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First for Forth
As the first of the new Batch 2 River-class OPVs leaves the BAE construction hall at Govan, the vessel's operational picture is coming increasingly into focus.
We've discussed the class extensively here at Quill and elsewhere, so rather than get into the 'Do we, don't we?' narrative, it might be perhaps better to detail what we know so far.
It is clear now for example that HMS Forth and her sister ship, either in construction or planned, will replace the older Batch 1 when they come into service. Five of the new vessels will be built and put into service, three likely as primarily fisheries patrol around the UK (and possibly playing a bit more with the UK Border Force), while another one has been earmarked for the Falkland Islands.
This leaves one going spare, that is to say, available for overseas deployment.
What about the options then? Well sure, you can start throwing darts at a map probably hit a patch of blue that could probably do with an OPV bearing a white ensign. However, these are not warships, but rather capable security cutters.
Adding a patrol boat to the deployment east of Suez won't make a bit of difference to the strategic makeup of coalition/allied forces there. Indeed the near-twin but vastly more capable Khareef's or other GCC capabilities, were they able to be brought into the CMF structure, are better options.
It's unlikely that such small vessels would be able to be deployed farther east either and again would only represent a diplomatic token, although as we earlier stated, this is no bad thing in itself.
Leaving two possible locations: Gibraltar or the north Atlantic patrol.
Basing a River (B2) in the Mediterranean does connect most of the dots but not for the tub thumping reasons one might think. The Rock's sovereignty aside, this souped-up coast guard cutter would play its part in monitoring and countering illegal migration from Libya, but then again with the impending consequences of Brexit does this matter to the UK Government?
As a non-EU state, it might be difficult to integrate Her Majesty's Ships into EUNAVFORMED unless it operated on an associate level. How much intelligence and operational planning it would be party to would be up in the air.
The north Atlantic patrol is a standing task for the RN but one that has been a variety of vessels used to fulfil it, from frigates, to OPVs, destroyers to RFA's.
Bermuda anyone?


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Defiant Russia Returns!
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
July 2015
Defiant Russia's first edition immediately hit a sweet spot with gamers. We packaged it in a small box and gave it a small price, and leveraged the distribution network we'd expanded during the d20 role-playing gold rush to sell an enormous number of them (enormous relative to the specialty game industry, anyway). The game played really well and its popularity quickly took off. I'm pretty sure we sold more traditional wargames than any other publisher that year; it was a brief and glorious moment. And we then proceeded to crash back to Earth even faster.
Those days are long gone, but Defiant Russia is back.
It's a different Defiant Russia. Bigger, with more stuff. More scenarios. More map. More pieces.
If you never played or saw the first edition, you're in for some real fun anyway. Defiant Russia is a fast-playing game built around the immortal principle of "roll a six, get a hit." The first edition covered Operation Barbarossa, the Axis sneak attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, veering the first seven months of the war. The new version has all that, plus more.
In the midst of preparing Defiant Russia for a reprint, I went to visit our local printer to pick up some things we needed right away and ran into their forewoman. She wanted to show me their brand-new press, a new piece of technology that can do short-run items (small numbers) but can handle large press sheets.
"Those game boards you do in four pieces? We can make them in one piece on this. Same quantities."
That changed things for Defiant Russia. I immediately cancelled the artwork then under way for a 22x17-inch map on two panels. We moved to 22x28 inches, on one sheet.
Guy Riessen's new and larger map allowed extra stuff to go into the game box that I'd planned and prepared as part of the marketing campaign for Defiant Russia (via the Gold Club's Golden Journal). They would have required add-on maps to provide extra territory on the edges of the map, and that would have been pretty cool, but it's much better to have those areas right there on the game map. The map now reaches from Berlin on the west/left to Kuibyshev/Samara (on the middle Volga) on the east/right, and from Petrozavodsk on the north/top down to Kars on the south/bottom.
So the new game includes an introductory scenario (yes, and introductory scenario to an introductory game) called Defiant Poland. That covers the 1939 Polish Campaign, with the Poles fighting a brave but doomed struggle in a very short scenario that gives players a quick look at the game system.
And it also includes the Defiant Turkey option, also originally intended for the Golden Journal. This is one I wanted to publish from the first moment we brought out Defiant Russia, but it required a map extension for the Caucasus, and we didn't really have the ability to make little add-on maps and the means deliver them. An add-on map was just too complicated for a Daily Content download, and by the time we had the Gold Club and its Golden Journal, Defiant Russia had been out of print for years.
Many years ago, I believe I was still in junior high school, I played the ancient Avalon Hill Russian Campaign game and decided to write a variant for it, adding the Caucasus and Turkish units. I sent in my hand-drawn map and typed up variant to the Avalon Hill General magazine, then the bible for wargamers. And some weeks later, I got a reply in a crisp white envelope with the black-and-red Avalon Hill logo in the upper left corner.
Inside was a letter informing me that the editor had no interest in "Martian Intervention in Russian Campaign," and it went on to critique my map drawing skills, my typing skills, and my failure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope (this being the Time Before The Internet). That letter contained as much bile as could be stuffed onto a single sheet of Avalon Hill stationary. And then the editor went on to ridicule "Martian Intervention" in the next issue of the magazine. That was pretty hurtful to my 12-year-old self.
Some decades later that same editor submitted a game proposal here, leading off with something along the lines of "I don't know a thing about your company except that it should be honored to publish my game." I wrote and deleted a few replies before deciding not to be an absolute ass like that guy was all those years before and just went with a generic "does not meet our requirements."
So anyway, in honor of that buffoon, Defiant Russia now includes an option for Turkish intervention, with Turkish units plus the Soviet ones that garrisoned the Caucasus. It's not as much of a game-changer if invoked, since the Caucasus is pretty defensible terrain and the Turkish Army has no armored forces at this scale, but it does stretch the Red Army just when it really doesn't need to be stretched.
Having the possibility exist, even though it's a very small possibility, does something else I like in games: it forces the Soviet player to make a decision regarding the forces to keep in the Caucasus. He or she can weigh the risk and then decide to strip the garrison or leave it intact, rather than keep those units down in the bottom right corner of the map because Rule 13.5 commands it be so. Stalin and the STAVKA had to make that decision, so why should it be denied to the player?
The much larger game-changer was inserted by designer William Sariego, who has made the opening turn much more destructive for the Soviet Union. There's exploitation movement and exploitation combat and some extra German firepower, all assuring more Red Army losses (well, if the dice roll as they should and the Axis player plans the attacks well). The Red Army can strike back, so if the Axis is too careful someone's going to suffer serious losses anyway.
The orders of battle have been adjusted for both sides; there are more (but weaker) Romanians, another Finn, and some minor shifts in German and Soviet unit strength. And you can take the game deeper into the war, with more scenarios covering a broader stretch of time.
We ran a lot of Daily Content for the first edition of Defiant Russia, and the best of those are now part of the game as well: the Lithuanian option, workers' militia, German parartroopers, Rommel on the Steppe and many more. Playing this game is going to be more fun than eating bacon.
Click right here to order Defiant Russia right now!
Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and award-winning journalist, he has published over 100 books, games and articles on historical subjects.
He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children and his dog, Leopold.

subset: commoncrawl


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|__________________ ____________________
Thinking On Racism
As usual, on my lonely drive to school, I was listening to the radio. I had just turned the dial to my favorite station (Lazer 103), and was tuned into the middle of a conversation on racism. Actually it was just ending. Anyhow the conversation sparked a thought in my head that perturbed me until I arrived at school. This thought was on how little human mentality has changed over the years. Sure, we conquered the atom, discovered electricity, and nearly killed every animal in site. However, we still have no conquered the simplest problem....racism. Now days racism is a "taboo" topic, too many people are afraid to talk about it thinking that they might offend someone. Well, I think I have finally found a way that approaches it from both sides of the gun. I was thinking about racism, and in the middle of my thought a picture of a previous nights happening "popped" into my head. I had gone to the pet store and bought a new chameleon (I collect exotics...my brother was allergic to animal dander, so I had to stick to reptiles). Anyhow, I purchased a white amoresk, in lae-man's terms "a white chameleon". Now I figured since this chameleon looked the same, and came from the same species that there would be no problem. I happened to be wrong, apparently chameleons don't like color variances in natural color! Almost as soon as I dropped him in the cage the others became aggressive, normally they accept newcomers, but I can only hypothesize that the color difference in this one was the cause for their actions. Later they began to attack to newcomer, so I separated them into different cages and they immediately settled down. I guess my point in this story is, even though we as humans call ourselves "great thinkers" and the "great species", why do we continue to exhibit such primordial actions that are found in "lesser species"? In a way we are like ants. Almost everyone knows that if you put red ants and black ants near each other they will fight. Are we as humans no greater than ants? To this I say "no", we exhibit the SAME exact behavior. Generally some people choose not to accept others based on looks or color. These have to be the two stupidest reasons that I have ever heard of for not accepting someone. If we choose to follow these examples, we don't only cause harm to others, we also degrade ourselves by acting like simple minded little ants. Personally I don't yet believe humans are ready to meet the classification as "the most evolved species". If we were the most evolved species, don't you think we would have figured out how to solve such basic inadequacies? Some say "it is natures way", I say "bah!" it isn't natures way, it is the Cro-Magnon ways of thinking that the lesser evolved humans use! In essence my point is as follows, don't be the ant who bases their life on color!, don't be the bird who pecks at a discolored spot on her young until it dies! Instead be the cognitive, reasonable, and rationalizing human that you are able to be. We have a gift, a gift that if we use it can allow us to see past the color of someone's skin, or their difference in size and statute; so use it.
Top NovelguidesApology A Christmas Carol A Clean Well Lighted Place A Clockwork Orange A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court A Doll's House A Farewell To Arms A Hope in the Unseen A Lost Lady A Man For All Seasons A Midsummer Night's Dream A Modest Proposal A Passage to India A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man A Raisin in the Sun A Room With a View A Separate Peace A Streetcar Named Desire A Tale of Two Cities A Thousand Splendid Suns A Tree Grows In Brooklyn A Walk to Remember A Wrinkle In Time Absalom-Absalom Across Five Aprils Adam Bede Adventures of Augie March Agamemnon Alas Babylon Alice in Wonderland All My Sons All Quiet on the Western Front All the Kings Men All the Pretty Horses All's Well That Ends Well An American Tragedy An Enemy of the People And Then There Were None Angela's Ashes Animal Farm Anna Karenina Anthem Antigone Sophocles Antigone Antony and Cleopatra April Morning Aristotles Ethics Aristotle's Poetics Arms and the Man Around the World in Eighty Days


