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Correction Appended
TOKYO, Thursday, Jan. 19 - Takafumi Horie, an Internet entrepreneur in Japan, has captured attention with his unconventional American-style approach to business.
Zipping around Tokyo in a silver-blue Ferrari with his bikini-model girlfriend, Mr. Horie was often on television quiz and talk shows, and enjoyed thumbing his nose at Japan's business elite. [Page C1.]
But this week, the flamboyant Mr. Horie was in the spotlight for a more somber reason: An investigation of his business, the Livedoor Company, on suspicion of securities fraud had helped to kindle a near panic in Japan as investors withdrew billions of dollars from the Tokyo stock market in the last two days.
In an attempt to calm the frightened investors, a parade of government officials, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, offered reassurances that economic fundamentals were in order. The chief government secretary, Shinzo Abe said, "It is desirable that stock prices firmly reflect economic fundamentals and move in a stable manner."
The tactic appeared to work on Thursday. With the market rebounding, buyers came in, seeking to scoop up stocks they saw as undervalued. The benchmark Nikkei index of 225 stocks was up about 350 points, or about 2.3 percent, by late afternoon.Continue reading the main story
Trading was extraordinarily heavy and was close to being suspended by late Thursday in order to avoid overloading its computers, which happened Wednesday when the market closed 20 minutes early.
The frantic quality of the last several days took on a grim aspect when an executive of a securities firm suspected of involvement in corporate takeover deals by Livedoor was found dead on the southern island of Okinawa, apparently having committed suicide, the police, quoted by the Kyodo news agency, said.
The executive was identified as Hideaki Noguchi, 38, a vice president of HS Securities, one of the companies raided by prosecutors this week in connection with the investigation.
Analysts watched the market closely Thursday, afraid that the earlier tumult could return and threaten the Nikkei, which soared more than 40 percent last year, and perhaps undercut the nation's fragile economic recovery after years of stagnation.
In a blow to the nation's pride, the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed early on Wednesday because an old computer system failed to keep up with the rush of trading orders. The exchange operated on a shortened schedule on Thursday, and was nearing the trading limit -- four million transactions -- that would trigger an early close.
On Wednesday, markets around the world fell, ending down 1.2 percent in Frankfurt and 0.6 percent in London. In New York, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index market slipped 0.39 percent.
The development that set off "Livedoor shock," as the Japanese news and entertainment media call it, occurred on Tuesday, after prosecutors marched into the home and the office of Mr. Horie, who has endeared himself to admirers with a boyish pudgy face and spiked hair, but has enraged Japan's financial establishment with his aggressive tactics. The raid was carried live on the evening news.
Senior Japanese officials sought to minimize any potential impact on the recovering economy, as well as embarrassment to a country trying to regain leadership in critical fields of advanced technology.
James Fiorillo, an American who advises the Japan Natural Selection Fund, one of many foreign funds that heavily expanded its investments in this country last year, commented: "This thing has taken on greed, panic and fear. Banks and trading companies are getting hammered, and their businesses are doing well in this economy."
In the meantime, Japanese regulators widened their investigation into Mr. Horie and Livedoor. The company is reportedly being investigated for violating Japan's security laws by spreading false information. According to Japanese newspaper reports Thursday, prosecutors are also investigating whether Livedoor's parent company falsified figures for financial statements in 2004 to make an $8.7 million loss look like a $12.2 million gain.
Livedoor issued a statement just before trading started on Thursday morning, saying its own investigation had found no problems in two areas thought to be under investigation, an affiliate's takeover of a publisher and its stock split.
In the last two years, Mr. Horie has made headline news with a success story that has turned him into the Bill Gates of Japan. He seemed to revel in tweaking the country's clannish business elite, whom he once dismissed as a "club of old men."
He especially raised hackles by attempting a hostile takeover of a radio network and by trying to buy a baseball team. Hostile takeovers are rare in Japan. Though the radio network, the object of a bid last spring, was small, it was an affiliate of the Fuji Television Network, the country's largest private broadcaster. Both attempts failed. But they did not seem to dent his ability to make money from his conglomerate comprising a popular Internet portal and about 40 related ventures.
Mr. Horie has built Livedoor into one of Japan's most heavily trafficked sites, offering everything from free e-mail, travel reservations, consumer financing, lists of used cars for sale and even a blog he wrote. In five years, Livedoor's stock value soared 150 times, to $6.34 billion at the beginning of the week.
Livedoor shares did not trade on Wednesday or Thursday. Still it shares were marked down Wednesday by the daily 100-yen limit, to 496 yen. At that price, more than $1.8 billion of the company's market value was wiped out.
"We need more updated information and better disclosure," Taizo Nishimuro, president of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, said of Livedoor.
On Wednesday, Mr. Nishimuro raised the possibility of delisting Livedoor.
Mr. Horie's casual style and bold business practices have alienated many old hands in this country. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the business daily, said this week, "Since listing his company in 2000, Horie has been accruing a reputation as an eccentric, aloha-shirted president who dodges questions from analysts."
By some accounts a geek version of Donald Trump, Mr. Horie wrote an ode to greed, titled, "Earning Money Is Everything: From Zero to 10 Billion Yen, My Way."
While he ruffled some, he enchanted many small investors, who accounted for half the trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last year. That enchantment snapped on Wednesday. Investors put in a vast number of trade orders stretching Tokyo's computer-based market. Part of that high volume was a result of Internet trading, a popular pursuit enabled by one of Mr. Horie's companies.
Compounding investor anxiety, exchange officials announced in advance on Wednesday that the order volume was expected to reach the system's capacity of 4.5 million trades a day, forcing an early close. After normally instantaneous trades started to take five minutes and more, exchange officials closed the market 20 minutes before the normal 3 p.m. closing time.
"The recent spike in orders is extraordinary," Mr. Nishimuro said. As long as these extremely high volumes last, he said, Tokyo's trading day will be cut by 30 minutes.
Last week, the exchange increased the market's order capacity by 20 percent, to nine million orders a day. On Jan. 30, trading capacity is to increase by 11 percent, to five million trades a day. On Wednesday, when the market closed 20 minutes early, the exchange had recorded 4.38 million trades and 7.3 million orders.
Belying Japan's high-tech, clockwork image, the exchange lost almost an entire day of trading in November because of a computer breakdown. In December, computers stymied a brokerage firm's attempt to reverse a botched trade, an error that led to $350 million in losses and brought down the president of the exchange, Takuo Tsurushima, who resigned to take responsibility.
To settle investors before Thursday's trading began, government officials made comments timed for the Wednesday evening television news. "I think it's of a temporary nature as economic conditions are solid over all," Prime Minister Koizumi said.
Kaoru Yosano, the financial services minister, reassured investors at a news conference: "We do not fear a chain reaction."
Hours earlier, the alarm over Livedoor had spread to other Internet stocks. Yahoo Japan fell by almost 10 percent. Softbank fell by 13 percent, both near their maximum allowable price movement.
"Our fund managers think that the next couple of days will be choppy," Alexander M. Prout, president of Invesco in Japan, said after trading ended Wednesday. Mr. Prout, who said he managed $5.3 billion in Japanese equities, blamed "media hysteria" for the turmoil.
"Anytime there is a quick run-up in the marketplace, there is that breathing pause," he said, referring to the Tokyo market's recent surge. "But because there is nothing fundamentally wrong, when the lull settles you will see buying opportunities."
Wall Street traders said Wednesday that there was little noticeable concern in New York over the shutdown of the Japanese market, which came on top of a sell-off over disappointing results from American technology companies. They noted that the Tokyo exchange has a limited capacity to handle orders and that Livedoor has a large number of small individual investors and many of them were trying to sell shares. Some traders saw the two-day drop in Tokyo as a buying opportunity.
But many feared that they might be hearing the popping of a miniature Internet bubble.
"If Livedoor did not disclose correct data for their financial statement, that is big, sort of a similar situation to Enron," Nobuo Sayama, a business professor at Hitotsubashi University, said after the market closed Wednesday.
Referring to the Internet companies that have clustered in a new Tokyo hotel and office tower, he predicted: "This event is a start of big problem that will expand to other Roppongi Hills companies. They will be attacked later on."
But Mr. Sayama, like the Americans interviewed, said he believed that Japan's economic fundamentals were sound.
Some analysts said Tuesday and Wednesday would eventually be seen as a speed bump on the way to the Nikkei breaking 20,000, a level substantially below its high of 38,915 in December 1989.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Correction: January 20, 2006, Friday A chart in Business Day yesterday with an article about turmoil in the Japanese stock market mislabeled the scale showing percentage changes in stock indexes since the end of 2004. The scale was a negative 10 percent to a positive 40 percent, not a negative 100 percent to a positive 400 percent.Continue reading the main story


