Wow everyone in this shimmering splendid B'Dazzle Dress of Alyce Paris 35595. A Silky Chiffon elegant dress with sweetheart neckline, crisscross of fine pleated bodice and natural waistline. The floor length A- line shirred skirt cascades down to create a beautifully flowing full skirt. Portray this spectacular style by Alyce Paris.


The futuristic Manga cyberpunk manga adaptation filmed at Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas. With an estimated budget of USD150 - 200 million dollars, the production is one of the biggest to have filmed in the state in recent years.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez, sets for the futuristic film were built at Troublemaker Studios, which Rodriguez founded in 2000. Over 200 craftsmen were involved in building the futuristic Iron City. Production designer Steve Joyner explained that "we had to create an intricate network of streets, alleys and corridors that all interconnect. Ultimately, the sets were so complex there were even nooks and crannies even Caylah [co-production designer] didn't know were there!".
The scrapyard where Alita is found was built from metal and mechanics found at a military salvage yard in San Antonio. Other sets built include a clinic and lab facility, a penthouse flat, and the Kansas Bar, "built into the bones of an old monastery" by Joyner and his team.
Filming on the feature began in Austin, Texas in October, wrapping in February 2017. Originally scheduled for a Summer 2018 release, the film was pushed back twice by 20th Century Fox.
Texas's Moving Image Industry Incentive Program provides up to 22.5% rebate on in-state filming on feature films, television and commercial projects. Projects above USD250,000 can access the incentive and three tiers determine if projects will be provided a 5%, 10% or 15% rebate.
An additional 2.5% rebate is applied when filming in underutilised areas. Seventy percent of crew and cast must be Texas residents and 60% of total production days must be completed in the state.
Austin also has a programme. The Austin Creative Content Incentive Program offers up to 0.75% to qualifying productions.


Our pursuit and enterprise aim would be to "Always fulfill our buyer requirements". We carry on to acquire and layout excellent quality items for the two our old and new clients and realize a win-win prospect for our shoppers in addition as us for Industrial Cryovac Machine , industrial cryovac machine , Industrial Turn-over Machine , contact us now.
"Persisting in ""High quality, Prompt Delivery, Aggressive Price"", now we have established long-term cooperation with consumers from equally overseas and domestically and get new and old clients' large comments for Industrial Cryovac Machine , industrial cryovac machine , Industrial Turn-over Machine , We can give our clients absolute advantages in product quality and cost control and we now have full range of molds from up to one hundred of factories. As product updating fast we succeed in developing many high quality goods for our clients and get high reputation.


So issue 54 is out now and has really been flying out. Huge thanks to everyone who has ordered a copy, we posted a load out yesterday and have more going out today and tomorrow.
All orders also come with the next in the fun sticker series designed by the editor's 10 year old daughter….
I guess we might start on issue 55 soon as well. Do please get in touch if you'd like to get involved!


Catering equipment manufacturer Zwilling J.A. Henckels has launched the TruClad range of pans which have been designed specifically for use with induction hobs.
The pans consist of three layers - a stainless steel interior, an aluminium core and a magnetic stainless steel exterior. The manufacturer has said this combination provides a better cooking performance as well as a strong design and high-gloss finish.
The strong, flat base of the pans ensures full contact with the induction heat.
Ergonomic, V-shaped handles are made from 18/10 stainless steel - a type of steel which contains chromium and nickel and is often used in cookware and cutlery.
Designed purely with induction in mind, the TruClad pan's aluminium core eliminates the risk of hot spots in the pan. The handles are hollow cast from stainless steel and stay cool to the touch while on an induction hob.
The TruClad pans come in three sizes - all the Zwilling products are available direct from the manufacturer by visiting the online shop on the company's website.
Three-piece sets cost £165 - individual pans cost £45.
A statement from the Germany-based company read: "10 years ago, induction was a rarity in the kitchen. But times are changing – last year one in four hobs sold was an induction hob. As design and energy efficiency become increasingly desirable in the modern kitchen Zwilling J.A. Henckels offers the perfect pans for induction cooking.
"The interior of a TruClad pan is made from the highest grade of stainless steel there is, so it easy to clean, scratch resistant and does not absorb flavour from your food," the statement added.


