Kent taxpayers foot a £33,847 bill to feed lorry drivers stuck in Operation Stack, raising the possibility the county could also end up paying for similar provisions for any Brexit-related queues.
Food - including cereal bars and supermarket meal deals - was bought on demand through the county council's 'crisis purchase scheme'.
The authority is jointly responsible for the welfare of anyone caught up in an emergency in Kent, including traffic jams.
Long queues on the M20 and other roads around Dover have been predicted as a possible outcome of Brexit negotiations.
Dover District Council described Operation Brock - the temporary replacement for Operation Stack - as 13 miles of M20 "earmarked to hold heavy goods vehicles, in what will effectively become a giant temporary lorry park holding around 2,000 lorries".
The Port of Dover has previously said a two-minute delay at customs will result in a 17 mile lorry queue.
The National Police Coordination Centre has also warned the "necessity to call on military assistance is a real possibility" around ports in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
Currently no plans describing the provisions for drivers have been made public.
Highways England said on June 27: "The temporary solution is being designed with the intention of it behaving like a slow moving queue (similar to Dover TAP).
For safety reasons, we will not provide welfare on a live carriageway". The implication being that no permanent food vending will be provided by the national agency in charge of planning Operation Brock.
Asked by Kent Live last month if the council will be responsible for driver welfare under Operation Brock as it was under Stack a spokesman said: "All planning is multi agency, in which Kent County Council has a role."
A clarification was sought as to whether this would include paying for food and water out of the council's budget the authority has not responded.
Parliamentary Brexit under-Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris MP was quizzed by Kent Live on the issue during his Dover visit on August 24.
We asked him "Under Operation Stack, Kent County Council had to pay for food and water for drivers stuck on the carriageway.
"Kent Police was also put under strain and had to pick up extra costs. Will Kent residents have to pay the price under a no deal, or will the government provide our services with extra resources?"
He responded: "Police is Home Office. Kent County Council is the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
"I don't know the answer to that."
Kent County Council said on August 9 in response to Kent Live's questions about the council's preparation and the possibility of stockpiling: "We have long standing multi agency plans in place for traffic disruption and potential driver welfare issues on any of Kent's roads, including water supplies on standby particularly during the summer months when tourist traffic is at its height.
"No additional arrangements have been put in place with regard to Brexit."
What food and drink did Kent buy for the drivers?
"Through the Kent County Council Crisis Purchase Scheme cereal bars and meal deals were purchased from supermarkets," a council spokesman said. "Additional pack meals primarily for freight drivers were provided by catering contractors.
"Water was purchased through the same scheme from bottled water providers.
"There were also some voluntary donations of both food and water."
The council said it does not have store of food available for this kind of emergency.
A spokesman said: "Due to the manner of the incident the and type of foodstuffs, food was not able to be stored but was bought on demand."
The council also played a role in handing out supplies and cleaning up the rubbish, with Highways England responsible for the motorways and the council for the other affected areas.
Highways England collected rubbish on the M20, and the council was responsible for trunk roads such as the A2 and A20.
Kent County Council staff, as well Kent Police Fire and Rescue, the Coastguard people from the voluntary sector, coordinated the food and water distribution, and also handed it out on the carriageway.
"Portaloos were provided on the M20/A20 by Highways England," the spokesman said.
Under what conditions will Kent feed and water drivers?
Kent, like many other areas across the country, has a Resilience Forum, which is not a legal organisation but a partnership made up of a number of organisations.
The Kent Resilience Forum is made up of more than 100 organisations.
There are several Category 1 responders, the emergency services, local authorities and the NHS being notable examples. In the case of an emergency these organisations have a responsibility to step in and assist.
A county council spokesman said "the council is the accountable authority for delivery of welfare to people caught in Operation Stack".
The spokesman said the decision to provide food and water is made by a "multi-agency tactical group which sits with the Kent Resilience Forum".
But they did say that "this is only considered after eight hours - however conditions on the day, for example hot weather, would influence that decision".
"It would be a multi-agency planning network to deal with the consequences of any incident," the spokesman said.
How would your Brexit vote go now?
The government has committed to spending £25 million on Operation Brock, including hardening the hard shoulders to cope with normal traffic and the weight of parked lorries.
Asked if the government agrees with Dover Council's 13-mile lorry park assessment, Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris MP said: "We know from 2015 when there was industrial action what the problems can be for local infrastructure and local people.
"You would not be surprised to hear me say, we are spending a huge amount of time and effort, policy thought and money to ensure we have exactly the right solution for these problems.
"The local MP Charlie Elphicke has been lobbying on this for a very long time and it's well understood what the issues are, and we want to make sure we mitigate them as much as we possibly can.
"If there is a strike on French side of the border, it's a similar issue. We will have plans for any situation like that."
He refused to rule out mass disruption at Dover or to promise extra provisions for the county in the event of long queues, but he said "I guarantee the government is working at every level to mitigate and plan for every eventuality".
The National Audit Office has warned there is a "significant risk" Operation Brock will not be ready on time.
Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke has called talk of lorry queues "Project Fear," and insisted the Department for Transport "need to get on and deliver lorry parking before we leave the European Union next March".
Kent County Council has said it does not think sufficient lorry parking can be in place until 2023.
A spokesman said in response to questions about why the council cannot have lorry parking built to Mr Elphicke's target, said: "Highways England plans to submit a Development Consent Order (DCO) in 2019 (at the earliest) if the lorry area(s) are deemed to be Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP).
"Therefore, construction would not start until 2020 at the earliest, and KCC has estimated that 2023 (4 years from submission of the DCO) is when the lorry area(s) would be open.
"According to Highways England the temporary scheme (contraflow on the M20 between Junctions 8 and 9) will be ready by March 2019."
Not all the variables are under the UK's control. Separate to the UK's relationship with the EU, the UK and France have their own border treaty, Le Touquet. Under the treaty, the UK has a border post in France, and France has a border post in the UK.
This means that the speed at which freight can progress is also limited by the speed of French border processing.
The UK government is hiring 200 additional border force staff in Kent.
Customs are currently processed by the member state concerned, so the UK checks are done in the UK, vice versa. But traffic flow is still limited by customs capability.
The French government has already hired 250 extra customs officials, with the stated intention of increasing the number to 700, the reason explicitly given being Brexit.


The devid and minor_name represented as a string.
The minor name to be encoded.
The return address of the device ID.
The return address of a minor name. Free string with ddi_devid_str_free().
ddi_devid_free() frees the memory allocated for the returned devid by the ddi_devid_init() and devid_str_decode() functions.
ddi_devid_get() returns a pointer to the device ID structure through retdevid if there is already a registered device ID associated with the dev_info node. A driver can use this interface to check and get the device ID associated with the dev_info node. If no device ID is registered for the node then it returns DDI_FAILURE.
The ddi_devid_str_encode() function encodes a devid and minor_name into a null-terminated ASCII string, returning a pointer to that string. If both a devid and a minor_name are non-null, then a slash (/) is used to separate the devid from the minor_name in the encoded string. If minor_name is null, then only the devid is encoded. If the devid is null, then the special string id0 is returned. Note that you cannot compare the returned string against another string with strcmp() to determine devid equality. The returned string must be freed by calling devid_str_free().
The ddi_devid_str_decode() function takes a string previously produced by the devid_str_encode(3DEVID) or ddi_devid_str_encode() function and decodes the contained device ID and minor_name, allocating and returning pointers to the extracted parts through the retdevid and retminor_name arguments. If the special devidstr id0 was specified then the returned device ID and minor name will both be null. A non-null returned devid must be freed by the caller through the ddi_devid_free() function. A non-null returned minor name must be freed by calling ddi_devid_str_free().
The ddi_devid_str_free() function is used to free all strings returned by the ddi_devid functions (the ddi_devid_str_encode() function return value and the returned retminor_name argument).
Device ID is present and a pointer to it is returned in retdevid.
No device ID is defined for this dev_info node.
The first device ID is less than the second device ID.
The first device ID is equal to the second device ID.
The first device ID is greater than the second device ID.
ddi_devid_sizeof() returns the size of the devid in bytes. If called with a null, then the number of bytes that must be allocated and initialized to determine the size of a complete device ID is returned.
ddi_devid_str_encode() returns a value of null to indicate failure. Failure can be caused by attempting to encode an invalid devid. If the return value is non-null then the caller must free the returned string by using the devid_str_free() function.
Failure; the devidstr string was not valid.
These functions can be called from a user or kernel context.


