The central objective of database marketing is to build a bond between your company and your customers that results in increased loyalty and expanded sales. You are trying to recreate the bond that existed between the old corner grocer and his customers: he knew them and greeted them by name when they came in to shop. He did favors for them. He carried heavy packages out to their cars. He was a family friend. As a result, his customers were loyal. They bought all their groceries from him.
Today with tens or hundreds of thousands of customers, we cannot do the same thing. But, due to the growing sophistication and reduction in cost of modern computers, we can come close to duplicating the corner grocer's methods. Using a modern database, you will keep information in your database about your customers, their families, their preferences, their purchases. Why keep such information? So that you can develop a relationship with the customers that they will appreciate and value. You want to give them recognition, personal services, special attention. The database is used, not to target your marketing (which is 1980's thinking), but to develop what Don Peppers calls a 1:1 relationship.
Before you spend a lot of money creating a customer database, you have to decide what you are going to do with it. Collecting names and purchase history is really the easy part. The hard part is thinking up what you can do for your customers, with the database, that the customers find valuable to them. Say to yourself, "Why would I want to be on that database? What's in it for me?" If you can't think up a good answer to that question, your database project will fail, and you should not waste money on it. There are tens of thousands of products and services for which database marketing will not work: it won't increase sales sufficiently to pay for its cost. Your goal, therefore, is to come up with a great idea for building a customer relationship that will be valued and appreciated by the customers, and will be cost effective for you. It may be a gold card, a newsletter, preferred customer benefits, air miles, points, birthday awards — something that your customers will find attractive and which won't cost you too much.
Since everyone else today is thinking up similar programs, you will have to work hard to make yours stand out. One way is to discriminate between your best customers, your next best customers, and your average or poor customers. Discrimination is essential. If you treat all customers alike, you won't be able to afford to give very valuable benefits. I suggest that you use RFM analysis to separate your customers into quintiles. The top quintile are your best customers. You want to devote your service dollars to this group. Give them royal treatment. Let them know it, and let the others who are not eligible, what they are missing. The next lower quintile is where you should spend your marketing dollars. These customers are your hope for the future. You want them to be constantly trying to achieve gold status. As for the balance of your customers, I would advise that you ignore them, for now. Concentrate your attention and your service and marketing dollars on the top two quintiles. Do a super job of building loyalty and increasing sales. Once you have gained experience with these valuable customers, you can have the leisure to work on the less profitable customer groups.
How can you determine whether the strategy you have selected will be successful? There have been a great many failures in database marketing. There is a method for knowing, in advance, whether your customer loyalty building strategy is likely to succeed. That method is Lifetime Value Analysis. You build a lifetime value table for your current customers, and then build a second one, assuming the adoption of your proposed strategy. All such strategies have benefits (increased retention, referrals, and sales) and costs (from the communications, the data processing, the awards and services). Analyzing the two tables will show you whether lifetime value will go up (a good strategy), or down (scrap it — it won't generate profits). The details of lifetime value theory and practice are spelled out in Strategic Database Marketing, published by McGraw Hill.


The Detroit Legal News profiled the most recent book club meeting of the Federal Bar Association's Eastern District of Michigan Chapter. Erica Fitzgerald serves on the Executive Board of the Chapter and is Co-Chair of the book club. The club met to discuss "Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World." The group, including several federal judges and a host of practitioners, engaged in a spirited discussion about the expanding role of women in the law. Erica specializes in business litigation and automotive supply-chain issues.


text:
DiNapoli: Financial Plan Outlook Has Improved; State Should Now Commit to Further Increasing Reserves
NEWS from the Office of the New York State Comptroller
Contact: Press Office 518-474-4015
The State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2021-22 Enacted Budget Financial Plan shows a remarkable improvement in the state's financial condition as cumulative four-year budget gaps estimated at $38.7 billion just four months ago have been reduced to $3.4 billion, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. This reduction was fueled by the receipt of substantial new resources, including $15.2 billion in federal assistance and $17.3 billion from tax and other policy actions.
"The state's economic and fiscal outlook have improved," DiNapoli said. "Local sales tax collections are up significantly, and our May Cash Report shows the state is $4 billion ahead of projections. It is essential that additional resources are used for critical infrastructure projects to reduce debt issued and to bolster reserve funds beyond planned levels to help us to weather the next crisis or recession."
Financial Plan Overview
The SFY 2021-22 Enacted Budget Financial Plan released in May by the state Division of Budget (DOB) totals $208.9 billion, a 12 percent increase over last year. The current year budget includes $16.4 billion in COVID-related spending (including aid enacted before SFY 2021-22), of which $13.2 billion is federally funded.
State-funded pandemic relief initiatives total $3.1 billion in the current fiscal year with little planned for subsequent years. However, significant new recurring spending commitments are planned in two key areas: education and Medicaid. General Fund spending in these areas is projected to increase by more than $15 billion over the Financial Plan period. Total school aid is projected to reach $31.4 billion in SFY 2024-25, an increase of $6.7 billion from the current year, reflecting average growth of 8.4 percent annually. Medicaid spending will increase an average of 9.7 percent annually over the Financial Plan to reach $21 billion in SFY 2024-25.
In contrast to these significant new investments, only $825 million in total deposits to the rainy day fund reserves are planned in SFY 2021-22, bringing total rainy day fund reserves to $3.3 billion, equal to just 3.7 percent of forecasted General Fund SFY 2021-22 disbursements, or less than 14 days of average daily disbursements.
The report identifies several spending and revenue risks:
The investments and programs established in the budget to support pandemic recovery for New York's struggling individuals, families and businesses may result in pressure to continue spending at the elevated levels established in SFY 2021-22, without the benefit of the extraordinary federal aid that fueled current spending levels. On a combined basis, these recovery initiatives and temporary federal education resources total $6.5 billion of average annual spending, which could not be supported during the Financial Plan period absent the federal relief funds.
High growth forecasts for education and Medicaid may not be supported by available revenues outside the Financial Plan period. In addition, there may be pressure to replace federal relief aid provided directly to school districts with state dollars when that aid is depleted. It is also unclear if cost and enrollment pressures will subside in the Medicaid program.
Increased tax rates on high-income earners will make the state more reliant on personal income tax revenues and may make personal income tax revenues more volatile. The new top rates will be the third highest among states and highest in the nation when combined with the New York City personal income tax. If this spurs additional out-migration of high-income residents, it would result in less revenue.
DiNapoli issued the following recommendations:
Boost the rainy day fund reserves. The Financial Plan's anticipated deposits to reserves would bring the new total to $3.3 billion — significantly lower than the $6.4 billion that is statutorily authorized. If collections remain above forecast and are not needed to cover unanticipated expenses, these additional revenues should be used to bolster the rainy day fund reserves.
Prudently and transparently use federal aid. Federal funding should be spread out over the life of the Financial Plan to limit the risk of a "funding cliff," and use of these temporary resources to support recurring spending should be avoided. In addition, transparent and timely detailed reporting of the use and administration of federal funds is necessary.
Closely monitor personal income tax collections (PIT) and taxpayer behavior. The high reliance on high-income earners, combined with volatility of capital gains and the possibility of taxpayer migration creates a risk that should be carefully monitored to ensure appropriate and timely responses to any shortfalls in PIT receipts.
Restore prudent debt policies. For the second year in a row, new debt issuances were excluded from the provisions of the Debt Reform Act of 2000. With the state's financial condition stabilized, policymakers should restore prudent debt policies, including the establishment of updated and binding limits on state debt. In addition, policymakers should replace some planned debt issuances with more "pay-as-you-go" funding to reduce long-term debt service obligations, including limiting debt uses to capital projects related to state assets. In the near term, if state tax receipts continue to surpass forecasts, a portion of the additional revenue could be used for this purpose.
Enacted Budget Financial Plan: State Fiscal Year 2021-22
Find out how your government money is spent at Open Book New York. Track municipal spending, the state's 180,000 contracts, billions in state payments and public authority data. Visit the Reading Room for contract FOIL requests, bid protest decisions and commonly requested data.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


In 1981, Gerry Faust guided the Irish to a 27-9 win over LSU in his Notre Dame debut, a victory that lifted the Irish to a #1 ranking. Tailback Greg Bell ('84) recently recalled the game in an interview with Fighting Irish Digital Media. In this video, hear from Bell and relive the game highlights as narrated by legendary American sportscaster Harry Kalas.