text:
Vol. 21, No. 8 • October 2001
Table of Contents Subscribe Now! Previous Issues ITI Home
• FEATURE •
New Mexico Tribal Libraries: Bridging the Digital Divide
by Jessica Dorr and Richard Akeroyd
Some days you get up and go to work, you answer the phone, write some e-mails, and sit in meetings. But some days you get up and go to work, and your life changes. January 14 and 15, 1999, were two of those days. As staff members of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we were given the unique opportunity to travel with some New Mexico State Library staff members on a visit to five Native American libraries to meet tribal librarians, leaders, and community members. During this trip we began a conversation (which has continued to this day) about the special circumstances surrounding library services for Native communities. Much of this discussion has focused on barriers to technology and Internet access for tribal libraries, but we've also heard about ongoing efforts for culture and language preservation, the importance of flexibility and respect when working with tribal communities, and the preparation method that makes Jemez enchiladas simply amazing.
Our first trip was arranged by Ben Wakashige, the New Mexico state librarian, as part of a planning visit in anticipation of implementing the foundation's grant program for public libraries. (For more information on the U.S. Library Program, visit http://www.gatesfoundation.org.) During the 2 days of meetings and site visits, we listened and we learned. Of all the information exchanged, the most important piece was and still is this fact: Tribal libraries serve a vital role for their communities and patrons, and in order for a program from a foundation to make a valuable impact, the design for awarding and implementing grants must be developed with tribal input.
Our initial contact led to a yearlong process of continued listening and learning, extensive meetings with tribal elders and children, community and library leaders, and other key players in the New Mexico library community who were intimately familiar with the particular needs of these tribes. During the year we developed our grant program, we also met with American Indian library leaders and others working with tribes and technology to get advice and to gain perspective on how best to design our grant program. Tribal leaders spoke of their desire to use technology to interest children in their Native language, and artists described creating art with digital tools and marketing their work through the Internet. Educators expressed interest in culturally appropriate software and online resources. Students wanted the opportunity for quality educational experiences without having to leave their reservations. Patrons hoped for hands-on training at a comfortable pace. All this work and the contributions of many voices resulted in the establishment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Native American Access to Technology Program (NAATP). We hope this program is as much theirs as it is ours.
Understanding the Need
New Mexico is home to 19 Pueblos and two Apache reservations. In addition, the northwest corner of the state houses more than one-third of the Navajo Nation. As we traveled miles between tribal library sites, we were able to enjoy the expanse of country that makes the American Southwest so spectacular. Once outside Albuquerque, power lines, phone lines, and cell towers ceased to block our view. They also ceased to provide services on Native lands.
Many reservations lack the basic infrastructure—roads, power, water, and communications—that we take for granted in urban areas. According to the 1990 Census of Population, just 53 percent of Native households on reservation and trust lands have telephones, compared to 94 percent for all American homes. And while many Americans consider a home computer a necessity, just 15 percent of all Native households have a computer and only 10 percent have Internet access.
Many tribal schools have computers, but they are few in number and have limited Internet connectivity. Often because of liability reasons, members of the community not affiliated with the schools cannot use the computers, and even students have restricted use during school hours.
By contrast, a White House Report titled Information Technology Research and Development: Information Technology (January 21, 2000) shows nearly half of all American households now use the Internet, with more than 700 new households being connected every hour. More than half of U.S. classrooms are connected to the Internet today, and 62 percent of U.S. children in the 8-to-15-year-old age group are now going online.
"Tribes are not staying abreast of the technological revolution," says Alison Freese, tribal libraries consultant for the New Mexico State Library. "Computers—and libraries for that matter—are not traditional Native American concepts. In addition, it's hard to make a case for libraries and public access to computing when issues such as healthcare, housing, drug and alcohol counseling, even telephone connectivity are pressing."
But increasingly, these libraries are becoming key information centers for tribes, offering book collections and services that support the unique information needs of their communities. In addition, many of the priority issues for tribes are dealt with at tribal libraries. Besides checking out books, library workers often act as counselors, day-care providers, and grant writers. Many host programs for the elderly and offer adult education courses. They agree to stay open late or on weekends if someone requests their help. The strong commitment of tribal librarians to their community makes libraries ideal locales for providing public access to computers.
Amazingly, these libraries provide vital services to communities on shoestring budgets. The tribal librarians that we've met have worked for years providing services with more determination than resources. We've visited tribal libraries located in traditional adobe structures, old Bureau of Indian Affairs buildings, and portable units. Invariably, the library room or building is filled to capacity with collections and patrons jockeying for space. Tribal libraries are brightly decorated with traditional pottery, weavings, and paintings. Conversations, punctuated with much laughter, take place in both English and Native languages. Sometimes artisans will bring jewelry to sell. On a really good day, someone will bring red or green chile and bread or tortillas to share.
These libraries enjoy varying degrees of support from tribal administrations. While the vast majority of tribal councils recognize that tribal libraries are important for the community, not all are able to provide funding at levels adequate to support and sustain a quality library and computer program. Even among those isolated Native American communities that have made significant progress toward self-sufficiency, only limited resources are available for library and information service support. An inconsistent revenue source often leads to position elimination, high turnover of underpaid staff, and grant-driven projects that cannot be sustained once the original grant monies run out. State Senator Leonard Tsosie has been successful in passing legislation for permanent funding for the New Mexico State Library to expand services to tribes. Currently, 47 sites and their staffs are supported with an annual budget of $270,000.
"A yearly budget of $270,000 only goes so far," says Freese. "We're getting there, but most of our sites had only one computer and a dial-up connection. We knew the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation could provide so much more."
All of the tribal librarians we met with clearly stated they would like to provide their patrons with public access to computers and the Internet. None was satisfied with the current level of service. Few libraries can afford state-of-the-art computers. Instead, many were using donated, pre-owned computers with little or outdated software and failing components. No library had a dedicated Internet connection, and many reported extremely slow speeds and dropped connections with their dial-up accounts.
"At the Jemez Community Library, we had one computer [with Internet access]," says Tamara Sandia, library assistant at the Jemez Pueblo Community Library. "It was common to see 10 or more children crowded around it at a time."
NAATP's Goals and Mission
The Native American Access to Technology Program is designed specifically to empower Native communities through increased access to digital information resources. The program aims to work with tribal leaders, librarians, and educators to preserve local culture and heritage and to provide opportunities for technology training through access to computers and the Internet.
Three major components benefit tribes: equipment, training, and technical support. Each tribe is eligible to receive between two and four computers, a black-and-white laser printer, and Internet connectivity equipment. The computers come with pre-loaded software chosen based on user interviews. In addition, tribes can request additional equipment, such as a scanner, digital camera, headset microphone, color printer, and projector. Each tribe that's awarded a grant will also receive a visit from foundation staff for installation and training. On-site training focuses on both applications and systems administration, and includes classes for both staff and community members. Finally, each site receives technical support for the granted equipment for 3 years through a toll-free number. Technical support will assist tribes with a wide variety of problems from ordering a replacement for a failed network interface card to explaining templates in Microsoft Word. (See sidebar for specific information on hardware and software provided.)
NAATP began installing PCs in New Mexico in spring 2000. To date, 20 tribes have received equipment and training. Training for the 110 chapters of the Navajo Nation was completed in June 2001. Installation and training for tribes in Arizona, Colorado, and Utah began in August. An additional grant phase for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico tribes will begin in the spring of 2002 and will include a competitive grant round for a content server and/or training lab. Additional funding will also be available for nonprofit support organizations that work with tribes for cultural and language preservation and technology training.
To successfully apply for a grant through NAATP, sites have to demonstrate tribal support for the grant. We ask tribal leadership to verify that the computers will be available to all community members, that the technology budget for the tribe will not be reduced, and that the tribe will make its best effort to keep the computers functioning. We also make ourselves available to discuss the program at tribal council meetings. Through these discussions, we've grown to appreciate the complex issues that tribal leaders confront when making decisions about integrating technology into their communities.
Like many others in Native American communities, library staff at Jemez are acutely aware of the need to close the "digital divide"—the growing social and economic gap between those with access to computers and technology and those without—between themselves and the larger U.S. population. "Computers—that's where the world is going. We don't want to have our kids left behind," says Sandia.
The Impact of the Grants
Jean Whitehorse, a training and outreach coordinator for the New Mexico State Library, proved to be invaluable in helping us address issues that led to our credibility and acceptance in Native communities. She told us about the importance of diversity in our approach and staff. "People want to see their own people understanding progress," says Whitehorse. "If we can see our own people mastering something new, we are more likely to accept it and understand how it can benefit us." So our foundation staff now includes Native trainers. In addition, we developed an intern program with New Mexico tribal colleges that taught students to serve as on-call training and technical help for tribes for 1 year.
Initially our program faced questions about the negative aspects of Internet connectivity. "It was my job to go into these communities and explain to the elders and officials the benefits of having computers and an Internet connection," explains Whitehorse. "Many of them felt bringing computers would take children's interest away from their community traditions and families and would expose them to bad things."
Whitehorse says she explained to the elders that there are good things and bad things about everything—including computers. "But if you use the computer in the right way it can be a great tool." She also explained that there would be explicit rules and guidelines for use so children couldn't view inappropriate material.
Still many balked, "We can't read and write; how are we going to use computers?" Whitehorse told them that the computers could help tribal literacy programs, and she reminded them that many Native American elders gamble in the casinos. "I told them if you can use those machines at the casino, you can use the Internet—and you won't lose any money, either," she says with a laugh.
On-site training has proved to be a very valuable aspect of our grant. All New Mexico tribal libraries received a week of training. Because we believe computer users learn best when they have their hands on a keyboard, trainers traveled with a mobile training lab so that up to 10 people could train at a time. In the morning, staff received intensive training on applications so that they could assist patrons with office, reference, and art programs. In the afternoon, community members were invited for applications training. We've worked with students, elders, tribal administrators, teachers, and many other groups all interested in learning more about computers.
Joe Sullivan and Jackie Yabeny were two of the foundation's trainers who were sent to New Mexico. "Most of the people we trained were total beginners," says Sullivan. "In the communities that had computers, people were struggling to use them." Sullivan says he witnessed many "Aha!" moments when users finally realized what certain commands or functions were for.
Yabeny remembers teaching a young woman who became teary as she was learning Microsoft Word. "She was just so happy to be learning new things."
Having spent the last year training certified librarians elsewhere in the country, Sullivan was struck by how attentive his New Mexico audience was. "When I was working with the librarians [in other states], we'd chat and joke around as the training was being conducted. At the reservations everyone was so quiet and focused—sometimes it was hard for me to tell if they understood me—but they did. I learned a lot about the power of listening."
For many communities, these training sessions offered a unique opportunity to discuss what they could do with computers. Ideas included improving community outreach efforts by creating newsletters, creating artist cooperatives, building Web sites or online "trading posts" to sell art, creating college and scholarship search classes for kids, using Excel to do tribal budgets, and designing letterhead to use when applying for government grants. In one area, staff from a cultural center planned to work with students to record the stories of veterans who had served with the U.S. military.
Of course, children had other ideas about how to best put the computers to use. "At the Zuni Pueblo Library, I remember the kids were just exploding. They just went to town using the games and art programs," Sullivan recalls. When working with students, Sullivan taught them how to use other computer tools, including a digital camera, scanner, and graphics programs. Many of them went home from an afternoon session with elaborate cards and artwork to show their families.
As tribal libraries slowly adopt technology, both patrons and staff become excited by the possibilities for learning. Sherry Aragon, an artist from Acoma Pueblo, remembers being recruited to work in the Acoma Learning Center. "I wasn't working at the time, and the library asked me if I'd like a job," says Aragon. "They told me, 'We're going to turn this library into a computer center.' I said 'Are you sure you want me? I can barely do a VCR!'"
