While not financially lucrative (-18.6% ROI), the Triple Crown series provided satisfying story lines, and perhaps more importantly as a fan of racing beyond the Triple Crown, story lines that are likely to continue on the road to the Breeders' Cup Thoroughbred Championships.
Here's my score card on winners and losers from this year's Triple Crown season.
Palace Malice scored a big win not only for his sire as a classic winner in Curlin's first crop but also for the magical cross of a Mr. Prospector-line sire over a Northern Dancer-line mare. It was the third such win in five years for the cross and the sixth in 11 years. The Preakness winner and Belmont runner-up Oxbow is by a Breeders' Cup Classic winner (Awesome Again) out of a Classic-winning (Tiznow) family, and Kentucky Derby winner Orb traces his female lineage back to Shenanigans.
The supposed heir apparent to his sire A.P. Indy, Bernardini has just one North American black-type winner from his 2010 crop whereas Malibu Moon has five, including the aforementioned Orb plus Grade 2 winner and classic starter Freedom Child and multiple Grade 2 winner Kauai Katie. Bernardini stood for an advertised fee of $75,000 in 2009 (the year foals of 2010 would have been conceived) while Malibu Moon's fee that year was $40,000. For 2013, Bernardini's fee had grown to $150,000 while Malibu Moon was at $70,000. There's absolutely no question who provides value for the money on the racetrack at those price points.
It's been a long time between drinks for Louisiana when it comes to major Triple Crown relevance, but the Fair Grounds series of races culminating with the Louisiana Derby was back in a big way this year with Belmont winner Palace Malice, Preakness winner Oxbow, and the classic-placed trio of Golden Soul, Mylute, and Revolutionary all having run in the Pelican State this year. The only others to place in classics this year (Derby winner and Belmont third Orb and Preakness second Itsmyluckyday) raced in Florida.
The last time the Wood Memorial Stakes or Santa Anita Derby failed to produce a classic-placed horse in the Triple Crown series was 2006, but that was the case this year as the final preps for the seven horses to earn a classic placing were the Louisiana Derby (Revolutionary, Mylute, and Golden Soul), Florida Derby (Orb and Itsmyluckyday), Arkansas Derby (Oxbow), and Blue Grass Stakes (Palace Malice).
Racing Hall of Fame members D. Wayne Lukas, Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey, Mike Smith, and Gary Stevens won Triple Crown races this year, and if that institution inducted owners then Calumet, Dogwood, Janney, and Phipps would be shoe-ins as well. Those in classic Winner's Circles not yet in the Hall of Fame are Joel Rosario and Todd Pletcher. The latter will make it on the first or second try while the former is at least going to be on some ballots.
Yeah, Orb's connections were all winning their first Derby, but they had been there before, and Shug the Phipps family had already had classic success. After the 90s and early 21st century belonged to Baffert, Lukas, and Zito, recent years had gone not only to first-time winners but also some first-time participants such as the connections of Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Barbaro, Big Brown, Mine That Bird, Summer Bird, Animal Kingdom, Shackleford, Ruler On Ice, and I'll Have Another.
Oxbow and Palace Malice both had their share of supporters at generous prices in the Preakness and Belmont, not because of a number but because of what people saw from those two on a blistering Derby pace. I'm a numbers player myself, and this Triple Crown season illustrated that understanding how a number is earned, and what might conspire to produce an improved figure is every bit as important as just determining "who's fastest."
Purely off numbers, Palace Malice and Oxbow were tough to like, but as noted above there were other reasons to like them, and it's not as if they were both void of number power. To win a race, you don't have to go faster than anyone has gone before, just fastest on that particular day. Palace Malice's 101 Brisnet.com Speed Rating won't win any championships, but it did win him the Belmont Stakes.
Plenty of rain at both the Derby and the Belmont and the threat of rain with overcast skies at the Preakness no doubt boosted sales ponchos in Louisville, Long Island, and Baltimore.
About a week before both the Derby and Belmont, the tweets heralding GREAT forecasts for Derby and Belmont days quickly turned sour as the forecast dampened each day. By mid-week Derby week it was clear that rain was going to happen all day Saturday, and it did but for a two-hour window surrounding the world's most famous horse race. Belmont fared slightly better with terrible weather Friday preceding pleasant conditions by comparison on Saturday. Still, the forecasts a week out from this two events literally couldn't have been more wrong.
I know we say this every year, but it should be a fun rest of the year. Not necessarily because there are any superstars, but because these are evenly matched divisions in which head to head competition will be required to secure year-end honors. The exception to this is Wise Dan, who with the injury to Point of Entry, is unquestionably the best turf male in North America right now. From a three-year-old male standpoint, yeah, the classic winners have an edge, but no one will be shocked if horses like Itsmyluckyday, Verrazano, Normandy Invasion, etc. make enough noise in the second half of the year to enter the championship picture. The three-year-old filly division is similarly interesting with Beholder potentially having home-track advantage with the Breeders' Cup in her back yard, but a Ladies Classic tilt could require facing the likes of Royal Delta.
I started out by noting my 18.6% negative ROI on the Triple Crown festivities this year, so I figured I'd close with an optimistic thought on better results for summer racing. Those who know me know I'm more than happy to bet--even hammer--a favorite I think offers value, but I went the other way much of the time this Triple Crown season and paid the price, as short-priced horses peppered the undercard races, and I rarely connected. That's not an excuse--that's just poor handicapping, as on several occasions some of the horses in question looked like 1-to-5 shots after the fact and I passed on even money!
Onward toward the Breeders' Cup!
There's the raw data, it is up to you to format it suitably.