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The Sync Session with De'Anna ( single session)
The Sync Session with De'Anna ( single session)
How it works:
Over the phone, from anywhere on the planet, you'll meet with De'Anna for a powerful 90 minute session that will clear out emotional or mental blocks that are delaying you from reaching your goals.
Typically De'Anna's clients see her for one of two reasons:
1) They have stuff in the back of their head they feel keeps them stuck there.
2) They are an achiever but want to pick up the pace in which they achieve their goals.
De'Anna's time is split between two aspects of her business: Speaking & Coaching. Because of her 50% travel schedule, it is wise to secure your session ahead of time and get your session on her calendar.
1) Submit payment
2) Upon payment completion you will receive a booking link to De'Anna's Coaching calendar. Book your session
3) Fill out the >Clarify Your Goals< form sent to you via email. (You'll love filling this out because it will help you get really clear on specifically what you want to accomplish.)
You can bring to your session big audacious goals or even a baby-step goal if you've been stuck. The focus is to clear obstacles and get you moving!
Submit payment now and book your session!


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Vignettes from Bec and David 9.12.2005
Hi all,
First of all, once again, our gratitude can never be expressed for all the words of support, the prayers, the offers of help and the help already given to us. It is greatly appreciated and we wish that words could do more than just say THANK YOU.
We are back in New Orleans as you know, and doing whatever needs doing. Baton Rouge Church of Christ has managed to get trucks in here with food, water and ice, and we've been distributing them all day for days, finding people that apparently no one knows are here. Many of them extremely elderly and extremely poor. We load up the Voodoo Mobile and drive a grid looking for people, some of whom haven't had much food in two weeks. With no power in most places still, there is an information void, so while there are truckloads of food 8 blocks from them, they don't know it. And some are too frail to get there anyway. The gas situation is a mess. You try to buy a couple gallons here a couple there, but it's all black market. I'm ready to write on the car, "Hey mister, you got power back on YOUR street, how about selling me the gas you still have in your generator!"
The Army and National Guard are setting up areas and we see squads of them walking the streets every day, and choppers flying overhead all day and all night. There is now an underground economy here on Algiers Point with many of us trading this for that and passing on information. Of course we have to do all this before the 6PM curfew. Below are some vignettes of what we've seen.
Woman in her late sixties, pushing a shopping cart in the 94 degree heat with a nearly two year old girl in it. She was trying to get to Blaine Kern's food area, but it was a long way away. We found her, loaded up her cart, and the tiny one, oblivious to the plight of her grandmother, jabs a box of apple juice I'd given her back at me to open it.
Ancient man named Moses Page, sweeping his living room. Out of insulin and food. Sees us coming and says Thank you Jesus. Keeps calling me Ma'am. I finally told him I'm not Ma'am, I'm just Rebecca and he laughed. We need to find him some insulin today.
Pages of a notebook, with notes Dave or I have taken. Notes include addresses sent by email, "Can you check on my house?" We're taking pictures but are hooked up to the internet via dialup through New Mexico so it's a long process. Also in the notes are names and addresses of people whose medications are running out and a plan is still not cemented to get them to medical help to refill those prescriptions. No gas to get them there but we're working on it along with the Church of Christ people.
Little clinic set up in a Black Muslim Mosque. Two EMT's with pierced ears and tattoos running all over to addresses on bicycles with stethoscopes around their necks. One woman locally is 102, we've personally found several in their 80's. Bernice around the corner was born a block from where I live, has lived here all her life, she's 85. Had been in an assisted living home but was told if she had a place to go she should go there, so she went home and weathered Katrina by herself in her home. Still sits on the porch every day feeding the pigeons. Not senile at all, just old and alone. Not the only one like that we've found.
Got an SOS that there was an OLD man down off the point who was out of everything. We get to the house and I go to the door. I bang and bang. I can see his feet on the bed. He's NOT moving. After five minutes of this, my stomach is in my mouth and I call David. We're pretty sure that we are too late getting to him. Suddenly his feet stir and he opens the door for us. Do you have food Mr. Fink? Yup. We start looking through his cabinets. He has a can of soup and a box of hot chocolate mix and a few other paltry things. He won't eat veggies or fruit, and the MRE's are too hard both to navigate and to digest for most of the elderly. His meds are almost gone, and he's very worried about the "shot." What shot, we ask. That shot, that shot. Turns out he doesn't have much food but wants a tetanus shot. We loaded up the car and took food over to him along with some cops to see if they could take him to get his meds refilled as we'd heard there was a doctor at Dist 4 station. They tried to convince him to evacuate instead. It's not gonna happen. He's now on our list to keep track of.
Old woman and her son, Miss Sarah, live in a rundown area. We're directed there by someone who knew they were there. We hand her a bottle of juice and she looks at us like we'd just handed her the winning lottery ticket.
We're handed a note: Family of 6-7, need everything. 320 Alix St. The Church of Christ people put together a box, we don't know the ages of anyone there so it includes everything from baby food to soap and toothpaste. We find the house. The house next to it is a pancake that has fallen over onto the house they were living in. We got there 1/2 an hour after someone had evacuated them. So we ran our grid again and gave out what we had. It was all gone when we got home, except the baby food. (I took a picture of this home and the pancake next to it so I'll never forget how lucky I am.)
Yesterday we're directed to a home which had more people in it than that and this home will most assuredly be bulldozed when this is over. It has a serious lean to it. We arrive at the same time as a Red Cross truck. We find that there are two families in there. Their grandmother had passed away the week before Katrina, then the second family's house burned down, so now they were all together in this little house. David was throwing things in boxes, into Red Cross people's hands, dragging it up there himself, anything we had that we thought they could use. I asked the Red Cross woman if there were any young women in there, yes was the answer, so we included tampons, which are at a premium.
Toilet paper, tampons, these things are going fast if we have them in our car. Trucks roll in with stuff, random stuff, and we just load up whatever comes in so some days we're handing out cans of chicken, two cans of green beans, nutrigrain muffin bars and grapefruit juice. Other days we have nothing but green beans, corn, peas and cases and cases of canned pears. It's all appreciated. A case of toilet paper was gone from our car in less than an hour as we gave it out.
Not much protein around, that's starting to worry us as there are so many diabetics and people with high blood pressure.
No mail service here yet. We have power, but most don't, so ice is still important and it comes in by the truckload. The generosity of people has been amazing. FEMA has not been any help, in fact probably a hindrance in some cases, like cutting the lines to the Jefferson Parish sheriff's department, turning away three truckloads of water that WalMart sent and telling the Coast Guard they couldn't deliver the 1000 gallons of diesel they were bringing in. While they're all figuring out jurisdiction and measuring the male parts of their anatomy, people are suffering. And don't get me started on the paperwork issues.
We've been working with the animal rescue folks too. Many have been rescued, more need to be. We don't know where they're taking them, but we keep scrounging up dog and cat food wherever we can and giving it to people who are 'babysitting" a stray cat who lives in the neighbor's house but got left behind. The feral chickens on the Point are being fed by us, yes there really are feral chickens, and the stray cats wait for them to eat then go to the cat food bowl!
Today we'll head for the food distribution area, get some ice and take them the list of people who need to get to West Jefferson Medical Center. From there we'll see. We need a day to figure out our own situation in terms of bills. And then we'll go back out tomorrow. Call a few of the old ones today and see what they need, take it to them if necessary but our gas situation is now at a point where we have to watch every drop we use. We'll probably scavenge some somewhere. If one had pride when they got here, they learn to ask for help really quickly once they're running around here. Funny thing is that the Army, cops and National Guard all know our car and leave us alone as we run around.
Have been taking some pictures, not many, been too busy really but will try to get more of them and send some to you.
I know this is disjointed, but thought you should know we're just fine. The critters are delighted to be home and hey, someone brought us cigarettes last night. (All you ex or anti-smoking folks can just close your eyes and get over it!) They also might be useful in our little underground economy.
You've all asked what you can do. Right now not much but keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We will absolutely ask if we need something. We've learned that lesson well here.
Love and Light to you all,
Bec and David
PS S can you print this out for C please? Thanks!
Interesting that as this was written, some things were left out because we weren't sure how long the phone line would hold out and our power was a generator.
The little girl was in her grandmother's care, and her great Auntie's as well, because her mother was incarcerated at the time. The ladies hinted at a drug problem with the little girl's mother. But at that time they had no idea where her mother had been moved to, and they were worried. They also had no cash, no food stamps and the mail wasn't getting through. They, along with Moses, lived on a forgotten part of Ptolemy Street in Algiers, near the cemeteries. They and Moses were the only people on that street at that point.
The cops who went with us to Mr. Fink's house were less than useless and wholly disinterested. We had gone to Dist 4 station to see if we could find the doctor that we'd heard was there. There were huge barbecues set up and very tired, haggard cops. One very cranky dispatcher was manning a battery powered communication system and the phones still weren't working properly at the station. The cops, two local and one from ICE, accompanied us to Mr. Fink's house when we told them that he'd run out of his meds and we needed to get him to a doctor. They walked in, treated him like he was a problematic child, and harangued him about evacuating. It was eminently clear by Mr. Fink's reaction, first laughingly saying his house was all he had, then finally defensively putting his foot down, that he was not going to be moved out of that house. Once that was decided by him, the police told him he was our problem.
We eventually went back to the station, a couple days later asking if there was any gasoline around. A guy, not a cop but working with the cops, said he had some but that he wasn't allowed to sell it, but would indeed sell us some for $5 a gallon. We paid him for a five gallon can of blackmarket gasoline, but it allowed us to get around for a little bit longer until we could find more.
The clinic on Teche is still there. It was being run and is still being run by Common Ground. They were the first medical care on the scene there, and they determined to make it a permanent fixture in the neighborhood. We've heard they're still there and doing remarkable things in the community. At the time that this was written, they had little more than some band aids and aspirin, but knowing they were there made a huge difference to the neighborhood. They later set up a tent city on Claiborne and were sending their people into the Ninth Ward to gut houses.
Katrina NOLA New Orleans Hurricane Katrina Louisiana FEMA levee flooding Corps of Engineers We Are Not OK New Orleans Slate Katrina Refrigerator Rising Tide