Through AmeriCorps, the library enrolled her in computer classes in Albuquerque in 1999 and she was an active participant in the NAATP training last year. Now Aragon is teaching computer classes to adults and seniors at the Acoma Learning Center. She plans to attend New Mexico State University and study library science because she values being able to provide her people with information they need.
Initially, she says, kids seemed to be the only ones interested in using the library. Intrigued by the computers, the kids came in to play games and surf the Internet, but their interests soon expanded to reading groups, story times, and art classes. Aragon says adults would look in the door and think the library was just for young people. Then the library staff started giving away free bookmarks to kids who brought in their parents. Parents got a tour and explanation of services and could sign up for free computer classes. Now, Aragon says, adults regularly stop in to look up information on the Internet, write letters, or do their resumes. In the last 3 months adult computer use has increased by 45 percent. "As more adults realize the value of the computers they tell friends and relatives. It's good for them and they reinforce the importance of using the library and understanding technology in their kids."
With the Gates Foundation providing an increase in technology for tribes, the New Mexico State Library has been able to shift its funding to library services' needs. It has been able to provide tribes with cash grants for collection development, workshops, conferences, and special projects. In addition, the State Library has been instrumental in developing and implementing an online public access catalog project for all New Mexico tribal libraries—the Athena project. This project has greatly increased the services that libraries can provide for their patrons and has increased the libraries' standings in their communities. "As many tribal libraries have been tracking books by hand or not at all, getting Athena [the OPAC] was really a sign that they were becoming a real library," says Freese.
Jean Whitehorse currently conducts Internet training at Navajo chapter houses and libraries throughout the state, showing adults and elders where to find and how to use important information on topics ranging from diabetes care to veterans' benefits. Says Whitehorse, "When people can find information for themselves—and don't have to travel hundreds of miles to do it—they feel empowered."
Evaluations Are Underway
In the midst of our fall 2000 installation, the foundation contracted with the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington to undertake a formal evaluation of the NAATP program efforts. The general purpose of the evaluation process is to assess whether the goals and objectives of the program are being met and to utilize information gathered from the evaluations to improve the program as it is being implemented. The school used a combination of observation visits and interviews with tribal staff and members to create a preliminary report. A more detailed evaluation is underway, including in-person interviews with tribal elders, patrons, and librarians at all NAATP sites.
The findings from the preliminary report show that the NAATP is well-received in Pueblo communities and is having a positive impact on library use, literacy, and computer proficiency. Because of isolation and the state of economic development on most reservations, the full potential of the NAATP will take longer to realize than similar programs in more urban areas. At the same time, the extent of change for these communities promises to be more significant than in other parts of the country.
For most Native lands in New Mexico, Internet connectivity is still the largest obstacle to realizing their new technological potential. Most communities are still limited to a single dial-up connection, which means they can't access many Internet sites. Because most tribes are remote with sparse populations, it's not cost-effective for phone companies to invest in copper wire or fiber lines to connect them.
The NAATP, in conjunction with OnSat Network Telecommunications, is currently installing a two-way satellite setup that will ensure bi-directional, high-speed Internet access to these remote communities that have been awarded a specific NAATP grant. (Choosing a satellite Internet option provided many challenges. When evaluating satellite providers, we worked to find a stable platform that would offer high performance at a reasonable cost.) Now, we're working with organizations that provide content to leverage the Internet connectivity for maximum benefit.
Although all NAATP grant sites have access to the foundation's technical support line, the report shows there is a need for additional on-site technical help. Several tribes have IT staff working in tribal administrative offices that help out from time to time, but consistent support is needed.
Possibly the best news is that the cooperative efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation staff, the New Mexico State Library, and the various grant sites have led to high levels of commitment and satisfaction for all individuals involved. New Mexico state librarian Ben Wakashige believes the foundation grants will increase the visibility of this important tribal resource. "I think the Gates' infusion enabled us to pull forward very quickly. Where there was one [computer], there's now five," says Wakashige. "And Gates gives us an opportunity to be the information center for the community."
Others agree. "This working with and for each other is really a part of the Native American tradition," says Alison Freese, the tribal libraries consultant. "It's what makes us strong—we look forward to reaping the benefits of our continued collaboration."
The Program's Next Steps
Currently the foundation does not have any plans to expand NAATP beyond the Four Corners area of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. We have learned that each tribe needs to be worked with individually and cooperatively over an extended period of time for each side to feel that the collaboration is a success. We know that we still have more to learn, so we are concentrating on the work ahead of us before we decide whether to expand our scope. We do know that the Gates Foundation and those of us who work for it have benefitted greatly from this program. Our perspective and understanding has broadened and deepened. We believe the best way we can honor the inspiring efforts of the tribal libraries and librarians we have met is to share our story and to support their work.
For more information on these libraries and how you can support the Friends of New Mexico Tribal Libraries, please visit http://www.stlib.state.nm.us.
NAATP Equipment and Software
The computers granted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are custom-built by Gateway from specifications we've provided. Current hardware components include:
Operating System — Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
Processor — 1.4 GHz Pentium 4
Memory — 256 MB RDRAM
Hard Drive — 40 GB
Video Card — NVidia GeForce 2 MX
Sound Card — Creative CT 4870 Sound Blaster Live!
NIC — 3COM PCI 10/100 (3COM Tornado)
CD-ROM — 20/48X DVD-ROM
Floppy Drive — 1.44 MB Standard Floppy Drive and Iomega Zip 250 Internal Drive
In addition, tribes are eligible to apply for the following components:
Black-and-White Laser Printer — HP 4100TN
Color Bubble Jet Printer — HP 932C
Projector — View Sonic PJ875
Digital Camera — Sony Mavica MVC FD92
Headset Microphone — Labtec 8550
Scanner — Image Deck Stand-Alone Scanner
All computers are delivered with substantial software for production and clerical work, reference, art and culture, and children. These include: Microsoft (MS) FrontPage; MS Publisher; MS Image Composer; MS Office including Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word; Encarta Encyclopedia; Encarta Africana; World Atlas; World English Dictionary; Internet Explorer; Adobe Photoshop; Adobe Illustrator; GIF Animator; Real Networks RealPlayer and RealProducer; Arthur's Brainteasers; Arthur's Math Carnival; Arthur's Reading Roundup; Creative Writer; The Magic Bus Series; and Success Builder Algebra I and Geometry. In addition, all sites are granted a year's subscription to SoftLine's Ethnic NewsWatch, an online, full-text database that includes Native publications.
NAATP Grants to Date
(as of September 2001)
Grant Activities Grants in 2001 Life of Program to Date
(20002001)
Tribes Receiving Grants 12 32
Total Sites Granted 81 147
Total Amount of Equipment Grants $2,685,389 $4,405,677
Total Amount of Cash Grants $3,400 $729,053
Jessica Dorr is project coordinator at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and oversees the Native American Access to Technology Program. Prior to this, she installed computer and Internet networks throughout the country as part of the foundation's U.S. Library Program. Dorr holds a B.A. from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington in Seattle. Her e-mail address is Jessica@gatesfoundation.org.
Richard Akeroyd is executive director of Libraries and Public Access to Information at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Before joining the foundation, he served as the state librarian of Connecticut for 11 years, and prior to that, he held positions at the Denver Public Library, the National Commission on Library and Information Science, and the University of Connecticut Library. Akeroyd has a B.A. in English literature and political science from the University of Connecticut, and his M.L.S. is from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. His e-mail address is Richard@gatesfoundation.org.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Wrap time, after-call work, ACW, post-call processing – these are just some of the names for that important bit of time in a contact center once a call has ended when the advisor can update the system with the caller's resolution, next steps, details or order notes.
In this article we will show you how to make the most of just a few precious minutes to ensure wrap time or ACW is used properly and effectively.
Customer interactions, both good and bad, are likely to affect brand loyalty. You, as a customer service agent, must ensure that every caller is pleased with your service skills, so that the business which you represent is not negatively affected by the consequences of your customer interaction. To do this, you must be made aware of common customer service phrases that irritate callers.
Listed below are 5 such statements and suitable suggestions for how to refrain from using them.
1.	What were your details again?
A common source of customer frustration comes from when they are made to repeat their personal information and details to a call center agent. Customers appreciate efficiency, so make sure that you have clearly recorded such details in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, in order to avoid repeating yourself. As a representative of your company, the customer will consider your efficiency as a trademark for the business.
2.	I'll get him/her to call you back in a minute.
Putting an ambitious time limit on when a colleague will continue a customer enquiry can be tricky. If you offer the customer such a time restriction, and your co-worker fails to work to it, this can be misconstrued as laziness on your colleague's and your own part. Thus, you risk damaging your company's reputation. Unless you are absolutely certain that the other person will be able to contact the customer within the required time limit, never offer one.
Whilst it may seem a perfectly legitimate statement to make, this phrase is too vague and can cause the customer to feel like they are about to be involved in a massively drawn-out situation. You must remember that efficiency is crucial to effective customer service. Therefore, you should inform them of your action plan for resolving their query and provide them with a realistic time period in which you will deliver that solution.
4.	You are our priority.
As a call center agent, you are probably going to receive hundreds of calls every day, and the majority of these callers will understand the sheer number of people that you have been talking to. Therefore, it is likely that the customer will feel patronised by such a comment, knowing that you have only said it to "sweeten them up". So instead, divert yourself from using such language and simply present your intentions to solve the matter, whist ensuring that the customer is happy with each detail provided.
5.	Please can you hold for a moment?
Being forced to wait is something that no customer enjoys and it can cause them to feel frustrated when they have little idea of why you have done so. In order to minimise such frustration, keep them informed of the actions that you intend to take while they are on hold.
"Customer service" is the most frequently used keyword used by banking customers and it's been obvious that this keyword was tied to both the highest and the lowest sentiment scores, meaning that service can largely determine if someone is disgruntled and angry, or surprisingly pleased.
For banking institutions, there's also fewer in-person touchpoints with the customer, as many transactions have moved to mobile, and banks actively encourage people to use the ATM's expanded functions or transact online. But people still use the phone when they have questions, and they expect competent and speedy answers. However, there's opportunity for vast improvement within financial services providers' call centers as well as their other channels of communication such as email, chat, or social.
Poor customer care results in multiple bad outcomes for financial service firms. Losing customers is costly, as there's considerable marketing and sales efforts that must go into acquiring new "replacement" customers. To remain competitive, financial service providers have to adopt new tech-driven tools and adjust their business models to keep customers engaged and satisfied.
Financial services firms know they need to improve individual agent and department-level performance, but unfortunately there's not typically enough available data and insights that inform this improvement. Consider the typical call center's method of conducting performance reviews. A supervisor will manually "listen in" on only a few of an agent's calls per month which typically works out to less than three percent. This not only results in an inaccurate view of agent performance, it does not reveal the insights that can be found in the other 97% of agent-to-customer interactions.
An elegant solution can be found with new tech solutions that transcribe 100 percent of call recordings into searchable text. By turning speech into text, these solutions can then develop analytics that provide managers with entirely new layers of insights. Such solutions can gauge not only an agent's ability to follow compliance and sales scripting, but also their empathy and tone.
Supervisors can identify agents that are ending calls too quickly, or using confrontational language with the customers. Using analytics means call centers can spot and fix negative behaviors while also promoting positive actions to create a feedback loop of agent improvement.
In the broader context, access to such analytics provides a business with valuable information about how it is viewed by the average customer.
A company that records 100 percent of interactions can provide agents with accurate and repeatable data that's tied directly to the individual. Armed with this data, the supervisor can provide truly personalized training. Perhaps the analytics shows the agent knows all of the right compliance language, but does not show enough empathy on difficult phone calls. The supervisor can have the agent skip a compliance training session and instead more efficiently spend time working with them one-on-one to develop more empathetic phrases and tone. And since these analytics platforms can present data in near real-time, the coaching can also be adjusted dynamically to account for the actual "on the ground" conditions.