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Oooh, Retro!
I totally forgot to post this, and I really should have!
The Adorable Husband wears Gargoyle sunglasses -- remember Terminator? -- and has for twenty years or so. He likes them, and hasn't found anything else that blocks enough light and that don't make him look like a deranged bug.
So he was up skiing with my nephew last month, and one of the lift operators thought they were pretty cool -- "Really neat, man -- totally retro!"
I don't think you can be considered fashionably "retro" if you have been wearing the style the whole time. I'm not sure what that is, exactly, but retro it ain't! The Adorable Husband disagrees, of course, and he's feeling quite fashionable and stylish.
Only 2166 Chickens
Senate hopeful Sue Lowden's plan for Healthcare reform is to barter for medical procedures. It's eminently mockable, not because the barter system is a bad idea (it's honestly not), but because she simply doesn't seem to grasp that the same people who don't have money for health care, have little to barter, and continues to repeat it. People bartered chickens for medical care becuase they couldn't afford to pay. That is not a solution to healthcare - bartering won't "Bring down prices in a hurry", unless, perhaps, you're a car dealer, it is a desperate, last-ditch attempt to get care and it turns medical care into a 'maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't" proposition. That's not acceptable.
Sue Lowden (R), the leading Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, recently articulated her vision of how the American health-care system should work. At a local candidate forum, Lowden, a former state senator and chair of the Nevada Republican Party, encouraged Nevadans to "go ahead and barter with your doctor." It would, she insisted, "get get prices down in a hurry."
"I'm telling you that this works," the Republican candidate explained. "You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say, 'I'll paint your house.' I mean, that's the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I'm not backing down from that system."
I would point out that "Before we all started having health care", people died of simple things that we can now prevent, and people with easily treatable diseases got no treatment at all because they couldn't pay for it. It just wasn't an option. The reason why people paid with chickens was because they were broke. Not because it was some idyllic time when things were simpler. It was because it was a horrid time when there were more poor people and there was no social safety net.
But, I really posted this because the following website made me laugh. A lot.
Some enterprising person has put up the Sue Lowden Chicken for Checkups web page, which just make me laugh uproariously.
Apparently bra- and panty-clad women prancing around in Victoria Secret ads are ok becuase the women are thin and have a-cup breasts. But try airing an ad for plus-sized lingerie, and the networks balk. Lane Bryant has a new Cacique lingerie ad that the networks didn't like, and apparently didn't want to air. The only reason I can see? Because the women aren't thin.
It appears that ABC and Fox have made the decision to define beauty for you by denying our new, groundbreaking Cacique commercial from airing freely on their networks.
ABC refused to show the commercial during "Dancing with the Stars" without restricting our airtime to the final moments of the show. Fox demanded excessive re-edits and rebuffed it three times before relenting to air it during the final 10 minutes of "American Idol," but only after we threatened to pull the ad buy.
These are the same networks that run Victoria Secret ads. What was their complaint? "Too much cleavage". Well, yeah, when you look at real women and not coat-hangers and they tend to have breasts. Real women look like this -- far more than look like the airbrushed version of beauty that the fashion mags would have us believe. Talk about a double standard.
Cool Science Badges
Just popping in to link to Cool Science Merit Badges.
"I work with way too much radioactivity, and yet still no discernable superpowers yet" is my favorite!
I can't believe you said that....
I can't believe that they actually used the name. I can't. It's just too damn funny. I'm laughing so hard I nearly ruptured something. Yup. I'm twelve.
Duluth Trading Company Ballroom Jeans. Yup. Ball Room.


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AmazonUK AmazonUS
Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Cello Concerto, op. 85. (1919) [30.02]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Suites for Cello, BWV1007-12 (c.1721)
No. 1 in G, BWV1007 [19.48]
No. 2 in D minor, BWV1008 [21.41]
Jacqueline Du Pr�, Cello
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli (Elgar)
rec live, Prague, 3 January 1967 (Stereo BBC recording) (Elgar); London, 1962, (Mono BBC Studio) (Bach). ADD
TESTAMENT HISTORICAL SBT 1388 [71.38]
The words Elgar Cello concerto and Jacqueline Du Pr� go together in many people�s minds. This piece written as a eulogy for the millions dead in World War One was made even more evocative in a highly emotional rendition by a radiant girl in her flowering youth. The conductor �Glorious John� had played in the cellos at the first disastrous performance and was born to conduct this work as he had done previously with Navarro (now on Testament). He had an answer for those who felt Jacqui�s version was �over the top� with a memorable comment to the effect that in youth one should be full of life and emotion. The EMI recording made in 1965 has been regularly re-issued ,coupled with the lovely �Sea Pictures� sung by Janet Baker, (GROC 5628862) and been voted top of all recordings. There has been a live version on Sony (SK76529) with husband Daniel Barenboim but there are elements in this 1971 recording that some thought too much for regular listening. Now we have a live BBC recording from 1967 in stereo and very good it is too. My only reservations are that it is at full price and, much more of a concern that over half the disc is devoted to Bach recordings readily available on Budget EMI (Gemini 586236 2).
In a recent and very interesting �Desert Island Discs� Jacqui�s husband Daniel Barenboim� chose this recording and explained why he had been so happy to let it be released .From the beginning the whole atmosphere of a thrilling concert makes it clear that as in the studio Du Pr� and Barbirolli achieve a special chemistry. The playing is top rate as is the orchestra. There is a good acoustic from Prague and all in all it�s a marvellous half an hour. The rendition is very similar to the EMI recording of two years earlier with an added thrill in the beginning of the finale. As ever the slow movement is poignant and tugs at the heart strings; what would a 50 year old Du Pr� have made of this?
After playing this I returned to the CBS (now Sony) live recording of four years later which shows that the reading developed over the years and this is more strikingly different than the two earlier recordings. The famous studio recording, among its other merits, has a �live� feel and, despite Testament�s efforts, a better sonority. Therefore although I�m delighted to have this recording I would be pushed to rate it an essential purchase but hope that more recordings will be released if they are of this standard.
Placing the two Bach suites on this disc is a mystery. They were recorded in mono in 1962 and although interesting are no more than an example of the huge potential of the 17 year old embryonic genius. The sound is nothing like as good as on the budget version (�5 for 2 discs) and the remastering has the effect of making the cellist seem anonymous; on EMI the sound-picture makes it clear we are listening to Du Pr�. I�m totally at a loss as to why something un-released could not have replaced the Bach. I don�t know whether the famous Schubert Trout Quintet could have been issued but it would have raised the importance of this disc.
To sum up: I�m pleased that this has been released but it falls into the Interesting rather than Essential category and effectively offers only 30 minutes of worthwhile listening.
David R Dunsmore


I didn't need much persuading to buy her book Resonate, about improving your presentations. (It's not a book of PowerPoint techniques, it explores the principles of good presentations instead.) I recommend it highly to all public speakers.
* She sees her job as to shepherd her staff. It is her duty to make sure the work is there so her one hundred employees can put food on their tables.
* She has a place both for the outgoing, quirky people who are good to put before clients and also the introverts who will hunker down and get a job done.
* Having been told by a coach that the two verbs applicable to her are 'conquer' and 'liberate', she uses these, not in what she calls an 'Attila the Hun' mode, but in terms of what she wants to do for others – again, specifically including her employees.
* When asked near the end what 'the good life' is, she emphatically rejects the notion of 'bling' in favour of generosity.
I came across this TED Talk by Benjamin Zander via Nancy Duarte's book 'Resonate'. Zander, an orchestral conductor, has a big vision for leadership that he doesn't doubt. He wants everyone to love classical music. And he knows he is doing his job when the eyes of his people are shining. Quite a challenge for any leader.
As reported in recent posts, I have been typing up some quick notes on The Starfish And The Spider as part of my sabbatical work. I have split them into several parts. They will appear over the next few days, one part per day. You will find certain themes recurring, not least those of humility and trust.
I am following a convention in that my comments should appear in a different colour from the rest of the text.
So here goes with some introductory words.
The main thesis of the book lies in the metaphor to which the title alludes. Historic organisations are like spiders, with a central control point of a brain. If the legs are progressively removed, the organisation is crippled more and more. Starfish are different. There is no central nervous system. Neural characteristics are distributed throughout their body. Cut a starfish into two and they will both grow into new, separate creatures. Today, we are seeing similar changes in companies and organisations in society. On the Internet, P2P networks, eBay, craigslist and others all exhibit this starfish characteristic. Similarly, political campaigning organisations such as the Animal Liberation Front and terrorist groups like al-Qaeda operate like this.
Historically, tribes like the Apaches were able to survive the attacks of Cortes because they were decentralised and 'leaderless', unlike the Aztecs and Incas, who were simply weaker spiders than the Spanish spider.
The book examines the characteristics of starfish groups in more detail, considers how they might be countered and looks at hybrid companies that combine elements of starfish and spider.
My interest in the book comes from it having become influential in emerging and missional church circles. I want to consider how far its models are consonant with a biblically rooted faith, and how far it is simply a business management model that has been as uncritically adopted in these parts of the church as the consumer corporation approach, where the senior pastor is the CEO, has in megachurch and other post-Enlightenment style churches.
Centralised organisations have a coercive structure and they need this to function well. Decentralised groups have an open structure. Leaders have influence through their example but not power. Rules exist, but they are not enforced from the top, they are distributed across the network. Decisions can be made anywhere. How does this compare with apostolic ministry? Paul has authority, but he has to plead and exhort; he also calls people to imitate him as he imitates Christ. It is not completely decentralised, although Paul himself pops up separately from the original apostles. However, it seems far from later and contemporary authoritarian or centralised models of church and leadership. There is a question here about the biblical appropriateness of much church leadership. 1 Thessalonians 5:12ff talks about 'leaders' in the church who 'are over you', but the basis for their receiving respect is their 'hard work'.


