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A group of about 35 attackers coming from the direction of Egypt on August 5th gunned down and killed 16 Egyptian border patrolmen on the Sinai Peninsula at a three-way border checkpoint where Egypt, Israel, and the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip converge. Seven other Egyptians were injured. Israeli authorities claim the attack was meant to culminate in the an abduction of an Israeli soldier. Indeed, the attackers hijacked Egyptian army vehicles, including a pick-up, and drove them through a border fence into Israel. One of the vehicles was destroyed by an Israeli Defense Forces (I.D.F.) airstrike and the other engaged in a firefight with Israeli soldiers. Eight militants, in all, were also killed. Israeli authorities were harshly critical of the new government in Egypt, which may have made the attack possible by easing border controls between Gaza and Egypt (as reported recently in this blog), and since the Egyptian part of Sinai has been only sloppily governed since Arab Spring uprisings began in Egypt early last year. Soon after the attacks, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a spokesman for Hamas, the jihadist terrorist organization which has ruled Gaza as a quasi-state since 2007, said that his group was not responsible for the incident, since, he insisted, Hamas would never harm an Egyptian soldier. Preliminarily, the I.D.F.'s chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, blamed "terrorists who are connected between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai," while the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, blamed "Iranian-backed terrorists" over Twitter. On August 7th, Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh, the Gaza prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, went further, saying that "the attack's method confirms some sort of Israeli involvement aiming to achieve political and security goals, cause tension on the border with Egypt and destroy joint efforts to end the Gaza blockade." These conviction was being echoed by some members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel's minister of defense, at first blamed al-Qaeda for the attack. Egypt has asked Hamas to hand over three commanders from the militia Army of Islam, which is linked to Hamas, and three from Hamas's own political wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in connection with the border attacks. In retaliation for the incident and in a show of a desire to control terrorism in the Sinai, the Egyptian military killed what it said were over 20 Islamist terrorists in the Sinai, near the Israeli border, on August 8th, and in a later security crackdown arrested nine terrorist suspects, one of whom, an as-yet-unnamed 62-year-old identified as "the Osama Bin Laden of the Sinai," was arrested in Sheikh Zowead, in the Sinai, brought to Cairo, and indicted on August 10th as the attack's suspected mastermind. But on August 10th the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip was opened up to allow pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia to pass through, as part of a special arrangement between the Palestinian and Egyptian governments. [Related article: "Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012."]
[For developments in Turkey, Kurdistan, Syria, and Iraq, see today's separate article "Turkish Kurdistan Ground War in Progress, Iraq Border Crisis Eases: Kurdistan and Syria Update."]
Nigerian President Rejects Islamist Demand to Convert; Clinton Pledges U.S. Aid. The northern Nigerian Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram posted a YouTube video August 4th, in which Abubakar Shekau, the apparent leader of the shadowy group, demands that Goodluck Jonathan, president of Nigeria, either convert to Islam or resign his position. Jonathan is a member of the small, predominantly-Christian Ijaw ethnic group, from the southern Niger Delta region. His office replied quickly, saying the president would neither convert nor resign and that he was president of all Nigerians, of whatever faith. The United States secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, traveled to Nigeria this week to meet with Pres. Jonathan. She pledged American assistance to Nigeria on security issues related to Boko Haram, arguing correctly that the insurgency is not merely an internal matter, since northern Nigeria is in a transnational lawless zone of the western Sahel—also including parts of Mali, Libya, Algeria, Niger, Chad, and other countries—which are a haven of sorts for jihadist groups connected to al-Qaeda. [Related articles: "Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012," "Remembering Odumegwu Ojukwu: On Biafra and on an African Continent Riven by European Borders" (Nov. 2011), "Jihadists Imperil Nigerian Unity" (June 2012).]
Bayelsa, Nigeria President's Home State, to Adopt Flag, Anthem, Prompting Alarm. Meanwhile, the personal ethnic background of Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, has become politicized in another way, as his home state, Bayelsa State, announced plans on August 8th to adopt its own flag, coat of arms, and anthem. Bayelsa, which is noted for its oil wealth, is in the Niger Delta region, in south-central Nigeria, where the Ogoni people have had intermittent demands for secession. Jonathan is a member of the Ijaw nationality, who, with about 15 million people, are far more numerous than the Ogoni (about 800,000) but have tended to be less politically strident. Bayelsa's governor, Seriake Dickson, explained the decision: "In line with the vision of the founding fathers of our dearly beloved state and given this admnistration's stand on Ijaw mobilization, Ijaw integration, and the need to promote Ijaw fundamental interest, which clearly is not subordinate to any other interests, the government of Bayelsa State has given its approval to have a state-owned emblem mark and strengthen our sense of identity as a state." Understandably, given that rhetoric, critics are regarding this as heading down the road toward some sort of separatism. Some editorial-writers have demanded that Jonathan distance himself from such expressions of regional ethnic distinctness. In Nigeria, still scarred by its bloody war over the secession of Biafra in 1967-1970, flags other than the Nigerian national flag are considered provocative. Most of Nigeria's 36 states do not have flags. The nine exceptions are: Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti, and Kwara—all in southeastern Nigeria, which is dominated by the Yoruba nationality—and Cross River and Rivers states, in the southeastern "Biafra" region of the Igbo people, and, most recently and most controversially, Osun State, in the southwest, which led to an ethnopolitical crisis this April (as reported at the time in this blog). Bayelsa's flag, state, and coat of arms have not been revealed to the public, but once the state legislature fully adopts them they will be presented publicly. You will certainly be able to see them in this blog. I'm all over this story. [Related article: "Remembering Odumegwu Ojukwu: On Biafra and on an African Continent Riven by European Borders" (Nov. 2011).]
|Osun State's coat-of-arms. Coming soon: Bayelsa!
Neighbors Plan Intervention in Congo, as Oxfam Reports Hundreds Killed. In Kampala, capital of the Republic of Uganda, 11 neighboring states to the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.) agreed August 7th to an international military deployment to halt the civil war there. The decision came at the meeting of foreign ministers to an 11-nation consortium based on the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (E.C.G.L.C.), whose core member-states are the D.R.C., Burundi, and Rwanda. Meanwhile, the international organization Oxfam's representatives in the eastern part of the D.R.C. said this week that hundreds are being killed and raped and homes are being destroyed. About a quarter-million people have been displaced, mostly in North Kivu state after a Tutsi-dominated militia, probably backed by Rwanda and calling itself M23, mutinied from within the Congolese military earlier this year and began trying to take control of the region.
With World's Eyes on Kivu, Katanga Separatists Attack Lubumbashi Airport. In the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.), the airport of Lubumbashi, capital of the sometimes-separatist Katanga Province, was attacked August 8th by militiamen who killed three troops—two shot, one burned to death—and injured another before being repelled by government forces. At first it was unclear who the perpetrators were. They fled into the forest, providing no chance to pursue them, though a witness later described, in one press report's words, "men in ragged clothes and wearing charms around their necks throwing grenades into the tents of troops guarding the runway." D.R.C. authorities said later that day that the attackers were from the same Katangan separatist militia behind a February 2011 attack on the same airport, in which four attackers were captured and later sentenced to death.
|Map showing the Democratic Republic of Congo's provinces of North Kivu and Katanga.
Ecowas Plans to Offer Mali Junta Troops to Fight Islamists, in Exchange for Reforms. The 15-member Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) is accelerating its long-delayed action on solving the crisis in the Republic of Mali. Ecowas has notified the only mildly reformed military junta that took power in Mali's capital, Bamako, in March that it needs to share more power with ethnic groups other than the Bambara who dominate southern Mali and especially with ethnic groups in the far north, such as the Tuareg, whose declaration of an Independent State of Azawad in the northern two-thirds of the country in April has been hijacked by Islamists bent on extending shari'a (Islamic law) throughout Mali. If those conditions and others are met, Ecowas says, then it will supply as many as 5,000 troops to fight alongside the Malian military to retake Azawad. The sponsors of the original secession, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (M.N.L.A.), which has been pushed out of power in Azawad, has also pledged to fight alongside Malian troops to take Azawad back from the Islamists. Ecowas plans to present this plan to the African Union and to the United Nations Security Council this month. But some A.U. member-states oppose military intervention. Meanwhile, Djibrill Bassolé, foreign minister for the Republic of Burkina Faso, visited Gao and Kidal, in Azawad, on August 7th to hold preliminary direct dialogue with representatives of Ansar al-Dine, one of the Islamist militias currently governing Azawad. He met directly with Iyad Ag Ghaly, Ansar al-Dine's leader, and with Sharif Ould al-Taher of the allied militia MUJAO (the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa). [Related articles: "Mali Becomes the Latest African Country to Split along North–South Lines" (Feb. 2012), "A New Country in Africa: Islamic Republic of Azawad" (April 2012), "Why It Matters What You Call Your Country: Cyprus vs. Northern Cyprus, Azawad vs. the Azawad" (April 2012), "Dream of a Tuareg State Fizzles: Is This the End of Azawad?" (July 2012).]
