Decotile is one of the leading LVT (luxury vinyl tiles) in Europe. Decotile is made from the best available materials as a result of which, the products performance is outstanding. Decotile comes with an integral Polyurethane surface treatment, and in a wide range of distinctive designs and textures that provide excellent suitability for many commercial sectors.
Comes in two thicknesses Decotile 30 – 2mm and Decotile 55 – 2.5mm. Wood effect 180mmX1200mm – Stone effect 300mmX600mm. Each pack covers 3.888 M2.


See the trial of Miriam Pratt, the Norfolk school teacher who set fire to two houses to protest for votes for women in the early 20th century. Performed by Springboard East Theatre Company in the historic Shirehall courtroom.
60 minutes, suitable for 12+ years, meet at Norwich Castle Rotunda.
Booking advisable 01603 495897 or 493625.
Photos from Session 9 of our Burgh Castle Almanac project on 21st August 2018. For this session the group were joined by musician Dave Pullin who ran a sound recording session in the landscape.
Back in March we held our inaugural Restoration Trust Club meeting at the New Inn in Suffolk. We were privileged to stay in this beautiful Tudor in as part of the Landmark Trust's 50 for free scheme.
Here are some thoughts on the event from Mr BPD, a member of our Human Henge project.
The call had gone out and the representatives of the five tribes journeyed to the great medieval hall. The elders sought a hidden wisdom one that had been lost to time; but with the birth of the children of stone, clues to the wisdom of existence had been revealed.
The elders had only known a wisdom that could transform lives, but like all things of value a journey of discovery must take place. A journey that would transform mortal men and women into heroes and legends'.
OK enough drama. The Restoration Trust Club was set up to look at how services provided by the Restoration Trust to people with mental illness could be improved. The main issue with mental health services is the ending; most services are time limited 10 to 12 weeks / sessions so just as you start to settle in its time to face the ending.
The endings can be traumatic for many with mental health issues and if there was a way of not ending a project the trauma could be eliminated. But that would be impractical and costly. I have been in contact with mental health services on and off for the last 36 years and only come across 1 project that came close to building peer to peer support and friendship.
Peer to peer support and friendship is the key. Luckily, I was a member of group 2 of Human Henge and something unique happened, we became a peer to peer support network with social gatherings. The funny thing is none of us know how it happened, but we all know it is valuable as a support and friendship and social activities.
In some way the conference was looking at what happened with group 2 and where looking at how it could be recreated along with other ideas to increase service user involvement. We came up with lots of ideas including an annual music event (Resto Fest!), several booked socials get togethers spaced over a year.
It is important to encourage peer to peer support because great benefits can be achieved. I can only speak of the benefits I have experienced and seen since being part of Human Henge. I have got out more and socialised, I have invited people to my home, I have visited others and I have set up my own group. These are major things for me being that I have Avoidance Personality as a major part of my BPD.
It's nice to see that the Restoration Trust is taking a very active role in improving the end results of mental health service and is engaging service users at every level of the process. One day mental health services will work more holistically with levels of support including those discharged who just need a group of local friends who share a commonality.
The Restoration Trust Club will go one step to creating a peer to peer network that will help improve the lives of those with poor mental health.
About Author I have Borderline Personality Disorder and as a writer and poet I explore my madness through the creative arts. I have a personal belief that even in darkness light exists and it is a personal responsibility to always seek the light and I find the light in creating something.


SOUTH AFRICA: Has Anyone Hunted With Mafigeni Safari Company?
Discussion in 'Hunting Reports Africa' started by Charles de Ribeau, Jan 14, 2019.
Last weekend, I talked with representatives of Mafigeni Safari Company at the International Sportsmen's Show in Denver. I subsequently looked at their website, but when I search on here, I can't find any mention of them. That seems very odd. According to their website the company is 26 years old, so to not find a mention of them here doesn't seem right. Are any of you familiar with the company?


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Home Latest News Aloft Hotels to bring back Project: Aloft Star UAE this month
Aloft Hotels to bring back Project: Aloft Star UAE this month
Marriott International's Aloft Hotels has once again teamed up with Universal Music Group & Brands (UMGB) MENA (the brand strategy division of Universal Music Group), the world leader in music-based entertainment, to present the 2018 edition of Aloft Hotels' artist discovery competition, Project: Aloft Star UAE.
Scheduled to commence on September 18, 2018, the event will include performances by last year's winner Stephon LaMar, finalist Danny Aridi and rising Arabic artist Mahdi Baccouch at Aloft Palm Jumeirah.
The competition calls for musicians to take part to win the opportunity to record a single at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, UK, mentoring from UMG's executives/producers to help select a song to record, worldwide release of the winner's single on digital platforms and a professional music video shot at Aloft City Centre Deira, Dubai.
This year's Project: Aloft Star UAE 2018 mentors, Anthony Touma, Shaun Warner, Big Hass and Mark Shakedown will help guide the four finalists on their journey during an interactive and exclusive mentoring session at Aloft Me'asiam, preparing them for their final performance.
Warner stated: "I'm delighted to be part of Project: Aloft Star UAE. I think it's important to share the insights I have gathered from my career and help those who are just starting their journey. Programmes like these are vital to the overall health of the industry and Aloft Hotels is playing a key role in supporting, nurturing and developing the artistic community."
The Project: Aloft Star UAE 2018 contest is part of Marriott International's one-of-a-kind global partnership with UMG, which has evolved to include a focus on developing emerging talent.
Also speaking on the event was vice president, Premium and Select Brands – Middle East and Africa, Marriott International, Sandra Schulze-Potgieter: "We are excited to launch this year's edition of Project: Aloft Star UAE with UMG. The chance to work with one of UMG's prestigious labels is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity and we are glad we can offer this platform to emerging talent here in the Middle East.
"Aloft Hotels has always been the brand for music makers and music lovers and we continue to amplify our music programming across our hotels in the region," she concluded.
alofthotels
aloftstaruae
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Tell others you appreciate them
Think about it, how do you feel when someone sincerely takes the time to appreciate you?
If you're anything like me, you feel energized, you feel like your efforts matter and most importantly, you feel valued.
On the flip side, how do you feel when you are under-appreciated or unappreciated?
Yeah, exactly.
Not enough people make use of a powerful and inexpensive two-word phrase- "thank you."
It's true for every one of us. Whether you are a volunteer, teacher, doctor, politician, sales professional , customer service representative or an executive, we all want to feel valued and appreciated. The power of a sincere "thank you" cannot be understated. When it comes to gratitude, the positive power of those two words is difficult to match.
The next step is to be specific about what it is that you are thanking the person for and why it is worthy of recognition. Let them know exactly what they did that made you want
genuinely thank them. This does a couple of things. First, it makes the person who is receiving the feedback understand precisely what they did to receive this awesome feedback from you. Secondly, they will likely repeat the behavior because they know exactly what they did, and the impact it had.
Important elements of giving personalized recognition comes down to being genuine, timely and specific. One action you can take immediately to see how often you are giving recognition is to keep a praise journal. That's right, a praise journal. Keep track of who you praise, when you praise them and why you praise them. I started doing this with the very first team I managed at Daytons in Onalaska, WI at the age of 23. It really works. Give it a try and let me know how it is impacting you and those around you. Seriously, who would not benefit from some heart-felt recognition. I want to hear from you - www.pennvieau.com


