text:
Conversely, Trotsky argued that a defeat for the USSR would strengthen capitalism and reduce the possibilities for political revolution.
Page "Third camp" ¶ 5
Conversely and Trotsky
Conversely, Trotsky held that socialism in one country would economically constrain the industrial development of the USSR, and thus required assistance from the new socialist countries that had arisen in the developed world, which was essential for maintaining Soviet democracy, in 1924 much undermined by civil war and counter-revolution.
Conversely and argued
Conversely, the Belgian Blue's meat tenderness has been argued to be just as tender because there are a large number of smaller muscle fibers.
Conversely, Eldad ha-Dani argued that the tribe of Simeon had become quite powerful, taking tribute from 25 other kingdoms, some of which were Arabians ; though he names their location, surviving versions of his manuscripts differ as to whether it was the land of the Khazars or of the Chaldeans-Chaldeans would be an anachronism, though it could possibly refer to Buyid Dynasty Persia.
" Conversely, Jeffrey Tucker of the Ludwig von Mises Institute has argued that " The whole scene — which anticipated so much of the technology we have today but, strangely, not email or texting — reflected the ethos of time: a love of progress and a vision of a future that stayed on course ...
Conversely, supporters of Socialist Appeal argued that the Labour Party's funding was still based on trade unions, and the Labour Party retains support amongst the working class.
Conversely, the Jansenist theologian Camus argued that the plan was in perfect harmony with the New Testament and the councils of the fourth century.
Conversely, it has been argued that emphasizing the harmful and undesirable effects of tobacco smoking on other persons and imposing smoking bans in public places have been particularly effective in reducing tobacco smoking.
Conversely, if this block is given to subjects in a format where KR is available, transient and persistent effects of KR are convoluted and it is argued not interpretable for learning effects.
Conversely, Timothy Churchill has argued that Paul's Damascus road encounter does not fit the pattern of Merkabah.
Conversely, Wium Lie has targeted Microsoft's Internet Explorer due to its poor support for standards and argued against the use of formatting objects on the web.
Conversely, others have argued that Biblical Aramaic most closely resembles the 5th Century Elephantine papyri and is therefore a good representative of typical Imperial Aramaic.
Conversely, Wedderburn's counsel argued that commercial interests, which underpinned Scotland's prosperity, should prevail.
Conversely Wellhausen and Spitta have both argued that the we could have been an alteration by a later editor who modified John to make it more like the other Gospels.
Conversely, fluoridation proponents argued that Yiamouyiannis ' work had errors.
Conversely and defeat
Conversely, some of the Allied infantry who had just dealt a crushing defeat to the French at the Battle of Waterloo fully expected to have to fight again the next day ( at the Battle of Wavre ).
Conversely defeat by an external power could mean the end of a ruler and his people, who were absorbed into the victorious confederacy.
Conversely, his intention to vote " no " ensured the defeat of the Howard government's proposed tightening of asylum seeker laws.
Conversely and for
Conversely, if he gives a heavy rating to his own reading, and finds more accurate facts in it than in the others, a point is chalked up for the intrinsic, objective meaningfulness of this type of mediumistic material.
Conversely, the Radical Republicans criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery.
Conversely, some elements do not maintain distinct allotropes in different phases – for example phosphorus has numerous solid allotropes, which all revert to the same P < sub > 4 </ sub > form when melted to the liquid state.
Conversely, British English favours fitted as the past tense of fit generally, whereas the preference of American English is more complex: AmEng prefers fitted for the metaphorical sense of having made an object " fit " ( i. e., suited ) for a purpose ; in spatial transitive contexts, AmEng uses fitted for the sense of having made an object conform to an unchanged object that it surrounds ( e. g., " fitted X around Y ") but fit for the sense of having made an object conform to an unchanged object that surrounds it ( e. g., " fit X into Y "); and for the spatial senses ( both intransitive and transitive ) of having been matching with respect to contour, with no alteration of either object implied, AmEng prefers fit (" The clothes fit.
Conversely, the withdrawal syndrome may also be a trigger for relapse.
Conversely, any algebra for which this is true is clearly alternative.
Conversely the use of true brass seems to have declined in Western Europe during this period in favour of gunmetals and other mixed alloys but by the end of the first Millennium AD brass artefacts are found in Scandinavian graves in Scotland, brass was being used in the manufacture of coins in Northumbria and there is archaeological and historical evidence for the production of brass in Germany and The Low Countries areas rich in calamine ore which would remain important centres of brass making throughout the medieval period, especially Dinant – brass objects are still collectively known as dinanterie in French.
Conversely, many fighter aircraft, such as the F-16, are often used as ' bomb trucks ,' despite being designed for aerial combat.
Conversely, a subset R defines a binary function if and only if, for any x in X and y in Y, there exists a unique z in Z such that ( x, y, z ) belongs to R.
Conversely, certain general principles ( for example, neighbourliness, or charity ) are seen to be universal and consistent.
Conversely, in more recent times, Russian existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov viewed Job as the embodiment of the battle between reason ( which offers general and seemingly comforting explanations for complex events ) and faith in a personal god, and one man's desperate cry for him.
Conversely, the vast majority of early attempts at proper excavation techniques failed to accurately measure or record stratigraphy, thereby failing to provide a secure context for artefact finds making interpretations extremely limited in scope.
Conversely, in the English language as a whole, singular verb forms can often be used with nouns ending in "- s " that were once considered plural ( for example: " Physics is my favorite academic subject ").
Conversely, Derek Bickerton and others argue that the advent of abstract words provided a mental basis for analyzing higher-order relations, and that any communication system that remotely resembles human language utterly relies on cognitive architecture that co-evolved alongside language.
Conversely, the tiny meson mass mass differences responsible for meson oscillations are often expressed in the more convenient inverse picoseconds.
Conversely, in functional code, the output value of a function depends only on the arguments that are input to the function, so calling a function f twice with the same value for an argument x will produce the same result f ( x ) both times.
Conversely, the bodies of people who had certain medical conditions are useful for research into those conditions.
Conversely, if the data are sparse — that is, if only K out of N Fourier coefficients are nonzero — then the complexity can be reduced to O ( K log N log ( N / K )), and this has been demonstrated to lead to practical speedups compared to an ordinary FFT for N / K > 32 in a large-N example ( N = 2 < sup > 22 </ sup >) using a probabilistic approximate algorithm ( which estimates the largest K coefficients to several decimal places ).
Conversely, one might expect that inertial motions, once identified by observing the actual motions of bodies and making allowances for the external forces ( such as electromagnetism or friction ), can be used to define the geometry of space, as well as a time coordinate.
Conversely, for many deductive systems, it is possible to prove the completeness theorem as an effective consequence of the compactness theorem.
Conversely and would
Conversely, experimenters would consider as impressive such statements as the following, which, if they turned out to be hits, are so unusual as to be really significant:
Conversely, the existence of Bletchley Park, and of the decrypting achievements there, was never officially shared with the Soviet Union, whose war effort would have greatly benefited from regular decrypting of German messages relating to the Eastern Front.
Conversely, the symbol width could be set at 8, even if only values 0 and 1 are used ; these data would only require a 2-color table.
Conversely, in the state exporting bullion, its value would slowly rise.
( Conversely, the Star Trek: Enterprise episode " Awakening " includes a line from the long-deceased Surak referring to the enemies of logic in his time as " those who marched beneath the raptor's wing ": this would appear to be a reference to the symbol of the Romulan Empire.
Conversely, the evil of hell works so that if a soul remains in, or returns to, the grey town, even its happiness on earth will lose its meaning, and its experience on earth would have been hell.
Conversely, Elijah Delmedigo ( c. 1458 – c. 1493 ), in his Bechinat ha-Dat endeavored to show that the Zohar could not be attributed to Shimon bar Yochai, arguing that if it were his work, the Zohar would have been mentioned by the Talmud, as has been the case with other works of the Talmudic period, that had bar Yochai known by divine revelation the hidden meaning of the precepts, his decisions on Jewish law from the Talmudic period would have been adopted by the Talmud, that it would not contain the names of rabbis who lived at a later period than that of Simeon ; and that if the Kabbalah was a revealed doctrine, there would have been no divergence of opinion among the Kabbalists concerning the mystic interpretation of the precepts.
Conversely, if letters were raised in relief above the surface of the explosive, then the letters on the plate would also be raised above its surface.
Conversely, if children are found to only develope after undergoing treatment it would challenge the traumagenic model.
Conversely, surveys conducted among living donors postoperatively and in a period of five years following the procedure have shown extreme regret in a majority of the donors, who said that given the chance to repeat the procedure, they would not.
" Conversely, Voyager Captain Janeway refused to allow the Kazon-Nistrim and the Kazon-Ogla to have replicator technology, believing it would tip the balance of power among the Kazon factions.
Conversely, Republicans believed that by increasing the tariff, imports would be lessened, and total tariff revenue would drop ( See Laffer curve ).
Conversely, Hill would play only 47 games in the following four seasons due to a recurring ankle injury.
Conversely, it is hard to believe, given the length and intensity of the struggle between Máel Sechnaill and Brian, that the High King would surrender his title without a fight.
Conversely, North Korea refused to speak in the context of six-party talks, stating that it would only accept bilateral talks with the United States.
Conversely, citizens may find themselves ineligible because they do not currently reside within the United States ; exceptions apply for children of military parent ( s ) who were born overseas, were disabled or became blind overseas, or first applied for benefits overseas and for students studying abroad who were eligible for SSI in the month prior to leaving the US, whose absence will be for less than 1 year, and who are studying to enhance their ability to perform substantial gainful activity, sponsored by an educational institution in the US, and would not be available to the individual in the US.
Conversely, any cut, limit, cap, or end of the equal-amount PFD would mean low-income Alaskans would experience the greatest percentage loss of income.


This orange top from MADAME. This regular-fit, cotton top is soft against the skin and comfortable to wear all day long. Perfect for summer styling, this short-sleeved top will go well with washed denim and sneakers.