Give your child confidence. For years now research is showing that a positive self image and a good self esteem in children is sourced from the positive activities they undertake in their childhood. With so many options available today it can be hard for any parent to decide where best to spend their child and their own time.
So many considerations come in to play when making such a decision. Where it the activity located, when does the activity take place, Is the activity going to take all day or my entire week end and how much will it cost. All perfectly valid questions, but one more should be considered….what will this activity bring to my child's life?
As what happens on most occasions, the parents choose what their child will do and inevitably due to that decision a child sticks at a certain, sport or activity for many years into the future. Call it familiarity, call it ease or call it habit these activities or sports can form the basis to your child's health, fitness, friend group and self esteem for many years to come.
What if you let your child decide what they wanted to do. What if they had all the options in front of them and they chose what they enjoyed? This is the tact Miss Jen and the Jigsaw Dance team like to support. Jigsaw Dance Studio has been operating in the Hills District of Sydney for the past 23 years. With several studio locations across the hills district the Jigsaw Dance team have a wealth of knowledge, teachers and experience to allow your little one to explore the world of performing arts.


SINGERS BENEFIT NOT ONLY FROM sounding good, but also from looking good. Plastic surgery is common among the general population and among many performers. While cosmetic surgery may be thought of as reserved for the aged, it is becoming more common for younger patients to undergo various procedures. Singing teachers should be familiar with available surgical options and the potential effects on performance.
The desire to look and stay young has been a wish of many throughout history. Lifestyle and genetics play an important role in the way in which one ages, but despite our best efforts, the aging process continues. As the Baby Boomer generation and general population age, the desire for both surgical and nonsurgical intervention has never been greater. Despite recent economic downturns, the demand for aesthetic rejuvenation of the face continues to increase with some trend towards "minimally invasive" or nonsurgical correction of cosmetic concerns. Patients have pushed for less down time and quicker recoveries as their busy lifestyles cannot accommodate weeks off from work, and as science and medicine have progressed, surgeons have been able to meet these goals better. While the armamentarium of facial plastic surgeons has increased with developments in nonsurgical interventions, surgery remains the primary means of long term correction of aesthetic imperfection.
Plastic surgery, derived from the Greek word plasticos, meaning to mold, refers to the correction and repair of tissues in the body. It is a broad discipline that combines both cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries to enhance one's form and function. Reconstructive surgeries are interventions to address situations in which the patient's function is insufficient for normal use, or his or her form is altered significantly from trauma or disease causing disfigurement. Cosmetic surgery is the branch of plastic surgery that deals with problems that are elective and aesthetic in nature. These procedures not only help to address what a person sees when he or she looks in the mirror, but they can also provide a needed psychological "lift" for the patient. A person's appearance is judged, consciously and subconsciously, by everyone with whom he or she interacts. In the entertainment and performance industry, this is particularly important. Close public scrutiny heightens a performer's inherent need to look his or her best. Such visibility fosters consideration for cosmetic surgery to enhance a performer's appearance to maintain or even further his or her career. When the need, desire, and ability to enhance one's appearance intersect, consultation with a plastic surgeon should be considered. It is helpful for performers to understand general issues of facial plastic surgery, as well as special issues that may affect performance.
The patient should make an initial assessment prior to consultation with a plastic surgeon. "What is it that I want to change?" and "Why do I want to change this aspect of my appearance?" It behooves the patient to consider the second question as much as the first, for it helps to underscore the importance of the psychological aspect of aesthetic surgery. Improper motivations or expectations can result in a very unhappy patient despite wonderful aesthetic results. The more a patient can communicate his or her concerns, the more productive the consultation process will be.
Publication information: Article title: Facial Plastic Surgery in Singers. Contributors: Spalla, Thomas C. - Author, Sataloff, Robert T. - Author. Journal title: Journal of Singing. Volume: 67. Issue: 5 Publication date: May/June 2011. Page number: 551+. © National Association of Teachers of Singing. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Q: How would a Minecraft server run on these 2 PC's? I have two PC's that are sitting in the basement doing nothing, they both work very well considering their age.
Specs-
The custom Dell PC has an Intel Celeron Processor, 465 MHz, 512 MB of RAM, running Windows XP 2002 Service Pack 3. The Ultra PC has an Intel Pentium II Processor, 350 MHz, an absolutely stunning 144 MB of RAM, running Windows XP 2002 Service Pack 3 as well.
So what I was wondering was if either of both of these computers could handle hosting a 1.10.2 minecraft server for 4-10 people (4 people is the absolute minimum). What would the lag be like? Would it be block lag (having to break a block multiple times) or frame rate lag?
I just want to know if this would be possible and if it is, what the condition of this hypothetical server would be. Thanks!
P.S. Also, and this is a stretch, I know, but would this server be able to handle about 5 Forge mods?

A: Definitely not. Ram is what matters most for servers, and 512 MB of ram is simply not enough for forge mods.
It may just barely work for 4 people, but it will lag a lot. You're better off buying a cheap desktop from /r/hardwareswap or ebay and running it off there.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Many parents get caught up in the recruiting process and get so excited and proud of their sons and daughters that they forget it is not about them but about the student-athlete, their son or daughter.
Communicate early. Once your son or daughter starts thinking about being a student-athlete (their decision), start talking about it. This will avoid parachuting in later.
Be a sounding board. Listen, listen, listen; take in as much as possible.
Avoid trying to build a parental relationship with the coach.
Be supportive, be proud and SAY IT!
It's your child's time and effort, not yours.
Coaches want to build a relationship with the player. Parents need to be involved when it comes to visits, scholarships talks, etc. I know coaches that have passed on a talented athlete because of a parents' behavior during the recruiting process.
Of course it is absolutely necessary for parents to be a part of the process, however, parents can sometimes move the focus of the athlete to themselves which will reflect negatively on the recruiting process.
Parents know their children best so ask questions and be interested – not demanding.
Demanding playing time or position.
Comparing your son or daughter to players currently on the team.


text:
#include "core_generic_plugin/generic_plugin.hpp"
#include "object_manager.hpp"
#include "object_manager_creator.hpp"

namespace wgt
{
/**
* A plugin which implements a context object manager. The interface is empty and currently unused
*
* @ingroup plugins
* @note Requires Plugins:
*       - @ref coreplugins

*/
class ObjectPlugin : public PluginMain
{
public:
	ObjectPlugin(IComponentContext& context)
	{
	}

	bool PostLoad(IComponentContext& context) override
	{
		context.registerInterface(new ObjectManagerCreator(context));
		return true;
	}

	void Initialise(IComponentContext& context) override
	{
	}

	bool Finalise(IComponentContext& context) override
	{
		return true;
	}

	void Unload(IComponentContext& context) override
	{
	}
};

PLG_CALLBACK_FUNC(ObjectPlugin)
} // end namespace wgt

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Part two of the LeRoy Brothers in San Luis Valley
Contributed photo Billy LeRoy and his brother Sam Potter were buried in unmarked graves in the Del Norte Cemetery. Only one headstone remains today.
By: Lyndsie Ferrell - Updated: 9 months ago
SAN LUIS VALLEY — Now, Billy LeRoy was not your typical looking criminal. The young highwayman was known for dressing on the up-scale side and one of his most infamous traits that kept lawmen guessing who he was, was his size four shoe.
At many of the locations where LeRoy held up a train or stagecoach, lawmen would find footprints of his size four shoe and were often, convinced that these criminal acts of theft were done by a woman. This fact and many others kept local lawmen confused and wondering who might be responsible for the countless robberies that were taking place.
After his night of drinking and losing horribly while gambling, Billy LeRoy decided to head out and get some of his money back in the best, sure way he knew how, holding up a stagecoach. LeRoy used the last bit of his money to rent a horse and headed West along the Rio Grande River toward Del Norte. LeRoy found a place on the stagecoach route that was surrounded by sagebrush and having secured his location in the dead of night, placed cowboy hats on top of several bushes and placed wooden rifles below the hats. His stage was set.
Finally, after hours of waiting, the Barlow Sanderson Stage made its way up the road just before dawn and found a large wooden fence post laying in their path. The stage stopped and LeRoy stepped out from his hiding place and ordered the stage handler to toss him the mail bag as well as the leather envelope that contained a decent amount of money declaring that they were surrounded and should just follow directions. The stage handler complied while LeRoy demanded that the passengers also throw down their money and jewelry. LeRoy, being satisfied with his haul, let the stage continue. No one was hurt during the raid.
The following day, LeRoy left the San Luis Valley again and headed to Pueblo where he was recognized by a postal inspector and thrown in jail. US Commissioner Andrew Brazee charged LeRoy with two counts of stagecoach robbery and set his bail at $7,000. LeRoy, eager to take responsibility for his crimes, gave a full confession of his adventures and criminal activity in Colorado. LeRoy attempted to escape with two other prisoners who were shot during the escape and was put back in jail to await charges for a third robbery in the San Luis Valley.
LeRoy was placed on a train after being sentenced to 10 years in the House of Corrections located in Detroit, Mich. As the train neared its destination, LeRoy stole a piece of wire and used it to escape from his handcuffs. LeRoy jumped from the train when his captor went to the restroom and made his way to Hays City, Kan. Where he hid under the porch of an abandoned house for three days. According to reports, he survived off a single ear of corn during that time.
After LeRoy felt it safe to move again, he headed back home to Indianapolis where he met up with his brother Silas. Billy told his brother about his crimes and hauls in the San Luis Valley and the two decided it was worth it to go back and see how much they could get. It was at this time that Silas adopted the alias Sam Potter and between him and Billy they gathered a band of men that consisted of Tom O'Phallin, Jim Wilson, and Dave Rudenbaugh. Billy was the leader of the band.
Their first attempt to rob a stagecoach after returning to the San Luis Valley went horribly wrong. When the band of men stepped out to stop a western-bound coach led by Jack Wells, they startled the horses and seeing a chance to get away, the driver grabbed the reins, turned the stagecoach into the bushes and escaped under a hail of bullets. Luckily, no one was hurt during the incident.
Their next attempt went just as wrong as the first but this time, when they opened fire on the stagecoach driven by Joe McCormick, the passenger, an engineer for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad grabbed his shotgun and caught one of the other passengers in the leg. LeRoy boarded the stagecoach and made away with five bags of mail and $118. He also took the shotgun from the engineer.
By this time, lawmen throughout the area were hot on their tail and the band of thieves and local vigilantes began to gain interest. Money was pooled together from citizens of the San Luis Valley to help fund the effort to put these men in jail. The band of thieves hunkered down in a location near North Clear Creek by Creede and it was there that a group of citizens took all five men into custody.
All of the men were taken without incident except LeRoy. Seeing that the gig was up, LeRoy pulled his pistol to make his stand when he decided it would be better for him to run. After taking flight, one of the lawmen fired and shot LeRoy in the leg and took him into custody. The band of thieves were transported to Del Norte to await trial and it was there that citizens took matters into their own hands.
Once the prisoners were secured in the jail, over 100 masked men raided the jailhouse and took LeRoy and his brother Sam Potter to a nearby tree where they were hung for their crimes. Billy LeRoy's last words before the noose was hung about his neck rang out in the night while his brother sobbed beside him, "I have waltzed through the region a long time without paying the fiddler, so now gentleman I am ready to meet the cashier. Go on with your cart." The posse of vigilantes did just that and whipped the horses in front of the cart that held LeRoy and his brother ending the Colorado Highwaymen's lives once and for all.
For more information or to find stories such as this visit the Rio Grande County Museum in Del Norte.
CRT furthers plans for outdoor venue
HWA hosting Star Party for annual Perseid Meteor Shower
FOMCES dinner raises over $90K
SCSO provides update on missing woman from Crestone area