Citizens in North Mali Halt Shari'a Amputation by Jihadists; Other Punishments Continue. In the northern two-thirds of the Republic of Mali which seceded in April as the Independent State of Azawad, but which is now run by ruthless Islamist militias, hundreds of citizens of the city of Gao in August 5th stormed a public square and prevented jihadist patrols from cutting off the hand of a thief. The public implementation of shari'a (Islamic law) had been announced the night before over radio by the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), an al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group which co-governs Azawad with another militia, Ansar al-Dine. The thief was a young MUJAO recruit who had stolen weapons. But later, on August 9th, a MUJAO spokesman announced that the hand of a motorcycle thief was successfully amputated by ad hoc judicial authorites in Ansongo, a village near Gao. Meanwhile, in Bamako, capital of Mali proper, the Malian Coalition of Children's Rights (COMAD) announced the same day that it knew of "several hundred children aged between nine and 17 years old within the ranks of the armed groups, including the Islamists who control northern Mali," and that some of them are being used as spies, combat soldiers, mine-sweepers, or sexual slaves. Most of the children in question are from Mali, Senegal, and Niger. [Related articles: "Mali Becomes the Latest African Country to Split along North–South Lines" (Feb. 2012), "A New Country in Africa: Islamic Republic of Azawad" (April 2012), "Why It Matters What You Call Your Country: Cyprus vs. Northern Cyprus, Azawad vs. the Azawad" (April 2012).]
|MUJAO on patrol in Gao, Azawad
Cops Beat Somaliland T.V. Journalist with Plastic Tubing in Awdal Police Station. In Borame, a town in the Awdal region of the de facto independent Republic of Somaliland, a journalist was beaten savagely by police on August 4th, according to the Mogadishu-based National Union of Somali Journalists. The reporter, Hodan Abokor Afi, of Somaliland Televsion (SLNTV), was at a police station pursuing a story about a custody battle and taking notes while two squabbling parents were being interviewed by police. In circumstances that are still unclear, the Borame central police station's deputy commander and others were, in the words of one press report, "insulting, slapping, and beating her with plastic tubing, damaging her face." Afi requested that a complaint be filed and passed along to the Ministry of the Interior, but she was denied the opportunity on the grounds that the accused in her complaint were also part of the Ministry of the Interior. At least they were honest about the way things work in Somaliland. The Somaliland government administers the Awdal region, but parts of it are also claimed by the Saylac and Lughaye State of Somalia, a quasi-statelet operated by Ismaïl Omar Guelle, president of the Republic of Djibouti, on behalf of his clan from the Issa nationality (as reported on in this blog), and another quasi-state, called Awdal State or Awdalland, loyal to the Somali Republic's Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.) in Mogadishu but governed, or quasi-governed, by a government-in-exile in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. [Related articles: "Remembering Odumegwu Ojukwu: On Biafra and on an African Continent Riven by European Borders" (Nov. 2011), "Somalia the 'Failed State'—So What Are Somaliland and Puntland? Chopped Liver?" (Feb. 2012), "Introducing the Republic of Wadiya" (May 2012).]
Puntland Legislator Assassinated. A member of the parliament of the self-governing Puntland State of Somalia was assassinated by unidentified gunmen on August 6th. The lawmaker, Abdukadir Sheikh Mohamud was at the time leaving a mosque in Garowe, Puntland's capital. He was the brother of Khalif Sheikh Mohamud, a renowned Somali poet. [Related articles: "Remembering Odumegwu Ojukwu: On Biafra and on an African Continent Riven by European Borders" (Nov. 2011), "Somalia the 'Failed State'—So What Are Somaliland and Puntland? Chopped Liver?" (Feb. 2012), "Introducing the Republic of Wadiya" (May 2012).]
Conflicts between Kings Raise Tension ahead of Ugandan Vote. An upcoming by-election in Uganda is under threat as tensions among traditional kings are rising. One of the constituent (and purely ceremonial and constitutionally powerless) kingdoms of Uganda, the Kingdom of Rwenzururu, is facing a rebellion in one of the two districts in its territory. In Bundibogyo district, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.), one Ivan Bwebale Rwigi IV is calling himself King of Busongora, but the current Rwenzururu omusinga (king), Charles Wesley Mumbere Iremangoma, regards Bundibogyo, even though it is inhabited by members of the Bamba (a.k.a. Amba) ethnic group, as the heart of his own kingdom, which is ruled by Konjo (a.k.a. Konzo or Bakonzo) people. The Busongora, or Songora, kingdom was phased out during the period of British rule. Tensions were heightened June 30th when the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, intervened and warned King Mumbere not to hoist the "Rwenzururu freedom flag" in Bundibogyo on the anniversary of Rwenzururu's secession in 1962 from the Kingdom of Toro, and locals in the district warned the king not to come. An agreement was forged for a more low-key ceremony, but in the midst of King Mumbere's speech, the public-address system cut out, which few thought was an accident. Then, on July 6th, violence broke out as partisans of the two kings scuffled over the erection of a shrine in Bundibogyo. One person was killed and several were beaten and much property destroyed in a series of reprisals. The Rwenzururu kingdom is accused of turning away from its embrace of its own multi-ethnic make-up and becoming simply a Konjo kingdom. Now an upcoming election for the parliamentary riding of Kasese district on August 8th may upset the uneasy calm in the region. Most of Kasese's land is taken up by two national parks and some wetlands, making arable land scarce and hotly contested. Many people were displaced when the parks were established. Kasese and Bundibogyo districts comprise the Kingdom of Rwenzururu, so there are fears that the entire kingdom may become the site of interethnic conflict.
|Flag of the Kingdom Rwenzururu. Now that is what I call a flag.
Get these folks their own sovereign state immediately.
Boeremag Leader Convicted of Treason in Mandela Assassination and Coup Plot. A tenth member of the Boeremag, a white-supremacist militia which planned to assassinate Nelson Mandela and take over South Africa in 2002 in what the group anticipated as "D-Day" or "Operation Popeye," has been convicted of treason by a court in Pretoria, it was reported August 6th. The defendant, Tom Vorster, succeeded Mike du Toit—already convicted (as reported in this blog)—as leader of the group in 2002, when du Toit went on the run from the police. 15 Boeremag members await verdicts.
Salmond Faces Party Rebellion after Switching Stance on Scotland and NATO. The First Minister of Scotland and the leader in the country's drive to secede from the United Kingdom, Alex Salmond, is facing a rebellion in his own Scottish National Party (S.N.P.) on the question of whether an independent Scotland would be a member, like the U.K., of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The party leadership has recently shifted to a position of staying in NATO while still keeping Scotland a nuclear-free zone. (Nuclear-armed Trident submarines are currently based in Scottish waters.) But as many as a fifth of S.N.P. members of the Scottish Parliament think that Scotland would best stay out of NATO entirely. The party leadership cites the need of an independent Scotland to defend itself, but one dissident M.P. put it this way: "To join NATO while claiming you want rid of Trident just does not make any sense. NATO is a nuclear-weapon alliance. If your state does not have nuclear weapons, as a member, it means you accept that other members of the alliance are ready to use them to commit mass murder on your behalf." The differences will be aired and voted on at a party conference in October. If it left NATO, Scotland would likely end up with a status similar to the Republic of Ireland, which stayed neutral during the Second World War and never joined NATO, though it, like other neutral states in Europe—Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, and Finland—is in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, which was developed in 1993 to tie newly freed parts of the Communist East Bloc to western Europe. [Related articles: "Succession or Accession—Could Scotland Leave Britain but Stay in Europe?" (Jan. 2012), "Orkney—the Next Dubai? Further Reflections on Scottish Independence" (Feb. 2012), "Celts, Cypriots, Aborigines Raise Stink at Olympics: Ethnonationalist Protest Update" (July 2012).]
Separatist Snubs Separatist: Alex Salmond Turned Up Nose at Dalai Lama. The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie, whose party opposes Scotland's campaign for independence from the United Kingdom, revealed August 9th that he had minutes of a meeting between Scotland's separatist First Minister, Alex Salmond, and Chinese officials in which Salmond promised not to meet the 14th Dalai Lama during his visit to the U.K. in June of this year (reported on at the time in this blog, including an Olympic controversy related to the visit). The Dalai Lama visited Inverness, Edinburgh, and Dundee during the Scottish leg of his tour, but did not meet with Salmond, leading some to speculate that this was to risk causing offense that would jeopardize Scottish trade with the People's Republic of China. [Related articles: "Succession or Accession—Could Scotland Leave Britain but Stay in Europe?" (Jan. 2012), "Orkney—the Next Dubai? Further Reflections on Scottish Independence" (Feb. 2012), "China, Tibet, and the Politics of Reincarnation" (March 2012), "10 Ethnonationalist Causes That Might Disrupt the Olympics" (July 2012), "Celts, Cypriots, Aborigines Raise Stink at Olympics: Ethnonationalist Protest Update" (July 2012).]
|The Dalai Lama got lei'd when he visited Scotland earlier this year.
Bulgarian Border Cops Nab 2 Wanted Terrorists from Ingushetia, Turkey. Border police in the Republic of Bulgaria, it was reported August 4th, intercepted two men from crossing into the country from Romania who were flagged by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) as wanted terrorists. The first, Mohammad Gadamouri, age 47, is from the Russian Federation's Republic of Chechnya but a resident of Germany and was traveling with his family, though he was wanted for a 2003 terrorist attack in the neighboring Republic of Ingushetia as well as on weapons and drug smuggling charges. The second, Erkan Polater, age 29, is from Turkey and is charged with membership in a terrorist group. The two cases seem to be unrelated. This follows an earlier arrest of two Chechens in Spain the week before (see article just above).
Krasnodar Governor under Fire for Mobilizing Cossacks to "Protect" Sochi Games. The governor of Krasnodar Krai, the province of the Russian Federation which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, has come under criticism for his fiery August 2nd address to local police chiefs (reported on last week in this blog) in which he promised the assistance of 1,000 Kuban Cossacks in keeping order during the Games, adding, "What you can't do, the Cossacks can." The Russian Public Chamber called for an official probe into the administration of the governor, Aleksandr Tkachev, while the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a human-rights organization, Ludmilla Alekseeva, said, "How can anyone hound the Cossacks on people from Caucasus, or vice versa? Are the people from the Caucasus not Russian citizens?" Tkachev, in reply, back-pedalled his rhetoric, saying he had been addressing the problem of illegal immigrants, not Caucasian Russians. Over Twitter, he reacted to accusations of nationalism, saying, "My first deputy is Adyghe [Circassian], my aide is a Crimean Tatar. I have Armenians and Greeks among my friends. In case you missed it, I've been governing a region with 120 nationalities living in it for 12 years. I know better than many how fragile this world is." The 2014 Olympics, in Sochi, will be on the site of an 1864 genocide of Muslim, Turkic-speaking Circassians, and the games lie on the edge of the North Caucasus, a Russian region parts of which are virtually ruled by Muslim terror groups. [Related articles: "10 Ethnonationalist Causes That Might Disrupt the Olympics" (July 2012), "Celts, Cypriots, Aborigines Raise Stink at Olympics: Ethnonationalist Protest Update" (July 2012), "Olympic Update: Femen Protest, Bigoted Judokas, Sudanese Defectors" (Aug. 2012).]
|Cossacks in Stavropol
|The Caucasus Emirate movement's new YouTube video.