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AS Roma's Daniele De Rossi waves to fans
|Sun, 24 Sep 2006
|Preview Image #0000010239
|Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006
|Photographer: Felice Calabro'
Caption: AS Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi, left, waves to fans at the end of the Italian first division soccer match between Parma and AS Roma at the Tardini stadium in Parma, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006. AS Roma won 4-0.
Event: Italian Soccer Serie A - Parma vs. AS Roma
Location: Parma / Italy
File Size: 632.3 KB (2508pixel X 1953pixel)
Copyright © 2019 DIPAG di Guarriello Mirko
All rights reserved. Republication and redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited.
Programming by Mirko Guarriello Sports Photography


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eyelid correction with eyebrow lift
This patient was treated with a suture lift of the lateral half of the eyebrows and a correction of the upper eyelids (blepharoplasty) in the same operative session. This was performed under local anaesthesia as usual.
Age category: 70 - 74 years.
Click on the thumbnails to view larger images.
Storage, copying or distribution of this information is prohibited.


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On our second morning in LA, we figured we would go and learn about the movie studios all the way in Burbank (other side of the hills). For that we rented a convertible (yes, in december!), but I'm telling you about that on my next post, to be able to keep this one right under novel length —hehe.
On our way back we had time to visit the Hollywood area where classic movie stars used to live.
The Hollywood sign
The HOLLYWOODLAND sign was erected in 1923 to advertise a new housing development in the hills above the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. In 1949 the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce contracted to repair and rebuild the sign. The contract stipulated that "LAND" be removed to reflect the district, not the housing development. Each letter of the sign is 10m wide and 15m high.
(1976) — The Hollywood sign was altered to read HOLLYWeeD in January 1976, following the passage of a state law decriminalizing marijuana.
(2012) — Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its final flight to LAX on September 21, 2012 as it passes over Disney Hall and the Hollywood Sign.
The sign is not accessible by car and you must park and keep on walking about an hour. Glad we asked because the sun was already coming down and we weren't going to be able to make it, so guess what I discovered…
Ok, please don't attempt that way if you're not wearing proper shoes, and definitely not a tight mini skirt! Luckily no snakes were in our way, but we did see the warning signs.
Back in Hollywood, mandatory stop at In-N-Out to try our first (and only) burger from this chain. I must say the burger is ok for a fast food bistro, but the fries are waaaaay too bad. If I ever go back to Cali I will try two burgers instead of a combo, as our acquaintance had. We met a moldavian guy there, married to an american and living with a green card for two years now. He told us about interesting highlights for our future stop in Las Vegas.
Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard is a street in Hollywood formerly named Prospect Avenue from 1887 until 1910, when the town of Hollywood was annexed by the City of Los Angeles.
In 1958 the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which runs from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue (and an additional three blocks on Vine Street), was created as a tribute to artists working in the entertainment industry.
In early 2006, the city made revamping plans on Hollywood Boulevard for future tourists. The three-part plan was to exchange the original streetlights with red stars into two-headed old-fashioned streetlights, put in new palm trees, and put in new stoplights. The renovations were completed in late 2006.
By the way, don't drive a convertible without a ponytail:
Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame comprises more than 2,500 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street. The stars are permanent public monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of actors, musicians, directors, producers, musical and theatrical groups, fictional characters, and others. The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. It is a popular tourist destination. Gene Autry (fun fact — he created the christmas carols "Rudolph the red nose reindeer" and "Here comes Santa") is the only honoree with stars in all five categories.
Locations of individual stars are not necessarily random or arbitrary. Stars of most legendary and world-famous celebrities—the so-called "show business royalty"—are found in front of TCL (formerly Grauman's) Chinese Theatre. Oscar winners' stars are usually placed near the Dolby Theatre, site of the annual Academy Awards presentations. Decisions are occasionally made with a dollop of whimsy: Mike Myers's star, for example, lies in front of an adult store called the International Love Boutique, an association with his Austin Powers roles, Roger Moore's star is located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard in recognition of his seven James Bond films, Ed O'Neill's star is located outside a shoe store in reference to his character's occupation on the TV show "Married…with Children"…
Hollywood Pacific Theater
In the picture, the Hollywood Pacific Theatre. A movie theatre located at 6433 Hollywood Blvd. Originally known as the Warner Bros. Theatre or Warner Hollywood Theatre. Warner Bros. owned radio station KFWB positioned its radio transmitter towers on top of the building, which remain to this day. Though covered by "PACIFIC" lettering, the original "WARNERS" lettering can still be seen inside each tower. In 1968,Stanley Warner sold the theatre to Pacific Theatres, which renamed it the present day Hollywood Pacific Theatre.
The theatre finally closed its doors as a full-time cinema on August 15, 1994. This was mostly due to water damage to the basement caused by the construction of the Hollywood Subway Red Line and structural damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Dolby Theater
After Kodak filed for bankruptcy, Dolby would sign an agreement with CIM, owner of Hollywood & Highland Center, to be the new teathre sponsor. Hollywood & Highland Center is a destination in the center of the Hollywood tourist attractions, shopping mall and entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard. Dolby updated the sound system first by installing Dolby Atmos. The company plans to continue updating the auditorium with newer technologies as they become available.
The Dolby Theatre hosts The Oscars year after year. It doesn't look like it when you're there, so I searched for photos of the event for a proper comparison. The Hollywood Boulevard would be nicely carpeted in red, and there'd be a 30 metre long curtain hanging from the gallery entrance. In fact, shops in the inside are also dressed and covered. The lighted columns in the hall and staircase list Academy Award Best Picture winners of past four decades. I went all the way up to the door of the theatre, but nothing could be seen other than quite a bit of dust I hope they are cleaning away already… The Oscars are due in weeks time.
Graunam's Chinese Theatre
Built over 18 months, from January 1926 by a partnership headed by Sid Grauman, the theatre opened May 18, 1927, with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's film The King of Kings. It has since been home to many premieres, including the 1977 launch of George Lucas's Star Wars, as well as birthday parties, corporate junkets and three Academy Awards ceremonies. Among the theatre's most distinctive features are the concrete blocks set in the forecourt, which bear the signatures, footprints, and handprints of popular motion picture personalities from the 1920s to the present day. The TCL Chinese Theatre has partnered with IMAX Corporation to introduce the single largest IMAX auditorium in the world. The new theatre seats 932 people, and hosts the third largest commercial movie screen in North America.
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major American record label that is part of the Capitol Music Group and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Universal Music Group. Founded in 1942 by three industry insiders, the label has recorded and released material by artists such as Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, The Kingston Trio, Les Paul, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Glen Campbell, Megadeth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, and Katy Perry among many others.
Capitol's recording studios were designed by guitarist and sound expert Les Paul to minimize noise and vibration. The studios feature 25cm concrete exterior walls, surrounding a 2.5cm air gap, surrounding an inner wall that floats on layers of rubber and cork – all in an effort to provide complete sound isolation.
The facility features echo chambers: subterranean concrete bunkers allowing engineers to add reverberations during the recording process. The eight chambers are located 9m underground. They are trapezoidal-shaped with 25cm concrete walls and 30cm concrete ceilings. The chambers feature speakers on one side and microphones on the other, permitting an echo effect of up to five seconds.
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a 1920s amphitheater used primarily for music performances. It is known for its band shell, a distinctive set of concentric arches that graced the site from 1929 through 2003, before being replaced with a somewhat larger one beginning in the 2004 season. The shell is set against the backdrop of the Hollywood Hills and the famous Hollywood Sign to the Northeast.
Downtown LA
We also headed Downtown in the convertible to have a look at the Staples Center, the Nokia Plaza and the Walt Disney Theatre, yet another Frank Gehry design.
Malibu Farm
Next day we woke up to the sunny Malibu. We were continuing our trip east to Las Vegas, but we wanted to check out this piece of paradise first.
Want an awesome unique experience for breakfast? Malibu Farm delivers not only a panoramic view of Malibu but also provides a great place to eat healthy organic local food right on the Malibu Pier.
Peggy Sue's
A deep breath of ocean breeze, suitcases packed, and back in the road this time heading to Las Vegas. On our way we found the most authentic 50s diner: Peggy Sue's. True discovery, real hamburgers, cute walls full of memorabilia… and a clear inspiration for spanish restaurants with the same name. Perhaps they already knew about this gem in Getafe.


