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Mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression no barrier to weight loss success
Through a program that teaches simple nutrition messages and involves both counseling and regular exercise classes, people with serious mental illness can make healthy behavioral changes and achieve significant weight loss, according to new Johns Hopkins research.
These weight loss amounts were similar to those in other successful programs studied with subjects in the general population — studies that specifically excluded people with serious mental illnesses, the researchers say.
Results of the new research, believed to be the first large study of its kind to involve people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression, suggest that a population many consider to be unable to engage in a behavior management program can make substantial lifestyle changes to improve their health. People with serious mental illness often are overweight or obese and have mortality rates two to three times higher than that of the general population, primarily from obesity-related conditions. Many are sedentary and take several psychotropic medications, which include weight gain as a side effect.
Results of the research are being published online March 21 in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented that day at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2013 Scientific Sessions (EPI/NPAM).
"We sought to dispel the perception that lifestyle programs don't work in this population," says study leader Gail L. Daumit, M.D., M.H.S., an associate professor of general internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "There's this really important need to find ways to help this population be healthier and lose weight. We brought a weight-loss program to them, tailored to the needs of people with serious mental illness. And we were successful."
Known as ACHIEVE (Randomized Trial of Achieving Healthy Lifestyles in Psychiatric Rehabilitation), the study enrolled 291 overweight or obese patients with serious mental illness. Some 144 were randomly placed in an intervention group, while 147 made up the control group. The intervention took place at 10 Baltimore area outpatient psychiatric rehabilitation day facilities that already offered vocational and skills training, case management and other services for people with mental illness not well enough to work full time.
The researchers added a schedule of regular group and individual weight-management sessions, thrice-weekly exercise classes and a weekly weigh-in for the first six months of the trial. The sessions and weigh-ins continued, though less frequently, for the following year, though the exercise class schedule remained the same.
At the 18-month point, on average, the intervention group lost seven more pounds than the control group. Nearly 38 percent of the intervention group lost 5 percent or more of their initial weight, as compared with 23 percent of the control group. More than 18 percent of those in the intervention arm of the study lost more than 10 percent of their body weight after 18 months, compared with 7 percent in the control group.
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Participants lost more weight as the intervention went on. This suggests it took a while to make behavioral change, but once these modifications took hold, the changes yielded positive results, Daumit says.
Of the people in the study, 50 percent had schizophrenia, 22 percent had bipolar disorder and 12 percent major depression. Many with serious mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, have impairments in memory and executive function, as well as residual psychiatric symptoms that impede learning and adoption of new behaviors.
What the study suggested, Daumit says, is that tailored programs can overcome these impediments.
The average number of psychotropic medications study participants took was three; the medications, often required for long-term symptom control, are known to cause weight gain in part by stimulating appetites and increased eating.
Instead of asking participants to keep detailed food logs and counting every calorie they consume — a practice common to other weight-loss programs — Daumit's program instead focused on relatively simple messages and goals, she says. They were encouraged to avoid junk food and sugary beverages, monitor portion sizes and include more fruits and vegetables in their diet. They had regular exercise at the rehabilitation facilities as part of the study, and were encouraged to exercise 30 minutes on other days, too.
Daumit says she thinks the weight-loss program could be adopted by other psychiatric rehabilitation facilities.
"This population is often stigmatized, " she says. "This study's findings should help people think differently about people with serious mental illness. Our results provide clear evidence that this population can make healthy lifestyle changes and achieve weight loss."
The research was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH080964).
Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in the study include Nae-Yuh Wang, Ph.D.; Arlene Dalcin, R.D.; Gerald J. Jerome, Ph.D.; Kevin D. Frick, Ph.D.; Airong Yu, M.S.; Joseph V. Gennusa III, Ph.D., R.D., L.D.N.; Meghan Oefinger; Rosa M. Crum, M.D., M.H.S.; Jeanne Charelston, R.N.; Eliseo Guallar, M.D., Dr.PH., M.P.H.; Richard W. Goldberg, Ph.D.; Leslie M. Campbell; and Lawrence J. Appel, M.D., M.P.H.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gim/faculty/daumit.html
Tags: Bipolar Disorder, Cardiology, Depression, Diet, Epidemiology, Exercise, Food, Healthy Lifestyle, Heart, Junk Food, Medicine, Mental Health, Metabolism, Mortality, Nutrition, Obesity, pH, Physical Activity, Psychiatry, Research, Schizophrenia, Vegetables, Weight Loss
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«Три сестры» () — видеозапись одноимённой пьесы А. П. Чехова, поставленной «Актёрской студией».

В ролях
 Джеральдин Пейдж — Ольга
 Шелли Уинтерс — Наталья
 Ким Стэнли — Маша
 Сэнди Деннис — Ирина
 Кевин Маккарти — Вершинин
  — Андрей
  — Родэ
  — Кулыгин
 Лютер Адлер — Чебутыкин
  — Тузенбах
 Роберт Лоджа — Солёный
  — Федотик
  — Феропонт
 Тамара Дайкарханова — Анфиса

Съёмки
Джон Крампнер писал, что съемки осложнялись поведением Шелли Уинтерс и Ким Стэнли. Стэнли (Маша) прогуливала репетиции, выражала недовольство работой других актёров и, в первую очередь, Кевина Маккарти (Вершинин). Более того, Стэнли располнела и сильно переживала по этому поводу; шаль, которая была должна скрыть полноту, только усугубила её переживания. Уинтерс конфликтовала с режиссёром, недовольным её нью-йоркским произношением. Сам Богарт говорил, что первое действие было поставлено аккуратно, второе — менее аккуратно, третье — ещё менее, и наконец, последнее — в спешке из-за желания закончить съёмки как можно быстрее.

Критика
Фильм был негативно оценен критиками. Питер Шелли писал, что хотя видеозапись и передаёт атмосферу постановки «Актёрской студии», режиссёру не удалось убедить актёров отказаться от театральной манеры игры в пользу более естественного исполнения. Более того, в ряде сцен шум второго плана мешает пониманию диалога главных героев---к примеру, разговору Ирины и Тузенбаха в первом действии мешает шум гостей на именинах. Разбирая актёрские работы Шелли указывал, что Пейдж (Ольга) не производит никакого впечатления вообще, а Стэнли (Маша) соединяет эмоции и гнев в лучшей из трёх ролей сестёр. Шелли ссылается на негативные отклики об актёрской игре Деннис (Ирина) авторства Джорджа Гента, подчёркивавшего приевшиеся жесты и интонации, и Винсента Кенби, высмеивавшего прикрывание рта рукой, описывая его как указание на зубную боль.

См. также
 Видеозапись спектакля.

Примечания

Экранизации произведений Антона Чехова
Фильмы США 1966 года
Фильмы Пола Богарта

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


A child in Seminole County, Georgia, was confirmed as the second victim of Hurricane Michael late Wednesday as the storm blazed through the area after obliterating much of the Florida Panhandle.
The death was announced by Travis Brooks, the head of the county's emergency management agency, as Michael was downgraded to a tropical storm on Wednesday night. Brooks said the child was believed to have died when something fell into a home he was visiting. Rescue crews are reportedly struggling to reach the scene due to downed power lines and trees.
Authorities in Greensboro, Florida, said earlier that a man trapped inside his home after a tree fell on the roof was believed to be the first death related to the hurricane after it hammered the Florida coast with winds of over 150 miles per hour.
In a matter of hours, the storm, which had been gaining strength in recent days as it hurtled toward the coast, caused extensive damage in Panama City, including broken and uprooted trees and downed power lines. The damage includes homes that were split by fallen trees and roofs that were sheered from buildings.