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Photo, Inspiration, History
History of Photography: Stereoscopic Photography
Antoine Claudet. Stereoscopic Print.
Stereostopic photography is yet another blip in the history of photography where the photograph was still working to find its' true identity. It's based on binocular vision, which is the action of the brain associating two slightly different images (each one through a separate eye) as one image which in turn creates an effect of depth. Given it's introduction in the early 1800's, you can imagine the novelty of this early "virtual reality" that people experienced!
We owe the beginning of stereoscopic photography to a man by the name of Sir Charles Wheatstone. In 1832, he invented the binocular type device, called a stereoscope, that enabled each eye to view each image separately thus creating the three dimensional effect. He made stereographs from daguerreotypes (but found the metal plates produced odd reflections) and from calotypes (but found the light sensitivity too slow and therefore didn't produce sharp enough results for the proper effect to render). Given the refinements yet to be made, Wheatstone's version of the process didn't pick up a whole lot of steam until the late 1840's when Sir David Brewster tweaked the design in to what he called a refracting stereoscope.
Brewster's refracting Stereoscope.
In Brewster's version, he placed a pair of lenses 2.5 inches apart (side by side) in a small box. He created small doors on the side of the box to let in light, and a small slit on the bottom of the box at the end furthest from the lenses to allow stereoscopic prints to easily slide in and out. He also made the bottom of the box out of frosted glass, which let in some more light but mainly allowed for the additional function of viewing transparencies.
At the Great Exibition of 1851, Brewster exhibited his refracting stereoscope to Queen Victoria who was immediately taken by it. We all know that once royalty fancies a product, the public is soon to follow, and follow it did! Within three months, over 250,000 refracting stereoscopes were sold along with over a million stereoscopic prints. By this time, stereoscopic prints were made via the collodion process because of it's nature to easily duplicate prints. In 1856, the London Stereoscopic Company had pushed mass production of stereo cards into most middle and upperclass homes. With their success, the company began sending photographers around the world to create stereo cards of over 100,000 different places and views. This contributed to solidifying photography's place as a tool for education, a tool for discovering, and a tool for recording people or places as a record to be viewed at a later time.
Now, some people (including Oliver Wendell Holmes) were frustrated by the stereoscope viewer itself. Holmes often complained that it gave him headaches. After all, it is slightly unnatural to go from viewing one scene with two eyes to two scenes in two eyes. It can be hard work for the brain to "marry" the two separate images into one, not to mention not everyone has perfect vision as well as some have varying astigmatism that could all affect viewing ease. In 1861, with the help of Joseph L. Bates, Holmes designed a hand held stereoscope viewer that allowed individual adjustments for viewing distance and solved his headaches. It had the bonus of being lighterweight and cheaper than Brewster's contraption and since it wasn't patented, copies flooded the market and it became the most popular version.
The popularized stereoscope designed by Oliver Wendell Holmes and Joseph L. Bates
Naturally, with all things popular, the photography "purists" at the time saw the stereoscope as just a gimmick and took exception to it. Considering photography had always been a translation of the 3-D to 2-D, to have it go another step and feign going back to 3-D was against what they believed to be photography's intended purpose; to create an impression of nature, not reproduce it. Like all trends though, there was no denying the profitability and many photographers found themselves taking their classical photos first and tacking on a stereoscopic view second to sell as an add on.
The stereoscope remained popular until waning in the 1870's with the financial crash of 1873. Many photographers were put out of business or forced to cut costs by copying other's stereocards (this was obviously before federal copyrights!). Unfortunately, the copying of stereocards repeatedly lead to a decline in quality and therefore a decline in viewing experience. Mostly only the largest companies survived while the small companies disappeared. This lead to a climate of corporations beginning to control what imagery was dispersed and began the rise of publishing controlling the visual language of cultures. In the 1920's the Keystone View Company survived the depression by focusing on the education sector. They made stereo views until the rise of the color television in the mid 1960's. I can also safely venture a guess that many of you reading this article are familiar with one of their products from your childhood: the View Master 3-D which was a plastic stereoscopic viewer that had images on little paper mounted round discs. I know I had one! You can still find these toys in stores and novelty shops today!
Popular stereoscope toy of the mid 1900's and one of today's novelty toys, the View Master 3D.
Co-Founder SoftBox Media and Owner/Lead Photographer at Lovesome Photography. We provide top-notch, award winning wedding & portrait services to the D.C. area & beyond.
www.LovesomePhoto.com
lisa robinsonhistory of photographyhistory_columnstereoscopewheatstonebrewsterqueen victoriaholmesbatesstereo printskeystone view company
Steve Glynn's tintype portrait project
Levi Sim
Steve Glynn makes portraits using the tintype process (learn more about tintypes in this article) and a large format camera. This combination is striking —
History of Photography: The Stieglitz Group
The Stieglitz Group was an essential number of photographers who pioneered then promoted the pictorial style of photography. (Check out my article on pictorialism here!)
History of Photography: The Photo-Secession Movement
Camera Work In 1902 Stieglitz, along with Joseph T. Kelley launched Camera Work, a quarterly publication that supported the ideals of the Photo-Secession movement with
History of Photography: What is Pictorialism?
In the late 1800's photography was still basically like a baby giraffe learning how to get up and walk for the first time. Photography didn't
History of Photography: An introduction to Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz is a name many photographers may recognize as "a big deal" but also a name that they might not be well acquainted with.
History of Photography: Early Stages of Color
Since the beginning, everyone wanted color photographs. Images being black and white only was a chief complaint about photography. Initially, there were a few "successes";
Callmebob
viewmaster … NOW we're talkin'…