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Contents of http://webshares.northseattle.edu/accred-sitevisit/
Name Last modified Size
Parent Directory - 2010 Focused Interim Visit/ 15-Apr-2010 11:00 - 2013-Year-Three-Report/ 01-Feb-2013 09:29 - 2016 Year Seven Report/ 11-May-2016 13:52 - April 2007/ 20-Jan-2012 10:22 -
Material published here does not necessarily reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of North Seattle Community College, and are the sole responsibility of the individual publishing this material. This material may be protected by its author or publisher under U.S. copyright laws and international agreements and should not be presumed to be in the Public Domain. NSCC assumes no responsibility whatsoever regarding this material.
Material that is illegal or objectionable, violates copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property laws, or is non-compliant with the State of Washington and SCCD EIR policies may be removed immediately by NSCC IT staff.


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International Space Art Network
Welcome to a place of vision and beauty. Welcome to the world of space art.
Does the International Space Art Network have a social media icon that memebers can use for their websites, like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc? If so, where can I fnd it so it can be added to other social media icons my site?
Views: 117
Very sorry I missed this when it first appeared.
We had something when the network forst got going - it was set up for t-shorts and everything!
But now I'm struggling tro find it...
Stay tuned, its around here somewhere!
© 2019 Created by John E. Kaufmann. Powered by


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Carpet One Near Saint Paul
If you're in the Saint Paul area and looking for quality service to help you find the perfect new flooring for your Saint Paul home, turn to your local Carpet One. Saint Paul-area Carpet One locations are the best in Indiana when it comes to providing you with the best flooring selection, expertise, installation, and protection in the industry. We have everything from quality ceramic tile to laminate flooring and so much more.
Carpet One redefines what it means to shop for flooring in the Saint Paul area. We are proud to offer a flooring type for every lifestyle and every price range at your Carpet One near Saint Paul. Our Carpet One sales professionals will help you navigate the selection process with the added help of Carpet One's SelectAFloor™ system, which leads you to find your perfect floor at a perfect price. Whether you're looking to add contemporary style with ceramic tiling or versatile vinyl that will resist wear and tear while still looking beautiful, rest assured that you can find what you need by shopping at Carpet One near Saint Paul. What's more, we have several SelectAFloor ™ warranty options available to protect the life of your floor long after it is installed.
Affordable, quality flooring has never been easier to come by than at your Saint Paul-area Carpet One. Thanks to our expertise and great inventory, you can trust Carpet One near Saint Paul make your floor redesign experience a smooth one. Come in to your Carpet One near Saint Paul and let us help you start your flooring redesign journey today!


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The Springdale Park media program provides resources in a variety of formats to a diverse population in an environment that encourages use by students, staff, and parents. Our Library Media Specialist, collaborates with teachers and other faculty members to provide quality, effective instruction. Through activities that are collaboratively planned, implemented and evaluated, students have the opportunity to develop the information literacy skills and strategies that will enable them to become competent, knowledgeable, and productive members of the world.AR Parties bring students and parents together to celebrate reading
Last Modified on January 16, 2017


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Veles RSI with MA
RSI lamp standard, using custom based on a signal line MA.
It can be used as a more accurate (noise eliminating price movement) actuation signal.
Description parameter
- PeriodRSI – period RSI
- PriceRSI – used in the RSI price
- LevelRSI – RSI level
- Average – period of the signal line
- Method – use method MA
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Next posts
- TrendChoice
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Custom blend rubber flooring that is 100% recycled and made in America, with FloorScore® certification. It complies with vigorous indoor air quality standards for low VOC emissions and offers a Class II Fire rating, as required by many municipalities. Rolls are four feet wide with deck edging and are available with varying thicknesses. The finished product provides a strong, safe and durable floor that is aesthetically pleasing.
Key Features:
Extremely durable
Withstands heavy foot traffic
Moisture resistant
Sound and shock absorbent
Slip resistant - wet or dry
Seamless appearance
Planet Fitness color blend that is exclusive to Adirondack Direct
Custom cut
Meets or exceeds Class 2 Fire Rating
Low freight cost, with shipping from east and west coast facilities
Made in USA
Eco-Friendly - Recycled Material
FloorScore® Certified


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Basic Biittner: What World Series?
(Column ~ 10/19/05)
Isn't the fall season wonderful? Look at those beautiful colored leaves ... Gorgeous ! And how 'bout them Hawkeyes/Braves/Bulldogs/Cyclones/Eagles/Packers/Chiefs/Vikings (oops, scratch that last one- this is a family paper, after all!) Isn't football great?...
Stories from Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Browse other days


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FAHS (FAHS) Class of 1980 Alumni List
Help us Update the FAHS 1980 Class List by adding any names missing from the list below:
Registered Alumni
1980 Class List
- Chardel Anderson
- Jacqueline Bowie
- Karen Brinker
- Kevin Brown
- Roslina Brown
- Tangie Burge
- Florence Clay
- John Coleman
- Paul Cosby
- Earnest Coupe
- Stillman Crawford
- Gloria Daniels
- Greg Davis
- Marigold Davis
- Mike Evans
- Benno Fenger
- Debits Freeman
- Denita Freeman
- Connie Gilbert
- Renee Hangs
- Greg Haynes
- Gregory Haynes
- Danny Hill
- David Hill
- Joseph Holmes
- Tonya Jackson
- Clarence Jones
- Kimberly Jones
- Clarence Robert Jones
- Anthony Lane
- Brenda Mallett
- Hugh Mcfield
- Sandra Mcmullian
- Delmaria Mcreynolds
- Jack Miller
- Dilva Morris
- Kathy Murry
- Samuel Nicholson
- James Norwood
- Elaine Pointer
- Melyssha Mcknight Randle
- Jacqueline Ross
- Karen Seals
- Dwight Shaw
- Ronald Smith
- Cornell Smith
- Susan Spooner
- David Tate
- Dwight Thompson
- Jeffery White
- Glorietta Wilder
- Cassandra Wright
Know FAHS Class of 1980 graduates that are NOT on this List? Help us Update the 1980 Class List by adding missing names.
The most popular movie of 1980 was Star Wars Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back which has grossed over $290,271,960 since its release. The TV series 60 Minutes was the most popular show of 1980.
Hit Songs From 1980
CarsGary Numan
We Don't Talk AnymoreCliff Richard
Stand By MeMickey Gilley
Drivin' My Life AwayEddie Rabbitt
Emotional RescueRolling Stones
Yes, I'm ReadyTeri De Sario With K.C.
No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer
Let Me Love You TonightPure Prairie League
Against The WindBob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
SailingChristopher Cross
Hit Movies From 1980
Reunions and Fenger Academy High School News
More 1980 alumni from Fenger Academy HS have posted profiles on Classmates.com®. Click here to register for free at Classmates.com® and view other 1980 alumni.
The students that went to school at the Chicago high school called Fenger Academy High School and graduated in '80 are on this page. Register to add your name to the class of 1980 graduates list.
If you are an alumn of FAHS you should register now in the alumni directory. We also encourage you to interact with the rest of the alumni on this site. You can find old friends, share photos and stay updated on the latest school news.


