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If you are reading this article, chances are that you have already exhausted your options: VCs are not working for you, Angel investors won't listen to your game plan and your friends and family aren't loaded enough to fund your business.
The truth is: It is getting extremely difficult to secure funding in today's economic climate through traditional financing options. There are so many startups out there, so much competition — it's almost a madhouse!
But don't worry. If your startup is struggling to see another day, you can try these unconventional methods to get you out of the jam:
This only applies if you have products to offer. You can sell your receivables at a lower price to get cash upfront. We don't recommend using it unless it's your last resort, though. If you have poor line of credit and need money urgently — you may use it but be aware that it is a very expensive fundraising method.
Securing a Loan
You can obtain a loan through 3 different sources to get by for the next few months:
- Bank: Standard bank loans, a lot of paperwork and some form of collateral involved.
- Microlender: If you can't get a bank loan due to lack of a collateral or for any other reasons — a microloan can be your blessing in disguise. Micro-lenders are essentially Non-profit organizations that offer small amounts of money (Up to $35,000 only) as a loan in exchange for an interest rate. It is where you turn to if you need new equipment or raw material urgently, and is in no way a long-term financing solution.
- Credit Card: Before you even think about using your credit card to make an expensive business transaction, beware that it is VERY risky to do so. Not only does it have the potential to lower your credit score, but it can also trap you in serious debt. If you must, use this only if you know for sure that you will be able to pay the bill soon after the transaction, like if your over-shore payments are stuck and will be released soon.
Tap into Your 401(k)
If you are one of those people who has been stuck in a 9-5 job for years, but now wants to quit to start their own business — your accumulated 401(k) can be your way out.
It can be a complex method, though — and you will need a legal expert to help you tap into it without a tax penalty. Since you are essentially using up your retirement funds, you will need help setting up a C Corporation and a new retirement plan.
Try Crowdfunding
A popular method to raise funds, especially if your product idea is quirky and creative — crowdfunding can be the way to go if you are not looking for long term funding. A website like Kickstarter.com can help you set up a campaign with a monetary goal and duration. People who like your product will help you fund it by donations — in exchange for receivables. For instance, if you are looking to produce shoes, you will need to send those to them when your campaign ends.
A far-superior cousin of ICO, STO (Security Token Offering) is a reliable way to secure funds without running into legal troubles and the mayhem surrounding ICO.
As it is actually backed by assets or revenue of the company rather than a vague idea, STO is essentially like giving out company shares. It is also not susceptible to various pump-and-dump strategies associated with ICO and is in fact very distinct from it.
How ICO, IEO and STO are changing the fundraising game: What is the Future of VCs?
Millions of dollars have already been raised using this method, and industry leaders are confident that it shall take them into a whole new dimension of fundraising. Become a pioneer and join the world of digital assets with Andriotto Financial Services – get in touch with our expert team.


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With a glazing contractors license, you will be able to select, cut, assemble and/or install all makes and kinds of glass, glass work, mirrored glass, and glass substitute materials for glazing; execute the fabrication and glazing of frames, panels, sashes and doors; and/or install these items in any structure.
Before you can apply for your glazing contractors license, you must meet the following experience requirements:
Don't have 4 years of glazing experience?
A college degree can be substituted for up to three years of that experience.
In order to obtain your glazing contractors license, you are required to pass the Trade examination as well as the Law & Business exam.
*Even though you can apply for a glazing contractors license when you are 18 years old, it is recommended that you be at least 23 years old due to experience requirement.
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98% of our students pass the state exam on their first try. Click here to read our student's testimonies.

subset: commoncrawl


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Not able to logon to Fiori Launchpad Designer (FLP Designer)
Read more...
- SAP Fiori
- SAP Netweaver 7.3 and above
- SAP S/4 Hana 1610 and above
- SAP S/4 Hana, on premise edition 1511
SAP Fiori all versions ; SAP NetWeaver 7.3 ; SAP NetWeaver 7.4 ; SAP NetWeaver 7.5 ; SAP S/4HANA 1610 ; SAP S/4HANA 1709 ; SAP S/4HANA 1809 ; SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511
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Madelene Purdie
The barren, weather-eroded desert lands of Western Australia are rich in iron-oxides, a ready source of ochre colors for sacred art. Over tens of thousands of years, indigenous peoples stained the bones of their dead with red ochre, told "Dreaming' stories about their cosmic origins in ochre paintings on rock and wood, and daubed ochre paint on their bodies for ritual ceremonies.
Set against this timeline, Aboriginal sacred art retelling the great narratives of Christianity in paintings with ochre-based pigments is still in its infancy, but this new genre, mixing cultures, beliefs, and artistic traditions, has found skilled practitioners in Shirley Purdie and her daughter, Madelene. Along with Madigan Thomas, their mother and grandmother, they represent something of an artistic matriarchy among the Kitja (Gidja) people, settled around the town of Warum (Turkey Creek) near the eastern boundary of the Kimberley region in Northwestern Australia.
The Kitja people of Warum have particularly close ties to the Roman Catholic Sisters of Saint Joseph, who established the Ngalangangpum Community School in the 1970s with the blessings of Kitja leaders to educate Aboriginal children, according to the "Two-Way" principle. Pupils study the Bible and Aboriginal Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming) narratives, learning Catholic dogma in the context of traditional Kitja beliefs. Shirley and Madelene Purdie have come to play an important part in this enriching, cross-cultural spiritual interchange though their imaginative translations of biblical themes into the symbolic language of ancient Aboriginal art.
The figurative cycle in Madelene's Stations of the Cross conforms to the traditional European practice of showing Christ at 14 separate moments along the way to Calvary and adds a 15th image of the Resurrection, also in keeping with contemporary Western treatments of the theme. The overall composition with its amoebic-shaped narrative panels, bordered by white, black, and yellow dots, and those beautifully undulating stripes of brown, gold, and rust, so suggestive of the rugged landscape of the Kimberley region, is rooted in Kitja styles of ochre painting.
In taking on the Stations of the Cross, Madelene was following the lead of her mother, Shirley, whose treatment of the same subject was honored in 2007 with the Blake Prize for Religious Art, an Australian award for achievements in art dealing with spiritual themes.


text: This Christmas, PLG embraced the spirit of giving by participating in The Boys' Brigade Share-a-Gift @ NYP 2016, a national community service food donation project for the less fortunate in Singapore. We utilised our fleet and logistics expertise for a good cause, transporting the donated food items from various pickup points in Ang Mo Kio and Yio Chu Kang residential areas to a central sorting location which totalled about 300 food hampers, worth $14,000 in all. The project volunteers expressed their sincere gratitude to PLG for her contribution towards a smooth, efficient and successful completion of the project. Great job PLG!


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How To Go From Worrier To Warrior: Find Your Inner Strength During These Times Of Change!
by guest blogger: Gianna Mauceri
Have you found yourself resisting the changes that have been happening around you lately during this global shift? Have you found yourself wishing things could go back to the way they "used to be?"
The common thread I have been hearing as I speak to people in and outside of my healing practice is that, as things begin to open back up for a second or third time, it's just not the same and they are grieving the way it was before this all happened.
As much as I have also found myself daydreaming of how it was before the big "P," I can't help but think back to another time in my life where I thought I had lost everything and felt similar to this.
In 2016, I was involved in a freak head-on car accident. When I woke up in the ICU after a week-long coma, my body was so injured I couldn't move. As I tried to put the pieces of my life back together, I wanted so badly to go back to the way I was before the accident where I could walk again and take a full deep breath into my lungs. I was a very healthy, active yoga instructor and full time hairstylist at the time and would never have imagined anything like this ever happening to me.
My life was completely turned around, I thought I had lost everything. I had no money, no health insurance and could no longer stand on my own two legs to work. I felt scared and lost and had no idea what I was going to do next. When I found myself longing for my life to go back to how it was before it was broken, a question came to me, "Was I completely happy in all areas of my life before this?" The answer was no. There was always room for more growth or something I wasn't happy about and wanted to change about myself or my life. That's when another question quickly arose, "What if I was to fully accept what was happening to me right now and see this as an opportunity for me to now create a whole new life for myself, one that felt more in alignment with what I truly wanted?"
Because I was so busy before the accident, I had missed so much of the beauty that surrounded me. I had forgotten to stop and smell the sweet roses of life, but now I was given a clean slate to start again and co-create a life that was filled with more truth and purpose.
At first, this experience was the scariest thing I had ever encountered. But, as time went on, I learned how to really surrender to the changes I was going through. This helped me to trust the journey ahead even if I had no idea what that looked like for me or my loved ones.
Once I was able to surrender and accept what was happening, I realized that instead of worrying about everything in the past, future and all of the things that I had no control of outside of myself, I allowed myself to be in the present moment, because that was all I had.
In that present moment, when I gave myself permission to let go of any worry and fully embrace the energy of trust, that's when I went from worrier to warrior!
I learned that I had a choice on how I wanted to feel. When I just let myself feel whatever I was feeling without any judgement or trying to fix it, change it or not feel it all, but fully accept each moment, that's where the healing and transformation happened. I decided that instead of living in worry and fear, I would build an empire of love.
As humans, we experience things in our life that bring us either pain or joy. The way we respond is our choice. We can choose to suffer through something and let it break us down, or we can choose to face it, feel it, look it straight in the eye and find that warrior strength inside to ask yourself instead,"what am I learning from this experience, how can I grow from this and where can I bring more gratitude into my life for the warrior that I already am?"
By allowing ourselves to feel it all without suppressing and being with the emotions as they flow through, can bring more compassion and forgiveness to ourselves and to others.
As well as allowing ourselves to grieve and feel through this huge shift, which is a part of being human and perfectly normal, it can also be a time of co-creation with yourself. What would you like to be, do and have? All of this exists inside of each of us already. When we allow ourselves the time to slow down and surrender to the moment, we come back into alignment with our truth and find the answers within.
When I find myself in full worry mode, I use these 3 easy steps for shifting into a warrior instead:
1. Stop and bring awareness to the fact that I am worrying! Bringing awareness to the noisy worry thoughts is a wonderful tool. Once we can recognize that we are in worry mode, it's easier to be able to shift it. say out loud, "I choose to let go of worry now and I trust the process."
2. Take 10 full deep breaths with my hands on my belly to connect to my inner strength.
3. Say 3 things I am grateful for. This brings me back into the present moment.
Each moment is another opportunity for us to learn, grow and invite more love and compassion in for ourselves, others and the world.
The only way to heal is to trust the process, let go of worry and remember that you have all of the answers within! You are brave. You are a spirit warrior!
Join Gianna on this beautiful in-person weekend immersion - em:body https://www.jannamauceri.com/embody-healing-experience
Gianna Mauceri is a spiritual mentor and author of Soul of a Spirit Warrior - A True Story of Healing, Survival and Resilience. Gianna helps those who have experienced any kind of trauma come back to a place of self-compassion, love, and forgiveness. After eighteen years of hairdressing, Gianna was involved in a severe car accident which only helped her realize her true purpose was to be a guide for others in this way and offer the healing tools that helped her survive, heal, and live a life of unconditional love and passion. Gianna now runs her own healing business in San Diego, CA and is also a co-owner of the Tranquility School of Healing.
Follow Gianna on https://www.instagram.com/gianna.divine.love/ and https://www.facebook.com/janna.maucerijudd/