Snowman fan with top hat on a stick, made from heavy high density, white paper board, liquid laminated for a high gloss finish. Includes preprinted stock graphics. Large imprint area to display your custom message or logo. Makes a unique holiday promotional item for school, company parties, churches and more. Custom imprint in black.
Imprint Area : 6" W X 1 3/4" H.


text:
NewsChevron Right IconCrime
The Lady Vanishes: Major breakthrough as police reopen investigation into missing teacher Marion Barter
Bryan Seymour
Published: 28/07/2019 Updated: Monday, 12 August 2019 10:44 AM GMT+10
Police reopen Marion Barter case
New South Wales police have reopened their investigation into the disappearance of a missing mother who's the subject of 7NEWS podcast The Lady Vanishes.
There's been a breakthrough in the search for a missing mother Marion Barter, whose case is the subject of the hit 7NEWS podcast The Lady Vanishes.
Marion, a former Gold Coast teacher, vanished in 1997.
Now, police say they will reopen the investigation, refer the case to the Coroner and put Marion on the Australian National Missing Persons Register.
It's a stunning vindication of the dedication of Marion's daughter, Sally Leydon, and the small team at 7NEWS working on this global investigation.
Marion Barter married Socceroo great Johnny Warren in 1968. Credit: 7NEWS
"I'm quite elated… you know, I have a tear in my eye… it's a big sigh of relief, it's something that I have been fighting for by myself for a very long time I feel and it's a very sad story and a very intriguing story which most of our listeners on the podcast have also said," Sally told 7NEWS.
"My hair is standing on my head and I have goosebumps all over my body… there are a lot of things that myself and you guys at Channel Seven have been constantly wracking their brains and trying to come up with answers and just looking for information that could pertain to what even happened to her, like working out a timeline.
In a statement, New South Wales Police said: "A police review of the investigation into the whereabouts of a Queensland teacher has determined that information will be forwarded to the Coroner and the case be reinstated as a Missing Person case."
Despite exhaustive inquiries in Australia and overseas, detectives from the Tweed-Byron Police District have been unable to determine her whereabouts.
As part of the review, it was recommended Ms Barter be reinstated on the national register owing to the unique circumstances of this case.
Sally Leydon, the daughter of missing teacher Marion Barter, has spoken of her joy as the case reopens. Credit: 7NEWS
After searching for than two decades... her daughter was today stunned by the news her mum will be placed on the National Missing Persons Register.
"Oh my gosh, I can't even begin to say enough, words aren't enough to express my gratitude for all the people who take time out of their day to worry about me, worry about mum, have an idea, that's why I work so tirelessly trying to answer everybody's questions, it takes me hours to do that but I'm more than happy to do that because I understand these people are taking time out of their busy lives to actually help me as well and I'm forever grateful, I really am," Sally said.
"I'm shaking... I've actually been feeling a bit sick in the stomach, with an excitable sick, but this has been long overdue," she added.
In 1997, Marion quit her teaching job on the Gold Coast, sold her home and went to England for a year-long holiday. Then she vanished.
But years later, Sally discovered she had changed her name to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, returned to Australia just week after she left and that someone had drained her bank account at Byron Bay.
This is how Marion (or Florabella) might look today, aged 73. Credit: 7NEWS
A petition which campaigned to have her added to the Missing Persons list collected nearly 28,000 signatures:
"This will actually be the first time in 22 years that my mum will be on the national database… she's never been on there," Sally said.
Police long assumed Marion chose to disappear, placing her on the NSW Missing Persons Register only between 2007 to 2011.
The global hit 7NEWS podcast The Lady Vanishes has transformed this and other cases.
A month after launching in April, the New South Wales Missing Persons' Unit disbanded and a new unit was formed. It will have the power to check leads the 7NEWS investigation has uncovered - with police and agencies here and overseas.
"The woman has not been seen or sighted for 22 years in lots of unusual, twisted, weird circumstances so it really does need a good investigation," said Sally. "I know even if my mum is alive and well and we find her I'm sure she could appreciate the situation I've been in and I think that she would be very happy to know that people have really got behind me to really find some answers."
A new Episode of The Lady Vanishes is available on all platforms:
Do you have information about Marion Barter or Florabella?
Send us an email: theladyvanishes@seven.com.au
Send an anonymous tip
CrimeThe Lady VanishesThe Lady Vanishes
News Just In
6:09 AM Hospitalisations continue to climb as Victoria records more COVID-19 deaths
6:06 AM Intensive care units continue to fill with COVID patients as NSW charges towards Omicron peak
5:17 AM Rules for Djokovic needed to be upheld: PM
5:00 AM The search for missing nine-year-old Charlise Mutten has taken a new turn