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Listening to opponents of the Affordable Healthcare Act, one of the constant siren songs is all the insurers who are pulling out of the system. There have been a good many, and in several states, but none of them got the same buzz as did Aetna when the company announced it would be pulling out of certain states due to Obamacare.
Conservatives rejoiced, and liberals lamented. Story after story after story was written. Congressmen mailed letters to constituents with Aetna as a primary talking point. Turns out, though, at least some of the reactions may have been a bit premature. In an effort to shore up its hold on certain Medicaid money, Aetna has agreed to not separate from the Nevada exchange after all.
That said, the jury is still out as to whether or not Aetna will fully commit to the ACA exchanges in other states across the country. The decision will be mulled over the summer, as insurers can wait until September to formally announce whether they will have plans available on the exchanges or not. While they are expected to participate on the exchange, after receiving Medicaid contracts, that doesn't dictate how much, where or to what extent.
And that uncertainty is certainly not apt to stop all the headlines being written by both sides of the argument. As long as readers and consumers are willing to vociferously line up on both sides of the argument on this issue, then there will be column inches filled to incite those conversations. And, in those discussions, both sides will continue to declare victory while compelling the brands involved to move closer to their camp.
While this is happening, the brands are trying to read their proverbial tea leaves. Where's the prevailing wind taking this issue, and what should they do about it? Should they plan to pull out or go all in? At this point, most are trying to do both. In the exchanges in some states. Out in others … a little bit of both in some. It's confusing for consumers who just want to be able to go to the doctor when they need to, and it's frustrating for constituents who are trying to communicate their will to their elected officials.
Meanwhile, Congress is flirting with new laws to replace the ACA as well as changing regulations that impact the current law. Whatever happens, it appears it will be months before anything is decided … and that means months of fluctuating PR narratives everyone wants to control.


mariuszw over at Atari Age Forums has announced his next C64 to Atari 8bit port project, Bobby Bearing, an isometric 3D arcade adventure game released by The Edge in 1986 for the Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64.
Bobby and his family are ball bearings who live in Technofear.
Technofear is a land of the future made of steel, and inhabited by things of steel. Bobby's brothers have been led astray by their rogue cousin and are now lost in the Metaplanes outside their home – stunned and captured by the evil Bearings that inhabit the Planes.
The player controls Bobby Bearing in his search for his four lost brothers and their cousin. He must avoid the evil Bearings, find his missing and unconscious relatives, and roll them out of the Metaplanes to safety.
The mission must be accomplished before the time limit runs out, otherwise the game ends and Bobby's relatives are lost forever. A time penalty is incurred each time Bobby dies or is stunned. If Bobby is trapped and unable to leave a screen, pressing 'Q' will reset the screen at the cost of a time penalty. Air vents, Elevators, switches, crushers and evil Bearings can help or hinder Bobby in his quest.
mariuszw mentions that this is a WIP version with some issues (for example incorrect graphics in first screen of the game) as well as missing optimizations, but at this moment in time the game is fully playable. Developed and tested under Altirra only, but expected to work on real hardware too.
You can download the WIP version below.
Previous story Aaron White's C64 To Amiga Chiptunes Disk 7!


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Government Works to Protect Tithing
by Jordan J. Ballor • December 8, 2006
Following up on the story from a couple months back about restrictions to bankruptcy filings prohibiting filers from budgeting for tithing, and in the midst of the controversy surrounding Rick Warren's invitation to Sen. Barack Obama to appear at a Saddleback Church event, news comes both houses of Congress have passed the "Obama-Hatch Tithing Bill."
The bill would "protect an individual's right to continue reasonable charitable contributions, including religious tithing, during the course of consumer bankruptcy. The measure passed the United States Senate in late September and will now be presented to the President for his signature" (HT: Religion Clause).
It's good to see the folks on Capitol Hill respond when the ball is in their court. As U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Littlefield, Jr. wrote in his original decision, "Whether tithing is or is not reasonable for a debtor in bankruptcy is for Washington to decide…. Until Congress amends [the 2005 Act], the court's hands are tied and the tithing principles that this court once applied pre BAPCPA (the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005) have been effectively mooted."
The judge says its not his job to legislate from the bench and that Congress needs to take action if they want to protect tithing. Congress acts and tithing is protected. Now that's the separation of powers at work.
Jordan J. Ballor
Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; Ph.D., Calvin Theological Seminary) is a senior research fellow and director of publishing at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty. He is also a postdoctoral researcher in theology and economics at the VU University Amsterdam as part of the "What Good Markets Are Good For" project. He is author of Get Your Hands Dirty: Essays on Christian Social Thought (and Action) (Wipf & Stock, 2013), Covenant, Causality, and Law: A Study in the Theology of Wolfgang Musculus (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012) and Ecumenical Babel: Confusing Economic Ideology and the Church's Social Witness (Christian's Library Press, 2010), as well as editor of numerous works, including Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology. Jordan is also associate director of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research at Calvin Theological Seminary.
Posted in Effective CompassionTagged bankruptcy, sen. barack obama, tithing
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Relevance of Crowdsourcing
BY BRIGHT CHIDZUMENI | 6 min read
In the year 2010, Travis Kalanick sent a seemingly ordinary tweet. Ryan Graves replied with his email address. Graves later became the first employee of Uber, and later named the CEO of the company. In some ways, the world had drastically changed in this exchange.
With the internet dispensation, people are closer to one another than was previously imaginable. The story of Travis Kalanick and Ryan Graves shows how we can utilize the global community to accomplish just about anything. Its potential is inexhaustible. Ideas for new inventions, startup funding, and instant feedback can be sourced from the networks that surround us. These ideas and interactions fuel real change, faster than ever.
The Potential of Connectivity
In today's real-life global village, we're rendered access to millions of bits information that can spark ideation and creativity before our eyes. Connective and electrical infrastructure has simplified everything and contracted the experience of the whole world into a forum with common access. This is the foundation of crowdsourcing and open innovation.
According to Wikipedia, crowdsourcing is a specific sourcing model in which individuals or organizations use contributions from Internet users to obtain needed services or ideas. Let me put it in simple English: crowdsourcing is the inquiry of ideas, feedback, services, help or any useful tools from people available on the internet. In other words, you're using people with their tomes of unique knowledge, skills, and lived experiences as the source of content for your agenda. The greatest treasures in this world are and will always be ideas in the minds of people when harnessed properly.
The Internet has streamlined this process at an exponential rate, simply interconnecting the world's population. You're free to contact almost anyone on the planet, to make inquiries, and seek the help and interest of those whose needs are aligned with yours.
Crowdsourcing Creates its Own Significance
Crowdsourcing doesn't always work as easy as it sounds. One needs to offer incentives to suppliers of the content, or solutions, for it to work. This comes in diverse ways including monetary awards, certificates, recognitions, medals or even featuring an individual on a popular website. The global community cannot just offer information; you have to get it through some creative strategies. In our current world of search engine optimization, crowdsourcing comes even more relevant. Assuming that one decides to write a crowdsourced article for example, according to Emma Perrot, by tapping into the intelligence of a larger group of content creators, you can produce a much richer piece of content with authorities within the topic you are writing about. This will probably lead to contributors to also share the article to their social platform.
As a result, this creates more traction for the platform. Therefore, as much as SEO can boost crowdsourcing platforms, crowdsourcing itself can help achieve an effective SEO process. There is a symbiotic benefit between the two. Crowdsourcing enables organizations to accumulate massive banks of data from which they can sift through and choose the best which apply to their needs. They can put up an open call for contributors on a project, where writers, designers, developers, evaluators and the like my offer their services for free or at a fee.
The HeroX Example
HeroX claims that it empowers anyone to create breakthroughs in their company, their community or the world. It is through this platform where I once participated in a challenge called "Patterns for Success" where the company which created the challenge was looking for content developers to compile relevant information on what strategies small business owners must possess to succeed.
This resulted in the accumulation of data, from which they had to choose the best of the best and compile a book to help small business owners. HeroX is a platform where users can create a challenge for sourcing content from the public. As such, they end up having enormous and diverse type of data from which they can easily choose the best. That's the power of crowdsourcing at its finest. Where it could have been difficult for an individual or an organization to source such kind of data, they rather get it from the comfort of their homes/offices. When the global community gets involved in the process of creation, it makes it easier for the people to accept the innovations being built.
Why? Because such innovations are built using ideas and input from the end users of the product. This gives them a sense of ownership. Ultimately, people will only use a product if it solves their problem or meets their needs. Therefore, the best way to be certain they will use it is to involve them in the process. When Starbucks was founded by Zev Siegl, Jerry Baldwin & Gordon Bowker in 1971, they probably had no idea how that in 2008 a revolutionary strategy for building the relevance of the brand will be launched. Through the leadership of Howard Schultz, Starbucks launched a crowdsourcing platform called "My Starbucks Idea" which turned into a large open innovation platform with ideas which greatly improved their company. Since customers are involved in the process of development, they find it very easy to be satisfied with their products.
A crowdsourced writer on digit.hbs puts this even in a much better perspective by writing that Starbucks creates value for customers by allowing them to voice their ideas and help create a better coffee house experience. Consumers often feel like their individual opinions don't matter when dealing with a large organization. With My Starbucks Idea, customers feel like their voice is being heard and that they can make an impact on the future of the organization, whether it is new products, the in-store experience, or the company's involvement in the community. Wikipedia, yet another crowdsourcing platform. But what relevance does it have to the global community? Well, it offers the easiest way of collecting and compiling data without having to go through the tedious process of researching. Anyone can get into the platform and edit or add information. It could probably take months to compile information about all the important people and issue which may be of particular importance to people.
Yet anybody who possess some hands on knowledge can make changes on this platform. It gives power to the people. This also ensures that all the information in the world should always remain current and relevant to the public. It is this very method that Facebook uses to get Facebook into different other languages. They run a crowdsourcing campaign within the Facebook system where natives of a nation can suggest words in their vernacular language to be added on the platform. This helps the community to have the advantage of having Facebook in their local language. Such kind of an open innovation will in future explode into so many faculties of development. People will give ideas and build API systems in the comfort of their homes, and build something that can actually disrupt the whole world.
Is that all we can benefit from crowdsourcing? I wouldn't think so!
We probably can't outline all its advantages. Crowdsourcing has made it easy for individuals, organizations and companies to easily access funding as well offer funds. Crowdsourcing is where you source from the crowd content and skills for a project. Where ask crowdfunding is where investors, idealist and inventors/ innovators meet. Ideas and innovations get funded to be scaled up or implemented. Kickstarter is an example of such platforms where you can have a comprehensive view of diverse innovations and choose which ones to fund.
Search Optimization and the Crowd
Certainly, open platforms as these are leading to an outburst of innovations which are further pushed forward through crowdfunds. It wouldn't wrong therefore to deduce that crowdsourcing has significantly added value to social economic development. However, there are so many crowdsourcing platforms that are booming, to remain relevant and get to the potential community force it's not an easy task. Yet with the technology of Search Engine Optimization and Social networks; that is never a tedious work. Interlocking SEO and Social networking should give any crowdsourcing platform a lift. Search Engine Optimization simply refers to the process of getting traffic from the "free," "organic," "editorial" or "natural" search results on Search Engines.
The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo and Bing. What this means therefore is that a programmer works on a web system to make the platforms highly ranked on the Search Engine. He does this by adding relevant words to the code of a web page. As such, when a person searches a word or a phrase inline what the website offers, the Search Engine attracts such a platform onto the users' search results. Nonetheless, it's possible to pay for the Search Engine to enable such platforms to be trending on the Search Engine. So basically there an organic ranking that is done by the Search Engine by targeting relevant words and then there's paid ranking that is enhanced by special code from the Search Engines.
This means that crowdsourcing platforms can pay, for example, Google AdSense to have their platforms highly ranked. High search rankings increase the number of web visitors to a website, resulting in increased brand awareness. Every page on a website should contain text that attracts visitors and search engines. Search engines are designed to return the best matches for a specific query, that's why crowdsourcing for content and ideas is necessary. Crowdsourcing is effective when more people are aware of the available platforms. So the best way is to sponsor them on Search Engines. With the outburst of social networking platform such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Ads targeting a specific community of people can be created to achieve just that. There's unlimited potential in crowdsourcing. Any individual or organization can run a crowdsourcing campaign to achieve their organizational goals most effectively and less costly. We're living in a global village and it's quite interesting to exist in such an era where we can solicit the best in anything and work on a virtual platform to achieve things together. I look forward to the time where Co-founders will meet on a virtual platform and build a great innovation on the same platform. HeroX may just be the place for such a historical scene to happen


