text:
Posada Carriles: 'The bin Laden of the Americas'
by Horace Campbell
Reprinted from Pambazuke News
The news regarding the killing of Osama bin Laden by United States military forces hit the airwaves on Sunday, 1 May 2011, prompting jubilation among many people in the United States and other places around the world. This triumphalism of US citizens, who were directly or indirectly affected by the military activities of bin Laden's al Qaeda group, emanated from the belief that bin Laden's death served justice to the victims for the 11 September 2001 attack on the US. It is, however, important to note that as dreadful as bin Laden was, modern international terrorism did not begin with him. As quiet as it is kept, international terrorism did not begin on 11 September 2001. Before Osama bin Laden, there was Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles, also known as Posada Carriles or 'Bambi', according to a de-classified CIA file.
On 6 October 1976, plastic explosives stuffed in tubes of toothpaste brought down Cubana Flight 455 leaving Barbados for Cuba. This singular attack on the Cubana Airline killed all 73 passengers on board, including some of the best athletes in the Caribbean, and was especially felt among Cuban youths who lost 24 members of their Olympic fencing team. This fencing team had recently competed and obtained all gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championship. Investigations by the governments of Cuba, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad, Venezuela and the United States ascertained that the mastermind of the explosion was Posada Carriles. The Caribbean demanded that Carriles and his accomplices be brought to swift justice.
Carriles was a key operative in many CIA campaigns against Fidel Castro and Cuba. Additionally, Posada was involved in a wider campaign of political repression involving kidnappings and assassinations all across South America. This campaign, called Operation Condor, had the special imprint of the dictators in Argentina and Chile. Orlando Letelier was a former minister of Chilean president, Salavador Allende's government, who along with his secretary was assassinated by a car bomb explosion in Washington, D.C. on 21 September 1976. This was an example of American supported terrorism spilling on to the streets of the capital of the United States. Posada Carriles was directly linked to Operation Condor and to the assassination of Orlando Leteiler. It was only weeks after this killing on the streets of Washington that terror struck the Caribbean in the attack on the Cubana flight.
Carriles was reported to have boasted about his involvement in the bombing of the Cubana aircraft. He was for a short time incarcerated in Venezuela, but later 'escaped.' After this ' escape' on 18 August 1985, and hiding out for 15 days, Posada was whisked away from Venezuela and transported to Aruba on a shrimp boat. From Aruba, he travelled on a private aircraft to Costa Rica and afterwards to El Salvador where he was at the frontline in the terror campaign against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
The trail of blood and destruction left by Carriles in the Caribbean, South and Central America over the past 50 years are a hallmark of the veritable history of the CIA in the Americas. During the military destabilisation and devastation that was called the 'Contra Wars,' Posada Carriles was a key asset for the right-wing US forces, and he has been associated with death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala. Posada, while working as security advisor to the government of Guatemala, carried a Guatemalan passport. This was a country where 40-50,000 people disappeared during the war and approximately 200,000 were killed. In the 1990s, it was from this genocidal space where Posada and the Cuban National Foundation planned more terrorist attacks against Cuba.
In 1997, Carriles masterminded a series of bombings in Havana that killed a tourist. The Panamanian government in 2000 convicted Carriles in an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro who was visiting Panama for a summit. Posada Carriles served four years in prison before he was pardoned by the Panamanian president in her last week in office. Undoubtedly, the Panamanians succumbed to pressures from the US security forces.
A fugitive from Caribbean justice, in 2005, Carriles turned up in the United States, where he was arrested and charged with minor immigration offences. Instead of prosecuting Carriles for the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and other terrorist acts, the United States only accused him of obstruction of justice and perjury. Specifically, the US accused Carriles of lying to an immigration officer about the manner in which he entered the United States.
In this post-9/11 world, where the United States has manufactured jurisdiction, pressured or cut deals with other countries to extradite those on its terror watch or most wanted lists, these negligible charges reinforce the double standards of the United States in relation to terrorism and terrorists. The governments of the Caribbean, especially Barbados, Cuba, Trinidad and Venezuela, which have pursued Carriles for over 30 years, were outraged when Carriles was acquitted of even these minimal charges in a trial held in El Paso, Texas on 8 April 2011. The fact that he was tried on immigration and perjury charges instead of charges related to acts of terrorism was itself an indicator of the blowback that confronts the US as it seeks to present itself as a force against terrorism internationally. Today, in the aftermath of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the Caribbean people are calling on President Obama to extradite Posada to Venezuela to stand trial.
BIN LADEN OF THE AMERICAS OR AMERICA'S FREEDOM FIGHTER?
Posada Carriles has been identified with acts of international terror for over 50 years. Born in Cuba in 1928, Carriles left Cuba after the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship and joined the forces fighting against Fidel Castro in Cuba. Because he was fighting communism – in this case, communism in Cuba – in the eyes of the US, Posada Carriles was not a terrorist, but a freedom fighter. But 'fighting for freedom' US-style was not confined to terrorist acts solely against Cuba. As noted above, these acts were carried out against the peoples of the Caribbean and Venezuela. Carriles was trained in the use of explosives by the CIA, and his use of a tube of toothpaste for the bomb came from training that he and his forces received from the CIA. Although Carrilles was an anti-communist zealot, it was his training by the CIA and CIA finances that made him a lethal force.
It was the same anti-communist zeal that was inspired within the Caribbean when the US mobilised in the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. In this war, the tactics and strategies of Carriles and the Caribbean terrorists were mobilised to train anti-communist forces of all forms, especially persons such as Osama bin Laden. Sources from the West itself do not contest the fact that during the anti-Soviet jihad, bin Laden and his fighters received American and Saudi funding. Bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA. This training followed the lines that had been refined with the anti-communist Cubans. The strength of the recruitment of Osama bin Laden was that, unlike Posada, Osama provided some of his own money and helped raise millions from other wealthy anti-communist Arabs. Osama bin Laden then recruited hundreds of thousands for his jihad. Today, many countries in Africa are suffering the repercussions of this alliance between the CIA and Osama bin Laden
It was a strange twist of history that the release of Posada Carriles came on 8 April 2011 approximately nine days before the 50th anniversary of the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. This aborted invasion continues to have a decisive effect on the politics of the US. The failure of this invasion is one of the alleged reasons that sections of the US intelligence and military establishment decided to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. This has been the allegation in numerous books on the assassination of President John Kennedy. The most recent book outlining in detail the culpability of the intelligence agencies was written by James Douglass, 'JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters'. Douglass presents a very compelling argument that Kennedy was killed by 'unspeakable' forces within the US national security establishment and pointed to the links of these unspeakable forces to international terrorism. Scholars and researchers are still awaiting the declassification of the information on a CIA elite intelligence unit called Operation 40 to shed more light on JFK's assassination.
This episode of the killing of a US President and the efforts of the CIA to assassinate President Fidel Castro of Cuba have now been well considered as high points of US support for international terrorism. No less a body than the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho) in 1975 discussed alleged plots to kill foreign leaders. Known as the Church Committee, this Senate body investigated alleged plots to kill: Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Ngo Dinh Diem (Vietnam) and Rene Schneider (Chile). The report established that the US government was implicated in several of these assassination plots. The Church Committee's report stated that, 'short of war, assassination is incompatible with American principles, international order and morality. It should be rejected as a tool of foreign policy.' Despite this admonition by a committee of the United States Senate, the CIA, working with its agent Carriles, stuffed explosives in tubes of toothpaste to kill young Caribbeans a year later.
Any terrorist organisation needs a pool of citizens willing to carry out acts of terrorism. After the debacle of the Bay of Pigs (17-19 April 1961), the US intelligence and military circles found a pool of willing accomplices from among the ranks of those Cuban exiles who were bent on overturning the socialist experiment in Cuba. These exiles had repaired to Miami, Florida and acted as a conservative force in US politics for over half a century. They not only supported the most brutal dictators in Latin America but were hired by the US to destabilise the Democratic Republic of the Congo so that the African independence project could be derailed.
Posada Carriles hailed from this Cuban exile Community in Florida; he was associated with groups that carried names such as Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue. Among the more infamous of these American ' freedom fighters' were Orlando Bosch (recently deceased) and Jorge Mas Canosa. Numerous reports from quality news outlets identified Posada Carriles as someone who had been in the service of the CIA since 1961. According to a lengthy New York Times article in 1998, titled 'A Bombers Tale: Taking Aim at Castro; Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles' Backing,' we are told:
'Jailed for one of the most infamous anti-Cuban attacks, the 1976 bombing of a civilian Cubana airliner, [Carriles] eventually escaped from a Venezuelan prison to join the centerpiece of the Reagan White House's anti-Communist crusade in the Western Hemisphere: Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North's clandestine effort to supply arms to Nicaraguan contras.'
The experiences of US terror throughout Latin America during the Reagan years require that peace activists internationally have a different orientation on terrorism than the United States. The long-standing war in Colombia in the so called 'war on drugs' was part of a process of militarisation and destructive terrorism that wreaked havoc on the Caribbean and Central America. Posada Carriles along with Elliot Abrams, a foreign policy official within the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, who was convicted in 1991 for withholding information from Congress in the Iran-Contra affair; and John Negroponte and other luminaries of the conservative forces in the US played key roles in supplying and supervising the CIA-backed contra mercenaries who were based in Honduras. This Contra War claimed over 50,000 lives.
During the same period, Honduran military death squads, operating with Washington's support, assassinated hundreds of opponents of the US-backed regime. Negroponte later surfaced as US Ambassador to Iraq and was a leading spokesperson in the 'war on terror.' Negroponte had held cabinet-level positions in both George W. Bush's and Reagan's administrations such as the first ever Director of National Intelligence and US Ambassador to the UN (Bush) and Deputy National Security Advisor (Reagan).
As the case of Carriles and many others demonstrate, long before the anti-communist jihad, long before Bin Laden, and long before declaring the infamous global war on terror, the US had trained and enlisted some of the world's most notorious terrorists and called them ' freedom fighters.' Most sections of the US media acknowledge that the FBI and the CIA were quite aware of the terrorist activities of Posada Carriles. Posada Carriles was a ' freedom fighter' for the US in the Caribbean and Latin America, while Osama bin Laden was a 'freedom fighter' for the US in Asia and just as Jonas Savimbi was a 'freedom fighter' in Africa. This was the same period when those legitimately fighting for liberation in Africa were deemed to be terrorists. The same CIA and the US military labelled the African National Congress of South Africa a terrorist organisation and its leaders were considered terrorists.