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MacCentral's live coverage of Apple's conference call with analysts to discuss its Q2 FY04 results has concluded. Please visit our home page for more related coverage.
New priced and configurations of eMac shouldn't have a significant effect on margins.
Apple is focused on growing revenue, not market share.
Increased store could by end of fiscal year from 80 to 88. That'll put Apple at 23 new stores for fiscal year.
Expect to hear an update about how well the Pepsi iTunes promotion did closer to the one-year anniversary of the iTunes Music Store (April 28, 2004).
13 percent sales to small and medium sized business, up from 5 percent a year ago and 10 percent sequentially.
Apple "could not have been happier" with iBook results; second biggest quarter for iBook in company history. Attributed to the introduction of the iBook G4 and corresponding upgrades.
"Not happy" with Japan results, and taking steps to help sagging sales. "Absolutely expect it to improve."
"Very minimal" cannibalization of white iPod sales with advent of mini, but that may change as mini distribution and availability increases.
iTunes albums still priced at $9.99 for the most part. Apple is charged more on some albums by the record labels, which is why there are some higher-priced albums.
"iPod is in reasonable supply/demand balance in every geography right now. On the mini it is not in balance," (noting the previously announced plan to wait on international deliveries). Fiscal Q4 is when Apple will achieve balance on that, and "will do whatever it takes" to make that happen.
"IBM is working very very hard" to bring supply demand in balance for (Xserve) G5 chips, expects to catch up with demand this quarter. IBM is the only supplier that's delaying the shipment.
"Highly confident" of iPod minis that they're shipping. Number of complaints "extremely small" reported to AppleCare regarding static or distorted audio.
Positive commodity cost environment, strong software sales, direct sales all add up to good gross margins.
Power Mac – 174,000 units, below 200K bogey previous announced as Apple's quarterly goal. Total channel inventory reduced 10 percent. Delayed in shipping Xserve G5 until last week of quarter. "True" sales 190K for the quarter when that's factored in.
12,000 iPod distributors/retailers, compared to about 8,000 a year ago — most expansion happened outside the US.
iPod gross margin was 23 percent as they began to ship the iPod mini. 20 percent is the bogey for iPods going forward. 42 percent of total sales made direct. 35 percent for year ago quarter.
(What appears below represents the extent of the prepared comments. What appears above includes Q&A with analysts.
Cash on hand: $4.594 billion. The company is debt-free. Expecting double-digit growth again in the next quarter. Gross margin will be flat sequentially – 28 percent. Fiscal 04 capital expenditures to be about $190 million, with about $110 million in Apple Store-related expenses.
Japan revenue down 21 percent.
Educational CPU sales up 10 percent. Higher education drove the growth. K-12 flat from year to year. Increases in 1-to-1 implementations, however.
Apple Retail Stores: 5 new stores were opened, total 78. $266 million revenue — almost double the year ago quarter. Average quarterly revenue per store — $3.5 million, up from $2.6 million year over year. $5 million is segment profit. 5.7 million people visited the stores for the quarter. Plan to open 10 stores in fiscal 04. Store in London, England open before end of year.
48 percent of all Macs sold were portables. 201,000 iBooks, 157,000 PowerBooks.
Oppenheimer: Strongest March quarter in four years. Sold over 749,000 Macs and 870,000 iPods. CPU revenue up 6 percent. 29 percent revenue growth about half driven by iPods. Panther continued to sell well, and very happy with iLife 04 sales as well.
Anderson offered a farewell; he will retire in June. Turned call over to Oppenheimer, who will succeed him.
Anderson: "We are exceptionally pleased with the results of the March quarter for a number of reasons." 29 percent year over year revenue growth. Driven by diverse product portfolio of hardware, software and service products, as well as expanded distribution through channel and online stores. Operating margin was 3.2 percent for the quarter.
Nancy Paxton, senior director, opened the call. Fred Anderson and Peter Oppenheimer provide the play-by-play information.


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A ransomware attack earlier this summer hit the Rockville Centre School District in New York, Superintendent William Johnson told Fox 5:
Ransomware is a program like a virus that infects the computers, phone systems, and other on-network hardware at a corporation or, more commonly in recent years, a school district.
Experts advise keeping data off-site so it's not entirely necessary to pay to gain access to it again. That does help, but it's not entirely safe. Restoring data from back-ups takes time, and it's almost always cheaper for school systems to pay the ransom than to pay the ransom than to restore access to the system from their off-site back-ups.
"That's why they made the request reasonable," Mr Johnson was quoted as saying, referring to the criminals' original demand for $176,000 in bitcoin but lowered through the district's insurance agency and a third-party negotiator to half that amount. "They made the cost of getting the decryption tools cheaper than it would cost us to restore our systems from back-up.
"We thought we were safe," he said. "This group used algorithms that were more sophisticated than anything we've ever seen. These guys are good."
He noted that the data were never breached. In other words, criminals never gained access to any personally identifiable information or other sensitive data about the student or staff in Rockville. Rather, the ransomware software, when it infects a system, encrypts the computer and makes accessing anything on it impossible.
When the ransomware is paid, the decryption key is provided, and access is restored. The FBI generally warns against paying ransoms in situations like this, but Rockville Centre chose to pay it as a business decision, Mr Johnson said.
Districts victimized by ransomware in recent months:
- The Mineola School District in New York
- The Nampa School District in Idaho
- Flagstaff Unified School District in Arizona
Finally, last spring, computer systems in Baltimore County, Maryland, were attacked and ransom demanded of about $6 million. The county government estimated the net cost of the ransomware attack at more than $18 million, given the shutdowns that ensued as the information technology staff restored systems following the loss.


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If you're a fan of the battle royale genre that's so popular these days and enjoy Grand Theft Auto Online's take on it, you're in luck because you'll be earning big with this week's event. Players can also unlock a new log-in bonus and a number of items are, as always, discounted.
Motor Wars, the Adversary Mode designed to loosely adapt Battle Royale game mechanics to GTA Online's engine, is paying out not double, but triple rewards this week. While Adversary Modes on their own aren't exactly a prime way to make GTA$, the weekly double reward promotions ensure that they're still viable. However, this unusual triple reward promotion should fill up those Motor Wars lobbies. Chances are finding a full game won't be hard at all.
With a maximum limit of 28 players, and ever-shrinking playing field, powerful weapon pickups hidden across the map and players hopping out of a Cargobob at the start of each match, Motor Wars is as true an adaptation of the most common Battle Royale characteristics as can be. However, if the overbearing popularity of this genre has made you become weary of it, there are other options available.
Both Vehicle Vendetta and Hunting Pack (Remix) will be paying out double RP and GTA$ through the 10th of April. These Adversary Modes feature weaponized vehicles prominently, so if you need something to scratch that road rage this bonus has you covered.
Additionally, players in on the illegal firearms trade will be making big money this week too. All Gunrunning sales will pay out double GTA$, but there's no RP bonus here. If you're only just starting your Gunrunning career and have yet to max out your research projects, all research is 25% quicker this week.
All players who log into GTA Online this week will get yet another free, limited edition addition to their in-game wardrobe. However, in the first time for a very long time, it isn't a t-shirt. You'll unlock the black Coil Cap, sporting the Coil Arms Division logo.
A number of vehicles and properties, many related to this week's bonuses, are discounted. Since there are some Gunrunning bonuses on offer, it makes sense that Bunkers, Bunker Add-ons and Renovations are all 30% off. Though not related to any of the bonuses, Hangars and their own upgrades have the same discount applied, so if you have yet to dive into Smuggler's Run content, here is your chance.
Several vehicles, many weaponized, are discounted by 40%. These include the HVY Insurgent Pick-Up Custom, the Ocelot Stromberg, the HVY APC, the Nagasaki Street Blazer, the Rhino Tank, the Mobile Operations Center and all MOC bays and renovations.
A trio of Premium Races is in rotation this week, switching out each other every 2 days. The three tracks where the game's top racers will go head to head are Down the Drain (locked to Muscle), Across the Wilderness (locked to Off-Road) and Arms Race (locked to Super).
It's been a while since GTA Online has seen any new content added, and we're hoping that we'll see some DLC in April. Check back often to stay on top of the news.