text:
91-Year-Old Villager Gets Prison Time for Hitting Bicyclists
December 30, 2022 - Auto Accidents, Personal Injury
A 91-year-old Villages woman was recently sentenced to spend half a decade behind bars over a hit-and-run crash that caused serious injuries to a pair of bicyclists.
The woman pleaded guilty in Sumter County court to charges stemming from the collision, Villages-News reports. The accident happened in October 2020 when the woman slammed her Mercedes-Benz into the Village of Dunedin couple on Morse Boulevard near Bonita Boulevard.
"Witnesses told the Florida Highway Patrol that [the driver] got out of her vehicle, saw the husband and wife crumpled in the road, got back into her car and drove away," Villages-News reports. "The vehicle was later recovered at the Mercedes dealership in Gainesville, where it was being repaired."
The bicyclists survived the crash but suffered significant injuries. The male bike rider told the judge that he was still coping with brain injuries from the accident. His wife, who was not able to attend the court proceeding, also suffered brain injuries, as well as 17 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a paralyzed vocal cord and other broken bones.
She slammed the car driver in a victim impact statement provided to the court.
"She's a heartless monster who only thinks of herself," the woman wrote. "She's been allowed to get away with this for more than two years."
A Sumter County judge denied pleas for leniency from the driver and her attorney.
"The impact of what you did is felt by (the victims), but what happened afterward is what impacts you," Judge Don Briggs said. "If you had stayed, things would have been much different for you."
The driver was convicted on two counts of leaving the scene of a crash involving a serious injury to a vulnerable road user, according to Villages-News. She also faces a separate personal injury lawsuit by the bicyclists.
Injured in a Bike Accident? Know Your Rights
Bicycle accidents like this one are all too common in the Villages, where many residents opt to travel on two wheels.
Hit-and-run crashes not only add insult to injury but also can delay necessary medical attention for people injured in a crash. That is not to mention that fleeing the scene of a collision can make it harder to identify a negligent driver and hold the person legally responsible.
A cyclist who is injured in an accident with a car in Florida has the right to seek compensation from those responsible. The monetary damages available in these cases include compensation for doctors' bills and related costs, as well as property damage and any impact of the injuries on a person's ability to earn income.
To get that compensation, you have to be able to prove negligence. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help.
Speak With a The Villages Personal Injury Attorney
The Villages personal injury attorney Tim Babiarz has been fighting for people injured in crashes throughout the region for more than two decades. Tim is a tenacious litigator, committed to helping people get back on their feet with the full compensation available under the law.
Our office is conveniently located in the Villages. We are also proud to represent clients throughout the area, including in Ocala, Leesburg, Lady Lake, Wildwood, Summerfield and beyond. Call (352) 205-7559 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation with a Villages accident attorney.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Showing posts with label Free. Show all posts
Open-Source Licenses: All you need to know
Understanding free/open-source licenses is not an easy task. Learn what they are, how they are created and which one is best for your project.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
One important aspect of open-source software is its license. It's common for free/open-source software to be governed by a license and you will at some point hear about them. An open-source license allows the source code to be used, modified and/or shared under defined terms and conditions. Understanding the licences is critical to any open-source project.
Today there are 100+ open-source licenses and 90+ free-software licenses so it's really easy to get lost. Since when using Linux you may be exposed to licenses, we prepared this summary to help you understand why they exist, how they're created and why we need them.
For a quick guide about the most common open-source licenses, please read: Choose a License.
What's an open-source License?
An open-source license is a license for software (but can also be applied to other products as we'll see below) that allows review, use, modification and sharing under certain conditions. Open-source licenses usually allow companies to modify and use the source code under their needs.
Are open-source licenses always free?
No. Most open-source licenses allow software to be available for free, however there are also non-free licenses. Note that non-free licenses may conform to open-source, but NOT to free-software, a common misconception since most people think open-source and free-software the same, which they are not.
Who oversees the licenses?
There are two bodies that oversee licenses: The Open Source Initiative which governs open-source licenses (free/non-free) and the Free Software Foundation which maintains a list of free software licenses.
As we saw, open-source licenses apply to much more than just software. The GNU Project's License Page website contains an extensive list of licenses in different categories:
Licenses for software
Licenses For Documentation
Licenses for Works of Practical Use besides Software and Documentation
Licenses for Fonts
Licenses for Works stating a Viewpoint (e.g., Opinion or Testimony)
Licenses for Designs for Physical Objects
How are licenses created?
If you find that none of the 100+ open-source licenses and the 90+ free-software licenses suits your needs, you can create your own license. For free software licenses, check the GNU License page for more information.
For your license to be recognized as an open-source license, you'd have to submit your license to the Open Source Initiative so it can be reviewed by the OSI Board. The review is a transparent and relatively quick process (usually done under 60 days) and is necessary to ensure that licenses and software labeled as "open source" conform to existing community norms and expectations. The review also:
Ensures approved licenses conform to the Open Source Definition and provide software freedom
Identifies appropriate License Proliferation Category
Discourages vanity and duplicate licenses
How licenses are classified
In short, in free, non-free, proprietary or open-source licenses. Free software licenses are governed by the GNU project which classifies them:
Whether it qualifies as a free software license.
Whether it is a copyleft license.
Whether it is compatible with the GNU GPL. Unless otherwise specified, compatible licenses are compatible with both GPLv2 and GPLv3.
Whether it causes any particular practical problems
Open-source licenses are governed by the Open Source Initiative and have to comply with the Open Source Definition which imposes restrictions on:
Free redistribution
Integrity of the author's source code
No discrimination against persons or groups
No discrimination against fields of endeavor
Distribution of license
License must not be specific to a product
License must not restrict other software
License must be technology-neutral
Most Popular Licenses
As previously mentioned, there are 100+ licenses so let's quickly review the most popular open-source/free-software licenses in use today are:
GNU General Public License (GPL) v3: the recommended license by the Free Software Foundation and by the GNU Project.
Mozilla Public License 2.0: a weak copyleft license conditioned on making available source code of licensed files and modifications of those files under the same license.
Apache License 2.0: a permissive license whose main conditions require preservation of copyright and license notices.
MIT License: a short and simple permissive license with conditions only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices.
No license: According to the GNU project, cannot be considered free-software (see below).
For a throughout review of the licenses, consider reviewing in details the licenses on the GNU Licenses and OSI Licenses & Standards pages.
What about no License?
According to the GNU project, software without license cannot be considered free-software:
if source code does not carry a license to give users the four essential freedoms, then unless it has been explicitly and validly placed in the public domain, it is not free software.
Some developers think that code with no license is automatically in the public domain. That is not true under today's copyright law; rather, all copyrightable works are copyrighted by default. This includes programs. Absent a license to grant users freedom, they don't have any. In some countries, users that download code with no license may infringe copyright merely by compiling it or running it.
Content accessed on Sep 28, 2020
Which license is best for my project?
In order to choose which software license is right for your next project, it's important to understand first if you want to target free or open-source software. For free software licenses consider studying the Free Software Foundation's License List. For open-source licenses , check the Open Source Initiative's Licenses & Standards for more information.
When in doubt, consider using one of the licenses suggested above or check the Choose a License website for more information.
Understanding free/open-source licenses is not an easy task but it's critical to any open-source project. Since there are 100+ open-source licenses and 90+ free-software licenses we hope this summary helps you understand this complex topic a little more.
Open-source License (Wikipedia)
Comparison of free and open-source software licences (Wikipedia)
Free Software Foundation's License List
Open Source Initiative's Licenses & Standards
Open Source Initiative
GNU Project
Choose a License
What's a Linux distribution
What is free-software?


text:
Featured: Movie review: 'My Father's Dragon' (2022) - My Father's Dragon is a 2D animated children's fantasy film, the latest from Cartoon Saloon,…
Watch, Out!
from In-Fur-Nation
Posted by Mink (Rod O'Riley) on Fri 5 May 2017 - 01:53 — Edited as of 02:46
In the about-time department, perhaps, IDW have published a new Yo-Kai Watch full-color comic book series this spring. According to them: "The hit anime, manga and toy sensation from Japan comes to North American comics! Join Nate and his Yo-Kai, Whisper, as they battle against ill-intentioned Yo-Kai causing terrible trouble in their hometown!" Previously, Viz Media licensed the original Yo-Kai Watch manga by Noriyuki Konishi for release in North America. This new comic, however, is completely home grown: Eric M. Esquivel ( Bravest Warriors ) is the writer, with art by Tina Franscisco ( Strawberry Shortcake ) and Dono Sanchez Almara ( Turbo Defiant ). It's available now. And, of course, the Yo-Kai Watch anime series is running on Disney XD, if you didn't know. (Our thanks to Anime News Network for help with this article).
image c. 2017 IDW Publishing
Mink (Rod O'Riley) — read stories — contact (login required)
a Mink from Garden Grove, California, interested in music
Ed-otter of In-Fur-Nation. Former Califur programming director. Co-founder of ConFurence.
: Feed item
: Mink


text:
// This is an open source non-commercial project. Dear PVS-Studio, please check it.
// PVS-Studio Static Code Analyzer for C, C++ and C#: http://www.viva64.com

/* SlowSocket.cs --
 * Ars Magna project, http://arsmagna.ru
 * -------------------------------------------------------
 * Status: poor
 */

#region Using directives

using System.Threading;

using AM;

using JetBrains.Annotations;

#endregion

namespace ManagedIrbis.Infrastructure.Sockets
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Сокет, сознательно замедляющий связь с сервером
    /// (для тестирования пользовательского интерфейса).
    /// </summary>
    [PublicAPI]
    public sealed class SlowSocket
        : ClientSocket
    {
        #region Constants

        /// <summary>
        /// Default value for <see cref="Delay"/>.
        /// </summary>
        public const int DefaultDelay = 300;

        #endregion

        #region Properties

        /// <summary>
        /// Delay, milliseconds.
        /// </summary>
        public int Delay { get; set; }

        #endregion

        #region Construction

        /// <summary>
        /// Constructor.
        /// </summary>
        public SlowSocket
            (
                [NotNull] ClientSocket innerSocket
            )
        {
            Sure.NotNull(innerSocket, nameof(innerSocket));

            Delay = DefaultDelay;
            InnerSocket = innerSocket;
        }

        #endregion

        #region AbstractClientSocket members

        /// <inheritdoc cref="ClientSocket.AbortRequest" />
        public override void AbortRequest()
        {
            InnerSocket.ThrowIfNull(nameof(InnerSocket)).AbortRequest();
        }

        /// <inheritdoc cref="ClientSocket.ExecuteRequest" />
        public override void ExecuteRequest
            (
                ClientContext context
            )
        {
            Sure.NotNull(context, nameof(context));

            int delay = Delay;
            if (delay > 0)
            {
                Thread.Sleep(delay);
            }

            InnerSocket
                .ThrowIfNull(nameof(InnerSocket))
                .ExecuteRequest(context);
        }

        #endregion
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


strokeofluck: We never had fast food..SAD NEVER.
We never had fast food..SAD NEVER.
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, or had a credit card.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers.
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 19. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem.
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone was on a party line.
Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies.
There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.


