've put this bluntly. At the bottom it is simple. Saari keeps solving the wrong problem in a teeny tiny (so tiny it is almost irrelevant) subclass of all voting systems. He is quite able at it. He then announces his solutions very loudly to all kinds of Media, publishes Books, and gets a lot of attention, all the while pretending he has solved The Great Problem open for 200 years of finding The Best Voting System, and wonder of wonders, it is the (embarrassingly bad) Borda system. He then repeats the process. Saari is by no means the only voting researcher who has solved problems and proved various voting systems "optimal" in various (also wrong) senses. Indeed, I think the Condorcet/Young optimality theorem for Condorcet voting is considerably more appealing than Saari's Borda theorems – the sense in which it is "optimal," which concerns "probability of electing the 'wrong' winner" rather than Bayesian Regret, is still wrong but seems closer to what matters than e.g, Saari's "dictionary size." Saari generally does it for Borda voting and the others for other voting systems (and then Saari generally refuses to cite those other works). Saari just tries to get, and gets, more attention than most.
Donald G. Saari:
A dictionary of voting paradoxes, Journal of Economic Theory 48,2 (1989) 443-475.
Explaining all Three-Alternative Voting Outcomes, J.Econ.Th. 87 (1999) 313-355.
Mathematical structure of voting paradoxes, I. Pairwise votes, Economic Theory 15,1 (2000) 1-53. II. Positional voting, Economic Theory 15,1 (2000) 55-102.
Decisions and Elections: Explaining the Unexpected, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Geometry of Voting, Springer Verlag, 1994.
Saari has published somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 papers on voting. But the papers listed above constitute (what apparently Saari regards as) his greatest accomplishment: they reach an essentially complete understanding of the full set of every logical "Saari-paradox-type" suffered by every weighted positional rank-order voting method (and his techniques also tell us quite a lot about paradox types in certain other kinds of rank-order-ballot voting methods too). Saari shows that every Saari-paradox-type suffered by the "Borda count" is also suffered by every weighted positional voting method, so that Borda is the one with the fewest paradox-types. Indeed, Saari shows that almost every weighted positional method suffers every thinkable kind of paradox. In the 3-candidate case, every weighted positional method except Borda suffers every thinkable kind of paradox (according to Saari's notion of what a "paradox-type" is – which is however an incomplete notion since for example non-monotonicity is a kind of paradox inadmissible as far as Saari's enumeration is concerned).


text:
Designed by Hermann Eidenbenz and issued by the Haas foundry in 1945–46. [Reichardt, Jaspert, MyFonts]
Among digital versions, Graphique-AR (ARType, 2007) is a closer match to the metal specimens from Jaspert and Stempel; while Ralph M. Unger's Graphique Pro (profonts, 2008) takes more liberties with the design (see the detached 'Q' tail, for instance, though this does appear in Haas' Sculptura) and has a larger character set. Graphique Pro is also wider than Graphique-AR, with a heavier outline. Graphique Pro Next by Jörn Oelsner (profonts, 2014) is an expansion with various styles (shaded, hatched, inline) made for layering.
Release Date
Graphique in use
Sort: Contribution Date ▼


text:
Welcome to Jörg Freyhof's webpage. Here you find actual news about ongoing projects, fieldwork, publications and my fishes. Also you find my CV here. You can browse through up to date checklists of freshwater fishes of Germany and Europe. Soon checklist for North Africa and the Middle East will be made availale also. My fish collection (FSJF) will be made available here in the near future.
Still not all parts of the webpage are completed as I work on it step by step. If some fields are empty, come again later to have a look. My webpage is regularly updated and all the time you might find new stuff added.


text:
[Pub.01hfm] Download :
Defy the Stars PDF
by Claudia Gray : Defy the Stars
ISBN : #0316394033 | Date : 2017-04-04
Description :
PDF-5e4f9 | From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Lost Stars and Bloodline comes a thrilling sci-fi adventure that Kass Morgan, bestselling author of The 100 series, calls "startlingly original and achingly romantic…nothing short of masterful."She's a soldier — Noemi Vidal is willing to risk anything to protect her planet, Genesis, including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she's… Defy the Stars
Download eBook Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray across multiple file-formats including EPUB, DOC, and PDF.
PDF: Defy the Stars
ePub: Defy the Stars
Doc: Defy the Stars
Follow these steps to enable get access Defy the Stars:
[Pub.78gbb] Defy the Stars PDF | by Claudia Gray
Defy the Stars by by Claudia Gray
This Defy the Stars book is not really ordinary book, you have it then the world is in your hands. The benefit you get by reading this book is actually information inside this reserve incredible fresh, you will get information which is getting deeper an individual read a lot of information you will get. This kind of Defy the Stars without we recognize teach the one who looking at it become critical in imagining and analyzing. Don't be worry Defy the Stars can bring any time you are and not make your tote space or bookshelves' grow to be full because you can have it inside your lovely laptop even cell phone. This Defy the Stars having great arrangement in word and layout, so you will not really feel uninterested in reading.
Read Online: Defy the Stars PDF