Carriles' escapades as an American 'freedom fighter' did not end with his escape from incarceration in Venezuela in the 1980's or with his links to the 1997 Cuban bombings. Carriles was complicit in many terrorist activities directly or indirectly related with many of the over 600 plots to assassinate Castro. In 2000, Posada was arrested with 200 pounds of explosives, along with three associates. Five Cubans who worked to expose to the US authorities the terrorist activities of the Cuban American National Foundation and other exile groups in Miami were arrested by the US in 1998. The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five (Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González), are five Cubans convicted in Miami of espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, and other illegal activities in the US. These Cubans, who exposed acts of terrorism planned from US soil, are still incarcerated while Posada Carriles walks free.
SEPTEMBER 2011 AND THE ' WAR ON TERROR'
While the FBI and the US security forces were working to convict the Cuban Five, right before their very noses, the conspirators planning September 11 were being trained at a flight training school in Florida to use airplanes as weapons against US targets. Subsequent to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001, security efforts to ' make the world safe from terrorism' became a major preoccupation for the US government, influencing global politics, banking and commerce, diplomacy and the movement of ideas and peoples across the globe. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks there was an outpouring of solidarity from all parts of the globe for the citizens of the United States. The US government sought to benefit from this solidarity and ascribed unto itself the task of leading the international effort to combat terrorism (supposedly on behalf of the rest of the world). For a short moment, the media represented Afghanistan as the base for international terrorists, and in particular Osama Bin Laden. The US government launched a war against the Taliban government of Afghanistan in October 2001, and Central Asia became one of the primary fronts in the war against terrorism.
President George W. Bush argued after the September 11 attacks that, 'aiding and harboring terrorists' was on the same level as committing terrorist acts. The fact that 30 years after the attacks on the Cubana Airlines the US continued to harbour the known perpetrators of the crime, brought to the fore the reality that the US government had been committing terrorist acts long before September 11 and its so-called war on terror. It was much clearer after 11 September 2001 that the rule of harbouring terrorists only applied to those who the US deemed to be terrorists.
POSADA ON TRIAL
The full details of the comings and goings of Carriles in the service of the CIA is in the public domain. When Posada Carriles entered the US in 2005, the vigilance of the Caribbean investigators ensured that his quiet return was publicised. There was a massive demonstration in Cuba exposing the double standards of the Bush administration that was fighting terrorism but protecting terrorists. Posada Carriles was arrested and charged with eleven counts of perjury and obstruction only after the publicity from the Caribbean and the calls from Venezuela for him to be extradited back to Venezuela to stand trial.
This is how the New York Times in 2006 carried the story of his detention in the United States:
'Cubana Airlines Flight 455 crashed off the coast of Barbados on Oct. 6, 1976, killing all 73 people aboard. Plastic explosives stuffed into a toothpaste tube ignited the plane, according to recently declassified police records. Implicated in the attack, but never convicted, was Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile who has long sought to topple the government of Fidel Castro. Today, Mr. Posada, 78, is in a detention center in El Paso, held on an immigration violation while the government tries to figure out what to do with him. His case presents a quandary for the Bush administration, at least in part because Mr. Posada is a former CIA operative and United States Army officer who directed his wrath at a government that Washington has long opposed. Despite insistent calls from Cuba and Venezuela for his extradition, the administration has refused to send him to either country for trial.'
The strength of the terrorist alliances with the US ensured that Carriles understood that he was above the law. As his attorney, Felipe D. J. Millan, tellingly asked in the above New York Times article, 'How can you call someone a terrorist who allegedly committed acts on your behalf?' Mr. Millan went further to defend Carriles' actions that though Carriles was considered a terrorist in Latin America and the Caribbean he indeed was a freedom fighter for the US. Mr. Millan maintained that by denying or ignoring the fact that Carriles acts were committed in his fight for America, 'would be the equivalent of calling Patrick Henry or Paul Revere or Benjamin Franklin a terrorist.'
When Carriles was acquitted on all charges in the El Paso court on 8 April, the Caribbean community was collectively outraged. In Barbados, where the initial terrorist act was committed, the editorial of the main newspaper, The Nation, was: 'Painful Recall Over Acquittal of Cuban Exile.'
The Venezuelan government protested the acquittal and demanded that the United States comply with international treaties and extradite Posada Carriles to face trial before a Venezuelan court. The Venezuelan government further mentioned that, 'the legal proceedings in El Paso represented little more than a continuation of Washington's protection of the CIA terrorist, which, the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry said, has become an emblematic case of US double standards in the international fight against terrorism.' The Cuban government described the verdict as an 'outrage' and an ' insult,' charging that Washington continues to harbor and protects 'the Osama bin Laden of Latin America.'
LESSONS FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATION
Students in Africa who do not know the history of United States terrorism will need to study the country's intricate plot to assassinate presidents and freedom fighters at home and abroad, in addition to understanding the relationship of some US law enforcement agencies to international terrorism. The US justifies its creation of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) on the grounds that it is assisting the fight against terrorism in Africa. People that really care about Africa must question the credibility of AFRICOM against the background of the US tradition of training terrorists to fight for American interests while labelling freedom fighters as terrorists. How credible is the US war on terror when the country harbours such a brutal terrorist as Posada Carriles while keeping in custody the Cuban Five? Brutal terrorism of the Posada genre is reinforced by the economic terror against Cuba as manifest in the illegal economic blockade against Cuba. The conservative forces of the Cuban National Foundation in Florida are now connected to counter revolutionary forces against the rights of ordinary citizens in the US.
Students in the US who study International Relations are seduced by the discourse on fighting against terror, but these students are presented with abstractions that leave out the history of US-sponsored terrorism, especially in the past 50 years. Illegitimate US aggression throughout the globe by the CIA and sections of the US armed forces is a familiar political phenomenon and is well documented for those who care for the truth. The Federation of American Scientists has chronicled the numerous interventions by the US since 1945 and among the activities listed have been armed aggression, destabilizing governments, suppressing movements for social change, assassinating political leaders, perverting the course of elections, manipulating labour unions, manufacturing 'news' teaching torture, creating death squads, engaging in biological warfare and drug trafficking, training mercenaries, and working with Nazis and their collaborators. Scholars and activists who write on low intensity wars have been highlighting the ways in which the government of the United States was the principal supporter of terrorism. Noam Chomsky has been forthright in documenting the ways the US has acted as the leading terrorist state in the world, showing how these relationships have operated in Latin America for decades.
The US Africa Command created a disinformation platform, Operation Objective Voice, to confuse Africans. One of the requirements of psychological warfare and information warfare is for some truth to serve as the basis of the information that is being peddled. The experience of Posada Carriles is one of the examples that expose the false narrative that the US is genuinely involved in a war against terror. There is so much public information on the details of the Cubana Airlines flight 455 that any objective voice within the US military today would seek to distance themselves from the forces within the state that supported dastardly acts of terror and international crimes. In reality, however, the criminal actions associated with killing 73 Caribbean youths are compounded by the economic terrorism unleashed by the US banking system and the forces that spread the doctrine of neo-liberal capitalism. Billions of dollars are scooped up from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America by the US financial oligarchy and these are the forces that benefit from all forms of terror. Direct crimes such as those of Carriles and the economic crimes of the International Monetary Fund are two sides of the terror of international capitalism. These forces collaborated yesterday to assassinate John F. Kennedy and are at work today to ensure that in spite of the economic crisis, billions are spent on weapons and the spread of wars in Afghanistan, Libya and other parts of the world. Is it possible that Carriles was not incarcerated because he has information that would be even more explosive than the facts revealed in the books on Operation Condor, 'The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents' and 'JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters?' According to an organisation called the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five:
'A footnote in a document filed by Posada's lead defense attorney on January 28, 2010, is quite revealing about the kind of classified information that Posada Carriles threatens to expose in the course of the trial. His attorney, Arturo Hernández, argues in that motion, ' The Defendant's CIA relationship, stemming from his work against the Castro regime through his anti-communist activities in Venezuela and Central America, are relevant and admissible to his defense.' The motion furthermore alleges that the US government had been complicit in bomb-setting in Cuba and asked the court to compel the government to declassify all information that shows the ' involvement, knowledge, acquiescence and complicity [of the U.S. Government] in sabotage or bombings in Cuba.' Also, the motion requests disclosure of ' [t]raining, instructions, memos or other documents reflecting orders to the Defendant to maintain secrecy and not disclose his relationship or information regarding his activities on behalf of the U.S. Government or any of its Agencies.'
Now that many Americans feel that justice have been served with the death of bin Laden, the question is: do the citizens of the Caribbean and their relatives and acquaintances, who were victims of Posada Carriles' terrorism, deserve justice?
The acquittal of Carriles reminds us of the dangerous intersection between militarism, terrorism and those forces that profit from war and mind control. Could the global war on terror be an exercise in mind control just as the trial and acquittal of Carriles exposed the contradiction of decades of unleashing terror? The fact that the Obama administration could not reverse the intersection of history and the contemporary heritage of the operations of the US terror machine ensure that it is up to the peace movement to intensify the efforts to dismantle the financial-military-information complex that remains above international law.
* Horace Campbell is professor of African American studies and political science at Syracuse University. He is the author of 'Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA'. See www.horacecampbell.net.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Groovy - Constructing json from String I'm using Groovy, i've tried to create a simple function which will construct a Json object from a provided Json string, then i'm trying to print this string but unfortunate it's adding Square brackets to the output.
Here's a snippet from my code:
def JsonBuilder ConstructJsonObject (jsonStr) {
    def jsonToReturn = new JsonBuilder();
    def root = jsonToReturn(jsonStr);
    return jsonToReturn;
}