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Modi and Adani: the old friends laying waste to India's environment
India's environment has been subjugated to the whims of the prime minister's industrial cronies. How can the world believe him on climate change?
(Image: Pixabay)
By Aditi Roy Ghatak
On Thursday, 22 May, 2014 – Narendra Modi's last day as chief minister of Gujarat, the western Indian state he had ruled for 12 years – the prime minister-elect waved to his supporters at Ahmedabad airport.
A smiling Modi stood on the stairs of the aircraft that would whisk him to Delhi and the pinnacle of Indian power, but even amid the jubilation some eyebrows were raised. Behind the soon-to-be globally famous waist-coated figure, a purple and blue legend was stamped across the fuselage – "adani".
As chief minister, Modi had flaunted norms and processes unapologetically, but even some followers and 'bhakts' (devotees), were embarrassed by his open display of cronyism with fellow Gujarati and trader-turned-tycoon Gautam Adani, whose remarkable ascension to power and pelf has run parallel with Modi's own rise to the top.
Those familiar with Modi's standard electioneering procedure knew that every day of his iconoclastic campaign, Modi had taken off from Ahmedabad in an EMB-135BJ, an Embraer business jet, to address rallies across the country. The plane was owned by Karnavati Aviation, a company in the Adani Group. Modi's old friend ensured the man he wanted to be India's prime minister came home to rest each night.
#PM designate #Modi using #Adani plane to come to #Delhi from #Ahmedabad, #IndianExpress, 23/05/2014 pic.twitter.com/Zpkb0pGmLP
— Naveen Gaur (@naveengaur_du) May 23, 2014
In fact, a fleet of three Adani-owned aircraft – the jet and two choppers – had served the leader. The pilot of the Embraer reportedly said it had been bought by the Adani family in anticipation of Modi's busy election schedule. Adani maintained that Modi was paying for the use of his aircraft. After the electoral commission got sticky about candidate-corporate cronyism and demanded declarations of electoral spending, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it spent Rs 77.83 crore ($12.57 million) on chartering aircraft for its star campaigners.
How much was paid to Adani companies is not known. How much else Adani gained from this high-flying association is however a matter of high public interest and much reported, as is Modi's keenness to be the transformational leader who will make India the top global industrial destination.
His sights are clearly trained on the world. Modi has built his stature through an international charm offensive, the latest iteration of which was his recommitment to the goals of the Paris climate accord.
Report: Modi and Trump avoid climate change tension on state visit
In his speech announcing the US' withdrawal from the deal this month, president Donald Trump singled out India, accusing them of rent-seeking to the tune of "billions and billions and billions" on the back of the UN accord. Modi fired back at Trump in a joint announcement with French president Emmanuel Macron – with whom Trump has a short but confrontational history. Modi said India would go "above and beyond" the accord in the fight to stop climate change. On Monday, at a meeting with Trump at the White House, the subject was studiously ignored as the two leaders skirted their differences.
It was a remarkable turnaround for a country that has long been suspicious of the UN climate process. In 2015, Modi told the climate conference that delivered the Paris accord that "the consequences of the industrial age powered by fossil fuel are evident, especially on the lives of the poor". Now, he said "the world's billions at the bottom of the development ladder are seeking space to grow". In other words: the rich world did this, they can deal with it.
Report: Modi and Trump avoid climate change tension on state visit (Photo: Twitter/NarendraModi)
Less than two years later, Modi is positioning India as one of the global climate elite and seeking the investment and plaudits of large economies. In reality, India's coal development threatens to blow its national climate goals and with it, the international target to hold global warming "well below 2C".
A report released in April identified 370 coal power stations in planning and construction across the country. If all go into operation, it will be all but impossible to meet, let alone exceed India's Paris commitment to get 40% of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
"India's Paris pledges might be met if they built these plants and only ran them 40% of the time, but that'd be a colossal waste of money, and once built there'd be huge incentives to run the plants more despite their contrary climate goals," said study author Steve Davis, an associate professor at the University of California Irvine.
Modi has gained a reputation as a solar champion but one that lacks nuance. India does have ambitions to install 100GW of solar power by 2022, which the government has incentivised. There is a rub though, even as global and Indian majors – including Adani – show great interest. SA Aiyar, consulting editor of the Economic Times, warned in April that India's power infrastructure was not ready to absorb its dash for solar. "We should hurry slowly," he said. An oversupply of electricity – a paradoxical problem that exists in India even with its 200 million people who lack access – could cripple the thermal electricity sector, which India still relies on for supply, and the banks that have underwritten it.
Report: India's tumbling solar prices 'a race to extinction'
Despite India's formal position and even as Modi throws himself behind the Paris agreement, Adani is adamant he is going to construct an enormous coal mine in the Australian outback. In this he has prime minister Modi's blessing. "We see Adani as a flagship project," an Indian trade official told the Canberra Times in April. The State Bank of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with Adani for a $1bn loan to the project.
According the company, the mine would see 2.3bn tonnes of coal dug up over a predicted lifetime of 60 years. The most obvious place for that coal to be burnt is in Adani's fleet of power stations back at home.
Modi tells the world what it wants to hear but his primary constituency is a group of industrial cronies – of whom Adani is first among equals – whose interests are unaligned with actions that address climate change, nor any of India's plethora of environmental crises.
Gujurat (Image: CC-by-sa PlaneMad/Wikimedia)
The relationship with Modi is far from covert. Adani – along with some other businessmen – regularly accompany the prime minister on state visits. Generally, the pair's interests are viewed as synonymous. At the peak of Modi's obstreperous relationship with BJP paterfamilias Lal Krishna Advani, a former mentor the prime minister no longer had use for, Modi's bête noire and Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, tweeted a telling piece of advice to Advani: drop the 'v' from his name and all would be well. The jest was a deadly serious one and a remarkable commentary on Modi; his motivations, the company he keeps and the counsel that prevails with him.
Cronyism has long been a way of life in India. A vast country of 1.3 billion people, sharply stratified with the richest 1% owning 58% of the total wealth, India ranks in the top ten of the Economist's list of countries with a sizeable crony sector. For the first time in the history of independent India, however, accusations of business cronyism are now regularly levelled at the prime minister's office, with Gautam Adani the centrepiece of the conversation.
Adani's business grew 12-fold during Modi's chief ministership and has grown by leaps and bounds since Modi's ascension to prime ministership. In 2014, he seemed to emerge from nowhere to enter the ranks of the ten richest Indians as Adani Enterprises moved from trading to everything that mattered. In the year after 13 September, 2013, when Modi was declared the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, shares in Adani Enterprises jumped 265% and turnover grew 20-fold, according to India's leading business newspaper the Economic Times. Adani's personal wealth grew 152% in 2014.
Climate Weekly: Sign up for your essential climate news update
In an interview with Reuters given a month before Modi won the prime ministership, Adani said: "Crony capitalism should not be there. I definitely agree with that. But how you define crony capitalism is another issue… If you are, basically, working closely with the government, that doesn't mean it's crony capitalism." Adani was approached for comment for this article, but did not respond.
A recent investigation by Economic and Political Weekly discovered changes made by Modi's government to the rules that govern special economic zones had advantaged Adani companies to the tune of Rs 500 crore ($77m). Adani's ability to secure government connivance under Modi's has been remarkable, well-documented and long-practiced. Leases of state land in Gujurat to Adani companies, approved by Modi's state government in the 2000s, have attracted strong criticism. Adani reportedly attained the leases for as little as one cent per square metre, then sublet it to other companies for up to $11 per sq metre.
But Adani failed to see a problem, claiming his companies had improved the properties. "You can say very well that land has been given to Adani," he told Reuters. "So what? Has Adani taken away land and not developed anything?"
In return, Modi has enjoyed Adani's unflappable support. After a pogrom killed hundreds of people, mostly Muslims, in Gujarat in 2002, Modi's alleged sanctioning of the killings drew criticism from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – India's leading business chamber. Adani jumped to Modi's defence, setting up a rival chamber of commerce, the Resurgent Group of Gujarat (RGG) and threatening to leave the CII. He, along with some other business interests, put up funds for Modi to host the first Vibrant Gujarat summit for which they hired Apco, a US public affairs consultancy. The summit – known as the "Indian Davos" – became a stepping stone for Modi to court global business. Cowed, the CII eventually apologised to Modi.
Former US secretary of state John Kerry greets Gautam Adani at a meeting of CEOs on the sidelines of the 7th Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2014 (Photo: State Department)
Modi, whose core political identity is grounded in Hindutva – a distorted version of Hinduism that seeks the hegemony of Hindus in secular India – was cleared of complicity in the killings in 2012, but he has never fully condemned the violence nor apologised for failing to stop it.
Hindutva was Modi's avenue to power. He was born into a grocer family; grocers in India have traditionally been entrepreneurial but young Modi's sense of enterprise took him in a different direction. Still in his teens, he quit home and joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, a right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation and the parent of the BJP).
Public speaking, organisation and repartee came easily to Modi. He underwent training at the RSS camp in Nagpur, took charge of its students wing, rallied forces against Indira Gandhi's State of Emergency eventually becoming the official spokesperson of the BJP in New Delhi in the 1990s. Then, in a move that was quite unprecedented in the RSS circuit, Modi reportedly took a three-month long course in public relations and image management in the US. Modi had already emerged as a demagogue with the Indian masses, now he learnt how to be a resonant voice of reason and reform on the world stage.
Modi has now reached the pinnacle of political power in India, having crushed all opposition parties. This takeover and the accompanying influence of business cronies has meant a "downhill drive for Indian environmental sanctity," says Dr Dhrubajyoti Ghosh UN Global 500 laureate and winner of the 2016 Luc Hoffmann Award.
"Modi had already emerged as a demagogue with the Indian masses, now he learnt how to be a resonant voice of reason and reform on the world stage" (Photo: Narendra Modi)
At the Paris climate conference, Modi told the world India would enlarge its forests to absorb 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Returning home, Modi directed the environment ministry to loosen its regulations. He wanted to "facilitate a right of passage to big industry in erstwhile inviolable areas," Ghosh tells Climate Home. Coal mines were exempted from public hearings, irrigation projects proceeded without the proper clearances and the right of tribal village councils to oppose an industrial project was weakened.
"Agricultural workers, agricultural fields, forest dwellers and forests are the low-lying fruit that the government targets with a denial of elementary ecological rights," says Ghosh.
In Modi's India, those who seek to defend the powerless find themselves targeted. Greenpeace fell afoul of the government as it opposed the clearing of the sal forests of Mahan (home to more than 14,000 indigenous people in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh) by Mauritius-based coal miner Essar Energy.
"How can protecting our forests be described as anti-national and promoting the economic interests of a [foreign] company like Essar Energy… be called as having nationalistic sentiments?" wondered the Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai, after being stopped from boarding a flight to London to talk to concerned audiences there about NGO efforts to save the Mahan forest. During Modi's first year in office, nearly 9,000 NGOs that received foreign funding – including Greenpeace India – had their licenses cancelled.
For tribal leaders the stakes are even higher. Kuni Sikaka fought a 12-year battle against the London-headquartered, Indian-owned Vedanta group's proposed aluminum mine and refinery in her people's sacred Niyamgiri Hills in the eastern state of Odisha. Last month, Sikaka and her husband were reportedly arrested and paraded at the police station as Maoists, before being released. Police said they had surrendered their struggle.
Campaign image of Kuni Sikaka (Photo: India Resists)
Vedanta boss Anil Agarwal is also amongst the top Modi acolytes. His company was recently blacklisted by Norway's Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) – the world's largest sovereign wealth or state-owned investment fund – citing its poor track record and the "unacceptable risk that your company will cause or contribute to severe environmental damage and serious or systematic human rights violations".
Agarwal and Vedanta rarely miss an opportunity to endorse Modi's policies and the government's support for extractive industries. Agarwal is not alone in his fascination for the prime minister that he and other like-minded industrialists have financed to power; neither is he alone in getting away with violations. The GPFG exclusion list of Indian companies is growing and features operations that have major interests in metals, coal and thermal power.
A Comptroller and Auditor General's report in March this year severely faulted the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MEFCC), finding companies that violated environment clearance conditions were rarely penalised. The report attributed it to disempowered officials and understaffed offices.
If these shortcomings were sins of omission, there are graver sins of commission, such as a proposed amnesty for companies operating without statutory environmental clearances. The intrepid journalist Nitin Sethi, writing for the Business Standard, put into the public domain news of these confabulations between government and violators.
Perhaps the most egregious fix, given the prominence of the issue and its consequences for Indians' health, is the government's attempts to defer a December 2017 deadline for air pollution standards for thermal power plants. Without these, India's hopes of reducing deadly air pollution from its electricity sector are nixed.
In public, the environment ministry and the power ministry have different stories to tell. The late environment minister Anil Dave, who died in May, told parliament in March that the standards would come into force from 6 December. The reality is that of the more than 400 thermal power plants in India, none have complied with the standards.
In February, the head of the Central Electricity Authority Ravindra Kumar Verma quietly let slip that "completely meeting requirements of revised environmental norms by December 2017 may not be feasible". More recently, power minister Piyush Goyal told the Financial Times the country's coal power stations, three-quarters of which are owned by the government, will "take some more time" to comply.
The weakening of India's environmental institutions has opened the door for development that disregards climate or environmental concerns. According to data compiled by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the rate at which the National Board of Wildlife has rejected industrial projects due to wildlife concerns has fallen from 11.9% under the previous government, to less than 0.01% under Modi.
"The government has reconfigured the National Board for Wildlife to reduce the authority of independent experts; removed the moratorium on new industries in critically-polluted areas; diluted forest norms, making room for industry to encroach on national parks with big budget propaganda on how all this will help the forests, wildlife and overall development," says Ghosh.
Report: Why is this Indian coal plant getting paid $150m to sit idle?
Modi wears the liberalisation of environmental laws as a badge of success, bragging about it in newspaper interviews. He and Adani know that sweeping aside environmental protections and ambitions can make industrialists – and by extension their political patronage – very, very rich.
Way back in 1994, before Modi became chief minister, the Gujarat Maritime Board approved a captive jetty at the Mundra port. This was Adani's chance to break into big money. In the Mundra Special Economic Zone, a concession granted to Adani by the state government, there had been 3,000 hectares of mangroves. Almost overnight, close to two million trees disappeared without a trace.
Residents and NGOs are still seeking reparations for the illegal damage to the environment. But even in this ancient, local dispute, Adani has benefitted from Modi's rise to government. In 2015, the environment ministry withdrew a demand made by the previous government for a Rs 200 crore ($31m) restoration fund from Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ), India's largest private multi-port operator. Environmental clearances issued in 2009 to the company's waterfront development project at Mundra were extended. Several stringent conditions the ministry had earlier issued were also withdrawn.
More than 30 years after the clearances, Noor Mohammad, who was ejected from his home in Mundra where Adani now has its port and power plant, told the Australian ABC the destruction of tidal mangroves and ash from coal burnt at Adani's power station had damaged the fishing.
"The Adani project is harming us. Their coal dust and stream discharge are harming us." Mohammad said his catch was a quarter of what it once was. "There are no fish in the sea water near the coast. All living creatures are dead." His warning to the Australian audience: be wary of Adani and his powerful friend.
Narendra Modi's new incarnation as a climate warrior and defender of the Paris climate agreement rubs off quickly, especially when his old ally from home begins talking about his future plans. According to Adani, coal from the Australian mine will expand power generation in India, providing cheap electricity to "100 million people for 100 years". That is despite Modi's supposed climate ambitions.
Clearly Adani knows something the ordinary Indian does not.
Read more on: Climate politics | India | UN climate talks | World | Modi | Paris Agreement | Trump Climate politics


An even fresher take on a classic, The Ellie Argyles will keep your feet and your conscience happy. The softest, strongest, most comfortable socks you'll ever own and they help save wildlife. Doing good has never looked or felt this great.


