Michelle Schneider, a real estate professional in the Spring Lake office of Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate, was awarded the 2017 NJ Realtors® Circle of Excellence Sales Award® Gold in recognition of closing more than $15 million in completed transactions in 2017.
Before joining Gloria Nilson & Co., Michelle spent 10 years as a sales associate at two other local brokerages. Prior to earning her real estate license in 2005, Schneider spent 8 years as a legal assistant. She currently works with her husband, Steven, at Gloria Nilson & Co. as a member of The Schneider Team.
Schneider attended Union High School and Union County College. She and her husband have been married for 36 years and raised their two grown children in Monmouth County.
NJ Realtors Circle of Excellence recognizes those members who have demonstrated excellence in the field of salesmanship.
About Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate is a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate and a wholly owned subsidiary of HomeServices of America. Gloria Nilson & Co. has serviced the most discerning buyers and sellers of residential real estate in New Jersey for more than 40 years. With more than 700 sales associates throughout New Jersey and in Bucks County, Pa., Gloria Nilson & Co. is an exclusive affiliate of Christie's International Real Estate in Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean, Southern Hunterdon and Southern Middlesex counties. Along with our luxury lifestyle magazine, we offer our clients and associates the most cutting-edge marketing services globally and locally. For additional information, please visit www.glorianilson.com. More information about HomeServices is available at www.homeservices.com.


A quick trip to France via 'Down the Lane' returning to storm and flood.
Making sure I don't end up in hospital even if I look daft in my fetching green and orange chainsaw protective gear. Plus a moan about being warned too much about safety.


text:
Hundreds attend funeral for veteran with no known relatives
July 19, 2019 - 9:28 am
NILES, Mich. (AP) — Hundreds of people attended the funeral for a Vietnam veteran from Michigan who had no known living relatives.
Sixty-seven-year-old Wayne "Sarge" Wilson of Niles died during heart surgery in May, years after he'd made funeral arrangements for himself at Brown Funeral Home and Cremation Services.
The funeral home's director invited Niles residents to Wednesday's services after learning that the Michigan City, Indiana, native had no known living relatives.
Several hundred area residents and veterans attended the services and burial at Silverbrook Cemetery in Niles.
Wilson received military honors, including taps and a rifle salute, during Wednesday's services. Veterans and active military members rode motorcycles into the cemetery behind a vehicle carrying his ashes.
Niles Mayor Nick Shelton told mourners that "whether he knew it or not" Wilson was a hero.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Near Monte Vista, CO a few months ago.
Nice combination o the wilderness in the mountains and people in that area.
Lovely composition with the mountains in the background.
Beautiful shot, Will. B&W is perfect for this. Looks like a nice quiet place for some deep thought. Great capture.
I love the perspective here and the processing is wonderful!
Beautiful landscape shot. I like the BW processing, looks clean and peaceful. I can stare at it for days!
gorgeous landscape shot, nicely composed.
Beautiful image. The hay bale reminds me of back home in Nebraska and the treeless mountains remind me of eastern Washington.
This is very beautiful. Such a wonderful composition here. Well done.
A view that is truly captivating. The mountains and hay bales seem to go on forever. A beautiful picture and perfect perspective.
A very nice B&W ! Cheers !


There are many ways you can travel to caribbean casinos if you want to take part in some form of gambling. With over 15 countries in the Caribbean accepting physical casino licences and over 800 table games there is plenty to choose from in the Caribbean if you want to go purely to gambling holiday or fancy a trip to the casino after a day at the beach.
Depending on where you live in the world travelling can take some time since the Caribbean can be quite expensive and arduous. Travelling from the USA you are looking at around $500 from most major international airports such as New York or San Francisco. There aren't many budget airlines that fly from the US this route but all major carriers do fly somewhere in the Caribbean. The are no routes on budget airlines, but nowadays budget airlines aren't as cheap as they used to be with excess fuel charges and airport taxes really bumping up the cost of flights.
From the UK you can fly direct to the Caribbean with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Other European carriers can fly quite often direct from their country of origin but sometimes have to fly indirectly via one of the major London airports or through another European hub such as Amsterdam or Berlin. Although there are no budget airlines flying from Europe to the Caribbean there are plenty of airlines flying this route to create enough competition to keep the cost down to at least something sensible. Flight time is approximately 12 hours depending on where in Europe you fly from but it will be cheapest if you fly from Spain as it is closer to the Caribbean and airport tax and fuel surcharges are lower.
As with any international flights from Australia or New Zealand they are going to be quite expensive due to the relative isolation of the countries. Ideally if you are from Australia you can fly via Southeast Asia as the airports are much cheaper to fly from. For example if you live in northern Australia you can take a short flight to Singapore or kurala lumpur and take a long haul flight from there.
Remember to compare flight costs from the several different comparison websites as well as the airline themselves as you will find a lot of factors change the overall cost of your flights.


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2018 Legislative Recap
The 2018 legislative session closed with a flurry of activity over its final weekend, and a host of bills were passed in the final hours of session that impact Minnesota's parks and trails. Now that the legislature is adjourned until next year and all the major bills have moved off the governor's desk, we've broken down how parks and trails fared at the capitol in 2018.
State parks still closed to ATVs, at least for now
The legislature passed a 990-page "mega-omnibus" bill (SF 3656) that includes a supplemental budget and hundreds of miscellaneous policy changes. In the end, however, this bill proved too controversial and Gov. Dayton vetoed it in its entirety.
The "mega-omnibus" bill was on our radar all session because early versions included a controversial provision that would have allowed all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to use the campground and access routes within Hayes Lake State Park. Thanks to many state park lovers that reached out to lawmakers, the provision was removed from the bill during negotiations and replaced with a compromise that calls for the DNR to study and recommend ways to expand access to, and recreational opportunities within, Hayes Lake State Park. The DNR will no longer be required to issue that report (because the bill was vetoed), but that doesn't mean this issue is going away. We fully expect state parks will continue to face pressure to allow more and more motorized recreation. Parks & Trails Council is steadfast in our belief that Minnesota State Parks are not the place for ATVs, and we'll continue to work hard to keep our parks quiet and natural showcases of Minnesota's special places. Allowing ATVs to use our state parks would simply be a bad and unpopular idea: ATVs don't fit the state park mission as defined by the Outdoor Recreation Act, their introduction is opposed by both state park visitors and management, and they would create numerous safety and natural resource challenges for park managers that are already stretched thin.
Bonding bill includes funding for many important park and trail projects
After a few fits and starts in bonding negotiations, the legislature passed a bonding bill (HF 4425) that includes $825 million in bonding projects, plus funding from a few other sources including the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. Gov. Dayton signed the bonding bill into law on May 30.
We're thrilled the bonding bill includes money for a host of important park and trail projects across the state. Overall, the bill includes $36.4 million specifically for park and trail projects, plus $36 million for the DNR to rehabilitate infrastructure across the many properties they own. A full list of projects is included in the table below.
The bill also included appropriations from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, which receives money from the State Lottery and is recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). This year's LCCMR bill includes $10.9 million for park and trail projects, including money for state park and trail acquisition, enhancement, and reforestation; local park, trail, and natural area grant programs; the Superior Hiking Trail; the Swedish Immigrant Trail; the Mesabi Trail and the Red Wing Riverfront.
There are always two sides to a bonding bill, and for every project that was funded there are three or four left waiting for another year. And so, while we rejoice with the communities we've been working with that will receive funding this year, we also share the disappointment of the many communities that didn't receive the overdue funding for which they've been working so hard. We remain committed to all the projects included on our 2018 Legislative Agenda and look forward to celebrating them with you in future years.
Other Tidbits
The legislature also passed a State Lands Bill (SF 3168) which includes a provision that expands the boundary of Frontenac State Park to include the land Parks & Trails Council purchased last year. Gov. Dayton signed the bill into law on May 20. We look forward to seeing that land become incorporated into the park and opened for everyone to enjoy. Thanks to the local legislators Rep. Haley and Sen. Goggin for seeing the legislation through.
Park & Trail Projects Funded in the 2018 Bonding Bill (HF 4425)
This story was originally published on May 22, and has been updated for content.