String jsonStr = "{id: '111'}";
println(jsonStr);
def jsonObject = ConstructJsonObject(jsonStr);
println(jsonObject.toPrettyString());

And here's the output:
{id: '111'}
[
    "{id: '111'}"
]
It's returning an Array and not a pure Json.

A: If you change your input to be valid json (with double quotes round the keys and values), you can do:
import groovy.json.*

String jsonStr = '{"id": "111"}'
println new JsonBuilder(new JsonSlurper().parseText(jsonStr)).toPrettyString()

To print
{
    "id": "111"
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Welcome to the Golf Monthly Golf Betting Tips home page – The place to find out how best to make some money from our glorious game.
Each week the Golf Monthly Tipster will be providing some expert advice on where to place your hard-earned cash.
Unlike other betting sites we give tips for both the European and PGA Tours meaning that you can make money from events on both sides of the Atlantic.
Depending on what bets you took advice from me on last week you may have been up or down on Monday. But we were all richer having seen Tiger win again. Hopefully you got on there to be a hole in one again at the Masters, this has been successful three years in a row now.
What is a betting point?
It is the value that you would usually put on a bet, for example if the tip is to bet 5 points on Rory McIlroy to win and your usual bet is £1 then you would bet £5 in total. If you like to bet 50p then it would be £2.50, if it is £10 then it would be £50. This is so that the tips are relevant for each individual punter and their own specific circumstances.
Who is the GM Tipster?
Tom Clarke has been on the staff at Golf Monthly since 2009 and bets on a range of sports. Has top knowledge on all things golf, from the course conditions, tournament history and player form.
Everyone at Golf Monthly ask that you bet responsibly. All the tips provided are exactly that, tips, there are no guaranteed profits.
What is the GM Tipsters Golf Betting System?
The GM Tipster will always cover the entire field, he won't just tell you who the favourites are. He usually picks 4 picks per tournament, a favourite, two mid range and an outsider. He looks at all the latest stats, historical performances and course knowledge to decide on his picks.
Who will make the headlines in India?
Who will take home the trophy in Texas?
Who will take down the prize in Africa?
Who can defeat Sawgrass this year?
Who is going to win in Doha this week?
Will Rory be able to defend his title?
Who is going to win the first leg of the Florida Swing?
Who is going to win at the dizzy altitude in Mexico?
Can Bubba win again at Riviera Country Club?
Who is going to win the joint event over in Australia?
Will Gary Woodland be able to defend his title?


text:
LAPD opens internal affairs inquiry in Nipsey Hussle case
FILE - This March 29, 2018 file photo shows rapper Nipsey Hussle at an NBA basketball game between the Golden State Warriors and the Milwaukee Bucks in Oakland, Calif. Court documents show that Hussle and the man charged with killing him had a conversation about "snitching" shortly before Hussle was shot.
Talk show host Steve Harvey to cover students' college costs
FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2017, file photo, Steve Harvey participates in the "Steve" panel during the NBC Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. Talk show host, comedian and game show host Steve Harvey has committed to covering the college costs for eight incoming freshmen at his alma mater in Ohio. Kent State University said in a release that The Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation has worked with Kent State University to provide scholarships of about $23,000 per student.
R. Kelly's lawyers ask judge to dismiss sex abuse lawsuit
R&B singer R. Kelly, center, arrives at the Leighton Criminal Court building for an arraignment on sex-related felonies Wednesday, June 26, 2019 in Chicago. (AP Photo/Amr Alfiky)
Steph Curry makes faithful moves through production company
FILE - In this May 29, 2019 file photo, Golden State Warriors basketball guard Stephen Curry speaks to the media before practice for the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors in Toronto. The Golden State Warriors superstar is strategically producing content that focuses on sports, family and faith through Unanimous Media, which he co-founded with Jeron Smith and Erick Peyton. The newly-formed production company already has several projects under its belt including a major studio film, network television show and a couple documentaries in just a year.
Witness says 'snitching' talk preceded Nipsey Hussle killing
Elba says race talk around Bond casting disappointing
FILE - This Jan. 21, 2018 file photo shows actor-director Idris Elba at the Music Lodge during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Elba confirmed in a Vanity Fair cover article that he will not be the next James Bond.
Kim Kardashian West faces backlash over Kimono shapewear
FILE - This Dec. 3, 2018 file photo shows Kim Kardashian West at "The Cher Show" Broadway musical opening night in New York. West has earned some backlash from Japanese people and others on social media who object to her appropriation of the traditional Japanese kimono as part of the name of her upcoming shapewear line. The reality star, makeup mogul and budding lawyer announced Tuesday on her channels that her Kimono Solutionwear, in a range of sizes and colors she showed off on Instagram. Some Japanese people on social media said the name, which West trademarked, is an inappropriate take centuries-old kimono clothing.
Tributes to Michael Jackson flow on 10th death anniversary
Michael Jackson impersonator Rem Garza of Long Beach, Calif., poses next to a shrine to the late pop star outside his final resting place in Holly Terrace at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Tuesday, June 25, 2019, in Glendale, Calif. Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of Jackson's death.
A list of winners at the 2019 BET Awards
Anderson .Paak, left, presents the album of the year award to Cardi B at the BET Awards on Sunday, June 23, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Cardi B hit with new felony charges in strip club brawl
FILE - This May 31, 2019 file photo shows Cardi B arriving at Queens Criminal Court, in New York. The Grammy-winning rapper has been indicted on new felony charges in connection with a fight at a New York City strip club. She had previously refused to plead guilty to a misdemeanor that would have resolved the case. The 12-count indictment includes a felony charge of attempted assault with intention to cause serious physical injury.
Jennifer Lopez makes up concert interrupted by power outage
Congressman, celebs push for A$AP Rocky's release from jail
Feds bring new sex-crime charges against singer R. Kelly
Weinstein overhauling legal team as trial looms in 60 days
Alex Morgan, US women's soccer team honored at The ESPYS
Valentina Cortese, Italian screen diva, dead at 96
3 vehicles owned by Elvis Presley going up for auction
Emmy-winning actor Rip Torn has died at the age of 88


text:
The Columns (also known as The William "Money" Williams Mansion) is a historic home in Tallahassee, Florida. It was built around 1830.  It is located at 100 North Duval Street. On May 21, 1975, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The building is the present home of the James Madison Institute.  It is a former home of Benjamin Chaires.

References

External links

Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
Leon County listings
The Columns
James Madison Institute, current occupants of the site

Historic buildings and structures in Leon County, Florida
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida
National Register of Historic Places in Tallahassee, Florida
History of Tallahassee, Florida
Houses in Tallahassee, Florida
Historic American Buildings Survey in Florida

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Growing up I spent a lot of time in the kitchen around the holidays so I want to be sure that my children have those same memories. This holiday season we have teamed up with Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk to sweeten the season!
For 150 years, Eagle Brand® has always been an essential part of your family's favorite holiday baking traditions, whether preparing fudge, pies, cookies or cakes. Made from a special blend of milk and sugar that makes baking delicious desserts almost effortless, Eagle Brand® provides a "fool-proof base" for endless holiday treats.
The buttery taste of sweet toffee reminds me of my Grandfather and growing up around the holidays I could always count on him to bring me toffee so this recipe is a new holiday favorite with a bite of tradition from the past.
To start this recipe you will first start by creating the shortbread bottom crust. You'll want your butter to be softened and the oven to be preheated to 350 degrees.
Simply mix your butter, flour and sugar for the shortbread. Pack into the bottom of a greased baking pan.
Bake for 25 minutes until edges are brown and allow to cool.
Next you will want to start the toffee layer by melting your butter in a sauce pan. Add your condensed milk and and corn syrup and bring to a full rolling boil stirring constantly. Allow to cook for 5-8 minutes.
Remove form the heat and add in your vanilla. Pour over your cooled shortbread and allow to cool. Once it has cooled you will want to melt your chocolate chips in a double broiler. Top with a layer of chocolate and allow to cool then refrigerate.
What things are you baking this year that are holiday traditions?
Be sure to connect with Eagle Brand and find other great recipes by connecting with Eagle Brand on Pinterest.
Be sure to enter the giveaway!!
This is a partnered post I was provided with a prize pack and free products to review.
These look delicious and the perfect treat for a Valentines Day party!
love shortbread — and toffee! These sound yummy!
Hi, I just wanted to point out that there's nothing in the actual instructions about the brown sugar for the toffee. I'm currently in the process of making it and I just stirred it in with the vanilla after removing from heat until it was smoothly dissolved. Hope that was right..
FYI — it worked out fine with the brown sugar. Everyone loved the recipe!
I just made these the other day from your recipe and they turned out great! Everyone loved them and they all disppeared so quickly. I added this recipe to my colloection.
Yum! Shortbread cookies are my favorite and I often dip them in chocolate (with crushed candy canes dusted in top if I'm feeling especially festive), but this just takes it to a new level. What a wonderful flavor combination!
These look WONDERFUL. I adore shortbread and love all kinds of toffee, so this sounds like a recipe made for me!
This looks like a delicious dessert! I'd love to put this on our dessert buffet at our Christmas dinner!
I have a holiday party to attend in a week and a half and I know what I am taking for a special treat! I do not see how anyone could not LOVE this little treat. Thank you for sharing!
These looks really yummy! Seems like a simple recipe too. I will have to give this a try for a Christmas treat. Thank you for sharing!
Oh my goodness. These look amazing! I will have to try and make these. These would be awesome to bring to work for our holiday potluck.
I have made these before they are super good and the plate is always emptied anytime I have taken them anywhere!
I have been looking for a new dessert to make for Christmas, thanks!
I love toffee! This looks yummy! I will have to try them out.
I think it looks pretty complicated but I think I might try it.
for verifications wanted to mention some of my comments are coming up under heavensent2272 and some are under my name.
My wife makes peanut butter bars that look very similar to those but are obviously different because they have peanut butter.