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I was raised in Seattle. A city known for it's integration and acceptance of people, no matter color or creed. My parents taught me, and I teach my children that in this nation… in this world, we do not "judge people by the color of their skin but by the content of their character"…it's whats inside that counts. I truly believe that this world would be a boring, flat existence if we were all the same. Every note of the eternal symphony composed by our Master Craftsman is meant to be there…without omission. So why do I feel so insulted, so wronged by the newly touted Right Reverend Wright? The sacrifice that my husband and hundreds of thousands more have paid for in blood… profusely shed… for his right to to yell from a bully pulpit… God Damn America… feels trodden upon like a filthy rag. Well that infuriates me.
Why are you trying to divide America down lines that don't exist for most of the people that I know? We are all God's children, "black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics"… instead of dividing, why not try to "join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
The paragraphs above are as far as I got in this essay.
I can't go on… I don't have the words. Tonight, I am eternally grateful for better writers than I. Specifically for, John Moody, Executive Vice President, News Editorial for FOX News.
Memo to Reverend Wright: Do Souls Have Color?
I'm white.I'm Christian.
I'm American.
I'm not a racist.
And I'm offended by Jeremiah Wright. The Trinity United Church's former pastor put on nearly an hour of smug mugging for the cameras at the National Press Club in Washington. Among other things, he repeated with a kind of glee that the attacks on 9/11 were retribution for America's sins. He tried to distinguish African-influenced Christian churches in the United States from those that are not. He said, in part, that his recent plunge into the limelight "just might mean that the reality of the African-American church will no longer be invisible."
What reality is that, reverend? How is reality visible or invisible? Is it a different reality from my church? Who says so? God? Or just you? What the heck, to be polite, are you talking about?
Let's be clear: Reverend Wright has the right to say what he wants; that is the beauty of this country that he believes has so wronged him. His remarks are protected, even if they offend me, which they do. I, too, have rights, including the right to offend the Reverend, which I expect this will do.
I attend a Roman Catholic church where the pastor and most of the congregation are white. Yet my pastor would no more speak of white America, or the white church, or the hardships imposed on white people by the U.S. government because of affirmative action, than he would say "Goddamn America". This does not mean that there is uniformity of opinion in my church. I know that my pastor and I disagree on issues of politics. I know that because we have talked outside the church, not because he preaches his politics from the pulpit. I would find it impossible to attend if he did this, because that would be an abuse of his position. His job is to help me in my quest for eternal salvation, not to tell me the kind of world he wants to live in until he and I achieve that goal.
He does not preach in order to divide. He preaches to bring comfort and hope to those in the Lord's House.
Wright speaks about white racism while espousing the kind of hateful, bitter (yes, I know that word's been used before) division between white and black that is the essence of racism. Do I know what goes on inside his head? No. But neither does he know what thoughts I secretly harbor.
"Be not deceived, God is not mocked," Wright said, quoting Galatians 6:7. Reverend Wright, who dislikes being judged by sound bites, omitted the first passages of that biblical book. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5 For every man shall bear his own burden."
Whose burden were you bearing when you spoke, Reverend? If Americans have sinned, are you ministering to them in the spirit of meekness? You speak of the black church, yes. But what of the white church? Do churches have colors? Do souls? Are you and your church superior to mine? Allow me to tell you: you and it are not.
Your words, reverend, were an affront to me, but of far more importance, to the Almighty. You can still atone, but remember, God is not mocked.
John Moody is Executive Vice President, News Editorial for FOX News.
Please take a moment, and thank Mr. Moody for his poignant and appropriate words. They were heartfelt, honest and fair. He spoke for many of us that don't know how to express what we feel. Thank you, Mr. Moody.

subset: commoncrawl


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Monthly Archives: January 2015
1) Dawkins wants to land porn on Muslim world? 2) Dawkins yawnfest has just got to stop?
|January 31, 2015
|Posted by News under Culture, Darwinism, News
Well, for sure we would vote for #2, if we were offered some kind of ballot.
Is this the best argument for a multiverse?
|January 31, 2015
|Posted by News under Multiverse, News
And the whole thing ends in moralistic sludge too.
"Trigger warning" on Immanuel Kant
|January 30, 2015
|Posted by News under Intellectual freedom, News
If you need trigger warnings, trust me, you do not need university. Save the money for cosmetic surgery instead.
But why IS physicist Lawrence Krauss a celeb? Or is he?
|January 30, 2015
|Posted by News under Cosmology, News
Guess a guy can't be too zealous in defending his trademark. But how much is the trademark worth?
Justifying Moral Interventions via Subjectivism (and an apology to RDFish)
|January 30, 2015
|Posted by William J Murray under Intelligent Design
First, I'd like apologize to RDFish for mistakenly attributing to him an argument others had made earlier in the "Moral Viewpoints Matter" thread, which I had argued against prior to RDFish entering the thread. He never changed his position as I later asserted. Sorry, RDFish. I also think my mistake led me to take RDfish's […]
When people do not want to confront intellectual freedom issues
|January 30, 2015
|Posted by News under Canada, Culture, Naturalism
I have lived all my life in a country where this garbage was unheard of in the 1960s. Most of it would not be heard of in the 1860s or the 1760s.
On the reasonableness and importance of the inherently good Creator-God, a necessary and maximally great being
|January 30, 2015
|Posted by kairosfocus under Atheism, Darwinist rhetorical tactics, Intelligent Design, Science, worldview issues/foundations and society
I keep getting pulled away from an intended post [– U/D, Feb 18 2015: cf here — ] on FSCO/I and that famous little round reel as an undeniably concrete case in point: I have to get around to it . . . Anyway, a couple of days ago, given some recent exchanges in and […]
Seemingly ramping it up, sociobiology's E.O. Wilson wants to eliminate "religion"
|January 30, 2015
|Posted by News under Darwinism, Intelligent Design, News
Religion? Some religious beliefs are compatible with civil liberties in the Western sense and some are not.
H. L. Mencken: The nail in the coffin
|January 30, 2015
|Posted by vjtorley under Intelligent Design
I've written about H. L. Mencken's mendacity at the Scopes trial in two previous posts (here and here). In today's post, I'm going to drop one more bombshell, which will, I hope, drive the final nail in the coffin of Mencken's credibility as an accurate reporter on the trial. My bombshell is actually a letter […]
Christians should be eradicated?
|January 29, 2015
|Posted by News under Intellectual freedom, Intelligent Design, News
In an emergency, it finally became possible in Canada to talk beyond the secular burkha of political correctness.
In Canada, a Victory for Freedom Over Fascist Thought Police
|January 29, 2015
|Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design
Reported here.
Philosopher Thomas Nagel thinks it is okay to discuss design in nature even in school?
|January 29, 2015
|Posted by News under News, science education
Paper encourages us to consider that intelligent design may help us understand complex systems.
New blind beetle find challenges Darwinian evolution?
|January 29, 2015
|Posted by News under Evolution, News
But if we don't know whether evolution aims in any direction or not, doesn't that knock the wind out of most theories about it?
Simple Pocket Calculator Model Outperforms Complex Climate Models
|January 28, 2015
|Posted by PaV under Intelligent Design
I don't know if someone has seen this item on Phys.Org, or not. One of my most strident objections to global warming is the failure of climate models to actually 'model' what temperature has done over the last twenty years. Here's this simple program that gets it right. As one of the authors put it: […]
Framing the Debate – How Design Books are Categorized
|January 28, 2015
|Posted by Eric Anderson under Atheism, Philosophy, Religion
I rarely set foot in a bookstore, having long ago succumbed to the Amazon.com convenience. But Saturday my son had an urge to buy some comic books — and he had to have them now. He waited semi-patiently, with regular reminders throughout the day of his desire — nay, his urgent need — to go […]
Oldest snake fossils 70 mya earlier than thought?
|January 28, 2015
|Posted by News under Intelligent Design, News, stasis
Researchers: Characteristic snake skull and its parts appeared long before snakes lost their legs
William Lane Craig's video on the objectivity of morality and the linked reality of God
|January 28, 2015
|Posted by kairosfocus under Atheism, Science, Mathematics, Philosophy and (Natural) Theology, Science, worldview issues/foundations and society
Here: embedded by Embedded VideoYouTube Direkt In this video, Dr Craig argues that we have good reason to accept the objectivity of ought, and from that we see that there is a credible ground of such, God. In slightly more details, if one rejects the objectivity of the general sense of OUGHT as governing our […]
Nobelist Charles Townes, inventor of laser and ID sympathizer, dies at 99
|January 28, 2015
|Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Multiverse, Physics
Townes: Intelligent design, as one sees it from a scientific point of view, seems to be quite real.
The right to ridicule: what do readers think?
|January 28, 2015
|Posted by vjtorley under Intelligent Design
By now, I expect that readers will have formed their own opinions about the tragic massacre of twelve people at the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo. And I expect, too, that people will have read and digested the remarks subsequently made by His Holiness Pope Francis on the inappropriateness of ridiculing other people's faith. In […]
Scientific American claims to reveal the secrets of Neanderthal cognition
|January 27, 2015
|Posted by News under Human evolution, Intelligent Design, News
If we mean only to say that they were humans, not animals, then the secrets of their cognition are the same as the secret of ours.