Cats playing the piano it ain't.
|Tatar tots freed
Controversial Ukraine Law Goes into Force, Boosting Status of Russian Language. The controversial law on minority languages that roiled the streets and parliamentary aisles of Ukraine with outbreaks of violence in the spring became law this week. The law provides that if 10% of residents in a particular jurisdiction speak a particular language, then the work of local government must be translated into that language. By far the most widely spoken minority language in Ukraine is Russian, especially in Crimea (which was part of Russia until Josef Stalin reallocated it to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954) and in vast areas of Ukraine's east, in the Russian borderlands. Ukrainian nationalists and others fearful of Russia's imperialist policy toward its "near abroad" see it as a way to increase the influence in Ukrainian public life not just of ethnic Russians but of Moscow. Other linguistic communities benefitting from the legislation, according to official lists, are speakers of 17 additional languages: Belarussian, Bulgarian, Armenian, Gagauz, Yiddish, Crimean Tatar, Moldavian, German, Greek, Polish, Romany (Gypsy), Romanian, Slovak, Hungarian, Ruthenian, Karaim (a Crimean diaspora language with six living speakers, so it's hard to see how that reaches the 10% threshold anywhere), and Judeo-Crimean Tatar (this last one sounds delicious, actually). Many of these narrowly defined ethnic and regional languages are, in fact, mutually intelligible—as are, to a great extent, ironically enough for all the hubbub, Russian and Ukrainian—meaning that they do not fit most linguists' definition of separate languages. Just for fun—again—watch this video of a riot in Ukraine's parliament in May over the language law. Also watch a video of the previous year's Ukrainian parliament riot. I wonder if next year's will be as good? [Related article: "Language Referendum Pits Latvians against Russians" (Feb. 2012).]
2 Wanted Basque Terror Suspects Arrested in Aquitania, London. Two suspected Basque terrorists were arrested this week, one in southwestern France and one in London. In France, police this week arrested a Basque who was wanted in Spain on terrorism charges. The suspect, Inaki Imaz Munduate, a 33-year-old native of Spain, has been on the run with fake papers since 2007 and had recently lived in Ireland. Munduate, who was arrested in Hendaye, in Aquitania, is suspected of being a member of ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatusana, "Basque Homeland and Freedom"), a recently disarmed and nearly-disbanded group which sought a separate Basque homeland in north-central Spain and southwestern France. In London, Kemen Uranga, aged 43, was arrested after having been on the run for 12 years. An alleged ETA commander for Vizcaya, in Spain's Basque Region, Uranga is accused of the 2001 murder of a Spanish judge in his home. [Related article: "The World's 21 Sexiest Separatists," featuring a profile of the Basque warrior Idoia López Riaño, a.k.a. la Tigresa.]
French Authorities Raid Roma Camps, Evict Hundreds. Hundreds of Roma (Gypsy) people were evicted August 9th from encampments near Lille, in northern France, including 200 from one camp and 15 caravans of Roma from another. Meanwhile, 240 Roma in Lyon, in southern France, were deported to Romania (a fellow member-state of the European Union). France's new president, François Hollande, acted quickly and without warning in ordering these expulsions and has gone farther than his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was himself regarded as being virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Roma. A spokesman for l'Atelier Solidaire, a pro-Roma organization in France, told the press, "We're dismayed. There are many children who will be sleeping on the street tonight. Sarkozy never expelled us. In the end, it was the Socialists who did."
Belarus Cuts Diplomatic Ties with Sweden over Teddy-Bear Airdrop. As if anyone had any doubt about the spectacular humorlessness of Belarus's tin-pot authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, sometimes called "Europe's last dictator," those doubts were put to rest on August 8th when Belarus withdrew all of its embassy staff from Sweden and told Sweden's diplomats in Minsk, Belarus's capital, to go home as well. At issue is last month's successful violation of Belarus's airspace by Swedish pranksters who then airdropped large numbers of teddy bears festooned with anti-authoritarian and pro-free-speech slogans (as reported last week in this blog). The flight took off from Lithuania, and there is no evidence to support Lukashenko's assertion that Stockholm was directly involved in the stunt. The European Union (E.U.) looked into the matter and expressed "full solidarity with the Swedes on this." Belarus has also demanded that Swedish and Lithuanian authorities assist their investigation. Worst of all, on August 9th the Belarussian Association of Journalists announced that a reporter and a photojournalist had been arrested and fined in Minsk the day before for posing for pictures holding some of the bears. The two, Irina Kozlik and Yulia Doroshkevich, were charged with "carrying out an unsanctioned protest."
|Two Belarussian journalists, being arrested on plush-toy-related charges.
[For developments in Turkey, including Kurdistan, see today's separate article "Turkish Kurdistan Ground War in Progress, Iraq Border Crisis Eases: Kurdistan and Syria Update."]
Armenians Blame Azerbaijan for Cease-Fire Breaches on Nagorno-Karabakh Line. Military spokesmen for the unrecognized Armenian puppet state called the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (N.K.R.) (a.k.a. Artsakh Republic) accused the Republic of Azerbaijan of more than 250 cease-fire violations on August 4th, in the form of 1,200 rounds of ammunition fired from the Azerbaijani side of the border with the N.K.R. at Armenian "peacekeepers." That is the term given to the Republic of Armenia's military presence in the N.K.R., which Armenian and Russian forces conquered from Azerbaijan, and then ethnically cleansed, in a war in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). Both sides for years have been trading frequent accusations of cease-fire violations, few of which can be satisfactorily verified. Later, on August 6th, an Armenian soldier was reported injured by a landmine in the N.K.R. [Related articles: "The Armenian Genocide Debate: Turkey, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Politics of Memory" (April 2012), "Massachusetts Recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh Republic!" (Aug. 2012).]
Massachusetts Legislature Recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The House of Representatives of Massachusetts on August 6th joined Rhode Island in adopting a resolution urging President Barack Obama and the United States legislature to "support the self-determination and democratic independence" of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (N.K.R.). See my blog article with fuller commentary on this development.
Javakhk Armenians Beg Charles Aznavour Not to Sing at Ottoman Fortress. Representatives of the ethnic Armenian community in the Republic of Georgia's Javakhk region, who would like to form an autonomous region within the country, this week wrote to the French crooner Charles Aznavour, himself the son of Armenian immigrants, pleading with him not to perform in front of a freshly restored Turkish mosque and fortress in a planned performance in Akhaltsikhe, Georgia. Akhaltsikhe, in the ethnic-Georgian-dominated half of Georgia's Samtskhe–Javakheti province, is a Georgian-dominated town with a large Armenian minority, but it was subject to the Ottoman Empire—history's cruelest oppressors of Armenians—before being absorbed by the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century. [Related articles: "The Armenian Genocide Debate: Turkey, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Politics of Memory" (April 2012), "Massachusetts Recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh Republic!" (Aug. 2012).]
|Charles Aznavour doesn't care whether or not Georgia is a Turkish puppet state.
Lithuanian Explorers Missing in Abkhazia in Bowels of World's Deepest Cave. The fate of a team of cave explorers from Lithuania is unknown as they remain incomunicado within the Krubera-Voronja cavern in the unrecognized but de facto independent Republic of Abkhazia, which is the deepest known cave in the world, at 7,188 feet (2,191 meters) deep. The cave, which was discovered only in 1960, was mentioned in this blog in February of this year, when scientists from Russia discovered there a springtail insect, Plutomurus ortobalaganensis, which became the deepest-dwelling land animal known to science. The Lithuanian cavers were more than 1,200 down when communication with them was lost, it was reported August 4th.
[For developments in Kurdistan, Syria, and Iraq, see today's separate article "Turkish Kurdistan Ground War in Progress, Iraq Border Crisis Eases: Kurdistan and Syria Update."]
Palestine-Hosted Non-Aligned Movement Summit Scrapped after Israel Bars Diplomats. The August 5th meeting of the international Non-Aligned Movement (N.A.M.), to be held in Ramallah, capital of the Palestinian Territories, was cancelled after the State of Israel, which does not recognize Palestinian independence and controls movement in and out of the partially-occupied West Bank where Ramallah sits, barred several diplomats from attending. In particular, Israel did not let in foreign ministers from states that do not diplomatically recognize Israel: the People's Republic of Bangladesh, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria. Delegations from Egypt, India, Colombia, South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe were allowed in since they have relations with Israel. The P.A. called Israel's actions "a blatant and crude exercise of power and a form of political siege." It was widely understood that the Palestinian National Authority was planning to use the summit to explore the question of when it should make its next application for membership in the United Nations' General Assembly—a move Israel and the United States oppose—the main question being whether it should be before or after the U.S. elections in November. (The incumbent, Barack Obama, is friendlier to Palestine than his challenger, Mitt Romney, and a perceived need to appear tougher on Muslims during an election campaign might prompt Obama to be less receptive to the application, even though the opportunity to burnish pro-Israel credentials might help him at the polls.) The N.A.M. was founded by Yugoslavia, India, Egypt, Ghana, and Indonesia in 1961 as a counterbalance and "third way" alternative to the Cold War division between Western and Eastern (Communist) blocs. Less relevant now, the movement now includes authoritarian Communist states like Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and North Korea, as well as almost all of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. [Related article: "Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012."]
|Non-Aligned Movement member states are in dark blue. Observer states are in light blue.
Palestinians Protest Planned Israeli Eviction of Shepherds near Hebron. Mahmoud Abbas, the (West Bank) prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, on August 8th condemned a new plan by the State of Israel to evict twelve shepherd communities from around Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to make way for army training grounds. Palestinians claim that the real reason for the forced removal will be to make way for new (illegal) Jewish settlements. Israel says the whole area south of Hebron has already been designated a closed military zone. A high court will rule on the evictions soon. [Related article: "Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012."]