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Lapid: Ready to cooperate with Sa'ar in government
Sa'ar: We won't let Trump behavior happen here.
MK Yair Lapid speaks during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling on him to quit, at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on April 19, 2020.
(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid expressed willingness on Sunday to cooperate with New Hope candidate Gideon Sa'ar in the next government, which they both hope to form.
Lapid said during a media briefing that on issues like annexation and matters of religion and state, Sa'ar has opposite views, but that those issues would not prevent cooperating in the formation of a future government. He said they had good relations, had served in the same government before and could work together in the future.
When asked about cooperating with Lapid to form a government, Sa'ar told KAN Radio on Sunday that such cooperation could only come with him replacing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The public realizes – and so does Netanyahu – that I am the only candidate who can beat him," Sa'ar said.
Asked about US President Donald Trump's supporters storming the Capitol last week, Sa'ar criticized both Trump and Netanyahu, without mentioning the latter by name.
"I am thankful to President Trump, but as a believer in democracy, I am worried about his discourse that delegitimizes democracy, and we saw it before and after the election," he said. "Statements like 'they stole the election from me' are dangerous and undermine the foundations of society and democracy. We won't let it happen here in Israel."
Asked whether Netanyahu would behave similarly to Trump, Lapid said, "I don't see it happening. I don't see him fortifying himself in Balfour if he loses the election, and if so, he will be asked politely to leave."
Lapid told The Jerusalem Post at the press conference that Netanyahu had mishandled relations with the US.
"It was wrong to make Israel into a branch of the Republican Party," Lapid said. "It was wrong to fight Democrats so blatantly and throw away bipartisanship. Everyone is angry at Israel, and it could have been prevented. The Democrats now control the Senate, House and White House. In the US, they don't hesitate to say that Netanyahu treated them undiplomatically. I don't think they will take revenge, because they aren't like that, but they have long memories."
Asked about future political bonds, Lapid said he was not ruling out any merger, as long as it could have a positive impact on advancing his party's values and he and Yesh Atid would lead the list. He said he maintained positive ties with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and former justice minister Avi Nissenkorn, the heads of the new Israelis Party, but he did not expect such steps until just before the February 4 deadline.
"There needs to be a large force of people who believe in a liberal worldview," he said. "I am very in favor of mergers. The second party in our bloc is about a third of our size, so we will lead any list. Mergers that double our strength will be welcomed with joy.
But Lapid also cautioned that "there is a danger from all the shards of parties, because in the end, they throw votes in the trash and serve Netanyahu." He said he was not ruling out adding an Arab candidate to his list, but he is happy with Yesh Atid's current roster of MKs.
Lapid called Huldai a good man and a good manager and said he is glad he entered politics, but that it is not good for Tel Aviv that Huldai has remained mayor of the city after entering national politics.
Huldai said in interviews over the weekend that he would leave his post immediately after the election, before being sworn in as a member of Knesset.
Tags Knesset Yair Lapid yesh atid gideon sa'ar ron huldai New Hope Party 2021


Lisk (CURRENCY:LSK) traded 1.9% lower against the US dollar during the 1 day period ending at 0:00 AM Eastern on April 15th. One Lisk coin can currently be bought for approximately $1.97 or 0.00039024 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges including YoBit, Bitbns, Upbit and Exrates. Over the last week, Lisk has traded 3.1% lower against the US dollar. Lisk has a total market capitalization of $229.45 million and $5.60 million worth of Lisk was traded on exchanges in the last day.
Waves (WAVES) traded 5.9% lower against the dollar and now trades at $2.63 or 0.00052007 BTC.
Qtum (QTUM) traded 5.2% lower against the dollar and now trades at $2.82 or 0.00055624 BTC.
Clams (CLAM) traded 1.9% lower against the dollar and now trades at $7.43 or 0.00146897 BTC.
Blocknet (BLOCK) traded 0.8% lower against the dollar and now trades at $2.64 or 0.00052123 BTC.
BitBay (BAY) traded down 4.5% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0094 or 0.00000186 BTC.
Lisk is a distributed proof-of-stake (dPOS) coin that uses the Proof of Stake hashing algorithm. Its launch date was May 24th, 2016. Lisk's total supply is 131,295,922 coins and its circulating supply is 116,180,792 coins. The official website for Lisk is lisk.io. Lisk's official Twitter account is @LiskHQ and its Facebook page is accessible here. The official message board for Lisk is forum.lisk.io. The Reddit community for Lisk is /r/lisk and the currency's Github account can be viewed here.
Lisk can be traded on these cryptocurrency exchanges: Bit-Z, ChaoEX, BitBay, Cryptopia, CoinEgg, Binance, Huobi, HitBTC, Coinroom, Livecoin, Coinbe, LiteBit.eu, Coindeal, Poloniex, Bitbns, Bittrex, Exrates, Gate.io, YoBit, Upbit, OKEx and COSS. It is usually not possible to purchase alternative cryptocurrencies such as Lisk directly using US dollars. Investors seeking to acquire Lisk should first purchase Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in US dollars such as Gemini, GDAX or Changelly. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to purchase Lisk using one of the aforementioned exchanges.


text:
Q: passing rows of dataframe as argument to a function in python I am trying to pass columns of a dataframe as arguments to function in row wise manner but I am ending in an error.
I tried to do by loop as my actual dataframe and function requires loop only.
def sum(x, y, z):
     return x + y + z
Input = pd.DataFrame({'A': [1, 2,3], 'B': [10, 20,22],'C':[4,5,6]})
output = pd.DataFrame({'output': [15, 27,31]})

##What I tried, but this tells me it needs more arguments
for a in Input:
    sum(a)

Could anyone help me, as I need to iterate all the rows of dataframe as in argument to a function so in short number of columns of dataframe is equal to number of arguments in functions

A: Try this
Input.apply(lambda row : sum(row.A, row.B, row.C), axis=1)

axis = 1, mean on column level. can refer at pandas apply
It asks for more arguments because it does not know which column you want to do operation.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It was already 3:30 pm when I went back to Iloilo. I haven't found any accommodation yet. Felt like a legit backpacker that time. (haha!) So while having my late lunch around 3:30 PM, I tried to search for low cost inn. Good thing there is a pension house nearby and the room is just 500 per night- a major factor to consider.
Since it is already late and I'm too tired, I decided to explore the place the next day.
Plus, I need to make an itinerary so that I can maximize my time.
Here is the route that I've taken.
I was able to go through all these by their efficient public transportation.
Don't you love navigating through the map?
The red dot on the map is the location of the Ong Bun Pension house- the place where I've stayed.
I left the Pension House at Ledesma St. around 6:30 AM. Rode a jeepney going to Mohon Terminal and then transferred again to jeepney going to Miagao. I arrived at the town around 8:00 AM. I love how peaceful the town is. It is kinda similar to Coron.
I refuse to take interior photos because there's a funeral service on-going inside.
Going back to Iloilo City, you will pass by the this century old house in Mohon.
Below is the Dining area located at the Second Floor. I stayed here for an hour while enjoying the Tsokolate. Ang presko kasi eh.
"Dahil walang kasamang kumuha ng litrato, aasa nalang ako sa mga salamin"
It's good to see that Plazas in this province are utilized at every time of the day.
This one was during morning.
Molo Church: A Feminist Church.