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Check out At The Top, the latest track from Killer Mike, which dropped on Friday, April 29th, 2011. Killer Mike's movement grows stronger with each new release, and At The Top has further strengthened that fact. It's a solid addition to the commendable body of work Killer Mike has been creating since stepping foot in the rap game, and we're definitely looking forward to what Killer Mike has on deck.
Check out Killer Mike on At The Top. Check out Killer Mike's profile page for the most recent info, news, songs, and mixtapes.
Can you appreciate the bars here?
Quotable Lyrics
"Hoes used to laugh, said a nigga look like Re-Run
Now these bitches sweating me on MTV and re-runs
Now them hoes is lucky to get in the club that we run
Now I shine and ball on a bitch, neon neon
She play her husband like a peon just to get peed on
Tell my patna Sleepy, can't believe the shit that we on
Cold hearted macks for the stacks we pumpin' freon
Space age pimpin' with that above and beyond"


text: ON ETHICS RANDY COHEN Q. I am an anesthesiologist at a metropolitan hospital. A patient scheduled for an operation one day requested a female anesthesiologist, a request we were inclined to honor. When the anesthesiologist's name was given to the patient, she wondered if the anesthesiologist was African-American. When told that she was, the patient demanded a white anesthesiologist. It was 7 a.m., too early to contact hospital lawyers or the ethics board. What should we have done? A. I admire your inclination to honor a request that would put a patient at ease, but such requests are not exempt from moral scrutiny. If a patient told you she would be more emotionally prepared for surgery if she could go out to the hospital parking lot and drive over a couple of puppies, you would not lend her your car. Similarly, you should have rejected her racist request, explaining that the hospital does not consider race when making assignments. (If it did, the hospital could face legal claims from rejected anesthesiologists.) Despite your honorable intentions, you were wrong even to grant her request for a female anesthesiologist. We rightly consent to some such demands, but not to all and not unthinkingly. Most of us would accommodate a woman's desire for a female gynecologist, deferring to the patient's sexual modesty. But few would honor her request for a female clerk in the hospital gift shop. Because an anesthesiologist's task does not intrude on sexual modesty, it was illegitimate to make sex a factor here. Surely other members of the surgical team were men but were not subject to patient veto. This is an ethically ambiguous area: Notions of sexual modesty vary. Even as we become a more egalitarian society, situations remain in which sex has its claim, but these should be few and as time passes, fewer still. Update: Despite finding the patient's request objectionable, the doctors decided to grant it. Q. A friend's son was seriously injured in an accident. Fundraisers were held and a significant amount of money was donated to help his family care for him. The family filed a lawsuit in connection with the accident and collected more than $10 million after attorneys' fees. Sadly, their child died. Some donors have wondered if the family should refund some of the donations. Are they right? A. They are. While gifts generally come without strings, here it is the recipient, not the donors, who implicitly defined a condition for these gifts: Donations would be used for the care of a child. Now that this is, alas, no longer possible, donors should have their money back if they desire (even if they have no legal claim to it). It is hard to imagine how that desire would be expressed -- a phone call to the grieving family requesting a refund? Donors may be uneasy about this family, now that it is wealthy, keeping the money but no doubt understand that sorting out their finances is not the unhappy family's first concern. Someone close to the family could gently raise the matter, but only after time has passed. This family friend could suggest that surplus funds be given to a worthy cause, perhaps one that benefits other injured children. Donors should be informed and their permission solicited. I suspect that they would feel that their money had been put to a use that honored their intent. Readers can direct questions and comments by e-mail to ethicist@ nytimes.com. This column originates in The New York Times Magazine.


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- What certifications exams are covered under this program?
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The focus of our second pillar is our contracts with public and private entities to provide qualified minority suppliers, contractors, professional services firms, etc. prepared to compete for and win contracting opportunities. The Chamber goals are to increase these public/private partnerships to ensure utilization of our member partners. Contracts with the Chamber include cities, counties, public utilities, private entities and municipalities.
The Chamber has contracts with the following:
For more information, contact Tanya Motta at firstname.lastname@example.com or 916-446-7883.


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Oncology Massage has many benefits for anyone with cancer. However, there is a misconception held by some that massage spreads cancer. Science has proven this to be incorrect.
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I have Flac3D (a geotechnical engineering modelling program) installed on a normal Win7 PC and all works fine. However the version installed on the server runs perfectly fine apart from the fact that it has an error message on startup (program) and it cannot save plots to PNG files.
The error message is as follows;
Your video card appears to be forcing anti-aliasing. Picking (object detection in graphics) has been disabled. Please disable automatic anti-aliasing in your video card settings. Instead choose "Off" or Application-controlled
The command to automatically output plots as PNG files does not return any error statement, it simply does not save. However the code can generate it's own backup files as per normal so it has the ability to create and modify files in it's save directory. The program also fails to print the plots without error, the print window appears but the job is never registered or actioned.
Snipping tool can successfully save PNG files though.
Anyone got an idea wth is going on?


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Commencing the economical activities of our enterprise, go back to the start of the 20th century, however the beginning of the mining activities in the Tomaszów Basin has been noted in records from the 18th century and located in the Nagórzyce region.
Traces of this business have survived to this day in the form of underground caverns called the "Nagórzyce Grottoes", today being a monument of inanimate nature.
The first mine and plant organised on an industrial scale processing glass sands was founded in the region of Białą Góra in 1922.
Tomaszowskie Kopalnie Surowców Mineralnych "Biała Góra" , were transformed a single owner company of the national treasury in 1992.
An important point in the development of the company was acquiring a majority stake of shares in 2007, by the German group Quarzwerke GmbH, with its headquarters in Frechen, a world leading producer of mineral resources.


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In the workshop we have discussed briefly the value of sustainability in a foundation today, the difficulties existing in Romania, the lack of public sector funding and the lack of NGOs applying a business plan to foundations. Today, unless a foundation has a sustainable business plan in place, the chances of the succeeding in meeting their goals is short lived.
Despite the vast number of NGOs in today`s Romania, few have business plans and even fewer are looking at sustainability. Pamela Roussos Raţiu has started by reassessing their own foundations (they are actually 5 separate foundations), working with our resources at hand, as well as our strengths and weaknesses.
- Pamela Roussous Rațiu, Executive Director of the Raţiu Family Charitable Foundation in Romania.
- Mădălina Mocan, Executive Director of the Democracy Ratiu (CRD).
- Ioana Rațiu-Răileanu, trustee Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation.
Below, photos and videos from the event.
Pamela Roussos Raţiu is Executive Director of the Raţiu Family Charitable Foundation in Romania, manager of Turda Development, initiator and coordinator of the hotel project Ratz de Nagylak. She is also president of the Transilvania Fest Association and promoter of the Transilvania Fest festival, currently a prominent cultural and gastronomical event in the region.
As member of the Directive Committee of the Ratiu Center for Democracy, in 2006 she laid the basis of a program combating human trafficking, which in 2013 became "Step by Step against Modern Slavery", an initiative supporting the survivors of human trafficking and militating for a more efficient implementation of the law.
She lives in Romania since 2001. In 2007 she was designated Woman of the Year by Avantaje magazine, and în 2011 she was awarded King Mihai I`s Medal for Loyalty.
Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1948, Pamela Roussos Raţiu has attended classical studies in art and music at the Florida State University and theatre classes at the Stela Adler Theater Workshop.


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Published by Steve Litchfield at 16:15 UTC, September 7th 2006
A. S60's Calendar application has supported entry 'descriptions' since 2nd Edition, Feature Pack 3 (that's the N70 and N90 to you and me). These sync perfectly to the Outlook field you describe and are mainly for adding detail to an entry so that the main entry text doesn't have to be too long. They're also perfect for people who like to keep a diary or journal.
To add a description, while editing an entry, use 'Options | Add description'. There's even the option to use the text from an existing Notes entry, in case you've previously typed or pasted some text in there, or of course you can simply start from scratch.


text: So here are some basics on how to use mymusictaste for those of you who have not made an account yet. please do so, we are getting very close!!! we need more "makes", tweets, shares, and tastes for the yellow stage, once we get done with the gray stage. for those of you who have already done these, thank you. help continue to spread the word. I'll provide the link to make it easier: http://m2t.tv/T5Mf once again thank you for the support so far. let's do this Big Bang VIPS.