text:
Hardware and System Requirements
Rosegarden is a multi-purpose application whose hardware requirements differ markedly depending on what you're using it for. Editing, playing and recording MIDI and editing score are less resource-hungry than recording or playing audio. The use of multiple audio plugins or soft-synths will especially impact system performance.
System hardware
As this is a Linux application, the first requirement is for a PC capable of running Linux.
Any modern desktop or laptop and most netbooks should have sufficient processing power and RAM to meet Rosegarden's minimum requirements. However, Rosegarden is fairly memory-hungry, and can demand a lot of processing power, so the more you can throw at it, the more enjoyable your experience will be.
You will get far better performance from Rosegarden on any hardware if you use a Linux kernel that is optimised for real-time applications; the best way to achieve this depends on your choice of Linux distribution, but for many distributions the easiest thing is to look for a "multimedia repository", "multimedia distribution" or "audio overlay" tailored to your distribution and install a low-latency kernel from there.
Audio hardware
Rosegarden requires and uses the ALSA sound drivers to drive your soundcard. The Rosegarden project itself has no control over whether a card is supported or not: it depends entirely on whether the card has ALSA support. To find out whether your hardware will work with ALSA, look it up in the ALSA Soundcard Matrix.
Of course, if you're using an external MIDI device (sound module or keyboard) you'll also need the appropriate leads and cables.
Rosegarden runs on Linux, so you'll certainly need that.
Rosegarden requires the ALSA sound drivers for audio and MIDI support, and you will need the JACK audio server if you want to do audio sequencing, although it isn't necessary for MIDI.
If you intend to build Rosegarden from source, you will need to install a number of libraries. See the Get Dependencies wiki page for a list.
Please also consult the FAQ for more information.


text:
Fabrizio Santos Skater Profile
Sponsors: Breeze Creation
Hometown: Costa Mesa, CA, Stance: Regular, Age: 45, Status: Pro
Last Update: Tuesday, April 24, 2018 Submit an Update
In Stock Now With Immediate Shipping
Couldn't find any Fabrizio Santos products, but check out some random products from our Shop. Yeah, Fabrizio Santos probably shops here...
Fabrizio Santos Comments
Other Skater Links
- Full Skater Database - 6000+ skater profiles.
- Skateboarders on Instagram - browse your favorite pros and ams on Instagram.
- Skate News and Videos - daily skate news and videos from around the web.
- Media Coverage - we log all major magazine coverage by skater and photographer.
- Skate Photographers - we log all major magazine coverage by skater and photographer.
- Contest Results - over a decade's worth of contest history.


text:
Dr. Willem J. Kolff Biography
Dr. Willem J. Kolff invented the first artificial kidney, built the first artificial heart, and developed a membrane oxygenator. His kidney became the modern dialysis machine; his heart is still in use for patients awaiting transplants; and his oxygenator is used to keep people alive during open heart surgery. All told, his medical inventions have saved or extended countless lives. Born in the Netherlands, Dr. Kolff began working on the artificial kidney in 1938, but his research slowed down when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940. In order to avoid working with Nazi sympathizers, Dr. Kolff moved to a small town hospital that had fewer resources. While waiting there for the war to end, he set up the first blood bank in Europe and saved over 800 people from concentration camps by hiding them in the hospital. After the war, Dr. Kolff moved to America and worked in hospitals in Cleveland and Salt Lake City. He died on February 11, 2009, at the age of 97.
Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.