Classes in agriculture are arranged to meet the needs of students who wish to complete their formal college work at Casper College or for persons who plan to obtain a bachelor's degree elsewhere. Every effort is made to assist students in selecting a program which will fit their needs. Modern agriculture is a business and a science as well as a way of life, and the faculty recognizes that it is as important to produce alert and well-informed citizens as it is to train competent farmers and ranchers.
This program is designed to introduce students to the science of range ecology and range management. Students will be exposed to all aspects necessary in range management and ecology such as soils, plant science, and livestock nutrition. This degree program will also meet the needs of students who plan on transferring to a university to continue their studies in range management/range ecology.


text:
Town defender to call time on career
Banbridge Town's Glen Waddell is set to call time on his career.
The defender was a 'colossus' in Saturday's all-important victory according to his boss.
Glen Waddell, who is set to retire this close season. INBL1543-280PB
But now the manager will have to do without one of his key men going forward.
"For me, Glen was man of the match on Saturday," said Ryan Watson.
"In those sort of games, you need big players who will stand up and lead by example. Glen did that for us on Saturday. He was a colossus.
"It was a very fitting way for him to finish off his career. He played a huge part in keeping the club in the league on what was a massive day for everyone connected with Banbridge Town.
"I know it wasn't a trophy and we didn't win anything, but it was a great day for Glen to go out on. He was absolutely fantastic."
Waddell enjoyed a long Irish League career, playing in two stints at Town which sandwiched spells at Loughgall in the Premiership and also Rathfriland Rangers.
Meanwhile, boss Watson was quick to praise the club's supporters for the key role they played in Saturday's 2-0 win over Sport and Leisure Swifts.
"I have the thank the supporters who went up there on Saturday," he said.
"They gave us a huge boost, seeing the numbers that had travelled.
"It was so great to see and we really have to thank them for that."


text:
Q: Azure Pipelines secure file unique identifier In Azure Pipelines you can upload a secure file.  Below I have uploaded a .p12 certificate file.

Then, you can reference this file with the InstallAppleCertificate@2 task.  How do you get the GUID value for the unique identifier of the file?  I am not seeing where I can find this value.

A: When viewing the secure file in your browser if you expand the URL it has a query parameter "secureFileId" which is the GUID you're looking for.

A:
How do you get the GUID value for the unique identifier of the file?

According to the reply for the issue 8112 on github:

The id is not displayed in the frontend but if you open the
WebDeveloperTools of a browser of your choice, go to
library->secureFiles and open/reload the page there is a request named
'securefiles' that returns a json containing the list of securefiles
and their ids.

As test, I enable the WebDeveloperTools by shortcut key F12, then open the page 'securefiles', I could get the GUID in the Response preview tab:

Besides, we could also use the file name instead of the GUID for the securefiles.