...did indeed bring May flowers.
...and some lacy lavender ones too.
And a few other floral things of note.
Cheery pots of bright daisies on the kitchen windowsill were an instant mood improver.
There was a vase of white daisies on the sill and one of them leaned down and looked like it was conversing with an upturned green leaf of my 13-year-old houseplant. I thought it was funny and imagined that they were cross-species plant friends.
In the interest of full disclosure, all of the above pictures are from May of last year. There's been a file folder on our computer of May 2013 pictures that I never got around to blogging about, so I'm taking the opportunity to use them now, especially since the blooms were a bit of a dud this year, what with our long super-cold winter and spring and all. Just another good reason to be an enthusiastic amateur photographer--you never know when your random pictures will come in handy!


Muhammad Omer was sitting at a dhaba in Islamabad to enjoy fresh air and a cup of tea when two sales representatives of a cigarette company approached him to advertise a brand of light-cigarettes by a tobacco company. Knowing that marketing of cigarettes is banned in Pakistan, he was shocked.
The young people of Pakistan are being targeted by the tobacco industry through different means, despite the fact that tobacco use is the single largest cause of death in the world. In Pakistan, there are around 110,000 deaths every year and almost 300 die every day due to tobacco use. According to figures of the ministry of national health regulations of Pakistan, as many as 1,200 children between 6-15 years of age start smoking every day. Smoking causes cancer while non-smokers become victim of cardiovascular disease because of passive smoking.
According to Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2014, almost 24 million (19.1 per cent) adults currently use tobacco. That accounts for 15.6 million (12.4 per cent) adults who currently smoke tobacco, including 3.7 million adults using hookah or sheesha and another 9.6 million (7.7 per cent) adults who use smokeless tobacco. Most of the addicted people are exposed to tobacco smoke at workplace.
The GATS is a global standard for systematically monitoring adult tobacco use and tracking tobacco control indicators.
Pakistan, according to the tobacco industry claims, produces 82 billion cigarettes in a country where almost one fourth of population inhales tobacco. The average amount spent on a pack of 20 cigarettes is around Rs40.9. Out of 82 billion sticks, as many as 18 billion are counterfeit and one billion smuggled or non-duty paid.
"Controlling tobacco under the national laws and international treaties is the issue of enforcement rather than awareness," says Nadeem Iqbal, Executive Coordinator, The Network, a non-government organisation working on consumer rights and tobacco control.
He says Pakistan is among the top 40 countries that signed international treaties to take measures to control tobacco production and sale. "Over the years we have seen the campaign to control tobacco progress in Pakistan. Though the strategies are slow, they are gradually showing results," he says, giving the example of Islamabad city where it is difficult to find cigarettes in shops within 50 metres radius of schools.
Pakistan, according to the tobacco industry claims, produces 82 billion cigarettes in a country where almost one fourth of population inhales tobacco. The average amount spent on a pack of 20 cigarettes is around Rs40.9.
The first law on tobacco selling in Pakistan was passed in 1958, called the Pakistan Vendors Act. In 1979, Pakistan introduced Cigarette (Printing of Warning) Ordinance. And in 2002, the government came up with the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-smokers Health Ordinance, 2002. It signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2004 and ratified it the same year.
The government also created the National Tobacco Control Cell in 2007. The FCTC is the first international treaty to provide a framework (and attendant obligations) for tobacco regulations. Under Article 5.2 of the FCTC, the parties to the said treaty are mandated to put in place proper and effective national coordination mechanism for multi-sectoral coordination of tobacco control efforts.
"There have been many steps to control tobacco after the FCTC for which Pakistan submits a bi-annual report to the World Health Organisation (WHO)," says Muhammad Javed, a senior official working in the tobacco control cell of the federal government.
"There are many steps to stop promotion and selling of tobacco and creating awareness. However, there are issues regarding the taxation," he informs.
According to the FCTC, he says, "there should be 75 per cent Federal Excise Duty (FED) on a pack of cigarettes which is around 50 per cent at the moment. The government and the tobacco industry are in talks on the issue and the matter has been taken to the court by the NGOs working on tobacco control issue," he adds.
According to a survey of The Network conducted in 50 districts of Pakistan, it is observed that most of the shopkeepers are selling cigarettes without getting a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the government, which is mandatory as per rules defined under the FCTC. The Network has also moved the court regarding slow implementation of rules and less FED on cigarettes despite international commitments.
Currently, a law is under consideration in the parliament to broaden rules regarding promotion and advertisement of tobacco on public places but the draft might face opposition because some political stalwarts in the committee are involved in tobacco business.


TWIST BUN - Gorgeous hairstyle, ideal for thick hair. Artificial ponytail for the upper part of the hairstyle had been used. The effect on the dance floor is fantastic!
- thanks to our easy-step instructions anyone can learn how to do this hairstyle and makeup and look adorable on the dance floor!!!
You need: for the hairstyle : 1. thin comb 2. hairspray and gel 3. hair band 4. two hairnets 5. long and short pins 6. hair dryer 7. hair crimper (or backcomb)8. small mirror (if you're doing the hair on yourself) 9. artificial hair. for the makeup : 1. foundation 2. concealer 3. corrector 4. eyebrow pencil 5. brush set 6. eye shadows 7. black eye pencil 8. eyeliner 9. false lashes and glue 10. mascara 11. powder 12. lipliner 13. lipstick 14. blush 15. makeup sponge.
List of the products in PDF with pictures used for the TWIST BUN BALLROOM DANCE LOOK.
FOR ONLY 49€ per 1 year (which is 4€/month) you get ONLINE ACCESS to ALL VIDEOS ON DANCELOOK.TV + ONLINE ACCESS to ALL NEW TUTORIALS which will be added during your 1 year subscription with unlimited HD STREAMING!


text:
Mighty No. 9: No Current Plans for PS4/Xbox One, 3DS Port Possible
Now that Mighty No. 9 has passed the $900K funding goal, we're looking ahead to its numerous stretch goals, one of which being console ports for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U at $2.5 million. But what about the impending PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One? Wouldn't it be ideal to port the PC version to those consoles? After all, both machines built on on x86 PC architecture.
Keiji Inafune fielded this very question in an interview with Joystiq. He explains, "One of the clearest reasons is that the developer, who is developing the core of the production, is Inti Creates, and they're not familiar with next-gen." He adds, "So with trying to learn that technology, with trying to understand a new piece of hardware, to get a new development kit, all of that comes with it an associated cost and all of that makes the stretch goal a lot more expensive."
Inafune has a few other things to say on the subject, so do give Joystiq's post a read. Furthermore, we have some interesting tweets to share regarding a possible Nintendo 3DS port too. Hit that jump below!
The following comes from the official Mighty No. 9 Twitter account...
@PandoKeks Are some big ifs -- if we get strong enough feedback and, of course, if we can make the money work -- but we wld def consider 3DS
— Mighty No. 9 (@MightyNo9) September 2, 2013
A short while later, Renegade Kid's Jools Watsham made a most generous offer...
@MightyNo9 We'll be happy to work with you to create a 3DS version of Mighty No. 9.
— Jools Watsham (@JoolsWatsham) September 2, 2013
And then....
@JoolsWatsham Wow, thanks very much for reaching out -- I will make sure this info gets to the team! :D
Of course, this does not outright confirm work on a 3DS version. It's a mere possibility driven by an interested party. In the meantime, all we can do is further support the campaign.
Get kickin'.
Dr. Jerk September 2, 2013 at 1:49 PM
I'm really hoping there is a 3DS port. I wouldn't really have any other means of playing this.
Jools is a smart man. In the current generation of consoles, the Nintendo consoles are THE Megaman boxes, with the 3DS having the highest chance of new retail entries in the series due to lower development costs and a larger install base(plus the hardcore Legends fans already own the machine). Plus Megaman sells well on Nintendo, meaning it'll be a good amount of cash there.
"....makes the stretch goal a lot more expensive." Sound like to me is a hypocritical.
Whatever but I do not care about that. I rather the PS3 version instead. :)
Or you know, they just don't know the hardware that well and may not have the dev kits. These aren't things you magically understand in a few minutes, it takes time and money.
you forget this image
http://i.imgur.com/v2aGKhr.png
They're also very aware of the Vita demand
http://i.imgur.com/3oUtF4P.jpg
I'm currently trying to get Third Party Productions, a new studio by Sony who's goal is to get third party games on Plastation platforms, and Shahid Kamal Ahmad to take notice and try to get it on the Vita.
https://twitter.com/giocorsi
https://twitter.com/shahidkamal
Prof. Megaman September 2, 2013 at 4:52 PM
PS4? Xbox One? If this game is ANYTHING like Megaman, why the heck would more than a handful of Sony and Microsoft fans have any interest in it whatsoever?
This is a kickstarter game with modest resources, let's not waste them trying to appease the uninitiated or the minorities. Play to the strengths of your market.
This is true, most of the people(if not all) that are definitely buy either of those systems are graphic whores that are either teens or dudebros. They're the type that think anything colorful is automatically "kiddie".
HyperSonicEXE September 2, 2013 at 6:19 PM
The title is goofy.
Beck is overdesigned.
And I'm extremely worried about the transformations.
But if they can commit to a 3DS version, seeing as we won't get MM9 and MM10 on the 3DS, I will back this to that Gold Character level. Maybe even the special transformation level.
Dr. Jerk September 3, 2013 at 1:01 AM
It surely can't be as goofy as MM's prototype name 'Rainbow Warrior Miracle Kid'. And they can't make Beck look too similar to Rock without making Capcom bat their eye at it. Frankly I like the design. It kind of reminds me of the vibe Pulseman had, in a way.
HyperSonicEXE September 3, 2013 at 8:56 AM
But they didn't stick to that for a title nor a name of the character. And I'm really hoping they'd change it here, as well.
Okay, so he can't look like Megaman. That's actually a good constraint considering how little marketability Megaman has with the current youth worldwide.
Eh, I understand Pulseman's costume. It's a little outdated now, but doesn't need much adjustment.
Beck looks like a robot wearing a whole bunch of candy bracelets. And the edginess, oy, it's borderline revolting. Pulseman was brighter than this kid.
Why would they make a big announcement with this title and invite everyone to back its support and then change its name during development? It's not a smart move to do. I am 99% sure that Mighty No 9 is the final title, whether people like it or not.
And likewise, whether people like Beck's design or not, it's going to stay. With Pulseman I was referring to its overdesigned appeal it also had. I mean, have you seen official artwork of Dr. Waruyama before? He looks like Vegeta from DBZ!
Also keep in mind that MM's design had to start off very simplistic because it started off as a NES game. Compare MM7's and especially MM8's robot master designs to the older ones. With less graphical limitations comes more leniency with more complex character designs. It's only to be expected. And frankly, I happen to like Beck's design. It's different I admit, but I'd rather take a different design over something similar that might make Capcom rage.
MagicalWingLT September 2, 2013 at 10:58 PM
Me and my hubby are willing to back it for a chance at a 3DS version. I rather play this on a handheld then on the PC as usually there are too many bugs for PC games.
Inafune Says Capcom Hasn't Responded to "Mighty No...
Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter Reaches Funding Goal
Mighty No. 9: No Current Plans for PS4/Xbox One, 3...
Keiji Inafune Delivers a Special Mighty No. 9 Message
GamesRadar's Mighty No. 9 Chronicle of Mega Man Si...
Mighty No. 9 Will Be On Mac and Linux
Your Mighty No. 9 Questions Answered
Mighty No. 9 Console Stretch Goal Bumped Up
Mighty No. 5 Blasts Onto the Scene!
Who Would Win in a Fight, Mega Man or Beck? Inafun...
Capcom 30th Anniversary Gear With Plenty of Mega Man
Relive the Mighty No. 9 Reveal Here
Keiji Inafune on the Origin "Inafking" and Rush's ...
Mighty No. 9 Team Shares "Thank You" Artwork
Mighty No. 9: New Boss, New Stretch Goals
Preview Pages for Mega Man #29: Blackout
Silver Mega Man 25th Anniversary Statue Hitting Ma...
Mighty No. 9 Enemy Concept Art
Matsumae Previews Mighty No. 9 Music, Talks Mega M...
Have Some Capcom 30th Ann. Stuff (Proto Man is App...
Rockman Ultrabooks Just Got Cancelled
You Can Probably Expect More Mega Man Plushies Fro...
Mega Man #33 Cover and Solicitation (Updated)
Mega Man & Mega Man X Statue Arrived Broken? Here'...
Meet the Electrifying Mighty No. 3!
Mighty No. 9 is Coming to Home Consoles: PS3, Xbox...
Mighty No. 9: Call Vote Coming Next Week
Rockman World 2 Joining the 3DS eShop Next Week
The Genesis of Mighty No. 9's Beck
A Mighty No. 9 Conversation with Keiji Inafune
Super Smash Bros. Fans Bring Beck to the Brawl
Mega Man Universal Fighting System Cards Delayed
Mighty No. 9 Gets Challenge Mode (Thanks, PayPal F...
Duck and Cover, It's Mighty No. 8!
Keiji Inafune Answers Your Mega Man & Mighty No. 9...
Licensed Mega Man Board Game Kickstarter Launching...
Mighty No. 9 Concepts: "Xel" and the Three Doctors
Two New Mighty No. 9 Stretch Goals
Mighty No. 9 Documentary Episode 0
Rockman X Sound BOX Due in December
Vita & 3DS Stretch Goal Added for Mighty No. 9
The Vote for Mighty No. 9's Heroine Design is On!
Check Out This Mega Man Inspired Pen & Paper RPG
Mighty No. 9 Unlocks Online Co-Op Mode
Mighty No. 9 Stretch Goal Get: Intro Stage & Boss
Storm Unity Hosting 24-Hour Mega Man X Marathon fo...
Mega Man 2 Composer On Board for Mighty No. 9
New Mighty No. 9 Stretch Goal Revealed: Call Exclu...
First In-Engine Footage of Mighty No. 9
Mighty No. 9 Confirmed for PS4 and Xbox One