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AIA Generasi Malaysia Concert Celebrates Malaysia's Unique Identity
Kuala Lumpur, 20 April 2015: AIA Bhd. is once again harnessing the power of music to unite Malaysians by hosting the AIA Generasi Malaysia Concert. Set to rock the stage at the Putra Indoor Stadium Bukit Jalil on Friday, 12 June 2015, it will bring together three of Malaysia's hottest internationally acclaimed music artistes to celebrate Malaysia's unique identity.
Performing together on stage for the first time are Asia's sweetheart and Asian Wave Season 1 Grand Champion Shila Amzah; multi-award winning singer and songwriter Reshmonu, who is famous for his pop reggae and high-energy dance moves; and Gary Chaw or better known as Cao Ge to many, who is best known for his powerful vocals, which has led him to be widely recognised as one of Asia's best male singers.
The three artistes will bring their own brand of music and style to the stage as well as perform their chart-toppers in multiple languages to make it an unforgettable Malaysian music experience. Furthermore, concert-goers will get the chance to enjoy the world premiere duets and group performances by the trio.
The concert gives AIA the opportunity to unite Malaysians to celebrate our unique Malaysian identity. "At AIA, we believe that music unites people. Through the AIA Generasi Malaysia Concert, we hope to bring together Malaysians from all walks of life to salute our top Malaysian music talents who have raised the profile of Malaysia on the world stage," said AIA Bhd. CEO Bill Lisle.
"Malaysia's strength is its diversity, and we believe this one-of-a-kind music experience by Malaysians for Malaysians will capture the true spirit of Generasi Malaysia," Lisle added.
The AIA Generasi Malaysia Concert follows AIA's successful presentation of Taylor Swift's Red Tour in Kuala Lumpur in 2014 and the AIA K-POP Concert in 2013.
AIA will launch a series of #GenerasiMalaysia photo and video contests on its Facebook page www.facebook.com/AIAMalaysia starting 20 April 2015, and collaborate with selected radio stations and publications, to give the public a chance to win concert tickets, exclusive merchandise and passes to meet the artistes in person.
In line with the Generasi Malaysia theme, AIA Bhd. will partner with Dasein Academy of Art to showcase art pieces depicting scenes that portray the spirit of Malaysia and its unique identity. These art pieces will be created by the students from the academy.
arshini M. Nathan
Head, Corporate Communications
Tel: 03- 2056 1280
Email: Darshini.Mahendranathan@aia.com
Karen Yoong
Email: Karen.Yoong@aia.com
AIA Bhd. is a leading insurer in Malaysia, where we have been privileged to do business since 1948. We offer a suite of high-quality products including Protection, Health, Personal Accident, General Insurance, Employee Benefits, Retirement and Family Takaful solutions to meet our customers' protection and financial security needs at every life stage. Through our wide and diverse distribution footprint which comprises a 16,000-strong Life Planner force, our exclusive bank partner's branches nationwide as well as corporate sales teams and brokers, we give our customers the choice of deciding how, when and where they connect with us.
Part of the AIA Group, the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group, AIA Bhd. has the financial strength, experience, service centre network and a well-trained team of more than 2,000 staff to serve our 3 million customers nationwide. As at end 2014, AIA Bhd.'s total asset worth was RM46 billion, with a paid-up capital of RM767 million.


text:
Q: Query for counting unread posts I'm building a system where I need to display unread counters for blog posts.
All blog posts have a category and the website is setup that it the user clicks on a category, and it then loads all the posts of that category.
The database structure is as following:
wp_posts
wp_posts_reads
wp_users
A new wp_posts_read entry is made when reading a post, it has the following columns:

*

*post_id

*user_id

*date
I need the following query:

*

*Get the unread count within a specific post category, for a specific user

This is what I tried, but it's not returning the unread count correctly and throwing an error
SELECT COUNT(*) unread_count, posts.*, posts_reads.*
FROM wp_posts posts
  INNER JOIN wp_posts_read posts_read
    ON posts.id = posts_read.post_id
WHERE posts_read.user_id = 4
  AND posts.category IS 'ratings'

A: Try this :
SELECT COUNT(*) AS unread_count
FROM wp_posts posts
WHERE posts.category = 'ratings'
AND posts.id NOT IN (
    SELECT post_id
    FROM wp_posts_reads
    WHERE user_id = 4
)

If it doesnt work, please send us the error the query is throwing.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Ofer Abarbanel Info
Posted on December 21, 2020 by Ofer Abarbanel
The Fourth Pillar
The Four Pillars is a research programme set up in 1987 by the Geneva Association, also known as the International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics. The aim of the Four Pillars research programme is to study the key importance in the new service economy of Social Security, Insurance, Savings and Employment.
The programme focuses on the future of pensions, welfare and employment. The Geneva Association launched its Four Pillars research programme with a view to identifying possible solutions to the issue of the future financing of pensions and, more generally, to organising social security systems in our post-industrial societies. Demographic trends – especially increased life and health expectancy – could be seen as positive if we were able to devise ways of enabling "ageing in good-health populations" to make a valid economic and social contribution to the functioning of our service economies over the decades to come.[citation needed]
The concept of the Four Pillars owes its origin to the fact that in most countries the funding of pensions is based on three pillars:
The 1st pillar: the compulsory, pay-as-you-go, state pension;
The 2nd pillar: the supplementary (often funding-based) occupational pension;
The 3rd pillar: individual savings (personal pension and assets and life insurance).
The Geneva Association advocated in its publications and seminars a strengthening of the 2nd pillar and further development of 3rd pillar resources. However, the attention of the Geneva Association has focused above all on a 4th pillar i.e. the future need for a flexible extension of work-life, mainly on a part-time basis, in order to supplement income from the three existing pillars. The reorganization of end-of-career and the new age-management strategy – in which gradual retirement is destined to play a key role – involved in establishing this pillar, also correspond to many of the changes (e.g. in quality of work and the life cycle) that are specific to our contemporary service economies.[1]
Main objectives
The research programme has had four main objectives:
Analysis of the key elements in organizing old-age security systems
Research of conditions for multi-pillar systems of pension financing
Encouragement of complementary solutions to the challenges of a changing welfare state and new life-cycles, in particular of the key importance of a flexible extension of working life, that is the building of a 4th pillar
Understanding the role of insurance in the provision of old-age security systems
Over the years, the main activities of the Four Pillars programme have included:
Undertaking research on key issues and contributing to research undertaken by international networks (e.g. World Bank, International Social Security Association, European Commission, GINA, World Economic Forum, etc.)
The four plans
Stimulating pension and similar experts in reconsidering mainstream research and encouraging alternative views and approaches
Organizing seminars and conferences on these topics and participating in international events (e.g. European Commission, OECD, CSIS, insurance companies, national governments, universities, research centers, etc.)
Publishing numerous materials such as books, special issues of The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance(one dedicated issue every two years), The Four Pillars Newsletter (two a year), dedicated issues of the working papers "Etudes & Dossiers", brochures in English and French for a wider public, contributions to academic and professional reviews, etc.
Relevance to the insurance sector
The Four Pillars research programme is relevant to the insurance sector in six main areas:
Global partnershipbetween the public and private sectors
The current need for reforming social security has been felt in all countries. The main objective of this reform has been to reduce the hitherto substantial share of the GDP devoted to social expenditure. The key challenge here has been to consolidate the partnership between the public and private sectors. Almost all States have had to redesign or readjust their welfare policies on health and pensions so as to avoid creating public deficits which would otherwise place too great a burden upon future generations.
Development of second and third pillar pensions
With recent and current reforms of public pensions aimed at future sustainability – involving inevitably a fall in the relative level of old-age benefits – the development of second and third pillar pensions has become a priority. In many countries, second pillar pensions have been made compulsory and, where not already compulsory, have been encouraged by all kinds of financial and fiscal incentives. Private pension funds will play a growing role in securing future retirement income.
Promotion of an extension of working life, i.e. of a fourth pillar
It however must be understood that even substantial development of second and third pillar pensions will probably not be sufficient to compensate both longer life-expectancy and a rising proportion of people over 65 years. With good health expectancy it is not only possible but also essential to plan for flexible extension of working life. Pension funds must encourage and facilitate this extension which will also benefit the insurance sector workforce.
Encouragement of global savingsand life insurance
In a more general way, it is essential to encourage long-term savings for retirement and longer-life expectancy. Insurance companies have a key role in designing adequate and tailored products to cater to a wide range of needs and means.
In insurance, as in other sectors of the economy, workforce ageing will require planning for improved age management as a matter of urgency. The Geneva Association's studies at the European and international levels have shown that, among other things, continuing training, worktime reduction, job redesign and a review of the seniority-pay principle, will need increasingly to be addressed by individual insurance companies. Codes of employment might be an ideal place to start in developing new age management strategies.
Devate and communication
Developing multi-pillar pension systems and promoting an extension of occupational life depend on certain conditions being met and will need to be preceded by a coherent, broad-based, informed and ongoing debate of all these issues. With the research programme and its fourth-pillar proposals, the Geneva Association has been able to do pioneer work in this field and has (probably) made a significant contribution to this all-important debate.
Working Beyond 60: Key Policies and Practices in Europe, by Geneviève REDAY-MULVEY / February 2005, Palgrave Macmillan
The Four Pillars, Geneva Association Information Newsletter, The Geneva Association
Etudes et Dossiers, Working Paper Series, The Geneva Association
The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, formerly The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory (until March 2005), The Geneva Association & Springer
Special Issue on the Four Pillars, The Future of Pensions and Retirement Income, and Working Beyond 60, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, Vol.30 – No.4 / October 2005, Palgrave Macmillan
Studies on the Four Pillars, Age and Employment: the Firm and the Stateand The Future of Pension, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, Vol.28 – No.4 / October 2003, Palgrave Macmillan
Global Ageing and Pension Organisation, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, Vol.27 – No.4 / October 2002, Palgrave Macmillan
Studies on the Four Pillars, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, Vol.26 – No.4 / October 2001, Palgrave Macmillan
Studies on the Four Pillars, Financing Pensions in the Future, and New Policies at the End of Career, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, Vol.24 – No.4 / October 1999, Palgrave Macmillan
Studies on the Four Pillars, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, No.81 / October 1996
Studies on the Four Pillars, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, No.62 / January 1992
Studies on the Four Pillars, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, No.55 / April 1990
The Four Pillars, Aids and Other Insurance Issues, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, No.49 / October 1988
^"The Four Pillars Research Programme Page". The Geneva Association. Archived from the original on 2007-04-11. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
Ofer Abarbanel – Executive Profile
Ofer Abarbanel online library
Ofer Abarbanel
Ofer Abarbanel is a 25 year securities lending broker and expert who has advised many Israeli regulators, among them the Israel Tax Authority, with respect to stock loans, repurchase agreements and credit derivatives. Founder of TBIL.co STATX Fund.
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Casa Guercio is a comfortable accommodation in the nature setting on the hillside of the Guarneri within Madonie National Park. It is short distance from Cefalu (7 km), however hidden high in the slopes.
There are bedrooms with full bathrooms and air conditioning; additional to this there are a kitchen, sitting/dining room with television (satellite), private patio with panoramic view of the sea and Cefalu promontory, parking on the premise.
Casa Guercio is very peaceful place and real treasure for getting away from noise and traffic of the city. Atmosphere is relaxed and friendly.
A perfect base for the active or leisure, relaxed holiday.
Feel free to download the package so that you will be totally prepared for your journey in Cefalu.