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Sonke rejects the SA Law Reform Commission's recommendations for continued criminalisation of sex work
News / Sex Work
Today the Minister of Justice revealed the recommendations of the South African Law Reform Commission on how sex work should be regulated in South Africa. Sonke welcomes the release of the report.
We note however that the Commission and the Department of Justice and Correctional Services spent close to 20 years to finalise its recommendations despite strong appeals from civil society for the unnecessarily lengthy process to be completed, as well as unsuccessful attempts to use the Promotion of Access to Information Act to obtain the report, and many pickets and demonstrations by sex workers, sex worker advocates and human rights activists.
Currently South Africa criminalises all aspects of sex work under an archaic law that was forged during apartheid – the Sexual Offences Act of 1957. Several studies have documented the harms of applying criminal law to the sex industry. Criminalisation of sex work has been shown to drive sex workers underground and away from services,1 increase stigma and create obstacles to accessing programmes;2 and reduce sex workers' power, rendering them vulnerable to violence, human rights violations and corruption.3 These aspects make societies unsafe and increase the risk of violence and abuse, particularly for women. It would seem that the Law Commission has ignored this evidence and the many sex worker murders that have taken place over the last two decades, and recommend the status quo with a slight modification that includes diversion programmes for sex workers.
Internationally, evidence shows that reducing and eventually eliminating violence against women (and men and transgender people) will only be possible in a context where the criminal law governing sex work is completely removed, and where sex workers are brought under the framework of occupational health & safety laws, and labour law where these are based on human rights principles.
The Law Commission's recommendation for on-going criminalisation is not based on evidence or South African realities and does not respect the human rights of sex workers.
Sonke therefore calls on the Department of Justice and Correctional Services to strongly reject the Law Reform Commission's recommendations and to decriminalise sex work. This will make sex work safer, and also create a safer and more respectful society.
FOR COMMENT CONTACT:
Marlise Richter, Policy Development & Advocacy Unit Manager, Sonke Gender Justice, marlise@genderjustice.org.za, 082 858 9927
Gable et al (2008). HIV/AIDS, Reproductive and Sexual Health, and the Law. American Journal of Public Health, 98 October.
UNAIDS 2009. Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work. In: UNAIDS (ed.). Geneva: UNAIDS.
F.Scorgie et al (2012). Socio-demographic characteristics and behavioral risk factors of female sex workers in sub-saharan Africa: a systematic review. AIDS Behav, 16, 920-33.
Sonke calls on Deputy President David Mabuza and the Presidency to denounce homophobic and transphobic laws across the continent
14 Nov 19 – Press Releases
Sonke Gender Justice mourns the loss of veteran broadcaster Xolani Gwala
1 Nov 19 – Press Releases
Sonke and #UniteBehind will have a joint action to highlight the issues of GBV and women and children's safety on public transport
28 Oct 19 – Press Releases
Convicted Dros rapist Nicholas Ninow showed no remorse for his actions and sought to evade accountability on the basis of his abuse of drugs and alcohol
Launch of the Decriminalisation of Petty By-Laws Campaign in South Africa
Sonke Gender Justice calls on the government to take effective and pragmatic steps to combat the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide
18 Sep 19 – Press Releases
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Home Tech News Facebook reveals new measures to combat misinformation and voter suppression ahead of...
Facebook reveals new measures to combat misinformation and voter suppression ahead of US election
By Pauline A . E
Facebook announced new steps to combat misinformation and voter suppression on Monday ahead of the November 2020 U.S. presidential election, on the same day it disclosed the removal of a network of Russian accounts targeting U.S. voters on Instagram.
Facebook said it would increase transparency through measures such as showing more information about the confirmed owner of a Facebook page and more prominently labeling content that independent fact-checkers have marked as false.
The social media giant has come under fire in recent weeks over its policy of exempting ads run by politicians from fact-checking, drawing ire from Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.
Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the policy, saying social media had introduced transformative avenues for speech that should not be shut down.
That same day, the Biden campaign called for the removal of an ad run by a super PAC, not a politician, that it said contained false claims about the former vice president. Katie Harbath, Facebook's head of global elections policy, said in response that if the now inactive ad ran again, it would be sent to Facebook's third-party fact-checkers.
On Monday, Facebook said would be putting into effect its planned ban on paid ads that tell people in the United States not to vote. Zuckerberg told reporters on a conference call that the ban on voter misinformation would also apply to ads run by politicians.
The company will start labeling state-controlled media on its page and in the site's ad library. In a blog post, Facebook said it planned to expand this labeling to specific posts on both Facebook and Instagram early next year.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the video-streaming service of Alphabet's Google, all recently came under scrutiny after showing ads from Chinese state-controlled media that criticized Hong Kong protesters.
This month, the Senate committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election said that the Kremlin's best-known propaganda arm increased its social media activity after that vote.
"The bottom line here is that elections have changed significantly since 2016 and Facebook has changed too." Zuckerberg said on Monday.
"We face increasingly sophisticated attacks from nation states like Russia, Iran and China, but I'm confident we're more prepared."
Facebook will introduce a new U.S. presidential candidate spend tracker to show how much they have spent on political ads as part of the company's efforts to make its ad library easier to use, Zuckerberg said.
Facebook launched an online library of political ads in 2018, but the database has been criticized by researchers as being poorly maintained and failing to provide useful ad targeting information.
The company plans to heighten protection of the Facebook and Instagram accounts of candidates, elected officials and their teams through a program called Facebook Protect. Participants in the program will be required to turn on two-factor authentication and their accounts will be monitored for signs of hacking.
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SOURCE: Read the Original Article on Reuters
Pauline A . E
Previous articleBanks deny telco on USSD charges, services
Next articleNNPC remits N729.3 billion, N602.3 billion to Federation Account
Court allows Apple's lawsuit against former iPhone chip designer
Apple's breach-of-contract lawsuit against ex-employee and Nuvia founder Gerard Williams III can now go ahead after a judge rejected a request to dismiss the...
'iPhone 12' will look like a slimmer, taller iPhone 11
Apple's East Asian supply chain this week offer fresh insight into this year's iPhone release cycle, with a report on Monday claiming the company's...
iPhone 11 dominated US iPhone sales
Apple's iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max were the most popular models sold in the United States in the holiday quarter, according...
Google Pixel 4 running Android R tested at GeekBench
GeekBench v5 benchmark database contains results of testing the performance of the Google Pixel 4 smartphone running the yet unreleased Android R operating system. Android...
Old iPhone or iPad? Revive Them Now
alltechng - January 1, 2020
What if you could give that old smartphone or tablet a second life? WSJ's Geoffrey A. Fowler shows how to save money--and spare landfills--by...
2020 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge – Walkaround 4k
2020 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge - Walkaround 4k
Zenith Bank launches high interest yielding target savings account
alltechng - August 1, 2019
One of Nigeria's leading financial institutions, Zenith Bank Plc, has introduced a high interest-yielding target savings account named "SAVE4ME", which enables customers plan and save towards...