At our clinic we create a unique treatment plan specifically for you with 3 integrated steps to help you recover from pain and stay fit and well long after your treatment is over.
We carry out a full, comprehensive assessment and medical history to help us understand both the trigger and cause of your injury.
This allows us to develop an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan for each of our clients.
Our effective and lasting treatments are designed to give both pain relief and to address any underlying weakness, injury or misalignment in the spine.


This is an amazing gadget to buy under this price point..
1.Build quality - It's very nice in its build quality according to charges you pay for it. Very premium quality plastic is used for manufacturing.
2. Sound quality (bass) - Extremely loud bass with little bit distortion but acceptable.
3.Sound quality (vocals) - Better than previous version (x2t) but it could be improved as much as other wireless earbuds.
4.Featurs - Spectacular performance in music playback. It has inbuilt mic and led indicators which is like wow in this price.
i don't see a lot of cons but anyways..
1. Can't use both earphones during voice calls.
2. Noice cancellation is very poor in traffic conditions.
Overall great music earphones and they are not so bad on phonecalls (not too good either). Also, the touch commands are very intuitive and easy and work everytime!
In conclusion i recommend them too a person who just wants to listen to some music throughout the day without freaking wires on the way!


Aero Precision M5 (.308) Forged Upper Receiver complete with forward assist and dust cover installed. Andodized Black DPMS compatible.
For use with DPMS HP compatible handguards.
upper receiver came quickly and everything looks solid. Still need to finish my build, but I'm sure it will work great!
Shipping was faster then expected aero precision makes great stuff so I knew I was going to get a quality part. Also red barn armory packet it really good and came in with absolutely no flaws.
Excellent products, even better customer service!


The Suunto Spartan Ultra Stealth Titanium (HR) is now available in Malaysia. The cheapest Suunto Spartan Ultra Stealth Titanium (HR) price in Malaysia is RM 3,772.00 from Lazada. Suunto Spartan Ultra Stealth Titanium (HR) price details are updated April 2019.
Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR RM 913.89 Glass fibre reinforced polyamide case with a sandstone silicone strap. Fixed steel bezel. Digital dial. Dial Type: digital. Quartz movement. Scratch resistant mineral crystal. Solid case back. Round case shape, case size: 46 x 46 mm, case thickness: 15.7 mm. Buckle clasp. Water resistant at 50 meters / 165 feet. Functions: date, day, hour, minute, second, 24/7 tracking of your daily steps, calories and sleep, heart rate zones, customizable watch faces, incoming calls, text and calendar notifications, weather, customizable sport modes, gps tracking and navigation, alarm. Additional Info: bluetooth-connected, altimeter, interval guidance during training. Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR Sandstone Mens Sports Watch SS023409000.