text:
The likes of Viagogo are actually weak and damaged
How must the smart people at Bessemer Venture Partners and Madrone Capital Partners, the two VC funds that bankrolled Viagogo's US$4.05bn acquisition of StubHub, be feeling right now?
For Madrone, in particular, it's been a tough couple of years. As well as losing $150m in the crash and burn of Theranos, they were also the lead investor in Quibi, backing the ill-fated short-form video service to the tune of $200m during the upwards part of its firework-like trajectory.
And then they met Eric Baker.
Much has been written about how the Viagogo/StubHub merger, completed one month before the world shut down, was, in the words of Forbes magazine, "The Worst Deal Ever".
I've written about it myself, on this website – highlighting how the deal appeared wildly overpriced, even before we all became self-professed experts in vaccines and lateral flow testing, and how a combination of regulation and innovation were, in the longer-term, likely to fundamentally disrupt a secondary ticketing "business model" wholly dependent on search advertising and large-scale touts.
Added to that was the spectre of an investigation by the UK's business regulator, the Competition & Markets Authority, who duly put the merger on hold, concluded that the acquisition created a "significant lessening of competition" in the UK, and subsequently ordered Viagogo to sell-off StubHub's international operations before integration can complete.
There's evidence to suggest much of the inventory on Viagogo doesn't actually exist
Would-be suitors for the international (ie loss-making) parts of StubHub, as well as being approved by the CMA, will be required to run the platform as an uncapped resale service and in direct competition with Viagogo. In the current environment, that sounds a fairly unalluring prospect. Although, as Madrone has repeatedly highlighted, fools and other people's money can be easily parted.
Meanwhile, and perhaps more alarming for those beleaguered investors, the credit rating of Viagogo's parent company PUG LLC started to nosedive. They took on an additional $330m in loans, and then, earlier this year, informed regulators in Australia – who'd hauled them over the coals for making false or misleading representations when reselling tickets – that they couldn't pay a AUD$7m fine due to the catastrophic impacts of the pandemic.
Oh, and Eric Baker reportedly embarked on a property spree in Beverly Hills, completing the purchase of his third mansion in September 2020 for $39m. Presumably, the pandemic not being quite so financially catastrophic for him personally.
And now, as detailed in a Guardian yesterday, there's evidence to suggest much of the inventory on Viagogo doesn't actually exist, and that speculative selling – some of it by businesses likely connected to Viagogo itself – is rife.
This could now be the opportunity to step up, to standardise the changes outlined in the FanFair guide
I certainly hope Bessemer and Madrone have digested the implications of Rob Davies' latest investigation into the bizarre and artificial constructs of this market – and that they've studied the February 2021 Phase 2 Final Report from the CMA, which concluded that the value of tickets resold through the UK's online ticketing platforms in 2019 was around £350m. Somewhat less than the £1.5-2.5bn estimated by Viagogo and StubHub.
As we all wait optimistically for gigs and festivals to return, and for normal life to resume, I hope that promoters, agents, artist managers, venues and primary ticket companies are also taking note, and recognising that, rather than all-powerful platforms, the likes of Viagogo are actually weak and damaged enterprises – and that the UK industry has been greatly empowered over recent years to prevent the exploitation of customers in the secondary market and offer them a better and fairer alternative when it comes to resale.
The wider industry can, of course, choose to do nothing. Shrug shoulders. Say how terrible ticket touting is while failing to enact the fairly simple measures that can help prevent it.
Alternatively, this could now be the opportunity to step up, to standardise the changes outlined in the guide FanFair published back in September 2019, and ensure there's a wider push to properly communicate how resale works, and that those services are the best they can be.
Viagogo disputes the claims made in the Guardian article. A spokesperson says: "Viagogo rejects the unsubstantiated allegations in the Guardian article referenced in this piece. No evidence was outlined in the article nor was any provided to the company despite repeated requests.
"There is a mechanism in place to raise issues formally either with Viagogo or the regulator. The Guardian chose instead to write a misinformed article.
"Viagogo has strict measures in place to ensure the accuracy and compliance of listings and to prevent fraudulent selling, which are audited annually by a third party.
"In all transactions there is an onus on the seller to agree to certain terms and conditions, which includes the right to sell a ticket.
"Where we are provided with proof from a relevant authority of an abuse of these rules we will investigate and, if confirmed, action will be taken."
Adam Webb is campaign manager for FanFair Alliance.
IQ Focus highlights live music's Lost Causes
The Lost Causes: Campaigners & Advocacy, the 11th IQ Focus virtual panel and the first following last week's break, caught up with industry pros whose work advocating for mental health, accessibility and diversity has been put on hold by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chaired by FanFair Alliance's Adam Webb, yesterday's discussion – the first in a series of 'Lost Causes' panels – welcomed Francine Gorman, outreach coordinator at Keychange; Jacob Sylvester Bilabel of Green Music Initiative; Natalie Wade, founder of Small Green Shoots; Attitude is Everything's head of volunteering and skills development, Paul Hawkins; and Musica Therapy's Sital Panesar to find out what they'd been doing during live music's shutdown – and how their work continues when it returns.
Wade expressed a typical view when she said Small Green Shoots – a charity which aims to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds engage with music and the arts – went from being "on the crest of the wave" at the start of 2020 to "everything being cancelled this summer", meaning "no one could finish their projects".
Similarly, said Hawkins, "the aim for 2020 was to be one big 20th-anniversary celebration" for accessibility charity Attitude is Everything. "The one positive we've got is that a 21st birthday still sounds like something worth celebrating!" he joked.
Panesar said the worldwide lockdowns in March weighed heavily on the industry's mental health, as "people lost their coping mechanisms". "Alongside the additional pressures of being in lockdown, that really compounds difficulties," she said.
For disabled people, Hawkins added, the pandemic has had a "huge impact on people who don't like to think of themselves as vulnerable".
Bilabel said March "felt like a car crash in slow motion", but the live music industry – and everyone working in it – will ultimately come through the other side
Gorman spoke of the importance of "building back better" when touring and festivals do resume. "Representation is a massive part of that conversation," she explained. "There are all kinds of voices and they deserved to be sustained in the industry, at every kind of level."
"We want to make sure that when live music does start again, disabled people have the same opportunities as any other talented people," Hawkins added.
Bilabel said March "felt like a car crash in slow motion", but emphasised that the live music industry – and everyone working in it – will ultimately come through the other side.
"Some companies will die, but the people behind them won't," he explained. "And the demand for culture – for festivals, for music, for cinema – will be even bigger than it is today."
The return of live, added Wade, is a chance for "people to say yes" to new opportunities. "It's so easy to say no, because there's less work. But I want people to take a chance, to say, 'Yes, maybe we can help you – let's get behind it.'"
For more discussion and debate, watch the session back on YouTube or Facebook now.
Lost no more: Campaigners take centre stage as IQ Focus returns
After taking a week off last week, IQ's popular virtual panel series, IQ Focus, returns this Thursday, inviting six new panellists to shine a light on worthy causes which have taken a back seat during the Covid-19 crisis.
Before Covid-19, a wide range of advocacy work was centred around live music, from campaigns to improve gender diversity in line-ups and accessibility for disabled customers to environmental projects and drives around recruitment, inclusion and mental health.
But what have experts and practitioners in these areas been doing since live music shut down? And when music events do return, against an uncertain economic backdrop is there a risk that their important work will be diminished?
The Lost Causes: Campaigners & Advocacy counts the broader cost of the business interruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic
The first in a new series of 'Lost Causes' discussions invites Francine Gorman, outreach coordinator at Keychange; Jacob Sylvester Bilabel of Green Music Initiative; Natalie Wade, founder of Small Green Shoots; Attitude is Everything's head of volunteering and skills development, Paul Hawkins; Musica Therapy's Sital Panesar; and chair Adam Webb (FanFair Alliance) to counts the broader cost of the business interruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
As with previous sessions, The Lost Causes: Campaigners & Advocacy will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube. To set a reminder for Thursday 13 August's session, head to IQ's Facebook or YouTube pages now.
CMA refers Viagogo/Stubhub merger for further investigation
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has referred the merger of secondary ticketing giants Viagogo and StubHub for an in-depth investigation, warning that the deal could result in "a substantial lessening of competition".
The watchdog began its investigation into Viagogo's US$4 billion all-cash acquisition of StubHub in December, following pressure from anti-ticket touting groups.
Earlier this month, the CMA stated that the deal, which would see both companies brought back under the control of founder Eric Baker, "could lead to customers losing out through higher prices, less innovation and a lack of real choice."
The organisation is now advising that the merger be investigated further, after giving Viagogo five days to respond to its initial concerns.
Adam Webb, campaign manager of anti-touting group FanFair Alliance "welcomes" the CMA's decision.
"We remain committed to our belief that the combination of the two companies is a good move for customers worldwide"
"Over recent years, there have been major steps forward in the UK to eradicate the bad practices of sites like Viagogo and StubHub and those of the large-scale ticket touts who dominate their supply chain," says Webb.
"Even in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, the thought of such a business monopolising "for profit" secondary ticketing remains highly problematic.
"Viagogo's predatory marketing practices and business model continue to endanger audiences, and its $4.05bn acquisition of StubHub raises acute competition concerns, particularly in the UK."
A Viagogo spokesperson says that the company "will continue to work diligently with the CMA" during the second phase of their review.
"We remain committed to our belief that the combination of the two companies is a good move for customers worldwide."
CMA: Viagogo/StubHub merger to drive up prices
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has stated that the merger of secondary ticketing giants Viagogo and Stubub could result in "higher prices and fewer options" for fans.
The watchdog began its investigation into Viagogo's US$4 billion all-cash acquisition of StubHub in December, following pressure from anti-ticket touting groups. The deal would see both companies brought back under the control of founder Eric Baker.
Upon investigation, the CMA has found that the merger would drive up prices for fans wishing to resell or buy tickets on the secondary market, given the companies are "close competitors in an already very concentrated market with limited alternatives". (Together, the ticketers hold 80% of the secondary market in the UK.)
"Viagogo is already the largest secondary ticketing company in the UK by some considerable margin and has purchased an established rival, with no other significant competitors in the market," comments CME executive director, Andrea Gomes da Silva.
"We are therefore concerned that this transaction could lead to customers losing out through higher prices, less innovation and a lack of real choice."
"[Viagogo] should not be allowed to monopolise for-profit 'secondary ticketing'"
The CMA also states that the current impact the coronavirus pandemic is exerting on the live events business is unlikely to adversely affect Viagogo and StubHub's position in the market in the long term, in comparison to other competitors.
Viagogo has five days to address the CMA's concerns by offering a solution that would maintain effective competition in the UK market. The deal will be referred for an in-depth phase two investigation, if the secondary ticketer fails to do so.
Adam Webb, campaign manager of anti-touting group FanFair Alliance, says the organisation "welcomes" the announcement.
"Viagogo remains a highly controversial business," says Webb. "The company has widely flouted consumer protection law in the UK, and remains under investigation in numerous other countries. Even today, amidst this terrible crisis that has decimated live music, Viagogo's suppliers are attempting to sell tickets to cancelled events.
"Such a company, that has created thousands of consumer victims, should not be allowed to monopolise for-profit 'secondary ticketing'. That outcome would raise significant competition concerns in the UK and threaten to reverse hard-won reforms to prevent abuses in this market."
"As we have throughout this process, we will continue to work diligently with the CMA during their review of the transaction," says a Viagogo spokesperon. "We remain committed to our belief that the combination of the two companies is a good move for customers worldwide."
StubHub, whose president Sukhinder Singh Cassidy announced she was stepping down last month, is currently facing lawsuits in the US and Canada on account of its Covid-19 refund policy.
Stubagogo: One of the worst-timed acquisitions in history?
"As we sit here today, [coronavirus] has not [affected ticket sales], because most of the live events where we've seen cancellations have really been in China, and a few in Taiwan and Singapore. Most important for everyone, we hope that they get it under control, and solve the health crisis – but right now it's been isolated to Asia specifically, and mostly China."
(Eric Baker, interview with Squawk Alley, CNBC, 21 February 2020)
Viagogo started last month in typically bullish mood.
In the slipstream of their $4.05bn acquisition of StubHub in mid-February, on March 7th the UK's Daily Telegraph ran a news story suggesting Covid-19 was proving a boon for the secondary ticketing market. While the rest of the live events sector faced impending crisis, listings on Viagogo had apparently risen 45% in the previous week.
According to the report, this was due to "nervous concertgoers and sports fans frantically trying to resell tickets for major events amid the panic around the spread of coronavirus."
As someone with an interest in this area, I quickly checked viagogo.co.uk.
Strange.
There was no noticeable surge. As per usual, 80–90% of ticket listings were accompanied by star-shaped icons – denoting that the seller is a 'trader' rather than a consumer. I contacted the journalist, asking for the evidence to substantiate these claims. (They are yet to return my emails.)
In the month since, events have moved fast.
Despite closing the StubHub acquisition on 13 February – in his CNBC interview, Baker claimed to have paid $2bn in cash and a further $2bn in debt financing – further integration between the two platforms (dubbed 'Stubagogo') is being prevented because of an initial enforcement order from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, with the possibility of additional investigation.
Viagogo's ownership of StubHub doesn't bring much to the party, aside from a highly toxic reputation
Effectively, this has left StubHub in a state of limbo.
Speaking to Billboard, a StubHub spokesperson stated they are "currently operating as an independent company, no longer under the support of eBay but not yet operated by Viagogo." Albeit if you search eBay for event tickets, the site still defaults to StubHub and describes StubHub as "an eBay company".
Again, all quite strange.
And then the full impacts of live music shutdown started to unfold.
On March 25th, StubHub announced it was furloughing two thirds of its workforce, swiftly followed by a change in company policy on refunds. Buyers of tickets to cancelled events in North America would now be offered vouchers in lieu of cash.
Predictably, this has already attracted a $5m class-action lawsuit, on the basis that StubHub brought the crisis on itself as a result of their publicly stated policy of paying out their largest suppliers (such as 'super tout' Julien Lavallee) in advance of events.
It sounds like rough times ahead.
But if the future looks bleak for StubHub, it's arguably bleaker for Viagogo.
Moody's has downgraded Viagogo's corporate outlook from "stable" to "negative"
Even before Covid-19, the acquisition of StubHub looked wildly overpriced. $4.05bn is reportedly 25 x StubHub's EBITDA – an astonishing amount for a relatively mature business operating predominantly in the highly congested US market and facing substantial commercial and regulatory challenges.
Viagogo, meanwhile, is a relative minnow in the US. Its ownership of StubHub doesn't really bring much to the party, aside from a highly toxic reputation. The acquisition has essentially resulted in a change of ownership – no more, no less – whereas a merger between, say, StubHub and Vivid Seats, would have been genuinely transformative and created a much larger market-dominant platform.
Added to this, outside the US, Viagogo's long-term viability looks far less secure than it did 2–3 years ago. In the UK, the recent sentencing of Peter Hunter and David Smith, who sold substantial volumes of tickets through Viagogo, has imperilled the business model of large-scale resellers on whom the secondary platforms rely. With more trials to come, Viagogo's supply chain looks to be under threat.
Meanwhile, the company still faces legal actions in several other territories, all of which are likely to probe and cross-examine Viagogo's less-than-transparent business practices.
An insight into these can be found on the Federal Trade Commission website, in an illuminating exchange of emails between the CMA, Viagogo's lawyers at CMS, and the FTC – all of which indicate an almost pathological reluctance by Viagogo to disclose information about key staff, key shareholders, its turnover or its byzantine corporate structures including companies such as Basset Capital LLC, Grover Street Holdings, FJ Labs LLC, Andro Capital Management, IFOT Services Ltd and VGL Services.
This could well be one the most poorly timed acquisitions in recent corporate history
Earlier this year, the Moody's rating agency downgraded the corporate family rating of Pugnacious Endeavors (Viagogo's parent company) to B2, before changing the company's outlook from "stable" to "negative" – citing both a "lack of public financial disclosure" and "the absence of board independence" for its changed credit profile.
While we wait for the CMA to make further announcements on the merger, the weeks and months ahead will likely be of some consequence.
Viagogo has already put staff at its customer service centre on 30 days' "protective notice". Their purchase of Google advertising appears to have stopped dead.
Listings are dormant, not surging.
But above that is the fact that Eric Baker and his investors appear to have paid out $4.05bn for a crippled business that lies, according to some reports, on the verge of bankruptcy.
In the context of the unprecedented crisis being played out in all our lives, this could well be one the most poorly timed acquisitions in recent corporate history.
Convicted touts sentenced to 6.5 years in prison
A pair of internet ticket touts have been sentenced to a combined six-and-a-half years in prison, in the first case of its kind in the UK against fraudulent resellers.
Peter Hunter and David Smith, who operated as the company BZZ Limited, received four years and 30 months in jail respectively, following an investigation by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, and trail at Leeds Crown Court.
Earlier this month, jurors found Hunter and Smith guilty of fraudulent trading – for the resale of tickets that were invalid, at risk of being refused or that they did not own, and reducing the number of tickets available to consumers at face value – as well as of possessing an article for use in fraud – for using ticket bots and credit or debit cards under different names.
The pair committed offences between May 2010 and December 2017, making a net profit of £3.5 million in the last two years of fraud alone, buying and reselling tickets to concerts by artists including Ed Sheeran, McBusted, Taylor Swift and Coldplay, as well as to shows including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
According to the National Trading Standards, Hunter and Smith used almost 100 different names, 88 postal addresses and more than 290 emails to evade detection, as well as using specialist software including bots, Insomniac Browser, Omni Checker and Roboform and taking steps to circumvent captchas or IP address detection.
"This is an important milestone in the fight to tackle online ticket touts who fraudulently buy and resell tickets to thousands of victims to line their own pockets," comments Lord Toby Harris, chair of National Trading Standards.
"It's a fantastic result for music lovers across the UK, and should also send shockwaves through the likes of Viagogo and StubHub"
"Today's sentences send a strong message to similar online ticket touts: these are criminal offences that can lead to prison sentences. I hope this leads to a step-change in the secondary ticketing market, making it easier and safer for consumers buying tickets in the future."
Adam Webb, campaign manager for anti-tout group FanFair Alliance, says that the sentences "a major blow to online ticket touts who break the law and rip off the public.
"It's a fantastic result for National Trading Standards and for music lovers across the UK, and should also send shockwaves through the likes of Viagogo and StubHub whose businesses are dependent upon large-scale resellers.
"By facilitating the activities of online touts, there must be concerns that the platforms themselves are profiting from the sale of tickets unlawfully acquired by their biggest suppliers.
"This should be investigated as a matter of urgency, and lead to action against those platforms if they have benefitted from the proceeds of criminality."
Viagogo last week announced it had 'completed' its US$4 billion all-cash acquisition of StubHub, although the merger still needs approving by regulatory bodies, including the UK's CMA, before they can operate as one entity.
Photo: Markus Hillgärtner/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) (cropped)
Ticket touts found guilty of fraud in UK court
Internet ticket touts Peter Hunter and David Smith, who reportedly made almost £11 million from reselling tickets through secondary sites, have been found guilty of fraud today (13 February).
Following a three-month trial at Leeds Crown Court – the first of its kind regarding secondary ticketing in the UK – the pair, who traded as Ticket Wizz and BZZ, were found guilty of fraudulent trading and possessing an article for fraud. Both men had denied all charges.
The touts are believed to have spent over £4m between 2015 and 2017 buying tickets from primary sellers with automated buying software, including 750 Ed Sheeran tickets in 2017 alone. They then sold the tickets on secondary platforms including Viagogo and now-shuttered platforms, GetMeIn and Seatwave, for substantial profit.
According to the National Trading Standards, Hunter and Smith used almost 100 different names, 88 postal addresses and more than 290 emails to evade detection. The touts also engaged in 'speculative selling', listing tickets for sale that they did not own.
The pair are also thought to have flogged tickets to shows by artists such as Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Liam Gallagher. Sheeran's manager Stuart Camp, was among those to testify at the trial, taking action against the resellers after spotting £75 tickets for a Teenage Cancer Trust gig being sold on for almost 1,000 times the price.
"I hope this prosecution leads to a step-change in the secondary ticketing market"
"This is a landmark case for National Trading Standards and should reassure consumers that the fraudulent practices of secondary ticket sellers will no longer be tolerated," comments Lord Toby Harris, chair of National Trading Standards.
"I hope this prosecution leads to a step-change in the secondary ticketing market, making it easier and safer for consumers buying tickets in the future."
The verdict is the second victory for anti-tout campaigners this week, after UK watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) put the brakes on the Stubhub/Viagogo merger on Monday, leading to a further push for more in depth investigations into secondary ticketing practices.
"Today's verdict shines further light on the murky world of secondary ticketing, and the dependency of websites such as Viagogo and StubHub upon large-scale commercial ticket resellers," comments Adam Webb, campaign manager of anti-tout organisation FanFair Alliance.
"We strongly suspect Peter Hunter and David Smith are not exceptional, and that other suppliers to these sites may also acquire tickets by unlawful means – no questions asked."
"Today's verdict shines further light on the murky world of secondary ticketing"
Webb adds that the National Trading Standards now must "urgently increase the scope of their investigations", while calling for the CMA "to apply further scrutiny towards the secondary ticketing market overall."
"If the likes of Viagogo, StubHub and other secondary sites operate without due diligence, then their directors must be held to account," says Webb.
When contacted by IQ, a Viagogo spokesperson condemned the use of "software to gain an unfair advantage when buying tickets" and stated the site removed the two sellers "as soon as we became aware of their fraudulent activity".
The Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (Feat) similarly welcomes the verdict, which campaign lead Katie O'Leary says is "wholly appropriate given the significance and scope" of the pair's actions.
O'Leary states that the problem is not limited to "a couple of rogue actors", stressing that the secondary market is "rife with consumer exploitation".
"This is a clear example of the lengths that people go to in order to harvest tickets and sell them on at extortionate prices"
"This case is a clear example of the great lengths that people go to in order to harvest tickets and sell them on at extortionate prices to satisfy their personal greed," continues O'Leary.
"We hope today's ruling sets a precedent for action against scalpers, both in the UK and across Europe, and encourages more consistent policing and sanctioning of both exploitative traders and the marketplaces which profit from their actions."
According to Jonathan Brown, chief executive of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers, the verdict does set "a hugely significant and useful precedent".
"Our members worked closely with National Trading Standards to compile the evidence used to secure the conviction and we are pleased they were able to play a role in protecting ticket buyers," says Brown.
"STAR will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that ticket buying is safe for consumers. Our advice is to buy from STAR members who are authorised to sell tickets for events and comply with a strict code of practice including an approved dispute resolution service in the unlikely event of something going wrong."
Photo: Raph_PH/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) (cropped)
Ethical ticket resales up 50% at See Tickets
See Tickets has sold 50,000 tickets through its ticket resale platform Fan-to-Fan in 2019 so far, 25,000 more than in the same period of last year.
Launched in 2017, Fan-to-Fan was the UK's first integrated face-value ticket resale platform. The service allows customers to resell unwanted tickets at the price they paid for them or less.
"We were the first ticket agency to bring a truly integrated ethical resale site to the market and figures show the service is more in demand than ever," comments See Tickets CEO Rob Wilmshurst.
"Buyers and sellers want a fair resale platform they can trust and because we only list tickets originally purchased on our site, we can vouch for everything being resold in terms of its validity."
"Buyers and sellers want a fair resale platform they can trust and because we only list tickets originally purchased on our site, we can vouch for everything being resold in terms of its validity"
See Tickets launched a secure, non-transferable digital ticketing system earlier this year, issuing tickets with dynamically refreshing barcodes that are uniquely tied to the fan's user account, mobile device and See Tickets app. The feature has been used on tours for artists including Declan McKenna and Bombay Bicycle Club.
See Tickets also created a paperless ticket for Ed Sheeran's summer shows in conjunction with promoters DHP and Kilimanjaro.
Adam Webb, campaign manager for anti-tout group FanFair Alliance says: "See Tickets have been vocal about their opposition to exploitative secondary ticketing for many years and FanFair has welcomed the steps they have taken to eliminate touting and provide a better customer experience. It's really encouraging to see ticket buyers embrace Fan-to-Fan in such numbers."
Campaigners urge CMA to investigate StubHub takeover
Anti-ticket touting campaign group FanFair Alliance has written to UK regulators to urge an investigation into the takeover of StubHub by Viagogo, warning that the US$4bn acquisition could "leave a single market-dominant platform" with no competition in the secondary ticketing sector.
In a letter to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), FanFair campaign manager Adam Webb writes that the deal "would concentrate market power in 'for-profit' secondary ticketing in the hands of a single operator (a combined Viagogo/StubHub would control closer to 100% of the UK market, far above the CMA's 40% benchmark) and potentially result in anti-competitive behaviour with significant and damaging implications throughout the UK's live music sector."
One of the CMA's criteria for if a company might have a dominant position in the market if is if it has more than a 40% market share in its given sector.
Following the shutdown of Ticketmaster's Get Me In! and Seatwave sites this time last year, Viagogo and StubHub are the last of the 'big four' ticket resale sites operating in the UK.
"A merger of the two would potentially leave a single market-dominant platform"
Differentiating between B2C (business-to-consumer, describing tickets sold by professionalised touts and for-profit ticket resale businesses) and C2C (consumer-to-consumer ticket exchange, such as Ticketmaster Exchange, See Tickets' Fan-to-Fan and CTS Eventim's FanSALE) platforms, Webb notes that the combined Viagogo and StubHub would be the only remaining major B2C resale site, effectively eliminating all competition in that market.
"Under a single dominant B2C platform, we would be concerned that such practices would become increasingly prevalent in the UK," Webb adds, "pushing the market away from consumer-friendly ticket resale and towards the kind of anti-consumer practices currently being investigated in North America."
Other organisations urging the CMA to look at the merger include the Consumers' Association (Which?), which said earlier this week that "the regulator should closely examine this deal and the impact it could have on competition in the sector to ensure consumers do not lose out".