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Home » Website » Sports » Decide On Manchester United Move, Ronald Koeman Tells Ousmane Dembele As Barcelona Chase Eric Garcia
Decide On Manchester United Move, Ronald Koeman Tells Ousmane Dembele As Barcelona Chase Eric Garcia
With Manchester United said to be trying to sign Ousmane Dembele on loan, Ronald Koeman says the winger must tell him if he wants to go
Omnisport	03 October 2020
Courtesy: Twitter
Omnisport	2020-10-03T17:38:40+05:30 Decide On Manchester United Move, Ronald Koeman Tells Ousmane Dembele As Barcelona Chase Eric Garcia
Ronald Koeman says Ousmane Dembele must decide his own future amid talk of a possible move to Manchester United from Barcelona. (More Football News)
United are said to be interested in signing the France international on loan, having been frustrated in their pursuit of Borussia Dortmund star Jadon Sancho.
Koeman left Dembele out of the starting line-up for Thursday's 3-0 win at Celta Vigo and chose to bring on Pedri, Francisco Trincao and Ronald Araujo as attacking reinforcements off the bench.
With Monday's transfer deadline looming, Koeman suggested Dembele could leave if he wants to pursue more regular football.
"I can't say much more on this topic," he told reporters on Saturday.
"I always try to bring the maximum performance out of the team and, if there are changes, it's for a reason.
"If Pedri has come on in the last two games, it's because of his work in training. The other day, Trincao and Pedri came on because they deserved to.
#BarçaSevilla pic.twitter.com/DhANgG0ob5
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) October 2, 2020
"I haven't spoken with him about his future. Everything depends on the player. I haven't spoken with him on his future, but there are a couple of days left before the market closes.
"We have a lot of competition in attack. There's a lot of quality and there is Ansu [Fati], Konrad [de la Fuente], Dembele, [Antoine] Griezmann and many more in his position. There's competition. Ansu Fati is ahead of Dembele.
"I want to have a happy squad. He might be annoyed for not playing - that's perfect - but if he doesn't want to be here, he has to tell me.
"I will count on him and he will have chances to play if there's nothing, if there are no movements."
Koeman also confirmed he would like to bring in Eric Garcia from Manchester City before the deadline.
Garcia refused the offer of a new contract at the Etihad Stadium and will be free to leave for nothing next year.
Manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday that there was no agreement between City and Barca but that he was not sure whether the centre-back would be staying in England for now.
"It's true we want to have this player here because we only have three or four centre-backs, but I can't say anything more," said Koeman.
"I've also seen Pep's comments from City, there is interest, but I don't know if we'll be able to get him."
IPL 2020, RCB Vs RR: Fans Cry Foul After Contentious Sanju Samson Dismissal, Raises Another Umpiring Controversy - WATCH
Omnisport	Ousmane Dembele	Ronald Koeman	Football	Football Transfer	FC Barcelona	Manchester United	Manchester City	Sports
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Pensacola Beach Blog
A Beach View
Mississippi Blinding
It's been an eventful week for the Lott clan. On Monday, Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) announced that he'd be retiring late this year. The next day, FBI agents raided the law office of his brother-in-law, Richard "Dickie" Scruggs. Yesterday, Scruggs, his son, and three associates were indicted for bribery.
-- Paul Kiel atTPM Muckraker, Nov. 29, 2007
A search warrant was executed this week in the law office of Mississippi lawyer Dickie Scruggs. Barely a day later, he also was indicted on charges of bribing a state trial judge. Conservatives and liberals, alike, are chortling over what they imagine to be the imminent downfall of one of America's most successful, and richest, trial lawyers.
No surprise, really. Both sides see the event through partisan prisms that tend to blind one to the whole truth, whatever that turns out to be.
Republican neocom fanatics who reflexively side with corporate interests against individuals view "plaintiffs' lawyers" as bogeymen out to undermine America's capitalist foundation. As for Democratic Party liberals, it seems they can't see beyond the fact that the sister of Scruggs' wife is married to U.S. Senator Trent Lott, which makes the two men brothers-in-law. On no discernible evidence other than that, a good number of Lott critics are suggesting the Scruggs indictment explains why, just two days beforehand, the senior Mississippi senator announced that he intends to resign his seat before January rolls around.
Color us skeptical. It may be, as alleged, that a third man, also a lawyer, who supposedly offered a bribe to a Mississippi state judge was acting for Dickie Scruggs. Or, it may be that he wasn't. It may be that this other lawyer offered a bribe. Or, it may be the judge was fishing for a personal campaign contribution, as is the widespread practice among judges in that state.
With no proven facts to speak of yet, what we're left wondering is what does the known history of each side in this drama suggest about their motives and capabilities? On that score, we're ready to give more than the legal presumption of innocence to Scruggs. We give him the benefit of a doubt.
The most likely reason for Senator Lott's resignation, as it seems to us, has nothing to do with Scruggs or his family ties. It's more in harmony with Lott's character and political history that he simply doesn't want to wait an extra year to pig out on lobbyist fees.
It's the political ties we find more intriguing. Dickie Scruggs and his law firm, as we have noted before, are among the leading litigators battling property insurance companies over their penurious -- some juries would say, even fraudulent -- handling of Hurricane Katrina claims. Scruggs undertook to represent well over a thousand devastated hurricane victims in Mississippi -- including that self-same brother-in-law, Trent Lott, who was the scourge of trial lawyers himself until he needed one. The Scruggs firm also led the way in knitting together a number of other law firms to form what's now known as The Katrina Group.
As Newsweek noted a few years ago, Scruggs has a long history of representing the little guy against the insurance industry and their corporate clients. He made his bones suing tobacco companies, then represented thousands of blue collar ship-builders afflicted with asbestosis. More recently, the intrepid lawyer added the health insurance industry to his list of targets.
One can surmise there are plenty of huge, well financed corporations out there who would happily contribute whatever it takes to see Dickie Scruggs brought down. If that isn't reason enough to reserve judgment at the news of his indictment, consider this:
The indictment was engineered by U.S. Attorney Jim M. Greenlee in the Northern District of Mississippi. Greenlee has been a "loyal Bushie" U.S. attorney throughout the entire period Karl Rove Bush's lapdog, Alberto Gonzales, was busy politicizing the Justice Department.
Allegations of Justice Department "selective prosecution" and "targeting" of prominent Democratic party supporters across the nation have been at the heart of investigations by both the House Judiciary Committee and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
It's already a matter of record that the Justice Department has been using "criminal prosecutions to help Republicans win elections" in Mississippi by selectively prosecuting Democrats. Although he's given to both parties, Scruggs is best known for being one of the largest individual contributors to Mississippi Democratic Party candidates.
Barely three weeks ago, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger and other news sources began reporting that Scruggs was funding "a new attack ad on Republican insurance commissioner hopeful Mike Chaney." Last July, he gave a quarter of a million dollars to "Mississippians for Fair Elections, a PAC 'created to raise awareness about the role the insurance commissioner plays'" in Mississippi government.
Last June, Scruggs filed a 100-plus page complaint in the Southern District of Mississippi, accusing State Farm Insurance Co. of a "racketeering enterprise" to suppress or destroy engineering reports it received from its own chosen expert evaluators that found insured homes had been damaged by high winds rather than flooding water. The allegation is the legal equivalent of nuclear war, potentially subjecting State Farm to treble damages and a host of other severe punishments.