The humanitarian situation of the Palestinian territory continues to deteriorate and fails to receive necessary action by the international community. We support all efforts to address the humanitarian situation and encourage all states to dedicate resources to improve the daily situation of Palestinians. However, we believe that there can be no resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel.
During its half-century of belligerent occupation, Israel has repeatedly violated clear rules of international law through its illegal settlements, wall-building, and forced relocations of the population. The rights of the Palestinian population to work, health, adequate standard of living and freedom of movement have been violated as a result.
In addition, the gradual and insidious taking of land, including private land, from Palestinians, in clear violation of international law, exacerbates the other violations by diminishing the resources of Palestinian communities and squeezing the population onto an ever-shrinking amount of land. The International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion on the wall constructed by Israel, opined that all states are under an obligation not to recognize or assist in the illegal situation resulting from construction of the wall.
International-Lawyers.Org and Geneva International Centre for Justice believe that by ending the occupation, a peaceful solution may be possible. As we have done consistently, we call for an end to the belligerent occupation of Palestinian territory and request all states to apply their efforts toward this end.


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Founded in 2002 by Brittany K. Blando, BKB & CO. is an award-winning wedding photography and cinematography firm located on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts. The studio's work has been featured in countless nationally published trades including BRIDES, The Knot, and Boston Magazine. Its style combines editorial imagery with photo-journalistic flair. Talented work, impeccable customer service and quick turn-around time have proven to be why BKB & CO. is so highly regarded in New England.BKB & CO. has captured the weddings of professional hockey player Scott Clemmensen, beauty queen Amanda Kelly and musician Eric Welsh of the the band Pixies. It has been awarded an "Editor's Pick" by The Knot from 2007 through 2015 and was recently inducted into The Knot XO publication's "Hall of Fame." In 2015, BKB & CO. was noted as one of Boston's top 10 Wedding Studios. The studio is available for weddings throughout New England.


2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.
That's a birthday worth making a fuss about.
Social Work Scotland, with support from the Scottish Government, celebrated with a range of new research and events, looking at the foundations of social work, the opportunities and challenges facing it today, and where the profession will go in the future. Below you'll find links through to all the resources produced.
Authored by Prof Brigid Daniel (Queen Margaret University) and Jane Scott (Independent Researcher) this cornerstone report summarises the key developments within social work during the past 50 years, and reflects on the opportunities and challenges ahead. Read it here.
Professor Daniel (Queen Margaret University) gave our audience an overview of the 50th Anniversary project, and the journey of social work over the last fifty years. Watch her input here.
Written by Colin Turbett, this report is a critical history of community social work in Scotland. It was produced with the support of Social Work Scotland, IRISS and SASW. Read it here.
Written by Ariane Critchley, Maggie Grant, Polly Cowan and Mark Hardy, this report charts changes in the social work role in adoption in Scotland since 1968. Read it here.
Authored by Trish McCulloch, Viviene Cree, Steve Kirkwood and Eve Mullins, this study explores gender in criminal justice social work in Scotland, historically and in the present day. Read it here.
Written by Sue Rawcliffe, this paper draws on survey, interview and focus group data to ask whether community-based social work, key to the vision which informed the 1968 Social Work (Scotland) Act, came to represent a radical, critical current within social work theory and practice in Scotland or did it remain largely aspirational? Read it here.
Personalisation is now established in policy circles as a key element in the future of social work practice. Authored by Andrew Eccles and Raymond Taylor, this paper explores if personalisation has resonance with the 1968 Act, and how the theory has developed over recent decades. Read it here.
In this study Jane Scott, Jean Lowe, Martin Carnavan and Clare Simpson explore the role of direct financial assistance in addressing poverty. Read it here.
This series of publications is a chance to pause and reflect on where social work in Scotland has come from, and where it can build upon the successes to date as it faces the challenges of tomorrow. Social work has always operated in a context of change and challenge, and yet the need of wider society for social work is just as pertinent today as it was in the lead up to the 1968 Act. Read our editorial of the new research commissioned as part of this project, written by Iona Colvin (Scotland's Chief Social Work Adviser) and Jackie Irvine, President of Social Work Scotland).