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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Gigamon (NYSE:GIMO) plunged more than 10% early Wednesday, then recovered to close down just 1.3%, despite turning in better-than-expected fourth quarter results and solid forward guidance.
So what: Quarterly sales came in at $43.1 million, which translated to adjusted earnings of $0.18 per diluted share. By contrast, analysts were only looking for earnings of $0.12 per share on sales of $41.9 million.
For the current quarter, however, Gigamon expects a breakeven quarter on revenue of $34 million to $35 million. Analysts, for their part, were looking for looking for breakeven results on sales of $33.43 million.
Now what: Given industry peer F5 Networks' pop two weeks ago, investors were likely hoping for an even bigger beat and higher guidance from Gigamon.
But to be fair, Gigamon stock did jump more than 10% to end last week after a Goldman Sachs upgrade in anticipation of today's results. As it stands, investors should be pleased shares have actually risen slightly from Friday's close, even despite a broader market pullback.
The stock does look pricey today trading at 34 times next year's estimated earnings, but keep in mind that Gigamon should continue to benefit from improving U.S. enterprise spending going forward. While I'm not particularly compelled to buy today, at the very least I think investors would be wise to add Gigamon to their watchlists.
Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Goldman Sachs and owns shares of F5 Networks. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Discussion in 'Making Money' started by graphicnut, May 10, 2008.
Sorry to be such a noob. Do aff networks allow cpa's through chat rooms?
Some do, some won't.
See their individual requirement.
It depends on the offer really, not the network. I suppose if you stuck with incentive offers, you'd be OK.
yeh. Also if cloaked with gotrythis.com would that coverup the chat room ref?
Just do a redirect, with a meta refresh. They wont know where you traffic came from.
Or if someone has a free really good cloaker id be much appreciative if you could share
ebikerz bud, how do i do that. Im new to the market Look after me now lol
create either an html or php file called index (index.html or index.php), and put this in it:
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://your-affiliate-link">
Place it in the root directory (public_html) on your server. It doesn't necessarily have to be your main index file, but that's the simplest way to do it.
EC posted the method .. ignore this one!
My question would be:
Do you have a method that would make it worth it?
Seems like you'll get very little conversions in a chat room even if you offer incentives to do the offers.
I get the whole "Hey I'm new, and want to try something to earn a few bucks" but more often then not the hours are better spent creating long term income streams.
please do not use this method .They will cancel your account
You will get 1000s of FREE Signups for sure. But what affilaite companys expect is get to make some $$$ of your conversions. But they will make none. As chat room users come for fun and never pay anything on any website . They just want free stuff.
And Last You will get mail like...
Sorry But We have to close your account..
The advertisers has indicated that the quality of traffic coming from your links did not meet their standards
Believe me or not
It happend with me lot of time
Man I think I am screwed.... I was doing chat marketing for while with a company and they never cared, then for some reason the sales just went in the shitter... soooo I started doing the same thing for another company, and two weeks into it after I have made $2100 so far I just read their FAQ page, and it says they don't want traffic from chat spamming. Yeah yeah I know I should of read that page first, but they are adult oriented and I figured they wouldn't care, the other guys didn't. So am I fucked now??? Damn it!!
is this really true? what are the chances that your referrer will leak through?
well if you didn`t get an email from them yet, maybe they wil still pay out.
they don`t look at avery acount before they pay out, if you are lucky you`ll still get your money.
but then again, if they do investegate, you probaly get a message that you`r funds are held a few days before they should pay out.
i don`t know, are you a lucky basterd?
Yeah use either offercloak or a double meta refresh.
Genjutsu has some nice code for a slick double meta-refresh.
Maybe it's better to use PHP-Redirect?
header("Location: http://yourwebsite.com");
Upload it as "index.php" to your website root directory.
header("Location: http://yourwebsite.com");
no, php header redirect does not clear referers, I have tested it. use metas
Separate names with a comma.


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First of all, let me get on the record and say that I am not opposed to this.
Moving on. Apparently Venus Williams attracted quite a lot of outraged attention last week when she gave every appearance of playing in the Australian Open without any panties on:
Of course, it was a deliberate fashion illusion:
"My dress for the Australian Open has been one of my best designs ever! It's all about the slits and V-neck. I am wearing undershorts the same colour as my skin, so it gives the slits in my dress the full effect!
This is completely my design. I just sketched it out. The whole idea is just about the illusion that I'm wearing a deep V-neck. Then the idea was to wear shorts that were like the same colour as my skin. It works very well, apparently.
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=4534


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Graham Greene On Film: Collected Film Criticism 1935 - 1940
Taylor, John Russell (ed).
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972. First edition 284 pp., 8vo. Cloth hardcover in dj. First edition. Very light shelfwear to boards. Light shelfwear, cocking & shaking to spine but binding sturdy. Light soiling to textblock edges. Creasing to joints. Pgs clean & crisp. Slight scuffing & shelfwear to dj; sm sticker residue to front flap. Very Good in Very Good DJ Cloth (Item ID: 153952)
- More: FILM & MOVIES
- By This Author: Taylor, John Russell (ed).


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This Kit Makes Sprouting Grains Easy
Eating more whole grains is a great way to start eating more healthfully, but if you really want to amp up your nutrition, adding sprouted grains is the way to go. Not only are sprouted grains easier for your body to digest, but the process also boosts the grain's amino acids, B vitamins, and vitamin C content.
Making your own sprouted grains at home is easy, but you'll want to have a way to let excess water drain out of the sprouts, while letting air circulate and prevent spoilage. That's why I love this sprouting stand.
Learn More: What You Should Know About Sprouted Grains
The kit comes with a wooden stand in your choice of wood, a jar with a plastic sprouting screen, and a draining dish. The angle of the sprouting stand allows for any excess water to drain easily after you've rinsed the grains, and lets enough air flow into the jar as well, which prevents the grains from spoiling.
Make Your Own: How to Make Sprouted Grains
You can start with a makeshift version, if this is your first time sprouting grains, but if you are making sprouted grains frequently for salads or baked goods, this stand can be a lifesaver. You won't have to worry about your sprouts draining improperly when propped precariously in a bowl.
Learn More: How to Grow Your Own Alfalfa Sprouts


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Left-Handers Day
Left-Handers Day, celebrated on August 13th, was launched in 1992 by the Left-Handers Club, an organization based in the United Kingdom. Since then, Left-Handers Day has become a worldwide event a ...View Article
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Services & Techniques
At INTEGRATIVE HEALTH, we take great pride in providing the finest Chronic Pain Care to our patients. See below for what we offer...
We provide advanced spinal correction utilizing "state of the art" Laser treatment. Never in the history of chiropractic have we been able to provide the level of help and expertise that now exists. These newer correction methods are even safer, more comfortable and more effective than ever before. Our Class IV Lasers help to decrease pain and inflammation immediately. The laser light also helps to increase blood and oxygen flow to the problem area which helps to speed up the healing process.
The effects of spinal decompression on the body are truly amazing. With very little pull, we can help you achieve a major decrease in pain. The decompression machines that we have in our office help to open up the joint spaces in your back or neck to help take pressure off of the nerves that are causing your pain. Although decompression is effective on it's own, it still had limitations to how many of our patients it helped... Until we combined the treatment with our Lasers and Whole Body Vibration machines.
We teach our patients special "blueprint" exercises designed just for them to help strengthen and correct their own unique problem. These exercises can be performed in the comfort of your own home and can improve the effectiveness of your spinal correction by as much as 30-40%. In addition to skeletal misalignment, muscles and connective tissues can be out of place or strained by improper alignment and use. Specific exercises and stretches will help your body stay in balance and in health.
We often find it helpful to "coach" our patients on certain activities they should avoid or do differently to avoid aggravating their particular health challenge. Our goal is to help every patient achieve a fulfilling and happy lifestyle full of the activities they enjoy most. We recognize that each our patient is a whole person, and help them reach true health and wellness is a collaborate effort between our professionals and our patients.
Whole Body Vibration helps with...
To complement and enhance the healing effects of Dr. Jason's and Dr. Jackye's specific LaserVibe Therapy protocol, we at INTEGRATIVE HEALTH also provide the following physiological therapeutic procedures:
We have designed a COMPLETE SYSTEM for destroying pain.
No other office in Virginia is offering you this combination of treatment all at one location. We are YOUR #1 CHOICE for chronic pain relief.