text:
Best Racehorses of All Time
If you enjoy horse racing, you will love these free horse racing tips offering expert advice on who to bet on, in what race and at what odds.
Only horse race enthusiasts know how hard it is to decide among so many brilliant runners, but combining various criteria we've managed to create this top 5 list of best racehorses of all time.
Man O'War
This amazing horse set three world records, two American records, and three track records. He also won 20 races out of 21 starts. His only loss was his first race ever in 1919 at the Sanford Memorial Stakes. He was the last off the starting line, was put into disastrous positions by his inexperienced jockey and still made second place.
The BloodHorse magazine ranked Man o'War as the greatest horse to race in North America in the 20th century and Sports Illustrated rated him the best horse in racing history.
This American Thoroughbred is widely considered the greatest horse of the second half of the 20th century. Second only to Man O'War, Secretariat is included within top 100 US horses of the 20th century.
In 1973, he became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and one of only 11 horses to win this prestigious series. Secretariat won sixteen of his twenty-one career starts and was showered in honours. He won five Eclipse Awards, including Horse of the Year honours at ages two and three.
Often regarded as the fastest horse ever, in 1973 he broke the track record virtually every time he was sent out fit, as well as two world records. Importantly, he broke these over wide-ranging distance (7f to 13f) over wide ranging surfaces (dirt and turf, wet and dry).
The best known and most celebrated Australian racehorse, Phar Lap won 19 major race titles and achieved a massive winning streak of 14 wins in a row. His unbelievable achievements captured the public imagination and lifted him to the level of a national hero.
Who knows what this gorgeous stallion might have accomplished if he hadn't been poisoned by the competition, bringing his stellar career to a tragic end.
The secret of Phar Lap's success was revealed in the autopsy; his heart was much larger than that of a regular horse.
Adored by an army of fans, the Thoroughbred of the millennium finished his fourteen-race career unbeaten. Mind-blowing performances followed one after the other, none more breath-taking than his victory in the 2,000 Guineas in 2011, described as "one of the greatest displays on a British racecourse."
The first superstar of thoroughbred racing, Arkle went on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup for three consecutive years (1964-1966), and scored victories in every important steeplechase he entered – including, the Hennessy Gold Cup, the Irish Grand National and the King George VI Chase. He was posthumously inducted into the British Steeplechasing Hall of Fame in 1994. His Timeform rating of 212 is the highest ever awarded to a steeplechaser.
← Beginners Guide to Horse Racing
Horseback Riding Tips for Beginners →

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


If you're thinking of building your own garden decking (or finding an expert tradesman to help fit it for you) this site contains everything you'll ever need to know on fitting the perfect structure for your home at the most affordable price.
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Our initial guides focus on the steps you should take when looking at investing both time & money into a new garden deck. This includes a detailed process our experts follow when undertaking either a DIY or trade build, how to find someone to fit your decking, design considerations & tips, getting planning permission for your build and tons more! If you're wanting a new garden deck but you're not really sure where to start out, look no further.
Nowadays there are any number of woods & plastics to choose from when it comes to the boards for your surface. From pressure-treated softwoods to wood-plastic composites, use these guides for a full breakdown of each & compare against your individual needs to help you find your perfect surface material.
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Are you going it alone and braving a DIY build? If so you need to read this guide. Our experts take you through their 9 step process for building your own decking; starting with the preparation of your oversite & finishing with the optional addition of steps or a stunning pergola. When it comes to laying a deck this is the most comprehensive guide on the web.
So your beautiful new deck has been built and it looks great – but what now? It won't stay looking so good if you don't look after it with careful maintenance & aftercare. Our experts take you through their top tips when it comes to taking care of your deck – including some innovative methods and techniques you can use to reinvigorate a tired, ageing structure. Perfect for those with a new or existing deck.
We review some of the best products available for home & garden. From hot tubs to timber paint, our aim is to help you find the top products to help your home look stylish and beautiful.
Garden decking can have a variety of home & commercial uses – especially during summer months, where they can be used for dining, play & socialising. In commercial settings, it can be ideal for pubs, restaurants & bars where they are an ideal space for customers.
Once erected it is very low-maintenance in comparison with grass & plants which can quickly become messy & overgrown without due care & attention. It's also easier to install than paving & can even be used to hide old patio, damaged concrete or rough uneven ground without having to dig everything up.
1. Firstly, it is incredibly versatile! Decking can look good in pretty much any garden, whether you're looking for a contemporary feel or a more natural space. By raising your entertaining area above damp or muddy ground, it's also a practical way for you to enjoy living in your garden.
2. It also takes very little maintenance once it has been built. The species of wood used is chosen specifically for the oils it contains. Unlike other types of flooring which would quickly degrade in the elements, decks can last for years of exposure with relatively little care.
3. If you have French windows which lead out onto a lawn or patio area, decking can be used as a stylish & practical way to maintain your indoor floor level outside in your garden.
4. It can help make your garden look bigger than it actually is. If you're working with a particularly small space, the boards can be positioned so as to make your garden look longer or wider – simply by fooling the eye.
What did our experts think of Cuprinol Garden Shades? Click to find out!
Check out our expert's review of the Lay Z Spa Saint Tropez inflatable tub.