text:
http://ltu.diva-portal.org/smash/resultList.jsf?query=&language=sv&searchType=SIMPLE&noOfRows=50&sortOrder=author_sort_asc&sortOrder2=title_sort_asc&onlyFullText=false&sf=all&aq=%5B%5B%7B%22personId%22%3A%22sinsha+OR+0000-0001-7631-002X%22%7D%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D&aq2=%5B%5B%5D%5D&af=%5B%5D
Adaldo, Antonio
Department of Automatic Control, School of Electrical Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Mansouri, Sina Sharif
Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för system- och rymdteknik, Signaler och system.
Kanellakis, Christoforos
Dimarogonas, Dimos V.
Johansson, Karl H.
Nikolakopoulos, George
Cooperative coverage for surveillance of 3D structures2017Ingår i: IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017, s. 1838-1845, artikel-id 8205999Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
In this article, we propose a planning algorithm for coverage of complex structures with a network of robotic sensing agents, with multi-robot surveillance missions as our main motivating application. The sensors are deployed to monitor the external surface of a 3D structure. The algorithm controls the motion of each sensor so that a measure of the collective coverage attained by the network is nondecreasing, while the sensors converge to an equilibrium configuration. A modified version of the algorithm is also provided to introduce collision avoidance properties. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated in a simulation and validated experimentally by executing the planned paths on an aerial robot.
Eleftheroglou, Nick
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU Delft, the Netherlands.
Loutas, Theodoros
Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, University of Patras, Greece.
Karvelis, Petros
Georgoulas, George
Zarouchas, Dimitrios
Intelligent data-driven prognostic methodologies for the real-time remaining useful life until the end-of-discharge estimation of the Lithium-Polymer batteries of unmanned aerial vehicles with uncertainty quantification2019Ingår i: Applied Energy, ISSN 0306-2619, E-ISSN 1872-9118, Vol. 254, artikel-id 113677Artikel i tidskrift (Refereegranskat)
In this paper, the discharge voltage is utilized as a critical indicator towards the probabilistic estimation of the Remaining Useful Life until the End-of-Discharge of the Lithium-Polymer batteries of unmanned aerial vehicles. Several discharge voltage histories obtained during actual flights constitute the in-house developed training dataset. Three data-driven prognostic methodologies are presented based on state-of-the-art as well as innovative mathematical models i.e. Gradient Boosted Trees, Bayesian Neural Networks and Non-Homogeneous Hidden Semi Markov Models. The training and testing process of all models is described in detail. Remaining Useful Life prognostics in unseen data are obtained from all three methodologies. Beyond the mean estimates, the uncertainty associated with the point predictions is quantified and upper/lower confidence bounds are also provided. The Remaining Useful Life prognostics during six random flights starting from fully charged batteries are presented, discussed and the pros and cons of each methodology are highlighted. Several special metrics are utilized to assess the performance of the prognostic algorithms and conclusions are drawn regarding their prognostic capabilities and potential.
Fresk, Emil
Halén, Erik
Reduced complexity calibration of MEMS IMUs2017Ingår i: 2017 25th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED 2017, Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017, s. 1316-1320, artikel-id 7984300Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
In this article a reduced complexity calibration method for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) will be presented, which does not need the rotating reference tables, commonly used in the gyroscope calibration. As it will be presented, in the proposed novel scheme fixed angle rotations have been utilized to observe the integral of the gyroscope signals to find the corresponding sensitivity, axis misalignment and acceleration sensitivity matrices. This appraoch has the significant merit of high norm accuracy, easiness of use, low cost and simplicity in construction, thus allowing anyone with a basic electronics knowledge to calibrate an IMU.
Kominiak, Dariusz
Cooperative UAVs as a Tool for Aerial Inspection of Large Scale Aging Infrastructure2018Ingår i: 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, 2018, s. 5040-5040Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
This work presents an aerial tool towards the autonomous cooperative coverage and inspection of a large scale 3D infrastructure using multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In the presented approach the UAVs are relying only on their onboard computer and sensory system, deployed for inspection of the 3D structure. In this application each agent covers a different part of the scene autonomously, while avoiding collisions. The autonomous navigation of each platform on the designed path is enabled by the localization system that fuses Ultra Wideband with inertial measurements through an Error- State Kalman Filter. The visual information collected from the aerial team is collaboratively processed to create the 3D model. The performance of the overall setup has been experimentally evaluated in realistic wind turbine inspection experiments, providing dense 3D reconstruction of the inspected structures.
Towards Autonomous Surveying of Underground Mine using MAVs geogeo2019Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) are platforms that received great attention during the last decade. Recently, the mining industry has been considering the usage of aerial autonomous platforms in their processes. This article initially investigates potential application scenarios for this technology in mining. Moreover, one of the main tasks refer to surveillance and maintenance of infrastructure assets. Employing these robots for underground surveillance processes of areas like shafts, tunnels or large voids after blasting, requires among others the development of elaborate navigation modules. This paper proposes a method to assist the navigation capabilities of MAVs in challenging mine environments, like tunnels and vertical shafts. The proposed method considers the use of Potential Fields method, tailored to implement a sense-and-avoid system using a minimal ultrasound-based sensory system. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Dynamic visual sensing based on MPC controlled UAVs2017Ingår i: 2017 25th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED 2017, Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017, s. 1201-1206, artikel-id 7984281Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
This article considers the establishment of a dynamic visual sensor from monocular cameras to enable a reconfigurable environmental perception. The cameras are mounted on Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV) which are coordinated by a Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme to retain overlapping field of views and form a global sensor with varying baseline. The specific merits of the proposed scheme are: a) the ability to form a configurable stereo rig, according to the application needs, and b) the simple design, the reduction of the payload and the corresponding cost. Moreover, the proposed configurable sensor provides a glpobal 3D reconstruction of the surrounding area, based on a modified Structure from Motion approach. The efficiency of the suggested flexible visual sensor is demonstrated in simulation results that highlight the novel concept of cooperative flying cameras and their 3D reconstruction capabilities
Laboratory of Knowledge and Intelligent Computing, Department of Computer Engineering, Technological Educational Institute of Epirus.
Röijezon, Ulrik
Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för hälsovetenskap, Hälsa och rehabilitering.
Faleij, Ragnar
A Laser Dot Tracking Method for the Assessment of Sensorimotor Function of the Hand2017Ingår i: 2017 25th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED 2017, Piscataway. NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017, s. 217-222, artikel-id 7984121Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
Assessment of sensorimotor function is crucial during the rehabilitation process of various physical disorders, including impairments of the hand. While moment performance can be accurately assessed in movement science laboratories involving highly specialized personnel and facilities there is a lack of feasible objective methods for the general clinic. This paper describes a novel approach to sensorimotor assessment using an intuitive test and a specifically tailored image processing pipeline for the quantification of the test. More specifically the test relies on the patient being instructed on following a zig-zag pattern using a handled laser pointer. The movement of the pointer is tracked using image processing algorithm capable of automating the whole procedure. The method has potential for feasible objective clinical assessment of the hand and other body parts
Koval, Anton
Online Multi-Agent Based Cooperative Exploration and Coverage in Complex Environment2019Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
In this article, an online collaborative exploration and coverage method is proposed for the unknown complex environment with multiple agents. The exploration and coverage is based on Boustrophedon motion, while the detection conditions for backtracking points have been modified based on mission requirements, the battery charge level of each agent is considered to reduce agent loss, and collision free paths are generated. The proposed method is evaluated in simulation, where complex environment with multiple branches is explored by multiple agents.
On Visual Area Coverage Using Micro Aerial Vehicles2018Licentiatavhandling, sammanläggning (Övrigt vetenskapligt)
The aim of this Licentiate is to advance the field of cooperative visual coverage path planners for multiple Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs), while aiming for their real life adoption towards the tasks of aerial infrastructure inspection. The fields that will be addressed are focusing in: a) the collaborative perception of the environment, b) the collaborative visual inspection, and c) the optimization of the aerial missions based on the remaining flying battery, camera constraints, coverage constraints and other real life mission induced constraints.
Towards this envisioned aim, this Licentiate will present the following main theoretical contributions: a) centralized and distributed Model Predictive Control (MPC) schemes for the cooperative motion control of MAVs focusing in the establishing of a formation control architecture to enable a dynamic visual sensor from monocular cameras towards a reconfigurable environmental perception, b) revisiting the Cooperative Coverage Path Planning (C-CPP) problem for the inspection of complex infrastructures, c) developing a holistic approach to the problems of 2-D area coverage with MAVs for polygon areas, while considering the camera footprint, and d) designing of a scheme to estimate the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of the battery during a flight mission, a fact that directly effects the flying capabilities of the MAVs. The theoretical contributions of this thesis have been extensively evaluated in simulation and real life large scale field trials, a direction that adds another contribution of the suggested framework towards the massive insertion of the aerial platforms as aerial tools in the close future.
In the first part of this Licentiate, the vision, motivation, open challenges, contributions, and future works are discussed, while in the second part the full articles connected to the presented contributions in this Licentiate are presented in the annex.
Arranz, Miguel Castano
Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för samhällsbyggnad och naturresurser, Drift, underhåll och akustik.
Autonomous MAV Navigation in Underground Mines Using Darkness Contours Detection2019Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
This article considers a low-cost and light weight platform for the task of autonomous flying for inspection in underground mine tunnels. The main contribution of this paper is integrating simple, efficient and well-established methods in the computer vision community in a state of the art vision-based system for Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) navigation in dark tunnels. These methods include Otsu's threshold and Moore-Neighborhood object tracing. The vision system can detect the position of low-illuminated tunnels in image frame by exploiting the inherent darkness in the longitudinal direction. In the sequel, it is converted from the pixel coordinates to the heading rate command of the MAV for adjusting the heading towards the center of the tunnel. The efficacy of the proposed framework has been evaluated in multiple experimental field trials in an underground mine in Sweden, thus demonstrating the capability of low-cost and resource-constrained aerial vehicles to fly autonomously through tunnel confined spaces.
Georgoulas, Georgios
On the covering of a polygonal region with fixed size rectangles with an application towards aerial inspection2017Ingår i: 2017 25th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED 2017, Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017, s. 1316-1320, artikel-id 7984300Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with remote visual sensing can be used in wide range of applications. However, guaranteeing the full coverage of the area and translating this coverage in a path planning problem, it is a quite challenging task. Thus, in this article a well-known and well-investigated family of hard optimization problems, covering a polygonal region (target area) with fixed size rectangles (camera frustrum), is studied. The problem is formulated mathematically and solved using metaheuristic optimization algorithms. The proposed novel algorithmic scheme requires an a priori 2D model of the target area, while it tries to maximize the coverage with a minimum number of fixed size rectangles. Finally, multiple simulation results are presented that prove the efficacy of the proposed scheme
Cooperative coverage path planning for visual inspection2018Ingår i: Control Engineering Practice, ISSN 0967-0661, E-ISSN 1873-6939, Vol. 74, s. 118-131Artikel i tidskrift (Refereegranskat)
This article addresses the inspection problem of a complex 3D infrastructure using multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The main novelty of the proposed scheme stems from the establishment of a theoretical framework capable of providing a path for accomplishing a full coverage of the infrastructure, without any further simplifications (number of considered representation points), by slicing it by horizontal planes to identify branches and assign specific areas to each agent as a solution to an overall optimization problem. Furthermore, the image streams collected during the coverage task are post-processed using Structure from Motion, stereo SLAM and mesh reconstruction algorithms, while the resulting 3D mesh can be used for further visual inspection purposes. The performance of the proposed Collaborative-Coverage Path Planning (C-CPP) has been experimentally evaluated in multiple indoor and realistic outdoor infrastructure inspection experiments and as such it is also contributing significantly towards real life applications for UAVs.
Publikationen är tillgänglig i fulltext från 2020-05-01 11:28
Cooperative UAVs as a tool for Aerial Inspection of the Aging Infrastructure2017Ingår i: Field and Service Robotics: Results of the 11th International Conference / [ed] Marco Hutter, Roland Siegwart, Cham: Springer, 2017, s. 177-189Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
This article presents an aerial tool towards the autonomous cooperative coverage and inspection of a 3D infrastructure using multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In the presented approach the UAVs are relying only on their onboard computer and sensory system, deployed for inspection of the 3D structure. In this application each agent covers a different part of the scene autonomously, while avoiding collisions. The visual information collected from the aerial team is collaboratively processed to create the 3D model. The performance of the overall setup has been experimentally evaluated in a realistic outdoor infrastructure inspection experiments, providing sparse and dense 3D reconstruction of the inspected structures.
2D visual area coverage and path planning coupled with camera footprints2018Ingår i: Control Engineering Practice, ISSN 0967-0661, E-ISSN 1873-6939, Vol. 75, s. 1-16Artikel i tidskrift (Refereegranskat)
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with visual sensors are widely used in area coverage missions. Guaranteeing full coverage coupled with camera footprint is one of the most challenging tasks, thus, in the presented novel approach a coverage path planner for the inspection of 2D areas is established, a 3 Degree of Freedom (DoF) camera movement is considered and the shortest path from the taking off to the landing station is generated, while covering the target area. The proposed scheme requires a priori information about the boundaries of the target area and generates the paths in an offline process. The efficacy and the overall performance of the proposed method has been experimentally evaluated in multiple indoor inspection experiments with convex and non convex areas. Furthermore, the image streams collected during the coverage tasks were post-processed using image stitching for obtaining a single overview of the covered scene.
Remaining Useful Battery Life Prediction for UAVs based on Machine Learning2017Ingår i: IFAC-PapersOnLine, ISSN 1045-0823, E-ISSN 1797-318X, Vol. 50, nr 1, s. 4727-4732Artikel i tidskrift (Refereegranskat)
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are becoming part of many industrial applications. The advancements in battery technologies played a crucial part for this trend. However, no matter what the advancements are, all batteries have a fixed capacity and after some time drain out. In order to extend the flying time window, the prediction of the time that the battery will no longer be able to support a flying condition is crucial. This in fact can be cast as a standard Remaining Useful Life prognostic problem, similarly encountered in many fields. In this article, the problem of Remaining Useful Life estimation of a battery, under different flight conditions, is tackled using four machine learning techniques: a linear sparse model, a variant of support vector regression, a multilayer perceptron and an advanced tree based algorithm. The efficiency of the overall proposed machine learning techniques, in the field of batteries prognostics, is evaluated based on multiple experimental data from different flight conditions.
Vision-based MAV Navigation in Underground Mine Using Convolutional Neural Network2019Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
This article presents a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) method to enable autonomous navigation of low-cost Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) platforms along dark underground mine environments. The proposed CNN component provides on-line heading rate commands for the MAV by utilising the image stream from the on-board camera, thus allowing the platform to follow a collision-free path along the tunnel axis. A novel part of the developed method consists of the generation of the data-set used for training the CNN. More specifically, inspired from single image haze removal algorithms, various image data-sets collected from real tunnel environments have been processed offline to provide an estimation of the depth information of the scene, where ground truth is not available. The calculated depth map is used to extract the open space in the tunnel, expressed through the area centroid and is finally provided in the training of the CNN. The method considers the MAV as a floating object, thus accurate pose estimation is not required. Finally, the capability of the proposed method has been successfully experimentally evaluated in field trials in an underground mine in Sweden.
Visual Subterranean Junction Recognition for MAVs based on Convolutional Neural Networks2019Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
This article proposes a novel visual framework for detecting tunnel crossings/junctions in underground mine areas towards the autonomous navigation of Micro Aeril Vehicles (MAVs). Usually mine environments have complex geometries, including multiple crossings with different tunnels that challenge the autonomous planning of aerial robots. Towards the envisioned scenario of autonomous or semi-autonomous deployment of MAVs with limited Line-of-Sight in subterranean environments, the proposed module acknowledges the existence of junctions by providing crucial information to the autonomy and planning layers of the aerial vehicle. The capability for a junction detection is necessary in the majority of mission scenarios, including unknown area exploration, known area inspection and robot homing missions. The proposed novel method has the ability to feed the image stream from the vehicles' on-board forward facing camera in a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classification architecture, expressed in four categories: 1) left junction, 2) right junction, 3) left & right junction, and 4) no junction in the local vicinity of the vehicle. The core contribution stems for the incorporation of AlexNet in a transfer learning scheme for detecting multiple branches in a subterranean environment. The validity of the proposed method has been validated through multiple data-sets collected from real underground environments, demonstrating the performance and merits of the proposed module.
Distributed Model Predictive Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles2015Ingår i: 2015 Workshop on Research, Education and Development of Unmanned Aerial Systems: RED-UAS 2015, Cancun, Mexico, 23 - 25 November 2015, Picataway, NJ: IEEE Communications Society, 2015, s. 152-161, artikel-id 7441002Konferensbidrag (Refereegranskat)
In this article a distributed model pre- dictive control scheme, for the cooperative motion control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is be- ing presented. The UAVs are modeled by a 6-DOF nonlinear kinematic model. Two different control ar- chitectures: a centralized and a distributed MPC, are studied and evaluated in simulation experiments. In the centralized approach, one central MPC controller is responsible for the movement coordination of all the UAVs, while in the distributed approach each aerial vehicle plans only for its own actions, while the objective function is coupled with the behavior of the rest of the team members and the constraints are decoupled. In this approach, each agent only shares the future position of itself with the other agents to avoid collisions. For reducing the computation time and complexity, only one step ahead prediction in the corresponding MPC schemes have been considered without a loss of generality. Finally, the efficiency of the overall suggested decentralized MPC scheme, as well as it comparison with the centralized approach, is being evaluated through the utilization of multiple simulation scenarios.