The simplest reason these stores pop up is best explained by Andrey Tagintsev, who on a recent afternoon was managing Foothill Plaza Market, on Auburn Boulevard, for his Russian-born parents.
While many choose their mono-cuisines, Sacramento's culinary offerings to its immigrants are available to us all to buy. There's no way to make assumptions about who's cooking what. We're an international city, and everybody is part of the stew.
There's Iraqi-owned Babylon City Market with its date vinegar, Turkish honeycombs and kebab sandwiches wrapped in fresh breads withdrawn all day long from a wood-fired oven as you watch. There's the Pakistani East-West Foods, with halal goat meat, vicious-looking red chili from Karachi; Jordanian green thyme, and bulk non-wheat flours.
Then there's the glut of big Asian markets in the south area – SF, Wing Wa, Vinh Phat and Welco – with fish swimming in tanks; produce much cheaper than at mainstream supermarkets; every noodle known in the noodle kingdom; fresh soy milk and duck eggs. The biggest is Koreana Plaza on Folsom Boulevard, which started as an Asian market but now encompasses the globe, even installing a tortilla machine. In contrast, a tiny Lao market specializes in fresh-ground sausages, spicy or mixed with oyster sauce, that you won't find in the big stores.
Oto's replicates markets in the style of Japan or Hawaii – clean and organized with sushi-grade fish; paper-thin beef ready to take home for an evening of hot pot; the best in rice cookers, and a rack of cookbooks.
Customers at Mercado Loco's several locations shop to salsa music, so you practically polka over to dozens of labeled red chilies, bulk piloncillo, Mexican cheese in enormous wheels and a small takeout area with the store's fresh homemade salsas.
Stores with the term "European" or "International" on the sign are most likely Russian or Ukrainian, with sour cream so thick it won't fall out if turned upside down; butters from France, Poland, Russia, Denmark; cold cuts and smoked fish; buttery pastries, plus a surprisingly large selection of chocolates.
Over to Western Europe, Sacramento's Italian heritage is easy to navigate. In addition to the legacy of Corti Brothers, at the smaller Sampino's Towne Foods, you can also find fresh pastas, Italian cheeses, sandwiches and sausages mixed in a 102-year-old grinder.
For anyone from Central Mexico, fresh garbanzos are a taste of home, a mainstay of street vendors. Now they're the latest craze in the produce sections of Mexican markets here.
Fresh garbanzos are either from Mexico or Sanger-based Califresh, the only year-round grower/packer/shipper of fresh garbanzos in the U.S. What you'll see in the store is a small, pistachio-green papery pod holding one or two peas.
You can eat them right out of the shell, but I like to steam-roast them in a cast-iron skillet. Two people can easily devour 4 cups, but pan-roast 2 cups at a time for quickest cooking or the interior peas will be mushy.
To eat, you "bite" the pea out of the pod as you would Japanese edamame (fresh cooked soybeans). Garbanzos are priced at $2 to $3 a pound.
Into a cast-iron skillet, nonstick pan or wok heated until very hot, add 2 cups garbanzos. Quickly add water, which will sizzle. Cover briefly while shaking the pan, sliding it over the burner front to back, about 15 seconds.
Uncover. Add salt, continuing to shake pan until water evaporates and garbanzos are lightly charred and water evaporates, stir-frying until lightly charred, about 30 seconds.
Transfer to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with chili powder and squeeze over with optional lime.


Why You Should Pay Attention: Adam Aminé Daniel has scored an unlikely hit with the wavy love rap "Caroline" – currently at 34 million YouTube views and counting. The Portland rapper is inspired by Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak and Outkast's The Love Below, and taught himself to make beats with YouTube tutorials. He also studied business, advertising and marketing at Portland State University (he recently dropped out with 15 credits left towards his degree), and creates his own cover artwork.
Last year, he piqued interest among some influential blogs and websites with his 2015 mixtape Calling Brio, a diverse blend of house, bass drops, African pop and smooth-but-steady flows. When he posted "Caroline" to SoundCloud in June, he generated a fierce bidding war that resulted a deal with Republic Records. By September, Republic pushed the track onto streaming services, and it has soared into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. He's recorded over 60 songs for his next project, but he's unsure if that will be an album or a mixtape. However, he knows that he wants to continue to make feel-good music that's colorful and bright.
Among this year's uncommonly vibrant cohort of breakout rappers, Aminé, a wild-haired twenty-two-year-old from Portland, Oregon, stands out for his warm, restless energy. His single "Caroline"—which has been slowly gaining momentum since its release, in March—finds a sweet spot between theatre-geek sincerity and cool-kid braggadocio, between neo-soul and ringtone rap, between romance and vulgarity. Melodically simple and texturally adventurous, it's a near-perfect dollop of populist rap joy—the kind of song that cuts across listening audiences, for better or worse. The song has racked up some hundred and fifty million streams in recent months and reached No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week.


text:
Abak Hussain
Published at 06:03 pm February 20th, 2017
Last updated at 06:54 pm February 20th, 2017
Once upon a time, Bangladeshis decided language mattered.
Our right to speak, write, and think freely in the language of our choice was sacred. It was worth fighting for, and it was worth dying for.
We Bangladeshis can be an impulsive and emotional bunch, and sometimes we make wrong decisions. But on February 21, 1952, we got it right.
We fought for our language and we won.
The price was steep -- bright young men at the prime of their lives, most of them not yet 30, were shot dead by the police. Their sacrifice became not just a constant reminder of the hard-earned right to speak in our mother-tongue Bangla, but also part of the very foundation of what it means to be Bangladeshi.
With good reason, today, Ekushey February is one of the three most important dates for Bangladesh -- the other two being March 26 and December 16.
Some will, no doubt, point out the irony of commemorating Ekushey with a piece written in English. Indeed, there are those who think the existence of an English language newspaper itself is something of a betrayal.
And then there are those who still side with Ershad's Bangla-for-everything policy, for turning our back on English and other languages, as though narrowing and limiting ourselves was somehow patriotic.
As though, somehow, a forced monolingualism honoured Salam, Rafiq, Barkat, Jabbar.
But all that is just blowing smoke to distract us from the real work to be done to truly uphold a culture of literacy, progress, and open-mindedness.
Bloggers and writers get killed for writing things that are deemed objectionable, and the government rarely makes justice a priority, often blaming the victim
The truth is -- Ekushey was never about hating on English. Ekushey was never about violently repressing the many indigenous languages which have existed within the borders of Bangladesh for ages. In fact, it was not even about hating on Urdu, a language which has given the world some of the most sublime poetry.
It was about standing up to an oppressive regime which told its people how to speak. It was about hitting back at the brutal Pakistani government that tried to use Urdu as a weapon to slowly destroy our speech, our heritage, and our very conception of who we are.
We pledged never to forget that day, and never to take our linguistic freedoms for granted.
But here we stand, 65 years later.
Publishers, authors, and organisers at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair are on edge. They have been warned that books will be scrutinised for offensive content.
No one is surprised by these warnings.
In recent years, arrests and stall closures have marred the spirit of the book fair.
The stall of Rodela Prokashani was shut down by the authorities in 2015 after Hefazat-e-Islam objected to a book they were selling.
Last year, Shahbagh police raided the stall of Badwip Prakashan at the book fair and shut it down abruptly. Police seized copies of several books including one that was deemed offensive. Three people in connection to that book, including writer-editor Shamsuzzoha Manik, were detained by the police.
Surely Bangladesh cried out against this injustice?
Sadly, no.
No less an authority than Bangla Academy Director General Shamsuzzaman Khan defended Manik's arrest and the stall closure, claiming the book was indeed "obscene."
It never occurred to the DG that the real obscenity was putting someone in jail just because the words they put on a page offended someone's sensibilities.
What would the martyrs of Ekushey say about this, if they were alive to see it?
Once upon a time, young men stood in front of police rifles, willing to be shot.
Now, our own government sends in policemen to the Ekushey book fair, armed, uniformed, and ready to bully and intimidate writers. Bloggers and writers get killed for writing things that are deemed objectionable, and the government rarely makes justice a priority, often blaming the victim.
We have twisted and perverted the message of Ekushey, and dishonoured the sacrifice of those who valued, above all, freedom.
A country that fought for language has transformed into a country where writers, bloggers, publishers, journalists, and academics live in fear, and fundamentalists live with their heads held high.
The government acts like everything is just fine.
The message to the new generation is clear: Speak no evil -- it will get you into a world of trouble.
Abak Hussain is Editor, Editorial and Op-Ed, Dhaka Tribune.
International Day for Universal Access to Information to be observed Tuesday
CPJ voices concern over torture of journos by Taliban
China, Hollywood and the censorship debate
'Mukh O Mukhosh' actor Zahat Ara passes away
ED: Why are journalists still under attack?
OP-ED: Move fast and break things (including democracy)
Ekushey February
Language Movement