Pakistan Interior Minister Bans More Baloch Militias, Offers Bugti Return from Exile. The minister of the interior for Pakistan, Rehman Malik, on August 4th announced the addition of eight militant groups in Balochistan state to the list of outlawed groups, making a total of 16. He also issued a public offer for Brahamdagh Khan Bugti, spiritual leader of those who want Balochistan to become a separate country, to return from exile. "We know he is living in Switzerland under a pseudonym," Malik said. "I invite him to return to Pakistan under his own terms. He will be given international guarantees of protection with full protocol." But he warned Bugti that he would need to dissociate his Balochistan Republican Army (B.R.A.), a political party despite its name, from the militant Baloch Liberation Army (B.L.A.), believed to be run out of Afghanistan. Malik also swept aside rumors of a planned federal military operation in Balochistan to root out separatists. The newly banned groups are the Tahafuz Hadudullah, the Balochistan Waja Liberation Army, the Baloch Republic Party Azad, the Balochistan United Army, the Islam Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Islam, and the Balochistan National Liberation Army—joining the already-banned B.R.A., B.L.A., Balochistan Liberation Front (B.L.F.), and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Meanwhile, two federal Frontier Corps (F.C.) checkpoints in rural Balochistan were attacked by armed men on August 7th, but there were no reported casualties. The B.L.A. claimed responsibility and claimed that two F.C. members were killed and three injured in one of the attacks, while four were killed and five wounded in the other. The same day, in Turbat, four officers with the Balochistan Constabulary were killed and at least six injured by a remote-controlled roadside bomb which targeted their truck. [Related article: "Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012."]
|From one of their pamphlets, the Balochistan Liberation Army's vision for the future.
You can see how the Pakistani government is not totally on board with this.
Turkish Foreign Minister on Fact-Finding Mission to Burma over Rohingya Issue. The foreign minister of the Republic of Turkey—which has long claimed for itself the position of the Muslim world's beacon of secularism, moderation, and Western values—set off on August 8th for Arakan (a.k.a. Rakhine), in western Burma, where the disenfranchised Muslim Rohingya minority suffered horrific violence in a cycle of reprisals with local members of the Buddhist majority in June (as well as another outbreak of strife there on August 5th, which left three dead). Ankara's aim is to bring aid but also to reconcile conflicting reports of what is really going on there. The Burmese junta, says the foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, "says the deaths are around a hundred ... but the Muslim leaders in Rakhine, with whom we have been in contact, say the deaths reach thousands." Last week (as reported in this blog), the United Nations sent a special envoy to investigate the situation, and Human Rights Watch (H.R.W.) issued a blistering report on how Burma's ruling military junta allowed, and in some cases participated in, the anti-Rohingya atrocities. [Related article: "The Moment Burma's Ethnic Minorities Have Been Waiting for" (Jan. 2012).]
Beijing Chides India for Backing "One China" While Helping Tibetan Separatists. Through its official media, the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) issued a warning August 6th to the Republic of India that Indian support for Tibetan separatists, including hosting the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile, in Dharamsala, is harming Indian–Chinese relations. In particular, an opinion piece by Xiao Jie, of the China Tibetology Research Center, wrote in an opinion piece that since restoring full diplomatic relations with China in 1976, India has followed a dual policy—an official "one China" policy and a recognition of the Tibet Autonomous Region as part of the P.R.C. one the one hand but on the other a covert policy advocating separatism. [Related articles: "China, Tibet, and the Politics of Reincarnation" (March 2012), "10 Ethnonationalist Causes That Might Disrupt the Olympics" (July 2012).]
Philippine Government Asks MILF (Stop Snickering) to Rein in Radical Muslim Militias. The government of the Philippines is asking the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), with which it has a peace deal, to rein in the more-radical Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (B.I.F.M.), which attacked a string of military targets on August 5th and 6th. The series of coordinated attacks on military posts in Maguinanao province, in the predominantly-Muslim south of the country, were intended as retaliation for June 21st and July 26th clashes between the B.I.F.M. and the military which left a total of ten rebels dead. Two rebels were killed in this week's incidents. The B.I.F.M. is led by Ameril Ombra Kato, a cleric trained in Saudi Arabia, who split his organization from MILF years ago. For more information on the struggle of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for a sovereign state, see http://www.milf-nation.com. Oh, no, wait, never mind! Don't click on that, that's the wrong website!
Activists to Issue "Aboriginal Land Passports" to Asylum-Seekers in Australia. A group of radical sovereigntist Aboriginal activists in Australia will hold a special ceremony September 15th at a community center in Sydney, New South Wales, to issue over 200 "Original Nation" passports, bearing the Australian Aboriginal flag, to a group that will include newly arrived asylum-seekers. To be called a "Welcome to Aboriginal Land Passport Ceremony," the event is hosted by two organizations, Treaty Republic and the Indigenous Social Justice Association. Among the speakers at the event will be Mamdouh Habib, an Australian citizen, born in Egypt, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 on trumped-up terrorism charges and then survived torture in three different countries in succession—Pakistan, Egypt, and the United States' illegal prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba—before being stripped of his passport upon return to Australia. The gist is that Australian Aboriginal people have a right to welcome whom they want to their territories, rather than rely upon the often poor judgment of the occupying government of Australia. [Related article: "Celts, Cypriots, Aborigines Raise Stink at Olympics: Ethnonationalist Protest Update" (July 2012).]
Protestant Church in Polynesia Wants French Colony Back on U.N. List. In French Polynesia, the main Protestant church serving the indigenous population put itself on record this week supporting the Tavini Huiraatira Party's push to get the colony restored to the United Nations' list of Non-Self-Governing Territories whose continuing colonization is a concern for the U.N. The church made it clear it was not necessarily promoting independence. [Related article: "What Is a Colony? The United Nations' Definition Needs an Overhaul" (June 2012).]
Parti Québécois Cites Demand for Quick Referendum but Won't Promise. Ahead in the polls and basking in last week's announcement by Quebec's premier, Jean Charest, that an election would be held September 4th, the leader of the Parti Québécois, Pauline Marois, declined to say how soon after taking office a referendum on independence from Canada would be held. But, he said, "All separatists want there to be a referendum in our first term." Meanwhile, some dust has been kicked up by an Internet video spot from the small separatist party Québec Solidaire, which tries to stake out a strongly pro-independence position for itself despite earlier strategic alliances with the New Democratic Party by showing a Solidaire party member, portrayed as a stick figure, kicking a Mountie-hat-wearing beaver that tries to snuggle up against its leg. Beavers (stop snickering) are considered the national symbol of Anglophone Canadians. [Related article: "Quebec Cracks Down on Crimes against the State—Like Playing Hopscotch in English" (Nov. 2012).]
|Québec Solidaire kicks some beaver
|Wade Michael Page
Aryan Brother in Texas Pleads Guilty to Killing Store Clerk. In Texas, a 34-year-old white-supremacist from the town of Hull, near Houston, pleaded guilty August 6th to shooting and killing a 50-year-old convenience-store clerk during a robbery in 2009. The victim was 50-year-old Naushad Virani, and the killer was named Stevie—I can't believe I'm typing this—"Bubba" Walder, Jr. Police have not said whether Walder's relationship with the Aryan Brotherhood, a neo-Nazi group, played a role in the murder.
Oregon Writer Advocates Southern Secession with New Book Better Off without 'Em. This week, on August 14th, Simon & Schuster will be releasing a new book titled Better Off without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession. Its author, Chuck Thompson, an "openly disgruntled liberal Northwesterner" who was raised in Juneau, Alaska, but lives in Portland, Oregon, is a travel writer whose previous books include To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism. This blog will be publishing a review of the book as soon as possible. (Read an early review, from the Wall Street Journal, here.) One thing is for sure: if Mitt Romney beats Barack Obama in November, this will become a bestseller in every part of the country, though in the South people will be buying copies to burn them. Brilliant marketing strategy, really.
Argentina Complains to U.S. over Texan Oil Firm's Falklands Deal. The Argentine Republic's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, on August 6th directed her ambassador to the United States, Jorge Martín Arturo Argüello, to hand-deliver a letter to the Department of State in Washington complaining of a deal between Noble Energy, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, and the United Kingdom firm Falkland Oil and Gas, Ltd. Argentina still maintains its territorial claims on the archipelago, which is a self-governing overseas territory of the U.K. [Related articles: "Prince William Lands in the Middle of a New Cold War over the Falklands" (Feb. 2012), "What Is a Colony? The United Nations' Definition Needs an Overhaul" (June 2012), "10 Ethnonationalist Causes That Might Disrupt the Olympics" (July 2012).]