text:
In addition to iOS 5, iCloud's rollout, and Mac OS X 10.7.2 and its attendant updates, Apple also released new versions of many of its iOS apps on Wednesday. Most of them bring support for some of iCloud's features, but additional enhancements and improvements have been thrown into the mix as well.
All three of Apple's iWork apps have been updated to version 1.5, bringing support for iCloud's Documents in the Cloud feature. The iCloud website also offers conversion import and export features. For example, you can drop Numbers '09, Excel, or CSV documents onto into iCloud.com and it'll sync them to the iOS version Numbers automatically. Pages '09, Microsoft Word, or plain text files will be synced to Pages on iOS and Keynote and PowerPoint files will be sent to Keynote on your iOS device.
Additionally you can also download any of your files from iCloud.com in iWork format, Microsoft Office format, or as a PDF. The updates to all three iOS iWork apps also feature improved compatibility with their iWork and Microsoft Office counterparts, and better support for input in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Unless otherwise noted, all apps now require an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5.0 or later.
Pages: Apple's $10 word processor for iOS also now lets you create footnotes and endnotes in your documents; view improved word counts, including character, paragraph, and page information; and use the iPhone 4S's dictation feature to enter documents by voice. There's also a patch for a security vulnerability involving the handling of a memory corruption issue in a maliciously formed Word document.
Numbers: The $10 spreadsheet component of Apple's iWork suite for iOS devices also brings the ability to use sliders, steppers, and pop-ups to easily enter data; Merge Cells now allows you to format your tables; and you can hide and show rows and columns. Apple also patched a pair of security holes involving a buffer overflow and memory corruption handling in maliciously formed Excel files.
Keynote: The $10 iOS version of Apple's presentation app now lets you use AirPlay to present wirelessly via the Apple TV; you can navigate slides, view presenter notes, and use the laser pointer while presenting. Also included are new builds and transitions, including Anvil, Blinds, Color Panes, Comet, Confetti, Diffuse, and Sparkle. There are also now advanced presentation controls, such as looped slideshows and autoplay and support for slide-to-slide hyperlinks.
Remote: Version 2.2 of the free iOS app, which lets you control iTunes on a Mac on the same network has been updated with compatibility for iOS 5, and improvements to performance and stability. Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later.
Find My iPhone: Apple's free app for locating your iOS devices has been updated to version 1.3. It now works with iCloud, and lets you locate your Macs as well—presuming that you've updated them to Mac OS X 10.7.2 and enabled the Find My Mac feature of iCloud. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later.
iMovie: While it doesn't get any iCloud-related love, the $5 iOS version of Apple's video-editing app has been updated to version 1.2.2, bringing fixes for minor and issues and expanded support for videos imported from external cameras.
Updated at 1:12 p.m. Pacific to add information about security patches for Pages and Numbers.


text:
Triangle Leather Belt
Leather and glass beads White/SilverRegular price £65.00
Make 3 payments of £21.66. . No fees.
Introducing our hand-beaded belt made in Kenya, embellished with vibrant sustainable glass beads in an intricate design. Each belt is carefully crafted by our artisans and takes a full day to bead. The genuine leather is sourced from a tannery in Nairobi and the leather is dyed and sun-dried, therefore no two belts are the same.
- Product Details
- Fit and Fabric
- Sustainability
- 100% Genuine leather and glass beads (we avoid plastic to minimise the impact on the environment)
- All our belts are unisex
- Fits perfectly through your jean belt loops
- Comes with a reusable dust bag to protect and maintain your belt
- Part of our sustainable fashion collection: supporting local artisans keeping their craft alive and helping to maintain their livelihood
- Handcrafted in Kenya
Leather and glass beads
Made in Kenya
Dust off with a dry cloth
Garment Measurements
Measurements may vary due to these products being handmade. Size recommendations are based on wearing the belt low waisted. We suggest sizing down for high waisted fit
- Size 30' = 76cm, UK Size XXS
- Size 32" = 81cm, UK Size XS
- Size 34" = 86cm, UK Size S
- Size 36" = 91cm, UK Size M
- Size 38" = 97.5cm, UK Size L
- Size 40" = 106cm, UK Size XL
Washing Instructions
- Dust off with a soft, dry cloth
- For stains/marks; blot with a leather cleaning formula followed by a leather softening agent
- Due to the handmade nature of this item we recommend wiping the leather with a dry cloth before wear
Arrived by boat
Ethically made
sustainable packaging
Why choose our belts?
- Our glass beads are fully recyclable and are coloured using natural dyes
- Glass beads are a particularly good alternative to plastic beads because when it breaks down, it remains safe and stable and releases no harmful chemicals into the surrounding environment. Glass also takes far less energy to produce and has a long life span
- By rejecting leather we would destroy many jobs for individuals who rely on the leather industry for their livelihood
- We only use leather byproducts from the meat industry. The leather would otherwise be wasted
- Additionally, our leather is only coloured using natural dyes. It will last a lifetime and be passed on to future generations. It is the antithesis of fast fashion.