text:
Competing Vows – Longer Version
On April 12, I posted a 100-word story called Competing Vows. There were people who were curious about the situation surrounding it, both what had come before and what happened afterward. So, here is the full story.
Competing Vows
Our candles were the fireflies that darted around, our incense the scent of the lilacs and lavender in full bloom in the bower chapel. I arrived first, with two of my friends as witnesses. A moment later, I saw Francesca appear with two of her ladies-in-waiting, ducking to avoid catching her hair on the low-hanging branches. My beautiful, forbidden bride.
I had just taken her hand when the priest arrived, stepping in silently from the other side of the grove. He was young to the point where I wondered briefly if he even was a priest.
"Thank you for coming," Francesca said to him. "Thank you for doing this for us." He nodded, pulled us closer together and started the marriage ceremony.
The words of the wedding mass flowed over me, but I could hardly believe this was actually happening. I was marrying the duke's daughter, snatching her from the arms of the man she was promised to, a week before they were to be officially betrothed. I, in my cowardice, had been willing to concede defeat, but Francesca had fought for me. At least, secretly.
We joined hands and there in front of God, a farmhand, a tavern assistant, and two ladies-in-waiting, two became one. Five minutes later, Francesca and I left the bower together.
I had no money for preparations, but Francesca had rented a cottage not far away for our wedding night. My friends escorted us there and then with grins and slaps on the shoulder and cries of "good luck!" they said good night.
There was wine, cheese and bread waiting for us on the table inside. I built a fire while Francesca served the food. We sat on the rug in front of the fire and ate together, feeding each other and laughing, nervous and excited. But we both had other appetites on our mind, and only half the food was eaten before we fell into each other's arms and abandoned food altogether.
I awoke the next morning to the crow of some distant rooster. The air was chill but the covers around us were warm. Francesca was lying next to me, her dark hair spread out like a halo on the pillow, my sleeping angel. I snuggled closer to her and was about to fall back asleep when there was a pounding on the door. We both sat up and I saw the fear in her eyes.
"It has to be my father's men," Francesca said, her eyes wide. "They've found us."
"What do we do?" I asked. She had assured me that although her family would not be happy with our marriage, once it was done, they would accept it. I had trusted her because I had no choice. Now I was not so sure she was right.
We got dressed quickly as the pounding continued. I was just moving towards the door to open it when it burst open and soldiers pushed their way in. There was no discussion with them. One of them knocked me to the floor and as I picked myself up, I saw two of them escorting my Francesca out the door and out of sight. The clop of hoofs and rattle of carriage wheels told me that she was gone.
They took me back to the duke's palace, back to the stables where I had worked for my whole life. But it was too much to hope that things would go back to how they had been. The soldiers guarded me until the duke appeared, striding purposefully towards us. He drew his sword. I stared back at him defiantly and waited for death.
He rested the sword against the side of my neck. "I took you in as a child, a beggar on the street and you stab me in the back like this, by stealing my only daughter away in the dead of night? What do you have to say?"
"I love her," I said. I had no other defense.
"My wife wants your head on a pike outside her window," the duke said. "I will spare your life for now in gratitude for your service to us. But if I see you again or hear news of you in this duchy, your life will be forfeit." He sheathed his sword and turned back to the palace.
The soldiers escorted me to the outer gates and suddenly I was homeless and a new husband with no wife.
I was walking to the village when I came across Maria, one of Francesca's ladies-in-waiting sitting by the side of the road. Her dress was dirty and torn and she was sobbing. When she saw me, she fell down and clutched at my feet.
"Forgive me," she said. "The duchess discovered my lady missing this morning and beat us until we told them where you were. They turned us out."
"Where is Francesca?" I asked. "Is she okay?"
"They are sending her to St. Margaret's," Maria said, referring to the convent in the hills east of the village. "It was her mother's wish for her anyway and now that her father considers her spoiled, he has consented."
"I need to see her," I said. "Can you get a message to her?"
Maria wiped her eyes, and I helped her stand. "I will try," she said.
Maria had contacts within the palace, and that afternoon she sent me a message at the tavern that Francesca would try to meet me at the convent garden gate after the Compline prayers. I spent the rest of the day in nervous tension and finally set out for the convent long before the arranged time. I arrived as the bells for Vespers were ringing and waited in the trees as the shadows got longer and darker. The Compline bells rang, and still I waited. It was dark when I heard a creak from the garden gate.
It was Francesca, and she bit her lip when she saw me. We were both trembling. She was still beautiful, even swathed in her crisp, new habit. I wanted to embrace her, but instead, I took her hand.
"Hello, wife," I said, still unused to that glorious word.
She looked troubled. "The abbess said the cardinal has annulled the marriage."
"We didn't agree to that! Did you?" She shook her head. "Then God still honors our vows. Come, you can't stay here. Run away with me. We can go tonight."
"Go where?" I could hear the hopelessness in her voice.
"There must be somewhere your family can't find us." I tried to draw her outside, my body aching for her. "Do you have some time, at least?"
She resisted. "They made me take other vows here."
"But ours came first."
"I love you too."
I felt like I was losing her, had already lost her. This day which had started so perfectly with Francesca waking up in my arms was ending with this gulf between us.
"I have nothing right now," I said, "but if I earn enough to take you away from here and provide a place for you to live, away from your family's reach, will you come?"
She smiled for the first time since I had seen her that evening. "I will," she said. Then she leaned forward and kissed me. "Don't forget about me, Bernardo."
Seven years later, an expensive carriage rolled up to the gates of the Convent of St. Margaret. Even before the well-dressed man and woman were helped out by their footman, the abbess had been alerted and was waiting to greet them.
"Welcome, my lord and lady," the abbess said, who could sense a large donation when it approached. She bowed. "How may we be of service to you?"
"We are setting up our manor and would like one of your nuns to come perform services in our chapel, at least temporarily," the man said. "Of course, I would glad to donate something to the Lord's work for the inconvenience to you."
"I would be happy to be of service," the abbess said, bowing again. She eyed the carriage, looking for a crest. "You are a count, perhaps?"
"Simply a merchant," the man said, "at least for the moment. I provide horses to the Papal States and other kingdoms as well."
"Please come in. I will select one of our most experienced nuns to come serve you," the abbess said.
The man held up a hand. "Actually, my wife would like to select one, if it is okay with you. Can we see them?"
The nuns were summoned and stood around the edge of the courtyard while the man and woman strolled by them under the watch of the abbess. The woman walked in front, inspecting the assembled nuns and giving quick glances back at the man. They made it halfway around the courtyard when the man stroked his beard and the woman stopped.
"What is your name?" the woman asked the nun in front of her.
"Sister Amelia, my lady," the nun replied. The woman glanced back and the man nodded.
"We'll take this one," the woman said.
"Immediately?" the abbess asked.
"If possible," the man said. "She needn't bring anything with her. We will provide everything."
The footman helped the man and woman back into the carriage and then held out his hand for the nun to join them inside.
"It's you, Bernardo," Sister Amelia said as soon as the door was closed. "I recognized you as soon as I saw you, even with the beard and fine clothes."
"I told you I would come for you."
Sister Amelia glanced over at the other woman. "You're married, I see."
Bernardo nodded with a smile. "I've been married for over seven years." He indicated the other woman. "This is Genevieve, one of your new ladies-in-waiting. I apologize that I had her wear one of your new dresses, but she needed to play the part. It's a six-day journey to our house. Do you think that is far enough away from your family?"
"They have forgotten about me. My mother still comes once a year to see me but that is all."
Bernardo reached over and took her hands. "I am afraid Sister Amelia must die, in order that Lady Francesca can be reborn in her place. I am sure the abbess and your mother will mourn her when they find out."
She played with his fingers and looked up with a sly smile. "You would have me break my vows to God that easily?"
He grinned back. "What God has joined, let no man separate. Don't you remember? Our vows came first."
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019 at 11:55 am	and tagged with convent, fiction, forbidden love, marriage, medieval, nun, romance, secret, short story, wedding and posted in Dusk.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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6 responses to "Competing Vows – Longer Version"
Joy Pixley
Oh thank you for giving us the extended version! I do love a story where love conquers all. But you should have warned me it would be this touching — I made the mistake of reading this at work, and now my tears have messed up my mascara!
Thanks, Joy. My wife wanted to know what happened, so I couldn't say no. 🙂 Since I write such eclectic stuff, I did toy with the idea long ago of putting some sort of indicator at the beginning to show what sort of story it was, but that was more for scary/gory stories. I am glad you enjoyed it, even at peril to your mascara.
I don't actually think it needed a warning. 😉 It was pretty clear what kind of story it would be, just not how moving it would turn out to be!
You have such a range when you write. Your imagination rides in on your heart all shiny and gleaming. This is one of your best.
May 1st, 2019 at 7:43 pm
Thank you so much! (Sorry I'm so late replying to comments.)
May 1st, 2019 at 10:08 pm
Don't be sorry. Comments are like icing. Nice but not necessary. 🌹


The sleep & hibernation mode automatically reduces the tip temperature when the tool is in the stand. As a result, a tip`s life lasts up to 5 times longer.
The tool holder and the cable collector are easily adjustable to suit your work position and to keep the working area free of cable.