Scots Tennis Champ Drawn into Edinburgh–London Tussle over Olympic Glory. The impressive showing by Scotland in the London Olympics has been the occasion for subtle wars of words and symbols between opponents and proponents of the country's independence from the United Kingdom. Scots have won about a quarter of the U.K.'s medals this year, which for a country that forms one-twelfth of the U.K.'s population, and the U.K. being the fourth-ranked medals-winning country, is pretty good. Scotland's separatist First Minister, Alex Salmond, pointedly avoided the word Britain in comments praising Scottish athletes, whom he called "Scolympians." Earlier in this blog, I discussed the scandal over Scottish (and Welsh) footballers on Team Great Britain refusing to sing "God Save the Queen" before Olympic matches. But unionists made political hay out of the fact that on August 5th Andy Murray, a Glasgow-born tennis gold-medalist, draped himself in the Union Jack, literally, during his medals ceremony. "Andy Murray, great Scot and Olympic Champion, holding a gold medal and proudly draped in the Union Jack," tweeted Struan Stevenson, a unionist member for Scotland of the European Parliament, adding, "Eat your heart out, Alex Salmond!" However, as readers of this blog know, and as the Aboriginal Australian boxer Damien Cooper found out this year the hard way (as reported at the time in this blog), it is against Olympic regulations to display flags other than national or Olympic flags in an arena. So we shouldn't conclude that Murray is anti-independence. In fact, he got into hot water in 2006 when he said that he backed "anyone but England" in the football (soccer) World Cup—a tournament in which England and Scotland, unlike in the Olympics, put forth separate teams. And, you know, despite the Union Jack, that looks suspiciously like a St.-Andrew's-cross blazer he's wearing ... [Related articles: "Succession or Accession—Could Scotland Leave Britain but Stay in Europe?" (Jan. 2012), "Orkney—the Next Dubai? Further Reflections on Scottish Independence" (Feb. 2012), "10 Ethnonationalist Causes That Might Disrupt the Olympics," "Celts, Cypriots, Aborigines Raise Stink at Olympics: Ethnonationalist Protest Update," "Olympic Update: Femen Protest, Bigoted Judokas, Sudanese Defectors" (Aug. 2012).]
|Andy Murray
|Mo Farah
|Tirunesh Dibaba and Tiki Gelana, after Photoshopping
[You can read more about these and many other separatist and new-nation movements, both famous and obscure, in my new book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas just published by Litwin Books under the title Let's Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements and Aspirant Nations, from Abkhazia to Zanzibar. The book, which contains 46 maps and 554 flags (or, more accurately, 554 flag images), is available for order now on Amazon. Meanwhile, please "like" the book (even if you haven't read it yet) on Facebook and see this interview for more information on the book.]


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On May 4, 2017, the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce (MCC) released a new strategic plan document. The updated strategic plan has a strong focus on advocacy and policy development specifically in the areas of developing a long-term economic vision for Manitoba, business attraction and retention, labour market, and key sector support.
This focus will lead to improving our competitiveness with other jurisdictions; working to make Manitoba a leader regarding job creation, and further developing and connecting with our Chamber network across Manitoba.
"The renewed focus on policy development and advocacy over the past number of years has resulted in significant growth for MCC and the Chamber network," said Chuck Davidson, MCC President and CEO. "We have seen an increase in the number of local Chambers from 63-69 while at the same time increasing our corporate memberships, event attendance, and overall revenues. The MCC Board and staff are committed to building on that momentum to create greater value for the Manitoba business community."
Download MCC's updated strategic plan by clicking here.

subset: commoncrawl


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There are three types of common skin cancers and many other less common or rare skin cancers.
What is Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC)?
Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) is the most common type of skin cancer accounting for 75% of all skin cancers. BCCs are also the least dangerous type of skin cancer and are usually very slow growing taking months to years to become apparent. It is not uncommon for patients to have these lesions which do not heal for a long time and blame them on a scratch, cut, insect bite or other cause when in fact they are not recognised as slow growing BCCs until they seek medical attention.
Who gets Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC)?
Basal Cell Carcinoma are most common in fair skin individuals with a history of significant sun exposure or sunburns in the past. The sun exposure and significant sunburn could have occured decades ago when we were less aware of the dangers of UV radiation from sun exposure and sun protection was less commonly used.
Basal Cell Carcinoma occur more commonly in older males but can also occur in females and younger individuals. The majority of BCCs appear on the face and head and neck region, although they may also appear on other parts of the body.
An individual who has had a BCC in the past is at a higher risk of developing more BCCs in their lifetime. In general BCCs are not genetically inherited however there are are minority of people with rare inherited syndromes where BCCs can run in families such as Gorlin's syndrome where BCCs are common and start at a young age and can be associated with a number of other medical problems, however this is very rare.
What does Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) look like?
Basal cell carcinoma can be "distinct" or "indistinct" in appearance and can have many different surface features. The "distinct" varieties generally are pale, whitish or pink, raised, have fine surface blood vessels, may have a central dimple or pit. On rare occasions BCCs can also be dark or pigmented. They may also be ulcerated and bleed readily.
Other types of BCCs can be "indistinct" and appear scaly, flaky, red or pink and can flat and sometimes mistaken for a patch of eczema.
Basal cell carcinoma can range from a few millimetres in size to a few centimetres and in extreme cases can be very large weighing more than a kilogram.
What are the different types of Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) and how are they treated?
There are over 20 known histological subtypes of BCCs. The common types are:
Nodular BCC
Pearly white or pink in appearance, most commonly on the face, may have surface blood vessels and a central pit or depression and are generally well circumscribed (borders are easily seen with the naked eye). Nodular BCCs are usually curable with surgical excision and reconstruction and carry a very good prognosis for cure.
Morpheic BCC
These are much less distinct lesions that may appear as red, pink or white scaly or waxy patches. They are often much larger than they may appear to the naked eye on the surface of the skin and even under magnification can be difficult to identify the true extent of the cancer. This subtype of BCC carries a worse prognosis and can be harder to clear. This subtype of BCCs can infiltrate to a much larger extent under the skin (growing tentacles that spread wider than what is seen on the surface). It also has a higher chance of invading into local nerves (perineural invasion) which may require special imaging tests in advanced situations and more complex surgery and possibly radiotherapy to treat the cancer.
In some cases we would recommend excision of the lesion and delaying the reconstruction particularly in cosmetically sensitive areas such as the face until the pathologist has tested the cancer specimen to comment on clearance of the cancer. In advanced cases it may take several planned attempts of excision and testing of the tissue to ensure clearance of the tumour before we perform a reconstruction to the area.
Basisquamous BCC
This type of BCC is a combination of basal cell and squamous cell cancer in one lesion. It can be of an infiltrating type (like morpheic) where the true extent of the cancer can be difficult to see on the surface and it can infiltrate to a larger extent under the skin. This subtype can be potentially much more aggressive than standard BCCs.
Superficial BCC
This subtype of BCC is less aggressive and does not necessarily need surgery to treat in the first instance. There are good non-surgical treatment options for this type of BCC. The lesion often appears flat, scaly or flaky and red to pink in colour and occurs more commonly on the neck and trunk region and can cover a larger or multiple areas.
A biopsy will confirm the subtype of BCC, whether it is an invasive (nodular or other type) vs a superficial BCC. When a superficial BCC diagnosis is made, it may be treated non-surgically by means of cryotherapy (luquid nitrogen or "dry ice" treatment), chemotherapy creams (Efudix or Picato) or immunotherapy (Aldara).
How is Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) diagnosed?
All skin lesions are generally diagnosed with a combination of clinical history of the lesion, appearance on examination of the lesion with magnifying instruments and sometimes a biopsy is necessary to confirm the type or presence of a skin cancer. Most common BCCs are diagnosed on the basis of history and appearance alone. In some cases we may recommend and perform a biopsy to confirm the suspicion and aid treatment (i.e. superfical type may be treated with creams and invasive types need surgery).
Is Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) dangerous and can it spread?
Basal Cell Carcinoma's (BCC's) very rarely spread to other parts of the body (metastasise) however if left untreated they can break the skin, bleed, form an ulcer and if left untreated will continue to invade surrounding and deeper structures such as cartilage particularly around the nose, ear and eyelids.
What is the prognosis (outlook) of BCCs?
Most basal cell carcinomas are curable when treated early with complete excision, particularly when they are small. They are very rarely a threat to life and it is extremely uncommon BCCs to metastasise or spread to other parts of the body.
Advanced or neglected BCCs in some parts of the body, particularly around the eye, ear or nose may invade into these structures compromising them and in extreme cases result in damage to the eye or removal of these organs. In such situations BCCs can invade into nerves (called perineural invasion) which may require more complex surgery and/or radiotherapy treatment.
What is Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC)?
Squamous Cell Carcinoma's (SCC's) are growths of abnormal squamous cells and are generally more aggressive than BCC's. Squamous Cell Carcinoma normally grows more rapidly than BCCs, over a period of weeks of few months rather than longer.
SCCs can spread along lymphatic vessels to lymph nodes/glands or other organs and distant parts of the body if not treated early.
Who gets Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC)?
Squamous cell cancers usually occur in fair skin people with significant or prolonged sun exposure. SCC's occur most commonly on areas of the skin which a frequently exposed to the sun such as face, ears, lower lip, head and neck region, forearms and back of the hand, and legs, although they can also occur in any other part of the body.
What does Squmous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) look like?
Squamous cell cancers may appear as a red, scaly or ulcerated lesion. It may be fleshy and large and often bleeds. Sometime it may appear like a sore that doesn't heal.
What are the different types of Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) and how are they treated?
Squamous cell carcinoma is usually classifed as superficial or invasive. Superficial SCC, also known as "SCC in-situ" or Bowen's disease affects the top layer of the skin and can often be sucessfully treated with medical / non-surgical means such as chemotherapy or topical creams or superficial surgery. A biopsy is often required to make a diagnosis and ensure that the disease is truly only in the superficial layer.
Invasive SCC can be more aggressive and has potential to grow and spread to other organs via the bloodstream. Invasive SCC is "graded" by its degree of "differentiation". The biopsy report will usually describe the SCC as being well differentiated, moderately differentiated or poorly differentiated. This refers to how aggressive the SCC looks under the microscope and its potential to spread.
How is Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) diagnosed?
The clinical history and appearance of the lesion usually allows a fairly accurate diagnosis of SCC, however a biopsy is often required to confirm the diagnosis.
Is Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) dangerous and can is spread?
Squamous cell cancers are more dangerous or aggressive than BCCs and have potential to invade local tissues and have the ability to spread to other parts of the body if left untreated. Surgery is almost always required for SCC treatment and sometimes post-operative radiotherapy is also recommended in some situations. Early and complete surgical excision of SCCs can provide high cure rates from skin SCCs.
SCCs of the skin and mucosa (wet surfaces such as the lip or lining tissue) can behave differently. Lip and oral mucosa SCCs can behave more aggressively compared to some skin SCCs and treatment recommendations will be made based on the location, grade and type of SCC in each area.
What is the prognosis (outlook) of Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC)?
Squamous Cell Carcinoma's (SCC's) are growths of abnormal squamous cells and are slightly more aggressive than BCC's. Unfortunately even though they are slow growing, SCC's can invade local tissues or spread to other parts of the body including lymph nodes and other organs. Overall early and complete removal of SCCs can provide high cure rates. Some SCCs are more aggressive and require wider surgery and possibly radiotherapy after surgery, depending on the pathology findings from the time of surgical excision.