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Sunday, 19 March 2017
Ultramarine - RTB01 Beaky Marine
Anyway, I still have most of my original plastic beakies, albeit stripped and mostly in bits, and not having any real idea what to do with them (apart from a a few specially earmarked squads) I realised I had enough to use in Space Hulk. Now most of my plans go nowhere but I did end up fixing up a squad of models before stalling at the question of colour schemes.
Various ideas came to mind but I ended up deciding I wanted to revisit a colour scheme I'd used on a few marines back in the 90's. It must have been around '97 that I painted up some Ultramarines, two or three terminators and a couple of plastic beakies. All stripped years ago but I remembered the blue was nicely muted and would fit well with my current penchant for toned down colours. I tried a few things out on a spare model to get the colours down but wasn't happy and that was that. Models went back in the box and I moved onto something else.
A few weeks back I had one of those eureka moments right out of nowhere, so tried some slightly different colours and ended up with exactly what I wanted for my Ultramarines! Sometimes it pays to not think too hard about things I guess.
A base coat of VMC Luftwaffe Uniform WWII highlighted up with VGC Ultramarine Blue and then some VGC Cold Grey and finally VMC Silvergrey for the edge lining. I used VGC Heavy Charcoal to dark line between the armour plates and put a thin glaze of GW Nuln Oil over it all when done. I added a little rust on the seams of the lower legs and around the studs on the shoulder pad (to try and disguise how badly sculpted they are).
The shoulder insignia is an over painted decal. These are old decals and I realised they've become brittle with age. A bit of decal film helped a little but they still proved tricky to use, not helped by trying to apply them to such a convex surface. I had to use my old techniques from when I painted my Imperial Fists marines which involved cutting into the decal to allow it to conform to the surface. Then it took a few cotes of decal softener (Micro Scale Micro Sol) to even out all the creases. The arrows are part of an assault decal that I cut up and added. With all the cutting, the distortion of the surface and the crumbly nature of old decals it didn't look great but it was just a guide so I could paint over it. A bit of hassle perhaps but easier than having several attempts and freehand that I'll never be able to reproduce on the rest of the unit (if I do them).
I made my own base top too. Just plastic sheet and a bit of inspiration from the original Space Hulk tile set. I made a few more just in case I do get more models painted. I did wonder about looking into getting some moulded and cast up to save on time but that's another thing entirely. Didn't go for an exact colour match as I wanted something a bit more muted, but it's similar enough.
18 comments:
He definitely looks like he's peering down a corridor looking for genestealers! Amazing work, as usual!ReplyDeleteReplies
If he's on his own then he may well have a primed grenade ready to commit terminus!Delete
Well, he's just fucking amazing Stone! I'll be using him as a painting guide next time I attack some of my own.ReplyDelete
That's a great idea, using the transfer as a template to paint over. Seeing as I can't freehand for shit, I'll be keep this technique in mind.
Fantastic stuff Stone! Eavy Metal...eat your heart out :)Replies
Cheers. Decals always look best with a little extra work to give them that painted on look. Sometimes I print my own from images off the internet. Quality doesn't matter too much in that case, just a simple black image to give an outline is all you need.Delete
A real blast from the past. Makes me wish I still had mine.ReplyDeleteReplies
I'm surprised I still have mine to be honest. Not sure how they survived the various culls and general teenage destruction.Delete
Nice touch on using bits of orange to make the whole piece 'pop'.ReplyDeleteReplies
I did think about doing a lot of weathering and really griming him up but decided to keep it more minimal in the end.Delete
Great work.... I've always been tempted by Ultramarines, but for some reason I just can't seem to bring myself to paint a blue army!ReplyDeleteReplies
Blue can be a tricky colour.Delete
That's impressive, most people who've painted one know just how tricky making them look this good is.ReplyDelete
Cheers. A lot of very plain surfaces on these models. It can certainly make highlighting tricky.Delete
So. Absolutely. Delightful.ReplyDelete
I've got some beakies from '86 still to build, and was wondering what they might look like using more modern techniques and such -- and whether or not it'd be worth it.ReplyDelete
You've proven it can be TOTALLY worth it.Replies
Cheers :)Delete
I really want to get some more done but Vallejo have totally fucked up the grey I was using to highlight the blue. For some bizarre reason more recent batches of Cold Grey get darker the more you mix the paint on the palette and when painting a model! Need a good sub.


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Ziegler Park, named after Cincinnati's first mayor David Ziegler, is getting a long overdue $30 million facelift. The existing 1.41 acre park is being completely renovated to create a new 400 space below ground parking garage with a green roof to provide usable green lawn space for family fun. There will also be a new pool, playground and basketball courts. The park's renovation is a welcome addition to the continued revitalization of the Over-the-Rhine community.
RAM Construction Services's scope of work consists of 18000 square feet of blindside waterproofing on the foundation walls and 68000 square feet of hot applied waterproofing on the green roof. RAM Construction Services also installed caulk and expansion joints on the garage. Coordinating the work was a challenge since the jobsite had limited space and access for all trades to perform their scopes of work.


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-Is he going to say it? Really? Where is the simian shame? Lets not all go ape over the controversy! Oh! We are apes? Sorry whatever ape I might be offending here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simian
The rational/objective thing about scientific thought, is that it will allegedly change an assumption with compelling verifiable evidence. While those who wish to debunk scientific thought seem to require one apparent contradiction, just one will do to prove science's falsity. Well also political, spiritual and many other debatable positions. How convenient.
I love how the One Life that existence is, (in my opinion), keeps revealing more to us if we but look. Although here I will venture into the speculative zone of hypothesis, and not offer too much evidence but fanciful conjecture.
It came as a surprise to some that Neaderthal's (some say Neandertal) have the same advanced language gene that we modern humans do. This caused some to speculate as to how and when that gene was shared. For some time, some claimed that Neadertal's big problem was that they did not have our fancy human talky ability. Now there is conjecture that perhaps we had it all backwards, and it was Neandertal's who had the language gene first, being that they had a much more codependent lifestyle than the more lone wandering on the plains with better weapons proto modern humans.
(So we may be the experiment; whether smart long term strategy and highly refined speech will remain a key to human advancements or decline.)
The speculation proceeds to human and Neandertal interbreeding; that way back when, we were much more similar in life pursuits, which may have lead, not so much to conquest, but to integration and assimilation pushing out the prior forms. Somewhere and sometime, it seems likely, that hundreds of thousands of years ago, and or much more near, what was to be our present humanity was a more broad definition than today.
Being One Creation, (in my view), I am fine with Neandertal mothers and fathers being some of our ancestors. This is Life after all, and not necessarily and ideological competition, although some may insist on that, or other ontological presumptions.
Once I had heard this debate about Europeans being imbued with characteristics indicative of residual Neandertal genes, and a point was made that Neandertal and humans do not share a certain feature in the head and neck connection. Then someone wrote in that they have that very same "Neandertal" head connection from their Lithuanian roots (Disclosure; I am half Lithuanian and do have the cranial feature. It is or isn't in the center back of ones skull at the ear-line). http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24164
Well guy. You may be an ape or Neandertal dude, but I'm a Hobbit! Hobbit.http://www.eonix-papers.com/2009/04/28/hobbits/
That's the trouble with you you-mans; you just don't know who you are.


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Local Rap Jam Of The Day: Buddhamang – Crying (Prod By Mazin Beats)
Been a minute since we heard some new music from the homie Buddhamang. I think he was the first local rapper we ever blogged on BDP. Glad to hear he's back making music again. Easily one of my favorite artists from NEPA. And what else needs to be said about this jam? He raps about 3 different people going through 3 different hardships. Cancer. Financial struggles and battles with addiction. Great song with some deep topics at hand. Can't wait to hear more from Buddha.
Also, Buddha is in the running for a contest on Mazin Beats. The web site takes a little bit to load everything, but if you have an extra minute, head to their site and cast your vote for Buddha in the section where it asks to vote for your favorite artist. Check the box where it says Buddhamang. Hit the link below to be directed to MazinBeats.com
Posted on February 26, 2016, in Music, NEW MUSIC, VIDEOS. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.


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Igad to handle South Sudan rebels' complaints
Saturday September 1 2018
Regional leaders will hold a special summit on South Sudan in Nairobi mid-September to address sticky issues in the peace process.
Diplomatic sources in Khartoum said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir — who is the guarantor of the last phase of the talks — has assured opposition leader Dr Riek Machar that he would table his concerns at the summit for a collective decision.
President al-Bashir met Dr Machar in Khartoum on Wednesday, a day after the rebel leader raised objections to the peace deal, saying some of the proposals by his Sudanese People's Liberation Movement-In Opposing (SPLM-IO) were ignored. However, he signed the deal on Thursday.
But another headache ahead is whether President al-Bashir can persuade other Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) leaders to include demands by Dr Machar and other opposition groups that have singled out what they call "bracketed areas."
"President al-Bashir did not want to be seen as imposing an agreement on the South Sudanese. He would rather the regional leaders consider the concerns raised by the opposition," said James Oryema, the SPLM-IO representative in Kenya.
Once the Igad summit resolves the outstanding issues in Nairobi, the mediators will retreat to Addis Ababa where they will harmonise the new features of the agreement with the 2015 peace deal, before the final signing.
SPLM-IO, together with the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) had suggested that the permanent constitution-making should be undertaken by a new National Constitutional Assembly involving other parties and not the current National Constitutional Review Commission that was single handily constituted by President Salva Kiir.
However, the mediators led by Sudanese Foreign Affairs Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed, said the Khartoum Round of Talks had no mandate to tackle the constitutional-making process.
Both SPLM-IO and the SSOA, which comprises nine armed and non-armed groups, also want the decision-making organ in the Cabinet, the Council of Ministers in which President Kiir enjoys a majority, to be changed to collegial instead of majority votes.
"The decision-making process, means the government is able to amend the agreement at will. The regime only needs the vote of four VPs to change the agreement and they already have three. This means the status quo will dominate the transition and the agreement will be dismantled," said Mabior Garang de Mabior, the rebel group's chairperson for information and public relations.
The opposition has also rejected the 32 states created by President Kiir, and demanded that the country revert to the initial 10 states.
The Igad mediators had the proposed a referendum led by Independent Boundaries Commission for South Sudanese to choose between the 32 and 10 states, or any alternative that may come up.
However, the former detainees, commonly known as the FDs, have rejected the last chapter on the grounds that their chief mediator, former foreign minister Deng Alor, signed the chapter prematurely before the groups completed their consultations.
The FDs leader, Pagan Amum, who is also the SPLM secretary-general, said the final chapter has left many issues unresolved, and does not create the necessary conditions for a sustainable peace in South Sudan.
He maintained that the outstanding issues that they had raised earlier need to be resolved satisfactorily and reflected in the final text of the draft agreement before initialising.
"At this eleventh hour, we can no longer rely on vague assurances of signing documents with reservations or having points of disagreements bracketed or referred to other bodies for decision," he said.
Former assistant minister of foreign affairs and a member of the FDs, Dr Cirino Hiteng, told The EastAfrican that Mr Alor, and Transport Minister John Luke Jok, have virtually defected and are working with the government.
"Most of the FD members have agonised for quite some time over their inability to comply with the majority decisions. However, they will continue to maintain the two FDs positions as part of the government because they practically abandoned the reform agenda," said Dr Cirino.