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What does the "Users"? metric measure?
- The total number of visits to your website
- Users that had at least one session on your site in the given date range
- Users that landed on the homepage of your website
- Users who have signed up to an email newsletter on your website


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Online Mortgage Application
Apply Now!
I offer a number of convenient ways for you to complete the mortgage application and apply for a mortgage:
Download and email, or fax your application - download an application in either MS Word or PDF format and either:
- Complete, save and email back the Word document or fillable PDF as an attachment to firstname.lastname@example.com, or
- Complete and scan/email as a PDF, or fax your form to 250.483.1578 in Victoria, BC or 403.775.4320 in Calgary, AB.
Complete an on line application via an invitation sent directly to your email or text, which you can complete on your phone, laptop or desktop. Your documents can be uploaded here too, so it's very convenient! Contact me to send the link to you.
Once I have received your information I will be in touch with you to discuss details and options.


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GWALIOR FORT: Constructed atop an isolated hill in the 8th century, this conical shaped structure is one of the largest forts in India. The long, narrow, precipitous hill is called Gopachal. Moreover, the Gwalior Fort has lots of significance in from the history point of view. The utmost height of the hill is about104 m (342 feet) and its length is approximately 2.4 km (1.5 miles). The average width is almost 270 m (300 yards). Close to the palace flows the Swarnrekha, a small river. The rock formations constitute a perpendicular abyss. The horizontally placed strata of rock formations in the Gwalior hill ranges are made up of ochreous sandstone, overlaid by basalt. This hilltop fort is the awe-inspiring landmark of the metropolis. Reputed as one of the most invincible forts of India, this structure is almost 3km in length and rises 100 m over the city of Gwalior. The hill is steepened to make it virtually un-scalable. Owing to the uneven topography of the hilltop, the wall of the fort — though of the same height — appears irregular in appearance. The fortification of this fortress has been laid all around its outside edge. Altogether six bastions (towers) connect the fort rampart. The founder of the Mughal Dynasty, Emperor Babar (1484-1530), portrayed the Fort as "the pearl amongst the fortresses in Hind!"
Gwalior Fort Image Source Wikipedia
THE ROOTS: Though Gwalior is today identified with the awesome Gwalior Fort which was constructed only in the 15th century AD — the place known as Gwalior has its roots much earlier in the 6th century AD. In other words, Thus, the history of Gwalior can be divided into the following three periods, namely Early, Medieval and Modern. Let's have a fast pick on each of those momentous phases so that you would really savor the still bubbling sensation of Gwalior that it leaves on the psyche of any person visiting it! Let's have a quick preview of the two historical periods.
NOMENCLATURE: The term 'Gwalior' has its roots in the word Gwalipa — the name of a Jain seer. A fortress is the first insulation structure and sign of political glory for any regime. Hence, though the Gwalior Fort as of today was constructed only in the 15th century, its history is steeped in earlier days. During that long period, it has been the domain of several Rajput dynasties starting from the Tomar Rajputs. The other subsequent rulers were the Mughals, the Jats, the Marathas, and finally the British. The Scindias (one of the powerful Maratha ruling families) annexed the fort in the early part of the 19th century. Let's check out those annals.
The Early Phase: There is still a debate as to the roots of the Gwalior Fort on one finer issue, viz., the date. Nonetheless, both legend and history converge on the issue of nomenclature 'Gwalior'. A Government of India publication on Gwalior has the earliest dating of the citadel. The researcher traces it to an inscription (dated AD 525) in a temple dedicated to Surya — the Hindu Sun God. The dedication mentions that the massive fort was constructed by Hun Emperor Mihirakula during the reign of the Huns in India in AD 510. Taking this piece of information as a vital clue, it has been claimed that the history of Gwalior Fort dates back to 1,000 years.
Popular myth has it that it was first built by Surya Sena Pal — a local chief of the Kacchawaha dynasty from Sihonia, a neighboring hamlet located 12 kilometers away. There is a beautiful story connected with the incident. Once, while on a hunting expedition he came across a recluse by the name of Galava (also known as Gwalip in some legends). The chief paid obeisance to the hermit, and also asked for some respite from his ailment now identified as leprosy. The ascetic offered him water and also asked him to bathe in the pond located besides Gwalip's ashram. That pond is now popular as Surajkund where a massive colorful mela (fair) is annually organized — where hundreds of tourists (Indian and foreigners) converge. Surya Sen Pal followed the instructions, and lo! He got cured! And, as a mark of gratitude, he built the fort and christened it 'Gwalior' after his benefactor Gwalip or Galava.
Altogether 84 rulers of this line starting from Surya Sen Pal to Budha Pal had their regime here. Thus, the 'Pal' patronymic definitely influenced the political as well as socio-economic and cultural firmaments till a period of almost 989 years of its existence. Here's another twist to the popular tale: Gwalip had also prophesized that the Pal lineage would carry on till the time they use the title 'Pal'. It so happened that the successor of Buddha Pal adopted the patronymic 'Tej Karan' throwing aside the traditional 'Pal' title. The then Amber ruler, Ran Mul, offered his dear daughter in marriage to Tej Karan. The bride's dowry included a huge treasure: Valuables, horses, and elephants. Tej was also given on a platter the succession rights to the Amber throne on the exclusive clause that Tej Karan would have to make Amber his resident capital. Tej agreed. He might have toyed with the following single determinant factor in making this crucial decision then, feel researchers: The kingdom of his father-in-law, namely the Amber State, wielded far more influence and status as a political power than his patriarch-inherited Gwalior State.
Here's the moot turning point: When he stayed in Amber, the political affairs of Gwalior were reposed on one of his confidant — Ram Deva Pratihar hailing from Kanauj. An expert administrator, he managed the affairs very well till two years. Realizing that Tej would never return Pratihar then assumed total control of the reins of control and became the actual ruler of Gwalior. He is the founder of the Gurjar Pratihar Rajput dynasty in Gwalior. The six rulers of the Pratihar lineage were Pramal Dev (also known as Salam Dev), Bikram Dev, Ratan Dev, Shobhang Dev, Narsinh Dev, and Pramal Dev. This regime held control of the fort till AD 923.
Mahmud of Ghazni attacked the fort in AD 1023. But his forces had to retreat.
THE TURKIC RULE: The first Islamic ruler of the Gwalior Fort was Qutubuddin Aibak — the founder of the Delhi Sultanate. He could capture the fort only after a protracted siege in AD 1196. However in AD 1121, the first Sultan of the Turkic lineage lost it. The second Islamic ruler of the Gwalior Fort was Sultan Iltumish — also from the Delhi Sultanate namely from the Slave dynasty (of Turkic background). He recaptured it in AD 1231, and handed over the hereditary charge of the fortress to the Sayyid family whose lineage was traced to the grandsons of Prophet Muhammad.
Mass Sati (a practice of self-immolation practiced by Hindu women — usually on the pyre of the husband) was committed by the women of the royal family in the 'Jauhar Kund Palace' located within the complex in AD 1232. (Details are given below).
Taking advantage of the chaos unleashed by Tamerlane after his invasion of North India in AD 1398, a Jain chieftain by the name of Narsingh Rao took over the Fort and had control over a part of it. In around AD 1432, Parmal Deva (also known as Vir Singh Deo) and his sibling Uddhharan Dev (also known as Adhar Dev) of the Tanwar Rajput clan captured the Fort from the Sayyids. The two Rajput brothers hailing from a zamindari background in the Isamamola village (within Dandrolee Pergana) worked as solders under Sikandar Khan, a general of the Delhi Sultan. Both earned the confidence of the Emperor who gifted them the Gwalior Fort as imam (award) for their dedication to him and bravery. However, when they showed the Emperor's firman (mandate) to the Sayyids, the latter simply refused to go by it. The duo, however, continued to serve the Sayyids as diligently as before and was able to come close to the rulers. One day, they designed a blueprint to deal with the Sayyids. A grand dinner was arranged in the honor of the Sayyids at Ranipura village. They were respectfully served the dishes mixed with intoxicating drinks. Having partaken of the heavy meal, the Sayyid family members retired for the night to their tents. At an opportune moment, a group of sword-welding Rajput warriors killed them in their beds. The two Tanwar Rajput brothers thus got their rightful position as deemed by the Delhi Emperor. After Vir Singh Deo, his brother Adhar Dev ruled for some years. Adhar was succeeded by Lakshman Deo Tomar. In AD 1400, Vikram Deo, the son of Vir Singh Deo, ascended the throne of Gwalior. He was succeeded by Ganapati Deo Tomar in AD 1419.
After him came Dugarendra (Dungar) Singh in AD 1424. He secured Gwalior as a principal influence in Central and Northern India. He also constructed the Ganesha Pole in the Gwalior Fort premises. In AD 1454, Kirti Singh Tomar took over the reins of power. He joined hands with the Mewar King, Rana Kumbha, and jointly fought against Muhammad Khilji — a powerful Muslim ruler of Malwa. Kirti's younger son, Mangal Deo, inherited an estate comprising 120 hamlets in Tomba and Dhodri of Tomargarh. He tried to recapture Gwalior Fort after the fall of the Tomars in AD 1516. Kirti Singh was succeeded by Kalyanmalla Tomar in AD 1479. The next ruler of Gwalior was Man Singh Tomar. He ascended the throne in AD 1486. Known as the greatest of the Tomar rulers of Gwalior, he built the fabulous Man Mandir Palace and several other structures within the Fort. An accomplished musician himself, Man Singh Tomar is deemed the father of the Dhrupad Gharana of Indian Classical music. His successor was Vikramaditya Tomar. He became the ruler in 1516 but could rule for only two years when he was defeated by Ibrahim Lodhi in AD 1518. Thus, Gwalior Fort came under the rule of the Lodhis of the Delhi Sultanate in AD 1519.
After the fall of the Tomar dynasty following their defeat at the hands of the Lodhis, the status of the Tomar ruling class got reduced to that of a local landowner or zamindar. One of their descendents, Ramshah Tomar, was ousted from the Fort in AD 1526. Then, he joined forces with the great Rajput ruler Maharana Pratap of Mewar and fought for their lost status against the Mughals in the Battle of Haldighat AD 1576. Another Tomar prince, Salivahan Tomar, also fought in the battle. However, the Rajputs were totally routed by the stronger forces of Mughal Emperor Akbar. Rana Pratap died in the forests where he rushed to by his famous horse Chetak (the protagonist of many Rajput fables) in AD 1597 — the same year when Akbar completed his conquests in India.
THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD: Ibrahim Lodhi was defeated by Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, in the First Battle of Panipat in AD 1526. Babur then took control of the Gwalior Fort. Emperor Babar had ordered the demolition of the entire complex. The 12 m (40 feet) high rock-cut statue of the 23rd Tirthankara (Saint) — Parasvanath — escaped that destruction as Babur lost control of this citadel. The Gwalior Fort went into the hands of the Suri Dynasty during the reign of Babur's successor, Humayun, who was defeated by Sher Shah Suri — the founder of the Suri Dynasty in North India — in AD 1539. The Fort remained one of the most prized possessions of Sher Shah Suri who died in AD 1540. His son and successor, Islam Shah, even shifted his capital from Delhi to Gwalior Fort for strategic reasons especially because he considered the Fort much more secure from the regular attacks by Afghans from the western frontier. Islam Shah's successor Adil Shah Suri decided to shift his capital to "more insulated' Chunar, and left the responsibility of running Gwalior Fort on the able shoulders of his confidante, an able Hindu warrior by the name of Hemu (his full name was Hem Chandra Vikramaditya). Adil Shah appointed Hemu not only the premier of his kingdom but also made him the Commander-in-Chief of his forces. In course of time, Hemu became the all-in-all in the Suri regime. Soon, he assumed the control of the strategically located capital of the kingdom, Delhi. Between AD 1553 and AD 1556, Hemu, initiated several onslaughts on the rebellious Afghans who were taking advantage of the weak Adil Shah reign and also the Mughals from the Gwalior Fort. Researchers have found that Hemu launched and was victorious in all the 22 attacks continuously. The fact is that he never a lost battle the blueprint of which was prepared in the Gwalior Fort. In AD 1556, Hemu twice defeated Mughal Emperor Akbar's forces: first at Agra and then at Delhi on October 7, 1556. He then had his coronation (known as Rajyabhishake in Sanskrit and Hindi) done at Purana Quila in Delhi, and adopted the epithet of an emperor in Sanskrit: Samrat. He came to be known as Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya. He proclaimed that he would establish a Hindu Raj (Kingdom) as 'Vikramaditya' (as strong as the Hindu Sun God, Surya). He transferred his capital from Gwalior to Delhi. He functioned from Purana Quila. He was defeated by Mughal Emperor Akbar at the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556. Hemu was killed in the skirmish.
Akbar (1542-1605) took control of Gwalior Fort but only to use it as a political prison especially for personalities who could pose threat to his status. He changed the ground floor of the Man Mandir Palace built by Raja Man Singh Tomar (in the earlier century) as the designated dungeon of the Mughals. It was in this dungeon that many royal prisoners of the Mughals were kept under lock and key to be finally killed. For instance, Mughal Emperor Akbar confined his first cousin, Kamran, there to later put him to death. Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (AD 1618-1707) imprisoned his brother Murad at this fort and subsequently killed him on treason charges. Aurangzeb also had his nephews, Suleman and Sepher Sheko — two sons of Dara Shikoh, executed there. The sixth Sikh Guru, Hargovind Sahib (popularly known as Guru Govind Singh), was tortured and executed here by Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1569-1627), the successor of Akbar. And, it is in his sacred memory that the Gurudwara Data Bandi was constructed within the Fort complex in the subsequent years by his followers. Thus we find that during the over four-century Mughal regime mainly during the regimes of four main rulers Babur (1484-1530), Humayun (1508-1556), Akbar (1542-1605), Jehangir (1569-1627), Shah Jahan (1592-1666), Aurangzeb (1618-1707) — i.e., from AD 1484 to 1707, Gwalior Fort witnessed lots of desecration.
THE JAT RULE: Before the Jat rule, the Gwalior Fort was under the control of the Marathas. With the decline of the Mughal Empire in the early and middle parts of the 18th century, the reins of power passed on to the Jats whose predominance is in the region now constituted by the States of Punjab, Haryana and also to a great extent in the autonomous region of present-day Indian national capital of greater Delhi. Maharaja Bhim Singh Rana (1707–1756) established the Gohad Jat Rana Dynasty by overrunning the entire Malwa province and also captured the Gwalior Fort from the Marathas in AD 1736. He held control of this prominent stronghold from a period of almost 16 years from AD 1740 to 1756. The Gwalior Fort was captured by one of his descendents, Maharaja Chattra Singh Rana who reigned from 1761 to 1767. He was repulsed several times, and he occupied it thrice. The last ruler of the Jat Rana Dynasty having influence on the Fort was Maharaja Chattra Singh Rana (1780 to 1783). The aforementioned statistics demonstrate that the Jat rulers had to wash off their hands from the Gwalior Fort off and on as they faced stiff opposition from the Rajputs holding sway on the Fort. In fact, no single dynasty could have a single-long domain over the Gwalior Fort at any period of time.
THE MARATHA REGIME: Maratha ruler Peshwa Baji Rao launched expeditions to expand the borders of his empire beyond the Vindhya mountain range into the North in the latter part of the 18th century. He appointed Ranoji Scindia (the anglicized version of title is written as 'Shinde') as the supreme commander of the onslaughts in the Malwa region (of which Gwalior is a significant portion). Over a period of time, the Peshwa's powers got reduced as the different Maratha chieftains asserted their influences. The important Maratha chiefs even formed a confederacy and started acting on their own. It was at this juncture that Ranoji also set up his Maratha kingdom in Ujjain. Subsequently, he transferred his capital to Gwalior in August 1779 AD and established a garrison within the Fort. The Scindia family also conquered a major Rajput kingdom Ujjain besides several other petty Rajput kingdoms. In AD 1780, the tables were turned when Rana Chhatra Singh, ruler of Goud (also spelled Gohud by the British historians) took over the Gwalior Fort. The Maratha Commander-in-Chief, Mahadji Scindia, could regain the Fort after some time.
THE BRITISH ROLE: Enamored by the formidability and heritage of the Gwalior Fort, the Britishers decided to fish in the troubled waters to take control of this strategic state Gwalior. But it was not a cakewalk for them. For almost a period of 40 years from 1808 to 1844, they had to try the might of the Marathas (primarily the Scindhias) to make a dent on the Gwalior Fort. The matter was decided in the Battle of Maharajpur in January 1844. The Britishers adopted the policy of diplomacy, and gave full control of the Gwalior Fort to the Scindias, but basically as a British protectorate. The positive point of it was that at least an Indian royal family had the reins of power in this significant spot of Indian heritage. The Scindias finally accepted the suzerainty of the British after the Third Anglo-Maratha War (AD 1817-19).
Gwalior city was also witness to several momentous episodes of the Revolt of 1857. It was in this fort that Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi — one of the main protagonists of the First War of Indian Independence — died fighting the British forces in the course of their final assault on the citadel. The fort also remains a mute witness to some of the most spectacular and concluding events of the Second War of Indian Independence dubbed by some English historians as the 'Sepoy Mutiny' in the mid-1858.
The modern period of Gwalior, of course, started after this princely state merged with Madhya Bharat when Maharaja Jivajirao Scindia acceded to India after 1947when India Became Independent.
The two principal entrances into the Gwalior Fort are from the South East and also from the North East. The main gate is known as Hathi Pul (the Elephant Gate or the entrance through elephants could enter) — the last one at the end of a series of altogether seven entrances. The name comes from a gigantic pachyderm that adorned its entrance once upon a time. It leads one to the Man Mandir Palace. Located on the south-eastern corner of the palace, the towers of this stone gate have cupola domes on its cylindrical towers. The domes are connected by carved bulwarks. It is the last gate at the end of a series of seven gates. It is named after a life-sized statue of an elephant (hathi) that once adorned the entrance to the gate. The gate built in stone on the south-east corner of the palace has cylindrical towers. The towers are crowned with cupola domes. Carved parapets link the domes.
The Man Mandir Palace is a double-storied structure was built by Raja Man Singh Tomar between 1486 and 1516. It is designed with exquisite latticework and excellent stone carving. Its walls are very colorful too. There are several other structures clustered within the four walls of the fort. Below the fort is the Gujari Mahal. It was built by Man Singh for his favorite queen, Mrignayani, in the 15th century. The gift followed the demand from the Gujar princess for a separate palace for herself. The palace gets regular water supply via an aqueduct linked to the nearby Rai River. The Mahal now houses the Archaeological Museum which has large collections of terracotta, imitations of the Bagh Caves's frescoes as well as of the Hindu and Jain sculptures of the first and second centuries BC.
A few other palaces are located at the northern end of the Fort. The prominent ones are the Jahangir Palace and the Shah Jahan Palace. The most famous spot here is the Jauhar Kund Palace facing a very huge and deep pond. It was here that the Rajput women of the harem committed mass sati after their raja was defeated in a battle in 1232. There are several such reservoirs within the fort complex. Together, they could supply water to a 15,000-strong garrison – the estimated manpower required to protect the fort.
On the western side of the fort is the Kirti Mandir or Karan Palace. It is a long, narrow, two-storied palace.
Besides the palaces and the kund, several temples in the typical traditional Rajasthani style speak volumes about the architectural finesse of the artistes of those days. The Teli ka Mandir is dedicated to the presiding deity of the place – Pratihara Vishnu. Constructed in the 9th century, there are conflicting claims as to which Hindu deity it was initially dedicated to – Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu. Devotees used to install bells (known as tali in Hindi) and pray for the fulfillment of their desires. In course of time, the term tali got transformed into teli. Another version is that it was dedicated to Lord Vishnu initially. The present temple is a towering edifice with the temple top rising up to 100 ft. It reflects the confluence of the Hindu and Muslim architectural styles. In fact, the highest memorial in the fort is that of Garuda – the huge majestic mythical bird on which Lord Vishnu travels – located beside the mandir. Going by the nomenclature, some archaeological researchers call the temple the 'Oilman's Temple' or 'Oil Pressers temple'. The archway (torana) of the temple's main door is decorated with wonderfully sculpted images of a Garuda, floral settings, couples in romance, and river goddesses. The horizontal arch-top band has lotus and diamond models. It reflects the Buddhist architectural style.
The Chaturbhuj Mandir dedicated to Lord Vishnu is quite similar in architecture to the Teli ka Mandir. Built in AD 875, it is located on the way to the fort. An important point is that the earliest recording of number 'zero' has been traced to this temple.
Another set of significant monuments are the ruins of the two Sas Bahu ka Mandir dedicated to Vishnu is an architectural gem. The smaller one still stands elegant. The nomenclature is the shortened form of the compound term "Sahastra Bahu' (thousand-hand forms) another name for Hindu God Vishnu. Constructed by the King Mahipala, of the regional ruling house known as Kachchwaha, in the 10th century it is considered to be the most ancient of the structures within the Fort. This dynasty built several monuments during their regime.
What is more, the sculptures adorning the temple walls are Indo-Aryan, the roof is characteristically Dravidian. The southern walls of the fort have exquisitely carved rocky statues of Jain thirthankaras. There are 21 exquisitely carved such temples dedicated to the 21 Jain seers. They are carved deep into the vertical rock faces on the approach route from the southern side.
Among some other popular tourist spots within the fort complex are the Chhatri (memorials) of Maharajas Bhim Singh and Bhimtal; the Gurudwara Data Bandi dedicated to the sixth Sikh Guru Har Gobind; and the famous Scindia School. In its initial phases, the school served as an exclusive educational institution for the sons of Indian princes as well as nobles. This prominent institution was founded in 1897 by Maratha Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior. One of the front-running pubic schools of the country — the Scindhia School — runs from the erstwhile barracks of the British Army within the Fort. Among the modern architectural marvels is the Sun Temple. Dedicated to the Hindu Sun God, it is a duplicate of the Sun Temple of Konark in the Eastern State of Odisha.
The Four Tourist Destination Spots in Gwalior
Let's take a quick tour of those places:
The three principal tourist destination spots are the Gwalior Fort Story, the Old Town, the Jai Vilas Palace and Museum.