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Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
TROPIC THUNDER (director/writer: Ben Stiller; screenwriters: Justin Theroux/Etan Cohen/story by Ben Stiller & Justin Theroux; cinematographer: John Toll; editor: Greg Hayden; music: Theodore Shapiro; cast: Ben Stiller (Tugg Speedman), Robert Downey Jr. (Kirk Lazarus), Jack Black (Jeff Portnoy), Steve Coogan (Damien Cockburn), Jay Baruchel (Kevin Sandusky), Danny McBride (Cody), Brandon T. Jackson (Alpa Chino), Nick Nolte (Four Leaf Tayback), Matthew McConaughey (Rick Peck), Bill Hader (Studio Executive Rob Slolom), Brandon Soo Hoo (Tran), Tom Cruise (Les Grossman); Runtime: 106; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Stuart Cornfeld/Eric McLeod/Ben Stiller; DreamWorks; 2008)
"Bad as both an action pic and as a comedy."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Tropic Thunder is not a new strain of potent weed like Pineapple Express but just another unfunny movie about making a movie. It's a coarse sendup satire on Hollywood and what Hollywood's egotistical personalities will stoop to do in order to get a hit. It pretends to show how a crass Hollywood really makes an action film. The only problem is the film is unimaginative and is just as crappy as the films it's so smugly dissing. For its comedy antics there's a white actor in blackface (always a riot), a retarded character named Simple Jack (the mentally challenged are always good for an easy laugh), a series of fart jokes (toilet humor always flushes down well with certain demographics) and a stereotypical portrait of a pushy Jewish studio boss dressed up as what a Jew is supposed to look like (it's always sporting fun to be self-deprecating). The usually offensive Ben Stiller ("The Cable Guy"/ "Zoolander"/"Reality Bites"), who thinks anything he does is funny, directs, cowrites (with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen) and stars in a film that has the distinction of being bad as both an action pic and as a comedy. It's not bad because it's necessarily offensive, though all its comic routines were vulgar, but because the jokes lacked wit, were dumb, hit a too obvious target to resonate as anything meaningful and the few laughs garnered were merely hollow triumphs.
Vietnam vet Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) wrote a memoir about his war experience and sold the rights to Hollywood. Rookie British director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) is filming Tropic Thunder on location in Vietnam but the prima donna pampered actors are not following his instructions and the harried director can't control them. The actors include: Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), whose once successful career is on the skids after too many sequels bombed and his attempt to go for an Oscar in a tearjerker pic playing a bucktoothed country boy retard named "Simple Jack" backfired. Tugg now needs a quick image change in a hit actioner to resuscitate his career and is set to play the part of a gung-ho sergeant. Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) is the pretentious five-time Oscar winning actor, who undergoes a skin-darkening procedure to play the part of a black sergeant and stays in character as a black man even with no film rolling. Alpa Chinoan (Brandon T. Jackson) is an actual black man and rapper, who resents that a white man stole the best part for a black man in the film; he also shows business skills as he peddles an energy drink called Booty Sweat. When not tricked into letting out that he's gay, Alpa's around to poke fun at the Aussie Kirk's black man impersonation. Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) is a heroin-addicted comic looking for a change of pace film after appearing in a string of fart-based hit comedies that has him attired in fat suits in which he plays multiple roles. The fifth star is newcomer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), who is the most rational one in the cast but the one least respected.
The megalomaniac studio boss is played by an almost unrecognizable Tom Cruise, in a cameo, who has a hairy chest, wears specs, is balding, overweight, foul-mouthed and made up with a heavy latex face to look supposedly Jewish. Matthew McConaughey plays the high-powered agent of Tugg's who wants to make sure he has a TiVo in the jungle as stipulated in the contract.
On the set, is a hyper explosives expert named Cody (Danny McBride) and the book writer Tayback is retained as the technical adviser. Tayback gets the bullied director to relocate the shoot further into the jungle for a more realistic film; that's where the grizzled, handless, ex-soldier hero says the action actually took place. Soon the actors find themselves in real jungle combat and it takes them a long time to realize the enemy firing at them are not actors playing Viet Cong but an Asian heroin drug ring called the Flaming Dragon operating in the jungle and led by an adolescent named Tran (Brandon Soo Hoo).
Robert Downey Jr.'s goofy performance, especially him saying such things as "I don't read the script – the script reads me" and "how the n-word has held "his people" down for the last 400 years," is the only reason I could think of for sitting through this ugly mess, where Stiller hoped to run with his gross-out material and use his shock yuks to appeal to one's base instincts by laughing at someone else's expense. There wasn't one thing risky or edgy about this soft satire on the movie industry, an industry that has done real well for all those involved in the film. But the only real objection I have is not over its offensive characterizations or profanity or vulgarity, but at how this is just another crappy mainstream Hollywood film that pats itself on the back thinking it's something special.
REVIEWED ON 8/14/2008 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
WHITE TIGER, THE
OPENING ACT, THE
IN FABRIC
REASON I JUMP, THE
Copyright 2019 - Dennis Schwartz Reviews


In June 2014, I picked up a Cherry G80-3700HAU numeric keypad. One of my observations was that the Cherry MX Black switch used for num lock (MX1A-11GW), with its integrated LED, used a different upper shell to the other switches. This was confirmed to be normal practice in old Cherry keyboards, but no reason for it was known.
Having queried my contact at Cherry US, I discovered that this practice continues to the present day (March 2015 at the time of writing): switches with LEDs fitted by hand in the Cherry factory use a different upper shell. The reason for this is to provide guidance for the LED; there is no other purpose. What is not clear, and no longer known, is why this alternative shell is not simply the only shell used for all switches. What are the drawbacks to it that stop it from being used by automated assembly lines in Asia? The specific details are now lost to the annals of time.
Upon taking the switch apart, two more things become clear: there is also a flat guard or guide below the surface, and the LED itself is self-retaining.
The legs of the LEDs are bent such that the LED will snap into place when inserted. Using the same LED in both MX1A-11GW and MX1A-11NN, it remains a tight fit in 11GW, while with 11NN it is marginally loose. The snap-in principle does work correctly with both designs of switch.


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Posted on February 4, 2018 by Editorial Staff
UMSL Campus Crime Report Series for January 25 through 31
By Kat Riddler, Managing Editor
The Campus Crime Report series is a log of daily crime and incident reports issued by the University of Missouri- St. Louis Police Department between January 25 and 31.
January 26: At 7 a.m. at the Millennium Student Center, an UMSL student was detained for questioning by another agency. The student was released to the U.S. Marshall's office. At 8:30 p.m., UMSL staff members reported multiple contacts made by a former UMSL student at Woods Hall.
January 27: At 11:12 a.m., an auto accident between two vehicles occured at parking lot E. No injuries and minor damage reported.
January 28: A non-student was arrested for domestic assault at 8:08 a.m. at Mansion Hill. Later, the non-student was released to St. Ann Police Department for outstanding warrants.
January 29: An Express Scripts employee was transported to the hospital via ambulance after experiencing numbness at 7:12 a.m. from the Express Scripts campus. At 2:30 p.m., a MetroLink passenger was transported to the hospital via ambulance at their request after feeling delusional. At 5:13 p.m., an UMSL student reported a parking permit stolen from their vehicle at the MSC North Parking Garage. At 8:30 p.m., UMSL PD assisted Normandy PD with a robbery/carjacking on the parking lot of Mansion Hill. At 11:14 p.m., a pair of glasses were found on a shuttle bus and turn in to UMSL PD.
January 30: An UMSL student reported at 2:15 p.m. a flag stolen from their parked car on lot E. At 2:15, An UMSL student reported a lost set of keys in or around the West Drive Garage. At 10:14 p.m., a debit card was found and turned in to UMSL PD at the Mercantile Library. The owner was notified.
January 31: At 5 p.m., an UMSL student refused medical attention after complaining of side pain in the MSC. At 9:30 p.m., an UMSL student refused medical attention after suffering an allergic reaction at the Recreation and Wellness Center. UMSL PD responded to a report of an individual wearing all black that ran when approached by an UMSL student at Mansion Hill. The subject could not be located.
The daily fire and incident log is kept up to date for the campus crime report series. The full list of days and incidents can be found here.
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Tagged with:campus crime report, Kat Riddler, Mansion Hill, Mercantile Library, msc, News, Normandy Police department, st. ann police department, u.s. marshall's office, UMSL, University of Missouri - St. Louis, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Woods Hall
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The French Tulle G-string features a scalloped-edge elastic band that fits sleekly on your hips. Super comfortable, light and small, wear it under something transparent to reveal a pop of color.
Pair it with a French Tulle Underwire Bra, 50's Bra or Triangle Bra.
Choose from colors Black, Navy, Turquoise, Fluorescent Violet, Antique Beige, Fluorescent Yellow, White, Fluorescent Lime, Fluorescent Pink, and Fluorescent Acid.