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A Certified Veteran Owned Small Business (CVOSB)
IAP C4ISR, LLC., a Joint Venture comprised of IAP Worldwide Services, Inc. and CommIT Enterprises, Inc. is an awardee of the Encore III Full and Open Contract.
More to follow in the near future
Decision Superiority - Small Business Pillar Issuer: Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center - Atlantic (SSC-LANT), Charleston, SC Contract Number: N65236-13-D-4886
CommIT supports the entire spectrum of non-inherently governmental services and solutions (equipment and services) associated with the full system lifecycle support including research, development, test, evaluation, production and fielding of sustainable, secure, survivable, and interoperable Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (C5ISR), Information Operations, Enterprise Information Services (EIS) and Space capabilities. Although not limited beyond the description above, this contract has a primary focus on mission capabilities within the Decision Superiority Portfolio.
Business and Technology Areas: Command and Control; Tactical System and Application Development and Support; Command and Operation Centers; Tactical Data Centers; Cloud Services
Point of Contact: Bill Hoffer; (301) 752-1661; email@example.com
Subcontractor on: Decision Superiority - Unrestricted Pillar; Integrated Cyber Operations - Unrestricted Pillar; and Business & Force Support - Unrestricted Pillar
Program Management / Financial Management Support Services (PM/FMSS) - Unrestricted
Issuer: Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center - Atlantic (SSC-LANT), Charleston, SC
Contract Number: N65236-14-D-4154
Providing Information Dominance Program and Financial Management support to SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic. Tasks include attending meetings, reviewing and developing data, creating and maintaining documents, and analyzing and researching data. Tasking includes non-inherently government work only. The support requires personnel with Program Management, Financial Management, and DoD Acquisition Life Cycle expertise and experience. This includes support to SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic Program Managers (PMs) in the accomplishment of their duties as specified in Task Orders (TOs).
Point of Contract: Bill Hoffer; (301) 752-1661; email@example.com
SeaPort E-Enhanced - Federal Supply Service
Issuer: Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA)
Contract Number: N00178-14-D-7671
Providing engineering, technical, and programmatic support services in Zones 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6
Program Point of Contact: Bill Hoffer; 301-752-1661; firstname.lastname@example.com
Customer Satisfaction Point of Contact: Bill Hoffer; 301-752-1661; firstname.lastname@example.com
Team Members Our team includes:
This team mutually enhances the ability to deliver capabilities and program support to the US Navy and other Services and Organizations. The CommIT Team has demonstrated capability and past performance to continue to provide qualified personnel, materials, facilities, equipment, test instrumentation, data collection, analysis hardware and software, and other services that support our clients in the execution of their missions. Quality Assurance CommIT and its team assures quality in accordance with CommIT's Total Quality Management Program Plan. This plan clearly:
Upon initiation, the CommIT Project Manager (PM) meets with the Government Contracting Officer (CO) and outline a strategy to ensure that all contract objectives are met and that each performance review will provide the detail status information desired. CommIT will develop measures applicable to CommIT documented processes, as well as additional processes that may be required to ensure quality objectives are met and prepare a Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) plan. This plan will outline the project organization, quality assurance objectives, internal quality control checks and frequency, as well as quality assurance performance audits, system audits, and the frequency of quality assurance reports to management. This plan will be used throughout the duration of the Seaport-e task order to:
A CommIT QA/QC auditor, who reports directly to CommIT senior management, will monitor the actions required within the plan and work with the program manager and senior management to ensure deliverables are being met and any quality issues are being addressed rapidly and effectively


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The Furniture Throws For Pets
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Miami, FL, March 3, 2009
Noven To Present At Barclays Capital Global Healthcare Conference
-- Noven Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVN) today announced that Peter Brandt, Noven's President & Chief Executive Officer, is scheduled to present an update on Noven's business and prospects at the Barclays Capital Global Healthcare Conference in Miami Beach on Wednesday, March 11th at 11:15 a.m. ET. The presentation will be webcast live at www.noven.com, and a rebroadcast will be available thereafter for at least two weeks at the same site.
Noven Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the research, development, manufacture, marketing and sale of prescription pharmaceutical products. Noven's business and operations are focused in three principal areas – transdermal drug delivery, the Novogyne joint venture, and Noven Therapeutics, Noven's specialty pharmaceutical unit. For more information about Noven Pharmaceuticals, visit www.noven.com
Alina Bowman
Investor Relations Coordinator


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The don, whose name was mentioned in the audio by the victim, is yet to publicly speak on the scandal.
READ ALSO : Buhari hosts Archbishop of Canterbury in London [PHOTOS]
However, in a statement he personally signed on Wednesday, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, said the university has begun the process of identifying the person involved. He said the act was a breach of regulations of the university's code of conduct and anti-sexual harassment policy.
"In full compliance to all applicable laws, the university has set up a high powered committee to investigate the allegation and submit its report within one week. Anyone found culpable will be dealt with decisively.
"The university considers sexual harassment as an offence punishable contrary to the code of conduct and anti-sexual harassment policy. The university will never condone such act by any staff or students," the professor said.
READ ALSO : Buhari finally explains why he will contest in 2019
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In 1989 I graduated from Lakeland College with a bachelor's degree in writing.
My essay "Why I Walk Alone" was published in Walk About magazine.
I am currently working on a romance novel, a page-a-day nonfiction book for factory workers and a couple of essays.
I am currently taking AWAI's The Accelerated Program for Six Figure Copywriting Course.
If you would like to hire me to write blog posts, copy, etc. for you please contact me at email@example.com.
I will respond to all email within 24 hours.


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The War on Perspective - Tim Harland
Wednesday 27th August – Sunday 31st August Opening reception: Wednesday 27th August 6-8 PM
The images in this exhibition are an attempt to create a more complete and total representation of linear structures in their environment. Multiple shots are taken from sequential and equidistant viewpoints, and then combined to create a single cohesive image. It is less about recording what I see and more about recording what is there; neutralising composition and replacing it with a more analytic approach. There is no hierarchy of perspective, everything is given equal importance; a democracy of viewpoints.
The images of the now defunct Sydney monorail are part of a larger series of the structure. I walked the full 3.6km length of sky-blue steel in the months before it was dismantled, and took over 500 photographs, which were then individually stitched together. I wanted to take a picture of the monorail before it disappeared. But not a picture of a particular view of a single section on a certain street, rather a portrait of the experience of walking the length of the entire structure.
The title of the exhibition refers to a rejection of traditional linear perspective. The aim is to create what Andreas Gursky has described as a "concentration of reality". I am attempting to record the human experience of moving past these protracted structures, that we normally view in a fragmentary manner, to create a holistic portrayal.
The Digital Playground - Luna Park, Sydney
Fri 12th – Sun 14th September 2014
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Asukabook 'Best Of' Facebook Competition
Best of July 2014
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Situated at 88 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, X88 is Sydney's latest photographic gallery. An exciting collaboration between FujiFilm Australia and Pixel Perfect Pro Lab, the X in our logo echoes FujiFilm's outstanding X range of cameras.
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The birds are under a layer of serviette tissue, with molding paste pushed through letter stencils.
I just cannot get enough of stencils - they come in so many patterns, and you can make them yourself out of plastic and a burning tool. These letter stencils are heavy paper ones from the Office supply store. Lots of spraying with mists done here as well. I am drawn to those as well...sigh.
Please click on image for an enlarged view


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did everyone who ordered one of my zines get one?
just checking. cheers
im really pleased with it!
if you still want one, i've got a load left and i'm posting more out tomorrow.
PM me if you want.
bump for people who havent seen that
jonathan fisher bought one... thats fishplums right?