text:
Central is een departement in Paraguay. Sinds 2 juli 1993 is Areguá de hoofdstad van het departement, tot die tijd werd het bestuurd vanuit Asunción. Het departement heeft een oppervlakte van 2465 km² en  inwoners (); voor 2016 is de prognose 2.028.700 inwoners.

Districten
Central is verdeeld in negentien districten:

 Areguá
 Capiatá
 Fernando de la Mora
 Guarambaré
 Itá
 Itauguá
 Juan Augusto Saldívar
 Lambaré
 Limpio
 Luque
 Mariano Roque Alonso
 Ñemby
 Nueva Italia
 San Antonio
 San Lorenzo
 Villa Elisa
 Villeta
 Ypacaraí
 Ypané

Departement van Paraguay

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Predator Profile Videos
P.A.X.A. Pointers
Additional Non-Profits
Jennifer Fox interview on ReelChicago.com I The Tale and the film screening hosted by P.A.X.A.
Check out Filmmaker/Writer/Director Jennifer Fox interview on ReelChicago.com where she talks about The Tale and the film screening hosted by P.A.X.A. during 2019 National Child Abuse Prevention Month. #paxaprotects
https://reelchicago.com/article/jennifer-fox/
Fox 32 Good Morning Chicago Hosts Founders, David & Tania Haigh I March 2019
The documentary, Leaving Neverland, has sparked a national conversation about child sex abuse. P.A.X.A. founders talk about warning signs of child sex abuse and predator watch outs. 90% of chid sex abuse is done by a family member, family friend or trusted individual.
WCIU Ch. 26 The Jam Hosts Tania Haigh, Co-Founder/President/Board Chairman
Given all the news with R. Kelly and the sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, parents need to know warning signs to protect their children. This morning, we sat down with Tania Haigh from P.A.X.A. who is hoping to do her part to end child sex abuse after this epidemic impacted her family.
WGNTV Channel 9 I P.A.X.A. Co-founders, David & Tania Haigh, promote GoFundMe to buy R. Kelly's former studio building
WATCH CLIP HERE
CHICAGO — R&B artist R. Kelly will be vacating his West Side recording studio, according to his lawyers.
A judge issued an order on Feb. 8 limiting the artist's access to his studio between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. and ordered it to only be used as a recording studio — not for residential purposes.
In a statement Wednesday, attorney Steve Greenberg said R. Kelly was repeatedly harassed while doing his job in the studio during the limited hours we was allowed to be there.
He said the judge's ruling was "without any logical rationale." He compared the artist to Beethoven, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Winston Churchill, among others, and said history has "admired creativity" through the years.
"R. Kelly can never be creative and do his job under the circumstances which leaves him no choice but to leave his building," Greenberg, said in the statement.
The Chicago Sun-Times said the Cook County judge also prohibited use of the second floor Tuesday, after building inspectors found faulty stairs. Photos were shown in court of the inside of the recording studio from the Jan. 16 inspection.
The ruling came a week after Chicago building inspectors found code violations at the R&B star's recording studio on the city's near West Side during a court-ordered inspection. Those violations included evidence the industrial space was used as a residence.
Kelly came under fire after women featured on a Lifetime documentary series "Surviving R. Kelly" made new sexual misconduct allegations against the singer. Kelly has denied the allegations.
"The public should not rush to judgement," his lawyer said in Wednesday's statement. "Almost all of the statements in the documentary were previously debunked, by facts, and rejected by the police, judges, and a jury. A hashtag does not make people truthful or credible."
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx held a press conference in January asking any potential victims to come forward.
High-profile attorney Michael Avenatti said he has identified two victims that were underage and handed over a sex tape to Foxx's office for potential prosecution. The States Attorney's Office has not commented on that information.
In the meantime, Tania and David Haigh have been checking out the building's exterior and said they have big visions for the building.
The building is for sale $3,999,000, and through their foundation, Parents Against Child Abuse (P.A.X.A.), the Haighs want to provide an education center and safe place for children who have been victims of sexual abuse. The pair started a GoFundMe page to help purchase the building.
"Ultimately what we see this is a headquarters for parents against sex abuse and a healing center for survivors," Tania Haigh said.
For more information, visit the GoFundMe page or paxa.online.
P.A.X.A. President, Tania Haigh, with Suburban Unity Alliance Founder, Anthony Clark
Chicago Tribune I P.A.X.A. Partners Up with Suburban Unity Alliance to Discuss Believing Survivors
The aftermath of the recent "Surviving R. Kelly" cable series has led several local organizations to encourage sex abuse victims to seek out the help available to them.
Oak Park community activist Anthony Clark hosted a "Believe survivors" forum Feb. 13 at Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church, where he invited representatives of various organizations that seek to assist victims to talk about their services.
"The issue of rape culture, sexual assault, sexual violence, sex trafficking — it's strange to me when we attempt to discuss these specific issues, it's hard for people to discuss and talk about them," Clark said. "This issue is so pervasive. It's in every corner in our lives."
The event was initially scheduled to include Lizzette Martinez, who appeared in the "Surviving R. Kelly" documentary. The TV series delves into allegations of sexual abuse of women and girls by the singer. Martinez has said R. Kelly picked her up as a 17-year-old in a mall and took advantage of her desire to be a singer.
Clark said Martinez was set to fly in from California, but she ultimately had to cancel.
"A lot of wounds were reopened, and she's battling and fighting right now," Clark said. "She wishes she could be here, but self care is important and she's taking care of herself right now."
Among those speaking was Tania Haigh, co-founder of Oak Park-based P.A.X.A., or Parents Against Child Sex Abuse. Haigh said it is her organization's goal to assist parents with the difficult conversations of speaking to their children about sex abuse, even at an early age.
"The truth of the matter is there are a lot of ways we can dig into our children earlier," Haigh said. "Talk to them about their bodies. Predators are attracted to children starting at age 0 in different stages. We're really bullish about educating children about predators."
According to Haigh, 90 percent of child molesters or pedophiles are known to their victim and the victim's family, and can typically be described as "manipulative."
"They take advantage of your trust and our children," Haigh said. "Quite simply, it's about asking questions. Ask them 'Has anyone every touched you?' It's not just age 2-4, but you're on top of what's happening on that play date or that eighth-grade trip or that sleepover. We are trying to educate parents."
Rahasad Singletary, a physical education teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School, said the school's curriculum has changed greatly since the 1990s to teach healthy relationship habits.
Singletary said the high school has partnered with organizations like R.A.D. and Sarah's Inn to teach self defense and to break the cycle of violence for students.
"Society puts a lot of pressure on young men at an early age of what a young man is supposed to be," Singletary said. "Society says a man is tough, strong, a provider, aggressive, he talks the lead, etc. All these different stereotypes, they don't even need. What if a kid doesn't fit in that box? It's OK if you're not one of those. Once you figure yourself out as a young man, you can have healthy relationships."
The goal of such programs, Singletary says, is to educate students to unpack their emotions before unhealthy anger can set in. Singletary added that "most sexual assaults take place between two people who know each other."
"We start talking about what manipulation looks like or coercion looks like," Singletary said. "We teach this so we can empower the people around us to build a community and a school."
Zachary Draves of Pillars Community Health says his organization seeks to educate youth about dating violence and healthy relationships by using techniques such as visiting local schools.
"We're making sure we have this conversation with everyone, especially men and boys," Draves said. "It's discussing what is a healthy masculine identity and how we can create masculine identity that's on our own terms rather than what society hopes men have to be. When we talk about R. Kelly, we need to have a talk about toxic masculinity."
Deirdre Harrington, also with Pillars Community Health, works closely with a hospital treating survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
"I didn't realize how pervasive it really was," Harrington said. "This issue is personal for a lot of us. We talk about it all the time, but it's so sad that for so long no one was listening to survivors."
More information about P.A.X.A. is available at www.paxa.online, while Pillars Community Health is available at www.pillarscommunityhealth.org.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/oak-park/news/ct-oak-park-survivors-forum-tl-0221-story.html
CBS Channel 2 I P.A.X.A. Co-founder/President, Tania Haigh, featured in recon of R. Kelly's studio
CHICAGO (CBS) — On Tuesday, a judge ordered that no one is allowed to use the second floor of R. Kelly's warehouse, and the recording studio on the bottom floor can only be used during normal business hours, 9-5.
But CBS 2 reporter Charlie De Mar saw several people coming and going later, including Kelly's personal attorney, who got buzzed into the building.
"I'm just seeing what's going on. I'm not the real estate guy," Kelly's attorney Steve Greenberg said as he waited to be buzzed into the R&B singer's recording studio around 7:30 p.m. "I don't know what the judge ordered because I didn't see it."