Just one day before the indictment was made public, Scruggs filed an amended complaint [pdf format] in the ongoing litigation. As described by Biloxi reporter Anita Lee "a team of policyholders' attorneys led by Richard 'Dickie' Scruggs" added new allegations that State Farm had actually financed the start-up of an engineering firm which then wrote hurricane damage reports with conclusions dictated by State Farm:
The owner of an engineering firm hoped to make up to $1.5 million over three months by adjusting Hurricane Katrina claims for State Farm, borrowing $150,000 and establishing a line of credit with State Farm Bank to set up shop on the Mississippi Coast in September 2005, according to records filed late Tuesday in federal court.
Because of the arrangement, Forensic Analysis & Engineering Corp. was beholden to State Farm, which wanted to minimize its Hurricane Katrina losses for wind damage, the lawsuit says. Another vendor that adjusted Katrina claims, the independent adjusting firm E.A. Renfroe & Co. Inc., at times owed 80 percent of its income to State Farm, the court records say.
The 73-year old Calhoun County, Mississippi, judge, Henry Lackey, who claims a Scruggs intermediary tried to bribe him waited less than 48 hours before hitting the interview circuit to share his story with Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.
Not to mention (though we will) the indictment was handed down just a couple of weeks before Scruggs was scheduled to host a large fund raiser at his home for Hillary Clinton's campaign.
It may be difficult for folk living in a normal state, or even a politically subnormal state like Florida, to believe that the federal and state judicial systems in a place like Mississippi could be so bent that the weight of the law might be brought down on someone just because they belong to the wrong political party. But the erudite international lawyer and Harper's Magazine blogger, Scott Horton, has some familiarity with the depths to which his native South can sink.
He's been exposing the through-and-through corruption of Alabama's system for much of the past year, now. Here's a sampling. It isn't easy reading but it is eye opening.
Horton has occasionally remarked that things in neighboring Mississippi are much the same. As he wrote a few weeks ago:
In the last several months, we have looked in some detail at the prosecution of Democratic Governor Don E. Siegelman in Alabama. There is now substantial evidence that this prosecution was politically motivated, involving a number of key figures in the Alabama G.O.P., Karl Rove, U.S. attorneys in Birmingham and Montgomery, and political appointees at the Justice Department in Washington.
[W]hile studying the Siegelman case, I have been looking over a series of cases in Mississippi which are remarkably similar to the Siegelman case in many ways. At this point I believe, based on documents and evidence which have come to me, that the Mississippi prosecutions will also shortly be exposed as being politically motivated and directed. In any event it is clear that they were designed to, and did, have a key role in influencing elections in Mississippi for the benefit of the Republican Party.
"For five years Washington has had a Department of Political Persecutions where the Department of Justice used to stand," Horton also has written.
It is some measure of the damage done to the Justice Department under the Bush administration that one can even entertain the thought Scruggs' indictment may be politically inspired. But we know, now, that the Justice Department has perverted justice elesewhere for just that reason. The likelihood that's its happening again in Mississippi is too plausible to be dismissed.
Posted by Beach Blogger at 4:55 AM 7 comments:
Labels: Bush administration, Dickie Scruggs, Justice Department, Katrina, Mississippi, Scott Horton
When Driving to Pensacola Beach....
UPDATE BELOW
When driving to Pensacola Beach ... for the holidays, just remember that the other cars you see may well be driven by lunatics like this woman, who was "so bored" she began filming herself on the road from Atlanta to Pensacola. On camera, she says she's itching to "go faaaassst," waves both arms in the air as she plays air guitar, nearly falls asleep when her eyelids droop, and yawns uncontrollably.
Those other drivers, just like this woman, may confess in mangled syntax, "For some reason I can't speak properly when I drink." After eating a "ribwich" while driving, they could become so smeared with barbeque sauce they are tempted to take their hands off the wheel to demonstrate how greasy they've become.
Those other drivers, you can bet, frequently will be taking their eyes off the road as they play around with music CDs. They could be repeatedly gazing at their own image on a video cam screen. Likely, they will fall asleep at wheel, as this woman nearly does.
Most disturbing of all, remember that those other drivers on the road well may be afflicted with such bad judgment that they will post the evidence of their gross negligence on the Internet for all to see.
12-2 pm
Alas, the video has been removed from YouTube. After entertaining us for several days -- not to mention educating us about driving habits of those heading for Pensacola Beach -- it seems the budding Atlanta film-maker/imminent auto wreck victim has had second thoughts. Maybe, just maybe, her judgment is improving.
Good luck to her... and anyone she may encounter on the road.
Posted by Beach Blogger at 8:51 AM No comments:
Labels: humor, pensacola beach
Panhandle Christmas Crimes
File this in "There will always be a Florida Panhandle."
The Great Bra Caper:
The manager of Victoria's Secret in Santa Rosa Mall discovered the disappearance of 126 bras after the manager of another store suggested she check her stock.
A similar theft had just been reported at Victoria's Secret at University Mall in Pensacola.
The bras reportedly disappeared sometime after 8 p.m. on Nov. 18, according to an Okaloosa County Sheriff 's Office report. Their value is $5,460.
Missing are 50 Very Sexy Push Up Bras, 12 Very Sexy Wireless Bras and 64 Very Sexy Flip Bras in various sizes, according to the report.
On Aug. 22, nearly $5,000 worth of panties was stolen from an open table.
Ladies, if you happen to find some "very sexy" bras under the tree this year, be sure to call 9-11.
Posted by Beach Blogger at 1:31 PM No comments:
Labels: Christmas, crime, pensacola
Happy Thankstaking
Jon Swift:
Since the days of the pilgrims Americans have been giving thanks, but isn't it about time we got some thanks for all that we have done for the world? Just once I would like to celebrate Thankstaking instead of Thanksgiving. Just once I would like the rest of the world to show us a little gratitude.
Traditionally the Pilgrims started Thanksgiving in 1621 to thank the Wampanoag Indians for helping them through a difficult winter. For the last 400 years we've been thanking the Indians for what they did for the colonists, so would it kill them to take one year to thank us for civilizing them and for introducing them to casino gambling, which has proven to be such a boon to their culture?
Regrettably, the Wampanoag can't thank us because most of them were killed off by the colonists and those who claim to be their descendents can't prove they who they are so they aren't officially recognized. But there are plenty of other Native-Americans who could certainly take an hour or two off from running the blackjack tables to say, "Miigwetch, kimosabe."
There's more, and it's as entertaining and dementedly insightful as always.
That's Six Inches?
Just before local elections in New Orleans last summer, the U.S. Corps of Engineers published new flood risk maps for the districts of Lakeview and Old Metarie showing how Corps improvements have improved the area's flood protection on a block-by-block basis. The maps didn't include specific technical data, so it wasn't possible to independently verify their accuracy. But they sure looked pretty:
The maps showed that the improvements made to the city canals' drainage systems would reduce flooding during a major storm by about 5.5 feet in Lakeview and nearby neighborhoods. The maps were based on a storm that has the likelihood of occurring at least once in 100 years.
So pretty, in fact, that the New Orleans Times-Picayune says Federal Gulf Coast Recovery Chief Donald Powell "called the reduced flood risk one of the most important events in the state's recovery."
Now it seems all those boastful men at the Corps made a small estimating mistake. Instead of 5 1/2 feet, the protection offered is just six inches.
Il Menu Ispirato
The story: Friends rent an apartment in Rome for a 10-day vacation. Return home, thrilled.
The scene: Friends spend two days at home preparing a dinner party for friends and family, with all they have learned about exotic Italian cheeses, wines, pastas, meats, vegetables, and -- the very best part -- desserts.