The amazing truth is that my Dad is stable and settled into his own room in a nursing home that can care for his medical needs.
My mom Survived her opperation and is recovering... staying at my aunts house.
My Aunt Kathy is working as a Physicians Assistant at a hospital... good challenging work... but also draining at times.
The cousins are all in an intergenerational soup that is all to common. The sepparation and remarriage of Doug... my uncle to a new wife has ripped the foundation of trust in what the family knew as true. To honestly look at our story means to have to sort through a lot of pain.
I wish I could get everyone in our journey to wrestle with the honesty of many of the Biblical narratives. They openly talk of how humans maked choices that has consequences over the generations. It also points to God who continues to seek ways to intervene and impact our day to day lives.
The larger stories that we reference in our hearts are the stories... Much like the stars in the sky... impacted early nautical navigation... These stories shape the landscape of our choices.
My Uncle Mickey served his country well and fought in the Korean war. During that war the government issued each soldier a New Testament and a pack of cigarrettes. He died of cancer. He had a military burial... and spent his life fixing and maintaining Heliocopeters. I pray that his soul found rest.
Today I have been reminded of the way journaling has been a means of grace to my soul. I Tim. 4:16 says, "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." So I am back to the work of recalling and reflection... here... and I will also add a visual element to the mix... See the Link to "JawArt".