text:
Sorry, It won't. The leaf uses either 16" or 17" rims, while the model 3 base uses 18" and model Y base uses 19". The Tesla brake rotor + pads won't fit within the space for a leaf spare.jusgetalong wrote: ↑Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:05 am In those videos most were wary or resetting etc, so I just used Leaf Spy and turned the VSP stuff back on. I think that was all I had changed. Loved the quite drives in the pard without that annoying beeps, whines, etc. I really hope there is some way to achieve the same thing on this new Tesla. Oil since you have both a Leaf and a Tesla could you tell me if the Leaf rims will fit on the Tesla? I purchased a spare for the Leaf and if it will not fit the Tesla I will choose to let it go with the car.
Edit: as for the quiet drives through the park, unfortunately low-speed-vehicle-noises are now required on 2021 EV's. However, "boombox" mode allows you to at least change the "noise" to coconut clops or some similiar whimsical sounds.


text:
The Firefox Web browser is fast approaching its billionth download and is likely to hit that milestone some time on Friday.
Mozilla has a Web site and a Twitter feed where people can keep track of the total. On Thursday afternoon, the feed showed more than 999,180,000 downloads, with about 15 more happening each second.
Mozilla said initially that it expected to hit the billion mark some time over the weekend. An hour later, as the news trickled out and the pace of downloads increased, Mozilla revised its estimate to Friday. An enthusiast Web site with a "Firefox Download Guesstimator" predicts it will reach a billion on Friday at noon GMT.
The figure includes all versions of Firefox since the first release in 2004. If a single user downloaded multiple copies for different computers, they are each counted in the total. And if a user goes to the Web site to download an update to an existing version, instead of waiting for the automatic download, that is counted as well. Automatic updates are not included in the total.
So the figure does not mean that 1 billion people are using Firefox. Still, it's a significant achievement for a piece of software that was unknown to most of the world just a few years ago, and one that has had to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which ships free with every Windows PC.
Figures from earlier this month showed Firefox having just under a third of the global browser market, at 31 percent. Internet Explorer led the field with 60 percent, while Safari, Chrome and Opera each had less than 5 percent, according to Statcounter.
Firefox is stronger in Europe, where it has 40 percent of the market to IE's 47 percent. In Asia, Firefox has 23 percent to IE's 72 percent. In Antarctica, Statcounter says, the browsers are neck and neck.
Mozilla plans to launch a Web site Monday, at www.onebillionplusyou.com, where it will provide more information on the achievement.


text:
This is a newly released Quadcopter for 2016 and comes packed with features you can fly it using the controller or download an app that connects it with your iPhone or Android Smartphone.
How Much?
The UDI drone is currently on sale for around $140.00, double check here at Amazon for the latest price and to read all the user reviews.
Who Would Buy It?
The manufacturer recommends this drone for 14 years and up, we'd agree but also like to mention even though this is classed as a toy adults will love it too. It would make a great gift for any newbie who is interested in getting started flying drones.
Things We Like About It
Everything is included in the box to start flying this drone once you have charged it. While you are charging download the app on your phone and you are ready to go. Do read the instructions though as otherwise your first experience with quadcopter flying could be a disaster.
The UDI U818A is a lightweight drone and because of this is classified as a toy which means you don't have to register it with the FAA.
The drone will work both indoors and outdoors but we suggest trying it indoors at first while you are getting used flying it and getting to grips with the controls.
Reports from users of this UDI quadcopter are reporting it as really durable and surviving multiple crashes.
The drone comes with 2 batteries so when one is running low you can charge it while using the other which gives you much more flying time.
The package also comes with 4 replacement propellers and a screwdriver.
Other nice features were that it lights up at night, has a 360° Flip Function and also a push button return home feature.
The low voltage alarm function is also handy as the controller beeps when the battery is getting low so you can get your drone back before it crashes.
Things We Did Not Like About It
The main issue with the UDI U818A quadcopter is that it is very lightweight which makes it harder to handle if the weather is windy. If the weather is still or you want to use it inside it will be fine.
Another issue with some users was that the return home feature didn't work and they lost their drones. This is more likely to be a pilot issue rather than a problem with the quadcopter. If you don't have the drone in Headless mode the return home feature won't work. Make sure you read the instructions!
You need an iPhone or smartphone to make use of the camera function.
Is It Worth The Money?
This is a durable drone with a lot of features, if you have a compatible phone this is certainly worth the money. If you don't have a phone you might want to look at other drones with cameras that don't require a phone for photo/movie taking.
Where Can I Buy It?
UDI drones are available online from a number of stores, Amazon would be a good place to begin.
Final Thoughts
This is a lightweight but durable quadcopter with lots of nice extra features. We would recommend this as a great gift for novice drone pilots.
The UDI U818A quadcopter is fun to fly and will provide hours and hours of enjoyment.