Melanoma is the most serious skin cancer and if not treated early, can spread to other parts of the body, becoming life threatening. About 85 out of 100 people diagnosed with a melanoma will survive however, if it is detected and removed in the early stages.
About half of melanomas start off in a mole that has been present for years. It is important for this reason to have regular checks (by yourself and your GP) to look for any changes to longstanding moles and for appearance of new moles. Benign moles are usually symmetric in a round or oval shape, raised or flat and are tan/brown in colour.
If you notice any changes in moles such as a change in colour, increase in size or irregular shape, then you need to seek a medical examination from your GP or specialist.


text:
Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
Highlights Issue #2811, Saturday, May 12, 2007,
Editor: Mark
Personal identity is nothing more than an identification between the mind and the image which it has about itself, an image which is really an abstract of memories of events in the past. Indeed, it is this censored and edited imaginary abstract that is considered to be an individual!
- Ramesh S. Balsekar, posted to AlongTheWay
Ram Tzu knows this -
You are perfect.
Your every defect
is perfectly defined.
Your every blemish
is perfectly placed.
Your every absurd action
is perfectly timed.
Only God could make
Something this ridiculous
- Ram Tzu, from No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced", posted to AlongTheWay
There is a great momentum of suffering and confusion that every spiritual seeker encounters. It is the momentum of ignorance which manifests as the experience of conflict and confusion and which causes suffering.
In order to discover the perspective of Liberation, which alone transcends this entire movement of ignorance and suffering, one needs to let everything end.
"Letting everything end" means to stand in the moment completely naked of attachment to any and all ideas, concepts, hopes, preferences, and experiences. Simply put, it means to stop strategizing, controlling, manipulating, and running away from yourself -- and to simply be.
Finally you must let everything end and be still. In letting everything end, all seeking and striving stops. All effort to be someone or to find some extraordinary state of being ceases. This ceasing is essential. It is true spiritual maturity.
By ceasing to follow the mind's tendency to always want 'more', 'different', or 'better', one encounters the opportunity to be still.
In being still, a perspective is revealed which is free from all ignorance and bondage to suffering.
From that perspective, eternal Self is realized. The eternal Self, the Seer, is recognized to be one's true nature, one's very own Self.
- Adyashanti, posted to Adyashantigroup
It All Comes Together
It all comes together in this one moment,
this one moment,
pure of intention,
sans distinction
sans prejudice
sans solace
sans rancor
the perfection,
overwhelming senses,
undermining thoughts
Shooting stars
..... everywhere!
Everything is
..... Enlightened!
..... is in Love
- Anna Ruiz, posted to NondualitySalon
All the buddhas say the cause for the completion
Of the collections, whose nature is
Merit and exalted wisdom,
Is the development of higher perception.
Just as a bird with undeveloped
Wings cannot fly in the sky,
Those without the power of higher perception
Cannot work for the good of living beings.
- Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana, from the book Illuminating the Path to Enlightenmentby His Holiness the Dalai Lama , posted to DailyDharma
My love, you are closer to me than myself,
you shine through my eyes.
Your light is brighter than the Moon.
Step into the garden
so all the flowers, even the tall poplar
can kneel before your beauty.
Let your voice silence the lily
famous for its hundred tongues.
When you want to be kind you are
softer than the soul but when you withdraw
you can be so cold and harsh.
Dear one, you can be wild and rebellious but
when you meet him face to face
his charm will make you docile like the earth.
Throw away your shield and bare your chest
there is no stronger protection than him.
That's why when the dervish withdraws
from the world he covers all the cracks in the wall,
so the outside light cannot come though.
He knows that only the inner light
illuminates his world.
- Rumi, Ghazal (Ode) 2798, translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi, from Rumi: Hidden Music, posted to Sunlight
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On the 16th day of Christmas, the Sidekick Advent Calendar gives to you the jolliest boss in fiction!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's presence is Mr Fezziwig, Scrooge's magnanimous employer, in a poem written by Wayne Holloway-Smith, host of the salons immortalised in our anthology Follow The Trail of Moths. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
Tuesday, 16 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 16
Posted by Kirsten Irving at 00:00
Labels: advent calendar
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If you're not familiar, Lynx is the most basic web browser, found on Unix and Linux servers. There are no photos, just pure text, links and forms.
You're probably wondering why you would ever think about supporting a browser that's based in a console window. Does anyone actually browse the web from a bash shell?
Basically, here's the benefit: if you know it works in Lynx, you know it works everywhere. Lynx doesn't have JavaScript or CSS available, and there are no images. It doesn't get more limited than that.
And actually, a lot of the traffic to your site is viewing things in this HTML-only form. I'm talking about search-engine spiders, bots, and people stuck using text-only devices such as screen readers.
So run through your site with Lynx now and then. You will be able to see at a glance if there is enough hidden or alternate text on the page to be useful to search engines and the blind. You'll also be able to ensure that forms and functionality are available to absolutely everyone, even people browsing under Bash!
Update: I just discovered Seebot, a web app which lets you browse the web the same text-only way Lynx (and bots) do.
We thought this day would never come: Internet Explorer 8 now renders the "Acid2 Face" correctly in IE8 standards mode!
Apparently we can expect to see Internet Explorer 8 in at least Beta form in early 2008. According to the IE blog:
The key goal (for the Web Standards Project as well as many other groups and individuals) is interoperability. As a developer, I'd prefer to not have to write the same site multiple times for different browsers. Standards are a (critical!) means to this end, and we focus on the standards that will help actual, real-world interoperability the most.
Sounds like the IE team has finally seen the light! :)
Good news for all Windows-based web developers: Safari for Windows is now available (via).
Hopefully this means that we can make our web sites even more cross-browser (and hopefully doesn't just add another browser with its own quirky differences).
This week, I installed TredoSoft's Multiple IE package (via friendly bit). It's an installer for Internet Explorer standalone versions 3, 4.01, 5.01, 5.5 and 6. It's based on evolt's standalone versions, but packed up in a nice installer. It even fixes some problems with cookies and conditional comments.
Check it out, it's a great package to have installed, and makes it a lot easier and cleaner to get all the old IEs running on your system. (You're all testing your web sites in IE 3, aren't you???)
When the first beta of Internet Explorer 7 came out, the biggest complaint was that there was no easy way to have it run as a standalone browser. You're pretty much forced to upgrade your whole system to use it.
I took the plunge anyway, deciding I'd rather run IE7, but I ran into all sorts of situations where I really needed IE6 for debugging.
There are a lot of hacks and instructions for taking apart the IE7 beta so that you can run it standalone. I've decided that the extremely easier solution is to just install IE7, then download the standalone of IE6.
Now that the Release Candidate is out, you probably don't want IE6 to be your main browser anymore, right? So why not just have it around for the few times when you really need it?
I just heard about Swift (via Chris Messina). Swift is a port of WebKit for Windows. WebKit is the rendering engine behind Safari (in the same way Gecko is behind Firefox and Mozilla). So I figure, sweet! Safari for Windows!
I had some problems though. On one of my PCs, WebKit.dll couldn't be registered so the installation failed. Weird.
On my other PC, I got Swift installed no problem. I ran it and.. well.. let's just say it's clearly Alpha software. Not only is the user interface extremely bare minimum (you're not going to make this your default browser any time soon), the functionality is a bit iffy. For example, it crashed when I clicked a normal link.
Perhaps it will help you see how WebKit will render your page.. but I wouldn't rely on it. I had a password field go missing, and buttons are styled with CSS whereas I'm pretty sure they aren't in Safari.
It seems there is also a problem with JavaScript. JavaScript executes, sometimes, but I had a problem getting popups to launch, or to load my new Google ads. Okay, maybe you won't miss popups and ads, but what else will break?
I give massive kudos to WebKit and Chris Fuenty for putting this together. It's not there yet, but I can't wait until it is. Having a port of WebKit on Windows will help web developers without Macs immensely. Maybe one day Swift will even become a major player in the browser market.
This happened a few days ago, but I didn't think to blog about it until now for some reason: Opera 9 has been released. There are a lot of changes to it, the most notable (to me anyway) is the presence of Rich Text Editing, otherwise known as contentEditable or designMode. Click here for a demo and documentation. I've had a chance to play around with it and it works very well using existing code from Firefox and Internet Explorer. It seems there are some minor differences for really specific things, but overall I was suprised at how compatible it was right out of the box.
Now if only Safari's rich text editing could get this sophisticated...
There are other big changes that look great, but I won't bother listing them all here. Go take a look at the release notes for that.
When early versions of Internet Explorer 7 were released, it was clear that IE would now have a search toolbar like Firefox. It was also clear that this would default to use MSN, rather than the Firefox default of Google. Google freaked out and tried to sue Microsoft, but the Justice Department said it was OK and prevented Google from doing anything about it. Google's strategy was to continue to promote Firefox, as well as give instructions to IE 7 users on how to change their default search engine.
Now, Yahoo! has released a customized version of IE 7 beta which presets the homepage and search bar to Yahoo!. Rather than fight the beast, they've embraced it and made things even easier for people who still prefer Internet Explorer. Good move, Yahoo!.
Disclaimer: I only use Internet Explorer for testing. Firefox is definitely the way to go for day-to-day surfing.