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About Us
Rafael Rios III Bio:
B.S. Landscape Architecture, University of California, Davis J.D. DOCTOR OF LAW, Santa Clara University Law School, Phi Delta Phi
Rafael Rios is a life-long resident of the Napa Valley. He was raised in St. Helena, grew-up working in the vineyards and wineries, and graduated from St. Helena High School in 1985. He then went on to U.C Davis where he earned his bachelor's degree in landscape architecture. After working in landscape architecture and in land planning for several years Rafael decided to study law at Santa Clara University Law School. He has been practicing law in Napa since 1994.
After law school, Rafael returned to the Napa Valley, became a member of the Napa County Bar Association, and joined Coombs & Dunlap, LLP in 1994 where he became a partner and practiced through 2008. He opened his own office January 1, 2009.
Opening his own office has allowed Rafael to better meet he needs of his clients.
He is directly involved in the wine industry as an original, managing member of Rios Wine Company, LLC and now the founder and managing member of Justicia Wines, LLC. Rafael has significant years of experience in areas of law that overlap or intersect with estate planning – such as formation of family LLC's and partnerships, family law, immigration, and real estate (including ownership of vacation properties in Mexico).
Rafael is an active member of the community and has served on various boards and organizations including the St. Helena Kiwanis Club, the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce, the Napa County Hispanic Network, the Calistoga Family Center, and Clinica Verde. Currently, Rafael is a member of the Board of Trustees of Napa Valley College, and President of the Napa Sonoma Mexican American Vintners Association.
He is also a member of the Napa County Bar Association and the Napa County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Rafael is fluent in Spanish, his native language, and lives in Calistoga with his wife and their children. When not practicing law, he enjoys fly fishing, photography and outdoor activities.


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Minneapolis' first Black police chief, Medaria Arradondo, has been re-appointed to serve a three-year term. The Minneapolis City Council voted Friday, Dec. 7 to extend Arradondo's position.
Arradondo has served as interim chief since July 2017 after the former police chief, Janeé Harteau, resigned following the police shooting of an unarmed woman.
"I am thrilled to be celebrating the council's unanimous move to confirm my appointment of Chief Arradondo to a full term as chief of police," said Mayor Jacob Frey. "His leadership, character, and commitment to building trust between community and MPD have made him an invaluable partner and a good friend."
The Minneapolis City Council's unanimous vote came with little surprise after Arradondo received glowing remarks from the community at a reappointment hearing during the council's Public Safety & Emergency Management Committee meeting on Nov. 29.
Prominent activists Nekima Levy Armstrong, Al Flowers and Lisa Clemons were among many voicing impassioned support. Minneapolis resident Chuck Turchick's was the only complaint — though his was about the review process and not Chief Arradondo.
"Democracy is about process, and this process [fails]," said Turchick. "A city ordinance gives the Police Oversight Commission [POC] permission to participate in the performance review of the chief of police. Every time you preclude the POC from participating in performance reviews, you are disrespecting the civilian oversight body you created."
Levy Armstrong, civil rights attorney and co-founder of Racial Justice Network, told the MSR, "Chief Medaria Arradondo is the right person to help lead the Minneapolis Police Department in a new direction.
Flowers added, "As the first African American chief in Minneapolis history, we're never going to have a better opportunity for police-community relations. I don't believe the African American community will have a better opportunity to building those bridges."
The return of Chief Rondo, as he's popularly known, comes with complications stemming from the MPD's history.
"[There is] a culture of violence within the police department, a misogynist culture, also a culture of racism and White supremacy," asserted Levy Armstrong at the hearing. "So, we have some serious work to do. Rondo cannot do it alone."
She told the MSR, "[Arradondo] will need the support of the mayor, city council, and community allies to help shift the current problematic culture of MPD, which has been detrimental to the Black community.
"Over the last six months, two men of color have been shot and killed by MPD in North Minneapolis: Thurman Blevins and Travis Jordan. Travis Jordan needed mental health intervention…not bullets. His unnecessary death at the hands of MPD officers reinforces the urgent need for mental health co-responders in North Minneapolis," Levy Armstrong said.
Clemons, a former MPD sergeant and founder of A Mother's Love, commented, "When I talked to Chief Arradondo and Deputy Chief Art Knight about Mother's having a role in the community, they immediately went into action to bring Mother's to downtown Minneapolis, give a voice down there, and get us a presence. You save the mother, you save the child. You save the child, you save the community."
Frey appeared briefly, stating, "The relationship between the chief and the mayor is arguably the most important [one] in city hall. The value and necessity we are handling for both public safety and community-police relations, inclusive of accountability, is of the utmost importance. Chief Arradondo has managed to…articulate and take active steps toward a shift in the culture of the Minneapolis Police Department."
After receiving numerous accolades, Arradondo stated, "The community is here [at the hearing] because they want — even those that are not in support of myself or the police department — a safe city. They want a police department they can trust."
He added, "This, in a sense, is not my police department. I'm trying to prepare leadership for the next 15, 20 years. We've got a lot of young officers and employees, and I want to make sure they have the right pillars of stability, trust. They're going to need that. "
The strong emphasis placed on changing the culture at the MPD is necessitated by the same attitude that resulted in North Minneapolis' Fourth Police Precinct Commander Aaron Biard's demotion after veteran officers Mark Bohnsack and Brandy Steberg desecrated the precinct lobby's Christmas tree.
They "decorated" it with, among other things, such racially stereotyped objects as a Popeye's soda cup, a Steel Reserve malt liquor can, a bag of Funyuns and a pack of menthol cigarettes. [See MSR's Dec. 6 story "Cop's racist Christmas tree shocks North Minneapolis."]
"I am ashamed and appalled by the behavior of those who would feel comfortable to act in such a manner that goes against our core department values of trust, accountability and professional service," said Arradondo in a statement following the Dec. 1 incident.
Frey denounced it as well and called for the officers to be dismissed. After no such action took place, activist Rev. Jerry McAfee, questioned the power dynamics between the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM) and Arradondo.
McAfee, who had not attended the hearing, told MSR, "You see how Jacob Frey backed up off of wanting to fire [the offending officers]. He had to because the union [POFM] is too strong. I'm pleased with Rondo, but he is not the issue — the issue is how the union responds. The chief can say certain things, [but] if the line officers don't get it, it doesn't matter what he says."
Additionally, Arradondo will be trying to make vital changes with the significant disadvantage of reduced resources. The city council voted on Nov. 30 to cut the mayor's proposed MPD budget by $1.1 million for 2019. "We're asking him to do more with less," Clemons told the MSR. "That doesn't make sense to me."
Arradondo's first full term begins January 1. He has identified improving police-community relations as among his top priorities.
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The Dark Ages (The History Channel, 2007, not rated)
Having worked for a number of months in New York City, Porter had the opportunity both to explore the History Channel on television and to observe throughout the city the advertising placards proclaiming, "The History Channel: Where History Is Made Every Day." If he were a vandalizing sort of person, New Yorkers would have soon seen a slight alteration in the slogan:
With my expectations sufficiently lowered, I found The Dark Ages not to be too bad. (Thanks, Netflix.) It's not my favorite approach to a historical documentary—Ken Burns set a standard that is hard to beat. The tone is unpleasantly sensationalistic, and the re-enactments almost painfully unprofessional. But the facts are consistent with what little I know of the time period (as consistent as historians get, anyway), and without doubt the show packs an amazing amount of history into 94 minutes.
I believe history needs to be taught using many sources, and many approaches. Not only does this help balance out the inevitable bias each historian brings to his work, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who needs to hear a fact at least three times before it sticks with me. The Dark Ages is not a great show, but it works well in this context.
The sensationalism is what bothered me about the History Channel when we had it. That and the fact that I thought they showed way too many shows that I would not consider "history". ("Ice Road Truckers" and "UFO Hunters" to name but two).
What I found HC useful for was piquing interest in a topic. They also had some good shows about the American Presidents and the kids loved the shows in "10 Days that Changed America".
We don't get the History Channel any more, but I do occasionally get the DVDs from the library.
You are so right that "history needs to be taught using many sources".