The dialogue: Friends seem to have temporarily misplaced the CD-ROM with their vacation photos. There is no home movie or slide show to endure. How sad. Guests make do by exchanging hilarious and engrossing tales of their own lives, the books they have written, and the books they are writing. One of them is finishing an anti-self-help book about why you should avoid those late-night TV info-mercials about how to become a millionaire by buying real estate. They did it, and it nearly killed them.
The menu (with a few scattered splotches of food):
Truly, a dinner party to remember.
Labels: authors, dinner, food, Italian, Italy, pensacola, vacation
Rerun: Mailer vs. Everyone
Dick Cavett, from "In This Corner, Norman Mailer":
"I know someone who sure as hell hates being dead."
Labels: Genet, Gore Vidal, Janet Flanner, Norman Mailer
The Bank You Know...
... may not be the bank you owe.
On Oct. 10, Judge Boyko, 53, ordered the lenders' representative to file copies of loan assignments showing that the lender was indeed the owner of the note and mortgage on each property when the foreclosure was filed. But lawyers for Deutsche Bank supplied documents showing only an intent to convey the rights in the mortgages rather than proof of ownership as of the foreclosure date.
Saying that Deutsche Bank's arguments of legal standing fell woefully short, the judge wrote: "The institutions seem to adopt the attitude that since they have been doing this for so long, unchallenged, this practice equates with legal compliance. Finally put to the test, their weak legal arguments compel the court to stop them at the gate."
* * * [T]he inability of Deutsche Bank, as trustee for the pools, to produce proof of ownership at the time of the foreclosures will fuel borrowers' concerns that they are being forced out of their homes by entities that may not even hold the underlying loans.
Adds one mortgage securities specialist, "There is no industry repository for mortgage loans. I have heard of instances where the same loan is in two or three pools."
Yikes! If Wall Street investment banks don't even know that the mortgages they think they own are also being claimed by others, who's to say Wall Street arbitrageurs aren't double- and triple-counting even the ordinary investment assets they think they own?
Posted by Beach Blogger at 11:21 PM No comments:
Labels: bankruptcy, derivatives, mortgage, wall street
Bait and Snitch
There's a sued sheriff in town.
Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby has pleaded no contest to noncriminal charges that stem from a 2004 hunting trip in Wisconsin.
A Richland County judge adjudicated McNesby guilty of two counts of illegal hunting/possession of game/birds and placing bait with nondegradable material.
McNesby, who entered his plea last month, had to pay a fine of about $2,500, and his hunting license in the state of Wisconsin was revoked for three years.
McNesby's mug now goes in the book along with more than fifteen other Pensacola bigwig-wannabees (including a prominent minister who organized 'Christian hunting' parties) who've been nabbed for cheating while slaughtering Bambi and her relatives just so they could bring home a trophy.
It's pretty clear some among them wound up snitching on their hunting buddies. However, the biggest game has yet to be bagged. Similar illegal hunting charges are still pending against George Touart and Mike Whitehead. Those two have raised the defense that they're too stupid to know hunting ethics or laws.
We're with Touart on that one. He's so dumb he could screw up a retirement party -- and has.
As for county commissioner Mike Whitehead, no punishment could be too severe. In Wisconsin, Macho Man Mike was out to massacre helpless deer. Here in Pensacola he's known for making war against endangered species like the Perdido Key beach mouse, using excessive condo building permits as his weapon of choice. The man is a wildlife terrorist.
We think an appropriate punishment would be extraordinary rendition. Let the Wisconsin police blindfold Whitehead, pack him on a plane, and send him to the Milwaukee Zoo. There, interrogators like the ones seen below will know how to deal with him:
Posted by Beach Blogger at 6:29 AM 1 comment:
Labels: deer hunting, escambia county sheriff. ron mcnesby, george touart. wisconsin, mike whitehead, perdido key beach mouse
Bush Bests Record
No, no. Not that record.....He already has it. This one:
Sixty-four percent of Americans disapprove of the job President Bush is doing, and for "the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they 'strongly disapprove' of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974."
Could this be the reason?
Despite some notable accomplishments in domestic and foreign policy, Nixon is mostly associated today with disdain for the Constitution and abuse of presidential power. Obsessed with secrecy and media leaks, he viewed every critic as a threat to national security and illegally spied on U.S. citizens. Nixon considered himself above the law.
Bush has taken this disdain for law even further. He has sought to strip people accused of crimes of rights that date as far back as the Magna Carta in Anglo-American jurisprudence: trial by impartial jury, access to lawyers and knowledge of evidence against them. In dozens of statements when signing legislation, he has asserted the right to ignore the parts of laws with which he disagrees. His administration has adopted policies regarding the treatment of prisoners of war that have disgraced the nation and alienated virtually the entire world. Usually, during wartime, the Supreme Court has refrained from passing judgment on presidential actions related to national defense. The court's unprecedented rebukes of Bush's policies on detainees indicate how far the administration has strayed from the rule of law.
Or, is this the reason?
Crude oil prices closed in on 100 dollars a barrel Wednesday after striking fresh record highs on global supply concerns, traders said.
All of this makes some want to revisit the 2000 election. We won't bother. Here's why: By 1975, when the thoroughly disgraced Nixon left Washington, you couldn't find anyone who would admit having voting for him. By 2008, when and if Bush turns over the reigns of power to a successor, it will be impossible to find anyone in Florida who punched his chad in 2000.
Java Joe Rejects Republicans
Pensacola's own Joe Scarborough, host of the new NBC show "Morning Joe," quoted by Jacques Steinberg in today's NYT:
"I'm just as conservative as I was in 1994, when everyone was calling me a right-wing nut," he said. "I think the difference is the Republican Party leaders, a lot of them, have run a bloated government, have been corrupt, and have gone a very, very long way from what we were trying to do in 1994. Also, the Republican Party has just been incompetent."
Is Scarborough still a right-wing nut? Probably. But he's not so stupid as to overlook rank incompetence or the path to higher ratings, or both.
Labels: bush, conservative, Joe Scarborough, Republican
Fruit du Festival d'Art
We went. We saw. We bought. Is it really art? Who cares?
Labels: arts, Gulf Coast, pensacola
Releasing Terrorists, Jailing Lawyers
"If Bush and Cheney are ever tempted into extreme measures in the United States, Musharraf has provided a template for how it would unfold. Maintain you are moving against terrorists and extremists, but actually move against the rule of law."
-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Nov. 5, 2007
When the normally calm and unflappable Prof. Juan Cole sees in the events now transpiring in Pakistan a "template" for how the Bush administration could destroy democracy in the United States, it's time to sit up and pay close attention.
Make no mistake: the coup engineered over the weekend by Gen. Pervez Musharraf wasn't really against Islamic militants. It was against the rule of law in Pakistan. As Prof. Barnett Rubin writes from Islamabad --
Judging by the General's actions, judicial activism is a much more sinister and immediate threat than terrorism, as all of his actions since yesterday have targeted the former rather than the latter. Indeed Musharraf's agents managed to pirate the codes to prevent Geo TV from uploading its programs to satellite, while Maulana Fazlullah's FM station in Swat continues to broadcast calls for jihad without impediment.
What were those "actions?" Even as Pakistan's government was doing a deal to release "28 insurgents from government custody, including some allegedly connected to suicide attacks," as the International Herald Tribune reports, Gen. Musharraf was busy firing the Pakistani Supreme Court, putting hundreds of other judges under house arrest, and re-filling the jails with lawyers.
"Hundreds of opposition leaders and lawyers have been arrested,"Karachi's International News reported in its on-line edition yesterday. Hundreds more lawyers in Islamabad and Lahore were beaten by police, Reuters reports. The Associated Press reports more lawyers were arrested in Rawalpindi and Multan.