text:
'Spider-Man' who rescued toddler dangling from balcony joins fire service
By Shannon Connellan July 2, 2018
> Culture
Real-life "Spider-Man" Mamoudou Gassama, who rescued a toddler dangling from a balcony, has started his new role with the Paris Fire Brigade.
The 22-year-old undocumented Malian migrant was awarded with French citizenship and a meeting with President Emanuel Macron after his heroic efforts in May. Plus, he apparently landed a smooth job offer from the city's fire service at the time.
SEE ALSO: It took 30 seconds for this superhero to save a little boy dangling from a building.
He's clearly taken them up on the offer of sorts, in what appears to be a voluntary capacity with the Paris Fire Brigade tweeting a photo of its 24 new recruits on June 29, including Gassama.
The newbies began their new roles with the fire service on Sunday, his press spokeswoman Djeneba Keita told CNN. The team, according to the tweet, have started in voluntary civic service roles.
24 nouveaux volontaires service civique dont Mamoudou Gassama ont rejoint cet après midi la brigade de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris. Félicitations à eux ??? Pour celles et ceux qui veulent nous rejoindre ➡https://t.co/j8oOCktHbv pic.twitter.com/bcc6h448nP
— Pompiers de Paris (@PompiersParis) June 28, 2018
Gassama gained fame, praise, and the nickname "Spider-Man" when he took less than 40 seconds to scale four floors of an apartment block in Paris' 18th arrondissement on May 28. Why? A small child was dangling from the balcony.
A spokesperson for the Parisian fire department told AFP on the day it was fortunate "there was someone who was physically fit and who had the courage to go and get the child."
Ce jeune est un véritable héros !! ? Un acte héroïque ! pic.twitter.com/VYr01BCUdI
— Billal RIGHI (@BillalRighi) May 26, 2018
The child's father is now in very hot water over what he was doing at the time of the rescue. French prosecutor Francois Molins told a CNN affiliate that the father had gone grocery shopping, leaving the child alone and then proceeded to play Pokémon Go after leaving the shop. (The child's mother was away on a trip visiting family at the time.)
The father has been charged with "failure to meet parental obligations" and could face up to two years in prison if found guilty at trial, which is currently scheduled for September.
Additional reporting by Johnny Lieu and Marcus Gilmer.
WATCH: It took 30 seconds for this superhero to save a little boy dangling from a building.
Topics: Culture, Culture, Fire Service, Other, Rescue, paris, mamoudou gassama
UAE launches national programme aimed at boosting youth sustainability initiatives
Aimed at boosting UAE youth participation in Sustainability initiatives, the programme is designed and managed by the Secretariat of the National Committee.
Saudi National Center for Wildlife on a mission to protect endangered turtles through rescue programs
The world's oceans include seven species of sea turtles, five of which have been discovered in the Kingdom's territorial waters of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, the centre reported.
Saudi Arabia's 'Year of Saudi Coffee' celebrated at the Expo 2020 Dubai
A short film, launched by the Saudi Ministry of Culture discussed the importance and status of coffee in Saudi society, with its different types, flavours and tastes, as these types represent multiple regions of the Kingdom.
UAE's newest architectural marvel, the Infinity Bridge opens for the public in Dubai
The Infinity Bridge is part of a roughly $1.44 billion project called the Al Shindagha Corridor Project, which was first announced in 2018.
Bhutan's historic trail 'Trans Bhutan Trail' reopening announced at Expo 2020 Dubai
Starting March 2022, the Himalayan nation will reopen its Trans Bhutan Trail after 60 years which was used by royals, monks and traders to traverse the kingdom previously.