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Download EBOOK The Dangerous Duty of Delight PDF for free
Category: Religion
The author of the book: John Piper
Format files: PDF, EPUB, TXT, DOCX
The size of the: 993 KB
Language: English
Edition: Multnomah Books
Date of issue: 10 October 2001
Description of the book "The Dangerous Duty of Delight":Each of us is hard-wired to pursue our happiness. We long for significant, profound joy. Some try to satisfy it with exotic vacations, high-tech gadgets, career success, sports, academics, drug experimentation, even ascetic rigors. Yet the longing remains. "Why? "In "The Dangerous Duty of Delight," John Piper turns our heart toward the one true object of human desire and happiness: God. Piper shows from Scripture that pursuing our happiness in Christ is not optional for the Christian, but essential. Come along on a journey from desperate desire to infinite delight. Learn how you were created for ultimate PDF satisfaction in Him, and how this new perspective will change your attitudes toward worship, relationships, material goods--and "everything." ""Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." "--Saint Augustine
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The witches are gathering eye of newt and tongue of bat, the werewolves are preening their fur, and the vampires are sitting up in their coffins, running their teeth over their fangs and anticipating the taste of a fresh vein. Halloween is on the horizon. Here are some seriously spooky reads to get you in the mood.
Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell
Creepy dolls, an ouija board, and an old house with a mysterious past, what more do you need?
The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich
It definitely has a creepy house (just look at that title), but you'll have to decide whether or not it actually has demons and dark magic.
...Try not to get too attached to any of the characters.
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
Castles and monasteries, ghostly nuns and deals with the devil. Not recommended for children for the usual Gothic reasons.
The Accident by Diane Hoh
A girl appears in the mirror. Megan is drawn to her and terrified of her at the same time. The girl has a request. Megan is going to honour it.
I wish I owned a copy of this book, just so that I could see if it's as awesome as thirteen year old me thought it was.
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
I read this in a night. The pacing is perfect. The suspense is glorious.
Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan
This book needs more love. It's a quick read, full of suspense. Also, the clocks go back the day before Halloween, so I couldn't not put this ghostly little read on the list.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Okay, so it's not particuarly spooky, but it involves an angel, a demon, witches, witch-finders, and the Anti-Christ. Totally topical.
So there you have it, seven books that are perfect to read around this time of year.
(Coincidentally, breaking a mirror will bring you seven years of bad luck.)
And, on that cheerful note, we'll take our leave. What's the creepiest book you've ever read?


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a small stone
...picked up on a long walk and carried home in your pocket
Sunday, January 27
wind pushes huge eucalyptus branches around, riffles the grass. inside: trad jazz on the radio. our old cat makes a happy creaky noise & goes back to sleep.
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Fresh New Looks With Mary Kay Makeup In Rocky Hill
Makeup by Mary Kay makes women feel beautiful by design by enhancing the natural beauty of women. From eye makeup including mascara and eye shadow palettes to lipstick, foundation and brushes, there's something for each woman to look and feel amazing. Connect with a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant to find the best makeup in Rocky Hill, with samples of different styles and trends to pick the best product for you. Mary Kay has been making women feel confident and beautiful for over 50 years. See what Mary Kay can do for your everyday look and for special occasions – find a beauty consultant in Rocky Hill today.


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We are closing the week (and marking Good Friday) with this stunning picture by Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ, commissioned by nobleman Ciraco Mattei in 1602, and currently found in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.
Born Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), Caravaggio was the original 'bad boy' of art. His remarkable body of work, with its heightened drama and use of differing levels of dark paint, created the bridge between the High Renaissance and the Baroque school of painting.
There is a compelling quality of Caravaggio's art that makes him entirely modern. He took his models for saints and angels from the Italian streets; he was a painter of the people, dressing the most heightened figures of religious myth in the clothes of the everyday, so that the public would recognize themselves on a spiritual plane.
His intense focus on human interaction also isolates him from his High Renaissance brethren – never one to be fussy or painterly in his effects, he shines the hot light of focus on the interplay between dramatically lit figures and ignores backgrounds.
Caravaggio studied in Milan under a master who had trained with Titian. He moved to Rome while still a young man in his 20s and quickly set up a reputation as a painter of considerable skill. He also established his reputation as a wild man – drinking, brawling and having a string of affairs with young boys. He killed a man in 1606 during an argument, and fled Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in serious fights in 1608 and 1609 (in Malta and Naples, respectively), and died at 38 from a fever in Porto Ercole, near Grosseto in Tuscany, while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon. (Even then, it paid to have friends in official places.)
The stunning The Taking of Christ presents seven figures: John, Jesus, Judas, three soldiers and Peter, holding a lantern (from left to right). We cannot fully see their bodies, but clearly Judas has just kissed Jesus as a means to betray him to the soldiers. As with much of Caravaggio's work, the background is dark and indistinct, drawing complete attention to the human drama. Also, the light source is unclear – it would seem to come from the upper left, though the lantern light does not seem to be significant. St. Peter holds the lamp; he also betrayed Christ, and spent the remainder of his life repenting and spreading his gospel to the world.
Let's contrast the two figures at opposite ends of the painting. St. Peter, holding the lamp, is said to be a self-portrait of Caravaggio. The man running away (his cloak held by a restraining soldier) is said to be St. John. If Peter is indeed a self-portrait of the artist, what is Caravaggio trying to tell us? That he, a sinner (and what a sinner!), is better equipped to shed light on the divine than a saint? That his clear vision is aligned with that of God Himself?
Equally striking is the stark, white light on the foreheads of Christ, Judas and Peter. There are two lines on Christ's brow, but the forehead of Judas is a network of lines. Peter, in contrast, is nearly clear-browed. Even in these little details, Caravaggio speaks to us from across the centuries. The lines on Christ's head clearly indicate suffering, or, perhaps, the full realization of the suffering to come. The clear-head of St. Peter is clearly the clear-head of the artist; he sees and records, but does not necessarily judge.
But Judas – his forehead is a complex pattern of lines, befitting one of the most complex figures in New Testament mythology. Judas is key to the story of Christ, because without the him, there is no crucifixion, and no resurrection. There is an argument to be made that Judas was the most courageous of all the apostles, for he willingly took on the role of betrayer to ensure the death and resurrection of Christ, making the entire Christian tradition possible. If that is the case, then Judas is indeed the most misunderstood figure in the Christian mythos.
Even more interesting, look at the hands in this picture. The soldier restraining Christ wears a gauntlet and is invisible; the hands of the solider holding St. John's cloak are in shadow (probably by Caravaggio using a glaze of burnt umber or some other transparent brown paint) – so we can eliminate those hands. But, look at the hands of St. Peter, St. John, Judas and Christ. Compositionally, good pictures 'read,' drawing the eye in a consistent pattern. We follow Peter's hand to John's, down to the hand of Judas, and finally to those of Christ. According to myth, Christ was praying when identified by Judas, and his clasped hands look as if they are already under police restraint. Not only do these hands help the 'flow' of the viewer's eye, but notice that the hands of Peter, John and Judas indicate one direction, while those of Christ indicate another. This going against the tidal flow of humanity also helps underscore the look on pain on the face of Jesus.
Finally, let's look at the dramatic, white-hot reflection off of the soldier's armor that runs through the center of the picture. The face of that solider is undefined in the picture, but the reflected bar of light is fully depicted. There are some scholars who believe that Caravaggio's intention is to replicate a mirror, and that those gazing at the solider should feel as if they are gazing into a mirror, seeing their own faces. It is a compelling argument, as the biggest patch of reflection is dead-center in the picture.
Whatever the interpretation, though, this is a stunning picture rewarding prolonged examination. There is something mysterious, uncanny even, in Caravaggio's best work, and this picture is no exception. I don't think I have fully exhausted everything it has to say.
(More on Caravaggio's works can be found on this blog on links to the right.)


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Dec 7th 2012
The Social Hour 88
1 million Linkedin contacts, Google+ to play, Fantastical, Overgram!
Hosted by Sarah Lane, Amber MacArthur
Who's got 1 million linkedin contacts, needing Google+ to play, Fantastical, Overgram for captioners, and more!
Although the show is no longer in production, you can enjoy episodes from the TWiT Archives.
Amber & Sarah talk about who's got 1 million linkedin contacts, needing Google+ to play, Fantastical, Overgram for captioners, and more! Hosts: Amber MacArthur and Sarah Lane Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tsh. Contribute to our show! Send us an email at email@example.com or leave us a voicemail at 2626-SOCIAL (262-676-2425). We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes. Bandwidth for The Social Hour is provided by Cachefly. Running time: 59:32
- - Richard Branson first to hit 1M followers on LinkedIn
- - Lanyrd Jumps Into The Space Left By LinkedIn's Events App Closure With New Features
- - The Social Commerce Attribution Problem: IBM Says Twitter Referred 0% Of Black Friday Traffic
- - LivingSocial lays off 400 in U.S.
- - Google Play reviews now require Google+ account
- - Overgram - add text and captions to your Instagram photos
- - Fantastical for iPhone - manage your calendar better
- - Get Fantastical
- - Campaign of the Week: Stella Artois sends Alice Eve to deliver holiday greetings
- - RAD OR FAD? WTF Smartphone Jeans


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We were among those who rejoiced and cried over its perfection, but now a new plot twist is making the holiday card extra special.
According to White House photographer Pete Souza, the photo gracing the card happened because of our favorite woke bae, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
See, earlier this year, the Trudeaus attended a State Dinner while visiting the U.S. (You know, the dinner where President Obama, Michelle, and the girls looked absolutely perfect.)
Souza said that Trudeau asked if he could take a picture of him and his wife with the Obamas. Afterwards, he suggested that the photographer also take a portrait of the first family.
"I could have said, 'Sir, we already did one before you arrived,'" Souza wrote in an Instagram post. "But instead, I clicked off a few quick frames. And lo and behold, it was this picture that Justin Trudeau asked me to take which everyone loved as the choice for the 2016 White House holiday card."
We're not sure we're worthy. Add this to the list of reasons why 2016 wasn't a total dumpster fire.
Read Souza's full post below.
This family. What can I say. What an honor to have photographed them for eight years. A couple of months ago, the Social Office came to me and said they were thinking of using a family photo for this year's White House holiday card. So I thought of Justin Trudeau. I know you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about. Earlier this year we hosted the Canadian Prime Minister for a formal State Dinner. Malia and Sasha attended as guests. Before the dinner, I did a family photo in the White House residence. But later, when the Trudeaus arrived, the two families spent some time on the Truman Balcony with their respective delegations. At one point, the Prime Minister asked if we could do a photo of he and his wife with the Obama family. Click, click, click. Then, he said I should do a photo of just the Obama's. I could have said, "sir we already did one before you arrived." But instead, I clicked off a few quick frames. And lo and behold, it was this picture that Justin Trudeau asked me to take which everyone loved as the choice for the 2016 White House holiday card.