Kelly's real estate attorney Melvin Sims did speak after a judge ordered that nobody is to be inside the warehouse after 5 p.m.
After Greenberg, a woman walked in with food just before 9 p.m.
"We do feel like this was a manufactured emergency," Sims said. "There was no emergency here all along, and it seems the judge has sided with us."
That emergency is in reference to inspectors being called out to the studio at 219 N. Justine St. earlier this month after reports of people living in the commercial space.
"To show up like that with all the different inspectors, that's a special occasion," structural engineer Allan Gold said. "It doesn't look commercial at all. It looks very residential."
"A couch on the premises does not make it a living room," Sims said.
Photos from that inspection show a bathroom that appeared to be in use with racks of clothes hanging, a living room, and a staircase secret to the city, built without permits. The warehouse piled up more than 60 violations.
"Unimpressive, uninspiring, gross" said Tania Haigh with Parents Against Child Abuse. "There was something that compelled me tonight to be like I just want to see where this is for myself because a lot of damage, I think, has been done here."
The warehouse where Kelly is the tenant has come under scrutiny in recent weeks since the airing of a Lifetime docuseries outlining a host of accusations of sexual abuse by Kelly.
Roughly an hour later Greenberg emerged and said nothing about his time inside the studio.
"I'm going to get chop suey," he said.
The city did make a move to vacate the property altogether, but the judge did not agree with that motion. Both sides will be back in court next month.
P.A.X.A. Responds to Sex Abuse at Chicago Public Schools
Recently the city of Chicago was rocked by a series of articles written by the Chicago Tribune exposing Chicago Public Schools for their failure to protect children, including decades of reports of child sex abuse, mishandling of or failure to report cases, no enforcement of mandated reporting and hiring practices that overlooked background checks. Despite having multiple policies in place that should have prevented these cases, the school district overlooked and ignored them. Now they are launching a new office to handle the fallout.
And while P.A.X.A. applauds Chicago Public Schools for launching a new Office of Student Protection, it's hard to not be cynical about their motivations. If CPS cared more about keeping children safe from sexual predators than its own reputation, why did it take a Chicago Tribune investigation to create this new initiative?
For those who are not familiar with the investigation, the Tribune found that since 2011, the District's law department found credible evidence of administrative misconduct in 230 out of 430 reports. In the 100 cases that they investigated, the Tribune identified 70 employees that were involved, from teachers to coaches, janitors to bus drivers.
The Press Release issued by CPS is woefully inadequate in addressing the concerns of Parents Against Child Sex Abuse (P.A.X.A.).
Let's not let the creation of the Office of Student Protection distract from the fact that hundreds of children were sexually abused at CPS schools, by CPS employees, who broke rules and laws in a lax environment. What good are policies, rules and laws if they aren't enforced, as evidenced by the Tribune's articles.
P.A.X.A. Parents want justice for the abused.
Any employee who broke the state's mandated reporter laws should be prosecuted.
Any employee who broke the school district's rules regarding sexual abuse reporting protocol should be fired.
Those who did not break rules, but acted unethically or in an inappropriate manner should be disciplined and new rules should be put in place to prevent future sexual abuse from occurring.
The public firing of a couple of principals is not sufficient. P.A.X.A. wants CPS to clean house: top to bottom.
P.A.X.A. Parents want a voice. Nowhere in the press release does it mention that parents and parent groups will be involved in this "innovative" 20 member team that will report directly to the CEO of CPS. Recent history has proven that bureaucratic incompetence can provide an environment where sexual predators roam hallways and hundreds of children are sexually abused. P.A.X.A. believes that only active parent participation can guarantee that the Office of Student Protection is not just another toothless bureaucratic layer.
P.A.X.A. Parents want to tilt the power balance toward protecting children.
No more tiptoeing around the subject of child sexual abuse. Administrators, teachers, and CPS employees need to acknowledge that sexual predators need access to children and schools are perfect environments for predators to connect with children. It is therefore, your job, from janitor to superintendent, to protect children from these predators. It takes vigilance. If administrators care more about squashing a potential scandal than protecting children; if teachers and unions care about "protecting one of their own" than protecting children; if coaches and employees look the other way because they want to keep their jobs—then children will continue to be sexually abused at CPS schools.
P.A.X.A. Board Member at Chicago Woman Week
We'd like to thank our board member Mica Zgutowicz for representing P.A.X.A.
at the Chicago Woman Week Non-Profit Program on June 7th.
Mica spoke on the panel about her role as a board member for P.A.X.A. and what it entails to be on a board for a cause she believes in.
A Bold Voice on Social Media
P.A.X.A. continues to be a bold voice in the conversation surrounding child sex abuse. With a 24-hour news cycle, it's easy for parents to become numb to the headlines and not truly realize the severity of the issue. However, the headlines don't lie. By highlighting these stories, P.A.X.A. hopes to illustrate the facts: child sex abuse isn't bound by income level, neighborhood or race. Whether in the music world, academia or Hollywood, it happens around us every day.
We invite you to follow us on our Facebook and Twitter feeds, and chime in on the latest, including the #muterkelly campaign, recent news announcing the Michigan State University settlement and the public outcry over insensitive scenes in the movie Show Dogs.
Annual Parent Empowerment Event
Please save the date and join us November 10th, 2018, for an evening of education & empowerment, followed by our annual fundraiser to take place in Oak Park, IL.
PBS Documentary Filming
Anti-Sex Trafficking non profit, Selah Freedom, invited P.A.X.A. to participate in a PBS Documentary filming by Visionaries, a production company that highlights non-profits and causes. The documentary will air in 2019.
P.A.X.A. FEATURED ON CHICAGONOW.COM
P.A.X.A. Issues wake-up call to parents during April's National Child Abuse Prevention Month
By ChicagoNow Staff, Thursday at 9:46 am
Editor's note: The below is contributed content via David and Tania Haigh. They are Chicago-based parents who have seen firsthand how damaging childhood sexual abuse can be to victims and their families. In 2017, they launched P.A.X.A. to help parents identify signs of sexual abuse and protect their families from predators.
In recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention Month this April, newly founded nonprofit, Parents Against Child Sex Abuse (P.A.X.A.), is raising its voice to save children from sexual abuse and empower parents to act locally to prevent sexual abuse in their community. P.A.X.A., founded by parents, for parents, believes parental awareness and involvement is the key to reducing and eliminating abuse.
Top Ten Things Parents Can Do to Protect Their Children from Child Sex Abuse:
1. Recognize that there are predators in your community that are physically and sexually attracted to your child, no matter the age.
2. Begin the conversation with your kids about OK Touch vs. Bad Touch as young as age Two.
3. Educate your kids about the actual names for body parts (vagina/penis/butt).
4. Ask your children if anyone has ever touched her vagina or his penis at least once a year.
5. Believe your children if they answer you in the affirmative. Stay calm and demonstrate love & support.
6. Avoid sleepovers and situations where adults are alone with your child.
7. Educate yourself on child sex abuse symptoms for your child's age group.
8. If you see something, say something. It's better to be wrong than not speak up.
9. Demand sex abuse safety & accountability in all children institutions—schools, daycare/Montessori, camps, youth groups, music lesson/classes, sports teams, etc.
10. Report Child Sex Abuse - to the Department of Children and Family Services, the police and mandated reporters (doctors, teachers, etc.). It's a crime, treat it as such.
For more information regarding these tips, visit P.A.X.A.'s helpful INFO CENTER on its website, at www.paxa.online, which helps illustrate the extent of the issue, as well as provide actionable tips for parents and community members to prevent and uncover child sex abuse.
http://www.chicagonow.com/chicagonow-staff-blog/2018/04/paxa-national-child-abuse-prevention-month/
Our mission at P.A.X.A. (Parents Against Child Sex Abuse) is to help parents save their children from sexual abuse through prevention, uncovering and healing. P.A.X.A. is recognized as a public charity under Internal Revenue code section 509(a) and has a 501(c)(3) status.
About P.A.X.A.


text:
Q: Given $\begin{pmatrix} a & b\\ c & d\end{pmatrix}∈GL_2^+(R)$ , $\beta(w)=\frac{aw+b}{cw+d},\Im(w)>0$.Is $\beta$ bijective? Given any matrix $A=\begin{pmatrix} a & b\\ c & d\end{pmatrix}∈GL_2^+(R)$, we can define a function $\beta:H\to{ \mathbb{C} }$ by $$\beta(w)=\frac{aw+b}{cw+d},w∈H$$,where $H$ is the upper complex plane.Is $\beta$ bijective?
I compute the imaginary of $\beta(w)$,$$\Im(\beta(w))=\frac{|A|}{(cw+d)^2}\Im(w)$$
then $\beta(w)∈H$.So $\beta:H\to{H}$. And I think it is a bijection,but I fail to prove that it is an onto. Could you show that $\beta$ is a bijection or not?Thank you in advance!