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Office Space in Toronto
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Virtual Office Benefits
If you feel like a traditional office environment has grown too restrictive for you and want something that provides you with more flexibility working conditions, a virtual office may be the best choice for you. Virtual offices offer flexible rental conditions and the ability to customize your resources to match your needs. Whether you need more options, have a nontraditional employment role, or just want to be able to save money by not paying for services you don't need, a virtual office provides you with all the essentials you need.
What is a Virtual Office?
Before going any further, it's important to recognize what people mean when they use the term virtual office. The phrase has many different meanings, but it boils down to a space where an employee can work remotely but still function as part of the main office. People who telecommute to work, who work in a satellite office, and who use rented office space are all individuals who make use of the virtual office model. Virtual offices are being used more and more often these days because they allow a company the flexibility to hire employees based on their skill set without regard to their physical location. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, people from around the world can all work together.
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People select a virtual office for a number of different reasons, but their primary motivation boils down to the advantages that such an office offers over the traditional business model. This includes people who need a flexible schedule due to childcare needs, those who are facing a move but who wish to remain with a company, and those whose transportation issues would normally prevent them from making it into the main office. From an employer's perspective, a virtual office provides increased flexibility in terms of hiring, since geographical location is less of an issue. It also opens up the opportunity to use rented office space, which provides major advantages in company management.
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Using virtual offices and rented office space provides several benefits, especially when considering the cost of running a business. Most companies have hidden costs that people don't consider. This includes the price of machine maintenance, utility costs for an office building, salaries and benefits for the cleaning crew, and more. The use of a virtual office eliminates many expenses that don't provide a direct benefit to a company. If you use a rented space, those expenses often get rolled into the price of the rental and still come out to a savings when compared to business ownership. If allowing people to telecommute, the only cost is the software required to run the virtual office.
A virtual office provides both employees and employers with the flexibility they need in order to make business work in the modern world. With so many different obligations, hidden costs, and more to limit a person's ability to focus on business, the conveniences offered by the virtual office model are increasingly necessary.
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About Beggar's Bread
Essential and Non-Essential Doctrines of the Christian Faith
Beggar's Bread
Beggars sharing the bread that they've so freely and graciously received
Condemning a Volkswagen for Not Being a Mercedes Benz
Why Non-Mormons Should Read The Book of Mormon
Born to Die That I Might Live
The Book of Mormon: A Testament of Another Jesus Christ
The Book of Mormon Jesus v. The Jesus of the New Testament
"Enigma"
Aaron Shafovaloff
Abusive Churches
Amy Fuller
Anti-Mormonism
Arthur Sido
Barb Griffith
Bill Mahlstadt
Blood Atonement
Bob Betts
Bob McCue
Bobby Gilpin
Born Again Mormon Movement
Brian Horner
C. Jess Groesbeck M.D.
Cal Fullerton
Cambellism
Canonicity
Carl Wimmer
Charismata
Cory Anderson
Craig Musseau
Dave and Iola Brubeck
Divine Forgiveness
Doctrine & Covenants
Donna Morley
Eric W. Gritsch
Ex-Mormons
Flo Conway
Fred Anson
Gene Scott
George S. Rasmussen
Greg Stier
Human Forgiveness
Human Mercy
Isaac Farley
Jackie Davidson
Jason Wallace
Jaxon Washburn
Jim Huston
Jim Siegelman
John Dehlin
John Farkas
Joshua Valentine
Keith Walker
KJV Onlyism
LdS Temple Theology
Lectures On Faith
Lenny LeBlanc
Lindell Cooley
Lowell Johnson
Luna Flesher
Lynn Ridenhour
Marie Johnson
Martin Jacobs
Matthew Eklund
McCraneyism
Michael Flournoy
Michael Omartian
Michael Stevens
Mormon Doctrine on the Dustbin
Mormon Reformation
Mormon Stories
Mormon Studies
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)
Official Mormon Doctrine
Pander/Slander
Paul Clark
Paul Nurnberg
Psychological Snapping
Puritan Prayers
R.M. Sivulka
Randy Butler
Recontextualizing
Recovery from Mormonism
Restorationism
Rich Nathan
Richard B. Stout
Richard J. Mouw
Richard Packham
RLDS
Rob Bowman
Robin Mark
Ron Huggins
Samaritanism
Sandra Tanner
Shadow Mormons
Shawn McCraney
Shepherding Movement
Snapping
Stuart Garrard
Susan Grape
Terry Butler
Testimony Bearing
The Joseph Smith Translation
The KJV Only Movement
The Price of Nice
The Worldwide Church of God
Tim McMahan
Tommy Walker
Tongues Speaking
Tracy Tennant
Unethical Persuasion
We Agree With Moroni 8:18
Weak Arguments
Wesley Norris
"Bargain" Recontextualized
Posted: February 4, 2013 in Fred Anson, Jesus Christ, Music, Poetry, Recontextualizing
by Fred Anson
I always love it when a rock band gets one right. And why shouldn't they for as the Apostle Paul explained:
Pete Townshend of The Who
"They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God."[1]
Theologians refer to this as "General Revelation" which Wikipedia explains like this:
"General revelation is a term used by theologians which refers to a universal aspect of God, of God's knowledge and of spiritual matters, discovered through natural means, such as observation of nature (the physical universe), philosophy and reasoning, human conscience or providence or providential history. Evangelical theologians use the term to describe knowledge of God, which they believe, is plainly available to all mankind. These aspects of general revelation are believed to pertain to outward temporal events that are experienced within the world or this physical universe.
Within this type of revelation, it is believed that God does not use specific words, or specific actions, but more general or encompassing events that occur in creation, conscience, and history."[2]
So I confess a certain frustration when fellow Christians take diminish or take umbrage at the idea that unbelievers, with whom we share common life experiences not the least being "the human condition", can find small echoes of divine truths within His fallen creation.
After all, in this life we all live and move within His shrouded presence – infidel and redeemed alike. C.S. Lewis spoke well of our current condition when he said:
"If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next-door neighbors or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count when the anesthetic fog we call 'nature' or 'the real world' fades away and the Divine Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?"[3]
Given these realities – not the least being the pervasive pull of sin within us all – is it any wonder that artists so often "get it right" in their but ultimately come to the wrong conclusion in their personal lives?
Consider, for example, the classic rock song "Bargain" written by Pete Townshend of The Who which was original released on the "Who's Next" album. Here's a recent performance:
The Who performing "Bargain" at the Royal Albert Hall in 2000
In case you missed it, those lyrics go like this:
I'd gladly lose me to find You
I'd gladly give up all I have
To find You, I'd suffer anything and be glad
I'll pay any price just to get You
I'll work all my life, yes, I will
To win You, I'd stand naked, stoned and stabbed
I'll call that a bargain, the best I ever had
I'll gladly lose me to find You
Gladly give up all I got
To get You, I'm gonna run and never stop
I'll pay any price just to win You
To find You, I'm gonna drown an unsung man
I call that a bargain, the best I ever had
I sit lookin' round
I look at my face in the mirror
I know I'm worth nothing, without You
In life one an' one don't make two
One an' one make one
An' I'm lookin' for that free ride to me
I'm lookin' for You
The historical fact is that Pete Townshend wrote the song as a song of devotion to Mehr Baba, the spiritual guru that he began to follow in 1968.[4] Of course given the universal nature of human beings the song has been recontextualized in many ways. It has been sung as everything from a love song to a jingle for a television advertisement. Perhaps as you were listening to it or reading the lyrics you even recontextualized the piece as applying to whatever, well, whatever.
Speaking personally, in my days as a "merry" infidel atheist I would belt out the song to whatever my current devotion was at the time – from girlfriends, to politics, to rock music, to whatever – so for me it became a kind of secular praise and worship song to whatever my idol I happened to be worshiping at the moment.
So you can imagine my shock when, after becoming a Christian, an older, wiser Christian told me (a recent, three-time Bill Gothard[5] graduate no less) that "Bargain" was a powerful "Go for it!" song that reflected Bible passages like . . .
— Matthew 10:39 (ESV)
"He must increase, but I must decrease."
— John 3:30 (KJV)
"…you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own."
— Luke 14:33 (NLT)
. . . and many, many others. Gaining that realization, "Bargain" then went on to become a recontextualized "go for it", song of confession for me as well. And why not, after all didn't Martin Luther, Charles Wesley, and Fanny Crosby also recontextualize the music of their day – some of it secular with no discernible religious roots – into songs of praise and worship?[6]
And apparently, I wasn't alone . . .
Resurrection Band (a Christian band) covering "Bargain" in Finland 1990
Now I think I know Resurrection Band well enough to know that they would tell you that the old cliche' that, "God's ways are not mans ways" is true and that one must move past general revelation to special revelation[7] – or even direct revelation[8] for that matter – in order to enter into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And, of course, I agree with them completely. So, one might even feel lead, as I have, to hope and pray that the composer of this classic song might someday make that move himself.
But still you've gotta admit, regardless how you contextualize it, this is a truly inspired song!
[1] Romans 1:19&20, New Living Translation
[2]Wikipedia article on "General Revelation", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_revelation (retrieved 2012-11-18)
[3] C. S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity" (Macmillan, 1965 edition), p. 168.
[4] "Townshend showed no predilection for religious belief in the first years of The Who's career. By the beginning of 1968, however, Townshend had begun to explore spiritual ideas. In January 1968, The Who recorded his song "Faith in Something Bigger" (Odds & Sods). Townshend's art school friend Mike McInnerney gave him a copy of C. B. Purdom's book The God-Man, introducing him to the writings of the Indian "perfect master" Meher Baba, who blended elements of Vedantic, Sufi, and Mystic schools.
Townshend swiftly absorbed all of Baba's writings that he could find; by April 1968, he announced himself Baba's disciple. At about this time, Townshend, who had been searching the past two years for a basis for a rock opera, created a story inspired by the teachings of Baba and other Indian spiritualists that would ultimately become Tommy."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Townshend#Religion (retrieved 2012-11-18)
[5] "William W. (Bill) Gothard (born November 2, 1934) is an American Christian minister, speaker and writer, and the founder of theInstitute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), notable for his conservative teachings. Among the several strong distinctives of his teaching have been encouragement of Bible memorization, large families, homeschooling, aversion to debt, respect for authority and extended principles related to identity, family, education, healthcare, music and finances."
— Wikipedia article on "Bill Gothard", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gothard (retrieved 2012-11-22)
A good analysis of Bill Gothard's fallacious and unBiblical view of Rock Music can be found here:
http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2011/11/the-phony-consequences-of-rock-music/ (retrieved 2012-11-22) However, the short version goes like this: "… the Scriptures Gothard uses to make his case against rock music have absolutely nothing to do with music."
[6] See "Did Martin Luther Really Use Tavern Tunes In Church?"
http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Worship/Learning-Center/FAQs/Tavern-Tunes.aspx (retrieved 2012-11-22); Also "Are Some Hymns Just Rewritten Bar Songs?"
http://www.apologetix.com/faq/faq-detail.php?faq_q_id=89 (retrieved 2012-11-22)
[7] "Special revelation is a theological term used mainly by evangelical scientists and Christian theologians which refers to the belief that knowledge of God and of spiritual matters can be discovered through supernatural means, such as miracles or the scriptures, a disclosure of God's truth through means other than through man's reason. The distinction between Special and General revelation was first elucidated in-depth by the Catholic systematic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas in his discussion of Revelation. This distinction was only then more widely disseminated by evangelical writers who emphasized its scriptural support (e.g. Psalm 19)."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_revelation)
[8] "Direct revelation is a term used by some Christian churches to express their belief in a communication from God to a person, by words, impression, visions, dreams or actual appearance. Direct revelation is believed to be an open communication between God and man, or the Holy Spirit and man, without any other exterior (secondary) means."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_revelation)
An Open Letter to Greg Stier
Campbellite Doctrine in The Book of Mormon