Spring, summer, fall and winter: the four seasons of the year. Expansion, peak, contraction, trough: the four seasons of an economy. In this next section you'll learn about the cyclical nature of economies and how each of these "seasons" affects business operations.
The term economic cycle (or boom-bust cycle) refers to economy-wide fluctuations in production, trade, and general economic activity. From a conceptual perspective, the economic cycle is the upward and downward movements of levels of GDP (gross domestic product) and refers to periods of expansion and contraction in the level of economic activities (business fluctuations) around a long-term growth trend.
Economic cycles are identified as having four distinct economic stages: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough.
An expansion is characterized by increasing employment, economic growth, and upward pressure on prices. A peak is the highest point of the business cycle, when the economy is producing at maximum allowable output, employment is at or above full employment, and inflationary pressures on prices are evident. Following a peak, the economy typically enters into a correction which is characterized by a contraction where growth slows, employment declines (unemployment increases), and pricing pressures subside. The slowing ceases at the trough and at this point the economy has hit a bottom from which the next stage of expansion and contraction will emerge. In the United States, it is generally accepted that the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is the final arbiter of the dates of the peaks and troughs of the economic cycle.
Since the economy is made up of businesses (both private and public), businesses are impacted by the stages of the economy or perhaps they cause the stages of the economy – or maybe a little of both! When we move from talking about stages of the economy, the terms used to describe the business cycle differ slightly, but you will see that they are almost mirror images of the economic stages.
Business cycle fluctuations occur around a long-term growth trend just like economic cycles, but unlike economic cycles they are measured in terms of the growth rate of real gross domestic product (Real GDP). This does not mean that the GDP is imaginary, but rather that GDP does not take into account inflation. Instead, real gross domestic product is the inflation adjusted value of the goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States.
An expansion is the period from a trough to a peak, and a recession is the period from a peak to a trough. The NBER identifies a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production." This is significantly different from the commonly cited definition of a recession being signaled by two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. If the economy does not begin to expand again, then the economy may be considered to be in a state of depression.
How the economic cycle affects business operations may be best explained by looking at how one business responds to these cycles. Normal Maintenance is a small business that provides a variety of construction services to homeowners. They specialize in roofing, deck installations, siding, and general home maintenance. They employ three full-time workers, who typically work forty hours per week for an average of twelve dollars per hour. The company has been in business in the same town for than twenty years and has a solid reputation for quality work and reliability.
Normal Maintenance is busy and has recently had to turn down jobs because it lacks the capacity to do all the work offered. Homeowners now want to make home repairs and improvements which they had had to put off during the sour economy. With the economy improving, others are fixing up their homes to sell. Faced with so much demand, the owner of Normal Maintenance must decide whether to pay his existing workers overtime (which will increase the costs for each job and reduce profits) or hire additional workers. The competition for qualified construction labor is steep, and he is concerned that he will have to pay more than his usual rate of twelve dollars per hour or possibly get workers who are not as qualified as his current crew. He is, however, able to charge higher prices for his work because homeowners are experiencing long waits and delays getting bids and jobs completed. The owner purchases a new truck and invests in additional tools in order to keep up with the demand for services. Customers are willing to pay more than usual so they can get the work done. Business is expanding to such an extent that Normal Maintenance and its suppliers are starting to have trouble obtaining materials such as shingles and siding because the manufacturers have not kept pace with the economic expansion. In general, business is great for Normal Maintenance, but the expansion brings challenges.
At the peak of the business cycle, the economy can be said to be "overheated." Despite hiring additional workers, the owner and crews of Normal Maintenance are working seven days a week and are still unable to keep up with demand. They can't work any harder or faster. As a result, the crews are exhausted and the quality of their work is beginning to decline. Customers leave messages requesting work and services, but the owner is so busy he doesn't return phone calls. Jobs are getting started and completed late as the crews struggle to cover multiple job sites. As a result, customer complaints are on the rise, and the owner is worried about the long-term reputation of the business. Neither the business nor the economy can sustain this level of activity, and despite the fact that Normal Maintenance is making great money, everyone is ready for things to let up a little.
As the economy begins to contract, business begins to slow down for Normal Maintenance. They find that they are caught up on work and they aren't getting so many phone calls. The owner is able to reduce his labor costs by cutting back on overtime and eliminate working on the weekends. When the phone does ring, homeowners are asking for bids on work—not just placing work orders. Normal Maintenance loses out on several jobs because their bids are too high. The company begins to look for new suppliers who can provide them with materials at a cheaper price so they can be more competitive. The building material companies start offering "deals" and specials to contractors in order to generate sales. In general, competition for work has increased and some of the businesses that popped up during the expansion are no longer in the market. In the short term the owner is confident that he has enough work to keep his crew busy, but he's concerned that if things don't pick up, he might have to lay off some of the less experienced workers.
On Monday morning, the crew of Normal Maintenance show up to work and the owner has to send them home: there's no work for them. During the week before, they worked only three days, and the owner is down to his original crew of three employees. Several months ago he laid off the workers hired during the expansion. Although that was a difficult decision, the owner knows from hard experience that sometimes businesses fail not because their owners make bad decisions, but because they run out of money during recessions when there isn't enough customer demand to sustain them. Without enough working capital to keep the doors open, some are forced to close down.
Representatives from supply companies are stopping by the office hoping to get an order for even the smallest quantity of materials. The new truck and tools that the owner purchased during the boom now sit idle and represent additional debt and costs. The company's remaining work comes from people who have decided to fix up their existing homes because the economy isn't good enough for them to buy new ones. The owner increases his advertising budget, hoping to capture any business that might be had. He is optimistic that Normal Maintenance will weather this economic storm—they've done it before—but he's worried about his employees paying their bills over the winter.
The owner of Normal Maintenance has been in business for a long time, so he's had some experience with the economic cycle. Though each stage has its stressors, he has learned to plan for them. One thing he knows is that the economy will eventually begin to expand again and run through the cycle all over again.
If the economy is currently experiencing high growth and inflation combined with low unemployment, it is likely to be at which phase of the business cycle?
b. Expansions tend to be characterized by positive GDP growth and decreased unemployment and increasing inflation.


This submission used positive and negative space to create light and shade. The elegant lettering of 'endurance' signifies confidence, trust and luxury. This elegant, contemporary, vector identity works well on dark and light backgrounds, in black and white, is fully scalable and readable at all sizes. I'm happy to follow advice regarding changes to any aspect of the design. I trust this meets the brief and look forward to receiving feedback if necessary. Thank you for your time and consideration.


text:
As Chairman of ETNO's newly formed Trade Working Group and Manager for Latin American Affairs and Trade Policy at Telefónica, David Frautschy Heredia shares his thoughts on trade negotiations and their place in the new Digital landscape: "Trade agreements should incorporate a chapter on the Digital Economy, settling a new scenario of market openness, with equivalent responsibilities and obligations for all market participants" #ThinkDigital
Why does ETNO have a specific Working Group on Trade issues and what topics does the group follow?
A few ETNO members have made important investments outside the EU: Telefónica is present all across Latin America; Deutsche Telekom has operations in the USA and in some Eastern European countries; Orange is active in Africa and the Middle East; Telecom Italia is in Brazil and Telenor is a growing operator in the Far East. Moreover, the EU has finalised or is currently negotiating Trade Agreements with many of the countries in those regions. These pacts contain provisions on regulatory issues, including telecommunication services and eCommerce. It is important to follow the processes and provide guidance to DG Trade officials, so they are aware of the challenges faced by European operators in those countries, both during the negotiations and also after the signature, to assure that the implementation of the accords is executed as expected.
In addition to this, the EU, together with a set of countries that represent 70% of global trade in services, is negotiating the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). The objective of this agreement is to renew the much outdated WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), that was agreed 25 years ago in a very different competitive scenario and that is still the basis for most regulatory frameworks. TiSA aims at opening up markets and improving rules in areas such as licensing, financial services, telecoms, e-commerce and professionals moving abroad temporarily to provide services. It's important to have ETNO's opinion on these matters shared with the relevant EU officials.
The competitive landscape for telecoms has changed in Europe and between different geographic regions. How are global trade discussions reflecting this new reality?
Indeed, the competitive landscape has changed globally. We face new entrants in our market: we all know about the challenges that internet-based service providers place upon traditional telecommunication providers; but we are also challenging others, delivering audio-visual content, providing banking and payment services or security surveillance, to name a few. These changes have some reflection on trade negotiations, but not always in the most desirable fashion. We are witnessing exclusions - carve outs, in the trade jargon - of entire service sectors, like the audio-visual and the financial; we see growing eCommerce chapters, where negotiators seem to be dumping the issues they don't know where else to fit, like Net Neutrality or roaming. Finally, the negotiations are also tackling cross-cutting issues, like the flux of data across jurisdictions that is very relevant to all economic sectors, not only Digital Economy players.
The reality of service convergence, where customers don't really care about the underlying technology that is utilised to deliver a service, should have a reflection on the structure of the agreements. In our view, the new agreements should incorporate a new single chapter for the Digital Economy, settling a new scenario of market openness, with equivalent responsibilities and obligations for all market participants.
As Chairman of the ETNO Trade Working Group, can you explain ETNO's position on TiSA and TTIP?
ETNO has been a supportive association for trade agreements: as a tool that brings stimulus to the economy and certainty to investment, these deals are more than welcome. This has been the case with previous agreements that the EU has signed with less powerful economies. The TTIP and the TiSA are quite different, in the sense that for these agreements, the main focus of the deals shifts from lifting import/export tariffs, to eliminating obstacles to trade, like red tape, redundant compliance tests or obsolete obligations. These negotiations will be a success if the EU and its trading partners can agree on common rules for products and services - e.g. on issues like car safety or pharmaceuticals - or enter in a process of reviewing and comparing current obligations trying to find modern ways to approach the new market realities. Both TTIP and TiSA shall help in this direction.
ACTA was a very high profile trade debate. To what extent do you believe ACTA has had an impact on how trade agreements are and will be negotiated going forward?
The defeat of ACTA revealed three important factors to be considered by trade negotiators from now on. First, the power of mobilisation of the general public is enormous; if an agreement contains issues that are perceived negatively, they will react fiercely against it and make sure that politicians react accordingly. Second, the powers granted to the European Parliament by the Lisbon Treaty on Trade Policy (all agreements shall be ratified by the EP, with no power of amendment, but rather a "yes or no" vote), have been used and may be used again. Third, in this era of collaborative thinking, secrecy is hard to maintain and negotiators must realise that sooner or later their working documents may be subject to leakage. Transparency on the substance of the objectives and permanent stakeholder consultation must be incorporated to the daily work of negotiating teams.
E-Commerce is a driving force for citizen's welfare and for economic growth in the EU and beyond. In what way do trade agreements foster its development and create a positive Digital environment?
I agree, eCommerce has meant a revolution, not only for the large providers of eCommerce services, but also for SMEs who benefit from the possibilities of expanding their markets and for citizens, who see their purchasing options expand enormously. Trade agreements are already tackling this issue, for example by assuring that the data that allows these transactions can flow across borders, by assuring that legal e-signatures are valid in other markets or by abolishing customs duties on electronic transmissions. But if eCommerce is to be expanded even more, trade negotiators must introduce provisions to assure the compliance with privacy and security laws. It should be guaranteed that data that has crossed borders and is stored in other countries, is handled and processed in compliance with data protection and security rules in force in the country of residence of the data subjects. This would enhance trust of users and certainty of companies, thus creating the positive Digital environment you mention.
By ETNO #ThinkDigital, Brussels, 04.01.2015
David Frautschy, Manager for Latin American Affairs and Trade Policy, Telefónica
David Frautschy is Manager for Latin American Affairs and Trade Policy at Telefónica S.A., and has been based in Telefónica's Brussels Office since 2009. He is Chair of ETNO's Trade Working Group. He has worked for Telefónica since 2000, first in its mobile unit in Germany, then joining Telefónica Internacional working as Technology and Operations Manager for Latin America. He is a graduate in Telecommunications Engineering and holds a Master in Business Administration.
This post has originally been published at ETNO ThinkDigital blog.
By adminBlog
Blog: Open Internet Internet Governance Idioma: English featured latin america trade etno e-commerce ttip lisbon treaty acta david frautschy think digital tisa trade policy
Wayra Open Future and Cambridge Wireless (CW) Launch Partnership to Strengthen Cambridge-to-London T...
This initiative is a step forward to scale wireless and mobile start-ups developing products and applications based on a myriad of wireless and mobile technologies. The new time...
wayra,
gary stewart,
open future,
danny bartlett,
abhi naha,
cambridge wireless,
cw,
start-ups,
tech hubs
How Telefónica collaborates with the GSMA to define a project use case scenarios using lean startup"...
[caption id="attachment_8823" align="alignleft" width="300"] THE LEAN STARTUP PROCESS - DIAGRAM Source: The Lean Startup Methodology http://theleanstartup.com/principles[/caption] ...
gsma,
lean startup,
mobile connect
Why open standards on the web will benefit us all
Deep within the bowels of The Internet there is a battle raging. One that has the potential to fundamentally change how people use the web. Actually, that's...
open internet,
tim berners lee,
open web,
August 2015 Digital Economy Reports
Here we come again with the reports concerning the digital economy published during our summer break in August. The papers cover the raise of mobile as the main access for Internet, main trends...
ofcom,
wef,
ericsson,
level playing field,
open data,
kbc,
raul katz
July 2015 Digital Economy Reports
This is the list of main Digital Economy reports published in July that I have chosen. July came with the OECD Digital Economy Outlook, but also with some interesting reports on future digital...
internet governance,
data protection,
spectrum policy,
cyberspace,
wsis,
m2m,
edps,
cybercrime,
enisa,
competition policy,
gcig,
cepalisoc,
digital belgium,