text:
[This piece is an excerpt from Chapter 13 of The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty: Unraveling the Global Agenda, to be released January 10, 2023.]
This chapter derisively refers to the notorious Great Leap Forward (1958–1961) as the Great Leap Backward. But China's Great Leap Forward is not the ultimate object of my scorn. That scorn is reserved for the contemporary project conducted by people, who, if they knew anything about history, or cared about its results, would never propose this treacherous and potentially world-devastating campaign called the Great Reset—unless their intentions are evil and not merely misguided.
Meanwhile, I'm not the first to think of this appellation in connection with Mao's Great Leap. That distinction may be held by a Soviet critic of Mao's quixotic strategies. In an article entitled "The Great Leap Backward," one A. Khan'kovskiy treated the Great Leap Forward as a major deviation from the "successful" Soviet socialist system that had followed "the Great October Socialist Rev0lution."1
According to the Soviet writer, Khan'kovskiy, the Soviets had undertaken their glorious revolution under unfavorable conditions. They had established a socialist state against "the united front of the imperialist powers."2 (Meanwhile, the Soviets were launched and kept afloat by Western—especially U.S.—financing and technology.3) In spite of these difficulties, the Soviets had set the standard and vouchsafed to the Chinese a blueprint and model that it might follow. In the case of China, "[t]he gigantic might of the Soviet state was on its side." The Chinese benefitted from Soviet support as the Soviets treated the Chinese like a doting parent would its child. They had sent manpower, intelligence, material supplies, and money:
Our country gave China economic and political aid: For many years an entire army of Soviet specialists—over 10,000 people—worked in China. They helped build factories, automotive vehicle, tractor and machine building plants, electric power stations, radio stations, mines, bridges (the famous bridge across the Yangtse) River, highways . . .4
Even American politicians had acknowledged the Soviet Union's largesse. According to Khan'kovskiy, a joint commission of the U.S. Congress wrote in a two-volume treatise on the Chinese economy: "'history is unaware of a similar example in which a country [the Soviet Union] would offer on a plate an entire industrial system.'"5
With Soviet assistance and funding, the Chinese began to trudge the road of happy destiny. In the first several years since the establishment of the Chinese People's Republic, Chinese economic output had increased by several factors. From 1949 to 1957, as noted by the U.S. congressional commission, the index of industrial production of the Chinese People's Republic rose by over 400 percent. China was on track to become another "successful" socialist state. For China, "[a]ll possibilities existed for a progress toward communism, following the true and tried way laid by the Great October Revolution."6
Mao's Early Career
In addition to the Soviet Union's aid to Communist China, Mao benefitted personally and politically from Western and Eastern European assistance. Mao had been supported in his early communist career by Yale University vis-à-vis Yale-in-China.7 As Jonathan Spence, a professor of Chinese history put it:
In 1919, Mao, aged 26, was in Changsa, having his middle school education. He visited Peking and while there received his . . . serious introduction to communist theory in Li Ta-chao's Marxist Study Group. Now, if he was to develop a reputation in socialist circles, he had to find a forum to propagate his views . . . At this crucial point the student union of Yale-in-China invited Mao to take over the editorship of their journal.8
The Yale Daily News noted that Mao accepted the offer. With Mao at the helm, the paper would now be refocused to include social criticism of contemporary issues and work toward "thought reorientation."9
After studying Marxist theory in Peking, Mao moved to Shanghai, where he met Ch'en Tu-hsiu, who later became the Communist Party leader. Ch'en instructed Mao to form an area branch of the party in Peking, but Mao found that he lacked the funds. Yale-in-China intervened again. Spence noted that "Yale-in-China agreed to rent him three rooms, which Mao named his 'culture bookshop.'" Business boomed as Mao rang up "high sales" with such titles in Chinese as "An Introduction to Marx's Capital," "A Study of the New Russia," and "The Soviet System in China." Mao established branches of his bookstore and from the profits was able to establish several socialist youth corps and fund the Communist Party. Due to his success, Mao was chosen as one of the delegates to the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party at Shanghai in 1921. "From there it was only a small step to becoming one of the founders of the Communist movement in his country."10 . . .
Mao's Leap into Madness
Khan'kovskiy suggested that Mao's voluntarism11 soon got the better of him. The 8th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in 1956. The Congress approved the proposals for the second Five-Year Plan for 1958–1962. "There was no question of any adventuristic 'leaps' or of 'communes.'"12 But the Maoists dismissed this original plan as Mao decided to accelerate development radically. "The Maoists simply threw it overboard, replacing a more or less efficient program with high sounding phrases of 'great leaps' and 'red banners.'"13
A second session of the 8th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was convened in May 1958. At this convention, Mao introduced his new revolutionary scheme. "The shrieking slogan which all of Mao's stooges soon began learning by rote was: 'By tensing all our forces, by striving forward, let us build socialism on the principle of more, faster, better and more economically!'"14 Mao aimed "to have China reach the production levels reached by the capitalist countries in the course of 100 to 200 years, in 10–20 or even less years."15
The Great Leap Forward was an attempt to increase crop yields dramatically and to industrialize the countryside—to make local communities self-sustaining while increasing agricultural and industrial yields for the state. To accomplish these feats, the peasants were reorganized into massive communes of thousands and even tens of thousands, where all resources were communally shared, including food. Private ownership of land and free trade were abolished, along with the right to leave the collective.16 To avail women for farming, communal dining halls were established. With women working the communal farms, many men were likewise made available for small-scale "industrial" production. Communes were instructed to produce steel in homemade, backyard furnaces. A massive campaign to collect metal tools to transform everything into steel was conducted. Khan'kovskiy mockingly described this effort:
The Maoists intended to catch up with Britain by creating thousands and thousands of dwarf blast furnaces. It has been described already how everywhere, in cities and villages, on squares, streets and deserts, everywhere ore was to be smelted.17
On the agricultural front, to justify the overseeding of land, "Mao had proclaimed his belief that 'in company grain grows fast; seeds are happiest when growing together'—attempting to impose class solidarity on nature."18 Seeds were sown at five to ten times the normal density, with the predictable result that many young plants were choked off and died. The Chinese adopted farming methods from the Soviet "agrobiologist," Trofim Lysenko, a neo-Lamarckian who rejected Mendelian genetics and instead held to the Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics. The results were disastrous:
Wheat and maize never grow well together in the same fields, and the replacement of the traditional barley crop with wheat in the high, cold fields of Tibet was simply catastrophic. Other mistakes were made in the nationwide campaign. The extermination of the sparrows that ate the grain resulted in a massive increase in the number of parasites. A large amount of hydraulic equipment that had been hurriedly and carelessly built was found to be useless or even dangerous because of the increased erosion and the risk of flooding at the first high tide. Moreover, the cost of its construction in terms of human life had been enormous: more than 10,000 out of 60,000 workers had died on one site in Henan.19
The peasants exhausted themselves in everything but agriculture, having been drafted into engineering projects and small-scale steel production, the products of which were virtually worthless. As Khan'kovskiy put it, Mao had turned "millions of experienced grain growers into amateur metallurgists."20 The mismatch of competence and assigned duties represented a devastating loss in productive output.
The Black Book of Communism, reviled by Western Marxists, sardonically described the overall efforts as follows:
In this happy dream that was to bring real Communism within reach, the accumulation of capital and a rapid rise in the standard of living were to go hand in hand. All that had to be done was to achieve the simple objectives set by the Party.21
When the crop yields fell and the death toll rose, the Maoist regime began a campaign of denial, doublespeak, torture, and mass murder. The secretary of the Xinyang district wrote: "The problem is not that food is lacking. There are sufficient quantities of grain, but 90 percent of the inhabitants are suffering from ideological difficulties."22 Sound familiar?
There is much more to this history. Suffice it to say that the Great Leap Forward precipitated the worst famine in recorded history. Deaths attributable to the famine of 1958–1961 numbered between 20 and 43 million, including those children who were murdered, boiled, and turned into fertilizer.23
The Ultimate Great Leap Backward
Before I point to the primary similarity between China's Great Leap Forward and the Great Reset, some notable differences should be conceded. But even these differences do not weigh in favor of the Great Reset. Whereas the Great Leap Forward was a misguided attempt to increase crop yields dramatically and industrialize the countryside, the Great Reset aims deliberately at deindustrialization and will affect a reduction in agricultural output. The Great Leap Forward established the People's Commune and enforced collective "ownership" of land and other resources. Great Reset–initiated policies will lead to the consolidation of farmland in the hands of fewer owners, those with sufficient capital to undertake agriculture under stifling regulations and policies to meet Agenda 2030's sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Whereas during the early phase of the Great Leap Forward, eating meat was celebrated as a revolutionary act,24 under the Great Reset, eating meat is deemed reactionary and unsustainable while eating insects and synthetic meats is promoted and celebrated as environmentally conscious.25 The putative object of the Great Leap Forward was to increase gross domestic product to equal or surpass that of developed nations, particularly Great Britain, and to raise the standard of living of the peasants and the population at large. The Great Reset, on the other hand, represents deliberate de-growth and reduced standards of living of the lower and middle classes in the developed world and the squelching of growth in the developing world. While the Great Leap Forward was implemented to hasten the arrival of full communism, the Great Reset establishes corporate socialism, economic fascism, and neo-feudalism. (See Part I). Despite the technological innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (discussed in Part IV), the Great Reset is a de-civilizational project.
Yet, the Great Leap Forward and the Great Reset share one essential feature: the arbitrary imposition of a collectivist unscientific ideology on all human activity and nature. During the Great Leap Forward, Lysenkoism was adopted from the Soviet Union for ideological reasons, despite its disastrous effects there. During the Great Reset, climate catastrophism has been adopted on equally ideological, unscientific grounds. "The science" we are told to follow is a sham. Against the facts of science and the benefits of technology, we are told that CO2 is pollution, that "sustainability" requires imposing an enormous tax on humanity for the respiration of plants, and that farming methods of the original Green Revolution, which have increased yields by many factors, must be eliminated and replaced with a new environmentalist Green Revolution. We are told that industrial production must be carried on using non-fossil-fuel inputs. These demands are as delusional as anything advocated by Chairman Mao.
Carbon neutrality by 2050 is an insanely impossible demand. Our industrial civilization and the population it supports depend on the advances made in fossil fuel extraction and use. Even Vaclav Smil, a believer in climate change, who is an otherwise credible source, agrees:
For those who ignore the energetic and material imperatives of our world, those who prefer mantras of green solutions to understanding how we have come to this point, the prescription is easy: just decarbonize—switch from burning fossil carbon to converting inexhaustible flows of renewable energies. The real wrench in the works: we are a fossil-fueled civilization whose technical and scientific advances, quality of life, and prosperity rest on the combustion of huge quantities of fossil carbon, and we cannot simply walk away from this critical determinant of our fortunes in a few decades, never mind years.
Complete decarbonization of the global economy by 2050 is now conceivable only at the cost of unthinkable global economic retreat, or as a result of extraordinarily rapid transformations relying on near-miraculous technical advances.26
In short, we risk returning to the pre-industrial era of drudgery and intermittent starvation if the planners of the Great Reset have their way. They must not have their way.
1. A. Khan'kovskiy, "The Great Leap Backward," Literaturnaya Gazeta, no. 36 (September 6, 1967): 14–15. Pages in the retrieved document do not maintain the original pagination. I will refer to the page numbers of the retrieved document.
2. Ibid,, p. 1.
3. Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Forest Row: Clairview, 2016; Antony C. Sutton, National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union, Dauphin Publications Inc., 2021.
4. Khan'kovskiy, "The Great Leap Backward," p. 1.
5. Ibid., p. 2.
7. "Yale Group Spurs Mao's Emergence," Yale Daily News, February 29, 1972, p. 1.
8. Spence qtd. in ibid.
10. Ibid., Spence qtd. in ibid.
11. In Marxist thought, voluntarism refers to an overemphasis on the subjective conditions (will, consciousness) for revolution. It deviates from the orthodox Marxist position, which emphasizes "objective conditions," which are deemed to be determinative.
12. A. Khan'kovskiy, "The Great Leap Backward," p. 2.
14. Ibid., p. 3.
16. That is, the property rights of the peasantry were completely abrogated, the first instance of which is ownership of oneself.
18. Stéphane Courtois and Mark Kramer. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 489.
21. Stéphane Courtois and Mark Kramer, The Black Book of Communism, p. 488.
22. Qtd. in ibid., p. 492.
23. Ibid., pp. 492–493.
25. See for example, Amrou Awaysheh and Christine J. Picard, PhD., "5 Reasons Why Eating Insects Can Reduce Climate Change," World Economic Forum, February 9, 2022, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/how-insects-positively-impact-climate-change/; Kate Whiting, "How Soon Will We Be Eating Lab-Grown Meat?" World Economic Forum, October 16, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/will-we-eat-lab-grown-meat-world-food-day/.
26. Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going, Viking, 2022, https://www.amazon.com/How-World-Really-Works-Science/dp/0593297067, pp. 5–6.
Previous article Previous post: The Origins of the Federal Reserve
Next article Next post: The Second Housing Bubble of the 21st Century Is Over