OPEN COMPUTE SUMMIT - AMD (NYSE: AMD) today is launching the AMD Open 3.0 platform (formerly codenamed "Roadrunner,") a radical rethinking of the server motherboard designed to the standards developed by the Open Compute Project. AMD Open 3.0 enables substantial gains in computing flexibility, efficiency and operating cost by simplifying motherboard design with a single base product to address multiple enterprise workloads, including high-performance computing, cloud infrastructure and storage. This innovative design is optimized to eliminate features typically over-provisioned in traditional server offerings.
Today's servers are designed with a "one size fits most" approach incorporating many features and capabilities that can inefficiently utilize space and power, increasing cost. Many mega data centers have engineers developing optimized platforms with the minimum set of components for specific workloads. The desired result is a tailored solution with the ideal combination of power, space and cost. The AMD Open 3.0 platform is designed to easily enable IT professionals to "right size" the server to meet specific compute requirements. Fidelity Investments and Goldman Sachs are evaluating AMD Open 3.0 as part of their collaboration on the Open Compute Project.
AMD Open 3.0, powered by the recently announced AMD Opteron™ 6300 Series processors, can be installed in all standard 19" rack environments without modification, as well as in Open Rack environments. The AMD Open 3.0 motherboard is a 16" x 16.7" board designed to fit into 1U, 1.5U, 2U or 3U rack height servers. It features two AMD Opteron 6300 Series processors, each with 12 memory sockets (four channels with three DIMMs each,) 6 Serial ATA (SATA) connections per board, one dual channel gigabit Ethernet NIC with integrated management, up to four PCI Express® expansion slots, a mezzanine connector for custom module solutions, one serial port and two USB ports. Specific PCI Express card support is dependent on usage case and chassis height.
Pre-production AMD Open 3.0 systems are currently available to select customers. Production systems from Quanta Computer and Tyan are expected to be available through Avnet Electronics Marketing, Penguin Computing and other system integrators before the end of Q1.
Gopalakrishnan will discuss AMD's latest Open Compute development and its impact on the industry at the Open Compute Summit today in a session titled "An Introduction to the Open Compute 3.0 Modular Server" at 3:30 p.m. PT. Static demonstrations of the AMD Open 3.0 will also be shown in AMD's booth B4.


I'm in Flagstaff, Arizona this weekend to do some appraisals and to attend the Flagstaff Cultural Partners Navajo Rug Auction, which was yesterday afternoon. Twenty two year weaver Laramie Blake "caught a ride" to the auction with me. She had a rug in the auction with a reserve bid of $600 and it didn't sell. It's a pretty, medium sized Burntwater that you can see above and below.
What's Laramie going to do now? She could wait for another auction two weeks from now or for the Weaver's Day at the Heard Museum (more on that later this week), but she really can't afford to. She wants to stop at Garland's in Sedona on the way home to sell the rug there but I thought I'd let you play Trader for a Day to provide Laramie with another outlet for her rug. I know what you're thinking. No I can't buy it because I bought two other rugs that didn't sell yesterday and I really can't buy ALL the rugs. You can click here to buy the rug at Laramie's reserve price or email me with a reasonable offer for Laramie to consider.
If the rug doesn't sell by the time we head home, I'll let you know what happens at Garland's!


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Home David Rodríguez-Araujo
David Rodríguez-Araujo
Coordinator, Central American Field Epidemiology Network
David Rodríguez-Araujo completed a doctorate in medicine at the University of El Salvador (1994-2002), a master's degree in public health at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (2009-2010), and a master's degree in field epidemiology (advanced FETP) at the University of the Valley of Guatemala (2011-2012).
From 2003 to 2014, he worked for the Ministry of Health of El Salvador as an epidemiologist in different geographical areas (sub-national and national) and became chief of the National Statistics Unit.
Since 2014, he has served as the coordinator of the Central American Field Epidemiology Network (REDCEC) within the Executive Secretariat of the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America (SE-COMISCA), providing technical assistance for the implementation of basic and intermediate FETP, scientific conferences, field investigations and FETP mentor training.
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text:
Pubdate: Fri, 22 Jun 2007
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Kieran+King
PUT KIERAN ON A POSTER
What fascinates me about the case of Kieran King, the Saskatchewan
high school student who was threatened, punished and slandered by
various officials over the past three weeks for talking with some
pals about the health effects of marijuana, is that it explodes
almost every single utopian cliche about public schools that has been
ever propounded by their employees and admirers. It's almost
glorious, in a way. Ever heard an educator say "We're not here to
teach students what to think -- we're here to teach them how to
think"? BLAMMO! "We encourage children to make learning a lifelong
process." KAPOW! Poor Kieran didn't even make it to age 16 before
someone called the cops.
"Diversity is one of our most cherished values." But express a
factually true opinion that diverges from what you've been taught and
- -- WHOOMP! "Public schools aren't crude instruments of social
control, they're places where we lay the foundation for an informed
citizenry." BOOM!
I could go on, but I'm running out of sound effects and I really
don't have time to fire up an old Batman episode on You-Tube to gather more.
King, who is in Grade 10 at a high school in tiny Wawota, Sask.,
started researching marijuana after he and his fellow students were
given an audiovisual presentation about drugs earlier in the year.
The presentation, from his entirely believable description, was
typical of its kind: short on background facts and long on horror stories.
He's never smoked or even seen marijuana, so he was naturally curious
about what's really known about its effects. "Naturally curious" --
say, there's another favourite trope of the pedagogical establishment
that's been blown away with the Prairie wind.
On May 30, Kieran, who is described as "research-obsessed" by his
mother, was chatting with friends around the school lunch table and
telling them about what he'd discovered, largely from scholarly and
government sources. He argued that marijuana carries a near-zero risk
of overdose, that it has been approved by Health Canada for medical
use and that it kills an infinitesimal fraction of the people that
alcohol and tobacco do every week -- claims so uncontroversial you'd
have to be high on something much stronger than pot to dispute them.
He also suggested that it doesn't make much sense for marijuana to be
illegal in a world where booze and smokes are freely available in shops.
In other words, what we have here is a kid who fits the picture of
the model student so perfectly that the South East Cornerstone School
Division should probably be putting him on a poster, not on
suspension. He is an honour student -- a real one, by all accounts,
not some mediocre kid who wriggled in under a line lowered by grade
inflation. (His mother, let it be noted, is a teacher who lost a
husband to a drunk driver before he was born.) Presented with a
highly emotional after school special-style argument in the
classroom, he did solid research to see if it held up. He applied
critical thinking, shared what he had discovered with his friends and
invited more criticism. It encapsulates almost everything that we
want children to be capable of when they graduate from our schools.
But one of the students who'd witnessed the conversation apparently
finked to the warden. (From this day forward I'm going to avoid the
use of the term "principal." If schools are going to be run like
prisons, let's adopt the appropriate lingo.) Boss bull Susan Wilson
ordered Kieran to stop talking about marijuana on school premises --
even though he had been outside the classroom, where school officials
have to meet a justifiably high standard before interfering with a
student's freedom of speech -- and later she called his mother to
warn her that "promoting drug use" would not be tolerated. According
to the education director of the school division, she was also told
"if there were any drugs brought into the school, the police could be
involved." One can almost hear the truncheon slapping against the
open palm. Later on, when Kieran organized a brief free speech
protest outside the school with the help of a few "cannabis culture"
types, Wilson reacted by ordering a lockdown (remember, they're not
prisons!). When he walked out anyway to join supporters, he was
suspended from school and a "threat assessment" was ordered
(definitely not prisons!).
Meanwhile, protesters interviewed district superintendent Velda
Weatherald and caught her on tape saying that "there was an
accusation" that Kieran may have been involved in selling drugs at
the school. Innuendo and bullying are, as ever, what people Kieran's
age call "BFFs" nowadays. Best friends forever.
Right now Kieran is in Beijing, where he is taking classes in
Mandarin. No doubt Superintendent Weatherald will soon be offering
this as clear evidence that he intends to take up the opium-smuggling
trade. When Kieran gets back, I'm thinking of calling him up and
asking him what it's like to live in a free country.