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The installation was very quick and efficient. We did have a few initial integration issues, but these were sorted out in a few days through Nomis' dedication and thoroughness.
We now have a great system that meets our needs, and most importantly provides a better service to our patients.
Nomis Connections stand out from the crowd in the telecommunications industry. From the very first contact they have provided clear and solid advice, cutting through the fog of jargon and sales pitches with a no-nonsense approach, focusing on a solution to meet our specific requirements.
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Nomis have always met and often exceeded our expectations, and have made us feel like a valued customer. It is this which, in our eyes, makes them exceptional in the marketplace.
Nomis, the company, has stood the test of time for us and delivered solid, effective telephone systems to our surgery for the past 6 years. Their team is superb – they cannot be faulted on expertise and customer service.
Nomis deals with all aspects of our telephone systems including making savings for the surgery on call charges. We are looking forward to upgrading our system in the near future and we know we can trust Nomis to deliver and manage the implementation of new third party software to integrate the phones with our patient database.
We consider ourselves lucky to have found such a fantastic company and, most importantly, we appreciate their willingness to help and support our problems and queries – no matter how big or small – with speed, patience, courtesy and friendliness.
Two months ago, Whitegrove had a telephone system with phones in the admin office and a few other places and the door entry system was on a single phone.
Now we have 25 phones, voice mail to handle calls automatically during our very busy period, door entry that can be answered and released from more than once phone and software that allows staff to dial out not only from the phone system directory but also from Outlook Contacts! The next phase is to provide the same facility through SIMS.
We now have a communications system that we are confident can take us forward for many years.
Nomis Connections provided a very efficient installation of a new telephony system. Their engineer was very approachable and spoke in plain English not "techie speak". The new equipment is working well and the difference in clarity between the new system and our old one is very noticeable.
I was pleased that you persisted with BT on our behalf and that they were able to locate the problem, recognising that the fault lay with their equipment.
I think Nomis approached this fault in a methodical manner and worked through the various possible solutions in an efficient way.
The service I received from the Nomis Support Desk was prompt and helped me resolve the problem. I could not have asked for better service – Mark was excellent!
When we first met Nomis Connections we were instantly impressed by their honesty and professionalism. After a thorough assessment of our needs, Nomis moved all our services under one roof – giving us one point of contact and reducing our costs.
Moving to Nomis' hosted VoIP service was hassle free and instantly improved the way we work. It gives us the flexibility we need across our sites, whilst allowing us to manage our communications centrally, so we know we'll never miss a call. We are never engaged.
I'd recommend Nomis Connections to anyone; their pre- and post- sales services are outstanding. We're very happy customers.
We have now been dealing with Nomis Connections for just over 12 months, and have been extremely satisfied with their service and support. As a growing company moving to new premises, we needed a system that's expandable and as future proof as possible – and this is exactly what we have got. Nomis interpreted our original requirements precisely, and were able to offer us a system that was both competitive and on budget. Installation was carried out in accordance with our timescales and schedule and we would not hesitate in recommending them to others.


text:
Timmins opens new Immigration multicultural centre
By Len Gillis / lgillis@timminstimes.com
There is a new welcome mat out in Timmins for immigrants who are seeking jobs and a new life in Canada.
The new Timmins and District Multicultural Centre was officially opened this week with an office and a resource person, Andrée Fortin, located in the Timmins Economic Development Corporation building at 12 Elm Street North.
The purpose of the office is to recognize the growing numbers of immigrants to Northern Ontario, to attract more of them to Timmins and to do whatever it takes to help new people and their families adjust to life here.
Christy Marinig, the CEO of the TEDC, welcomed guests to the office Tuesday saying the new centre comes about after roughly five years of effort on the immigration file.
"This is a very important day for the Timmins Economic Development Corporation and the city of Timmins," she said.
"It has been about five years that Cathy Ellis and Brenda Camirand really took the immigration initiative and started to develop it because we recognized there was a need for employers to bring new skill-sets into the community and that required newcomers," said Marinig.
"And there's also a lot of people interested in Northern Ontario, moving to Northern Ontario. Certainly not the numbers we're seeing in Toronto, but we are seeing people moving here and they do need the support services to be able to stay here, find employment and raise their families and enjoy everything that Northern Ontario and Timmins has to offer," said Marinig.
She added that she is pleased the new centre in Timmins has developed a partnership with the North Bay and District Multicultural Centre which has already been in operation for several years.
"Their leadership and expertise came in very handy and we saw it as a win-win situation to partner with them, because we believe it is important to work together," she added.
The North Bay office is headed up by executive director Don Currie who explained that his office will help the Timmins office through its growth period of providing immigrant settlement services.
"We opened in January 2008. So we've got about three and a half year's experience that Timmins doesn't have in this," said Currie, adding that immigration is now a pan-Northern effort.
"Actually all the five major cities in Northern Ontario are working together on attracting immigrants and Timmins has actually taken the lead on the marketing front. There is now actually a marketing campaign going on for immigrants to come to Northern Ontario," said Currie.
Currie explained that new immigrants will require help on a variety of concerns that many of us take for granted and that's why it's important to have a local office.
"It can be help finding a school for your kids. They won't know there are four different school boards in Timmins. They may need English or French language training. They may need help understanding the banking system, or how to get a Health Card, all the obvious things that we take for granted. So if you come to a new country, you don't know that," said Currie.
"Another big part of it is matching them with somebody who have lived here for awhile. So somebody with similar interests, similar age hopefully, can show them the best places to shop, where to find a provincial park and that kind of stuff," he said.
Currie said there will soon be a public effort to attract volunteers. There are already a few who have come forward in Timmins. He said North Bay has nearly 40 such volunteers.
Timmins mayor Tom Laughren said he was pleased to see the new centre opening.
"This is a very, very important endeavour for our community," said Laughren adding that many employers in Timmins face challenges of finding skilled workers, especially at a time when so many in the "baby boomer" generation are retiring.
Laughren added that Timmins has a history of acceptance of immigrants going back 100 years when the community was founded and then again in the post WW2 years.
Labels Canada, Immigration, Northern Ontario, Ontario, Timmins
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text:
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Q: How to write a trigger to enforce the following business rule:? each department has only one manager. Use trigger template for ensuring this business rule while new rows are inserted into Employees:
 Employees(employeeNumber, lastName, firstName, DOB, HireDate, Position,
          Salary, Dept)
 Primary Key: employeeNumber
 Foreign key: Dept refers to DeptID in Departments
 Departments(DeptID, DeptName, DeptLocation)
 Primary Key: DeptID