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Google April 13 said Apple's App Store has approved its Google Mobile App for Apple's iPad, which has sold more than 500,000 units since going on sale April 3.
This "iPad-friendly version" of Google Mobile App, available from the iTunes store here, displays content on the iPad's screen without cutting off or chopping up the content rendered there. The app features the same perks in the Google Mobile App for iPhone, such as search by voice and My Location.
Google software engineer Alastair Tse said he and his team are working on improving Google Mobile App for iPad to better take advantage of iPad's features, though he declined to provide specifics.
See screenshots of Google Mobile App on the iPad on Gizmodo here, and a brief lamentation of how the app is lacking on CNET here.
Further reading
Google's latest iPad app comes after Google April 2 retooled Gmail to work properly on the iPad for its widely anticipated launch.
This flavor of Gmail leverages an experimental user interface built on the HTML5-based Gmail for mobile Web app the company launched last April for the iPhone and Android devices.
Gmail on iPad is faster, but it also looks different from Gmail on the desktop or iPhone, as you'd expect. The iPad presents a larger surface on which to work; Gmail and Google Mobile App were redesigned to accommodate this larger palette.
Meanwhile, Google is the default search engine for iPad, and YouTube and Google Maps provide video content and high-resolution satellite and Street View imagery, respectively.
So far, Google, which experienced some bumps in the road getting Google Latitude and Google Voice onto the iPhone, seems to have acclimated well to Apple's stringent App Store requirements.
It will be interesting to see how this holds up, and even more interesting to watch if and when Google releases its own Android-based tablet and how that will differ from users' iPad experience.


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Los Alamos National Laboratory
Smoking damages DNA
Smoking not only causes cancer but also permanently changes, or mutates, the cells that are exposed to tobacco smoke. That's the takeaway from a recent study by Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
"This study offers fresh insights into how tobacco smoke causes cancer… even if you stop smoking, these mutations are there—they are not reversible," says Laboratory biophysicist Ludmil Alexandrov, noting that with lung cancer, for example, tobacco smoke directly reaches the lung, and the carcinogens in tobacco bind to DNA, which causes mutations, which in turn causes cancer. "Even if you just start smoking for a bit, the genetic material of your cells will be scarred for your lifetime."
The findings were based on a genetic analysis of 5,243 cancers, including 2,490 from smokers and 1,063 from patients who said they had never smoked tobacco cigarettes.
"Our research indicates that the way tobacco smoking causes cancer is more complex than we thought." says Mike Stratton, joint lead author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "This study of smoking tells us that looking in the DNA of cancers can provide provocative new clues to how cancers develop and thus, potentially, how they can be prevented."
The Lab's Employee Assistance Program offers a tobacco cessation program to provide education and counseling for employees and their dependents as they overcome nicotine dependence. The American Cancer Society also offers information about quitting tobacco.
A new study allowed researchers to quantify the effects of smoking on different organs of the human body. For example, subjects who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for a year acquired 150 new DNA mutations in every cell in their lungs, which increased the risk of getting cancer. Credit: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.


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On March 29-31, we gathered in Houston, TX for the 2017 BioLogos Conference: Christ and Creation. With a top-notch lineup of speakers, including Francis Collins and NT Wright, we were pleased to welcome over 370 attendees from 35 states and 11 countries, with many more joining from around the world via live stream.
The opening evening featured talks by theologian NT Wright and scientist (and BioLogos founder) Francis Collins. Wright's plenary brought to life the conference theme, persuasively arguing that if all things were created through Christ, then the life and teachings of Christ should reshape our understanding of the way God works and creates. Collins' talk powerfully reflected on his own story of faith in Christ and the importance of taking both science and Christian belief seriously. The audience was energetic and engaged, submitting over 100 questions by text message during the discussion time! As personal friends and able musicians, Collins and Wright closed with two delightfully memorable songs about science, faith, and new creation -- with the melodies borrowed from Bob Dylan and the Beatles complementing the newly-penned Wright-Collins lyrics. The evening closed as Wright and Collins joined the conference worship team, led by Aaron Niequist of Willow Creek Community Church, in Scripture reading and singing In Christ Alone and other songs with us all.
The themes of the opening night echoed throughout other conference presentations as well. BioLogos President and astronomer Deb Haarsma led the audience on a Christocentric tour through the beauty of cosmological creation, while biologist April Maskiewicz Cordero showed some of the evidence for God's gradual evolutionary creation of life on earth as well. Some of the apparent challenges to Christian orthodoxy posed by evolution were explored by philosopher and BioLogos Senior Editor Jim Stump, while Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight presented on their new book Adam and the Genome, which provides a close examination of the Bible's teaching on Adam along with the science of human origins.
Sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund broke down many misconceptions about scientific and Christian communities in her presentation of her own years of research of these groups, and Cornell geneticist Praveen Sethupathy shared an incisive presentation on the search for truth in both science and Christian belief. These talks modeled a compelling articulation of the undimmed beauty and persuasiveness of the Christian faith, without dodging the scientific discoveries that lead many outside the church to see Christianity as outmoded. This vision of confidently-engaged belief was further articulated on the nearby campus of Rice University, where Francis Collins joined biomedical entrepreneur and fellow Christian Tony Coles for a BioLogos co-sponsored event on "Science, Religion, and Public Life." To the standing-room-only audience on this leading secular campus, Collins and Coles shared their own faith and how it motivates their work in science and biomedical research.
The conference closed with a talk by prominent Christian author Andy Crouch, followed by discussion with local Houston pastor Harvey Clemons, Jr. Their contributions equipped and inspired attendees to continue the conversation in their own communities, with particular relevance for pastors seeking to lead their congregations in a richer understanding of God's creative work in the world.
The conference provided a profoundly meaningful time of community and fellowship for our attendees, many of whom often feel isolated in their home churches or universities. Attendees sat around tables during sessions, having table discussions after each talk and getting to know the diverse range of other people in attendance -- pastors and other ministry leaders, researchers and scholars, students and educators, and parents and children. Numerous attendees described these times as an unexpectedly powerful highlight of the conference. And with several major publishers onsite offering large discounts on great books, attendees left with plenty of reading to do!
Numerous additional topics were explored in over 20 additional breakout presentations during the conference. Topics included science, theology, and biblical interpretation, as well as international perspectives on science and faith. Other presenters shared case studies and best practices for engaging the science and faith dialogue in a number of contexts, including campus ministry, undergraduate education, Sunday school and sermons, and public education. Biblical scholar John Walton and evolutionary biologist Jeff Schloss also gave in-depth workshops, allowing attendees to dig deep into these topics.
Thirteen of the conference speakers were part of BioLogos Voices, a speakers bureau featuring some of the top scholars and communicators in the BioLogos community. With expertise including biological and physical sciences, history and philosophy, and biblical studies and theology, these speakers made a range of thoughtful contributions to the conference. (Click here to explore our Voices bureau or to inquire about inviting a speaker to your area!)
As is always the case at BioLogos, worship was central to our conference activities, and we were pleased to be led by a thoughtful group of musicians who carefully crafted the worship times. From hymns to spirituals to worship songs, along with reciting the Lord's Prayer reading Scripture together, each day was bookended with times of meaningful praise and reflection. These times were powerful and essential, reminding us why we were all there and why we care about the world of science; it is because the study of creation reveals the glory of its Creator, bringing us closer to the Christ through whom all things were made.
We invite you to watch the session recordings, and stay tuned in the coming weeks as we add breakout session recordings and post updates on the next BioLogos National Conference. We'll hope to see you there!
Questions or comments? Contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Conrer Kitchen Sink
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The first Tegra 4 based smartphone will be released by ZTE
by Aug 22, 2013 7:57 pm0
According to previous reports, the world's first NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor device, ZTE U988S had repeatedly appeared in the Internet. But all along, ZTE has not announced a specific launch plans of thos smartphone and the price. According to the latest news reports, ZTE U988S the current price has been announced, which means probably not far from the official release.
According to domestic reports, the new ZTE U988S price is likely to be around 1999 yuan or around $326 USD price tag, while we don't have any information about the official release. The phone is equipped with a powerfull processor and this phone will be compete with HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.
Tegra 4
As we all know, the phone is Qualcomm processor chip is almost dominated in recent years, other vendors, such as NVIDIA have not fared well. And as early as the end of June last year, the world's first quad-core processor Tegra 3 processor debut, based on their build mobile products were subsequently introduced, but for Tegra 4 terms are not so lucky. The processor released in January this year, but up to now has not yet produced the first mobile phone products.
But even so dystocia, in fact, Tegra 4 While processor performance is not weak, according to the famous test software running on the security Bunny sub-score, While processor score of approximately 30,000 points or so, with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor basically at the same level. The use of quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 architecture, built-in GPU core raised to 72 ALU units, 3D display outstanding performance of the previous generation Tegra 3 is almost six times.
ZTE U988S hardware configuration
ZTE U988S although not formally listed, but its hardware configuration is now almost completely exposed. According to media reports, ZTE U988S uses a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1920 × 1080, with the Tegra 4 processor chip clocked at 1.8GHz, built-in 2GB RAM, assembling a 13 million pixel camera , and runs Android 4.2. an operating system.
Meanwhile, the phone moves back printed 3G Logo, support mobile TD-SCDMA network, measurements size of 144 × 71 × 9mm, weight about 148g, built-in 2300mAh capacity battery .
In addition, ZTE U988S fact, back in July will be heard by the State Ministry of certification means removing obstacles have been listed, but also from the Ministry website to read, there are still red version of this phone, with iron-gray, then a total of two kinds color. In addition, there is news that this phone will be the fastest listed this month, and if this phone is really for only 1999 yuan, maybe really is a very anticipated product.