text:
Ashburn, VA – The Washington Redskins have signed veteran right tackle Jeremy Trueblood.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The rangy Trueblood (6-foot-8, 320 pounds) was originally selected out of Boston College by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft, and appeared in 101 regular season games with the Bucs, including 84 starts.
In 2012, Trueblood appeared in nine games with just one start for Tampa Bay.
He is expected to compete with fellow free agent addition Tony Pashos as well as holdovers Tom Compton and Maurice Hurt for playing time with the Redskins.


text:
Waterfall Bay House is situated in Marlborough Sounds, a seemingly endless collection of harbors, inlets and bays, at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. Designed by Bossley Architects, Waterfall Bay is an intimate tidal bay which rings to the sounds of the waterfall high up the narrow valley behind the relatively restricted flat areas where the collection of buildings (house, guest house, shed and boatshed) are located.
The site for the new house is adjacent to the jetty, tucked onto a narrow plot of land between the sea and the rising hills behind. It was important that existing trees be maintained, which meant that that lower levels had to be cut into the bank to reduce the impact of the overall form. Arrival to the site is normally by sea to the jetty, so the double-height glazed stair space reflects the axis of the arrival sequence, while the entry path zigzags off the axis and then returns.
The 2,906 square foot (270 square meters) house consists of two elements: the two storey main wing with guest bedrooms below and living rooms above, and an upper level main bedroom which is linked by a cranked and rising glazed bridge, under which the landscape falls towards the sea. This bedroom reaches out over the bank into the tall beech trees, supported by a collection of leaning posts suggesting an instability and sense of movement appropriate to the owner's peripatetic lifestyle. A concrete fireplace is expressed on the outside of the otherwise timber box, to further suggest the sense of imbalance.
In order to create a sense of comfort and avoid a brittle "newness", wide floorboards which will quickly age were combined with a variety of plywood linings, demolition hardwood beams and columns, and timber joinery. The house is beautifully "inhabited" by a collection of fine, well-worn, mainly mid-20th century furniture and light fittings. A variety of window proportions and positions ensures an interesting range of connections to the sea immediately below, and to the mid-distance views across the bay. The link to the waterfall was significant for the owner, so the floor levels and orientation of rooms was carefully manipulated to provide views or acoustic connection to it. The design had a long gestation period, which ensured that the house and external spaces reflect the owner's carefully refined rituals associated with growing vegetables, raising chickens, cooking, reading, relaxing, and entertaining.


text:
Jesu, meine Freude [Jesus, my joy] (Romans 8:1-2,4,9-11) – J.S. Bach
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
As heard in movements of the work:
- Jesu, meine Freude (1st stanza)
- Es ist nun nichts Verdammliches (based on Romans 8:1,4)
- Unter deinem Schirmen (2nd stanza)
- Denn das Gesetz (à 3, based on Romans 8:2)
- Trotz dem alten Drachen (3rd stanza)
- Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich (fugue, based on Romans 8:9)
- Weg mit allen Schätzen (4th stanza)
- So aber Christus in euch ist (à 3, based on Romans 8:10)
- Gute Nacht, o Wesen (à 4, 5th stanza)
- So nun der Geist (based on Romans 8:11)
- Weicht, ihr Trauergeister (6th stanza)
Jesu, meine Freude (motet, 1723), by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Performed by Bach-Kantorei
Jesu, meine Freude e minor, BWV 227 (Motet for two mixed choirs). By Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Edited by Konrad Ameln. For SSATB choir, instruments ad lib (2 oboes, bassoon, strings, basso continuo) (Mixed Choir: SSATB/Instruments ad libitum (2 Oboes/Bassoon/Strings/Basso continuo)). This edition: Stapled, Urtext edition. Stapled. Chor-Archiv. Sacred. Level 4. Choral score. BWV 227. Duration 25 minutes. Published by Baerenreiter Verlag (BA.BA5132).