It never fails. You have a job interview, an important business meeting or a hot date and, boom, you look at yourself in the mirror on the morning of – and staring back is the biggest, angriest pimple your body has yet produced.
For some people, especially teens, facing new blemishes may be a weekly or even a daily occurrence. While acne is an indication of a physical metabolic disturbance, its adverse effects are far reaching. Secondary psychological disorders such as depression, social phobia, and certain anxiety disorders have been linked to acne.
Acne vulgaris is the clinical term used to describe a variety of skin disorders in which the pores get clogged with sebum (oil that lubricates skin and hair) and dead skin. The clogged pores in turn become infected leading to the development of whiteheads, blackheads, pimples, pustules, cysts and abscesses.
Whiteheads form when dead skin, oil and other debris accumulate in a hair follicle and form a soft white plug. This plug causes the hair follicle to bulge, creating a white spot on the surface of the skin.
Blackheads form when a hair follicle containing a plug (whitehead) stays open and the surface of the plug becomes dark from exposure to air and trapped dirt. This causes a black spot to appear on the skin.
Pimples form when the plugged hair follicles become inflamed and irritated. Pustules are pimples infected with bacteria, which in turn produce pus.
Cysts develop as a result of a collection of debris, such as oil and dead skin that forms a lump in the hair follicle beneath the surface of the skin. Abscesses are a result of inflammation and infection caused by a ruptured cyst which spreads debris from the cyst into the surrounding skin tissue.
Acne usually appears on the face, neck, chest and upper back. While teenagers account for the largest percentage of the acne-afflicted population, acne can affect adult men and women well into their 30s and 40s. It also tends to appear and disappear during hormonal shifts, such as puberty, menstruation, pregnancy and menopause, as well as stressful life situations.
If you've already tried liver cleanses, eliminating triggers like chocolate or dairy, keeping your skin clean, changing your diet, medicated creams and antibiotics with no permanent improvement, then it may be time to consider something different.
You could reach for the bottle of Windex (as did the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding) or you could try homeopathy.
Homeopathy is a 200-plus-year-old medical science based on the principle "like cures like." This means if a substance can cause symptoms in a healthy person, it can stimulate self-healing of similar symptoms in a sick person. Suppose a person comes into contact with poison ivy. They will develop skin rashes accompanied by burning, itchy, swelling and painful blisters. Rather than prescribing cortisone cream to suppress the itch and swelling, a homeopath may prescribe the remedy rhus-tox, a tiny dose of poison ivy specially prepared by a homeopathic pharmacy. Similarly, when a person develops acne, rather than suppressing the skin symptoms with drugs, a homeopath will prescribe a substance that is capable of causing acne on healthy skin. In homeopathy, symptoms (pain, fever, congestion or acne) are seen as expressions of a curative process, the organism's attempt (however ineffectual in some cases) to heal itself. Taking cues from the reactive expression of the organism, the homeopath seeks to enhance the symptoms thereby stimulating the organism to complete the curative process that has already been set in motion.
Homeopathy views acne as a manifestation of a deeper chronic issue. Thus your homeopath will not prescribe topical creams or even remedies directed towards the skin condition alone. A homeopath will spend a great deal of time taking a history of your complaints. During the consultation you will be asked many questions about your nature, such as body temperature, food cravings, sleep patterns, bowel function and more. In addition, the homeopath will try to understand your personality and temperament by asking you things like how you react in social situations, what makes you angry or jealous, if you prefer company or spending time alone, whether you are competitive, introverted, assertive or shy. The purpose of this process is to elicit information that will define you as a distinct person, and prescribe a remedy that matches your uniqueness.
1) Jon, a 17-year-old youth, had been afflicted with acne since puberty. He had pustules all over his face, neck and upper back. His acne flared up from eating sweets, hot weather and sweating. During the initial visit I discovered that Jon was a mouth breather during sleep, craved sweets and spicy foods, perspired easily, was constipated, had an explosive personality and was afraid of heights. After two months and three doses of the homeopathic remedy sulphur, Jon's skin became 50% clearer. After six months of homeopathic treatment, his skin further improved by 90%. In the process, he was no longer constipated and rarely craved sweets.
2) Monica had adult onset acne on her left thigh and buttocks, as well as on her back, chest and face. The 48-year-old school teacher had been suffering for twelve years when she first sought homeopathic treatment. Her skin was dry and scaly and felt itchy and inflamed. The acne was worse in damp weather, heat, humidity and in summer when she perspired.
Acne was not Monica's only skin condition. She had psoriasis on the back of her neck, face, forehead, cheeks, chin, and chest. In addition, due to a fungal infection, all ten of her toenails were black and slightly disfigured. Based on her unique physical symptoms, temperament, and an unusual fear of the wind, the remedy thuja was prescribed. According to Monica, her skin was 30% better within the first month. What she was more excited about was the increase in her energy level and motivation to finally join a gym. Today, after nine months of continued homeopathic treatment, Monica's skin is totally clear from acne and psoriasis. Her fungal infection is 50% better and continuing to improve.
3) Chronic psoriasis on her abdomen and buttocks was the complaint Simone presented when seeking homeopathic help. The patches were worse on the right side of the body and were itchy and worse in winter. I also discovered that she suffered from severe social anxiety. She was quiet, conscientious and was afraid of violence and thunderstorms. The remedy natrum carbonicum substantially reduced her anxiety before beginning to improve her skin. Today, after eight months of homeopathic treatment (and continuing), Simone's skin is 75% improved.
4) When I first met him, Stephen had been taking oral antibiotics for ten years to control his acne. He had suffered with chronic pustules, cysts and abscesses since puberty. At age forty-three, Stephen was depressed, with very little energy and motivation. Nitric acid was prescribed based on Stephen's unique physical symptoms, character and personality. After 16 months of treatment Stephen's face is totally clear and he no longer takes antibiotics. His spirits are much higher, and he initiated social and career changes in his life.
Whether your skin disorder is a result of an allergic reaction, infection, hormonal imbalance or sugar metabolism, the cause can be attributed to an impaired immune function. Homeopathy treats many types of skin disorders by strengthening the immune system. In fact, given its unique approach to prescribing remedies (based on the totality of symptoms) the label of your condition is irrelevant. Whether you are suffering from acne, eczema, depression or menopausal discomforts, a homeopath will take the same approach in discovering the distinctive set of symptoms you are experiencing and combine it with your personality traits in order to find a remedy which will initiate the healing process.
One woman's chronic hives in the front of her body were healed with the remedy kali carbonicum, while another woman with similar hives required apis. A teen with recurrent warts on his left hand benefited from the remedy causticum.
Homeopathy aims to heal the entire organism in the physical, mental and emotional realms. Treating one organ at a time, such as your skin, will not result in a permanent cure. A person who takes prescription medication for high blood pressure every day is not undergoing a cure, but is only controlling the symptoms. Similarly, applying cortisone cream on your skin will not result in healing. If the medication is withdrawn, the illness returns. In contrast, homeopathic remedies address the underlying cause of illness by helping to stimulate the body's own healing mechanism. The aim is to return to a healthy state and stop depending on medications, natural or otherwise.
When seeking homeopathic help for your skin troubles, don't be surprised to experience an improvement in your moods, motivation and energy levels. In fact, in most cases, the emotions improve before physical ailments begin to disappear.


text:
La Gaceta de Río de Janeiro (en portugués: Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro), fundada el 10 de septiembre de 1808, fue el primer periódico impreso en Brasil, en los talleres del Diario Oficial, en Río de Janeiro.

Publicado dos veces por semana, era um Diario Oficial y contenía, básicamente, comunicados y disposiciones del gobierno. Su editor era Fray Tibúrcio José da Rocha.

También publicaba informes sobre política internacional, en especial, la realidad europea durante las Guerras Napoleónicas y la inestabilidad de las colonias americanas de España.

La rígida censura impuesta por la Corona portuguesa garantizaba el filtro de las noticias impidiendo la divulgación de temas relacionados con el liberalismo en política.

A partir del 29 de diciembre de 1821 pasó a denominarse simplemente Gazeta do Rio. Se transformó en 1823, en el Diario del Gobierno.

Periódicos desaparecidos de Brasil
Publicaciones fundadas en 1808

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Patent leather shoes the style of the Stacy Adams Concorde made by Greenspan's, with genuine patent leather uppers, leather lined, padded leather soles, color black. Made in Mexico.
Patent leather shoes the style of the Stacy Adams Concorde made by Greenspan's, with genuine patent leather uppers, leather lined, padded leather soles, color cream. Made in Mexico.
Patent leather shoes the style of the Stacy Adams Concorde made by Greenspan's, with genuine patent leather uppers, leather lined, padded leather soles, color dark brown. Made in Mexico.
Patent leather shoes the style of the Stacy Adams Concorde made by Greenspan's, with genuine patent leather uppers, leather lined, padded leather soles, color dark charcoal. Made in Mexico.


text:
Q: probability of the statement A speaks truth 3 times out of 4 and B 7 times out of 10 , they both agree that a white ball has been drawn out from a bag containing 6 different colour balls . Then we have to find what is the probability that the statement is true .

A: My understanding is that the bag contains $6$ different balls with $6$ different colors and one of them is white
$$\begin{align}
P(\text{truth}|\text{both say w})&=P(\text{w}|\text{both say w})\\[10pt]
&=\frac{P(\text{both say w}|\text{w})P(\text{w})}{P(\text{both say w}|\text{w})P(\text{w})+P(\text{both say w}|\text{not w})P(\text{not w})}\\[10pt]
&=\frac{(\frac3 4)(\frac{7}{10})(\frac{1}{6})}{(\frac3 4)(\frac{7}{10})(\frac{1}{6})+(\frac1 4)(\frac{3}{10})(\frac{5}{6})}=\frac{7}{12}
\end{align}$$

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Marjan Marković (; born 28 September 1981) is a Serbian former professional footballer.

Club career
Born in Požarevac, Marković took his first football steps with his hometown club Mladi Radnik. He was later promoted to the first team and played regularly for the side in the Second League of FR Yugoslavia, attracting the attention of top First League clubs. Although a childhood Partizan supporter, Marković decided to accept the offer from Red Star Belgrade in January 2000, signing a five-year contract. He spent the next six seasons with the Crveno-beli and won six trophies (three league titles and three national cups).

In August 2005, Marković signed with Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv. He helped them win the double in the 2006–07 season. In June 2008, Marković terminated his contract with the club in order for him to return to Red Star Belgrade. He was released from his contract in January 2009.

In August 2009, Marković was acquired by Croatian club Istra 1961. He spent the next year and a half with the Zeleno-žuti. In January 2011, Marković signed with Austrian side First Vienna until the end of the season (with an option for another year). He left the club by mutual consent in May 2012. Until the end of the year, Marković played for Kazakhstan Premier League side Kaisar. He also spent some time with Alki Larnaca in Cyprus and Asswehly in Libya, before returning to Serbia and joining Sloga Petrovac in February 2014.