This fishing site is an undeveloped pullout along Colorado Highway 7, 6 miles west of Lyons.
No parking dusk to dawn; fishing is permitted in accordance with regulations established by the Colorado Parks & Wildlife.
Directions: From Lyons, follow Colorado Highway 7 toward Allenspark. Turn into the pullout 6 miles west of Lyons.


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More Information on Modbus
More info on the Modbus Protocol
Monico supports thousands of customers by providing data converted to the popular Modbus RTU and Modbus TCP protocols. We have numerous standard, ready to use configuration files making data available over TCP/IP (Ethernet) and serial RTU (RS232 and RS485). Our default Modbus 30K configurations provide data scaled for Imperial and Metric units in 16-bit WORD, 32-bit INTEGER, and 32-BIT FLOAT data types. Flags are parsed out of WORDS and 32-bit INTEGERS and placed into 10K registers for easier incorporation into Remote Monitoring environments.
The Monico Gateway has ports to interface over multiple drops and network types simultaneously including a mix of Modbus and other output protocols. It has 2 RS232 and 1 RS485 (with an optional second port) and Ethernet ports. The Monico Gateway Ethernet can support up to 4 protocols simultaneously. Besides our full selection of pre-configured setup files for customer convenience, our tools allow full creation and customization capabilities by Monico or by the user to fit any installation. Our easy-to-use Monicoview and Monicoview II programming software allows simple adjustment of all communication settings including IP and serial addressing. This software can be downloaded from the Software & Tools section of the Support section of our website. Options include designation of master and slave and Modbus standard data types including read, read/write for:
Digital Coils
Analog Inputs
Holding Registers
File Registers
Holding Registers (32-bit)
We have an array of preconfigured files utilizing Modbus for our customers when communicating with Cummins and Kohler equipment. The "default" Monico configuration file is in 30XXX addressing because, as scaled (Imperial or Metric) Analog Inputs, they are Read-Only but standard 40XXX (unscaled) addressing is also available. Please see our Combined Data Maps for CDL and J1939 in the Support section of this website for more information on the Register Mappings.
Some highlights about Modbus:
Originally published in 19791 by Modicon (now Schneider Electric), Modbus was developed as a serial communications protocol between a single Master and Multiple Slave devices. It is most commonly used with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and remote sensors. It is an open protocol2 and used industrial communications for the Oil & Gas, Power Generation, and anywhere else automation is found or needed. Modus allows communication between as many as 240 devices on the same serial network and is frequently used to connect supervisory units to remote terminal units in control and data acquisition systems (SCADA). The standard is governed by the Modbus Organization3 which has overseen the open usage since transfer from Schneider Electric in April 2004. Serial Modbus communications requires a single Master unit interrogating one or many slaves on the Network. ModbusTCP (Modbus over Ethernet) maintains the same register schema but allows for multiple Masters interrogating one or many slaves on the Ethernet network. For additional reading on Modbus please visit the Modbus.org website.


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Math in Everyday Life
What's the best way to do something? Math has the answers Twitter
By Morgan Strum '19
Students of Math 306: Operations Research recently presented their final projects, offering mathematical solutions to real-world problems.
Taught this semester by Gary Gordon, professor of mathematics, the class provides students with techniques for developing linear programs that try to achieve the best mathematical outcome for optimizing an objective. Students then use their linear programs to solve problems.
Gary Gordon says Operations Research is the "perfect marriage" between theory and application.
In collaboration with Skillman librarians, students analyzed the study room reservation system for one project. Students in this group were interested in figuring out how to maximize the number of students booking reservations in a study room.
Another project focused on the math department's system for course scheduling, currently an inefficient process done by hand, according to students. The group used data including fall 2017 and spring 2018 courses, professor preferences, number of sections per course, and number of classes professors teach to figure out how to optimize techniques for automating the scheduling process.
Another group of students also did a scheduling project, focusing specifically on how the NFL could optimize weekly interest in its scheduling.
Gordon says that one of his favorite projects from the class was one in which students figured out how to find the shortest route around campus. Using both distance calculations from Google Maps and flying distances, the straight-line distance between two points, students calculated the fastest route among 48 buildings on campus. The group then created a map of campus detailing the route.
Group member Rindra Randriamanantena '20, a computer science and math double major, used his skills in computing to achieve his group's goal. He downloaded Concorde, a program in the language C, and ran another program so the group could apply it to the problem.
Two groups in the class worked in conjunction with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, a professional Minor League baseball team based in Allentown, Pa. Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, the IronPigs asked students to provide feedback on how it could be more profitable from ticket sales as well as give insights about marketing strategies. One group tackled ticket sales while the other group focused on marketing.
The IronPigs ticket sales group analyzed how dynamic pricing, or changing the price of a good based on demand, could be used to maximize profits from ticket sales. Students ranked seating areas into four blocks, with block one being the most desirable seating area and block four being the least desirable area. They then suggested that the IronPigs could increase the price of block one seating and keep other ticket prices the same. Through use of the program MATLAB, students even found that the IronPigs wouldn't lose many fans.
Students in the IronPigs "Ticketing Strategies" group examined how the organization could most effectively market to different groups, such as businesses, youth sports groups, and others. To do this, they looked at which groups come to IronPigs games and where they choose to reserve seats in the stadium. The end product was an analysis of where the team should be spending time and energy on marketing.
Gordon says the class has been part of the math major and math and economics double major for a long time, and is designed to incorporate both theory and application sides of math.
"I think it's a perfect marriage between theory and application," he says.
Although the class has been taught for many years, only recently were projects designed to involve outside organizations and the community. Gordon credits Jonathan Bloom, assistant professor of mathematics, who has taught the course for the past three years, with developing the community outreach aspect.
"It occurred to us a few years ago that if we're really going to do applications, we should have meaningful projects other than just projects that come from a book," Gordon says. "The hope is that over the course of several years, we'll have a nice base of a lot of different kinds of projects that students will be able to jump on."
Students say the class was an excellent way to learn tools and techniques they will use in their future careers. In the course, students learned how to use Microsoft Excel to find optimizations.
"A lot of the problems we were working were like any business problem where you're trying to optimize something and make something better than it already is, whether that be saving money or maximizing profits, and I think it's good knowledge to have," says Ryan Barnett '20.
Emily Geller '19, who worked on the library study room reservation project, says she enjoyed applying the techniques she learned to her project.
"We used the tools we learned in class to develop a linear program that optimized the study room scheduling process," she says. "I thought it was a really great experience to be able to take techniques that we learned in class and apply them to a real-world problem."
Categorized in: Academic News, Community-Based Learning and Research, Featured News, Innovative Teaching and Learning, Mathematics, News and Features, Students


Warrington, United Kingdom: American Golf is proud to unveil a new project designed to support the objectives of its designated charity, On Course Foundation. At this year's American Golf Grand Final weekend, every company involved in delivering the event will be taking on one or more On Course Foundation members. This campaign is set to be the biggest one off work experience campaign that the charity has ever embarked on.
American Golf has been working in partnership with On Course Foundation since 2014. As well as using golf as a means to rehabilitate its members, the charity seeks out employment opportunities for its members within the golf industry. American Golf works closely with the charity to identify suitable openings in its stores and also takes the Tour Truck to OCF's regional recruitment events.


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Students in China return to remote classes due to pandemic
BEIJING ( Associated Press) – Some Chinese universities announced Tuesday that they will allow their students to finish the semester from home during the Lunar New Year holiday in January, in hopes of reducing the potential for a large outbreak of COVID-19.
It is not yet known how many schools will participate in the initiative, but universities in Shanghai and surrounding cities have said students will have the option of going home early or staying on campus and undergoing diagnostic tests every 48 hours. will be given. The Lunar New Year, which falls on January 22 this year, is usually China's busiest travel season.
Universities have been the scene of frequent lockdowns over the past three years, leading to clashes between officials and students, sometimes confined to campuses or even their dorms.
Tuesday's announcement came as China began relaxing its strict "zero COVID" policy, allowing people with mild symptoms to stay at home instead of being sent to a quarantine centre, after protests were enforced The mob against the initiative, among other changes.
As of Tuesday, China has stopped tracking some activities, reducing the likelihood that people will be forced to visit COVID-19 hotspots.
The move follows the government's tough announcement last week that it would end the toughest policies after three years in which it imposed some of the toughest restrictions globally to tackle the virus.
Protests over the restrictions in Beijing and several other cities last month turned into calls for the departure of President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party, sparking a level of public discontent not seen in the country in decades.
While the change in restrictions has brought relief, the easing has also raised concerns about a new wave of infections potentially stretching health resources in some places.
Prosecutor confirms sabotage in train crash in Mexico
Kim Basinger suffers from agoraphobia
Come Without Impeachment In DEA – Contact
LeBron James sets record: Who were the other top scorers in the NBA?
Dhanna Paola joins the brash with a mini green bag and releases memes on social networks
train derails in Louisiana; causes eviction from homes
Early in campaign, Trump says he's more committed than ever


Contracts are tools to help you do business, and in that sense, you (rather than a lawyer) might be the perfect person to write your own contract.
This might seem counter-intuitive coming from a contract specialist, who helps companies to write their own contracts. When I work with clients, I ask them to tell me (in their own words) what they do and also why. This forms the basis of my contract. Each has a very different style as it needs to reflect that company, not me!
The elements you need for a legally binding contract are not that tricky to create in practice. If you have a signed document between two companies then four out of the five legal requirements are already in place: offer and acceptance (the signed document), intention (presumed between two companies) and there will be some form of value referred to (consideration).
What's left is to make sure that document contains enough clear and certain terms to create a workable agreement.
Who? Why? this requires you to think about who you are writing a contract for and why you are bothering.
Research you need to ensure your contract contains the terms needed to make it workable. If it is a construction contract, start with my 10 essentials.
Index there is no particular order for contract terms, although it makes sense to deal with the most important aspects first.
Text once you know what you need to include, then write it in plain language, without jargon or legalese.
Edit this step is intended to make sure your contract is accurate, brief and clear. It needs to reflect your company's values, stories, and tone of voice.
Should You Write Your Contract?
Many business owners ask lawyers to write their contracts – resulting in long, wordy documents you cannot read, understand or use. You may find your current contracts hard to negotiate, embarrassing to send to prospective clients, and tools which do not help them do business.
Other business owners write their own contracts anyway. You might copy & paste from a variety of (unreliable) sources, with predictable results.
Some of you just rely on a handshake, trust and an exchange of emails.
None of these are wrong … However, you can start from a blank sheet of paper, and – by following these 5 steps – produce a workable contract.Having a set of T&C which reflect your ways of working and help to sell your services can also reduce the time taken to get to 'yes' substantially (as one of my clients found).
Contracts written by users for users might not be perfect, but then no contract ever is!
What's Your Response to Increasing Risk?