The New York Times and others are reporting that Musharraf decided to move when word reached him that the Pakistani Supreme Court intended to rule unanimously this week that Gen. Musharraf was ineligible to continue serving as the nation's president:
His decision to suspend the Constitution and fire the Supreme Court was taken days before the court was due to decide whether his re-election on Oct. 6 was valid. A close aide to General Musharraf said the Pakistani leader had decided to declare an emergency when he was told last week by a Supreme Court justice that the court would rule within days that he was ineligible to continue serving as president. The ruling would have been unanimous, according to the aide.
The UK Guardian -- unconstrained by what has become the lazy and survile American journalistic habit of relying on anonymous government sources -- quotes a political ally of Musharraf to the same effect:
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling PML-Q party, said the decision to impose emergency rule was triggered by fears that the supreme court would rule against Gen Musharraf's recent re-election in a legal appeal. A friendly judge passed the information to the government last Wednesday. "He said the verdict may be unanimous. So we had no choice," he told the Guardian. "The debate was whether to impose emergency before or after [the court ruling]."
Foreign correspondent Griff Witte reports in today's WaPo that the U.S. and Great Britain OK'd Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf's coup against civilian opposition leaders and the Pakistan court system.
A close adviser to Musharraf said Sunday that the president's inner circle believed that before he issued the order, the United States and Britain had grudgingly accepted the idea of emergency rule, despite earlier objections. He said he did not expect any action against Musharraf by the West. "When we convinced them that it would only be for a very short time, they said, 'Okay,' " the adviser said.
An unnamed "Western" diplomat (there you are again) disputes that claim, according to Witte. But even as the reporter dutifully transcribed Anonymous' words, there's the strong suggestion of substantiation:
"The U.S., along with Britain and other countries in the E.U. and the Commonwealth, made every effort to try to dissuade Musharraf's government from doing this," the diplomat said on the condition of anonymity, adding that "Rice couldn't have been stronger in several phone calls" to Musharraf.
Therein lies the rub: only the hapless Condoleeza Rice made mere "phone calls." David Sanger and David Rohde explain the contextual importance of that in today's New York Times:
[A]ides to General Musharraf... said they had anticipated that there would be few real consequences.
They called the American reaction "muted," saying General Musharraf had not received phone calls of protest from Mr. Bush or other senior American officials. In unusually candid terms, they said American officials supported stability over democracy.
"They would rather have a stable Pakistan — albeit with some restrictive norms — than have more democracy prone to fall in the hands of extremists," said Tariq Azim Khan, the minister of state for information. "Given the choice, I know what our friends would choose."
So, it seems the U.S. certainly enabled Musharraf's coup if it didn't outright green light the thing. This isn't the first time the Bush administration has accepted Musharraf's bald-face lies at face value. It also would not be the first time Bush and his authoritarian enablers imitated the crimes of another country's excesses. Bush has shown time and again that his administration can survive, and indeed thrive, only by creating "an atmosphere in which law [is] constantly subverted to political expedience," to use Scott Horton's words from last month's speech about the Nuremberg trials.
"When fascism comes to America," Sinclair Lewis wrote in 1935, "it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." And, as Musharraf has shown us, braying about the terrorist threat.
Can't happen here? Read the new books by Naomi Wolf or Joe Conason and think again. As this excerpt from Conason's book states:
For the first time since the resignation of Richard M. Nixon more than three decades ago, Americans have had reason to doubt the future of democracy and the rule of law in our own country. Today we live in a state of tension between the enjoyment of traditional freedoms, including the protections afforded to speech and person by the Bill of Rights, and the disturbing realization that those freedoms have been undermined and may be abrogated at any moment.
Such foreboding, which would have been dismissed as paranoia not so long ago, has been intensified by the unfolding crisis of political legitimacy in the capital. George W. Bush has repeatedly asserted and exercised authority that he does not possess under the Constitution he swore to uphold. He has announced that he intends to continue exercising power according to his claim of a mandate that erases the separation and balancing of power among the branches of government, frees him from any real obligation to obey laws passed by Congress, and permits him to ignore any provisions of the Bill of Rights that may prove inconvenient.
Elsewhere, Wolf had provided a ten-step summary "shopping list" for the Bush administration to "close down democracy." By our count, nine of them have been taken off the shelf. There remains only one: "Suspend the Rule of Law."
Bush's buddy, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has shown him the way.
Arts Festival
Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival
Seville Square in downtown
"That beauty which is meant by art is no mere accident of human life which people can take or leave, but a positive necessity of life if we are to live as nature meant us to... ."
-- Oscar Wilde, Art and the Handicraftsman
Labels: arts, festival, Gulf Coast
The Surge Continues
Via Intel Dump, Iraqi Army Training:
Labels: humor, incompetence, Iraq War, video
Annual Pensacola Arts Festival
It may be a little strong to say, as Pensacola promoters do, that "The Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival is one of the most highly regarded and popular arts festivals in America." After all, there are thousands of arts and craft fairs every year. There also seem to be thousands of self-appointed experts who aspire to grade such things. The GGAF doesn't even register with most of them, such as Art Daily, Art Fairs International, Kara Art, Festival Net, and so on... and on... and on.
But it is a first-class event. Without much doubt this coming weekend, at least, it's the best juried arts and crafts fair anywhere in the U.S.
Greg Lawler, who runs the"The Definitive Guide to the Best Juried Art & Craft Fairs in the United States" gives it a B+ -- and he's a tough grader.
We don't pretend to know anything about art festivals, but we know what we like. And we look forward to the Greater Gulf Coast Art Festival every year. Stop by if you can.
Labels: arts, crafts, festival, Gulf Coast, music, pensacola
Jeff Miller (R-Fla)
Deceit Beach: The True Story by William L. Post
Oil Paintings for Home or Office
Master Oil Painter Tu Zhiwei
Barrier Island Girl Photos
Master Carpenter Hiroshi Sakaguchi
Traditional Japanese Carpentry - - one room or a whole house
Botanical Paintings, Portraits, and More
Mary Kline-Misol
Area Web Cams
Destin and Navarre Beach
Ft. Walton Beach
Navarre Beach
Pensacola Beach Pier
Alternative Florida News
Candide's Notebooks
Capitol News Service
New Times
Pensacola Independent News
Sayfie Review
Pensacola Area Info
100 Black Men of Pensacola
Esca-Rosa Press
Gulf Breeze Cinema 4
Gulf Breeze News
Gulf Islands National Seashore
Ichthyology (Sharks)
Loaded Gun (culture)
Navarre Beach Leaseholders & Residents
Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier
Pensacola Beach Hotels/Restaurants
Pensacola Beach Today
Santa Rosa Island Authority
U.S. Navy Blue Angels
Wiki: Pensacola Beach
Beach Blogger
Florida Speaks
Florida Leftyblogs
Resident Info Links
Caribbean Conservation Corps
CatAdjuster.org (Property insurance)
Espo Creative
FEMA (official site)
FEMA-INFO (unofficial site)
I-10 Bridge Repair Cams
Pensacola Beach Tax Law Suits
Pensacola Elementary School
Pensacola Area Blogs
Barrier Island Girl
Bloggy Bayou - Niceville
Chumuckla Now
Greg's Page O' "Why Bother?" (Pensacola)
KokoNut Telegraph
My Perdido
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Sam Hall, Dist.2 City Council
Save Five Flags
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Hot Flash News
Inside Chelsea
Kandee the Makeup Artist
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Sarah Smiley
Sleep Talking Man
Taylor Marsh
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WKRG.com News