A: Let's try to find an inverse function.
$\beta(\omega)=\frac{a\omega+b}{c\omega+d}\Rightarrow \omega(c\cdot\beta(\omega)-a)=b-d\beta(\omega)$ or $\omega=\frac{b-d\beta(\omega)}{c\beta(\omega)-a}$.  Therefore we have $\beta^{-1}$ given by $\begin{pmatrix}-d&b\\c&-a\end{pmatrix}$.  Since $\beta$ has an inverse, $\beta$ is bijective (Note: $\frac{d-b\beta(\omega)}{c\beta(\omega)-a}=\frac{b\beta(\omega)-d}{a-c\beta(\omega)}$ so, more intuitively, the matrix inverse $\begin{pmatrix}d&-b\\-c&a\end{pmatrix}$ is an inverse).

A: You can try to compute the inverse of $\beta$. In other word, we solve for $w$ in term of $\beta$, namely, $z=\frac{d\beta-b}{-c\beta +a}$
So for for each $k \in \mathbb{C}$ ,$\exists$ $z=\frac{dk-b}{-ck +a}$, such that $\beta(z)=k$ which gives the surjectivity of $\beta$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


On September 24, 2016 the community came together to build a brand new playspace at the Fourteenth Street Rec Center in Winston-Salem.
KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit dedicated to bringing active play into the lives of all kids, partnered with the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and the United Way of Forsyth County to coordinate the planning and building of this fun new playground!
With an easy access ramp for accessibility into the playspace, this new equipment will bring great joy to the children that live in the community.


Some of the Conroe Noon Lions Club monitors pictured with their students when the program began in 2015 at their adopted school of Reaves Elementary.
Just when you thought that maybe this was the year you finally got rid of your loud and obnoxious Uncle Warner, here I am again for your reading enjoyment. The Greatest Lions Club in the World was fortunate enough to invite the best guest speaker they have ever had last week, yours truly. After several years in this club, I am hashtag blessed to work alongside the finest group of community servants I have ever known and Wednesday they got to hear from me about one of my passions: mentoring. This club has at least 30 different members who mentor in Conroe and Willis school districts and the relationships developed with students and each other over the years is something special. If you want to know more about the work, just ask me. I can literally talk for hours. I get lots of compliments about my talking.
By the time you read this, we'll have completed another Service Saturday event in your community. This club doesn't let a busy schedule interfere with our love for service and our love for Conroe. Lion Melissa Bessey has stepped up as leader for these projects this year and we are lucky to have her guidance in this important work. If you know of a project that needs a little manpower help, or a person that might benefit from a little Lions club energy, please let Melissa know. Or you can tell me and I'll tell Melissa. It's up to you. See how flexible I am?
After a few years of experience with this Lions club, I should know to be ready for the flurry of August activity in preparation for the Legend of the Lion — Dinner/Dance & Auction in September. But still the magnitude of work it takes to put our gala together still catches me off guard. And judging by what should be a world record of announcements to begin last week's meeting, we are very busy. And I thought the dog days of August were supposed to be slow and lazy but this club pays no mind to that kind of talk.
In fact, it's a great time for everyone reading this to get involved with this club. There are many committees looking for help to pull off our Roaring 20's themed gala. Obviously the decorating and auction work is important but you don't have to like table arrangements and playing dress up, there are tough manly jobs like logistics and selling tickets and also talking to people, something I can train you on if needed. After all, I am good at talking in case you had not heard.


text:
William Davies (born 1976) is an English writer, political and sociological theorist. His work focuses on the issues of consumerism, happiness, and the history and function of expertise on society. Davies has written for a variety of newspapers and periodicals including The Guardian, New Left Review,  London Review of Books, and The Atlantic. In 2015 Davies published his second book The Happiness Industry, which assesses the relationship between consumer capitalism, big data and positive psychology. Davies is Professor of Political Economy at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is Co-Director of The Political Economy Research Centre in London.

Works
The Limits of Neoliberalism: Authority, Sovereignty and the Logic of Competition (2014)
The Happiness Industry: How Government and Big Business Sold Us Well Being (2015)
Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason (2019)
This is Not Normal: The Collapse of Liberal Britain, Verso Books, 2020

Selected articles
 "Leave, and Leave Again", London Review of Books (2019)
 "What is "neo" about Neoliberalism?", The New Republic (2017)
 "On mental health, the royal family is doing more than our government", The Guardian (2017)
 "The Age of Pain", The New Statesman (2017)

References

21st-century English writers
Anti-consumerists
English philosophers
Political philosophers
1976 births

Living people


text:
Chef Isaiah Martinez plates the skillet-fried chicken plate with salad, biscuits and pepper sauce.Photo by Todd Cooper
Elevating Black Food
Yardy Eugene celebrates Caribbean food, addresses unequal value held to foods of different cultures
Chow by Sarah-Mae McCulloughPosted on 06/24/2021
The stereotype that Black people love fried chicken developed deep in U.S. history, says chef and Yardy Eugene owner Isaiah Martinez. It started after emancipation when Black people continued to face systematic oppression but, over time, created professional success. One of the trades that allowed them to financially support themselves was selling fried chicken, Martinez says, but this prompted white backlash.
As the Black community grew stronger, "propaganda would come out and there would be these weird images and depictions of Black people and fried chicken, kind of defacing the product so that there wouldn't be larger support, and so you would feel demeaned in the process," he says. "That's what we're still going to this day. We still get to pick and cancel things that we don't want to be associated with."
Photo by Todd Cooper
Serving West Indian food — dishes from the Caribbean — from his new food truck, Yardy Eugene, Martinez works to celebrate Black culture through food and give marginalized people a path into cooking careers. Kitchens are predominantly white and male, he says, and customers put European foods, like Italian and French dishes, on a pedestal, while assigning a lower value to foods from the cultures of Black and Brown people. He wants to change this dynamic.
Martinez currently sells his food online and out of his newly-built mustard yellow food truck at ColdFire Brewing. One of his primary dishes is a chicken meal: skillet-fried chicken that comes with a salad, a biscuit and pepper sauce. The other is doubles, a vegan dish (with a gluten-free option) consisting of two pieces of fried flatbread called bara, topped with chickpea curry, chutney and fresh herbs.
In the Caribbean, people cook with lots of spices both for flavor and to preserve food in a hot environment without enough refrigeration. Of course, Martinez has plenty of refrigeration, but his food reflects this tradition of rich flavor, he says.
He hopes these dishes, cooked with ingredients from the Northwest, will help elevate Caribbean food, he says, and that Yardy Eugene will help combat the lack of diversity that Martinez has experienced in kitchens throughout his career.
Martinez has known he wanted to be a chef since he was 17. At his vocational high school in upstate New York, he picked a cooking track to avoid taking algebra and ended up loving it. "It was driving my education," he says. "I got all my other grades up because you couldn't have bad grades to be in it."
At 18, his father kicked him out of the house, and he moved to California where his mother lived. As soon as he got to San Francisco, he applied to the International School of Culinary Art where he earned a bachelor's in hospitality management and worked at several well-established restaurants like SPQR and A16, where "the chefs were like celebrities," he says.
In his cooking jobs, Martinez quickly noticed a lack of women and Black and Brown people in kitchens. After hours, restaurant staff in the Bay Area frequented certain bars — the ones that stayed open after restaurants close, until 4 or 5 am — and Martinez would meet other people who were underrepresented or tokenized at the restaurants where they worked.
"That's when the dream really started to come alive in my mind where I was like, OK, I definitely want to open a place where there's more people like me or at least there's a sanctuary for people like me," he says.
Working at different ethnic restaurants in California, Martinez also noticed a discrepancy in the value customers place on different cultures' foods. As a sous chef at A16, a high-class Italian restaurant, he made a comfortable living. "Pasta is easy," he says. "It took three hours to make sausage for 300 people." But while working at a Chinese restaurant, it took three days to make a traditional dish that sold for $8. The restaurant ended up closing, he says, because people thought the food was too expensive.
Regardless of ingredient costs or the time it takes to cook something, customers often put Western European foods on a pedestal and are willing to pay more for them, Martinez says. Food from the cultures of Black and Brown people, though, are perceived as street food or snack food that should be cheap — even if it takes more money and skill to make.
"I know the math, I know what goes into it. It actually doesn't make any sense," he says. "It's all perception. It's all what we think something is worth."
Meeting other marginalized people in industry bars, he started to realize "how much I've sacrificed of my time and my life" elevating only European foods, he says. "I put everything into teaching myself about French culture, teaching myself about Italian culture, and I should really try to figure out a way to do this for my culture."
Martinez moved to Eugene a few years ago and started working at Marché. After doing a pop up to celebrate Black History month in 2019, he decided to sell West Indian food more regularly. He hopes to own his own brick and mortar restaurant, but in the middle of the pandemic, starting with a food truck seemed like a more practical move, he says, so Martinez started Yardy Eugene. He uses "Yardy" to describe anyone from the West Indies, taking back the sometimes derogatory term and using it in a positive way.
One of Martinez's goals with Yardy Eugene is to create an environment where women and people of color feel welcome and can learn skills like negotiation that are needed to thrive in the restaurant industry.
He also hopes to elevate Caribbean food by cooking and presenting it well so that others can enjoy it and people of all races will value Black culture more, he says. He anticipates that, as the food truck takes off, other restaurants in Eugene will start serving similar foods, like fried chicken sandwiches. "To me, that's celebrating Black food," he says.
While he expects some pushback from people who don't understand his intentions, he says he's excited to share his food with Eugene.
"I'm trying to tell a story," Martinez says. "I think that when you do food and you're trying to tell a story, it's kind of hard to fuck it up because you have something to work for."
Yardy Eugene is at Coldfire Brewery, located at 263 Mill Street, from 5 to 8 pm. Thursday through Sunday. Visit YardyEugene.com for more information.
Tags: Chow
Bye, Bye, Billy
A Friendly neighborhood favorite since 2008, Billy Mac's closes down Dec. 23
ChowNews 4 weeks ago
Billy McCallum
By Susan Palmer It's 2 pm on a Thursday at Billy Mac's Bar & Grill, a cozy restaurant on the edge of the Friendly Area … Continue reading →
Demystifying Fermentation
Sandor Katz's 'Fermentation Journeys' book launch at Marché
ChowCulture 2 months ago
Sandor Katz's new book, 'Fermentation Journeys'
Sandor Katz's most recent book, New York Times-bestseller The Art of Fermentation, came out in 2012. He took the halt in traveling brought on by … Continue reading →
Tags: Chow / cooking
Fermenting Friends
Community Fermentation Union brings the deliciousness of fermentation to — and for — the community
Chow 4 months ago
Daniel Huffman stokes the oven. Photo by Todd Cooper.
Since Community Fermentation Union took over the former La Perla Pizzeria space at the beginning of 2021, it's well on its way to fully fleshing … Continue reading →