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Since I began teaching in late September, I've had no time for a book and very little time for magazine articles.
So when classes ended last week, I treated myself to a simple pleasure: a morning cup of joe, my recliner and The New Yorker. Flipping through the latest copy of the magazine, I was drawn to an article headlined "The Teacher."
How could I resist?
Although I still have a final exam to give this week, I was feeling pretty good about how things went during my first stab at teaching an 11-week course in communications.
What insights might I gain from a first-person essay written by the son of a teacher?
At least three, it turns out.
The author, James Wood, opens with a scene from his mother's funeral (she was 87), then segues to a discussion of how teaching ran in his family (his father also was a teacher and his mother's grandfather was in charge of a small school in the Scottish countryside) and of what he learned about his mother after her death.
It's clear-eyed prose, written with the precision of a New Yorker staff writer and book critic who also teaches literary criticism at Harvard. Drawing on childhood memories, Wood recalls the selfless sacrifice his "perpetually impoverished parents" made, each working multiple jobs, so that their three children could attend expensive boarding schools. An unnecessary sacrifice, he says, because a grammar school not far from town sent kids every year to Oxford and Cambridge.
But his mother was determined that her two boys and one daughter would have nothing but the finest private education, even if it meant she worked a Saturday job at a bookstore cash register in addition to teaching English at a girls' high school.
My three takeaways?
1. A glimpse of a Northern European culture I know little of. Wood describes his mother as a hard worker from the lower middle class with a demeanor reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher.
In many ways, she was an almost stereotypically Scottish mother (the goyish version of the Jewish caricature)—passionate, narrow, judgmental, always aspiring. Her children were her artifacts, through which she created the drama of her own restless ambitions. These ambitions were moral and social. She wanted us to be morally successful, to get the best possible grades from the Great Examiner.
It's uncanny that the description popped up at the same time Lori and I were laboring through a Netflix film about a young Scottish girl in the early 20th century, overcoming hardships in a household headed by a father whose disciplinarian ways spilled over into physical and emotional abuse. Not that I'm saying all Scots are this way…
2. A reminder of my own mother. Wood describes receiving an email from one of his mother's former students, an accomplished poet who was one of her great success stories. He writes:
All sons adore their complicated mothers, in one way or another. But how powerful to encounter, from someone else, the beautifully uncomplicated statement "I adored her."
As a young boy and continuing into my mid-20s, I thought the world of my mother. In my mind, she was the standout among six sisters in a family of migrant farmworkers — smart, funny, feisty, pretty, a hard worker, and utterly devoted to my two sisters and me. Deprived of the opportunity to attend even high school, she encouraged me at a young age to do well in school and go to college.
After Lori and I became parents, complications ensued and things were never the same. Differing views over religion and child-rearing were exacerbated by distance. Toward the end of life, she became more reclusive, less physically active, and focused on a variety of ailments, both real and imagined.
I loved her, of course, and I knew she adored me. But "complicated" hardly begins to explain our relationship.
3. An even greater appreciation of the teaching profession. Having just concluded a course that demanded of me far more time than I imagined, I am fully aware that one goes into this line of work not for the money, but to have an impact on others' lives. Wood writes:
I had a sense that my mother was a good teacher, but I had no idea that she had been such an influential one, and in the very area I had chosen, and struggled to succeed in, often in the face of parental doubts. She had been not just a good teacher but a crucial literary encourager, and I had not been able to see this well enough…
Through the eyes of others and only after her death is Wood able to see the gift his mother gave — not to just her students but to him as well. I can only hope to have the same positive influence on the young men and women who come through my classroom.
Read Wood's essay: "The Teacher"
Illustration: Gerard Dubois


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I don't often pledge to Kickstarters but I'm finding it hard to resist this Magic Cat Super Space jacket! I've been following Michelle Romo's Crowded Teeth brand for a very long time and love her colourful mix of animals, space and nature. This jacket might be her cutest design yet and I want one!
The satin jacket has lots of cute embroidered details and patches with plenty cats, ghosts and planets to keep me happy. It's also reversible with a sweet pink kitty pattern featuring tributes to Michelle's cat pals.
While the jacket is good value at $100, I haven't really got the cash just now so I've picked up a Saturn Sprinkles pin instead. Luckily, the Kickstarter has already met its goal so hopefully there will be money for extra jackets and I'll get another chance.
There's options for embroidered patches and original artwork too so check out the Kickstarter if you want to add some magical space cats to your life.