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Russia's Protest Movement: Big, Angry, and Preparing for the Worst
Jeffrey Tayler
Saturday's mass demonstration in Moscow had plenty of fiery rhetoric, but what happens next?
Demonstrators rally in Moscow / AP
MOSCOW -- Perhaps only the police helicopters circling overhead could accurately estimate the number of demonstrators braving the fierce cold to protest on Sakharov Prospekt on 24 December against the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the apparently rigged elections to the State Duma held 20 days earlier. The state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported the laughably low figure of 29 thousand, the event's organizers claimed 120 thousand were in attendance (which, as far as I could gauge, appeared closer to the truth); but the respected daily Kommersant put the figure at 200 thousand.
Whatever the number, gone are the times when a small cluster of hardened oppositionists gathered on the central Triumfal'naya Square to suffer almost immediate arrest, without arousing the evident interest or sympathy of passers-by. After several half-measures announced by the government to redress public outrage over the Duma polls and Putin's televised swipe at demonstrators as condom-draped stooges of Hillary Clinton, the opposition has grown exponentially and hardened the tone of its demands. It has, in short, seized the initiative -- and shows no sign of backing down.
Demonstrations took place across Russia on Saturday. But peopling the crowd in Moscow were folks young, middle-aged, and old -- some very old, in fact. The speakers, including anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and former World Chess champion Garry Kasparov, delivered blazing denunciations of Putin, President Dmitri Medvedev, and the elections.
The most incendiary address, transmitted via video on a giant screen by the podium, came from Sergey Udaltsov, the 34-year-old leader of the radical left movement Vanguard of the Red Youth. Gaunt, pale, and with shaved head, Udaltsov, in detention and on a hunger strike since his arrest on December 4th, far exceeded in rhetorical vehemence the now commonplace monikers "crooks and thieves" applied to the pro-Putin United Russia party. Putin and Medvedev are, in his trenchant lexicon, "the tandem dwarfs;" more broadly, he labeled them and their colleagues "Kremlin bandits," "vermin," "filth," "swine," "the dark forces of evil," not society's "elite," but its "shit."
Russian oppositionists frequently denounce their leaders in such language, but not often on tape (now posted online) before a huge crowd in the capital's center. "Tandem dwarfs" caught on among subsequent speakers -- and this in a country where personalized, public ridicule of the authorities doesn't happen often. The next day, a Moscow municipal court extended Udaltsov's detention for a further 10 days, charging him with "disobeying the police." Owing to his hunger strike, his health is reported to be deteriorating.
After citing the Occupy Wall Street campaign and calling Russian protestors the "99 percent," Udaltsov laid out the protest movement's principle demands: cancellation of the State Duma election results, new elections to be held "under citizens' control," the departure of the president and government, and the drafting of new electoral and tax laws, the latter to eliminate what he termed the "monstrous social inequality" in Russia. He also called on opposition deputies (those, that is, who purport to oppose the Putin government) just seated in the State Duma to renounce their tainted mandates "or history will not forgive your treachery."
Putin's popularity, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, stands at 42 percent, down some 20 points since the beginning of the year. He is still officially favored to win presidential polls scheduled for next March, but thanks largely to the arcane machinations of Russia's Central Electoral Commission, genuine opposition leaders -- from Navalny to Udaltsov to Kasparov and others -- will probably be prevented from presenting their candidacy, in the unlikely event that they should even decide to compete.
Opposition leaders at Saturday's protests made clear that they see the Putin-Medvedev duo, and any elections they hold, as illegitimate -- a sign that the many of the protestors might not be willing to accept less than Putin's (and Medvedev's) departure and the resignation of their government. After all, once you have termed your leadership "swine," "thieves," "crooks" and "bandits," how could you accept their continued rule? Any participation in their elections could be seen as tantamount to the "treachery" that Udaltsov condemned, when he explicitly ruled out compromise: "Do no trust at all the tandem dwarfs!"
Toward the end of his address, Udaltsov called on the opposition to organize, to prepare to serve as a national salvation front, and even, if necessary, to become a transitional government. The movement still lacks a single leader, but one thing unites them all: the stated determination to force Vladimir Putin from power.
Udaltsov appealed for another mass demonstration at the end of January. If the protests persist and presidential elections are held under the current circumstances (with Putin and his cohorts controlling all branches of government and dominating the airwaves), it's difficult to predict how demonstrators will react, or even if there could be a risk of violence. Navalny warned of this, if obliquely, telling the assembled crowd that it was substantial enough to seize the Kremlin. Watching protest leaders heighten their rhetoric as the regime digs in, and remembering past episodes of political violence such as the October 1993 crisis in which 187 people were killed, one hopes that the government takes the protestors' demands seriously and act on them -- before it is too late.
Jeffrey Tayler is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and the author of seven books.


The aim of our research is to discover what factors impact software project productivity (measured as function points per hour) using real world data. Within this overall goal we also compare productivity between different business sectors and project types. We analysed a data set of almost 700 projects that have been collected by STTF from a number of Finnish companies since 1978. These projects are quite diverse type (new and maintenance projects), in terms of size (6 to over 5000 function points), effort (55 to over 60000 person hours), application domain and implementation technology. There are three main findings. First productivity varies enormously between projects. Second, project type has limited influence on productivity. Third, application domain or business area has a major impact upon productivity. Because this data set is not a random sample generalisation is somewhat problematic, we hope that it contributes to an overall body of knowledge about software productivity and thereby facilitates the construction of a bigger picture.


Visualize this: you find yourself needing a break from your stationary and stressful day. So you find a time that fits into your schedule, get your gear on, grab a buddy and enjoy an hour of high endorphin, toxin-removing, sweaty, deep breathing and clarifying bliss.
Sound familiar? Sound therapeutic? Sound like running? As well as yoga? It does to me and that's why I love both yoga and running equally. It's amazing how similar the emotional benefits of yoga and running are while being complementary forms of exercise.
To maintain a good range of motion and flexibility as well as a steady mental focus, some form of yoga should be incorporated to complement your running routine. Also, running increases cardiovascular health that usually peaks after a few years of steady yoga practice. Jogging keeps the heart and lungs strong in a way that yoga does not (not to mention the time outdoors!).
Following are simple poses that target the lower back, hamstrings and outer hips, to soothe your body and mind after a long run (or after a long day at a desk!).
Stand with your feet hip width apart or wider and bend forward at the hips. Keep your knees bent deeply. Either hold opposite elbows with your hands or keep fingers on the ground and relax the neck.
Seated, take the soles of your feet together and knees wide. Hold the feet with hands and bend forward with a long spine and shoulders back. Option to sit on a cushion or block.
From low lunge with right foot forward, straighten your front leg and lean pelvis back in space. Have only your front heel on the ground and toes facing the ceiling. If you fold over front leg, keep spine long and lead with the chest. Option to keep a micro bend in the front leg and have blocks under hands.
Come onto knees and sit back on heels, with toes tucked under. Keep your knees and big toes together. Maintain a tall spine. Option to stand on the knees rather than sitting back on heels if it's too intense.
Take a seated position or lie on your back and cross right ankle over left thigh. Either keep your left foot on the ground, or lift it and interlace hands behind left hamstring and draw the knees in closer. Encourage the right knee away from you and the right toes flexed towards shin.
Lying on your back, take knees into chest and wide. Weave arms inside knees and hold either your ankles or outer feet. Flex your feet up towards the ceiling and take your bent knees wider out to the sides while keeping low back, shoulders and head on the ground.
Lie on your back and bring legs up the wall. Have your bum two inches away from the wall to give yourself space to bend knees slightly. Place hands on stomach or arms wide at your sides. Option to tie a strap around thighs or take legs wide into a V shape on the wall.
Posted on April 20, 2015 by Carolyn Anne Budgell.


The entries for Challenge #4 of the Fear Project are live!
My entry this week is titled "Tobias." I went with zombies on this one, an unoriginal idea. So I focused on description being the strong point of this entry. I'll find out on Friday whether or not this piece keeps me in the game for another week.