text:
package net.codejava.spring.model;

import javax.persistence.*;

@Entity
@Table(name = "USERS")
public class User {
	private int id;
	private String username;
	private String password;
	private String email;

	@Id
	@GeneratedValue
	@Column(name = "USER_ID")
	public int getId() {
		return id;
	}

	public void setId(int id) {
		this.id = id;
	}

	public String getUsername() {
		return username;
	}

	public void setUsername(String username) {
		this.username = username;
	}

	public String getPassword() {
		return password;
	}

	public void setPassword(String password) {
		this.password = password;
	}

	public String getEmail() {
		return email;
	}

	public void setEmail(String email) {
		this.email = email;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Decades of travel around our globe have unlocked for me an endless source of delight, and ignited an enduring awe for the beauty that surrounds us in so many forms and at so many moments in time.
The camera has extended my inner eye, making it possible to capture, reveal and share the delights of our planet. What a privilege! But my travels have also highlighted to me the fragility of mankind's relationship with the planet – it seems to be so easy to harm or ignore what we do not know or understand.
So if these images inspire you in any way, if they bring acknowledgement and appreciation in areas previously unrecognised, if they help share a message of wonder, then perhaps we can all look forward to a more balanced approach to our treatment of the world around us and to the preservation of the precious. At the very least, I hope that they showcase the magic that impacts me so strongly wherever I am, whenever that might happen to be.


It's nearly Easter and that can only mean 2 things….
Cute bunny shaped things and an extra long weekend.
Yes, I have my priorities sorted.
With Easter so close, I thought it would be fun to share some super cute cookies I made recently. Even though it's technically not a new recipe as I have shared my favourite sugar cookie recipe on the blog before, I couldn't resist showing you these decorated cookies. They really are so fun to make and are a perfect project for those extra days off.
I love making decorated sugar cookies. I think they are so adorable, and the process fills me with a real sense of accomplishment and joy. Plus they taste amazing so you get a delicious reward for your efforts. They also make great gifts!
Baking sugar cookies is something I have come to associate with special occasions as they are just a little more special than a regular cookie because they take a little time and effort. It is very common to make them for Christmas, but when I saw some Easter shaped cookie cutters in my supermarket, I decided that this would be the year to celebrate with some cute bunny cookies.
And because I knew that I wanted some colour, I decided to make decorated eggs as well. And these were SO MUCH FUN to make. I think they are the perfect weekend activity, getting friends and family and even the kids involved and having fun decorating.
I am by no means a skilled decorator which you can probably tell by looking at my photos, but still I am really happy with how these turned out. It's all about giving it a go and seeing what you can do!
Making sugar cookies takes a few steps and I always find it is much easier when I plan ahead and make sure I have enough time to dedicate to the decorating process.
The first step is to make the sugar cookie dough. This is a simple recipe and I love the flavour from the vanilla and almond extracts. You can read more about the process of making the dough in my 100s and 1000s sugar cookie post, but one thing to remember is to make sure you roll out your dough and then let it chill in the fridge for around an hour. This step is so important as chilling the dough will stop the cut out shapes from spreading in the oven.
Once you dough is cold, cut out your shapes and bake the cookies in batches until all dough is used. You will need to let the cookies cool completely before starting the decorating. For this reason, I like to bake my cookies the day or night before I plan to decorate them.
On decorating day, make your royal icing. I am yet to be able to find meringue powder for sale anywhere in my local area so I buy a mix from the supermarket which contains the meringue powder and icing sugar already mixed together, so all you need to do is add water and beat until stiff peaks form and it is smooth and shiny. While technically not 'from scratch' I don't mind as I don't know about you, but I'll take a little bit of help from convenience when it doesn't impact the taste of the end result.
To decorate the adorable bunny cookies, I started with plain white icing. Using a thin round tip in my piping bag, I piped a fine line around the edge of each bunny. Once this was done, I set aside for about 30 minutes to an hour until a crust had formed.
Then I thinned a little of the white icing with a teaspoon or two extra of water and again filled my piping bag, this time 'flooding' the inside of the cookie with my icing, making sure that it was evenly covered and using a toothpick to smooth out any air bubbles that may have formed.
From here, again you will need to let the icing set for around an hour. This is best done in a cool, dry area as any moisture in the air will slow down the process. Once the icing is firm, start by again using your white icing with the same consistency as you used for the outline, to create bunny cheeks.
Tint some more icing a soft pink and use this to create your ears and cute bunny nose. Finally tint a very small amount of icing black. I used the Americolour gel colouring and let my icing set aside with the black colour for about 15 minutes to develop and I was super impressed just how black it got! I then used this to carefully bring my bunny to life, adding the eyes and whiskers.
For the easter egg cookies, I used a few different colours using the same technique of outlining the cookie first, waiting for that to crust and then flooding the mixture with a thinner consistency of the icing. Once this is dry, you can begin piping on your designs.
It is important to make sure you are doing your decorations with the firmer consistency icing that you use for the outlines rather than the flooding as otherwise you may end up with a runny mess.
For this, I had so much fun looking through my Americolour Gel Starter Kit getting to play with colours I usually wouldn't. I alternated background colours of white, yellow and pink, and then used smaller amounts of icing tinted bright colours like blue, purple, green and orange to create different and unique patterns on each egg.
There are no rules here. Pick your favourite colours and have fun!
One thing to note, as you will be working with a few bowls of coloured icing at a time, make sure any icing that you are not using is covered with a damp cloth to prevent drying out as royal icing sets like cement. Also a great tip is to sit your piping tip on a damp paper towel when you sit it down again, just to prevent the air from forming crusts around the edges.
With the cookies coming together really easily, there is no reason not to dedicate some time around the dining room table to have a bit of fun and make something that you can sit back and be proud of. It always surprises me how long they take to make vs how quickly they all get eaten! A certain crowd pleaser, these will be perfect for any Easter celebration.
Easy soft sugar cookies with royal icing, decorated in colourful and fun designs perfect for any Easter celebration.
Preheat oven to 180°C and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
Make the cookies. Using a handheld or stand mixer with the paddle attachment fitted, cream dairy-free spread* and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg, vanilla and almond extracts and continue mixing on high for 2-3 minutes until fully combined.
Mix in sifted flour and baking powder slowly until the mixture just comes together. If the dough is too soft add a little more flour until it is a better consistency for rolling.
Divide dough evenly into 2 parts and roll each out onto baking paper. Place into the fridge for at least 1 hour to chill. This step ensures the cookies hold their shape in the oven.
Remove the dough from the fridge and use a cookie cutter to make shapes, rolling out again until all the dough is used. Anytime you are not actively using the cookie dough, such as while waiting for a batch to cook, cover dough with baking paper and place back in the fridge. You want to always be working with cold dough.
Place cut out shapes onto the baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes or until cookies start to turn a light golden colour around the edges. They may still be a bit soft but will firm up as they cool. Let cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
Make the icing. Using an electric mixer, prepare icing according to packet instructions ensuring you do not add too much water. Once stiff peaks have formed, the icing is ready to be piped onto the cookies. This icing dries hard, so make sure to cover any left over icing with a wet paper towel.
Decorate the cookies. Divide the icing into bowls and tint your desired colours. Pipe an outline around the edges of the cookies. Once complete let dry for 30-60 minutes until the outlines have formed a crust. Squeeze remaining icing back into the bowl and add about 2 tablespoons more water to thin out the mixture. Place icing back into the piping bag and fill in the outlines of the cookies. Set aside on a wire rack to dry and continue to pipe remaining cookies with different colours. Once the cookies have formed a crust, you can pipe on your designs and the features of the bunny. See the blog post for more details on creating the designs.
Icing will crust after a couple of hours but needs to be left overnight to harden completely. The cookies themselves will remain soft and in the morning they will be fine to stack and store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
** This is the royal icing mixture I use which can be found in the baking isle of the supermarket.
I always use Americolour Gel food colouring as you only need a small amount, it doesn't alter the consistency of the icing, and the colours are beautiful and vibrant.
These are so cute Sally!
Such an adorable collection of cookies! Thanks for all your tips and explanation – I have never attempted to make decorated sugar cookies but now I feel like I could try!
Thanks Sylvie! I hope you do, they are so much fun.