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Sometimes Science is Personal
I am happy to reach out to you from the National Centers for Environmental
Information's Center for Weather and Climate in Asheville, North Carolina,
home of the world's largest weather library. We preserve and distribute
weather and climate observation data sets and use them to study and track
climate here at the center. Yes, we do really big science!
As you may know, the intersection between climate and biology is not
simply a crossroads. It's a giant, busy, loud, and interwoven set of superhighways. Our fields touch and impact each other just like the climate and biosphere affect each other.
In our cross-disciplinary relationship the most fundamental connection
is our shared reliance on data. But, in addition, our fields share a mission to
measure and understand the world around us while sharing these findings
with - and inspiring - learners.
Whether measured by thermometers, through changes in the distribution
of species, or by tracking the frequency and timing of extreme weather events,
we are seeing rapid and consequential change. Again, our fields share a goal to
quantify what is changing, and to help understand what those changes mean.
We also share an awareness that we are all working in an era of significant
social and cultural uncertainty that envelops everything we do. Certainly, this
adds complexity to the challenge of fulfilling our mission.
Some of our assessments and predictions for the climate seem dire and
this can be frightening. That is one reason why it was such an honor for me
to address the NABT annual professional development conference in
November. It was affirming for me to hear your experiences in a field
which is dealing with change much as we do. The conversations I had with
NABT members reinforced my view that scientists and science educators
are two sides of the same coin – particularly during times of change.
Here's a personal story to underscore why biology teachers matter.
Even though it happened decades before I was born it still resonates with
me today. However, it is also about you, and the work you do daily often
in the face of profound physical, climatic, biological and even social, cultural and political change.
I'm a child of Oklahoma and grew up with intimate knowledge of one of
the nation's most infamous climate events, the Dust Bowl. The scar of that
time remains on our collective psyche. We recorded the event in song, in
novels, and in photographs. Nearly a fifth of our population became refugees. The stories I have heard about that time reveal just how quickly things
changed and how much that seemed like the end of the world to those
My grandmother was one of the survivors. She had a tough life as a teenager in the 1930s. Once the Dust Bowl started, the only permanence in her
life was her responsibility for her little sister. They bounced between situations in a desperate time and destroyed environment. It went about as well
as you might think.
She survived and ended up making a better life for herself and herfamily - one of whom was my mom. It's a nice story of a tough personovercoming adversity for which we in the family have nothing butadmiration, and there are hundreds of thousands of similar stories amongthe people of the Plains.But here's the rest of the story.If you asked one of my climate colleagues, based only on the data, toidentify which decade ripped my region apart, scattering children and ref-ugees to the wind, for most of Oklahoma, they'd probably point to thedroughts of the 1950s.That's right. For much of the region, the 1950s took a slightly harderpunch from the climate system than did the 1930s. My grandmother raised afamily there in the Fifties. Times were tough, but the fabric of society wasnot ripped open as in the 1930s, and neither was the soil. There is a reasonfor the difference.The relative obscurity of the 1950s droughts testifies to the work imme-diately following the earlier Dust Bowl years. That generation undertookinvestigation and intervention across multiple areas, including crop and ani-mal science, soil science, water management, soil management, resourcemanagement, a bit of climate study, and even home economics. Experts inthese areas fostered other approaches – like the role of education in practicalmanagement – in stark contrast to the years preceding the Dust Bowl.Researching and understanding and teaching, all directed toward bet-ter management of living systems was a major ingredient in the relative suc-cess story of the mid-century drought. Biology, educators and studentswere all ingredients in that recipe of progress.The effect was immense; it spared hundreds of thousands of families –including mine – from a potential trajectory of ruin. Collectively, we learnedfrom our experiences, and avoided making the same catastrophic mistakesas in the 1930s. We also looked toward science – and, importantly, the teach-ing, learning, and application of science – to help us make informed decisions.It is now again time to make informed decisions in the face of climatechange, consider potential consequences of our actions, and develop thescience necessary to manage water, other resources, crops, and soils. Aboveall, our shared mission is to teach our children – and their parents – whatscience says about the future and how we might deal with it.
So please, let me reinforce, partly as a climate expert, but mostly as
someone just two generations removed from calamity, that your work matters. You and your colleagues touch the lives of people you'll never meet, in
places you'll never see.
Derek "Deke" Arndt
Chief, Monitoring Branch
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
151 Patton Avenue, Room 476A
Asheville, NC 28801
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2018.80.5.329
Photo courtesy: Dayna Reggero, Climate Listening ProjectTHE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER GUEST EDITORIAL 329
Derek S. Arndt
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Visuals vs. Visual Analytics
How do visuals differ from visual analytics? In a scientific sense, a visual is a broad term for any picture, illustration, or graph that can be used to convey an idea. However, visual analytics is more than just generating a graph of complex data and handing it to a decision maker. Visual analytic tools help create graphs that allow the user to interact with the data, whether that involves manipulating a graph in three-dimensional space or allowing users to filter or brush for solutions that match certain criteria. Ultimately, visual analytics seeks to help in making decisions as fast as possible and to "enable learning through continual [problem] reformulation" (Woodruff et al., 2013) by presenting large data sets in an organized way so that the user can better recognize patterns and make inferences.
My goal with this blog post is to introduce two R libraries that are particularly useful to develop interactive graphs that will allow for better exploration of a three-dimensional space. I have found that documentation on these libraries and potential errors was sparse, so this post will consolidate my hours of Stack Overflow searching into a step-by-step process to produce beautiful graphs!
R Libraries
Use rgl to create a GIF of a 3D graph
Spinning graphs can be especially useful to visualize a 3D Pareto front and a nice visualization for a Power Point presentation. I will be using an example three-objective Pareto set from Julie's work on the Red River Basin for this tutorial. The script has been broken down and explained in the following sections.
#Set working directory setwd("C:/Users/Me/Folder/Blog_Post_1") #Read in in csv of pareto set data=read.csv("pareto.csv") #Create three vectors for the three objectives hydropower=data$WcAvgHydro deficit=data$WcAvgDeficit flood=data$WcAvgFlood
In this first block of code, the working directory is set, the data set is imported from a CSV file, and each column of the data frame is saved as a vector that is conveniently named. Now we will generate the plot.
#call the rgl library library(rgl) #Adjust the size of the window par3d(windowRect=c(0,0,500,500))
If the rgl package isn't installed on your computer yet, simply type install.packages("rgl") into the console. Otherwise, use the library function in line 2 to call the rgl package. The next line of code is used to adjust the window that the graph will pop up in. The default window is very small and as such, the movie will have a small resolution if the window is not adjusted!
#Plot the set in 3D space plot3d(hydropower,deficit,flood,col=brewer.pal(8,"Blues"), size=2, type='s', alpha=0.75)
Let's plot these data in 3D space. The first three components of the plot3d function are the x,y, and z vectors respectively. The rest of the parameters are subject to your personal preference. I used the Color Brewer (install package "RColorBrewer") to color the data points in different blue gradients. The first value is the number of colors that you want, and the second value is the color set. Color Brewer sets can be found here: http://www.datavis.ca/sasmac/brewerpal.html. My choice of colors is random, so I opted not to create a color scale. Creating a color scale is more involved in rgl. One option is to split your data into classes and to use legend3d and the cut function to cut your legend into color levels. Unfortunately, there simply isn't an easy way to create a color scale in rgl. Finally, I wanted my data points to be spheres, of size 2, that were 50% transparent, which is specified with type, size, and alpha respectively. Plot3d will open a window with your graph. You can use your mouse to rotate it.
Now, let's make a movie of the graph. The movie3d function requires that you install ImageMagick, a software that allows you to create a GIF from stitching together multiple pictures. ImageMagick also has cool functionalities like editing, resizing, and layering pictures. It can be installed into your computer through R using the first two lines of code below. Make sure not to re-run these lines once ImageMagick is installed. Note that ImageMagick doesn't have to be installed in your directory, just on your computer.
require(installr) install.ImageMagick() #Create a spinning movie of your plot movie3d(spin3d(axis = c(0, 0, 1)), duration = 20, dir = getwd())
Finally, the last line of code is used to generate the movie. I have specified that I want the plot to spin about the z axis, specified a duration (you can play around with the number to see what suits your data), and that I want the movie to be saved in my current working directory. The resulting GIF is below. If the GIF has stopped running, reload the page and scroll down to this section again.
I have found that creating the movie can be a bit finicky and the last step is where errors usually occur. When you execute your code, make sure that you keep the plot window open while ImageMagick stitches together the snapshots otherwise you will get an error. If you have errors, please feel free to share because I most likely had them at one point and was able to ultimately fix them.
Overall, I found this package to be useful for a quick overview of the 3D space, but I wasn't pleased with the way the axes values and titles overlap sometimes when the graph spins. The way to work around this is to set the labels and title to NULL and insert your own non-moving labels and title when you add the GIF to a PowerPoint presentation.
Use plotly to create an interactive scatter
I much prefer the plotly package to rgl for the aesthetic value, ease of creating a color scale, and the ability to mouse-over points to obtain coordinate values in a scatter plot. Plotly is an open source JavaScript graphing library but has an R API. The first step is to create a Plotly account at: https://plot.ly/. Once you have confirmed your email address, head to https://plot.ly/settings/api to get an API key. Click the "regenerate key" button and you'll get a 20 character key that will be used to create a shareable link to your chart. Perfect, now we're ready to get started!
setwd("C:/Users/Me/Folder/Blog_Post_1") library(plotly) library(ggplot2) #Set environment variables Sys.setenv("plotly_username"="rg727") Sys.setenv("plotly_api_key"="insert key here") #Read in pareto set data pareto=read.csv("ieee_synthetic_thinned.csv")
Set the working directory, install the relevant libraries, set the environment variables and load in the data set. Be sure to insert your API key. You will need to regenerate a new key every time you make a new graph. Also, note that your data must be in the form of a data frame for plotly to work.
#Plot your data plot= plot_ly(pareto, x = ~WcAvgHydro, y = ~WcAvgDeficit, z = ~WcAvgFlood, color = ~WcAvgFlood, colors = c('#00d6f7', '#ebfc2f')) add_markers() #Add axes titles layout(title="Pareto Set", scene = list(xaxis = list(title = 'Hydropower'),yaxis = list(title = 'Deficit'), zaxis = list(title = 'Flood'))) #call the name of your plot to appear in the viewer plot
To correctly use the plotly command, the first input needed is the data frame, followed by the column names of the x,y, and z columns in the data frame. Precede each column name with a "~".
I decided that I wanted the colors to scale with the value of the z variable. The colors were defined using color codes available at http://www.color-hex.com/. Use the layout function to add a main title and axis labels. Finally call the name of your plot and you will see it appear in the viewer at the lower right of your screen.If your viewer shows up blank with only the color scale, click on the viewer or click "zoom". Depending on how large the data set is, it may take some time for the graph to load.
#Create a link to your chart and call it to launch the window chart_link = api_create(plot, filename = "public-graph") chart_link
Finally create the chart link using the first line of code above and the next line will launch the graph in Plotly. Copy and save the URL and anyone with it can access your graph, even if they don't have a Plotly account. Play around with the cool capabilities of my Plotly graph, like mousing over points, rotating, and zooming!
Woodruff, M.J., Reed, P.M. & Simpson, T.W. Struct Multidisc Optim (2013) 48: 201. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-013-0891-z
James J. Thomas and Kristin A. Cook (Ed.) (2005). Illuminating the Path: The R&D Agenda for Visual Analytics National Visualization and Analytics Center.


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This will be our second 'home' on Connemara's Calling. We spend three nights here with two full days of walking, and plenty of time to absorb the myths and rich history of this island, and of course, meet the island people themselves.
From the moment we leave the little Connemara fishing village of Cleggan on our island- bound ferry we feel some magic afoot. The 'island of the white cow', or Inishbofin, has been inhabited for over 6000 years.
Our walking guide, Michael Gibbons, esteemed Connemara archaeologist and historian, has a love affair with this island. From the Bronze and Iron Age promontory forts to the deep cavernous inlets, he regales us with stories of ancient peoples, fugitive pirates, diving amongst wreckage of the Spanish Armada, mass emigration.
In 2010 we ended our day's walking in the pub watching an inter-provincial hurley match on the telly with the locals, who were riveted to the score. The concensus was: stay for longer on Inishbofin next year. So we are!


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North Korea signed the treaty on September 9, 2014 and formally ratified it as of November 10, 2014. It now becomes effective one month later, December 10, 2014. With this ratification, North Korea becomes the 169th party to the Optional Protocol. By the terms of the Optional Protocol the government must file its first report on compliance within two years, by December 10, 2016.
Optional Protocol's requirementsThe Optional Protocol requires that states prohibit the sale, prostitution and pornography of children in their territory and by its citizens and residents. It sets out specific elements of criminal or penal law that must be addressed to cover the different variants of child abuse in these fields, including sexual exploitation, organ transfer, forced labour, pornography, prostitution, trafficking, and abusive adoption practices. Article 4 of the Protocol also requires that each state take such measures "as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offences referred to ... when committed in its territory or on board a ship or aircraft registered in that state."
North Korea's Treaty recordNorth Korea is one of the most isolated and disengaged countries in the world, including in its human rights commitments. It has ratified only six of the 17 major international instruments and is chronically behind in filing its reports. Here is a summary of its current treaty reporting record:
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) -- ratified in 1981; latest report is 10 years overdue, since 2004
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) -- ratified in 2001; latest report is overdue 8 years, since 2006
- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) -- ratified in 1981; latest report is overdue 6 years, since 2008
- Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) -- ratified in 1990, latest report is overdue 2 years, since 2012
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) -- ratified in 2013, no report is yet due (first report is due in 2015)
- Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC-OPSC) -- ratified November 2014, first report is due December 2016
It is good to see a country like North Korea ratifying international human rights instruments like the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, it would be even better of course if their reporting compliance and actual compliance to these instruments was improving. Available NGO and UN reports indicate no improvement is occurring.