Blinds and Shades are frequently used in South Florida to beat the heat. Become more energy efficient and safe money by adding motorized blinds to your home decor.
Hunter Douglas is a renowned window treatment brand and offers high-quality shades and blinds. For all products, click explore!
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Combine comfort with productivity for your office space with our large variety of blinds and shades. Let natural light of South Florida come in or reduce incoming glare when you need to buckle down.
Premier Blinds and Shades of West Palm Beach is South Florida's #1 Window Treatment Specialist.
Premier Blinds and Shades is a full-service window treatment supplier, located in West Palm Beach, that specializes in the installation of innovative, custom window blinds and shades. We take pride in offering exceptional customer care and expert installation with a personal touch. With a focus on both residential and commercial projects, our goal is to equip homes and businesses throughout South Florida with window treatments that are both stylish and functional.
The exterior appearance of a home's window treatments are often an afterthought. Plantation Shutters are one of the very few products that look just as stunning from the outside as they do from the inside. This Seven Bridges home, in Delray Beach, looks even more impressive with plantation shutters. These shutters were custom made to fit the arch top windows in the guest bedroom. Contact Premier Blinds and Shades to schedule your in-home estimate!
Many a home would benefit from the sophisticated look of double roller shades. The shades pictured in this photo were chosen to accentuate the home's clean lines, create a relaxed ambiance with the sunlight, and to reveal the beautiful backyard view when raised. Click Explore to learn more about Double Roller Shades!
These one of a kind shades are from industry leader Conrad Shades. The hand-woven fabric compliments the relaxed theme throughout the room. Furthermore, the roman folds add a softness to the windows that does not obstruct the home's custom trimwork.
These Allure® Transitional shades, with their clean lines, enhance this home's abundance of natural light. Modern homes tend to have open layouts with large windows. Double roller shades are an excellent design choice to complement those large expanses of glass.
Reduced glare was desired for certain yoga classes at particular times of the day. These roller shades featuring the SheerWeave Infinity2 fabric were an excellent choice for this application. They reduce glare while allowing light to filter into the room to create a relaxing atmosphere. Infinity2 fabric is made with 100% recycled material as well as being PVC free. The studio will also benefit from energy savings as this product is great at reducing solar heat gain.
Great for covering wide windows or as a room divider, sliding panel blinds are the modern version of vertical blinds. Simple to operate and very functional, sliding panel blinds are a great window shade option for many homes. A lot of ocean front condo owners, that do want to sacrifice their view, choose these shades to protect their home from the heat and glare of the sun.
These motorized outdoor shades were installed with functionality in mind. Not only do they protect against harmful UV rays, but they also keep insects such as mosquitos and no see-ums at bay. Motorized outdoor shades are the future of patio living. The flexibility they provide is unmatched by traditional fixed screens.
Plantation shutters are an excellent choice for kitchens in large part because they are a built in product much like cabinets. The project pictured above is designed with bi-folding doors that allow window access without the faucet getting in the way. Paint color was chosen to match the window and door trim.
Honeycomb shades, also known as cellular shades, are a simple yet functional way to dress your window. Their ability to stack tight to the top of the window is great for home owners with great views such as this home in Jupiter. Hunter Douglas is the industry leader in providing quality cellular shades. Honeycomb shades can be customized with varying functions, like Top-Down Bottom-Up or motorized. Furthermore, honeycomb shades are available in opaque or semi-opaque materials to control the light to your individual needs. Contact Premier Blinds and Shades to learn more about honeycomb and cellular shades!
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Screen time reports - who tops the list?
Bit of Sunday morning fun. I've just had a family chat about screen times, using the screen time reports from ioS12.
How do you see which websites you're spending time on? Or does that only work with Safari? I use Chrome.
58 minutes for me. But then I use SM mostly on my iMac, where it just stays open all of the time.


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I was approved for a few promotions but they are asking for my promotion Plan, I am new, what is the Promotion Plan?
Hi Dolores, I suppose that they are asking how you will review their product. For example you will leave a review with and image and link to their Amazon, please ask them what they mean by promotion plan.website.


text:
<?php

class Onxshop_Controller_Bo_Component_Ecommerce_Price_List extends Onxshop_Controller {

	/**
	 * main action
	 */

	public function mainAction() {

		require_once('models/ecommerce/ecommerce_price.php');
		$Price = new ecommerce_price();

		$price_list = $Price->getPriceList($this->GET['product_variety_id']);

		foreach ($price_list as $item) {
			$item['usage'] = $Price->getAddedToBasketCount($item['id']);
			$this->tpl->assign('ITEM', $item);
			$this->tpl->parse('content.item');
		}

		return true;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Reasonable rate limiting settings with PF firewall I have the following settings in my pf.conf to dissuade abusive clients (I get a few a day that are obviously just scraping content indiscriminately and slow everything down):
pass in on $ext_if proto tcp to { $loadbalancer1_int } port $web_ports flags S/SA keep state (max-src-conn 80, max-src-conn-rate 200/5, overload <web_flood> flush)
pass in on $ext_if proto tcp to { $loadbalancer2_int } port $web_ports flags S/SA keep state (max-src-conn 80, max-src-conn-rate 200/5, overload <web_flood> flush)

Unfortunately some of my customers are getting themselves blocked.  I don't know what these customers are doing to trigger such network IO.  I keep upping the values and they keep getting themselves blocked.  Aren't these values (80 connections & 200 connections within 5 seconds) well within what would generally be considered "abusive"?

A: "abusive" is entirely relative, but in terms of web access setting a rate limit on number of connections/second is almost certain to catch legitimate users.
Bear in mind what happens when you visit a web page

*

*A HTTP connection is opened and the main page (let's say index.html) is downloaded.

*Your browser parses index.html and figures out what other resources it needs:

*

*CSS

*Javascript

*Images

*Stuff in a  or  (more "main pages")

*Probably more stuff I'm forgetting

*Your browser grabs all of those items.
It can do this one of two ways"

*

*Serially: Downloading each item in sequence (one connection at a time)

*In parallel: Downloading several items at once (multiple open connections).

HTTP keepalive theoretically keeps the number of connect() cycles down, but some browsers may not support HTTP keepalive (or may decide not to use it for whatever reason), in which case every item being downloaded means another connection gets opened to the server.
One web page is therefore potentially a huge number of connections - easily enough to trip your firewall, especially if you have more than one user on an IP or your users browse actively.

Rather than blanket blocking you have a couple of choices:

*

*Tag matching packets in pf and bandwidth-limit them with altq.
This isn't really ideal - you're still going to catch legit users - but at least they're throttled (slow), not blocked (broken).

*Use mod_evasive, mod_security or similar
These modules are more work for Apache, but are more configurable and will help you avoid catching legit users.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


THIS VIDEO CONTAINS SPOILERS** As we countdown to Halloween, let's also countdown some of the Top 10 scariest moments in FPS games over the years.
Twin sisters were double the fun as Ellen tested their skills in a game of "Scary Go Round." #Ellen #TheEllenShow #Games.
Granny the horror game animation Parody With the scary granny and Slendrina Easter egg ending Funny moments! Granny keeps you locked in her house.
Granny the horror game animation Parody! Granny keeps you locked in her house. Now you have to try to get out of her house, but be careful and quiet.