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Skeptic: "God can't be loving and send people to Hell."
July 31, 2016 Speaker: Mark Redfern Series: Skeptic
Topic: AM Sermon
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More in Skeptic
August 21, 2016Skeptic: "God made people gay, so how can He condemn homosexuality?"
August 14, 2016Skeptic: "Christians are hypocrites."
July 24, 2016Skeptic: "There can't be a good God with so much suffering in the world."


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Sometimes I wonder, how do politicians who are profoundly irresponsible live with themselves? Do they believe the stories they tell? Do they think the point of their representation is to play games? Do they care about children? Human lives?
Rep. Joe Barton is a Texas Republican. His performance at a Congressional hearing last week is sickening–literally. Texas children's health is at risk. He is laying groundwork to delay the new EPA Mercury and Air Toxics rulings. This in a state that has seven of the twenty-five filthiest coal-burning power plants in the country.
Barton flat out denies that there is any "medical negative" to the particulate and mercury pollution spewing from those smokestacks. He isn't a doctor. He isn't a scientist. And he doesn't have time, or the inclination, to listen to what they say. He simply doesn't "believe" in the evidence–as if it were a matter of faith.
What kind of politician doesn't travel among his people, go into hospitals, talk to doctors and nurses and mothers and dads, in a place where asthma rates have skyrocketed? What kind of politician refuses to notice the anguish of parents who hold a baby struggling to take a breath? What kind of politician refuses to pay attention to the science of mercury poisoning?
This cynical testimony is like something out of Dickens. It is heartless, unfeeling, and just plain wrong.
Testimony like this undermines the integrity of the House. It reduces a political process to a circus. It may make coal plant owners happy–in the short run. But they, too, have to live with the knowledge that they are poisoning people.
Coal pollution is no joke. Our children are at risk. And Texas parents ought to let Barton and his colleagues know that supporting pollution puts them on the path to hellfire and brimstone.


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Here are four fun pie crust designs to try this holiday season!
Line your pie dish with pie dough and trim away the excess. Take your thumb and push the dough in between your thumb and index finger of the opposite hand. Continue this all the way around the crust and you're done!
This may be the easiest crust design of all. Line your pie dish with dough and cut away the excess. I like the crust to be a little thicker around the edges so that you see the lines of the fork. If your crust is too thin, take the excess dough and press it around the edges to build it up. Then, take a fork and press it down around the edges.
Fall Leaves
This is one of my favorite crust designs. It is an easy way to make a big impression on your guests. The hardest part is making sure you have the Leaf shaped cutters. If you don't have them, you could simply use a knife and cut out simple leaf shapes by hand.
Start by rolling out some flaky pie dough to 1/8" thick. Cut out the leaves using the cutters or a knife. Use the back of the knife to make lines in the leaves. Brush a little water around the edges of the pie. This will act as glue for your leaves. Place the leaves around the edges. For an even fancier look, brush the leaves with egg wash before baking!
Start by rolling out flaky pie dough to 1/8" thickness. Use a knife to cut strips 1/4" wide. Use three strips at a time and braid the dough. I like to do mine in sections and connect them using a little water. Just cut a "V" shape going in the direction of the braid's ends and connect them. Brush the edges of the pie shell with water, and place the braided dough around the edges.
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Here on East Coast FM we are looking at why you should adopt and not shop for a dog!
Over the last year, the demand for man's best friend has surged as we all spend more time at home. Puppy farms are making money, dogs are being stolen and the ones suffering are our dogs.
We'll speak to the local Wicklow rescues, hear from families who adopted a dog and look at animal rights issues and what laws, if any, are there to tackle the growing cruel puppy farms.
You can contact the show anytime by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com


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This sort of thing restores one's faith a bit.
But why is there an apostrophe in the band's name?
Who was my favorite student this term?
6 years ago
A long pondered but only lately realized blog about economics, politics, evaluation, econometrics, academia, college football and whatever else comes to mind.