text:
Q: Defining many to many relationship I'm struggling defining the following relationships:

*

*A User can have MANY posts.

*A User can belong as collaborator to MANY posts.

*A post has ONE owner.

*A post can have MANY users (i.e. collaborators). (The owner can add them later on)

    Class User(){
       public Guid Id{ get; set; }
    }

    class UserPost(){
       public Guid UserId { get; set; }
       public User User { get; set; }

       public Guid PostId { get; set; }
       public { get; set; }
    }

    class Post(){
       public IList<UserPost> UserPost{ get; set; }
       public Guid AuthorId { get; set; }
       public User Author { get; set; }
       public string Title { get; set; }
    }

Is my code a correct representation of the relationship?

A: Each of these needs to be a separate relationship. Which means you need something like:
public class User
{
    public ICollection<Post> Posts { get; set; }
    public ICollection<PostCollaborator> CollaboratingPosts { get; set; }
}

public class Post
{
    public User Owner { get; set; }
    public ICollection<PostCollaborator> Collaborators { get; set; }
}

public class PostCollaborator
{
    public Post Post { get; set; }
    public User Collaborator { get; set; }
}

In other words, the post owner relationship is actually a one-to-many. A user can have many owned posts, but each post has only one owner. The post collaborator relationship is a many-to-many, which then requires a join entity PostCollaborator.


If NCO Financial or its callers used abusive collection tactics, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) has been violated and you have the right to seek recovery and free legal help!
The Better Business Bureau lowered NCO's rating due to the amount of government actions taken against them. These actions were taken against violations of the FDPCA by NCO and resulted in a fine of over $3 million.
If you receive a call from NCO, you are not required to give them any personal information – especially checking or savings account numbers or your social security number. If you do give out bank account numbers, collectors may withdraw funds, claiming your permission was granted when you gave out the number.
If you have been the victim of frequent, abusive, harassing, or unfair telephone calls from NCO Financial, your rights have been violated. If you want it to stop within 24 hours, we encourage you to contact our free legal service. We are dedicated to ending violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If you have been harassed by NCO Financial, contact us at 1-800 NOT FAIR (1-800-668-3247).


The thin, flexible plastic patch looks simple, but it's taken 15 years of research to get it to work, says Tohid Didar, an assistant professor in McMaster's chemical and mechanical engineering department.
He holds up the transparent patch, about the size of two postage stamps, between his thumb and forefinger in his lab.
"This could be the wrap that you wrap around your meat for example," he says. "You can then scan the food to find out what's going on."
To create the patch, a printer deposits tiny droplets of DNA molecules onto a thin, flexible plastic film. When the patch comes into contact with E. coli and is exposed to ultraviolet light — the kind commonly used to detect counterfeit bills — the molecules light up, signalling the presence of bacteria.
Didar says the current method used to test for E. coli and other food-borne bacteria is a multi-step process that takes at least a day.
"You need to take the package, open it, process it, take it to a lab, either culture that sample or try to do different laboratory-based experiments to find out what's going on, " he says. "Our goal is to avoid all that so you can get real-time information."
Team member Carlos Filipe, chair of McMaster's chemical engineering department, hopes that shoppers will one day be able to point their smartphone cameras at packaged fresh food and check for contamination by using an app.
"The goal is to allow people to ultimately look at the packaged food and be able to tell if there is food contamination, like E. coli, in that food, without having to open the package," says Filipe.
He says the research team is working to develop Sentinel Wrap patches for other types of food-borne bacteria, including salmonella and listeria.
The patches also detect contamination in water and other liquids.
Didar says Sentinel Wrap itself is safe and does not contaminate food.
The researchers published their findings in April in the scientific journal ACS Nano, but they still have obstacles to overcome before they can test the patch in the real world.
It would first need approval from food regulators, then the researchers would have to bring down the cost of mass production.
"We are hoping that in two years' time, with the industry partners that we are currently talking to, we can at least start some pilot studies on these so that we can have some selected food in grocery stores that we can follow and see what happens," says Didar. "That's the goal."
The Canadian Meat Council, which represents meat packers, reacted positively to the invention.
"A rapid detection tool that is accurate and specific would be a great addition to the food safety toolkit," said council spokesperson Marie-France MacKinnon in an email to CBC News.
But, she said, the best defence against food contamination is knowing how to properly cook meat.
"No invention can replace proper safe food handling techniques and cooking foods properly to temperatures that kill harmful bacteria," she said.
Ron Charles has been a general assignment reporter for CBC News since 1989, covering such diverse stories as the 1990 Oka Crisis, the 1998 Quebec ice storm and the 2008 global financial crisis. Before joining the CBC, Ron spent two years reporting on Montreal crime and courts for the Montreal Daily News.


Fearing the potential for dramatic increases in consumer utility prices (which happened in other states), Delegate Fleischauer played an important role in the successful effort to derail proposed electric utility deregulation in 1998 (HB 4277). Although legislation giving the Public Service Commission jurisdiction to establish a deregulation plan was passed, it gave the Legislature veto power over any such plan. The Public Service Commission has never submitted a deregulation plan to the Legislature for approval, presumably because of the fallout from the Enron scandal, which occurred shortly after passage of the revised bill.