CREATE TRIGGER TR_MANAGER BEFORE INSERT ON Employees FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
...
END

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Distribution of words per topic p(w|t) in Mallet I need to get the distribution of words for each topic found by Mallet in Java (not in the CLI as asked in how to get a probability distribution for a topic in mallet?). For an example of what I mean: Introduction to Latent Dirichlet Allocation:
Topic A: 30% broccoli, 15% bananas, 10% breakfast, 10% munching, … (at which point, you could interpret topic A to be about food)
Topic B: 20% chinchillas, 20% kittens, 20% cute, 15% hamster, … (at which point, you could interpret topic B to be about cute animals)

Mallet provides token "weights" per topic, and in http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.ai.mallet.devel/2064 somebody attempted to write a method for getting the distribution of words per topic for Mallet.
I modified the method, so that all weights are divided by their sum as discussed in the mailing list above.
Does the following method (when added to ParallelTopicModel.java) correctly calculate the distribution of words per topic p(w|t) in Mallet?
/**
 * Get the normalized topic word weights (weights sum up to 1.0)
 * @param topic the topic
 * @return the normalized topic word weights (weights sum up to 1.0)
 */
public ArrayList<double[]> getNormalizedTopicWordWeights(int topic) {
    ArrayList<double[]> tokenWeights = new ArrayList<double[]>();
    for (int type = 0; type < numTypes; type++) {
        int[] topicCounts = typeTopicCounts[type];
        double weight = beta;
        int index = 0;
        while (index < topicCounts.length && topicCounts[index] > 0) {
            int currentTopic = topicCounts[index] & topicMask;
            if (currentTopic == topic) {
                weight += topicCounts[index] >> topicBits;
                break;
            }
            index++;
        }
        double[] tokenAndWeight = { (double) type, weight };
        tokenWeights.add(tokenAndWeight);
    }
    // normalize
    double sum = 0;
    // get the sum
    for (double[] tokenAndWeight : tokenWeights) {
        sum += tokenAndWeight[1];
    }
    // divide each element by the sum
    ArrayList<double[]> normalizedTokenWeights = new ArrayList<double[]>();
    for (double[] tokenAndWeight : tokenWeights) {
        tokenAndWeight[1] = tokenAndWeight[1]/sum;
        normalizedTokenWeights.add(tokenAndWeight);
    }
    return normalizedTokenWeights;
}

A: This looks like it would work, but I have some comments on style.
I'm not crazy about using a double array to represent topic/weight pairs. If you're iterating over all types, why not use a dense double[] array with the type as index? If you need to sort entries in another method outside of this one the ArrayList might make sense, but the unnormalized intermediate ArrayList seems wasteful.
The second summation loop seems unnecessary. You could initialize sum to numTypes * beta first, and then add weight - beta only when you hit a non-zero-count type.
It often makes a noticeable difference if you define normalizer = 1.0/sum and then multiply rather than divide in the normalization loop.


text:
Posted on May 6, 2016 April 29, 2018 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen
Image rights belong to Skydance Productions, Mike Zoss Productions, Scott Rudin Productions and Paramount Pictures
True Grit – Film Review
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Hailee Steinfeld
Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Synopsis: A young woman (Steinfeld) seeks revenge for the murder of her father and enlists the help of a US Marshal (Bridges) to help track down her father's killer.
Review: Remakes and retelling of stories we have seen before tend to have something of a curse upon them. Audiences may tend to moan and whine and say that the new effort to tell a story that has already been told is not worth telling. Well Messrs Joel and Ethan Coen might just have something to say about that, as their retelling of the novel of the same name by Charles Portis, which was first adapted for the big screen in 1969, is well, a remarkable triumph.
The story focuses on young Mattie Ross, a girl of 14 years of age, who after her father is murdered by an outlaw, seeks vengeance on her father's killer. To do this however, she must enlist the help of the law in the shape of US Marshal Rooster Cogburn and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, and so begins a manhunt. The Coens certainly showed that they understood the Western genre with the thrilling No Country for Old Men, albeit that was a Western set in modern times. Here however, it's a traditional western tale fused with good ol' fashioned revenge, and the Coen brothers absolutely nail it once again with a terrific story and a wonderful screenplay, that is aided in no small part by the phenomenal performances of its actors, and the quality of the source material.
In the lead role of Rooster Cogburn, a role that won John Wayne an Academy Award, Jeff Bridges is excellent as he re teams with the directors that brought to life one of the most iconic film characters of all time, that's the Dude man! His accent is very thick and a little bit hard to understand in places, and while he may have been a bit hostile towards her in the early stages, his relationship with Ross is ultimately what drives the story forward and their chemistry is excellent. Speaking of which, Steinfeld as Ross is also fantastic, in what was an incredible breakthrough performance after she beat well over 15,000 people for the role. Matt Damon also puts in a superb performance as the Texas Ranger but it is the work of Bridges and especially Steinfeld that steal the show, as the two of them ensured Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively came their way, and well deserved ones too.
As usual with the Coens, the film making here is of a very high quality, the cinematography by frequent Coen collaborator Roger Deakins is as usual glorious. Night time scenes feel realistic and one can almost feel the cold of winter as the Marshal and his employer set off and encounter some of that pesky snow. Deakins certainly knows how to set up a good shot and there are plenty of these packed throughout the movie, with the Coens once again showing they certainly know how to direct remarkable action sequences that are sure to leave the viewer on the edge of their seat.
The Coens certainly know how to leave their unmistakeable stamp on a project, as they did so in emphatic fashion with No Country for Old Men, and here they do so again. As well as the acting nominations, the film secured eight other nominations, and while it failed to secure any, make no mistake, this adaptation, likes its characters certainly is full of true grit, and of a very high calibre to rank itself as one of the finest films the Coens have ever put to the big screen.
Anchored by two tremendous performances from Bridges and Steinfeld, with a great story stamped with that distinctive Coen brothers seal, top drawer film making.
Tagged: 2010, Ethan Coen, Hailee Steinfeld, Jeff Bridges, Joel Coen, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, True Grit, Western
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text:
The Parapanca is a small left tributary of the river Danube in Romania. It discharges into the Danube in Slobozia. Its length is  and its basin size is .

References

Rivers of Romania
Rivers of Giurgiu County

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Podcast Episode 123: Washington D.C.'s Hidden Tunnels
In 1924 a curious network of catacombs was discovered in Washington D.C. They were traced to Harrison Dyar, a Smithsonian entomologist who had been industriously digging tunnels in the city for almost two decades. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Dyar's strange hobby — and the equally bizarre affairs in his personal life.
We'll also revisit balloons in World War II and puzzle over a thief's change of heart.
The melody of Peter Cornelius' 1854 composition "Ein Ton" is a single repeated note.
Japanese puzzle maven Nob Yoshigahara devised this optical illusion.
Sources for our feature on Harrison Dyar:
Marc E. Epstein, Moths, Myths, and Mosquitoes, 2016.
Marc E. Epstein and Pamela M. Henson, "Digging for Dyar: The Man Behind the Myth," American Entomologist 38:3 (July 1, 1992), 148-169.
Ryan P. Smith, "The Bizarre Tale of the Tunnels, Trysts and Taxa of a Smithsonian Entomologist," Smithsonian, May 13, 2016.
John Kelly, "Who Was Harrison G. Dyar?", Washington Post, Oct. 27, 2012.
John Kelly, "Inside the Tunnels of Washington's Mole Man, Harrison G. Dyar," Washington Post, Nov. 3, 2012.
John Kelly, "A Final Look at D.C.'s Tunnel-Digging Bug Man," Washington Post, Nov. 7, 2012.
Associated Press, "Secret Tunnels Shrouded in Mystery," Oct. 21, 1992.
United Press, "Scientist Admits He Dug Tunnels That Caused Furore," Sept. 28, 1924.
Modern Mechanics published this diagram of Dyar's B Street catacomb in its August 1932 issue. The inset photo at top left corresponds to the 32-foot shaft at right, which was lined in concrete and fitted with iron pipes to serve as ladder rungs. Two more shafts (partially obscured) can be seen to the left. The inset photo at bottom shows the inscription H.G. DYAR FEB 14 1923 on an archway near the cellar entrance. That date was Dyar's 57th birthday.
David Hambling, "How 100,000 Weather Balloons Became Britain's Secret Weapon," Guardian, Sept. 15, 2016.
Wikipedia, "Operation Outward" (accessed Sept. 24, 2016).
Wanderlust has a short video about the operation:
This week's lateral thinking puzzle was devised by Sharon, who offers these corroborating links (warning — these spoil the puzzle).
September 26, 2016 October 2, 2017 | Oddities · Podcast
← Coming and Going
In a Word →