text:
UCU President Vicky Blake
June 28, 2020 June 28, 2020 speakoutprecariat
UCU Levy – statement 28/6/20
On Friday, the General Secretary sent notice to all UCU members of a flat rate levy which will be applied in order to support the union's fighting fund.1 The prospect of a flat levy has caused huge upset, with pain most keenly felt by casualised members and those on lower salaries.
Many of the NEC members (including me) who ultimately voted for the authorisation did so on the understanding it was a last resort, and that motions and proposals passed with respect to additional financial measures and fundraising efforts should be deployed, at full pelt, to avoid the need to impose a levy at all. Many NEC members were distressed and very uncomfortable with a flat levy, and in light of [Rule 11.3] suggestions of progressive rates and/or alternative installments were made, but NEC were advised that our rules and accounting constraints meant there was no other option than a flat rate. Various proposals were put forward with respect to alternative allocation of funds and savings from other budget lines and with respect to borrowing from the budget a year ahead. Several key proposals were met with advice that they were not possible in that they were not permitted by union rules or fell foul of accounting standards.
Since the decision was communicated (and discussion of it therefore permitted) a number of members with legal and financial backgrounds have contacted me directly to question the advice given to the NEC on constraints in how a levy could be administered. As President, given doubt that has been cast on that advice, I have begun to investigate this process in detail and to identify what can be done about it.
I have written urgently to the UCU General Secretary, the UCU Senior Management Team, and the lay UK Officer team (which includes the Treasurer) to request clarification of the advice that was consistently given to the NEC on these matters. I am working hard to identify a way forward that would enable the NEC to consider and decide upon necessary alternative options to protect our lower paid and precarious members.
As a first step, I will formally propose to the GS that the NEC should hold an urgent special meeting to determine a means of protecting our most precarious and lowest paid members from any levy. I believe the NEC urgently needs to meet in order to review the situation, including:
Information which queries the limited possibilities previously presented to the NEC
Information received from branches that are in a position to donate from local funds
Information recently communicated to me about an approach taken by the previous GS which was designed to avoid the need for a levy
A strict confidentiality requirement was placed on all NEC members regarding financial information communicated to the NEC on 14 February and 19 June, alongside an embargo on the information that a levy would be applied at all: no NEC member (myself included) have been permitted to discuss the levy or the union's financial information with branches or members until the news was communicated by the GS. I very much hope that the branch officers briefing called by the General Secretary on Thursday 2 July will help to address this and that representatives will be given more information they can take back to branches, to report back to members. I believe the Treasurer (Steve Sangwine) and the past President (Douglas Chalmers) will be present to help answer questions.
Concerns currently being raised by members now that the levy has been announced were also raised by many members of the NEC. Though not yet distributed via branch circular or on the [NEC section] of the website, the minutes from February appear to now be available on this [link], in circulation on social media since yesterday. The minutes are brief, but they do indicate that the issue of whether a levy could be applied in a differential and/or proportional way was discussed. A proposal to make the levy progressive was met with the information that this was not possible. This is now in doubt, as explained above, and I intend to get to the bottom of it.
I will issue a further statement after the branch briefing, which I hope will help us to identify the most appropriate way forward. I believe it is vital that we, as a union, find a way to protect our lowest paid and most precarious members. I note that many branches have already swung into action seeking ways to mitigate the impact of the levy on members who will be hit hardest by it.
We must urgently find a fairer way forward which protects our most precarious and lowest paid members while enabling the union to fight industrial disputes.
By definition union activities are governed by rules to control the use of money raised from members. Some funds are also controlled by law, e.g. the union's political fund. The full union rules are [here].
The fighting fund budget is used to pay for the running of any formal industrial (postal) UCU ballot in Further or Higher Education, usually by Civica (formerly Electoral Reform Services) and to support members' claims following a strike designated as one of 'national significance'. The proportion of subs income placed into the fighting fund is also stipulated within the rules, as 'at least 1%' (rule 31.5). The exact amount placed into the budget is determined when the budget is put to Congress and confirmed each year. Difficulties with holding Congress at the usual time (due to the pandemic) means the accounts and budget that would usually be presented in 2020 are not yet in the public domain. However the equivalent information presented to Congress 2019 can be found from links listed [here]:
Proposed budget for year ending 31 August 2020: UCU932.html | UCU932.rtf
Financial statements to 31 August 2018: UCU931 | UCU931
For members participating in any dispute to be able to access the fighting fund requires a decision of the full National Executive Committee (NEC). It cannot be decided by either the Further, or Higher Education Committees alone. The decision to raise a levy can also only be taken by a quorate and properly called meeting of the NEC, and requires a two-thirds majority.
As others have also explained, the decision to authorise a levy to the membership can only be taken by a quorate meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the union's full elected executive body comprising Further and Higher Education representatives (see Rule 11). A decision to apply a levy requires a two-thirds majority. In rule, NEC meetings are called by the President (at that time Douglas Chalmers) and the General Secretary (Jo Grady). It is usual for the General Secretary to give a report at meetings of the NEC, HEC, and FEC, and in so doing to offer advice to the meeting, and to take questions from the floor.
The decision about the levy was taken, along with a motion and further proposals from the floor, at a special, short meeting on 14 February 2020. The entire meeting was marked as strictly confidential. Confidential papers were tabled on the day, and collected back in again at the end of the meeting. Members were reminded not to make copies of the papers. This level of confidentiality was explained in connection with the industrial sensitivity of the business for which the one hour meeting had been called by the General Secretary and President: 'the specified business of union finances, including expenditure charged to the fighting fund'.
In outlining the paper circulated on the day and in responding during debate, the Honorary Treasurer (Steve Sangwine) informed the meeting of advice that the only possible way the UCU rules allow a levy is at a flat rate, and that no specified groups members could be exempted. This was questioned by numerous concerned members at the meeting and the advice reiterated, noting rule changes would be required at Congress.
Tagged industrial action, NEC, ucu levy, UCU rules
One thought on "UCU Levy – statement 28/6/20"
Pingback: UCU Levy and NEC – update 16/7/20 – UCU President Vicky Blake
UCU disputes: who decides?
UCU Levy and NEC – update 16/7/20


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Enter the name of either the bankrupt/debtor or the creditor below and press the "Search" button. You can narrow your search by using the advanced search options.
There are currently 123,076 records in the database with total amount of unclaimed dividends of $23,002,077. The largest single amount of an unclaimed dividend is $179,636.


text:
Home » Haitian Times Morning News Roundup » Haitian Times News Roundup – July 18
Posted inHaitian Times Morning News Roundup
Haitian Times News Roundup – July 18
by The Haitian Times Jul. 18, 2019 Jul. 18, 2019
Residents of Port-au-Prince, Haiti stand in line for gasoline as Haiti's political crisis disrupts the daily life of many Haitians while enduring the long wait and lines for gas and water throughout the capital city on Sunday, February 17, 2019.
Haiti's government is hurting for cash. It just hired yet another lobbyist in D.C.
The country's designated prime minister still can't get confirmed. Civil servants and diplomats in its foreign embassies aren't getting paid. And hospital staffs are dealing with rolling blackouts and a dire shortage of blood .
Despite the ongoing turmoil, however, Haitian officials appear to once again be more concerned about their image in Washington. Continue reading
Haitian Parliament to build $89 million structure to house legislature
A building of about 40,000 square meters that will house the legislative palace that was the site of the former parliament destroyed by the earthquake will cost $89 million. The construction of the building will spread over 36 months, according to Clément Bélizaire, General Manager of the Construction and Housing Public Buildings Unit (UCLBP).
According to Bélizaire, the institution he runs launched the project because the building is classified under the national security label that allows the state of emergency to jump the locks of a traditional procurement.
"The bidding process was special because we could not disclose the plan of this strategic building to everyone," he said. Continue reading
Journalist harmed in latest string of attacks on media
Journalist Kendi Zidor was attacked Tuesday evening by individuals who were riding in motorcycles in Delmas 60. Zidor was unharmed in the attack after the individuals opened fire on his vehicle after he refused to stop at their request. Continue reading
Gangs disrupt courthouse
The judges sitting and standing, bailiffs, clerks and other members of the apparatus as well as lawyers and litigants are on the alert at the Palais de Justice in Port-au-Prince as there have been heavy gunfire from armed gangs.
Government commissioner Paul Eronce Villard stated that he has taken steps to strengthen the courthouse's sub-office and has deemed it necessary to have 30 police officers with adequate equipment in order for the courthouse to be a safe environment. Continue reading
CRLDI employees demand 26 months of salary
On Monday, employees at the Arcahaie Identity Receipt and Delivery Center blocked trucks using the national road number one at Robert and Carrefour Bois. Employees of the CRLDI began the strike by demanding 26 months of salary arrears, letters of appointment and better working conditions. Continue reading

Haitian Times News Roundup – July 18

by The Haitian Times, The Haitian Times
July 18, 2019

Haiti

Haiti's government is hurting for cash. It just hired yet another lobbyist in D.C.

The country's designated prime minister still can't get confirmed. Civil servants and diplomats in its foreign embassies aren't getting paid. And hospital staffs are dealing with rolling blackouts and a dire shortage of blood .

Despite the ongoing turmoil, however, Haitian officials appear to once again be more concerned about their image in Washington. Continue reading

Haitian Parliament to build $89 million structure to house legislature

A building of about 40,000 square meters that will house the legislative palace that was the site of the former parliament destroyed by the earthquake will cost $89 million. The construction of the building will spread over 36 months, according to Clément Bélizaire, General Manager of the Construction and Housing Public Buildings Unit (UCLBP).

According to Bélizaire, the institution he runs launched the project because the building is classified under the national security label that allows the state of emergency to jump the locks of a traditional procurement.

"The bidding process was special because we could not disclose the plan of this strategic building to everyone," he said. Continue reading

Journalist harmed in latest string of attacks on media

Journalist Kendi Zidor was attacked Tuesday evening by individuals who were riding in motorcycles in Delmas 60. Zidor was unharmed in the attack after the individuals opened fire on his vehicle after he refused to stop at their request. Continue reading

Gangs disrupt courthouse

The judges sitting and standing, bailiffs, clerks and other members of the apparatus as well as lawyers and litigants are on the alert at the Palais de Justice in Port-au-Prince as there have been heavy gunfire from armed gangs.