The last two months have been a turning point in the annals of the NDC. We saw enthusiastic comrades meeting at their respective branches to re-register as active card bearing members of the party. The exercise was geared towards compiling a credible register for our internal elections.
We appreciate the difficulty in some constituencies, particularly those categorized as rural constituencies. The major challenge was the cost of passport pictures and how some comrades had to travel either on foot or motorbikes to branch meetings. These difficulties, challenging as they were, did not deter our comrades from registering. They are the true owners of our party and we celebrate them. We thank the National Executives, regional, constituency and branch executives for their selfless dedication to duty.
The Election Directorates of the various units of our party also need not escape our patting on the shoulder gesture. They did a yeoman's job in these trying times in the history of our party. We believe that the enthusiasm demonstrated across the country is indicative of the fact that we are ready to roll our sleeves and get to work for victory 2020.
The various regional, constituency and branch women organizers were also very helpful during the exercise. They have shown that with the right leadership in place, they will rise to occasion on any day.
The journey to 2020 begins now. Our preparation today will determine our achievement in 2020. We thank all party supporters for their commitment.


text:
Gene editing among top 'emerging innovations' needed to reach sustainable food system, 50 experts say
ISAAA | May 28, 2020
Credit: Colourbox
An international team of almost 50 experts identified 75 emerging innovations and 8 action points that can help speed up the transition to a sustainable and healthy food system. Their recommendations are published in Nature Food.
At present, 40 percent of global land is used for food production, which contributes to land-use change, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, major transformations in the way food is produced are necessary. The emerging innovations enumerated include genome editing, vertical agriculture, nitrogen-fixing crops that do not need fertilizer, use of insects for food and feed, among others.
Five out of the eight action points for accelerating the food system transformation are centered on trust, changing mindsets, enabling social license, and safeguarding against unwanted effects. The first point focuses on building trust among key players of the food system which include the farmers, consumers, and food companies. They are required to have shared values on the desirability of various food system outcomes, for example, sustainability provenance, and socio-economic advantages.
Related article: Could 'ultrasonic squeals' from plants help farmers protect water-starved crops?


text: Q: Is there any significance of the Star of David during Nynaeve's test? In Towers of Midnight, Nynaeve finally takes her Aes Sedai test. One of the triggers in the test is "two triangles overlapped", which is like the Star of David. Is there any significance to this symbol being used?


text:
Coming in 2011: serious debates over spending and cutting
The surprise Person of the Year: President Obama. Eclipsed politician of the year: Mike McGinn. Most influential: Tea Partiers (though about to be subsumed).
Paul Volcker, left, has got Obama's ear again
Various media have been nominating their Men and Women of the Year. Put me down as undecided among several. The most deserving have been the men and women sacrificing for us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and waypoints.
President Bush began the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Obama has continued them. Our troops are scheduled to exit Iraq next year, whether or not a truly stable central government is by then governing the country. But our involvement in Afghanistan has become disappointingly open-ended, with Obama most recently stating that it likely will be 2014, and perhaps later, before U.S. forces will be leaving that country.
In my judgment, this was a serious policy and political mistake. It is quite possible that the on-ground 2014 situation in Afghanistan will be no better than it is today; it could be worse. In any case, no vital interest is at stake there to justify the human and material costs we are paying to meet it. Yet our troops on the ground have maintained high morale and levels of performance, despite the dubiousness of their mission. They deserve our admiration and respect.
The most influential people in the 2010 political year were Tea Partiers, who changed the terms of reference in American domestic politics. Their bottom-up rebellion — mainly against short-term deficits and long-term debt at federal, state, and local level — has shaken formerly complacent elected officials of both major political parties. Tea Partiers, it turns out, were not the racists or right-wing or religious extremists their critics initially painted them to be. They were ordinary citizens and taxpayers, more independent than partisan, who rejected complacency for involvement and contributed to the anti-incumbent wave that swept the country in 2010.
Because more Democratic than Republican seats were at stake, Democrats took what Obama termed "a shellacking," losing 63 U.S. House and six U.S. Senate seats. Yet the Tea Party label, of and by itself, was not enough to elect deficient challengers such as Senate candidates Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Joe Miller in Alaska. Tea Party populism will be subsumed within both major parties' agendas in 2011.
The most important single event in the 2010 political year, after the November elections, was the lameduck session of the Congress, just concluded. Obama struck a compromise deal with congressional Republicans on extension of Bush-era tax cuts, which otherwise would have expired Dec. 31.
He appeared to lose his way, immediately thereafter, when he denounced extension of upper-income cuts included in his bargain. That angered Republicans with whom he had made the deal. It also outraged House and other liberal Democrats who denounced Obama for accepting provisions he had characterized so harshly. Opinion surveys, however, showed a strong majority of Americans approving the compromise package, which also contained a healthy measure of near-term economic stimulus.
To everyone's surprise, bipartisanship then blossomed between White House and Congress, and between both parties in the Congress. A START Treaty with Russia was ratified. Both Democrats and Republicans dumped a budget containing numerous expensive earmarks and agreed to continue government at current spending levels until a fresh budget could be negotiated next spring — presumably without earmarks. Then, by a surprisingly strong margin, Don't-ask-don't-tell rules, governing gays in the military, were repealed. This was a dramatic development comparable to President Truman's elimination of racial segregation in the military 65 years ago.
The resolution of the tax, budget, dont-ask, and START issues before adjournment cleared them from the new Congress' 2011 agenda in January. The first order of business, then, almost surely will be consideration of legislation cutting short-term federal deficits and long-term debt. A bipartisan group of 18 senators, growing daily, will introduce legislation in the new Congress embodying the recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson Deficit Reduction Commission.
This will provide a starting point for serious debate of taxing and spending options which would have been thought impossible as recently as two years ago. Medicare, Medicaid, and Pentagon spending, longstanding "tax expenditures" (subsidies and loopholes), and discretionary spending elsewhere in the budget will all be up for debate. That debate no doubt will consume many months but, once begun, will be hard to stop. Leftover 2010 issues will include immigration, where tough border enforcement must be a precursor to liberalization, and the many legal and political challenges confronting the Obama health-care plan soon after its enactment.
The single person of the year must be President Obama, who began the year indifferently, fell into a political and public-approval hole, and then ran up unexpected victories in the lamduck session. He also returned at year end to the bring-us-together rhetoric of his 2008 electoral campaign and forsook the harsh, partisan broadsides that had characterized many of his statements of 2009-10.
Did Obama return to consensus-seeking language because of Democrats' congressional losses? Or did he do it because it really was where he intended to go after a two-year, more partisan detour? He may not know himself. After his 2008 election, Obama was reported to be reading books about formation of cabinets and governments. Now his aides report that he is reading books about divided governance. One would have hoped he'd have done such reading in his pre-presidential years. But better now than never.
He also has discussed the matter with former President Clinton, who faced a similar situation after congressional losses in 1994, and with aides from earlier White Houses. Clinton spent almost all of 1995, after 1994 losses, in an intellectual funk, undecided on his future course. He finally settled on Dick Morris' famous "triangulation strategy" in which he rebuilt his popularity — and ultimate reelection — on a more centrist, issue-by-issue strategy in which he reached across partisan lines.
Since Republicans now control the U.S. House, and can stop any legislation they desire in the Senate, the odds favor Obama's adoption of The Clinton Way, but not waiting many months to do it. The debt/deficit-reduction debate will offer him an immediate chance to show such a leadership style, if he indeed chooses to pursue it.
Liberals, the labor movement, and others in the Democratic Party will not like such a shift. But, at least for now, Obama is their only horse. Will Obama be challenged within the Democratic Party for the 2012 presidential nomination? Probably. But, at this point, it may go no further than a challenge by Sen. Tom Harkin in his home state of Iowa's early primary.
The central issue for Democratic dissenters, as the year goes on, will be Afghanistan. A sharp setback there, or rise in casualties, could bring a more serious challenge than Harkin's. But it almost surely will not be by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She is joined at the hip with Obama on the present Afghan strategy and could not lead an insurgency from his dovish side.
Here at home the men and women of the year in 2010 are the same as those of 2011. They are the ones who will be dealing at state level with the same taxing/spending challenges being addressed at the federal level and in 49 other states. They are Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp, and, now, state Rep. Ross Hunter, who has become the single most important figure on these issues in the lower house and who is far more hawkish on them than his upper-house counterpart, state Sen. Ed Murray.
Looming in the background will be the popular State Auditor Brian Sonntag, who has been ahead of the governor and the legislature on taxing/spending discipline all along. He is a possible candidate for the 2012 Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Members of the Seattle City Council will continue to hold center stage in local governance. Mayor Mike McGinn has squandered his time in office, and his credibility, with a single-minded crusade against the underground-tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct. He has isolated himself from the council, the governor, state legislative leaders, and Seattle voters, except for those in his limited political base. He also has appeared incapable of setting program and spending priorities within the city.
We've seen this before in our city governance but times are tough now and public choices truly important. They're likely to be made without McGinn.
To all, an ever hopeful New Year.


✩✩Type: RC Truck Toy- Material: Alloy- Scale: 1:18- Suitable Age: 7-14 Years Old- Remote Co..
The police van races at full speed with flashing lights and wailing sirens to their next jo..
Made from plastic material Recommended for 3 year and a..
Perfect Gift for Kids: Set of 5 vehicles includes Excavator, Dump Truck, Bulldozer, Wheel L..
This amazing forklift toy features double lift mast and adjustable and detachable fork pron..
CORGI CLASSICS MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN BEDFORD O SERIES VAN TERRY"S CHOCOLATES OF YORK DELIVE..
Powered by children - no batteries! Endless imaginative..
1: 64 scale Die Cast model ..
Polesie Volvo Power truck ..
Built Tonka tough with sturdy steel construction. Featu..
LLEDO DAYS GONE MADE IN ENGLAND MODEL T FORD. HARRORDS OF KENSINGTON DELIVERY VAN. ..
Climb and conquer Uses Reaction Traction to climb over ..
High receiving sensitivity. High active and passive ant..
Lena Trucking gravel bin Cart made from high-quality plastic and with 6 mm Galvanised Steel..
LLEDO DAYS GONE MADE IN ENGLAND R.N.L.I. DELIVERY TRUCK. ..


This course is part 1 of 7 of the IBM Statistics Academy powered by Arrow Education.This 2-day course will provide fundamental insight into the concepts of statistics. The focus is put on statistical concepts and corresponding relevance in a business environment without grinding through mathematical equations.
Consequently, this training features an excellent crash-course for newcomers but offers valuable fine-tuning for more advanced statisticians as well.
Decision-maker with little to no experience in data analytics Data analysts with little to no experience in statistics.