In the summer of 2017, Marković returned to his parent club Mladi Radnik.

International career
Marković was capped 16 times for Serbia (and its predecessors) between 2002 and 2008.

Honours
Red Star Belgrade
 First League of Serbia and Montenegro: 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2003–04
 Serbia and Montenegro Cup: 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2003–04
Dynamo Kyiv
 Ukrainian Premier League: 2006–07
 Ukrainian Cup: 2005–06, 2006–07
 Ukrainian Super Cup: 2006, 2007

Notes

References

External links
 Srbijafudbal profile

Alki Larnaca FC players
Association football defenders
Association football midfielders
2. Liga (Austria) players
Croatian Football League players
Cypriot First Division players
Expatriate footballers in Austria
Expatriate footballers in Croatia
Expatriate footballers in Cyprus
Expatriate footballers in Greece
Expatriate footballers in Kazakhstan
Expatriate footballers in Libya
Expatriate footballers in Ukraine
FC Dynamo Kyiv players
FC Kaisar players
First League of Serbia and Montenegro players
First Vienna FC players
FK Mladi Radnik players
FK Sloga Petrovac na Mlavi players
Football League (Greece) players
Kazakhstan Premier League players
NK Istra 1961 players
Pierikos F.C. players
Red Star Belgrade footballers
Serbia and Montenegro expatriate footballers
Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine
Serbia and Montenegro footballers
Serbia and Montenegro international footballers
Serbia and Montenegro under-21 international footballers
Serbia international footballers
Serbian expatriate footballers
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Austria
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Greece
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Libya
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine
Serbian First League players
Serbian footballers
Serbian SuperLiga players
Sportspeople from Požarevac
Ukrainian Premier League players
1981 births
Living people


text:
Sacred Heart Church (HMOYD)
Location: Tampa, FL 33602 Hillsborough County
— Oldest Catholic Church on Florida's West Coast —
In 1859 a small wood framed church was erected on this spot. The following year it was blessed and named St. Louis Church to honor Fr. Luis De Cancer, a Dominican missionary who was martyred on the shores of Tampa Bay in 1549. When the yellow fever epidemic of 1887-88 took the lives of three resident priests, Bishop Moore of St. Augustine asked the New Orleans Jesuits to care for the parish. During their time here, they established Jesuit High School (1899), ministered to much of south Florida and built the present landmark church. Ground was broken in 1898 and this magnificent Romanesque structure, to be named Sacred Hart, was dedicated seven years later on January 15, 1905. The Jesuits would go on to serve the parish for 115 years until 2005, when pastoral care of this historic gem was given to the Franciscans.
HMOYD
Churches and Religion
Sunday, September 28th, 2014 at 5:42pm PDT -07:00
At or near 509 N Florida Ave, Tampa FL 33602, US
Show me all markers in: Tampa, FL | Hillsborough County | 33602 | Florida | United States of America
Federal Building
First Lt. Baldomero Lopez
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
Courthouse Square
WDAE —-Florida's First Radio Station
Teco Energy's Tampa Electric Company
Tampa Theatre
Tampa's First Paved Sidewalk
Hillsborough Lodge
This marker can also be identified by its HM code. You can use the hashtag #HMOYD in tweets, and any other place where you might refer to this marker, including when searching on this site.


text:
import argparse
import datetime
import gzip
import os
import random
import sys

import inspect
_currentFile = os.path.abspath(inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe()))
_currentDir = os.path.dirname(_currentFile)
_parentDir = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(_currentDir))
sys.path.insert(0, _parentDir)

from NanoPcap import Listener, Parser
from NanoPcap.Utility import Data

class PcapFilterListener(Listener.PcapListener):

	def __init__(self, arguments):
		self._arguments = arguments

		self._lastPacketDatas = []
		self._outputFileName = None
		self._outputFile = None
		self._header = None

	def onPcapHeader(self, header):
		self._header = header

		#Warn on a larger snap len than before
		if self._arguments.snaplen > header.snaplen():
			print('WARNING: New snaplen is greater than original: %d > %d' % (self._arguments.snaplen, header.snaplen()))

		#Check if the link type is correct
		if self._arguments.required_link_type is not None and self._arguments.required_link_type != header.network():
			print('ERROR: Link type is %d instead of %d' % (header.network(), self._arguments.required_link_type))
			sys.exit(1)

		#Update with new snaplen
		snaplen = min(self._arguments.snaplen, header.snaplen())
		self._header.setSnaplen(snaplen)

		#Update with the new link link
		if self._arguments.link_type is not None:
			self._header.setNetwork(self._arguments.link_type)

	def onPcapRecord(self, recordHeader, data):
		if self._arguments.no_records:
			return

		#Filter

		#Check the time
		epochTime = recordHeader.epochNanos()
		if self._arguments.start is not None and epochTime < self._arguments.start:
			return
		if self._arguments.end is not None and epochTime > self._arguments.end:
			return

		#Drop?
		if self._arguments.drop_fraction > 0 and random.random() < self._arguments.drop_fraction:
			return

		#De-duplicate
		if self._arguments.deduplication_window > 0:
			found = False
			for packetData in self._lastPacketDatas:
				if packetData == data:
					found = True
					break

			self._lastPacketDatas.append(data)
			if len(self._lastPacketDatas) > self._arguments.deduplication_window:
				self._lastPacketDatas.pop(0)
			if found:
				return

		#Roll the file if necessary
		newOutputFileName = recordHeader.timestampDatetime().strftime(self._arguments.output)
		if newOutputFileName != self._outputFileName:
			if self._outputFile is not None:
				self._outputFile.close()

			#Write to the output file
			self._outputFileName = newOutputFileName
			directory, fileName = os.path.split(self._outputFileName)
			if directory != '' and not os.path.exists(directory):
				os.makedirs(directory)

			mode = 'ab' if self._arguments.append else 'wb'
			self._outputFile = gzip.open(self._outputFileName, mode) if self._outputFileName.endswith('.gz') else open(self._outputFileName, mode)
			#Write the header at the beginning, unless instructed otherwise
			#This neatly handles append mode
			if not self._arguments.no_header and self._outputFile.tell() == 0:
				self._header.writeToFile(self._outputFile)

		#Update with new snaplen
		start = self._arguments.data_offset
		end = min(start + self._arguments.snaplen, len(data) - start - self._arguments.data_end_offset)
		truncatedData = data[start:end]
		recordHeader.setIncludedLength(len(truncatedData))
		if self._arguments.link_type is not None:
			recordHeader.setOriginalLength(len(truncatedData))

		#Update with the new timestamp if necessary
		if self._arguments.time_shift_seconds is not None:
			recordHeader.setTsSec(recordHeader.tsSec() + self._arguments.time_shift_seconds)

		#Write the header
		recordHeader.writeToFile(self._outputFile)

		#Write the data, randomizing if necessary
		if self._arguments.data_randomization_fraction > 0:
			newTruncatedData = Data.randomizeBytes(truncatedData, self._arguments.data_randomization_fraction)
			self._outputFile.write(newTruncatedData)
		else:
			self._outputFile.write(truncatedData)

		#Duplicate?
		if self._arguments.duplicate_fraction > 0 and random.random() < self._arguments.duplicate_fraction:
			recordHeader.writeToFile(self._outputFile)
			self._outputFile.write(truncatedData)

def datetimeToEpochNanos(dt):
	seconds = (dt - datetime.datetime(1970, 1, 1)).total_seconds()
	return seconds * 1000 * 1000 * 1000

def main():
	parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='PCAP Filter Tool')
	parser.add_argument('input', help='PCAP file to use as input.')
	parser.add_argument('output', help='Output file. May include time format strings to roll the file based on packet time stamps, e.g. %%Y/%%m/%%d/%%H.pcap for hourly output files in daily folders.')

	#Validation
	parser.add_argument('--strict', action='store_true',
		help='Enables strict validation rules.')

	#"Where to cut" in bytes
	parser.add_argument('-l', '--snaplen', type=int, default=65535, action='store',
		help='Add a certain number of bytes for each packet record.')
	parser.add_argument('-o', '--data-offset', type=int, default=0, action='store',
		help='Offset of the data to include.')
	parser.add_argument('-x', '--data-end-offset', type=int, default=0, action='store',
		help='Offset from the end of the data to include.')
	parser.add_argument('-H', '--no-header', action='store_true',
		help='Do not output the header.')
	parser.add_argument('-R', '--no-records', action='store_true',
		help='Do not output records.')
	parser.add_argument('-a', '--append', action='store_true',
		help='Append to the file (implies no header).')
	parser.add_argument('--data-randomization-fraction', type=float, default=0.0, action='store',
		help='Fraction of the data bytes to randomize (from 0 to 1 inclusive).')