text:
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective
Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
Time Wasters
They're Only Chasing Safety
Artist: Underoath
Label: Tooth and Nail/Solid State
Time: 10 tracks
Underoath does it again! For starters, they've changed genres; although not as drastic a change as in the past. The CD's is called: They're Only Chasing Safety, and now the genre is straight-up Emo Core. The band has moved from a previous sound of heavily synthesizer-led Emo Hardcore, and before that from extreme metal, to the synth Emo Hardcore of the day. They're Only Chasing Safety moves Underoath into a better position to compete against many mainstream artists, interestingly, just as they got accepted to play the prestigious Warped Tour.
They're Only Chasing Safety talks about how people try to "chase" safety, but only spin their wheels. People try to find comfort and, for the moment, are able to escape the pain. However, without doing anything differently, lasting comfort is elusive. Even though this CD is "emotic" in nature, Underoath still jams out, to rock it up with screams, cranked guitars, cranking music, and clean vocals.
It is aggressively emotional music. Underoath takes something people wouldn't normally desire to listen to, like combining emotional music and hardcore, and makes it into something interesting.
Underoath is an odd band; constantly changing sounds, but with each change still able to demonstrate their ability to rock out that particular genre.
Len Nash 8/29/2004
Copyright © 1996 - 2004 The Phantom Tollbooth


If you are familiar with Tales of Vesperia [PlayStation3 the Best Version], why not let others know?
Awesome story, music and gameplay. I highly recommend it!
Is one of my favorites "Tales of", the gameplay is awesome and the story is very interesting.
Finally got the chance to buy Tales of Vesperia I wanted to see if it really did live up to the hype. Really enjoying it so far.
the price for Tales of Vesperia [PlayStation3 the Best Version] drops.
Tales of Vesperia [PlayStation3 the Best Version] is available.
there are new images or links available for Tales of Vesperia [PlayStation3 the Best Version].


text:
https://apnews.com/article/education-kentucky-henderson-charters-university-of-kentucky-854956a72a4204401e9fcdc2fe5df1e2
Fraternity charter pulled after University of Kentucky death
December 22, 2021 GMT
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The University of Kentucky said it has found no criminal wrongdoing directly related to the death of a fraternity member in October but has found illegal activity involving identification cards as well as violations of university policy.
Based on two university investigations, the National FarmHouse Chapter revoked the charter of the UK FarmHouse chapter, and UK revoked the fraternity's status for at least four years, according to a statement from the university.
The investigations by the university's police and office of student conduct began after the death of Thomas "Lofton" Hazelwood, 18, of Henderson, a new member of the FarmHouse Fraternity, at the fraternity house.
Earlier this month, a coroner concluded that alcohol toxicity caused Hazelwood's death and classified the death as an accidental overdose. The coroner's report said no criminal charges would be filed.
The university said fraternity members purchased fraudulent identification cards, which is illegal. The investigations also found that apart from Hazelwood's death, there were violations of university and student conduct guidelines, including hazing, underage drinking and misuse of alcohol, and failure to follow COVID-19 health and safety guidelines.
The university suspended all activities for the fraternity after Hazelwood's death and halted all pledge activities for fraternities on campus.
The investigations continue, but UK said significant changes are not expected.