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Welcome to EFL Blogs!
In this blog, you will learn a lot of things about education, language, and teaching. The blog will be very helpful for teachers, educationists, and students. There are hundreds of articles related to the niche. You will be able to read new articles every day.
We cover topics such as ways to improve the educational system of a country, how teachers can build up their skills, how knowing various languages can help in communicating with people from different culture, and more. These articles are written by expert writers. If there is any news about the education system, then you will be able to know about it from here. Students will get lots of tips to improve their learning skills. Reading our articles will make students motivated to study and realize the importance of education.
We have a forum where you can share your thoughts regarding these subjects with our experts. We expect that you will read our blog regularly. Please don't forget to comment on our articles.


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Animal transport weight exceptions amended, advanced
Certain agricultural vehicles would be exempt from weight and load limitations under a bill advanced from general file March 9.
LB977, introduced by Papillion Sen. Jim Smith, would exempt implements of animal husbandry—tractors, fertilizer spreaders and mixer-feed trucks—from weight and load limitations on Nebraska highways. The exemption would not apply to vehicles on the interstate.
Smith said farm equipment is bigger and heavier today than when the weight limitations initially were approved.
"Occasional use of the roadways is incidental to the agriculture industry and [farmers and ranchers] should not be vulnerable to hefty fines simply for doing their job," he said. "[LB977] strikes an important balance between protecting the roads from damage and allowing our agriculture industry to operate efficiently."
The animal husbandry exemption would not apply in any instance where such an implement crosses a bridge or culvert.
A Transportation and Telecommunications Committee amendment incorporated provisions of LB996, originally introduced by Henderson Sen. Curt Friesen.
Currently, vehicle manufacturers are prohibited from owning an interest in or operating or controlling a franchise, franchisee or consumer care facility. As amended, LB996 would exclude manufacturers that own or operate two or fewer dealerships in Nebraska, have owned or operated a warranty repair or service facility as of Jan. 1, 2016, and manufacture engines installed in vehicles with a gross weight rating of more than 16,000 pounds.
The bill also would incorporate provisions of six additional bills, including:
• LB799, originally introduced by Lincoln Sen. Kate Bolz, which would authorize the use of funds collected under the Nebraska Transportation Act to be used for the purchase, replacement or rebuilding of public transportation vehicles;
• LB844, originally introduced by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, which would create a breast cancer awareness license plate to be available Jan. 1, 2017;
• LB872, originally introduced by Gretna Sen. John Murante, which would allow vehicles operated by the state Department of Roads, as well as local authorities, to use blue and amber flashing lights when engaged in the inspection, construction, repair or maintenance of highways;
• LB918, introduced by Murante, which would retain 1 percent of proceeds from the motor vehicle tax to fund the replacement and ongoing maintenance of a state vehicle title and registration system;
• LB946, introduced by Smith, which would authorize the chair of the Motor Vehicle Industry Licensing Board to modify, approve or reject any board action in which a controlling number of board members are active participants in the relevant market; and
• LB989, introduced by Murante, which would decrease from 500 to 250 the number of prepaid applications required to issue a qualified organization's specialty license plate and would allow for electronic renewal and replacement of commercial driver licenses.
The committee amendment was adopted on a 38-0 vote.
Following the adoption of a technical amendment, senators advanced the bill to select file on a 39-0 vote.


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Are we still formatting our audio HDDs in 64K clusters? Or is our throughput sufficient these days that we don't worry about it, anymore?
Sound off.
Are we still formatting our audio HDDs in 64K clusters? Or is our throughput sufficient these days that we don't worry about it, anymore?
Sound off.
Dave "it aint the heat, it's the humidity" Labrecque
Becket, Massachusetts
I have seen heavy-use systems that leave "all as it is" - that is, at 512. So, does it really matter?
From my research - which I do admit is somewhat dated...I found that 64K is preferred for data drives. There was no real benefit for apps drives.
Now, if you are using on a single partition, the default is 512K clusters...but with some HHD tools you can alter the cluster sizing without data loss.
So, my recommendation is: 512K on boot drive, and 64K on data drive(s).
Hope this helps...but I am waiting to see what Philip has to say.
Dell, you got me thinking. 512 didn't sound familiar to me. (I assume you mean 512 bytes and not KB.) I poked around (a little) and found this:
They have default cluster sizes per file system and volume size listed. The only 512 I see is for a very small volumes, FWIW. Looks like for the realms we deal with (a few TB max on NTFS), they say the default is 4K.
That said, it appears to be an older web page, since the most recent OS they list is Windows 7.
I checked my partitions for which I went with the default value when formatting, and they're both at 4K.
Maybe you meant sector size, Dell? My boot partition shows that as being 512 bytes. Or do you just like really small clusters on your boot partition?
Dave "it aint the heat, it's the humidity" Labrecque
Becket, Massachusetts
The way I understand it is: For Audio files, where maximun throughput is desirable use the largest cluster size available (without checking 64kb, could be larger with terrabyte volumes, not sure).
The disadvantage is that on average you will lose half the cluster size as wasted space, so if you have something that uses many very small files i.e. a couple of KB, you tend to waste (many files) x 32kb per file
instead of (many files) x 256b.
As disk space is cheap and audio files are large, it makes sence to go for the largest cluster size and therefore the maximum transfer speed from the hard drive on a DAW computer.
Hope that clarifies it!
Yes, I know the rationale. I just wonder if it's still worth it in this age of way-fast throughput, regardless of cluster size. Are we fast enough these days that cluster size isn't a practical factor anymore? Does it matter to us in our workflow in 2017? That's what I'm curious to know. I know the "physics" is still valid.
Dave "it aint the heat, it's the humidity" Labrecque
Becket, Massachusetts
From an acquaintance of mine who knows a lot more about hardware than I ever did:
"In terms of space efficiency, smaller allocation unit sizes perform better. The average space wasted per file will be half the chosen allocation unit sizes. So 4K wastes 2K per file and 64K wastes 32K. However, modern drives are massive and a little wasted space is not worth fussing over and this should not be a determining factor - unless you are on a small SSD.
Compare 4K vs 64K average case waste (32K-2K = 30K), for 10,000 files that only comes out to 300,000KB or around 300MB.
Instead think about how the OS uses space. For example, you have a 3K file which needs to grow 2K. With a 4K allocation unit size, the data needs to be split over two blocks - and they may not be together so you get fragmentation. With a 64K allocation unit size, there are a lot fewer blocks to keep track of and less fragmentation. 16x the block size means 1/16th the number of blocks to keep track of.
For a media disk where you photos, music and videos are stored, every file is at least 1MB I recommend the largest allocation unit size. For a windows boot partition I recommend using the Windows default - which is 4K for any NTFS drive smaller than 16TB."
Hope you find information this of interest? However, I think Philip is on the right track.
Dave "it aint the heat, it's the humidity" Labrecque
Becket, Massachusetts
Notice that I stated, "However, I think Philip is on the right track."
Also, from what I have read, you should not defrag SSD's.


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Jobs & Economy
The tugboat, towboat and barge industry is critically important to the nation's economy. With 5,500 tugboats and towboats and more than 31,000 barges, the industry moves more than 760 million tons of domestic cargo each year. The building blocks of our economy – agricultural products, petroleum, coal, chemicals, sand, stone, cement and much more – move on our nation's waterways safely and efficiently. Barge transportation helps provide food for our tables, fuel for our cars, heat for our homes, and inputs for our manufacturing facilities. And, the critical harbor services that AWO members provide enable the oceangoing ships that carry U.S. products for export and bring imported goods to our shores from overseas to enter and leave port safely. Water transportation helps move our economy forward.
The industry also puts Americans to work. Tugboat, towboat and barge operators provide family-wage jobs for tens of thousands of hardworking Americans from coast to coast. These jobs multiply to support shoreside jobs that rely upon water transportation. Underpinning these jobs is a longstanding maritime law, the Jones Act, which requires that cargo shipped between U.S. ports be transported on vessels that are American-owned, American-built, and American-crewed. AWO members comprise a uniquely American industry, and they work hard every day to ensure the nation can prosper.