	#Header edits
	parser.add_argument('--required-link-type', type=int, default=None, action='store',
		help='The required link type of the file being edited (e.g. 1 for Ethernet, 228 for IPv4, 229 for IPv6).')
	parser.add_argument('--link-type', type=int, default=None, action='store',
		help='A value to set the link type in the header to (e.g. 1 for Ethernet, 228 for IPv4, 229 for IPv6).')

	parser.add_argument('--time-shift-seconds', type=int, default=None, action='store',
		help='The amount of time in seconds to shift timestamps in the output PCAP.')

	#Filtering
	parser.add_argument('-s', '--start', default=None, action='store',
		help='Start time as either epoch nanoseconds or a datetime (with only microsecond resolution).')
	parser.add_argument('-e', '--end', default=None, action='store',
		help='End time as either epoch nanoseconds or a relative offset in nanoseconds to the start (e.g. +100 would yield a 100ns PCAP).')

	parser.add_argument('-D', '--drop-fraction', type=float, default=0.0, action='store',
		help='Fraction of the time to drop packagets (from 0 to 1 inclusive).')
	parser.add_argument('--duplicate-fraction', type=float, default=0.0, action='store',
		help='Fraction of the time to duplicate packagets (from 0 to 1 inclusive).')
	parser.add_argument('--deduplication-window', type=int, default=0, action='store',
		help='Sets the number of the packets in the deduplication window (based on contents).')

	arguments = parser.parse_args(sys.argv[1:])

	#Parse the start time
	if arguments.start is not None:
		try:
			arguments.start = int(arguments.start)
		except ValueError:
			arguments.start = datetimeToEpochNanos(datetime.datetime.strptime(arguments.start, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f'))

	#Parse the end time
	if arguments.end is not None:
		try:
			relativeEnd = arguments.end[0] == '+' and arguments.start is not None
			arguments.end = int(arguments.end)
			if relativeEnd:
				arguments.end += arguments.start
		except ValueError:
			arguments.end = datetimeToEpochNanos(datetime.datetime.strptime(arguments.end, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f'))

	listener = PcapFilterListener(arguments)
	Parser.parseFile(arguments.input, listener, strict=arguments.strict)

	return 0

if __name__ == '__main__':
	sys.exit(main())