The philosophy of New Horizons is reflected in its name…and that is to broaden the horizons of children. Our goal is to provide a broad-based and balanced interrelated curriculum enhanced by an experienced staff who, in turn, give children a sensitive combination of nurturing stimulation and a foundation for learning. The teacher creates a non-competitive atmosphere of acceptance and mutual respect so that each child may excel in areas of strength and receive help in developing new skills.
New Horizons strives for the child to have a positive self-image. Each child is a unique individual with specific needs and each grows and develops at a different rate. There is a trust in the child and a respect for each child's diversity as to race, color and national origin.
In every phase of the program, each child's sense of achievement and pride is fostered. The program is enhanced with the creative arts, music, language and physical fitness. Preparation in reading, writing and mathematical concepts is an on-going process in all classrooms. As students move through the Elementary grades, the focus becomes more on the necessary skills that are needed in order for them to become life-long learners in all areas of curriculum.
The physical facility of the school is colorful to stimulate curiosity and imagination as well as organized to encourage good work habits. Each classroom contains equipment specially geared to the size and age level of its students and challenges the child to reach out, explore and discover. The one-half acre outdoor playground allows the child not only to develop physical coordination but also offers endless opportunities for dramatic and creative play.
New Horizons believes that the total school experience must be shared with the family. Together, school and family can function as a team for the best interest of each and every child. Parents are encouraged to talk, visit, participate and advise us of their concerns and suggestions so that we can continue to provide a quality experience for their children.


Dr. Christine Prue spent 75 days on the ground in Puerto Rico earlier this year, leading a team that interviewed hundreds of pregnant women to gain insights into their perspectives about Zika.
For those living in resource-poor countries who suffer from rare diseases, MAP International works directly with pharmaceutical partners to meet specific needs. One example of this is the Jimenez family.


When you're standing in place – a wet place – for long stretches, you need the ultimate in comfort and functionality. Anglers would be hard-pressed to do better than Patagonia's Skeena River Waders, with waterproof/breathable H2No® barrier fabric and extras like chest hand-warmer pockets. Whether you're casting for hours in boreal river pools or scrambling in and out of drift boats or sit-on-top kayaks, the fact is that most wader failure is caused by abrasion along inner leg seams. The solution for wader longevity? Move the seams out of the high-wear zone to the back outside of each leg. The Skeena River Waders feature SSC (single-seam construction) for enhanced durability and freedom of movement.
Of course, the waders are named for the Skeena River, which begins high on the Spasizi Plateau in northwestern BC and flows almost 600km to the Pacific. The fast, cold waters harbour up to 5 million spawning steelhead salmon each year – one of the biggest runs on earth.
These lightweight fly fishing waders are built from varying weights of tough, 4-layer polyester microfiber with Patagonia's proprietary waterproof/breathable H2No® barrier and NanoSphere® DWR (durable water repellent) finish. They're also loaded with fishing-friendly features: waist-mounted EZ-Lock suspenders easily convert from chest to waist height and provide quick relief without having to remove your jacket; internal, welded TPU-waterproof pocket keeps camera or phone dry; additional upper storage pockets and 100% nylon utility keeper secure essential tools. The custom-fit left and right booties are made from 3mm neoprene with abrasion-resistant soles. Field repair kit included.
The Skeena waders with interior pouch pulled out.
Check Patagonia's line of fly fishing gear and clothing here. And check out Patagonia's Toronto Store.


Thanks to mobile payments, you can now recharge your Tata Sky account from anywhere in India. All you need is your phone.
Hi Manish, For queries please write to us on our Facebook or Twitter Page. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tatasky Twitter: https://twitter.com/tatasky Thank you.
I want to recharge my account for annual subscription with Dhamaka pack of Rs. 2189/- but my plan is for Rs. 450/month, how can I recharge if the plan is not activated.
Hi Laukik, For queries please write to us on our Facebook or Twitter Page. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tatasky Twitter: https://twitter.com/tatasky Thank you.
Hi Prashant, For queries please write to us on our Facebook or Twitter Page. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tatasky Twitter: https://twitter.com/tatasky Thank you.
I am getting screen message about payment due even though I have recharged my a/c 115674 1124 for one year package.


My first two articles I've touched on Athletes involvement in working with and creating a non-profit. Sticking to the same non-profit theme, I would like to delve into how teams are also making a difference.
The Sports Philanthropy Project has teamed up with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in creating The Steve Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy.
When a teams ownership makes being a difference in the community a priority, this commitment trickles down to the players, the fans and the community in general. It shows that the hometown team believes in where they are from and wants to help preserve valuable non-profit work.
The Red Sox Foundation has not only donated time and money but is truly pioneering ways to fundraise, manage donor relationships, keeping volunteers, and generating in-kind opportunities.
With the World Series nearing an end, most baseball fans are moving onto football season while The Red Sox Foundation continues to make Boston a better city each day.
This entry was posted in Alumni Posts on November 4, 2009 by cssr.
An athlete with the best intentions of starting his or her own charity, may never receive the proper support to help get things off the ground.
Matthew Wade of Athletes Foundations discussed with me the current obstacles facing many athletes. It starts with their agent, who is not initially concerned with their clients work within the community. They want an athlete to be well liked and be a good citizen but not as concerned with them devoting their time and energy to building a non- profit. The need to involve the athlete in the community comes after something happens to possibly tarnish their image in the national media.
Athletes often don't realize until later in their career that they want to be more involved in giving back. At this point, they aren't sure about what resources to turn to or who to trust. From the start of their career, people are always hanging around athletes for selfish reasons and trying to reap both financial and social benefits.
Organizations such as Athlete Foundations are there to help steer an athlete through the process of starting a non-profit, organizing fundraising campaigns and just being the face of an organization. For companies to support and sponsor a non-profit run by an athlete, they want to see that athlete have an active role within the organization. They also want to see them investing their own money to help support the non-profit.
When an athlete dedicates themselves to their non-profit, it shows a true desire to support their cause and provides a legitimate base to build the non-profit. They need as much support and resources as possible to aid in this development.
I hope to offer a helping hand to both athletes and non-profits to benefit one another for a good cause. When a group of people work together for something beyond anything materialistic, only good things can happen.
Thanks for reading and check out my articles each Wednesday.
This entry was posted in Alumni Posts on October 28, 2009 by cssr.
cheering for fourth-quarter scores by teams down by 28 points.
ethnic group, increasing 27% since 2007.
growing age demographic is the 60+ group who has increased 28% since 2007.
Milwaukee, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati.
This entry was posted in Alumni Posts on October 22, 2009 by cssr.
First off, I would like to say that I am thrilled to take part in the Sports Biz Blog as a Umass Alumni. Each Wednesday I plan to post an article, where I hope to help enlighten others, as well as educate myself with current happenings taking place in sports.
Since leaving Umass, I've moved across the country to San Francisco, where I've had a career in nonprofit fundraising. My first few posts will deal with cause marketing and how athletes and the sports world can help make a big difference in benefitting nonprofits.
Sports and nonprofits working together are not a new phenomenon. For years, athletes and leagues have been working closely with numerous nonprofits such as: The United Way, Boys and Girls Club, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and Habitat for Humanity, to name just a few of the hundreds that have received support.
Many athletes have their own nonprofits and devote a lot of time to community service. For as much as athletes contribute, the ability for them to start their own organizations can be quite difficult.
The reality is when an athlete wants to create his or her own nonprofit, they often run into many hurdles that prevent them from starting their own organization. Yes, it is easy to show up at events organized by their respective league or team, and lend their name to help generate attendees and donations. If an athlete wants his or her own organization, there is no one there to help with the actual game plan for success.
This led me to search out someone with knowledge of helping athletes start their own nonprofit. I found Matthew Wade, who runs Athlete Foundations in Seattle (www.athletefoundations.com), he has over a decade of experience working in sports and community relations. My next post I will go over my discussion with Matt about the current state of helping an athlete build their own nonprofit.
This entry was posted in Alumni Posts on October 21, 2009 by cssr.


text:
In the Full Year Report 2019 management announced its intention to pay a final dividend of € 1.12 per share. Management proposes shareholders to have the option of taking the final dividend in either cash or shares, or a combination of the two.
A maximum of 380,000 shares are available for stock dividend. If shareholders in aggregate opt for a number of shares which exceeds this maximum, those who have opted for distribution in the form of shares will be allocated on a pro rata basis, with the remainder being distributed in cash subject to deduction of 15% Dutch dividend withholding tax.
Shareholders electing for a dividend in shares, which will be paid out of the share premium reserve and therefore not subject to dividend withholding tax, will receive 1 (one) new ordinary share for every 30 (thirty) ordinary shares held. This equates to a price of € 33.60 per ordinary share on an ex dividend basis. The new ordinary shares created as a result will rank pari passu with existing ordinary shares for the financial year 2020.
The ex-dividend date is 28 April 2020. The election period will start 30 April 2020 and close 14 May 2020 at 3pm (CET). If by then no notification is received the dividend will be paid in cash. The cash dividend will be paid on 19 May 2020. Shareholders opting for shares will receive their shares also on 19 May 2020.
The Management Board of NSI N.V.
About NSI N.V.
NSI N.V. (Euronext: NSI / NL0012365084) is a specialist commercial property investor and the only listed real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on well-located offices in economic growth regions in The Netherlands. The NSI team aims to maximise returns for its shareholders through pro-active management of its investment portfolio, value-add initiatives, and disciplined asset rotation. The portfolio, with a value of over one billion euros, is underpinned by a strong balance sheet, with significant capacity to fund both internal and external growth. By investing in attractive space and a high level of services for its customers, NSI can generate sustainable and growing revenues to support an attractive level of dividends. For more information visit our website: www.nsi.nl.