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Ara has been working on the Web since 1997. He's been a freelancer, discount the webmaster at Festival Just For Laughs, visit this a front-end web developer and practice lead at Nurun, prothesis a Front-End Engineer on the Mail team at Yahoo! and most recently, a Front-End Engineer on the Cloud Services team at HP. Ara's experience comes from having worked on every aspect of web development throughout his career, but he's now following his passion for web standards-based front-end development. When he isn't speaking and writing about best practices or coding professionally, he's maintaining his personal site at http://arapehlivanian.com/.
Pronouncing my name
If you want to know how to pronounce my last name, just say "peel of onion" and then change the "peel" to "pel." Pel iv anian (the 'h' is silent).
A brief history
The first computer I ever touched was an Apple ][ in a 1989 high school typing class. The following year I learned how to program in LOGO on the very same machines. Then it was on to the Comterms (what you could call a PC) and GWBASIC. Somewhere in the blur of my early high school years, I got my first computer, an XT clone with 768kB of RAM and a 10MB SCSI hard drive to which I added the AdLib Music Synthesizer card.
In 1993 I discovered the demoscene when I saw Future Crew's Unreal. I was in awe and dove right in, joining the local demoscene BBS of the day, the Spasm-O-Tron. Not long after that, I started my own, TimeRift. I also co-founded a demo group called Night Vision, later to become SATiRe, as well as joining KFMF for a while. Throughout my involvement I went by the alias Epeius until the latter years when I switched over simply to Ara.
Through contacts in the scene I landed my first computer related job at a wholesaler. Rebuilding their website in 1997 was the first real site I ever built (apart from a personal one I had at the time). That lead to a small intranet job for Nortel, and a few contracts and jobs later I ended up webmaster at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival for four years. After that I went to work for Nurun as a Front-end Architect working on projects for highly visible clients. Today I'm a Front End Engineer for Yahoo! on the Yahoo! Mail team.
Read more about my inglorious life here.
*I do not speak for nor represent anyone but myself. The content published on this site is entirely me.
The Nicene Creed pretty much sums up what I believe.
Got extra money just lying around? Want to support the creation of more awesome content on this site? Just want to be nice to me and give me money? Click the donate button below:


text:
Assemble Insight is a cloud-based construction and model data management software solution. It is suitable for general contractors, subcontractors, home builders, engineers, pre-construction estimators and construction managers.
Assemble Insight enables users to extract building information modeling (BIM) data to create model-based takeoffs. As a cloud-based solution, team members and stakeholders can access models and data regardless of location. Users can develop a full data inventory of their models, and tools are available to enable integration with AutoCad and Revit.
The Visual Variance tool displays graphical representations of model changes, and can be used to track values such as cost, area, length or weight. Estimator tools and level of development tracking provide cost and budgeting information. Datasets can be exported to Excel or Navisworks.
Assemble Insight offers phone, email and in person customer support. It can be purchased with a usage-based annual subscription, and a free trial is available.
Zohair from Whiting-Turner
Employees number: 201-500 employees
August 2018
August 2018
Assemble has been of great use to me for determining quantities form the model. Its easy to pull of the quantities once a revit or a cad model is published to assemble. Same models with different versions can be compared through Assemble. Assemble generates the bill of quantities in excel which is very helpful.
Assemble doesn't support many modeling platforms apart from Revit and Autocad. It would help if it can be compatible with Tekla, Sketch up and rhino.
gregory from Construction
July 2018
July 2018
We really enjoy this soft ware for being able to inspect our structure in three d and find problems with install way before we get to them.
Can't really think of many things you could change other than making it more simple for a simple guy like myself.
Donnie from Hunzinger Construction
Employees number: 51-200 employees
March 2018
March 2018
Assemble can be used for a number of tasks from bidding the project to confirming subs' quantities to communicating work that needs to be done to the team. You can setup a views that show only what you want to show and slice and dice the data anyway that you want to. This give the full power of the I in BIM in a practical way to give the highest value to your company and client.
There are a few bugs in the software that have been there for a long time. These bugs don't make the software unusable, just slightly less convenient.
February 2018
February 2018
Assemble allows non-BIM people to view and navigate a model without needing any software. They are also able to view quantities and dimensions of objects. You can even select an element and view which drawings it is shown in.
The model can be slow to load on older computers. Also, although it has several useful features, it does not provide a complete solution for model based estimating.
Devendra from Building Diagnostics, Inc.
February 2018
February 2018
This software takes BIM to the next level by converting a three dimensional model into useful information.
Sometimes the software does not identify the elements of a model. The attributes have to be correct for assemble to extract the correct information.
October 2017
October 2017
More understanding of how the model is put together and what is modeled. This data has influenced our project in a number of ways including budget analysis, schedule analysis, and site logistics.
The amount of data that is brought into Assemble and the flexibility with that data. We feel uncomfortable giving our subs access to this software because they could change some of the work that we do.
I'd like to see more personalized access to the software so that we can give this information to more people on our projects.
Nick from Meyer Najem
Employees number: 51-200 employees
August 2017
August 2017
Assemble is easy to use for our staff that might not know much about 3D Models and BIM. With the software being we hosted it can be accessed from anywhere and doesn't need to be manually updated.
Some of the new features with the 2D drawing integration need to be worked out. The licensing method also makes it easy to go over on the number of projects you are allowed a month.


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7th June 2018
The Manchester Histories Festival launch was a great event. I was invited to read my commissioned piece 'Syrinx' next to the painting that inspired it ('Syrinx' by Arthur Hacker). And I was surrounded by the paintings targeted in the 1913 Suffragette direct action – a truly atmospheric experience.
Proud to share the evening with marvellous writers Kate Feld, Michelle Green & Maz Hedgehog.
Thank you Manchester Histories Festival!
Manchester City Art Gallery,
Mosley Street,
Manchester M2 3JL
Free event – 6-9pm
Celebrate the launch of the 2018 Manchester Histories Festival with us. Meet the festival team and volunteers and discover what's on over the weekend in more detail. Throughout the galleries hear protest poetry and trailblazers of our Soapbox project, drop into our Debate Café, catch Thinking Out Loud: Speech Acts talk.
Includes Rosie Garland reading her piece 'Syrinx' right next to the painting that inspired it.
See the full festival programme at
What an adventure!
On Saturday December 1st, I sang the Pankhurst Anthem – specially written by Helen Pankhurst & Lucy Pankhurst - in Etihad Stadium in front of the Manchester City crowd at half time!
I can honestly say I've never sung in front of a crown of 50,000 people. What an experience.
All part of the run-up to the unveiling of Hazel Reeves wonderful statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter's Square, Manchester on December 14th 2018.
Finally, I can announce that I am inaugural Writer-in-Residence at The John Rylands Library in Manchester. It's fantastic news.
How? I put together a proposal, & asked. The power of asking, indeed.
Read the article in the University of Manchester magazine, here:
"When I first moved to Manchester I was stunned to discover this incredible library with such a surprising history," remembers Rosie Garland, singer with Leeds post-punk band The March Violets and writer-in-residence at The John Rylands Library.
"It's always been one of my favourite places in Manchester and the idea that I'm now working in it and writing about it as the Library's first writer-in- residence is a dream come true."
Read full article here
What great news – encouraging, too!
My flash fiction "How can a woman sleep when the Master is in pain?" has just received a commendation in the Bath Flash Fiction Award, October 2018.
Judged by Nuala O'Connor. I'm delighted.
You can read it here:
"A Gothic style novel inspired by the streets and stories of late nineteenth century Manchester – 'The Night Brother'(2017) by Rosie Garland – is soon going to be coming to life, in the form of a unique walking tour on Saturday 3rd November at 3pm - 4.30pm.devised by Rosie herself and local guide Anne Beswick.
This walk will be titled 'Manchester Dark, Manchester Light - the inspiration behind The Night Brother' and certainly is special.
'The Night Brother' is after all a novel of urban exploration, familial intensity and a dark delve into Manchester at the turn of the twentieth century. Guests will be able to ponder this as they will take in the sites of the city – including Northern Quarter backstreets, Victorian markets and subterranean spaces…"
Read the full interview here:
I'm absolutely delighted to announce that my short story 'Speaking in Tongues' has won The Casket of Fictional Delights 2018 Flash Fiction Competition!
Judged by wonderful writer David Gaffney.
My story 'Speaking in Tongues' is published on The Casket of Fictional Delights website, and can be read here
And you can listen to it here
Full list of winners:
1st place Speaking in Tongues by Rosie Garland
2nd place Sync by Mark Farley
3rd place Floating by Mark Farley
4th place 1-2-5 by Gina Headden
5th place Bikini by Sherri Turner
6th place The Plughole Picker by Susan Carey
7th place Serendipity by Sandra Purdy
8th place Bombs, Lilies by Jason Jackson
more info here:


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When you are a dog photographer, it's always a real treat when you get to shoot for such an awesome brand like Blue Buffalo. These images were shot for their 'breeds needs' campaign. Below are a few of my favorites from the shoot.
Tag Archives: boston terrier
If there is no award for the best behaved 14 week old puppy, then there should be. It should also easily be awarded to Monty. He was the man. Plain and simple I met up with Terri in Boston and we traveled all around Beacon Hill to photograph Monty and we ended up at the […]
love monty and the shoot!