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text:
Q: GROUP_CONCAT using where in is not working as expected I got a table [country] as follow
 id  | country_name
-----+---------------
 1     India
 2     USA
 3     Nepal
 4     SriLanka

When I try querying as follows, it works as expected
select group_concat(country_name)
from country
where id in (1, 2)

I get the result as I want
 India,USA

But when I try the query using this way, I get a different result
select GROUP_CONCAT(country_name)
from country
where id in (CONVERT(REPLACE(REPLACE('[1,2]','[',''),']', ''), CHARACTER));

The result I get is
India

Require help in this regard.

A: you can try this !
select GROUP_CONCAT(country_name) from country
where id in (CONVERT(varchar,REPLACE(REPLACE('[1,2]','[',''),']','')));

A: I am not sure why you use the second query
but you may try using json

select GROUP_CONCAT(country_name) from country where JSON_SEARCH(CAST('["1","2"]' AS JSON), "one", id )

Using json_search mysql will look id in your json array.
The problem is, it works with ["1","2"] and not [1,2]

A: At last i found the answer
select GROUP_CONCAT(country_name) from country where FIND_IN_SET(id,REPLACE(REPLACE('[1,2]','[',''),']',''));

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


By Dave Kopel, research director of the Independence Institute & NRO contributing editor.
National Review Online. July 14-15, 2001. More by Kopel on France, and on World War II.
The greatest day in French history is not Bastille Day (July 14), which turned out to be only an important point in a failed revolution that degenerated into dictatorship and imperialism. Rather, the greatest day came the day after the most shameful moment in the history of France, as the greatest man in French history stepped forward, and saved the honor of his nation.
In the spring of 1940, Hitler's army burst through the Ardennes Forest, bypassing the French defensive Maginot Line. In late May and early June, the remnants of the British Expeditionary Force rushed to evacuate the continent, escaping from Dunkirk on British civilian fishing boats and other rescue craft. Germans tanks and bombers drove into Paris on June 14. The battle for France was clearly lost, and the French government, which had fled to Bordeaux, argued about whether to continue the war from the French colonies in North Africa.
On June 16, 1940, the democratic government of Premier Paul Reynaud collapsed, because Reynaud refused to support an armistice with Germany. On June 17, the Vice-Premier Marshal Philippe Petain, a hero of World War I, formed a new government, which offered to conditional surrender to the Nazis. Five days later, an armistice was signed at Rethondes, the same site where Germany and France had signed the armistice ending World War I.
Overwhelmingly ratified by the French legislature, the surrender allowed the Germans to occupy all of Atlantic and northern France. A neutral French government, under a Petain dictatorship, would be allowed to exist in south-central and southeastern France, comprising 40% of France. This government, with a capital at Vichy, could retain control of the powerful French fleet, and of the French overseas colonies. Petain's government promptly abolished the French Third Republic, setting up a fascist dictatorship in the rump state that was the only remnant of the nation which had once been the leader of the free world and Western civilization.
But even as Petain and his cowardly majority were bringing France to its lowest point, the little-known Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle had arrived in London and was meeting with Winston Churchill. Would the British attempt to deal with Petain's government, or would they back de Gaulle's dream of forming a resistance?
The leaders who, for many years, were at the head of French armies, have formed a government. This government, alleging our armies to be undone, agreed with the enemy to stop fighting.
Of course, we were subdued by the mechanical, ground and air forces of the enemy. Infinitely more than their number, it was the tanks, the airplanes, the tactics of the Germans which made us retreat. It was the tanks, the airplanes, the tactics of the Germans that surprised our leaders to the point to bring them there where they are today.
Believe me, I speak to you with full knowledge of the facts and tell you that nothing is lost for France. The same means that overcame us can bring us to a day of victory. For France is not alone! She is not alone! She is not alone! She has a vast Empire behind her. She can align with the British Empire that holds the sea and continues the fight. She can, like England, use without limit the immense industry of United States.
This war is not limited to the unfortunate territory of our country. This war is not finished by the battle of France. This war is a world-wide war. All the faults, all the delays, all the suffering, do not prevent there to be, in the world, all the necessary means to one day crush our enemies. Vanquished today by mechanical force, we will be able to overcome in the future by a superior mechanical force.
The destiny of the world is here. I, General of Gaulle, currently in London, invite the officers and the French soldiers who are located in British territory or who would come there, with their weapons or without their weapons, I invite the engineers and the special workers of armament industries who are located in British territory or who would come there, to put themselves in contact with me.
Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance not must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished. Tomorrow, as today, I will speak on Radio London.
The next morning, Wednesday, French people living in London, including many young girls, began streaming to de Gaulle's office to volunteer to do whatever they could for the cause. De Gaulle's wife, along with their three children and governess, arrived in England, having escaped on the last boat leaving Brest. In France, General Weygand had issued an order for de Gaulle's arrest, the moment the speech had been broadcast. Yet several newspapers in France dared to print the text of de Gaulle's speech. In northern France, already under German control, young men began to slip away to England in fishing boats, or whatever else they could put to sea, in order to join the Free French.
Most French people, of course, passively acquiesced to the German military government or to the Vichy government. But de Gaulle's speech laid the foundation for the minority who would resist--who would join the Free French overseas, or who in metropolitan France would fight a guerilla war that would help, after four and a half brutal years, drive the Nazis out. Posters of de Gaulle's words sprang up all over France, and although the authorities ripped them down quickly, they could never extinguish the flame of resistance which de Gaulle had lit.
De Gaulle began to form the Free French army. In May-June 1942 at Bir-Hakeim, Libya, the Italian army and Rommel's Afrika Korps were held off for several weeks by an outnumbered Anglo-French army which inflicted heavy casualties on the Axis.
The Nation has tremendous pride learning what its soldiers at Bir-Hakeim have done. Brave and pure children of France have written with their blood one of the most beautiful pages of glory!
At the greatest architectural site in France — the Eiffel Tower — the subway station is named "Bir-Hakeim." Much more so than the French victories in Napoleonic or monarchical wars, the French soldiers at Bir-Hakeim fought for the highest principles of freedom and patriotism.
The Charles de Gaulle Foundation's website includes a special section commemorating the 61st anniversary of the Appeal, and if you read French, the site is well worth visiting.


In 2012 there were about 160 million households that filed tax returns in America. And despite all of the recent changes, taxpayers still have three basic avenues to choose from when they file. About three-fifths of filers went to a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or a tax preparation franchise such as H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt to have their taxes prepared. Filers with complex returns, such as those who have business-related income or deductions from corporations, partnerships or oil and gas leases, or day traders who will require complicated basis calculations will continue to use trained professionals to prepare their returns. But the majority of filers with simpler returns are being presented with more and more options that make it possible for them to accomplish this task on their own. Another 30% of filers used computer programs such as Turbotax and Quicken. Of course, these software programs have been available for years to allow even those with moderately difficult returns, such as someone who runs a side business out of his or her home and itemizes deductions, to file their returns electronically.
The market has become even more competitive with cheaper web-based programs such as TaxAct and TaxSlayer that are now available through the IRS Free File program. The recent introduction of free electronic filing of state returns through state tax websites provides many filers with a no-cost alternative for state filing, which usually comes with a charge even with IRS Free File programs. The demise of refund anticipation loans (RALs) has also significantly diminished the bottom lines of many smaller preparation firms, as well as the major franchises. Preparers who own or work for small firms that previously depended upon return preparation fees as their primary source of revenue have seen a major reduction in their incomes as a result of this change.
The tax preparation process itself has steadily become faster and more efficient as more and more information is now available in digital format. A growing number of preparers can now import much or all of their client data from personal finance websites, such as Mint.com or bookkeeping programs such as Quicken, directly onto their tax returns with a single click instead of entering all of those numbers manually. And electronic signatures that are entered with the client's verbal permission often make it unnecessary for clients to physically appear in the preparer's office. Mobile apps now allow taxpayers who file short forms to bypass computer preparation altogether.
Smart tax preparers know that preparing a client's tax return is also an extremely effective form of prospecting for other types of business. One of the key reasons for this is that most clients do not view their preparers as salespersons but rather as professionals or advisors. This strategic advantage allows those with the proper training, licensure and experience to quickly ascertain a client's overall financial situation and offer insurance or investment products, or other services that may be needed, such as auditing, bookkeeping or even comprehensive financial plans. The additional revenue that can be generated from this approach can be substantial in many cases. For example, a preparer who carries a life and health insurance license could do a $150 standard return for a customer who is retiring and needs to roll over the $200,000 that he or she has accumulated in his or her company retirement plan. The preparer could move this money into an indexed annuity and reap an additional $10,000 if the carrier that is used pays a 5% gross commission.
The client has reaped an important additional benefit at no additional out-of-pocket cost and the preparer has received additional revenue that would otherwise require the preparation of approximately another 67 returns at that cost on a pretax basis. Practitioners who can successfully integrate their tax business with other aspects of financial planning can gain an edge by offering free or discounted returns for clients who use their more profitable services.
The Affordable Care Act has provided prepares with yet another opportunity to offer additional services to their customers. Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block have integrated enrollment into Obamacare directly into the interview process, and smaller preparers may soon be able to follow suit. This can greatly simplify the enrollment process for customers by allowing them to use the proceeds from their tax returns to pay for health care coverage. Other tax providers such as TaxAct also allow filers who must pay educational expenses for either themselves or their dependents to use the information on their returns to generate a FAFSA form.
Another key development in the tax industry occurred in 2011 when the IRS finally began requiring all paid tax preparers who were not already CPAs, enrolled agents or tax attorneys to pass an annual competency test and complete 15 hours of continuing education. This provision will also likely hit small firms the hardest, as the major franchises already have tax schools and other resources in place to meet this obligation. The franchises have argued that this law will reduce the number of incompetent preparers who work for small firms, while opponents maintain that it will merely reduce their competition from these firms by forcing many of them out of business.
Although the tax preparation industry is likely to survive, and perhaps even to thrive for the foreseeable future, preparers at both large and small firms can expect their competition to increase and will need to continue to find ways to differentiate themselves from their peers in order to maintain profitability. Customers will be offered an ever-widening array of choices for preparation in not only how they can file, but also of additional financial and accounting services that they might need. For more information on the future of tax preparation, consult your tax preparer or financial advisor.