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Protesters against the development of District Six, Cape Town
Cape Town (South Africa), Western Cape (South Africa), Demonstrations, Housing, Apartheid, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950
Picket line ... Protestors line the owner of Lower Burg and Riebeeck streets yesterday during a legal lunch-time protest against the development of District Six. The protesters later confronted Iico management, one of the companies proposing to build houses in the district.
Plaque about District Six, Cape Town
District Six (Cape Town, South Africa), Historic buildings, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950, Race discrimination, Christianity
Plaque at Cape Town Church
Former District Six landowners demonstrate for return of their land, Cape Town
Cape Town (South Africa), Western Cape (South Africa), Housing, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950, Demonstrations
Dispossessed: Former District Six landowners who intend doing a lot more than demonstrating with placards to get their land back. They are to use the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act to petition for its return.
Moravian Chapel in District Six, Cape Town, 1987
District Six (Cape Town, South Africa), Historic buildings, Religion, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950, Race discrimination
The battered 101 year old Moravian Chapel in what was District Six.
BBC crew filming District Six, Cape Town
District Six (Cape Town, South Africa), Western Cape (South Africa), Apartheid, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950
A BBC crew filming in District Six. They are, from left, Mr John Adderley, assistant cameraman, Mr Fred Hamilton, cameraman, Mr Joe Forbes, a member of the Cape Times editorial staff, who showed the team around the area, and Miss Rosalind Erksine, director. The film crew left South Africa yesterday.
Confined to bed since move from District Six, Cape Town
Bontheuwel (Cape Town, South Africa), Western Cape (South Africa), Apartheid, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950, Relocation
Mr Christian Smith, 87, who has been confined to his bed since his move from District Six to Bonteheuwel four months ago.
Family home, District Six, Cape Town
This windowless room is a family's home. The mother smiles up from her cooking, cheerful in spite of her modest surroundings.
Former District Six residents, Cape Town
Mitchell's Plain (Cape Town, South Africa), Western Cape (South Africa), Demonstrations, Apartheid, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950
Concerned: Former District Six residents meet in the Lentegeur Civic Centre to discuss plans for the area.
District Six resident faces eviction, Cape Town
District Six (Cape Town, South Africa), Western Cape (South Africa), Apartheid, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950, Relocation
District Six mother Mrs J. Hendricks with two of her three children in the converted garage for which she has been paying R5 a month for the past five years. She now faces an eviction order.
First Coloured family in "new" District Six, Cape Town
District Six (Cape Town, South Africa), Western Cape (South Africa), Apartheid, Relocation, South Africa. Group Areas Act, 1950
Coming home: An elated Isgak and Mina Daniels with their children, Shanazz and Yusuf - the first coloured family to buy a home in the "new" District Six - and given the keys to their three-bedroomed duplex by Mr Arthur Quinton, managing director of the developers, Leisure Development Company.


In Part 1, we saw how adapting to change has become constant in the 21st century; here we focus on the Self, and the nature of authentic change.
In some respects our culture seems addicted to very rapid change. There's a huge distinction to be made between the superficial churn that often characterizes our society, and deep changes or transitions in human life where something fundamental shifts.
Simply because our way of life is saturated with change doesn't make all change meaningful or significant to the individual, or in line with the priorities of the self. As a 21st century therapist, I'm well acquainted with clients in work situations who must deal with continual ever-churning change, and continual demands for adaptation — but where the required change in no way serves the individual's true nature or need for growth. Often, it doesn't even enable them to better perform their work roles. Change of this type is often a major source of burnout.
Yet, some change is meaningful. It can help us to feel that we're more aligned with our deepest selves, with who we really are, and that we are able to live in a way that honestly reflects our deepest values and yearnings.
As we move through the life cycle, it is this kind of change that we really need. If we can't find it, life tends to remain superficial , and we find ourselves increasingly alienated, and lost. As C.G. Jung put it: "Only what is really oneself has the power to heal".
Many will tell you that change is good, if it is "more adaptive". But we have to be quite careful with this. It depends what we mean by "more adaptive". Do we mean that the change in question allows the individual to express and live out more of themselves, more of who they are at the deepest level? Then, from a depth psychotherapy point of view, that is genuinely good. Such adaptation serves the person's individuation, the on-going process of the individual becoming more and more who they truly are.
However, if "adaptive" change means that the individual merely alters themselves to survive under conditions hostile to their true identity, this clearly doesn't serve individuation. It would very likely not be a good thing for the soul to be "well-adjusted" in North Korea, or Nazi Germany.
There is a persistent self, or identity in the deep levels of the psyche, that each of us possesses. We ignore this reality at our peril.
A key part of depth psychotherapy for those undergoing major life transitions is enabling individuals who may be overwhelmed by the challenges of adapting to change, to realize that there is a persistent solid center to the self, on which they can rely.
Whether we like it or not, 21st century life has made adapting to change a constant feature of our lives.
As depth psychotherapy well knows, it wasn't always so for the human race! If we look at our ancestors in the paleolithic age, we know that social and technological change was vastly slower. It wasn't much faster in ancient Egypt or China or the Middle Ages and was in fact a great deal slower right up until the 18th century, when the industrial revolution started to bring change at an ever more rapid pace.
The pace of change in human life is still increasing — the automobile age, the computer age, the internet age, the digital age — and on, into the future. Today, we're thoroughly inundated with change, and must continuously adapt. We're also bombarded with the message of the necessity of adapting to change. In fact, there is a danger in our time that we might not properly distinguish between deep, personal change, and the continual background churn of modern daily existence. How do we discern those changes in our lives which are truly fundamental, and adapt to them in a way that is authentic, and that furthers our individuation?
Some changes are far more profound than others in their implications. Change is so pervasive in our time, that we run the danger of what experts like Harvard's John Kotter call "change fatigue", which is a form of burnout that stems from endlessly needing to adapt to new circumstances. Yet we also need to be open and responsive to fundamental life transitions. We need to accept these changes, let their meaning permeate us, and deepen our understanding and feeling of our own individual lives. Such changes are related to the emergence of our deepest identity and true character. We know this type of changes by the way it involves our whole being. Such changes may be extremely difficult or joyous or profound. They can involve such things as grief, loss, betrayal, guilt, genuine religious experience, existential crisis, profound shifts in our self understanding, disability, serious illness of a loved one, and loss — or discovery — of a passion, dream or ideal.
Often, these changes at the deepest level are characterized by three elements. The first may be characterized metaphorically or symbollically as a death to a certain identity or understanding of ourselves. The third, symbolically is a rebirth to a new or different identity or experience of ourselves. In between these two is what anthropologists such as van Gennep would call liminality, an in-between period where the old identity has been left behind, and the new has not yet emerged. Often, depth psychotherapy can assist immensely in making the transitions between these phases, which, in the case of major life transitions, can often be no small thing.
Genuine meaningful life change, while often associated with great upheaval, ultimately take us deeper into our true identity — into the Self, as Jungians would refer to it. This is fundamentally different from inauthentic superficial change, which often leads the individual into a more and more frantic spiral in the attempt to perpetuate to themselves and others the illusion of the false self. In the second part of this post, I'll look more at the psychotherapy of authentic and inauthentic adapting to change, and the importance of an abiding sense of self in the midst of change.


Local Manchester engineer, Abdul Hai, has been awarded membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the oldest professional engineering association in the world.
Abdul currently works as a Highways Engineer for Jacobs.
After taking inspiration from his uncle, a fellow civil engineer, Pakistan-born Abdul attended the University of Salford and began his career in the industry. As part of his role at Jacobs, he has been involved in highways assignments across the UK, including the M6 Smart Motorway Project, which aims to improve travel conditions on a 20-mile stretch of road between Crewe and Knutsford.
Abdul was presented his membership certificate by ICE President Lord Robert Mair at a special ceremony held at ICE's headquarters in Westminster, London.
Meeting all the requirements of the ICE's Member Professional Review, Abdul has achieved a professionally qualified grade of membership which is internationally recognised and highly valued. The ICE represents over 92,000 civil engineers and technicians across the world who design, build and maintain transport, water, energy, waste and flood infrastructure.