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from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A log that records changes between versions, as in source control.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
The changelog is extensive, but the screenshot tour shows an alluring operating system.
The changelog is extensive, but the result is an alluring operating system.
Fedora 11 Released And Ready For Download | Lifehacker Australia
The changelog is huge, but the main improvements are better Vista support and IPv6 support (the latter means better connectivity and download performance).
uTorrent Updates to 1.8, Mac Release Looming | Lifehacker Australia
The update brings the software from 9.0.3 to 9.1 The changelog is short and sweet.
Google has released an update to Chrome's developer channel build, and the changelog is a lengthy one.
The changelog is the same as Windows with some extra changes like the Video Memory Accesses violation bugfix.
DCEmu Forums:: The Homebrew & Gaming Network :: PSP Dreamcast Nintendo DS Wii GP2X Xbox 360 GBA Gamecube PS2 Apple iPhone PS3 Wiz Pandora Forums - 11,17,23,27,35,36,37,38,51,78,82,83,85,100,105,110,112,113,122,125,128,135,159,176,237,240,241,242,243,250,251,252,255,256,257,258,261,263,268,269,270,271,274,281,290
The changelog, which is publicly available, hasn't been updated since July 15, 2008.
The changelog is the same as Windows 126.96.36.199 beta, plus:
Palm has posted a full feature changes (aka changelog) to existing application contained in WebOS 1.0.3 on its
After I found the exact date, I took the liberty to at very least add the date to the KDE 1.1 changelog which is still linked from KDE's announcements page (the KDE 1. x changelogs had white text on white background - there as well I took the liberty to modify the files).


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What is GiftCaddies Our slogan is "Our Mission is your Gift Delivery". GiftCaddies allows you to quickly and conveniently send gifts to your friends, family, clients, coworkers, etc. through smartphones and through the website. For example, you live ...Show all
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Market Closures for the Summer ~ Veggie List 6/28/14 ~ Fund Raiser Dinner Tickets• Tonopah Rob
It's been a fantastic growing season. Even though the farm was invaded with swarms of Blister Beetles, Aphid and Bagrada Bugs, it held its own and survived the invasions. The farm produced well over 100,000 pounds of fruits, veggies, eggs, honey an