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Spawning Synodontis multipunctatus
by Chad Christensen
ynodontis multipunctatus is a rather well known Synodontis hailing from Africa's Lake Tanganyika. Through articles in popular magazines, such as Tropical Fish Hobbyist, the public has been enlightened as to the unusual spawning behavior of this Rift Lake catfish which utilizes mouth brooding Cichlids as foster parents for their fry . S. multipunctatus has been classified in the family Mochokidae, which it shares with over one hundred other species of African Synodontis (Brichard, 472), including several Tanganyikan endemics which are very similarly marked.
S. multipunctatus has a base body color that is golden beige when young, but this seems to get darker with age. The body is covered with dark black blotches that are randomly strewn across the body and head. Pectoral, dorsal, and tail fins are black with a white margin, although the dorsal fin's white margin is only on the posterior of that fin. Their undersides are creamy white, as are their six barbels. The upper pair of barbels consist of two single stalks while the lower four are comprised of four single stalks with many cilia off of either side of each stalk giving the feelers a feather-like appearance.
Fairly abundant in the lake, great schools can be seen swimming at depths of 40 meters or more, where the harsh cast of the sun is filtered to a dim light. Once thought only nocturnal, a more appropriate classification might be "light sensitive" (Brichard, 474), which becomes apparent in the aquarium as the species greatly appreciates the canopy lights to remain off. A hardy aquarium inhabitant, S. multipunctatus enjoy a variety of foods including various flakes and pellets and also frozen meats such as brine shrimp and bloodworms. A temperature of 78 degrees Fahrenheit is adequate and large, weekly water changes and efficient filtration are needed as these fish produce a large biological load when fed their fill.
Synodontis multipunctatus spawning with host fish, Haplochromis.
As has been previously published, these catfish are parasitic mouth brooders in that they, themselves, do not mouth brood their fry, but procure the services of a mouth brooding Cichlid.
National Geographic was so cunning as to catch this feat on film. They show a swarm of Synodontis multipunctatus bully their way into the shallow breeding nest of a pair of Ctenochromis horei. The unsuspecting Cichlids attempt to continue spawning while driving away the persistent catfish. Every time the female C. horei would lay an egg, it would be snatched up by the S. multis before she could even turn around and pick it up. Meanwhile, the catfish drop eggs or spray milt. They may even end up eating some of their own eggs. In her haste, the female Cichlid picks up whatever eggs she can. The end result is the female Cichlid with a mouthful of fertile Cichlid eggs AND catfish eggs. This is how the fish behave in the aquarium, as well. I have watched these fish spawn dozens of times now, and every time it is just as interesting. It's like watching a sport. Sometimes, one switches "teams" and roots for a different side than usual…the Cichlids! One can't help but feel sorry for the Cichlid parents, as the fate of the Cichlid fry is sealed if only one fertile catfish egg was picked up. Within about 3 days, the S. multipunctatus will hatch and begin devouring the Cichlid eggs before they even hatch. Then, days later, when the Cichlid fry do hatch, their lives are still in jeopardy. The minuscule catfish grab on to their yoke sac and suck them dry. Often, after stripping a Cichlid, one will see both dead fry with no yoke sacs or live fry with stress marks peppering the yoke sac in the form of bloody areas. The voracious catfish waste nothing, however, and once they are big enough to eat the entire Cichlid fry, which is only another few days, they will do so.
My breeding group of eight S. multi started with a single fish I acquired a few years ago. A got the other seven from Steve Edie. He had pieced together the group over the years and had even had one successful spawn in the past, but his interests migrated to the Synodontis petricola and as he began piecing his S. petricola colony together, the S. multipunctatus spawning effort was put on the back burner. After the fish had hung around for almost a year with no spawning activity, I strong-armed Steve into selling them to me. This was accomplished by a combination of whining, sniveling, and the occasional threatening letter left on the old welcome mat. Then came ACA97 and the time was right. Steve wanted to open up the tank space for all the little gems that would accompany him home from Chicago. The trap was sprung and I carted home the mob of Synos and put them in a 75 gallon tank about a week before we all headed north to the ACA97.
Now came the need for a host. Steve Edie and I theorized that inexperienced breeders might be a more productive alternative to an established breeding group because they would never know breeding under any other condition than the harassment of the Synos. I think Steve also made some comment that, in a cleaned up version, went something like "young breeders are like teenagers, they're so "active" that they will do it no matter what". So began the search for a young, prolific species just reaching sexual maturity. A little inquiring led me over to Ted and Liz Rall's house where they, too, were clearing tank space for possible convention purchases. Home I went with thirty young adult Haplochromis sauvagei. These fish were quarantined in a 20H. I also wanted to sort out males and females. To accomplish this, I waited for fish to spawn. As soon as a female was packing, she was removed from the 20H and put in the 75 gallon.
After I had moved about a dozen female Haps to the 75 and fattened them up for a week, I moved the three most dominant males from the 20H to the 75. Within two weeks, almost all the females were packing and some S. multipunctatus breeding activity was witnessed. Evidently, S. multipuntatus can smell the breeding activity. Within seconds after a male and female Hap start spawning, Synos pour out of the 6 large igloos they call home (similar to feeding time) and swarm the area of courtship. Once they all get chased away the first time, they are more timid about intruding. Usually then only single fish or pairs dart in and out trying to steal a plump, delicious Cichlid egg snack. At 1/16" and dark beige, the Syno eggs blend in well with the sand substrate. I regularly see the Hap eggs drop, but have only witnessed the Syno eggs dropped once. This from a female Syno that is part of a pair that seem to have a loose pair bond. Every time courting begins and the caves empty, this female can be seen cruising with her male swimming beside her, trailing about half a fish length back.
The fry are ghostly white when very small
After packing for one week, the female Haps were stripped. Along with over 40 Hap eggs were eighteen Syno eggs. These eggs were very small, at 1/16", when compared to the 1/8" Hap eggs. Within two days, tiny white threadlike tails could be seen off the catfish eggs/yoke sacs. To avoid other fish biting at the fry through the bottom of a breeder net, clear hard-plastic floating breeder cages were employed. Fed three times a day on frozen baby brine, the fry grew from 0.25" to 0.5" in less than a week, at which time they began to gain dark pigment on their ghostly white bodies. Then one morning I awoke to find the breeder trap void of all life without a trace. Apparently something had gotten into, and out of, it in the night and eaten all the fry, frustrating.
A week later, the breeder traps were again full of Syno and Hap fry. This time, the breeder traps were secured. Again, the fry grew amazingly fast. The dark pigment first appeared on the top of the head and then the back and tail. Soon the entire fish was colored in the golden beige base color with black dots cascaded across the body. After about two weeks, the fish were about 0.75". At this point, they were receiving crushed flake food as well as the frozen baby brine. At a size of about 1.25", these fry were moved to a 10 gallon tank of their own to free up the space in the breeder nets. I have gotten into a cycle of stripping all the Hap females every one or two weeks whether they look like they are carrying or not. I have had a few surprises when doing this. Occasionally a single, but chubby, catfish will wiggle out into the net. Yes, if one waits too long to strip, the Synos have eaten all the Cichlid fry and turn to cannibalism. Only the strong survive!
The next time I stripped, I liberated about 18 various sized fry. With large batches of fry, they are split into several breeder nets for their own safety. I once witnessed a Syno that felt the baby brine was too small a meal to waste its time and went straight for another Syno within 5 minutes after being stripped. There was nothing I could do as I watched it swim around with another Syno's head sticking out of his mouth. He had devoured his sibling tail first! These cannibalistic tendencies seem to be quenched if the fry are stripped young and weaned immediately onto frozen baby brine. If left in the Cichlids mouth to feast on Cichlid fry, they learn that big prey equals full belly and, therefore, that is their first pick if given the choice between fry and baby brine. When weaned early onto baby brine, I had no problems with conspecific consumption.
With the new batch of 18 fry, I started experiencing high fry mortality, which was not an issue with the first batch of fry. Initially, I blamed the other Syno fry, but the bodies were not eaten. Soon I was loosing fry every day or two. Within a couple weeks, all the fry were deceased. I was perplexed. I had been doing 30% to 50% weekly water changes and had plenty of biological filtration in the form of a Hagen Fluval 403 canister filter and SeaStorm 240 fluidized bed filter. I deduced it must be a water quality issue, however, after ruling out all other possibilities.
I am on a well water system, so the thought of contaminants in the well water crossed my mind. I do water changes with water from a 55 gallon drum that I circulate for 24 hours or more through a Magnum 350 canister filter with micron cartridge. The micron cartridge is to remove grit and the 24 hour circulation is to aerate the water as well as let it naturally come up from its out-of-the-tap pH of 6.5 to its rock stable, naturally buffered 8.0 pH. The high pH swing and stabilization is not surprising when the waters hardness ranges from 330ppm to close to 380ppm out of the tap! With this, it takes only 1.5 teaspoons of Kent African Cichlid buffer in the 55 gallon barrel to raise and lock the pH at 8.6. I don't usually use carbon on any of my tanks, as they get large weekly water changes. I saw a change was needed. I replaced the micron cartridge with the carbon holding insert and started carbon filtering the water change water for 24 hours of more before each water change. I also added carbon to the middle compartment on the 75 gallon tank's Fluval. The premature deaths ceased immediately. From more experience with this tank, it appears that it was not a contaminant in the well water, but the amazingly heavy bio-load on the tank that caused the deaths. Even with the large water changes, the carbon is still used and changed monthly on that tank. Since this additional mode of filtration was added, no deaths have occurred.
The first places the fry gain dark pigment is on their head and fins, then their back.
In the wild, it is likely that the Cichlid hosts have uninterrupted spawns between the chaotic attacks by the catfish. In the aquarium, the host fish have no such luxury. It is, therefore, recommended that the host fish be given a break from the pressure of defending a spawning session in the form of moving the catfish or the host fish to another tank where they may spawn unmolested. Some breeders have two tanks of hosts going at once and move the catfish from tank to tank every 3 - 6 months, thus giving the Cichlids a much needed break. Another alternative is keep a supply of up-and-coming young breeders available. I have chose this route. I keep as many Hap fry as I can and grow them out in other tanks. As soon as they reach spawning size, they will be available as new hosts.The investment of growing a group of Synodontis multipunctatus to sexual maturity can be a time and space consuming task, but can be well worth it to witness the fascinating spawning technique of the species. If time is an issue, purchasing adult fish will shorten the wait considerably. However one gets there, the reward of working with this species lies within the unique spawning technique that will stand out among all others.
References Cited:
Brichard, P. 1989. Cichlids and all the other Fishes of Lake Tanganyika.T.F.H. Publications, Inc., pp. 472-482.
Photo Credits: Chad Christensen
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text:
Josey Sharrad, Wildlife Campaigner, Protecting Australia's Animals
byInternational Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
in Environment, Philanthropy, SDG Series, Uncategorized
Within a matter of months, Australia endured two major disasters and for wildlife carers, groups and hospitals, the impact was inestimable.
First, came the catastrophic 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, which devastated a significant portion of the country's eastern states, followed swiftly by the COVID-19 pandemic, which completely transformed our lives.
For Josey Sharrad, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Sydney-based Wildlife Campaigner, even her two decades in the sector couldn't have prepared her for the scale of such devastation.
The 48-year-old, originally from London, recalls the bushfires as one of the most challenging events in her career.
"Watching the Black Summer bushfires rage through this beautiful land, taking human lives, destroying ancient forests and killing an unfathomable three billion animals was just unbearable," she said.
In the Photo: A profile picture of Josey Sharrad. Photo Credits: IFAW.