text:
The black and the red
A French book on communism equates Hitler's "genocide of race" with Stalin's "genocide of class." Timothy Garton Ash considers the implications of comparing Nazism and communism
by Timothy Garton-Ash	/ June 20, 1998 / Leave a comment
The most important books are not always the best ones-and the best books don't always make the greatest impact. The Black Book of Communism, which provoked much controversy when it was published in France last autumn, is a very important book-and quite good, as well.
Its importance is intellectual, moral and political. By cataloguing the "crimes, terror and repression" of all the communist regimes of the world it reminds us of that huge "asymmetry of indulgence"-to use a phrase coined by Ferdinand Mount-with which the historical memory and political conscience of the western world have long treated communism as opposed to Nazism.
For more than 50 years Nazism, especially the Holocaust, has been the central paradigm of evil in our time. The German historian Joachim Fest suggests that the contemporary, secularised world, no longer able to believe in the devil of the Bible, has found its own devil in Hitler. Stalin, let alone Mao, has never achieved remotely comparable diabolic status. Indeed, as St?phane Courtois points out in the Black Book, Stalin and Mao have been used by the French state lottery as part of an advertising campaign. Imagine if they had used Hitler. I recently had dinner in a restaurant in Copenhagen called KGB; when I asked the pretty waitress in dark green uniform what rank she held, she replied "but I am Stalin." Imagine a restaurant called Gestapo. I find that the phenomenon of the Stasi is an exception: universally known and already a synonym for evil. But I think this is precisely because it fits into the already existing stereotype of German evil. "Stasi" even sounds like "Nazi."
There is a further gradation to the "asymmetry of indulgence." Since the publication of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, the scale and horrors of the gulag have been known at least in principle to a wider public in the west. One thing the Black Book shows us-even while itself questioning the value of "macabre comparative arithmetic"-is that by far the largest number of victims was in fact in China. The first French edition displayed around its sober white binding, on the kind of red wrapper that would usually announce "winner of the Prix Medicis," the startling message: "85m victims." In the introduction the rough estimate actually comes closer to 95m, of whom an estimated 65m were in China. According to the Chinese dissident and former prisoner Harry Wu, the…
14848172785d30778046c6e5.27476662
The diplomat who embodied the many sides of American optimism
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Timothy Garton-Ash
Timothy Garton Ash is the author of History of the Present: Essays, Sketches and Despatches from Europe in the 1990s (Penguin) to be published in Spring 1999.
More by Timothy Garton-Ash
Letter to America
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Home/Executive Moves/Senate Confirms Mark Esper as U.S. Secretary of Defense
Senate Confirms Mark Esper as U.S. Secretary of Defense
William McCormick July 23, 2019	Executive Moves, News
Mark Esper, Secretary of the Army
Mark Esper, secretary of the U.S. Army and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, was confirmed as the next U.S. defense secretary following a 90 to 8 Senate vote, according to the Wall Street Journal's report on Tuesday.
Esper succeeds former defense chief Jim Mattis, who announced his resignation in December 2018 and left office at the end of February, and ends the longest period the Pentagon has had without a Senate approved leader in office.
"The nominee is beyond qualified," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said prior to the vote in the New York Post. "His record of public service is beyond impressive. His commitment to serving our service members is beyond obvious and the need for a Senate-confirmed secretary of defense is beyond urgent."
Previously, Esper was confirmed as the 23rd secretary of the U.S. Army in November 2017. He was vice president of government relations for Raytheon for seven years prior to his appointment. He served as executive vice president for the U.S Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center and as vice president for Europe and Eurasian Affairs between 2008 and 2010. He also served as the chief operating officer and executive vice president of defense and international affairs for the Aerospace Industries Association.
Esper holds a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a doctorate in public policy from George Washington University. He has received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal and the Kuwait Liberation Medal.
Tags 2019 Wash100 2019 wash100 award Aerospace Industries Association AIA Army Bronze Star Medal Department of Defense department of defense medal for distinguished public service DoD executive moves ExecutiveGov George Washington University govcondaily Harvard University Jim Mattis John F. Kennedy School of Government kuwait liberation medal Mark Esper mitch mcconnell news Pentagon press releases Raytheon Senate the legion of merit u.s chamber of commerce's global intellectual property center U.S. Army U.S. Chamber of Commerce Wash100 wash100 award
Stacy Cummings to Take Acting Undersecretary Role for DoD
DOE Announces $124M Funding Opportunity for Domestic Manufacturing Projects
Technology Advancement Group Names Craig Janus as CEO
NGA to Increase Opportunities for Neurodiverse Workforce; Dr. Stacey Dixon Quoted
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) will strive to increase workforce opportunities for neurodiverse individuals. NGA launched its Neurodiverse Federal Workforce pilot program in Dec. 2020. The agency will foster partnerships with MITRE and Melwood to provide jobs for people with disabilities. "NGA mission success is contingent on a world-class workforce with a wide diversity of opinions and expertise," NGA deputy director and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient Dr. Stacey Dixon.
Aaron Weis Discusses U.S. Navy IT Modernization Priorities for 2021
AeroVironment to Buy Arcturus UAV in $405M Cash-Stock Deal; Wahid Nawabi Quoted
NGA Issues Draft RFP for Potential $947M 'Clover' Lifecycle Acquisition, Financial Mgmt Support IDIQ
Lockheed Named Largest Contract Recipient in DOD's Fiscal 2019 State-Level Spending Report
Jacobs Secures Navy Contract for Waterfront Facilities Services
Executive Spotlight: NCI President, CEO Paul Dillahay Discusses $807M GSA DIGIT Task Order Win
ECS Promotes John Heneghan to COO, Giles Kesteloot to CSO; George Wilson Quoted
Coalfire Federal Certified to Offer Consulting on DOD's Contractor Cybersecurity Standards
SpaceX to Support Intuitive Machines' Second NASA Lunar Payload Delivery Mission
Simba Chain Awarded Navy Contract to Continue Dev't of Blockhain-Based Logistics Monitoring Tech
RT @MITREcorp: MITRE researchers are developing autonomous technology to help save lives and improve the experience for soldiers. https://t…15 mins ago
RT @BellFlight: On December 11, the Bell Innovation flight test team at our Mirabel, Quebec facility conducted the first flight of an alter…24 mins ago
RT @LexisNexis: We are proud to release a new #book in partnership with @Deloitte Middle East entitled 'Transfer Pricing in the Middle East…35 mins ago


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package com.creactiviti.piper.error;

import java.util.Arrays;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import com.creactiviti.piper.core.error.ErrorHandler;
import com.creactiviti.piper.core.error.ErrorHandlerChain;
import com.creactiviti.piper.core.job.Job;
import com.creactiviti.piper.core.job.SimpleJob;
import com.creactiviti.piper.core.task.SimpleTaskExecution;
import com.creactiviti.piper.core.task.TaskExecution;

public class ErrorHandlerChainTests {

  @Test
  public void test1() {
    ErrorHandler errorHandler = new ErrorHandler<Job>() {
      @Override
      public void handle(Job j) {
        Assertions.assertEquals(SimpleJob.class, j.getClass());
      }
    };
    ErrorHandlerChain chain = new ErrorHandlerChain(Arrays.asList(errorHandler));
    chain.handle(new SimpleJob());
  }

  @Test
  public void test2() {
    ErrorHandler errorHandler1 = new ErrorHandler<Job>() {
      @Override
      public void handle(Job j) {
        throw new IllegalStateException("should not get here");
      }
    };
    ErrorHandler errorHandler2 = new ErrorHandler<TaskExecution>() {
      @Override
      public void handle(TaskExecution jt) {
        Assertions.assertEquals(SimpleTaskExecution.class, jt.getClass());
      }
    };
    ErrorHandlerChain chain = new ErrorHandlerChain(Arrays.asList(errorHandler1,errorHandler2));
    chain.handle(new SimpleTaskExecution());
  }
}


text:
HomeUncategorizedBorror Road Project public meeting: Oct. 9, 2018
Borror Road Project public meeting: Oct. 9, 2018
September 14, 2018 by Jackson Township 0
An Ohio Public Works Commission grant for $936,478 was awarded to Jackson Township for the Borror Road Improvements Project that is planned to address current and future traffic demands, utility improvements, pedestrian facilities and address other deficiencies. The project will extend from Quail Creek Boulevard on the western end and continue east through the intersection with Buckeye Parkway.
Jackson Township in collaboration with the City of Grove City and the Franklin County Engineer's Office is expected to spend $6,148,456 million on the improvements project. The project currently is in the detailed engineering phase, but initial work on the Patzer Ditch bridge replacement by Axis Civil Construction commenced Sept. 10, 2018.
Borror Road is expected to be closed .4 miles west of Jackson Pike or State Route 104 to Buckeye Parkway for 45 days weather-permitting. The posted detour route for eastbound motorists will follow Buckeye Parkway north to Holton Road, east to Jackson Pike or State Route 104, and south to Borror Road.
Westbound motorists will follow the detour route in the opposite direction.
All are invited to a public meeting set for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 9, 2018 at the Jackson Township Administration Office — 3756 Hoover Road in Grove City, Ohio — at which proposed improvements will be presented. Members of the engineering design team will be available to answer questions and review project design completed to date. This public meeting is open to anyone interested in obtaining additional information including right-of-way acquisition on the proposed road improvements project.
Link to the Borror Road public meeting notice.
Jackson Township Administration
Jackson Township Fire Department


We're pleased to welcome Luto to the Healthcare Communications Edition of CMAP.
Luto are a Leeds-based healthcare communications agency specialising in creating & testing health communications materials. They were founded in 2004 as a University of Leeds spin-off company (Luto stands for Leeds University Testing Organisation) - of which they now work independently, but continue to maintain close ties with academia.
They chose CMAP because it speaks their language, linking together essential areas of the business like client management, resourcing, time tracking & performance reporting.
With numerous members of the CMAP team having previously worked in the medical communications industry, CMAP has been developed with a deep understanding of the sector. Making it the perfect fit for companies like Luto.