Government commissioner Paul Eronce Villard stated that he has taken steps to strengthen the courthouse's sub-office and has deemed it necessary to have 30 police officers with adequate equipment in order for the courthouse to be a safe environment. Continue reading

CRLDI employees demand 26 months of salary

On Monday, employees at the Arcahaie Identity Receipt and Delivery Center blocked trucks using the national road number one at Robert and Carrefour Bois. Employees of the CRLDI began the strike by demanding 26 months of salary arrears, letters of appointment and better working conditions. Continue reading

This article first appeared on The Haitian Times and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.


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text:
import re
from _aliceutils import *

__author__ = "Thanumalayan Sankaranarayana Pillai"
__copyright__ = "Copyright 2014, Thanumalayan Sankaranarayana Pillai"
__credits__ = ["Thanumalayan Sankaranarayana Pillai", "Vijay Chidambaram",
	"Ramnatthan Alagappan", "Samer Al-Kiswany"]
__license__ = "MIT"

class Struct:
	TYPE_DIR = 0
	TYPE_FILE = 1
	def __init__(self, **entries): self.__dict__.update(entries)
	def update(self, mydict): self.__dict__.update(mydict)
	def __repr__(self):
		if 'op' in vars(self):
			if self.op == 'stdout':
				args = ['"' + repr(self.data) + '"']
			elif self.op in ['write', 'append']:
				args = ['%s=%s' % (k, repr(vars(self)[k])) for k in ['offset', 'count', 'inode']]
			else:
				argsbegin = []
				argsend = []
				for (k,v) in vars(self).items():
					if k != 'op' and k != 'name' and k[0:7] != 'hidden_':
						if k == 'source' or k == 'dest':
							argsbegin.append('%s="%s"' % (k, coded_colorize(short_path(v))))
						else:
							argsend.append('%s=%s' % (k, repr(v)))
				args = argsbegin + argsend
			if 'name' in vars(self):
				args.insert(0, '"' + coded_colorize(short_path(self.name)) + '"')
			colored_op = self.op
			if self.op.find('sync') != -1:
				colored_op = colorize(self.op, 1)
			elif self.op == 'stdout':
				colored_op = colorize(self.op, 2)
			return '%s(%s)' % (colored_op, ', '.join(args))
	        args = ['%s=%s' % (k, repr(v)) for (k,v) in vars(self).items() if k[0:7] != 'hidden_']
	        return 'Struct(%s)' % ', '.join(args)
	def superficial_eq(self, other):
		if type(self) != type(other):
			return False
		# return str(self.__dict__) == str(other.__dict__)
		for k in self.__dict__:
			if not type(self.__dict__[k]) == type(self) and type(self.__dict__[k]) != list and type(self.__dict__[k]) != set:
				if k not in other.__dict__:
					return False
				if self.__dict__[k] != other.__dict__[k]:
					return False
		return True
	def __eq__(self, other):
		if type(self) != type(other):
			return False
		# return str(self.__dict__) == str(other.__dict__)
		for k in self.__dict__:
			if k not in other.__dict__:
				return False
			if not type(self.__dict__[k]) == type(self):
				if self.__dict__[k] != other.__dict__[k]:
					return False
			else:
				if not self.__dict__[k].superficial_eq(other.__dict__[k]):
					return False
		return True
		# return self.__dict__ == other.__dict__
	def __ne__(self, other):
		return not self.__eq__(other)
	def __hash__(self):
		return hash(str(self.__dict__))