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Battling the snake
December 27, 2019
I got sucked into the world of Battlesnake about two years ago. A few of my friends were participating so I figured I'd try to throw together a snake as well - it sounded like it could be fun.
My first attempt was the result of tinkering for a couple of weeks and worked OK. It was written in TypeScript since that's a language I'm familar with and enjoy using. It wasn't designed to be incredibly complex nor performant. Although this snake wasn't the most ambitious effort, it served as a gateway drug into the world of Battlesnake.
I never competed with this snake and just let it run on a free Heroku server for a few months before shutting it down.
The road to my current snake
A few of my friends participated in the 2018 event and after hearing about how much fun it was I decided I wanted to try creating a snake that could compete in the professional tier - after all, I work on software full-time so I should be able to call myself a professional, right?
One of my primary concerns about starting a new snake was how I could make it as efficient as possible. As every Battlesnake move has three possible directions (you can't go backwards!) and these can be computed without any information being needed from the other scored directions, there is the opportunity to allow each direction to be evaluated in an isolated fashion. With this information in mind I figured that finding a language that prioritized making concurrency or parallelism easy was a good place to start.
Try #1 - Elixir
My first try at a new snake started with Elixir. A few things steered me in this direction:
- A lot of new services at change.org are being written in it and I occasionally need to work with them
- It's built from the ground up to allow for easy and efficient parallelism
- In my experiences functional languages lead to less bugs
- Lots of people had been telling me how great it is
- It's built off of Erlang, which always sounded cool to me
However, my time with the Elixir snake didn't go too well. After a day or so of tinkering I was getting abysmal performance from a snake that worked similar to my TypeScript one.
I don't blame Elixir for this - I'm pretty sure I was using the language wrong. I spammed tons of
Task.await() calls for scanning each sector of the board and I structured my board data in a way that would require a full state copy each time a sector was scored. (One of the downsides of immutable state when combined with lazy thinking.) This made for a snake that was very good at chewing up a lot of CPU and memory but never really managed to get much done in the 500ms cutoff.
Now that I have a better idea of how I can develop a snake that handles parallelism well, I'd like to return to Elixir someday. However, that day is not today, as I have become way too invested in my next attempt: the Go snake.
It's Go time
Go was another language that I had heard tons of buzz about but hadn't worked with much. I read a few articles that hyped up how good it was with concurrent tasks and figured that it would be a good springboard for my next attempt.
My time with Go has been pretty great - not that I'm saying that this makes it a better language than Elixir. Many people that I trust and respect sing the praises of Elixir and I have been able to see the benefits myself. However, at the end of the day programming languages are a tool like any other - you need to choose the right tool for the job. Like I said above, Elixir might work if you're thinking about the problem in the correct way, but my way of thinking and structuring the data was more in line with what works well with Go.
A typical BattleSnake game in action
Lessons learned with Go
While working on my latest and greatest snake there were a few notable things I learned. Some are Go specific and some are applicable to almost any development process.
Embrace WaitGroups and Channels
When I started to really prioritize making my code scale to use as many processors/cores as possible I used
WaitGroups. These are a good way to ensure that multiple tasks can be accomplished at the same time. However, I was passing a shared array from function to function rather than using a
Channel to send data back to my main function.
Channels provide an efficient way to redirect data from a task to a centralized area for later evaluation. Sure, you can try to just pass the data around and do your own checks to ensure everything flows smoothly - but why do that when Go provides you with the ability to do this in with high performance and a minimum of cognitive overhead?
When I implemented channels my performance improved and I found they made it easier to send more complex data back to my main function for number crunching.
The moral of this story is to use the tools that a language gives you before trying to implement your own approach. (This is something I'm always continually relearning thanks to my own stubbornness.)
Questionable practices + mutable state = oh no
One downside of Go having mutable state opposed to Elixir's immutable state is that there is a lot of opportunity for strange bugs to creep in when you've got a lot of different processes accessing the same data. Thankfully this is something that can also be minimized by using the tools that Go provides.
Dealing with parallel and concurrent processing using shared data is a very difficult problem to solve and there's little chance that you'll manage to do it better than the people that have designed and iterated on the language that you're using.
What I learned here is similar to what I learned in the above point - use the tools that the language gives you!
Tests, Tests, Tests
This applies to any programming language and almost any project that you can undertake. After a while I found that I was having trouble telling whether changes helped or hurt my snake. It's incredibly hard to tell if you're improving anything if you don't have any concrete metrics to test against. Even though I'd never write something at work that completely lacked tests I ended up with a side project that had none.
Thankfully Go provides
go test right out of the box and it's a great test framework. By structuring my snake's output to be verbose and running a command like
go test | grep -B 100 -A 1 "FAIL:" I was able to see where and why changes could cause previous strengths to regress. (Yes, that is 100 lines of output before the
FAIL: - my output is verbose!)
I'd run my snake in the arena and watch for games where it made 'bad' moves. I'd then
ssh into my server and
grep the log files for that move. I'd copy/paste the output into my test suite, add it as a new case, and then tweak my code until my snake behaved in the way I wanted it to without breaking any of the previously added tests. This approach definitely helped me climb up the leaderboard!
At the time of this writing I have 41 different test cases and will continue to add more. I've even had to remove a few tests as I've improved my snake - turns out I don't always know what the best move is. 🙈
Benchmarks are good
Speaking of being able to measure whether changes are good or not, if you're designing something that strives for great performance you need to be able to measure how long transactions take.
Using Go's built in testing library you can run a command similar to
go test -cpuprofile cpu.prof -memprofile mem.prof -bench . to generate parsable benchmark files that are readable by
pprof is a built in package that provides detailed benchmarks. Using
go tool pprof --pdf after creating my benchmark data I was able to see detailed flowcharts that showed me exactly how much time was being spent in each function and also gave me a visual representation of how often particular functions were being called by others. This helped me remove some redundant calls and improve performance.
Also, if you feel like you've made a change that may have helped or hurt performance this will give you the ability to measure that! Granted I wasn't able to easily bench on the 32 vCPU machine that I used for the event in 2018 (since it would have been expensive to run it more than the day of the event), but this will give you a good sense of how well your code is performing.
At the 2019 event with my frequent collaborators Cory and Griffin
Where I need to go from here
Despite all of the work and thought that I've put into my snake it still doesn't perform as well as I'd like. When I have it active in the arena it usually gravitates towards the top three rankings, but I find that in competitions it doesn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped. I think this is because I've designed it to be too cautious - none of my logic really rewards it for taking other snakes out. Its primary purpose is to keep itself alive for the next 6-7 moves rather than removing other snakes from the board.
I intend to iterate on my snake and compete in Battlesnake 2020, but before that I want to do the following and make my snake better:
- Increase aggression: reward my snake for removing other snakes from the board
- Implement a MiniMax style scoring system again: My previous iterations of the snake used MiniMax to great effect, but I've gradually moved away from that scoring system in favour of flood filling the board with other snakes moves and just avoiding those areas if it's risky. Using MiniMax will allow for my snake to be 'smarter' around risky snakes and will also assist in making my snake more aggressive.
- Clean up my pathfinding algorithm: currently there can be moves a few moves ahead that score highly but they don't consider the fact that an earlier move could have removed what caused that move to score so highly
After reading that above list it seems like I still have a lot of work to do - guess I better get back to it! 😅


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Despite being a DBA for a few years now, only just have I come to appreciate the benefits Index Views can bring. If you have commonly aggregated data sets which are constantly requested, Index Views could be your new best friend.
Show Me What You Can Do
Let's take a rather messy query, which has been completely and utterly fabricated by yours truly, purely for this post
USE StackOverflow2010; GO SELECT DAY(P.CreationDate), MONTH(P.CreationDate), YEAR(P.CreationDate), 'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/' + RTRIM(P.Id) AS URL FROM dbo.Posts P GROUP BY DAY(P.CreationDate),MONTH(P.CreationDate),YEAR(P.CreationDate),'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/' + RTRIM(P.Id) GO
As you can imagine, this is hardly Mr Speedy when it comes to run time.
The plan isn't great, we have some stinky things going on here such as implicit conversions and expensive parallel operators (of course this was intentional for the purpose of the post):
So currently, we have a bit of a stinky query which clocks up around 15,923 milliseconds CPU time and 800,000 logical reads.
Let's say, dear reader, for explanation purposes, we have this query linked to a front end process which the end-user can call anytime they wish. Simply by clicking a button in our hypothetical application, they can call this dataset anytime they wish. Scary huh? I know it is and it recently happened to me at my place of work.
View From The Afternoon
Something which I recently implemented at work was an indexed view, for such a requirement. Of course, the query was not based on the StackOverflow database, you're just going to have to use your imagination.
What we can do, in times like these is utilise the power of an indexed view. What indexed views give us is a 'materialised' version of that dataset, anytime we need it. Of course, the data will get updated to reflect any changes to the underlying datasets.
Show Me All The Things
So let's see what difference implementing an indexed view can do for us in this situation.
Let's take our nasty little query and create a view out of it. In order for us to put an index on it, however, we're going to have to create it with the option 'WITH SCHEMABINDING' which will lock this object down and not allow us to amend any of the associated tables without dropping this view first.
CREATE VIEW dbo.MyPointOfView WITH SCHEMABINDING AS SELECT DAY(P.CreationDate) AS [DAY], MONTH(P.CreationDate) AS [MONTH], YEAR(P.CreationDate) AS [YEAR], 'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/' + RTRIM(P.Id) AS URL, COUNT_BIG(*) AS [Big Old Count] FROM dbo.Posts P GROUP BY DAY(P.CreationDate),MONTH(P.CreationDate),YEAR(P.CreationDate),'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/' + RTRIM(P.Id) GO
Now we have our view, lets add an index to the shiny new view:
CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX IX_MyFavouriteIndex ON dbo.MyPointOfView(URL);
Right, so new view and a new index. Shall we see what happens when we try and retrieve that dataset?
SELECT [Day], [Month], [Year], [URL] FROM dbo.MyPointOfView
Now, just check out the CPU time and logical reads!
The plan shows, we are able to simply scan our dataset directly from the view created:
The results speak for themselves, CPU time and logical reads are seriously reduced after utilising our indexed view. The before and after figures are quite impressive:
In Conclusion
As with most things in life, there are caveats. Would I blindly recommend using indexed views throughout your databases? Nope. There are quite a few gotchas with using index views. The most important ones in my opinion include:
- You cannot alter the underlying tables without dropping the view first
- Inserts, updates and deletes activity on the underlying tables will take a hit. At the end of the day, we're adding an index.
However, when the time is right, they can be a great tool to utilise. Try them out and test, test, test.
Thanks for reading.


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Optimize care together
Datadriven via one online dashboard
From diagnosis to treatment: patient-centered.
Patient journeys for over 60 medical indications are available. Every journey consists of a combination of measurements via devices or PROMS / PREMS or diaries. These data generate warnings and feedback-loops on the central dashboard.
Datadriven personalized care for many usecases.
Medical modules: Plug & Play or your own design.
Curavista.health is an international online platform, where patients monitor and manage their health together with their healthcare professionals.
The user interface and the content of the modules are designed to stimulate patient involvement and to interact with the professionals.
"Measure lung function values at home with the help of a portable spirometer. The results are saved in the secured Curavista.health app and can be forwarded to the pulmonologist at the push of a button. Questionnaires are added to the patientjourney to monitor quality of life issues like the occurrence of shortness of breath, cough, tiredness and side effects of medication."
-Dr. M.S. Wijsenbeek, pulmonologist, ErasmusMC, Rotterdam


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Turkish fighter jets neutralized six PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, the country's National Defense Ministry announced on Saturday.
Air-backed operations were carried out in the Gara region by the Turkish Armed Forces, the ministry said on Twitter.
Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.
PKK terrorists often use northern Iraq as a base to plan cross-border terror attacks in Turkey.
Read more: Turkey neutralizes 6 PKK terrorists in northern Iraq