Nearly 50,000 wine trade visitors and exhibitors attended the events in Bordeaux last week, up 3% from 2009.
As thousands of attendees visited the Wine Enthusiast Magazine booth at Vinexpo last week—the premiere global wine and spirits five-day trade fair held every other year in Bordeaux, France—two things were clear: One, China is at the forefront of global wine sales; and two, the United States may be the largest wine-consuming nation, but it's falling short where sales are concerned.
• Poured at Fête de la Fleur, the dramatic Vinexpo finale: 120 magnums of Haut-Brion '06 plus 120 d'Yquem '08, Lascombes '05 imperials. The menu included appetizers of oysters, caviar, plenty of foie gras and a dinner (menu in French and Chinese) for 1,500 orchestrated by three-star Michelin Chef Eric Fréchon, hosted by Château Lascombes and Commanderie du Bontemps de Médoc et des Graves, Sauternes et Barsac. Lascombes is a Margaux second growth grand cru classé owned by Colony Capital, an American investment group. Estimated cost for the night (split amongst chateaus): $1.35 million.
• While Roederer Champagne's Frédéric Rouzaud showed the iconic and completely renovated Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande to brand sales managers from around the world, a Roederer brand manager completed a deal with a Texas importer on the château lawn that sits atop the barrel cellar.
• Domaine Clarence Dillon's President Prince Robert de Luxembourg (of châteaus Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion) announced the company closed a deal to buy its first Bordeaux Right Bank property, former Grand Cru Classé Château Tertre Daugay in Saint-Emilion, owned by Count Léo de Malet-Roquefort.
• Clerc Milon's new winery sets the stage for what owner Philippine de Rothschild hopes will be world-class wines from classified 5th growth vineyards that sit between Mouton Rothschild and Lafite vineyards in the Pauillac appellation. The winery was designed by acclaimed French stage designer Richard Peduzzi and Bordeaux architect Bernard Mazières. Peduzzi is the interior set designer for the Louvre and d'Orsay museums in Paris and has designed opera and theater stage sets around the world including the set for the 2009 "Tosca" for the New York Metropolitan Opera. Mazières blends architecture with winemaker needs and cutting edge winery technology. Clerc Milon's contemporary winery image is on the label as of vintage 2010.
• Vinexpo rumors that Bordeaux négociant Castel (the largest wine, beer and water company in France) purchased the French Robert Skalli wine business, which includes St. Supéry in Napa Valley, were denied on Monday. Robert Skalli is looking for a partnership for the South of France business (excluding St. Supéry) but there have been no conversations with Castel, said Emma Swain, CEO of St. Supéry. Castel did not reply to Wine Enthusiast's query. Swain, who orchestrated the Sebastiani brand and winery sale, was in Paris pre-Vinexpo and, for the first time, Skalli did not have a stand at Vinexpo. Skalli, a longtime leader in South of France wines, is known for its Fortant brand in the US. Castel produces 460 million bottles of wine for export to 80 countries. Both companies are established in China.
• New labels you'll see in US distribution: Still unknown but look for new imports and private brand wines from Chile, Spain, Italy and France in both under $10 and under $20 ranges.


FRI-011 Frontline Illustrations series. Tanks in the Winter War 1939-1940 (2001 №3) book. Lots of high-quality and unique photos, schemes, colour pictures. 80 pages, soft cover, text in Russian, captions in English.
FRI-200104 Frontline Illustrations series. Prelude to WW2 Barbarossa Operation 1941 (2001 №4) book. ..


Home/Hair Care, Hairstyles/Give your hair the same brilliance that gloss gives your lips!
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By admin|2018-11-05T17:52:59+00:00November 5th, 2018|Hair Care, Hairstyles|Comments Off on Give your hair the same brilliance that gloss gives your lips!


Are you coming to ATTD Berlin and do you consider yourself an active part of the Diabetes Online Community – or want to become one?
Then join us for #docday° !
For those of you who have been part of the #dedoc° journey, #docday° 2019 will feel like going back to the roots. As we felt our last events had almost become too big and busy, #docday° 2019 will feel a lot more like Stockholm 2015: We will meet for brunch in a cozy co-working café in Prenzlauer Berg, with coffee, croissants and a more intimate community touch.
As usual, #docday° has no agenda - YOU are the agenda! We'll have a beamer, flipcharts and lots of blank sheets of paper waiting for you, so if there is anything you'd like to pitch, present or talk about - please do! Rules are simple: Everyone gets his or her 5 minutes of fame for a short pitch plus Q&A - and great feedback from the #DOC! Please refrain from PowerPoint presentations unless necessary, and send us a short introductory email so we know what's coming. If you'd rather just attend to see what this is all about, no worries: Spontaneous presentations are always welcome!
Since 2015, #docday° has established itself as an open space for members of the #DOC to meet in a casual setting and present, brainstorm, pitch and talk about ideas, projects, dreams and plans. Meet diabetes advocates, bloggers, patient entrepreneurs and friends from around the world for valuable feedback and support!
#docday° follows an open door policy and welcomes everyone who considers himself part of the #DOC. Industry employees are welcome to attend, listen in, connect and support as long as they make their affiliation visible and refrain from marketing talk.


Thousands of Palestinians flock to Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jerusalem for the 1001 Laughs comedy festival where serious topics such as identity, stereotypes and the difficulty of air travel turned into comedy gold.
Mo – short for Mohammed – was one of seven Arab-American comedians performing short skits in an English, or rather Arabish, comedy festival called "1001 Laughs." Sponsored by the Movenpick Hotel in Ramallah and American Consulate General, the show ran this past week in Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The producer, opening act, and MC Amer Zahr is well-known to +972 Magazine. He has committed the rare act of spinning his Palestinian diaspora life story, Arab and mixed-religion culture into the stuff of self-deprecatory humor that turns anger on its head, even while legitimizing its causes.
Those situations translated into a few core themes that arose throughout the routines, reflecting the maddening frustrations of life that are the basis for good jokes: hardship as an Arab or Muslim American; trouble with air travel; explaining names and identity, typecasting as terrorists.
Ramy Youssef, a slim, baseball-capped Egyptian-American hipster, riffed on having a similar name to one of the 9/11 suicide bombers, and Mike Easmeil explained how "Mike" emerged when nobody in the south where he grew up could grasp "Mahmoud." "MacWhat?" he hammed in a gulping drawl.
Zahr joked about the "VIP" lounge where Arabs are commonly sent upon landing in Tel Aviv, and Ahmed Ahmed (of "Axis of Evil" and "Zohan" fame) recalled the "brown room," in U.S. airports.
Still, the more delighted and spontaneous bursts of laughter were reserved for the quirks and oddities of being Palestinian, Arab, Muslim or Christians, or Middle Eastern. "We Arabs," said Zahr in his opening skit, "we have this thing – we think that whatever you're doing, I can do it better." He recounted the inevitable unsolicited advice fans give him to improve his skits. The audience clearly saw itself here – as in other portions, laughter of assent, clapping and nodding of mostly bare heads – just a few hijabs – broke out.
Others talked of relentless wedding culture ("I've been here for five days, and attended 96 weddings!"); the fearsome, slipper-throwing wrath of Arab moms; overeating, and – in a tribute to the longing of diaspora Arabs for local flavor – the demand to lug large amounts of customs-suspicious cooking ingredients back to the U.S. This is a notable and perhaps symbolic contrast to Israelis, who traditionally beg travelers to drag American products back to the region.
The great elephant of politics and the occupation got a fairly bit part. Although a number of the comedians were Palestinian, they had all had grown up or live in major American cities, including Chicago, LA, Houston. Zahr told some long-standing jokes about how, as a kid at Christmas time, he asked Santa for implementation of Resolution 242 and 194. Mona Aburmishan, the sole woman in the gang, skewered less tasteful Palestinian male pick-up lines: "You be the Palestinian and I will be the Israeli: I want to occupy your body." She wore a neckpiece that recalled Palestinian embroidery, draped over a defiant cleavage. But her routine spent more time on body image and catty comments of family and friends than politics.
Indeed, the requisite jokes about marriage, dating and singledom, poking fun at other ethnic groups – blacks, hispanics, white Americans, Filipinos, and Jews (no more, no less than the others – perhaps just a little less) – and even marijuana legalization (met with some polite confusion) made the program feel like comedy anywhere. People generally seem to like jokes about private lives, subcultures, taboos.


I'm a paediatrician. Over a 30-year career I've seen all types of parents and children: from privileged backgrounds; from poor backgrounds; from newly arrived migrants with little English and just ordinary, average "Aussie" parents.
Amongst these thousands of parents, I've never met one who didn't want to do a good job as a parent. And most of them did a pretty reasonable job.
But many of these parents were worried. Worried that they weren't up to the job, that they weren't the best possible parent all of the time, worried about the high expectations of society to be the perfect parent, worried about what other parents would think of them.
Many were worried about how best to exert their authority, when to be firm and when to give in, worried about how to discipline, worried that they might not be giving their children every opportunity to succeed, worried that they weren't being the perfect parent.
The good news is that parents don't have to be perfect. Most parents make a pretty good fist of parenting, they get there by a variety of routes and their children generally turn out OK.
Parents are ordinary people with ordinary emotions, they get sad and angry and frustrated. They have their good days and their bad days but they generally get it right. Theses are the "good enough" parents.
There are several important things all children need. They need unconditional love. This means loving them just because they are our children in contrast to loving them when they are good, withholding love when they disappoint us and using love as a bargaining tool. They also need clear boundaries about what they can do and what they can't. They need rules that are clear and consistent. They need positive stimulation and opportunities to learn. They need respect for their own feelings.
But if you can't meet these needs 100 per cent of the time, your child won't be psychologically scarred for life. You are just like every other parent. Children cope with the occasional lapse from a well-meaning parent.
There's no need to feel guilty because you aren't able to be the mythical perfect parent. No parent is perfect.
Children don't need perfect parents. They just need just good enough parents.
Prof Kim Oates is the author of 20 Tips for Parents: The realistic parents' guide to understanding and shaping your child's behaviour.