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High-Low Merge
There I am, butt in the air with my face against the netting. With my lens up against the netting, I peered through the viewfinder at the Hen from Hell, staring right back at me. The light was that gorgeous late afternoon light that sets a subject aglow. I shot and I shot and I shot, the action and the light just sucked me in so I just kept shooting. It was an amazing climax to an amazing day. I couldn't wait until I had the images loaded on the computer and up on the monitor. After dinner, after loading all the day's images I called them up and started through them.I'd gotten through the majority of the images when it finally dawned on me that the images were missing something. I looked and looked at them, used the compare feature in DigitalPro to do side by sides and that something that was missing just didn't register.
I'd gotten through most of the day's images when I came to the images of the Hen from Hell. I was very excited getting to and looking at the images. For a moment, that missing feeling disappeared and I went through the last images of the day. I deleted those I didn't like, tagged those I liked and then sat back and looked at these last images from afar. That's when that feeling came back, something was missing. It was then, looking at those images of the Hen from Hell in the pen that it hit me like a lightning strike (which was tearing apart the night sky outside my hotel).
The edges of the image, which are the edges of the pens in the photo, aren't tack sharp and they aren't straight. I went back through all the images from the day and that was it, that zinging edge to edge sharpness I've come to expect just wasn't there. Would anyone else see that, especially in images on the printed page like here? I doubt it. Would you see it though in a large print? Yeah, I'm afraid you would. That's when it hit me that I needed to get an ol' friend back in my bag.
Back in 2003, I sold my 14f2.8 for one basic reason. It can't be used with a polarizer or split graduated neutral density filter. I didn't sell it because it wasn't sharp, quite the contrary, it's blazing sharp and rectilinear to boot! That means the elements at the edge of the frame stay sharp and linear, they don't become soft or bowed. But its scalloped built-in lens shade prevents the flush mounting of any filter. Well what has changed then that I would consider getting the 14mm again because it still can't accept filters? The SB-800 and its ability to totally control the light from the camera for all my projects makes using the 14mm a whole lot easier. More importantly though for my landscape work where I really use the split grad and polarizer, Photoshop (which was non-existent in my world in 2003) makes the 14mm a must again. I've written about the 14mm in the past but not the Photoshop, so let me give you some ideas for post with the 14mm.Shooting the 14mm with Photoshop in your pocket.
Light being light combined with the fact that the 14mm captures so much of the world, you've got to do something to bring the range of light down within the realm of our medium. With digital, we have five stops maximum before we go beyond the range of our dmax. When you have more than five stops, a split grad is a must but since that's not an option with 114 degrees of coverage we need to do it in post. Even though we're going to be doing the finishing work in post, you have to know that at the point of capture to make the post portion work. You have to rely on your photographic skills as much as post skills to have a finished visual communication.
There are times when I have less than five stops in a scene, less than three stops and I still want to use a split grad to bring some drama to the otherwise flat light. This first technique assumes you have an image that is within five stops and want to add some drama. Here's how simple it is.
Photoshop Split Grad
Step 1: Open the file (thought I'd give you an easy step first).
Step 2: Create a "darken" adjustment layer by clicking on the Zen Symbol at the bottom of the Layer Panel, clicking dead center on the curve and pull it down diagonally to the lower right corner and click OK.
Step 3: Tap X to make your foreground color Black.Step
4: Tap G and be sure you have your Gradient tool active. (You might see the Paint Bucket Tool when you tap G: simply click on the drop down arrow in the box and select Gradient tool.)
Step 5: Click at the top of the image and draw a Gradient line down to about halfway in the photo. There you go, you're done!What if you take your shot and you see blinkies all over your LCD? You have your highlight warnings turned on and they are telling you that you have way more than five stops of light? What do you do especially when the information you've lost in the highlights is information you need? Just to compound things, you can't use a split graduated filter. Whether you're shooting with a 14mm or not, this technique will work when you're up against this problem.
Start by understanding you need to take two images, one with your base or normal exposure and one with an exposure for capturing the otherwise lost highlight information. With your camera on a tripod and set to manual focus, take your first exposure. Look at your LCD monitor; if you see blinkies, dial in -1 stop compensation and take another photo. Look at the LCD and if you still have blinkies take another photo, but this time with -1.5 stops comp. Continue on until you have a second image with all the information you want in the highlights. Next, head to the digital darkroom to combine the two files into one, creating an image with full detail.
There are many ways to accomplish this next step. I've gone through a few methods myself, but this is my current favorite way of doing it.
7 Stop Image
Step 1: Process the raw files with your favorite raw processor. I personally use Capture NX.
Step 2: Open Photoshop and head to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack. With the dialog open, click on Browse and select the two files you want to merge together. With the two files in the dialog box, click on Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images and click OK. (Note: Despite how much you work at not moving the camera, at times it does move a giggle. In this case, the tripod sank a hair in the sand so the images weren't perfectly aligned.) Photoshop will produce one image with two layers that are aligned when all is done.You now have a number of options of blending the two images. This is for when you have just barely over five stops of light.
Step 1: We're going to play with blending modes in a sophisticated way. Make sure your highlight or the "dark" image is the active layer. Head to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options. When you click on Blending Options a dialog box appears. We're going to use this to "hide" the shadow areas of the dark image, which contain no information we want and to retain the highlight detail we do want.
Step 2: Grab the dialog box bar (at the top) and move the dialog box out of your photo so it's not covering up parts of the image where you're trying to bring out highlight information. At the bottom of the Layer Style dialog box in the middle of the box you'll find a Blend If section. We're going to move the left slider of the This Layer to the right. We're going to move that slider to the right until we see sufficient shadow detail begin to appear. The first few times you do this, you will get confused so you must persevere because it is the fastest and easiest way to blend two images.
Step 3: Once you have moved the slider to the left and you see that shadow detail appear, stop moving the slider. Now, while holding down the Alt/Opt key, click on the left side of the slider you just moved to the right, and move the left half of that slider all the way to the left. Click OK. You're now basically done, you have combined the two images, retaining the highlight and shadow elements that you couldn't capture in one photo. Finish by changing the Blend Option to Darken (and you might want to play with Opacity, lowering it a tad) and click OK.
When you have six or more stops of light, you might want to combine the above method with this, or use this method all by itself. You might want to go in and finish your photo a little further. Here are a couple of steps I like to do.
Step 1: With the top layer active, click on the Zen symbol at the bottom of the Layers Panel. That just created a layer mask, white, in that layer. White indicates that all the steps we just did above are being permitted to come through the layer. I often want to hide some aspect of the darker image to bring out some drama the computer simply couldn't see. So I'll paint with black (Tap X to make the foreground color black) to hide some elements of that top layer. Using the Brush (Tap B) and working at 20% opacity (Tap 2), I simply paint to taste.
You might be asking, "Why not just use HDR?" I personally don't like HDR because I don't want the computer to be in control of what I see or don't see in the image. We didn't guess when we took the two photos, we knew exactly the information we wanted in both the shadows and the highlights. Why go back to guessing and let the computer do it when it just takes seconds and a very simple Photoshop technique to be in complete control? After you do the above techniques once, you'll master 'em!
You might be wondering about the polarizer. Well, you can do a real nice job of that using Nik's Polarizer. You can apply it to the Raw file in Capture NX or, you can use the Photoshop plugin. Either way, while not perfectly replicating applying a polarizer to the lens, this will get you mighty close.
Writing a recipe for mastering flash to get it all right in camera when shooting with the 14mm isn't as easy. But the evolution in technology in just four years has made it very possible to take advantage of a great lens and still have complete control over what we're visually communicating. I'm so glad I learned some techniques that permit me to have the 14mm back in my camera bag. Every time I zip open that compartment and I reach for the 14mm, I say hello ol' friend!
Grab the PDF version of this article which originally appeared in the BT Journal.
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Herein Nick Farr makes an insight into key traits of the current defense spending in the US, putting accent on what could be changed to raise its expediency.
I guess politicians are the most brown-nosing, trying to find a way to not kiss a certain part of the anatomy, but that's fundamentally what politicians do. I see this now: people who are young, who are just outside of college and getting into politics, are being trained from a very early age to be incredibly differential to power, to take the unpleasantness, put a little shine on it and present it to the person above them. And so people who are elected, people who become politicians, have had their entire careers working, essentially, lying to people.
I think successful hackers, on the other hand, get to be successful hackers precisely by doing the opposite: by telling the truth to power, by saying: "Look, your system sucks and you need to fix it, and this is how you fix it." I think that's how hackers become successful hackers.
Mudge, hacker from the Cult of the Dead Cow, who was the first image in my fun slide, was unafraid, went before Congress and said: "Yeah, if we felt like it, we could disable the Internet here in 15 minutes," which was true then and possibly is true now. He knew he could do that, he had the courage of his convictions to know that he could do that, and he was unafraid of telling people that. And politicians were stunned; they didn't know how to react; politicians don't know how to react to somebody telling them unpleasant truth. And I think that's something that today we desperately, desperately need.
To get to more concrete examples, and I think this is an example that would be applicable to wherever you are in the political spectrum. The cold fact of the matter is: the cold war is over. We don't have two opposing sides building increasingly technical systems to annihilate each other. That's not the way war is fought today. The wars that are fought today are asymmetric warfare: you have large, centrally bureaucratized armies fighting small, decentralized guerilla outfits.
This isn't exactly true in Germany, since we spend a lot more money on the defense of Germany than Germany spends on the defense of Germany, and that's the thing when you look at the pie chart in government. There is this thing called "discretionary spending". That's spending that they have the option to do. A lot of social programs, social security and medic care in the United States are entitlement programs which people pay into.
Just a quick example: social security and medic care for retirees; people, whenever they work in the United States, pay a portion of their paycheck, and employers pay a portion of what they pay their employees into this system, so that when they retire, they get a check, they get health care at the end of their life. And that's non-discretionary spending, because people pay into that system, and then they get those benefits at the end when they retire.
So, the discretionary budget is money that's generated through taxes and through the issuance of debt that politicians have the option to control. In the United States, the largest portion in the discretionary budget is in defense spending. When you take apart the costs to maintain troops here and to do different things like that, the largest budget line items that we know of are in the defense department budget.
And that's actually an important point to make, that a lot of spending in the defense budget is "dark spending" that they don't publish the exact budget numbers on, because the going belief is that enemies of the state could extract intelligence information by figuring out where the government is spending that money.
But it's still pretty well known where a lot of that "dark money" goes; it's in building these incredibly complex technical weapon systems that, when you actually talk to people in the military, they say: "We don't need them. We don't need Stealth Bombers; we don't need incredibly advanced fighter aircraft; we don't need these huge ships that don't work as advertised, that cost hundreds of billions of dollars in aggregate." The military will tell you they don't need it.
The reason a lot of these weapon systems exist is because they provide jobs to well-connected politicians in their districts. And the sad fact of the matter that the politicians don't want to address, that these companies that are building these systems don't want to address, is that you're throwing money away into systems that don't produce value.
When you build a big fighter plane, when you build a big ship, once you've finished spending the money on it, that ship does not continue to create value. The things that you build into these weapon systems are not discoveries, are not scientific innovations that you can take and apply elsewhere. Once you've spent 1 billion dollars on that plane, what's that plane going to do? It's going to fly around for a little bit, they're going to train people how to use it, and at some point that asset is going to be retired, having created no additional value. When you build a bomb and put it on a plane, fly over something and drop that bomb, the bomb blows up; you've annihilated the value of the bomb and you've annihilated the value of whatever the bomb blew up.
The difference here, and we saw this in looking at the budget of the Apollo program, the Moon shot, what landed man on the Moon – all of the technical innovation that went into that program continues to create value today. The technologies that were developed in putting man on the Moon exist and are embedded in a lot of the technical systems and a lot of the things that we use today. And a lot of the advances that have come since then are because of those discoveries and because they were open. Even though that system was run by government contracts, a lot of the discoveries that were made in that time period were shared among a large group of people, which people continued to build on.
And so, I think, if you put hackers in charge of government, and you say: "Ok, you need to adjust the defense budget," they would say: "Instead of spending all this money on advanced technical systems, on bombers and ships that we're never really going to use, that are never going to fight, that add nothing to the defense of the country, knowing that we need to continue to create jobs for people in these politically connected districts, we will need to apply a lot of that technical money and a lot of that expertise into space exploration."
I like to say this a lot: if you were a non-human intelligent species looking down on planet Earth, and you had a basic outline in the history of what was going on here, and then you said: "Ok, they made it to the Moon in the 1970s. 30 years later, they're still just putting things in orbit around their planet." I mean, think about how ridiculous that is to actually reach the Moon and then stop, and to not go back. Does anybody think that there is something fundamentally wrong with that? Who thinks that's a little weird? I think that does not work and does not compute.
And if you had hackers devoted to spending time on things like that in government, it seems they'd be like: "No, when you reach an important milestone, you go on from there, you don't just quit." But the sad reality of that is that the defense contractors, politicians, people who are connected, people who are living in a world of lies and living in a world of political expediency, say: "No, we have to keep doing the same thing that we've been doing over and over again" – the core definition of insanity.
I think if you had hackers who are really looking at this problem, who are really providing leadership in government, they would take things like this, and they would say: "Look, we can't continue. If we're going to borrow money from all around the world, and if we're going to borrow money from the people who are, essentially, buying the products that they make, and then refinance our debt through that, we'd say No, we have to eliminate these sorts of value sinks, and we have to provide funding to people who are actually doing incredibly great work on literally no budget, and sort of encourage that, and do those sorts of things; and instead of applying money to the same thing we've been applying money to since the end of World War II, we should be applying money and resources in things like that which continue to create value."
Read previous: Hackers in Government 3: Viewing Government as a Network
Read next: Hackers in Government 5: Addressing the Economic and Climate Change Problems


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Review Summary
- Two large pools, one at the resort with a waterslide, and one at the beach
- Free parking and free shuttle service to the Beach House
- Two casual on-the-go restaurants, and a grill and fire pit for do-it-yourself cooking
- Rooms have either kitchenettes or full kitchens
- Plenty of free family-friendly activities
- Along Broad Creek with kayak tours and dolphin excursions (for a fee)
- Free Wi-Fi in guestrooms and the lobby
- The hotel's beach access is more than a mile away
Bottom Line
The 123-room Disney Hilton Head Resort is a quiet, relaxed resort on a tiny island within the central region of larger Hilton Head Island. Perhaps because of its Disney brand, the hotel has a bit of a kitschy vibe -- rooms are outfitted in lodge-like decor, and daily activities include singing around the campfire. But overall it's less "Disney-y" than other Disney resorts, while still including a long list of kid-friendly amenities: two pools (one with a waterslide), a basketball court, a game room, and a playground. Although the hotel overlooks Broad Creek, and there's a fishing pier for those looking to cast a line, it is more than a mile from the hotel's Beach House with beach access. The resort provides a free shuttle, but some other beaches are actually closer to the resort, so having a car is a plus.


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|October Schedule '17 (updated)
ON TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS TRAINING GROUPS LEAVE THE CLUBROOMS AT 7-00pm.
Details of the current Thursday night track sessions can be found here .
WARNING.During winter training reflective or light coloured clothing should be worn during hours of darkness. Paving on footpaths can be uneven. Extra care should be taken in icy conditions.
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