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text:
Afghanistan: Interview With UN Special Rapporteur On Violence Against Women
July 26, 2005 13:29 GMT
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Yakin Erturk, UN rapporteur on violence against women Yakin Erturk, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, says forced marriages are the prime source of violence in Afghanistan. Erturk returned last week from a 10-day visit to Afghanistan, where she met with judges, prosecutors, aid workers, and women living in shelters and prisons. In an interview with RFE/RL, Erturk says violence against women -- in both private and public life -- remains dramatic in Afghanistan.
Prague, 26 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Yakin Erturk, a sociology professor at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, was appointed to the UN human rights post in August 2003.
Since then, she has visited a number of countries, including Russia, Iran, Sudan, the Palestinian territories, and most recently Afghanistan.
Professor Erturk told RFE/RL that among all these countries, Afghanistan faces perhaps the most daunting challenge in terms of women's rights. She says poverty, lack of education, and the damage left by decades of conflict are often cited as the prime causes for the current situation in Afghanistan.
"Little girls as young as 6 years old can be married off in return for bride money."
"Afghanistan is very unique in terms of the destruction it has experienced, physical as well as social destruction. All of the countries that I have been to have a working system -- we may not be satisfied with the way it is working, we may be critical of the legislative structure, and in many countries of course there is the problem of gender discrimination, but there is at least a system within which one can work and which offers ways to intervene and improve things. In Afghanistan, this is lacking," Erturk said.
During her trip to Afghanistan, Erturk visited Kabul, Herat, and Kandahar, and met with government and judiciary officials, as well as members of nongovernmental organizations.
She says the majority of the people she met pointed to forced marriage and child marriages as the primary source of violence against women.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) estimates that between 60 percent and 80 percent of marriages in the country are forced marriages which the woman has no right to refuse. Many of those marriages, especially in rural areas, involve girls below the age of 15.
The UN rapporteur on violence against women says forced marriages make it far more likely that women will be subjected to domestic violence, including sexual abuse.
"Little girls as young as 6 years old can be married off in return for bride money, and of course this is a very exploitative, vulnerable situation. So this seems to be the root of the problem, but of course we have to put it in the context of Afghanistan's overall destruction, where not only physical infrastructure but the social fabric of the society has been seriously damaged. All protective mechanisms have withered away. So a rule of power has really become reinforced at all levels. And of course, women and children -- who hold the least power -- have suffered the most," Erturk says.
Erturk says for the majority of Afghan girls and women, there is no alternative to enduring the violence they encounter. Afghanistan's law-enforcement and judicial systems offer no special protection from female victims of violence, and officials often subject such women to humiliation before returning them to the abusive environments from which they are trying to escape.
Many of the women in the country's prisons are wives who have run away from home or been charged with adultery. Erturk says these women have little reason to expect their lives will improve.
"When a woman is away from home, even if it's not her fault, her reentry into normal life is very difficult, because she's already been tarnished with a stigma that she is no longer pure -- especially the runaways, who have dared to run away from their husbands or their abusive fathers. They have no place to go," Erturk says.
Despite the devastating statistics about violence and abuse against women and Afghanistan, the UN rapporteur told RFE/RL that some progress has been seen in the country during the past three years.
She says Afghanistan's new constitution, which calls for equal rights between men and women, is a "promising sign."
"The constitution also places a responsibility on the government to comply with international human rights law, and there is also a quota system for women in the electoral process. In addition to this, they have created the Ministry for Women's Affairs, which is doing considerable work, but it needs to be strengthened. Another very positive sign I found was the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, which is doing really invaluable work in defending human rights and providing options for people who are searching for help," Erturk says.
Erturk says the elimination of violence against women should become a priority in Afghanistan.
She believes that those involved in organizing child marriages should be prosecuted and punished. She also says that international aid to Afghanistan should be contingent on respect for human rights and protection for women and children. She says the global community entered Afghanistan with a lot of commitments and moral claims. Now it's time to produce some results.
Golnaz Esfandiari
Golnaz Esfandiari is a senior correspondent with RFE/RL.
EsfandiariG@rferl.org
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text:
The Other Vote on November 4th
By Tom Evslin
Oct 27, 2008 3:57 PM PDT
The vote that Federal Communications Commissioners are planning for November 4 is not as important as the voting we'll do on that day, but it does matter a lot to the future of the United States. Unless the forces opposed to progress manage to postpone FCC action (which they are trying very hard to do), the FCC could decide to set the stage for another generation of innovative products with which the US will strengthen its competitive position in global markets AND to provide long term help to the whole American economy, which might well be more important than all the short-term band aids being applied in the current crisis.
There is an easy way for you to influence the FCC and it matters so please read on.
This magic bullet which the FCC might decide to fire is regulation which will make currently unused radio frequencies known as TV white space available for open and unlicensed use. As I've written before, this action would be a huge boon to rural America which has lots of white space and too little high speed Internet and mobile phone access. But the advantage to the whole country of opening up this spectrum for innovation dwarfs the substantial benefit to us country folk.
Right now almost all radio spectrum is allocated to specific uses AND specific licensees. Each radio and television station, for example, has a slice of spectrum. Various marine and aviation functions have assigned uses; some spectrum is reserved for mobile phone use and has been auctioned off to carriers. The result of all this earmarking of spectrum is that, at any given time, very little spectrum is actually in use for any purpose and we have a spectrum shortage. However, when the frequency pie was originally sliced up, this allocation was the only method known for keeping users from interfering with each other.
But that's when radios were dumb and computers hadn't yet been invented.
Thanks to the foresight of some FCC staffers, a couple of slices of spectrum — little undesirable scraps, really, that no one else wanted — were set aside for UNLICENSED use. Anyone could build a radio to use this spectrum for any legal purpose so long as the radio was certified to follow certain rules including restrictions on signal strength which gave other players a chance to use the space as well. Owners of radios which use this unlicensed spectrum don't require a license.
You indubitably own several radios which operate in unlicensed spectrum. The WiFi hub in your house is one; the WiFi card in your PC is another; the Bluetooth headset you use with your mobile phone; the Bluetooth connection in your car; even Bluetooth and WiFi in your mobile phone all use unlicensed spectrum. Somewhat to the astonishment of traditional radio engineers, all this unlicensed use of spectrum works very, very well with no formal traffic cops. The little computers in the little radios figure out how to navigate by listening (I'm oversimplifying somewhat) and they recover gracefully when they do bump into each other — come to think of it, that's something like how the Internet works.
Anyway, it turns out that unlicensed spectrum gets filled much more efficiently than licensed spectrum AND that the most innovative recent radio products like WiFi and Bluetooth are all squeezed into these scraps of unlicensed spectrum which they have to share with microwaves and garage door openers. Also turns out that consumers often don't have to pay for using this unlicensed spectrum once they buy the proper radios; you don't pay to use WiFi in your home or Bluetooth in your car. The radios are cheap because they have a mass market. In other cases there are commercial services, like WiFi hotspots, which can be delivered efficiently to a transient audience because people have WiFi radios and because the spectrum is available to use.
Now back to the TV white space. It is very good spectrum; that's why TV stations uses part of the range that it covers. It goes through walls and most trees. There's a huge amount of it available AND CURRENTLY UNUSED. If we got a lot of innovation from just a little unlicensed spectrum, it's reasonable to assume that we'll get a lot more innovation if there's a lot more spectrum available. We could easily get mobile Internet access with much higher bandwidth than cable currently delivers at a much lower cost and with full mobile availability (Google claims gigabyte speeds are easily possible). Who knows what exciting applications would be built on top of that? I don't. That's what innovation is all about. We could also get much better mobile phone coverage at much lower prices — very important as the functions of phones take on more and more computer functions.
We could get much more entertainment from many more sources over unlicensed spectrum than we do over the proprietary spectrum allocated to TV stations — do you think that may be why the National Association of Broadcasters is so adamantly against the use of the so-called "TV white spaces"?
OK. On to the future of the country and our economy. The US used to dominate Internet innovation because widespread consumer use of the Internet began here. The newest equipment was developed (but not usually built) here; the newest services were developed AND hosted here; at one point most international Internet traffic passed through the US. None of this is true anymore. We lag much of the developed and some of the developing world in broadband penetration. We pay more for less bandwidth than many of our peers. Innovation happens where the early-adopter markets are. Much innovation which requires broad availability of reasonably priced very fast access is happening in Japan and Korea where that access is much more available than it is here.
If we are the first country to free a substantial portion of spectrum for innovation, we will have a huge head start in developing equipment and services which use that spectrum. The world WILL move to largely unlicensed spectrum (says I). We have a chance to lead and all the opportunities that leadership entails; or we can keep our spectrum locked up to protect broadcasters against competition and watch China or India take the lead and the benefits of leadership.
It's not only our tech industry that will benefit if the FCC votes the right way on November 4th. All of our industry will be more competitive if we have better access to information and to each other. We can't afford NOT to have the world's best communication infrastructure. We once did; we can again. We can't afford to have our kids or us lifelong learner adults disadvantaged in access to information. We are now disadvantaged compared to many countries; the disadvantage is growing. Communication infrastructure CAN become America's competitive edge — if the FCC acts to make it happen.
The immediate push by the NAB is to postpone the vote of the FCC on the grounds that not enough time has been allowed to study the issue. In fact the docket has been opened since 2004. This has been going on longer than the current Presidential campaign; we're ready to vote for President and the FCC has enough information to make a decision on white spaces. Delay means that FCC Chair Kevin Martin, who is the main proponent of opening up the white spaces, will be gone. As the NAB well knows, a new Chair and new FCC commissioners will take a long time to familiarize themselves with this tough issue. It's not something that's come up in the presidential campaign (unfortunately) do no quick action'll come from the top.
We could easily lose a year or so by delaying this vote at the FCC. That's plenty of time to lose any chance of taking leadership in this new technology.
You can help by either e-signing an online petition (provided by Google but you can change the words) or by using the FCC's e-filing system here — be sure to enter docket number 04-186 if you do. It's actually a simple form. There's no need to say much; just let the FCC know you're in favor of a favorable vote on unlicensed use of TV white spaces and that the vote should happen as scheduled on November 4.
Please do act quickly. The deadline for public comment is TOMORROW, Tuesday, October 28!