In her role, Josey works closely with partners, wildlife carers and state wildlife councils across Australia to assess what they need and how IFAW can help. Australia's wildlife network is made up of mainly women – something Josey is very proud of – and they work tirelessly to ensure these animals receive the critical care that they need.
"I love the fact that I get to work with such an incredible network of wildlife volunteers, the majority of them women, who have dedicated their lives to helping these animals."
Josey's work was vital during the bushfires as the sheer scale of the emergency meant that requests for assistance were coming in thick and fast and across state border lines.
Never one to shy away from getting her hands dirty, Josey and the IFAW Australia team packed cars full of supplies and travelled across the bushfire-ravaged land to deliver resources that were so desperately needed.
The fires dragged on for months. Concerns about Australia's wildlife, especially koalas, were at an all-time high. So too was concern for wildlife carers and groups, which, at times, found themselves at personal risk as blazes came frighteningly close to their homes.
"I knew the grief and mental impact of these fires would last far beyond the end of the fire season," said Josey.
One ray of hope during the bushfires was the amazing success achieved by IFAW x USC (University of the Sunshine Coast) koala detection dog 'Bear'. During the bushfires, Josey was on the ground with Bear – specially trained to sniff out live koalas – in a desperate search for surviving animals in the bushfire-ravaged land.
"When he first went out, we didn't know if Bear would be able to get the scent over the overwhelming smell of ash, but he amazingly found more than 100 live koalas in that first season."
These koalas were then given veterinary check-ups and were able to receive what was in many cases life-saving treatment for burns, dehydration and malnutrition in the wake of the fires, which had destroyed much of their habitat and sources of food and water. In the following months, rehabilitated koalas were released into suitable habitat back in the wild.
In the Photo: Josey Sharrad in the forest with a koala detection dog. Photo Credits: IFAW.
What no-one was prepared for, however, was a global pandemic that hit about two months after the height of the bushfires.
"We lurched from one disaster into another. Many people were already suffering from ecological grief in the wake of the bushfires. The added challenge of dealing with the isolation and fear that the pandemic brought is hard to fathom."
Josey was lucky the pandemic didn't change her role too drastically. She was still able to communicate – albeit virtually – with partners and wildlife carers who now needed even more support.
Together with the IFAW Australia all-female team, Josey focused on working to ensure partners, carers and hospitals had the resources and funding they needed to continue with wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and landscape recovery.
For IFAW partner Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Tasmania – the pandemic hit hard.
The sanctuary, which is also home to Tasmania's only wildlife veterinary hospital, relies on visitor fees to stay open. A large amount of their income comes from cruise ships – which had ceased operating.
Related Articles: Fires in Europe: The Worst of Their Kind in Over a Decade | After the Wildfires: Rewilding Australia and Renewing Australian Agriculture
"Luckily IFAW was able to provide emergency funding to allow the wildlife hospital that we helped to set up to remain operational and to continue their life-saving work," Josey said.
It's these experiences – where she can see the active difference IFAW has made – that she finds the most fulfilling. She began her career with IFAW in London nearly 20 years ago, working on a variety of issues ranging from protecting elephants from the ivory trade to rescuing penguins from oil spills.
A historic wildlife victory which holds particular resonance for Josey was the successful passing of The Hunting Act in the United Kingdom, in which she played a key role.
Josey threw herself into the campaign to ban hunting with dogs for six years. She worked undercover where she witnessed foxes and deer being chased to exhaustion and hares being torn apart by dogs for entertainment as well as lobbying decision-makers and presenting evidence of cruelty. She was also always happy to dress up as a fox to raise awareness of this campaign whenever the opportunity presented itself!
This long-fought and high-profile campaign was won when the Queen gave her Royal Assent to the Hunting Act in 2004.
In the Photo: Josey Sharrad holding a koala in her arms. Photo Credits: IFAW.
"This moment was a hugely emotional one for me – both personally and in honour of all the people who had worked so hard to outlaw this anachronistic and cruel sport over the past century and for all the animals that would be saved as a result," Josey said.
Josey made the move from IFAW's London office to Sydney in 2012, but now faces another challenge to protect wildlife in Australia. The country is home to some of the most unique animals in the world but also has one of the highest mammal extinction rates.
"In Australia it sometimes feels like you're fighting a losing battle. There are so many threats to animals and the environment but industry tends to win over animal welfare," she said.
"When I arrived in Australia, I instantly fell in love with the country's unique wildlife and was determined to shine an international spotlight on their plight.
"Witnessing this precious wildlife suffer such devastation was and still is heart-breaking."
"But, it's in these challenging moments, I remind myself that it would be soul destroying to give up the fight."
However, Josey finds hope and inspiration in the Australians who are willing to take things into their own hands – such as the community groups and individual landholders planting new trees in their own backyards to help restore wildlife corridors.
Josey is hopeful that through IFAW's advocacy and the huge network of supporters that always rise to the occasion, Australia's unique wildlife can be saved and thrive into the future.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed here by Impakter.com columnists or contributors are their own, not those of Impakter.com. — In the Featured Photo: Josey Sharrad feeding a koala. Featured Photo Credit: IFAW.
Tags: Animal WelfareBushfiresNatural DisasterswildlifeWomen in Conservation
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International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
The International Fund for Animal Welfare is a global non-profit helping animals and people thrive together. We are experts and everyday people, working across seas, oceans, and in more than 40 countries around the world. We rescue, rehabilitate, and release animals, and we restore and protect their natural habitats. The problems we're up against are urgent and complicated. To solve them, we match fresh thinking with bold action. We partner with local communities, governments, non-governmental organizations, and businesses. Together, we pioneer new and innovative ways to help all species flourish.
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text:
Lal Masjid Not The Only Threat
By M B Naqvi
The Lal Masjid drama goes on after six months. One regrets the loss of valuable lives irrespective of the exact numbers; numbers vary and a possible final impends. There is little that the state will prevail because of its obvious military superiority. How long this will go on looks suspiciously uncertain. But the event has to be seen in perspective.
What do the Islamic extremists inside Lal Masjid stand for? They stand for enforcing an Islamic Shariah of their own conception immediately. It is literalist Deobandi interpretation of Islamic tenets. It rejects modernist interpretations of Islam. They are bereft of modern education, indeed they reject the knowledge of pure and applied sciences and modern thought on social subjects. They want to take Pakistan back to early years of Islam. For that reason they are a big and growing challenge to most Muslim countries.
They are not concerned with people's day-to-day social and economic problems; they happily accept today's economy being conservatives and thrive on the social, economic and political backwardness of Muslim masses. These Islamists have no programme of ameliorating the poor people's living conditions but want power in the unreconstructed societies -- power for its own sake. They are not committed to any enlightened and egalitarian social reconstruction. That makes them generic fascists.
Then, there are Lal Masjid leaders' links with the Pakistan Army. A wide swathe of intelligent opinion believes that they have served Pakistan's intelligence services well during the 1980s jihad in Afghanistan. As for America's covert war against the Soviets carried on by paid Mujahideen, it and its friends pumped in something like $ 40 to $50 billion in a decade in a socially backward and economically poor area. Plus some European agents taught the natives the art of heroin-making and marketing. The Americans, British, Germans and of course Saudis and other conservative Arab regimes actively favoured the reactionary Islamic extremism of largely, but not exclusively, Pukhtoon jihadists.
This kind of Islam was reinforced in the 1990s by introducing a new group of Islamic extremists (Taliban) who quickly acquired the state of Afghanistan minus its ethnically-different northern region that was ruled by equally intolerant and conservative Islamic leaders, supported by India, Iran and successors of the Soviets. Lal Masjid is commonly believed to have played a role in both the Afghan jihad and later the Kashmir one. No outsider can know the precise limits of that collaboration by the Lal Masjid leadership with the army and possibly other agencies.
Then, there is the question of the state's behaviour towards it. Contrast the army's behaviour towards Baloch nationalists or other (Al-Qaeda) Islamic extremists in FATA and NWFP. A sharp distinction would emerge. Is this drama so long-drawn-out because of the army's surviving affection for old collaborators? Or does it hope to utilize this standoff for terrifying the Americans and also for diverting public attention from various domestic Crises, particularly the judicial one?
While one opposes Islamic extremism or militancy because of its social conservatism and its pre-medieval outlook, one's condemnation has to be tempered with the understanding of what motivates their uncontrolled anger and, in part, extremism. After centuries of western domination over the Islamic world, Muslims are now becoming dimly conscious of how and why they could be colonized, exploited, kept poor and backward. This nascent awareness, albeit hazy, has some validity. This is a partially positive fact.
Don't forget these militant schools and groups have no rational and workable social, political or economic reforms. They want to go back to the seventh century AD and replicate what was the political structure of the state of Medina and the subsequent four Islamic caliphates. They do not want to replicate the latter periods. The gaze is fixed only on the four right-guided caliphs and their moral and religious ideas. That makes their thinking antediluvian.
Pakistanis have to decide whether they want to live in the modern world or go back to the medieval ages accepting its structures and mores or whether they must industrialise their economies and reform politics to ensure economic progress while enjoying fundamental human rights. Social, political and intellectual stasis of a bygone age cannot serve today's needs. Scientific knowledge, wherever found, must be acquired. Societies must be scientifically studied.
Those who have excelled in modern sciences must be honoured and those who bring to bear new scientific and technological knowledge on domestic political and economic spheres must be encouraged. The greatest threat to any society's progress is the closed mind. So long as minds are open, and people are ready to argue rationally, new ideas about reforms, about the rights of the people, about how to maximize wealth and how distribute it better will be factors of progress.
The people must decide the purpose of public policy to be the maximization of good for the maximum number of people while also giving them maximum freedoms. The inequality in society has to be reduced and equally promoted. This is what Islamic extremists deliberately ignore. They push for an ambiguous (current) social and economic system superimposed by an extra austere sexual morality alone. They accept the unequal quasi-feudal system that concedes few human rights to the common people.
The dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq had promoted a fake religiosity to be superimposed on a highly unequal economic system with no political rights under his martial law. An equally fake Islamic extremism is now flourishing that has to be eschewed. The country is threatened by extremism over large areas in NWFP, FATA and PATA areas. Indeed, it is now seeping into Pakistan's other settled areas. An idea of what to do about it is to let all people speak their truths honestly with equal access to the media. The media must project the ideas of the largest number of groups. Let ideas contend with ideas rationally and freely. Let the people freely choose. That is the way out.
Lal Masjid's history is relevant. Its leaders appear to have become too big for their boots and have started out on a course of trying to acquire power by imposing a medieval morality that is threatened by music, dance, video cassettes, CDs, DVDs etc. People and the media must ensure that the Lal Masjid affair does not divert public attention from other and major crises.
Tail piece: Now that the SC has taken a suo moto notice of the Lal Masjid standoff, there should be hope that many hitherto unanswered questions would now find answers, especially those about the links between the Masjid's administration and the government's undercover agencies. The SC is sure to ask the secret agencies what they were doing while Maulana Aziz's men were amassing so many guns and so much ammo.
(The article was written before the events of July 10)
The writer is a veteran journalist and freelance columnist.
Source: http://www.countercurrents.org/naqvi110707.htm