text:
#ClearTheAir: FG to Enforce Ban on Public Smoking | N50,000 Fine on Offenders
The Ministry of Health has released a communiqué on enforcing the ban on smoking in public spaces including shopping malls, restaurants and bars, schools, and bus parks, Punch reports.
The ministry says the communique is in accordance with Section 9 of the Nigeria Tobacco Control Act 2015, which will henceforth be enforced, and offenders will be liable to pay a fine of not less than N50,000, or not less than six months' imprisonment, or both.
"The World Health Organisation estimates that worldwide, second-hand tobacco smoke is currently responsible for the deaths of about 600,000 people yearly, 80 per cent of which occur in low-income and middle-income countries like Nigeria.
"Smoking in public places is now banned in Nigeria. Section 9 of the Nigeria Tobacco Control Act 2015 stipulates that offenders, once convicted, are liable to a fine of not less than N50,000 or not less than six months' imprisonment, or both.
"Public places where smoking is prohibited by law in Nigeria include: child care facilities, educational facilities, health care facilities, playgrounds/amusement parks, public parks (gardens), stadia, restaurants/bars, public transportation parks and plazas.
"The Federal Ministry of Health is committed to the fight to ensure a tobacco-free Nigeria, and will in the weeks and months ahead actively collaborate with law enforcement agencies to ensure enforcement of the Act, and with the National Assembly to ensure that necessary supporting regulation is passed."
Known as the Clean Air Campaign, it is supported by the Cancer Society of Nigeria, World Health Organisation, ONE Campaign, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, Civil Society Organisations and the Tobacco Free Kids.


text:
Locksmith in Bronx Hunts Point – Mott Haven 10454, 10455, 10459, 10474 Locksmith
For many people it can become very frustrating when they find themselves with broken locks. Being stranded on the other side with no tools or means to enter your home, garage or even your car can leave a person angry and agitated. Most people will start to try fix the locks themselves but this is not recommended as there are a variety of locks and only a certified and experienced locksmith will be able to help you as they are trained in various kinds of services. These include making new ignition keys, helping with trunk opening, replacing lost keys and key cutting. If you are living in Bronx then you can acquire professional services of Commercial Locksmith in Bronx Hunts Point.
What makes the need of a Locksmith in Bronx Hunts Point so important?
Residential Locksmiths at Locksmith in Bronx Hunts Point offer you the years of experience and techniques that you cannot learn yourself. The advantages of using the services of Locksmith in Bronx Hunts Point are listed below.
- The Locksmith will know about the proper and the right kind of blanks that should be used
- Can easily diagnose the problem and also find the issue with broken locks
- Has all the pertinent tools and accessories need to fix a broken lock
- Has the skill and experience that will save you time and also opening the lock lot faster.
What makes them great?
At Locksmith in Bronx Hunts Point the time is of the essence. They are quite aware of the fact that their customers will be in a sticky situation and since locks are meant to protect valuable and provide security it is apparent our customers want their locks fixed as soon as possible. There are many instances where our customers will accidentally break their locks, misplace their keys or just find their locks not responding to the keys.
Get Our Services
In all these situations it is far better to get our services than to try something by yourself. Most of the time you will be alone with the locksmiths and it is important that you feel safe around them. For that reason all the employees are screened before they are hired so as to check their backgrounds for any criminal activity. So the next time you find yourself locked on the wrong side don't get worried and get uselessly angry but hire the services of Locksmith in Bronx Hunts Point. They offer their services in many areas in and near Bronx that include 10454, 10455, 10459 and 10474.


text:
New Hampshire Eatery Bans Politicians
Good morning, I'm David Greene. GOP presidential candidates have been swarming the state of New Hampshire ahead of tomorrow's primary election. You know the routine. The candidates have been at local establishments shaking hands and sipping their coffee. Well, one Portsmouth restaurant had enough. Enough unannounced visits, enough getting in the way of servers. The staff of Colby's Breakfast and Lunch posted a sign on their door: No Politicians, No Exceptions. You're listening to MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.