1. Carrying a notebook with me (at all times)- so that I can jot down any notes & ideas that I have. I use these notes to later elaborate and expand my content. With my little handy notebook I am capable of brainstorming (sometimes I make best use when I am on the subway, on a quick break, or in between going to the gym and picking up dry cleaning).
2. Finding time to actually sit down and plan my blog content- I now make it a priority, to schedule shootings, plan future blog posts, read through blogs and go through my planner (it took me months to discover that I NEED a planner).
3. Being capable of (politely) saying no, thank you- to working with certain brands. In the past, I have ignored many emails that I have received in regards to working with a brand, sadly because I haven't had the time. I have learned that if I am simply not interested in working with a brand and if it does not fit the overall aesthetic of my blog it is ok to say no, but I now always make it a point to take the time & thank the brand for wanting to work with me.
4. Drafting- I take advantage of drafting! I love to draft, quite simply because when I have the time I sit and write or post and then I click save and then I get back to it when I have time.
5. Being persistent & inviting- I have learned that it is essential to update my blog frequently. The best way to have readers wanting to come back to my blog is to always try and post something new & refreshing. Social impact is HUGE when it comes to blogging. I now make time to go through and read my readers blogs. I think supporting one another is important and I try to make time to show my readers I appreciate them!
These tips have helped me, I hope they help you as well.
Absolutely love those shoes and the bag! Great taste. Also must say ho great your blog layout is, clean and lovely.
Ależ piękne buty!:D A co myślisz o takich w kliamcie http://www.eobuwie.com.pl/polbuty-badura-4050-69-132-czarny.html ?
Love every details of the look!
I absolutely love your outfit! The blogging tips were very helpful!
Looks gorgeous! Love the red bag!
Awesome jacket ! Love it so much !
Adore your Louboutins and Zara jacket, nicely styled! I can also totally relate to what you are saying, thanks for offering some great tips!
Great tips! I love drafting, too! I do it every chance I get.
great outfit! love the pop of red!
Nice post! I totally agree with u about blogging. It takes a lot of time.. but being able to do something that I like makes me more than happy.:-) BtW, love your outfit!! That pumps look so gorgeous!
I am so loving this look. Especially that jacket. Beautiful outfit.
Absolutely stunning!! Like everything about this look, especially your shoes!!
Great photos. You look awesome.
great outfit! you look great! I ssuper love your shoes!
I love that bag! It's such a pretty color!
Love that jacket!! And the gorgeous red pop of color bag!!
Thanks for sharing this nice tips, beautiful look!!
This is such a cool outfit, I love all the layering and that bag is amazing!!
I love this whole look! You look so super chic!
Awesome tips. I always forget to take down ideas even though I carry a notepad everywhere. Might have to try harder to remember lol Great outfit btw, the drapes suit you!
Great blog tips, thank you for sharing the ideas!
I agree, blogging can definitely be considered a full time job because it requires so many hours and dedication! Obsessed with those heels and handbag, I need them in my life!


text:
What to Do When the Russian Government Wants to Blackmail You
Russian officials have a long history of using compromising material, or kompromat, as a weapon against political opponents.
By Anna Nemtsova
Screens show live footage from polling stations in Moscow during Russia's 2012 elections. (Mikhail Voskresenskiy / Reuters)
MOSCOW—From Jeff Bezos's allegations of extortion and blackmail by the National Enquirer, a publication with links to President Donald Trump, to Trump's relations with the Kremlin, one particular word has gained prominence, and it's not even an English one.
Opponents of the government here in Moscow are well versed in the risk of their foibles and vices—from hidden-camera footage of them in bed with lovers to secretly recorded conversations—being used as compromising material, a practice better known by the Russian portmanteau kompromat.
Kompromat is a weapon often aimed at public critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But what do they do when they find it being used against them?
Read: How state-sponsored blackmail works in Russia
Here's what some have tried.
Go on the Offense
In August 2008, Ilya Yashin, then a 25-year-old leader of the opposition youth group Yabloko, met with two young women and later went on a couple of dates with one of them. At one point, his date brought Yashin back to a Moscow apartment where the other woman was waiting. Yashin had sex with the two women, but when they offered him cocaine and showed off several sex toys, Yashin, sensing something was amiss, declined their offer and left.
Nearly two years later, Yashin saw a video posted online in which Mikhail Fishman, then the editor of Newsweek's Russian-language edition, was captured snorting cocaine in the presence of a naked woman—the same woman whom Yashin had gone on the date with.
"I made a decision," Yashin told me, "to publish a detailed account of everything that happened in that apartment" before those behind what he was certain was a smear campaign had a chance to discredit him. "The only way we can defend ourselves from dirty tricks is to go public," he continued, "to beat the attackers."
The strategy appears to have worked: No images or video from that night more than a decade ago have so far been published. Today, Yashin leads Solidarnost, a Russian liberal democratic movement. A frequent critic of corruption among political elites, as well as Russia's annexation of Crimea and the Kremlin's repression of civil society, he successfully ran in local elections last year, and now heads a district council in Moscow.
Wait for the Storm to Pass
Not everyone feels comfortable publishing intimate personal stories, which can potentially destroy careers and relationships. Fishman chose not to comment on his own experience and the video that sought to discredit him, and still does not want to discuss the episode (including when I contacted him about it recently).
But the efforts to silence him failed, too. Years after the footage emerged, Fishman, who is now a television anchor on the independent channel TV Rain, is still popular and respected, and continues to give sharp, thoughtful, and well-reported analyses of the Kremlin's policies.
He recently spoke out over the killing last year of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic. The group was making a documentary about the activities of a private security firm that allegedly has ties to the Russian government. Fishman, a guest on the radio show at Echo of Moscow, criticized a powerful ally of Putin's who has been reportedly linked to the murders, and pledged not to leave them unsolved.
Read: What Mueller leaves behind
The playwright and satirist Victor Shenderovich—famed for his 1990s television show Puppets, in which the nation's leaders were lampooned—had a similar experience. In 2014, after he had compared that year's Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi to Adolf Hitler's 1936 Games in Berlin, a state-controlled outlet aired a compromising nude video of him. Shenderovich blames the authorities for the video's broadcast, arguing in a recent interview with me that "the Kremlin gave an order to destroy me." It was not even the first time he had been the object of such tactics: Several years prior, an edited video was published by several Russian-language websites, purporting to show Shenderovich in bed with the opposition activist Eduard Limonov and another woman.
But Shenderovich survived both incidents. His marriage stayed intact, and his books and live events remain popular. In March, the 60-year-old started a tour of Moscow, Arkhangelsk, and St. Petersburg, where thousands of fans are expected to turn out for his satirical performances. His biggest frustration is that he cannot seek punishment for those behind the shaming attempts. "Unlike in a civilized state," he told me, "we cannot take the abusers to court, because Russia has no independent courts."
Give In
Though many activists and opposition leaders have defied threats of blackmail and proactively spoken against them, kompromat has yielded plenty of successes, at least from the Russian government's point of view. Many here have been cowed into submission, and others have quietly stopped speaking out, fearing revelations that they do not want made public.
One of the highest-profile examples, which sheds a light on Putin's own willingness to engage in it, dates back to 1999. At the time, Putin—who was then the director of the successor organization to the KGB—played a leading role in forcing the resignation of Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov, who had been investigating large-scale corruption at the Kremlin.
When footage was broadcast of Skuratov in a sauna with prostitutes, Putin told journalists that the man in the video was the prosecutor general. Skuratov stepped down soon after. The case not only demonstrated Putin's loyalty to his predecessor as president, Boris Yeltsin, but also offered an early indication of the ruthless methods that the future president would use to secure power.


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