Blue Ocean Strategy. I loved this book for finally declaring what I always hoped was possible. Before reading this book, I believed business was only a dog-eat-dog world. I've always felt inspired and drawn to running a business and becoming an entreprenuer, but was turned off by the possibility of literally getting my throat cut! Traditionally being in business meant competing for advantage, battling over who will gain the market share, and struggling to be "better" than your rival. All this scrapping to get the top creates a bloody, or "red ocean" of conflict. Blue Ocean Strategy envisions an uncontested market space where a business rises above the competition and develops new ideas keeping and thus creating a "blue ocean" of innovation. A little bit of a technical read, you'll be glad you plowed through it. Finally get the inspiration to make your Pilates business rise above your competition instead of getting slaughtered.
Refuse to Choose. Ever feel overwhelmed by your many interests or ideas? Frustrated by the nay sayers who say, "You have to choose something and stick with it"? Don't think you'll ever be able to make money doing what you love? If you answered yes to any of those questions, this book is for you. Barbara Sher believes that you don't have to choose just one thing, but instead to do EVERYTHING! This career counselor and motivational speaker, calls these extraordinary types "Scanners". Even if you don't think you're a scanner, you might have one working in your business so it will give you much needed insight. If it's YOU that needs direction and you're feeling lost…Refuse to Choose will give you hope and set you on track.
Steve Jobs. Ok, this book is a long one, but SO worth the time it takes to read. Whatever you think you've heard about Steve Jobs, you haven't heard it all. He is hands down one of the most inspirational and creative genius' of our time. Yes, he has a temper. Yes, he was a jerk from time to time. Yes, some of his business practices were questionable, BUT he made Apple what it is today. While many a programmer could of come up with the goods (and some did…ahem Microsoft), only Jobs had the talent to see the art in creating a brand. It was his genius alone that took his companies to their height. The book is juicy and interesting and will inspire you to stick to your gut and not stop until you get it right- no matter what anyone says.
Now it's your turn! I want to hear what books you're reading. Which ones have inspired you? What have you learned that has changed the way you do business? I challenge you to list (at least) one book you read and one lesson you learned. Oh, and make sure to share this with other entrepreneurs that might need some good reads too!
Need more help than a book can provide? Get a complimentary 30 min biz-nass strategy session via phone or Skype with me. Schedule it with just a click here.


It's always exciting to win a prize in a raffle but to be honest, I was a little disappointed when I learned that what I'd won at the recent TeachersPayTeachers Blogger Meet Up was a product for kindergartners, something called SitSpots. Kindergarten was the grade I found most challenging and I much preferred working with the older middle school students.
But there was a note inside the package that invited me to check out their booth in the exhibitors' hall and I'm so glad I did! As promised in Monday's post, below are 4 ideas for how to use SitSpots with older students.
But first I want to explain a little about how SitSpots work. They are thin plastic shapes that are intended to adhere to a classroom carpet. The website says they will also stick to some area rugs. They don't have glue on them but rather one side is like a mesh with very small bristle-like protrusions that, when pressed into the carpet, keep the SitSpot in place.
Idea #1: Instead of doing a letter recognition activity, as pictured below, do a parts of speech activity. On different SitSpots, write the initials or abbreviations for the parts of speech: N for noun, V for verb, Adj for adjective, Adv for adverb, P for preposition, A for articles (a, an, and the) or D for determiners (whichever term you use), and C for conjunction if that is a familiar term to students. Lay out the SitSpots on the floor in a random fashion. Call out a list of words that you've decided on ahead of time and have students take turns throwing a bean bag or similar item onto the correct part of speech. This would be a great way to review new vocabulary words. Students could do this individually, in pairs or small groups, or as teams. At the discretion of the teacher, points can be awarded and prizes given.
Idea #2: For older students, instead of doing a "sum of the day" activity such as the one shown below, they could do something more advanced with math. For example, numerical answers to word problems could be written on the SitSpots and students would have to solve the problems, then toss a beanbag onto the correct answers. Other students could decide if the answers are correct. Or the carpet could be divided into a few sections, with the same SitSpot answers in all of them, and teams could compete to see who could correctly answer the fastest.
Idea #3: I'm not sure but I suspect this last photo is showing an activity for recognizing sight words. While suitable for lower elementary students, middle schoolers could instead be asked to identify people and places they have learned about in social studies. On several SitSpots, write the initials of famous people and the first letter or letters of places the students have read about and then read short descriptions of those people and places. The students have to correctly identify them by tossing a beanbag onto the right SitSpot. This would be a great way to review before a test.
Idea #4: For a science activity, the elements in the periodic table could be written on SitSpots. Then the teacher reads a short description of the elements or examples of how the elements are used and students toss beanbags onto the correct SitSpots.
Below are two of my TpT products that are examples of the kinds of vocabulary words that can be used for Idea #1. The second product also includes the names of many people and places that could be used for Idea #3.
Have any of you used SitSpots in your classes? Do you have other ideas for how to use them? Please share your suggestions in the Comments section below.


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Croatian 'Novosti' Shortlisted for Freedom of Expression Award
TOPICS:freedom of expressionmedia freedompressures on media
Freedom of Expression Awards logo. Photo: Index on Censorship
The Croatian weekly, representing the country's Serbian minority, is the only European newspaper among four candidates that Index on Censorship has shortlisted for its 2018 Freedom of Expression Award.
by Sven Milekic, BIRN, Split
The London-based NGO Index on Censorship has shortlisted the Croatian independent weekly Novosti as one of only four finalists for its prestigious 2018 Freedom of Expression Award.
Index on Censorship, which advocates for freedom of expression, has chosen the newspaper of Croatia's Serbian ethnic minority as the only media outlet coming from Europe for the award in the area of journalism.
Mexican webzine Avispa Midia, American non-profit media MuckRock and an investigative journalist Wendy Funes are nominated for the award, along with Novosti.
Announcing the shortlisted candidates, Index on Censorship stated that the weekly reports on a range of topics, not solely on issues within Croatia's Serbian community, and has faced considerable pressure.
In Croatia, the weekly is widely seen as anti-establishment, drawing on some of the journalists who used to work for the now defunct satirical weekly Feral Tribune.
"In the past year, the outlet's journalists have faced attacks and death threats mainly from the ultra-conservative far-right. For its reporting, the staff of Novosti have been met with protests under the windows of the magazine's offices, shouting fascist slogans and anti-Serbian insults and told they would end up killed like [French satirical magazine] Charlie Hebdo journalists," Index on Censorship wrote in the explanation of its candidacy.
"Despite the pressure, the weekly persists in writing the truth and defending freedom of expression," it concluded.
The award dates back to 1972, and the winners will be announced on a ceremony in London in April.
The article was republished from Balkan Insight with permission.
Croatia, Hungary, Media developments, Slovenia
Hungary and Croatia Try to Silence Slovenian Media
CPJ troubled by prosecution of Julian Assange


Sold as a pair, these gloves are form-fitting and allow for optimal dexterity. The 90% polyester 10% lycra spandex blend stretches 4 ways and leaves few wrinkles and shadows, making for easier keys.
Our green screen gloves are part of our chroma key green collection of clothes.
The gloves are breathable, easy to pull on and off and are comfortable to wear. Stretching to just below the elbow, one size fits most.
Our chroma key gloves are also available in blue and black.
To accommodate the diverse needs of film projects, you can also purchase a green screen single piece suit or green screen suit with removable hood, along with stand-alone green screen masks.
See a green screen glove in action in this short YouTube video.


text:
Bodhi to Fork Enlightenment to Produce "Moksha"
Debian 8 and Mageia 5 RC Released Over the Weekend
OpenMandriva 3 Alpha, Debian LTS Recruitment, & Gentoo Git
Ubuntu 15.04 Released, Debian 8.0 Coming
Bodhi founder and lead developer Jeff Hoogland today blogged that Enlightenment just isn't what it was back in the E17 days. So much so that Hoogland almost quit the distro business altogether. However, after his return, Hoogland decided the best way to handle Enlightenment was to fork it.
Jeff Hoogland today said that the Enlightenment desktop has changed a lot over the years. Its last couple of releases seemed to break things that users liked and introduced other bugs. He tried to work with the upstream project, but most of the developers had already moved to E20 and didn't worry too much about fixing bugs in E19, according to Hoogland. In discussions with the community, Hoogland found he wasn't the only one who felt E19 brought many regressions. He wondered what to do.
Then it hit him, "fork it."
Hoogland today said that his new desktop would be forked from Enlightenment 17 and called Moksha (pronounced "mohk-shuh"). He said:
We will start by integrating all of the Bodhi changes we have simply been patching into the source code over the years and fixing the few issues the desktop has. Once this is done we will begin back porting a few of the more useful features E18 and E19 introduced to the Enlightenment desktop and finally, we will introduce a few new things we think will improve the end user experience.
Since version 3, announced in February, uses E19 the Bodhi team hopes to release 3.1.0 in August which will use the new E17 Moksha fork. Users who wish to use E19 will still be able to install it from Bodhi repositories. So for now, Hoogland is again putting out the call for developers who would like to help fork E17.
Theory Of Cognitive Development