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The Rug Doctor Deep Carpet Cleaner is a carpet cleaner that is a good rental machine that will clean your carpet whether it is wet or dry. Normally you would rent this unit from a store and then it would get used by you at home or you would hire someone to clean your carpet. But now you don't have to do that with this cleaner available for sale at Amazon.com for one of the lowest prices you will find.
The Rug Doctor Deep Carpet Cleaner is a carpet cleaner that scrubs cleans, deodorizes and polishes your carpet. This particular unit has an improved model in that the motion of the front and back brushes that works well with both dry and wet surfaces. This will be shown by quicker drying times and will clean the whole carpet fiber from top to bottom. It beats out other units by 75% when it comes to keeping your home clean.
This powerful machine is designed to work within the home and it does it well. It competes well with the rental units that you rent in the store and performs better than those as well according to tests run by the manufacturer and other users of the same product. The hose is a long one and prevents the need to remove the plug from the wall and then plug it in again which for anyone who has used a vacuum you know that is a godsend.
This is also a good unit to use if you have pets as well. It will clean up dog dander and cat dander from your floor, and also clean up and wash any other fluids from the said dog or cat or other pet. Don't forget to make sure that you use the Rug Doctor Pet Formula Carpet Cleaning Solution and the Rug Doctor Oxy-Steam Carpet Cleaning Solution to get the best results.
As you know it will wash your carpet as well. Normally you find that you might have problems with it drying over a long period of time but this unit will wash your carpet and the drying time for it will not leave a wet spot on your floor. And it picks up a lot of water as well while you use it in the drying function on the carpet cleaner.
The three things that most of the consumers who bought this product looked for were:
1. Ease of use and maneuverability
2. Good cleaning action especially for someone who has a pet
3. Easy to assemble.
Although it has a good warranty please read and be aware that you may be responsible for certain actions after a 30 day period. The 30 day period allows you to obtain parts that were missing, return the unit or ask for a repair without having to go to a dealer to do so. You know that commercial that says "sturdy carpet cleaner?" this is just like that sturdy carpet cleaner.
VERDICT on the Rug Doctor Deep Carpet Cleaner
Although considered heavy, this is approximately 15% lighter than many other carpet cleaners sold out there. And the best thing about this unit is that if you have never cleaned your carpet before and had pets or moved into an apartment or house that had that happened- it will clean your carpet like new. So go out and buy this new unit. It is well worth the extra money.
For your further information, we have included two videos which will confirm that this is a great purchase.
Check out the Rug Doctor Deep Carpet Cleaner at Amazon.com for the best price.
If you think you may have an allergy to your carpet or pet please read HERE.


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If you would have mentioned that you were trying to lose weight by a reducing your carbohydrate intake a few years ago, people would have dismissed you as crazy and told you that you were only hurting your body. However, that all changed sometime around 2003 when a prestigious medical school released a peer-reviewed study that basically showed Low Carbohyrate diets not only help people lose more weight, but also result in better blood-lipid profiles than their low-fat counterparts.
Since then, I've read countless studies on PubMed that basically indicate the same thing. However,
another fairly major study just came out that is of interest. Here are the key points:
A study of four popular diets found that women put on the one with the least carbohydrates — the Atkins plan — lost at least twice as much weight as those on the others, researchers said on Tuesday.
Women assigned to the Atkins group lost an average of 10.4 pounds (4.7 kgs) compared to 5.7 pounds (2.5 kgs) for LEARN, 4.8 pounds (2.1 kgs) for Ornish and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kgs) for Zone, the study said.
The women on the Atkins diet also had the most improvements in terms of cholesterol and blood pressure, added the study published in this week's
Journal of the American Medical Association.
The authors said some have worried that diets low in carbohydrates but high in total and saturated fat would cause cholesterol problems and increase the risk of heart disease.
"These concerns have not been substantiated in recent weight-loss diet trials," including the new research, the authors said.
Harvard Medical school, which has one of the most famous departments or nutrition, updated it's food guide years ago, squarely placing refined carbohydrates at the top of the food pyramid (that is, the ones you should eat the least of). I'm still amazed at how many nutrionists or "doctors" firmly place their nutrition beliefs in a very low fat diet, something which for many people which any type of insulin resistance is practically lethal. I'm glad to see more evidence coming out so that manufacturers of garbage food might start putting some nutrition back into their products.


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Fort Fringe — Bedroom
Remaining Performances:
Tuesday, July 15 at 6:15 p.m.
Sunday, July 20 at 2:45 p.m.
Friday, July 25 at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 27 at noon
They say: An adult multilingual expressionistic and absurd deconstruction of the "Jack and Jill" nursery rhyme. A sci-fi tragi-comedy. A spy story set inside a brain scan, filled with misguided attempts by distorted characters to inappropriately love and/or abuse one another.
Rachel M's take: It is adult, multilingual, expressionistic and absurd. It is sci-fi, for as long as it takes to say some sentences about camera-drones and uploading yourself a vacation. It might be a spy story, for all I know. There are definitely distorted characters attempting to inappropriately love and abuse one another. There are also characters named Jack (Stephen Notes) and Jill (Christine Asero).
And Mary Jane (Ashley Faye Dillard), Nell (Rachel Garmon) and Mother (Danae Truhart), because the later verses of "Jack and Jill" get way more complicated than you probably remember. There's some brown paper and some capering, and Jack and Jill die (?) but then Jill laughs, and let's just say very little gets resolved.
"The Tumbling" retains the sense of WHAT THE FUCK of the full nursery rhyme. Characters say things completely unconnected to what was said to them, and one character is covered in boils, and Jack speak-sings what I think was Patsy Cline's "Crazy" in German, and later he has a really long, really detailed and graphic description of cunnilingus from the giver's perspective. Jill is sometimes his therapist, stern in tight black pants and long black high heeled boots; Mary Jane is his lover, in a nightgown; Nell, in a sports bra and yoga pants, is some kind of impulsive/adventurous person who keeps wanting to bone Mary Jane, and Mother, also in workout clothes, is angry and seems to have lost something. Okay.
Notes' particular motivation in writing, directing, producing and starring in his own Fringe show opposite four women at least a decade younger in revealing clothing (who also keep asking concerned questions about Jack's penis) aside, the play has a sort of fun absurdist glee, with a couple of funny lines that got no laughs at the production I saw, either because of Notes' delivery or because we were all so creeped out.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Plenty of great art is creepy, and the Fun Police keep rejecting my application. Garmon and Asero (who also assistant directed) are particularly committed, with high energy and focus. I believed their whiplash-inducing shifts, even when I had no idea why they were doing what they were.
"I think the point of that was to make everyone uncomfortable," I overheard another audience member say as we were leaving. I disagree. I don't think the goals of this production have much to do with the audience at all.
See it if: You read this and think I sound like a humorless feminist.
Skip it if: You want to have any idea, ever, of what's going on.


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When you buy a home or piece of property, it's usually with the expectation that it will be for your private and exclusive use.? However, in many instances, residences and tracts of land come with provisions attached that allow others the right to come onto a property for limited purposes. These legal rights, or access easements, are a common part of owning property in Arizona. Here is what you need to know about easements and your Arizona home:
Do I Have an Easement?
If you own property in Arizona, you likely have some sort of easement burdening it. Easements can be express, meaning that they are stated in a deed, contract, or other legal documents. They may also be implied by the facts and circumstances surrounding the land and its use.
Types of Easements
- Easements may be created by necessity, such as when an owner is landlocked and has to cross your property to come to and from their own.
- Utility companies can have them for purposes of coming onto your land and maintaining services and equipment.
- Easements of support are easements that can be in place to disallow neighbors from creating instability by digging their soil to the point that it could affect adjacent properties.
- Light and Air easements prevent property owners from building so high that they obstruct their neighbor?s views.
- There are also airway easements for the airspace above a structure and artificial waterway easements for water to run through a property.
Prescriptive Easements
Arizona law recognizes prescriptive easements or an implied easement that can be created when a non-owner uses another's property in a continuous, uninterrupted, and open manner for over ten years. This use has to be hostile, meaning it was without the owner's consent and public. A common example is when a neighbor erects a structure or fence on your property without your permission, but you do not object to the structure?s presence.
What happens Once an Easement is Created?
After an easement is created, they tend to benefit the property and are tied to it. However, there can be easements in gross, that attach to an easement holder rather than the land.
Arizona Easement Disputes
Being involved in an easement dispute can be costly and time-consuming. One of the best ways to avoid easement issues is by working with an experienced Arizona real estate attorney who can help you research your property and anticipate easement issues before you get involved in a real estate transaction. With your attorney's assistance, you will be able to get a comprehensive look at your property and make informed decisions.
Laura B. Bramnick is an experienced Arizona real estate attorney who has the expertise to protect your interests during your real estate transaction and examine any existing or potential easements. If you are seeking an exceptional, client-driven real estate lawyer in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Sedona, and throughout the State of Arizona, contact Laura B. Bramnick to schedule your consultation.


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Mirabaud has poached a five-person team from Julius Baer as the Swiss group moves to expand its presence in Latin America.
According to Citywire Americas Fabio Kreplak, from Uruguay and Geronimo Escudero, from Switzerland, have been appointed as joint heads to lead Mirabaud's wealth management drive across Latin America.
The two financial advisers spent 10 years at Julius Baer where they oversaw $700m for clients in Argentina.
Lucila Guelfi, junior relationship manager, and two adviser assistants previously based in Switzerland, will be working alongside Escudero and Kreplak at Mirabaud.
Julius Baer has also undergone a period of expansion, hiring 79 private bankers in the first six months of this year. The bank has embarked upon a global expansion plan, focusing on Europe, Asia and emerging markets, partly through acquisitions.
The Swiss bank plans to launch a holistic wealth service in Britain next year.
Commenting on the moves in Latin America, a spokesman for Julius Baer said: "We continue to have a strategy for sustainable growth in place for the region and are very confident that we will be able to retain client relationships."