Related topics: Access Providers, Broadband, Policy & Regulation, Telecom, White Space, Wireless
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Posts Tagged 'existence'
Russon & Foucault: Embodiment in the Everyday
(DISCLAIMER: This is a copy of a midterm essay I submitted in my senior seminar class. Feedback is welcome, but plagiarism is stupid.)
Embodiment is one of the most obfuscated facets of everyday life. We refer to ourselves as "having a body" instead of "being embodied," which is an important distinction. For both Foucault and Russon, the body is the primary form of contact with the world around us. The body is always in relation to others, always public, always both "part of us," and "apart from us." To be embodied is to perform or function in an environment, whether this is a self-taught behavior or a discipline enforced upon oneself. There are some disjunctions between Russon's (phenomenological) and Foucault's (post-structuralist) analyses of everyday life, but one key element seems to link the two methodologies: The body.
The body is, as Russon describes, "the point of intersubjective contact" (22). In other words, the body is always a part of a much larger system—a "machine"—of others. Being embodied means being vulnerable, being "seen," but, also, always "seeing." Russon describes a constant tension in embodiment, a kind of polar tug between the antipodes of everyday existence: "In contact there is a dynamic tension of two opposed poles—the subject and object—that define themselves against each other while simultaneously implicating each other in themselves." (26). By "implicating each other in themselves," Russon means to elucidate that the conceptual "object" is only meaningful in relation to, and based upon, the "subject" (and vice versa). There is a criterion for our noticing things as objects, namely, that we can perform tasks with them. Russon explains how, in terms of interacting with the world, "We are what we can do, and the identities of those things which we contact are measured in terms of these abilities." (31). These abilities, though perhaps effortful at the first, become ingrained in our subconscious and are "habituated" in a way so that "our directed focused attention is freed up" in performing the task repeatedly (29). In this account, our bodies become less cumbersome through habituation; embodiment becomes inconspicuous. Habituation is key for Russon, and it comes in a similar form for Foucault, only under a different guise: Discipline.
Discipline, though stemming from a different origin than habituation, is similarly important to an agent navigating the world in everyday life. The ability to type, for instance, is something which is so habituated that we almost forget we had to undergo a learning process to develop that skill. This process "disciplines" us to become skillful. Discipline works at the level of the individual human body and affects our relationship with a task (usually of production, according to Foucault). Foucault's account regards discipline as a form of "bio-power," which is an "insertion of bodies into the machinery of production" (263). Discipline, as bio-power, methodically increases the efficacy for an individual in performing a task. Like habituation, discipline renders learned behaviors invisible through repetitively performing them. Without discipline, or habituation, simple tasks like typing this sentence would become clumsy and arduous. There is a certain obfuscation which accompanies getting accustomed to a behavior, and "with familiarity comes inconspicuousness" (29). We are taught how to do something, which may be uncomfortable at first, since our body is not familiar with the task—our body presents itself as a limitation. Yet, through discipline and habituation, we eventually forget (or become unaware of) the spatial relations of keys on the keyboard, the position of our fingers in relation to the words we want to produce, etc. until we make a mistake and become aware of our behavior. But interpretation of objects in our everyday life—like the keyboard—is also affected by habituation and discipline. Russon writes that "to interpret is to see something as something," or, in other words, experience is fluid, already undergoing interpretation. The keys on a keyboard originally appear as a set of tools, whereas through habituation and discipline, they merge into an individual tool. Typing on the keyboard becomes a process of producing words, of consistent dialogue between intention and action. The body is as salient as the mind in this convergent process.
Foucault is concerned with discipline, but, also, power relations. Power, for Foucault, is relational (between structures and individuals). As we've seen, bio-power—as opposed to other kinds of traditional power—is productive, a kind of bottom-up system which maintains the power "to foster life or disallow it." (261). Traditionally, power is only effective when seen but, as Foucault's account elucidates, power has become "inverted," and power has become "invisible." In this way, power is all the more effective and pervasive. Again, power for Foucault is not oppressive. Power is only effective as long as an agent is able to recognize that power; Foucault describes death itself as "power's limit" (261). At which point, power becomes obsolete, and, obviously, ineffective.
Power is manifest in relationships, and only in relationships. With relationships of power often come disciplines. Through disciplines–mirroring Russon's description of the "inconspicuousness" of activities through habituation–activities become second-nature, and bodily resistance decreases. In his essay Docile Bodies, Foucault describes the malleability of the body in an example of a soldier: "the soldier has become something that can be made…can be constructed" (179). The body, as seen in the soldier, is something which can be molded, disciplined, and reshaped like clay to represent something else entirely. A recruited soldier can have no battle experience but eventually–through time and training–bodily resistance decreases; behaviors which once seemed daunting become natural, and attention is "freed up" from such tasks. Standing with correct posture, marching in uniform, and similar activities become "normal." This commodification of the individual human body has not always been the case, according to Foucault, who writes, "in every [past] society, the body was in the grip of very strict powers, which imposed on it constraints, prohibitions, or obligations." (180). In other words, until the last few hundred years of population growth and urban density, power has taken the sovereign form. Power, until recently, has been deductive. There has not traditionally been the expectation to become "disciplined" in a way that is considered "normal" or even "ideal." Our situation of everyday life in these post-industrialized societies has resulted in a "constant subjection of its forces and imposed on them a relation of docility-utility, [which] might be called 'disciplines.'" (180). But, additionally, bio-power is manifest in terms of regulatory controls. This form of power takes charge at the population level, as opposed to discipline affecting merely the individual. Regulatory control helps facilitate "norms" and further commodifies the body in a way that is "ordinary" or "probabili[stic]" (264). Through discipline, the body is at once "subject" and "object" simultaneously. The subject begins to discipline itself, and the body is its object. Through regulatory control, the body becomes intersubjective, or a part of a collective object. As we have established, to be a self is to be embodied, and to be disciplined/regulated is to be an "object" in the intersubjective sense.
Being embodied in an intersubjective world, according to Russon, certainly contributes to the sense of self as a "discrete" chooser (9). One is constantly visible, open, and vulnerable, all while maintaining the power of subjective selfhood. This developed subject sees itself as an "independent, free agent, ontologically equal with all others" (83). In being "ontologically equal" with others, one develops a shared status and value of normalcy. Normality arises as a symptom of intersubjective life, and as a symptom of power relations between oneself and the world. For Russon, "To hold the normal self as an ideal is to hold this notion of independent choice as the primary value in human existence," or, in other words, the very feeling of independently exercising choice is definitive to the experience of everyday life. Russon writes—perhaps with consternation—how "our inescapable nature is to be outwardly directed, whereas the ideal of normalcy portrays us as inherently inward." (90). Again, the "tension" Russon describes arises into plain sight. There is a constant tug between the self as outward and the self as inward. This is a neurosis. This neurosis can be harmful, as Russon explains, "a society premised on the narrative of normalcy produces a 'civil' society of people alienated from themselves and from each other" (90). This sounds a lot like Foucault's account of regulatory bio-power, which is manifest at the population level. Yet, Russon describes the neurotic tension between individual selves and others as both alienating and liberating (to varying degrees). However, for Foucault, normality takes a different route into being: "normalization becomes one of the great instruments of power at the end of the classical age. For the marks that once indicated status, privilege, and affiliation were increasingly replaced…by a whole range of degrees of normality" (196). In other words, "the power of normalization imposes homogeneity" (196). By "homogeneity," Foucault seems to be pointing at a kind of universal quality which emerges in normalcy—the discipline and regulatory control of docile bodies. The human being, once thought of as innate and fixed, becomes open to possibility: A tabula rasa. The disciplined body is normalized and contextualized in accordance with its relations of power. It is not as "discreet" as we'd like to think it is. Both Russon and Foucault would appear to reject this notion of the free, independent self, absolved of externalities.
Foucault's post-structuralist view of everyday life differs from Russon's phenomenological account, but there clearly seems to be some overlap between the two. Russon argues that "we are what we can do" (31). This is a limiting and empowering claim, as embodiment necessitates our relationship with the intersubjective world around us. This relationship would be described in terms of power on Foucault's account. Our body is a part of bio-power, which has two dimensions: Discipline and Regulatory control. These two aspects of Foucault's bio-power, combined with Russon's concept of habituation, serve to normalize us—to decrease bodily resistance and streamline our everyday lives. Foucault's "docile body" in accordance with Russon's "embodiment" and "habituation" sets the stage for the medium through which "an agency can emerge" (27). It's clear that the self is contingent upon the body. Perhaps, instead of weighing our actions on a scale of independent "discrete" decision-making, we should weigh our actions in a systematic way—considering the relationship of power between us and the world. If we want to empower ourselves, we should recognize the nature of normalcy and our embodiment: Both limiting and empowering. Only then can we be the origin of our choices and make informed, effective decisions in our everyday lives.
Foucault, Michel, and Paul Rabinow. The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon, 1984. Print.
Russon, John Edward. Human Experience: Philosophy, Neurosis, and the Elements of Everyday Life. Albany: State U of New York, 2003. Print.
Tags:body, body image, embodiment, essay, everyday, everyday life, existence, existentialism, foucault, john russon, life, michel foucault, Philosophy, power, quote, russon, short essay, the body, the mody
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New Member Discovery Classes are offered several times a year, with classes beginning in January, April, July and October. Classes are led by church staff and officers. Everyone is welcome to attend the classes to learn more about the mission and ministry of Derry Church and to find out what it means to be an active member. There's no obligation to join the church when classes are finished. Register now!
New members will be received on Sunday, May 26 at the 10:30 am worship service.
Youth join the church during their eight or ninth grade year by participating in confirmation class. The class begins in early September and culminates with confirmation in the spring. This service is planned and led by the confirmands. The next confirmation class will begin in September 2020. For more information, contact the church office.


Starting at IMPACT in 2013 as an intern, Katie quickly worked her way from accounts to team lead, member of the leadership team, and eventually management.
Her natural organization and focus on process led to an IMPACT Core Award for Dependability in 2015 and has made her a significant player in building many of the foundational elements that made the organization what is it today.
As Director of Client Services, Katie leads the team behind IMPACT's marketing delivery for agency clients.
In this role, she's proud to coach account executives on effective communication and maintaining tight timelines, ensure processes and best practices are both in place and followed, and enable the entire team to do their best work through efficient capacity planning.
Outside of the office, Katie enjoys spending time with her crazy - but lovable - family, watching too much HGTV (Is there really such a thing?), and traveling.
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