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Q: Convert Arraylist into a 2d Array? I Basically wanted to take an input and store it into a 2D Array called mat with a 3x3 size
so i tried taking an input string, convert them into char and then sotring them in an array list and this is what i wrote so far.
System.out.println("Enter Message");
Scanner Scanner1 = new Scanner(System.in);
String plaintext = Scanner1.next();
int counter = 0;
// will get chars till the end of input length
while(plaintext.length() > 0){
    char text = plaintext.charAt(counter);
    counter++;
    ArrayList mylist = new ArrayList();
    mylist.add(text);
    System.out.println(mylist);          // chars of string
}

How can I convert this List into A 2D
I tried something else also i tried using split like this
System.out.println("Enter Message");
Scanner Scanner1 = new Scanner(System.in);
String plaintext = Scanner1.next();

String[] parts = plaintext.split("");

for (int i=1; i<=3; i++){
     System.out.println(parts[i]);
}

This gives me
    H
    e
    l
Sorted as 1 row with 3 columns
The output of the Arraylist is something like this
[H]
[e]
[l]
[l]
[o]

I would like a 2D array like this:
[H][e][l];
[l][o][w];
[x][y][z];

or
H e l;
l o w;
x y z;

I just need to convert my input string into the 2d form of array and I've been trying a lot I cant get it right.

A: Consider:
 String[][] parts = new String[3][3];

 // then do this in your loop instead of adding to the list
 parts[count/3][count%3] = text;

However you also have other issues. In your first loop, the length will always be > 0 and you will keep getting chars until you get an IndexOutOfBoundsException. Consider doing a for loop instead.


Your husband began to stay at work? Goes to talk on the phone in another room or constantly carries it with him? Suddenly began to give expensive gifts, although I did not do? All these are signs that your boyfriend on the side had a mistress. Many lawful wives found themselves in such a situation, interested in the question: "Should I talk to the seducer of her husband or let it go?"
Information about her husband's infidelity in the first place, is causing a storm of negative emotions. Every woman, upon learning of this betrayal, may commit rash acts. One of them is to meet with the other woman, to throw her tantrum and be sent to hell. The heat of the moment you can do anything you want, but if you value the relationship with your husband and you are not ready to break up with him, it is best to calm down and start thinking objectively.
First, you must understand that your every action, especially a wrong, can lead to irreversible consequences. Calling lover, you give her reason to rejoice, as she will feel mentally stronger lawful wife, especially if she has long term plans for your man. She'll understand that you are also aware of what is happening and begin to act more actively, even more fueling you with hatred.
All this negativity will cause domestic scandals and further alienate you from your spouse, who will think that his wife has become unbearable. The result – divorce.
Another scenario: you came to your senses, all weighed up and decided to call or meet with her husband's lover, setting itself on a quiet conversation. What do you think, is it worth doing it? And what does a competitor offer to leave your husband alone? Right, she's probably listening to you will not. If a girl or woman dared to have a relationship with a married man, she was absolutely indifferent to the feelings of others, in particular to your misery. This meeting may lead only to lower your self-esteem.
There are also cases when a mistress knows that her lover is married. It happens, but very rarely. Even in these circumstances, the conversation with the darling husband to anything will not lead. Usually men don't tell their mistresses about the wives, because it is very afraid of losing them.
It is important to understand whether your husband has to you any feelings. After all, if he learns from his beloved woman that you talked to her, the result can be quite disastrous.
And yet, when all the feelings subside and the situation will eventually be resolved in your favor, don't remind my husband at every opportunity about his infidelity. All people make mistakes, the important thing is that your husband eventually made the right choice. If you still failed to get through to a loved one, try to let him go. You know what they say: "love can not be".
A call from the husband's mistress may be surprised. How to behave during the interview? Whether it is necessary to speak with such a woman? There are some tips that will help on the verbal level to put the other woman in place.
Nothing portends trouble, but suddenly the phone rings and there is her husband's mistress? How to be in this sticky situation? Every woman reacts differently to such a call. Further actions would depend on who it was addressed to this call.
Spouse's phone rang, and it was not close? 85% of women will answer the call yourself. Call the mistress. How to be? You can just hang up. In the end, she's not calling you. So let the spouse with her and talking. Will he clarify your position on what you all think about his infidelities and women. With his mistress well keep dialogue to a minimum. In the end, if it's just occasional woman in the life of a spouse, and to talk with her about. If the husband is going to withdraw from you, in dialogue with the mistress also makes no sense. She maybe new to tell you? Save your nerves, just ignore.
If a mistress is calling you, it makes sense to talk to her. For example, find out what her plans for the future. Say a calm and even tone. You do not have to make excuses or feel guilty, you do not sleep with a strange man. Do not be nervous, do not cry. Keep a polite and cold conversation. The interviewee must not understand what you are feeling at the moment. If emotions overflow, simply turn the dialogue under the pretext of strong employment. And already when I think of what to say, you can call back.
Never stoop to insults. Even if a mistress forced you to this. Remember that a self-respecting woman doesn't allow herself to uncivilized behavior. Push the interviewee intellect and cold. Emphatic politeness – a guarantee that the caller will be out faster than you.
Does not prove their right to husband. In the end, if he left you without even telling you about it, you already win. So this woman not so very dear to him. Why prove the obvious? Just listen carefully to her husband's mistress, and then wish her success in life. Dating a married man. She is not very lucky in life, since she took such a desperate step.
Don't threaten. First, you threats only spur her husband's mistress for some unknown things. It is possible that you will only get worse. Secondly, the threat will affect your nerves. Why do you need it? Let the nervous one who is to blame.


Requirements for accessing Business Suite from a workstation for the first time.
The following is a set of steps to help debug why a user can not connect to FBS application from a client workstation.
Contains images referenced in the Business Software directory.


text:
Q: Is it possible to program custom tvOS screensavers? I want to know how to create a custom tvOS screensaver. Ideally in Swift. If there is no such thing yet (macOS has ScreenSaverView for example) please tell me if there is another way to create a custom screensaver

A: No that is unfortunately not possible to do today with tvOS. You have to use the built-in ones.


While superficially flippant, this definition is rather accurate and succinct. It's what I'm going to adopt when explaining it at a high level to someone new.
I think there are two levels to understanding recursion. The first is at the theory level. There has to be a way for the repeat calling to end, either a base case, as was shown in the countdown example, or a situation where the function runs out of data to process, as was shown in the animals hierarchy example.
The second is at the practice level. I've sometimes found it cognitively difficult to "see" the recursive pattern and how it might apply in a solution. It helps to visualise what's happening, and so that's what we'll do here with the animals hierarchy example.
The variable calls is used simply to count how many times the makeTree function is called. There's now a 3rd parameter level in the makeTree function signature which we seed with the value '0'; it's incremented each time the function calls itself, so we can count how deep the rabbit hole goes.
The main structure is the same. And clearly there are 9 calls. That makes sense, because there are 9 candidate parents (including null, from the initial call).
We can also see how many levels the recursion descends (5), and how it ascends too, from the last feline parent candidate 'siamese' at level 5, back up to the 'dogs' parent candidate at level 4.
(The fact that there are no children belonging to any of the candidate parent nodes at level 5 is represented by (none)).
And there you have it. Practice thinking about recursion, and how it applies to problems like this.
Oh yes, and there's also something I wanted to say about tail call optimisation, but there isn't space here to do any justice to it. Perhaps a subject for a later post. In the meantime, remember the immortal and recursive suggestion from Scarfolk Council: "For more information, please reread".


Personality also refers to the pattern of thoughts, feelings, social adjustments, and behaviors consistently exhibited over time that strongly influences one's expectations, self-perceptions, values, and attitudes. It also predicts human reactions to other people, problems, and stress.<ref name = Winnie>Winnie, J.F. & Gittinger, J.W. (1973) An introduction to the personality assessment system. Journal of Clinical Psychology, Monograph Supplement, 38,1=68</ref><ref>Krauskopf, C.J. & Saunders, D.R, (1994) Personality and Ability: The Personality Assessment System. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland</ref> There is still no universal consensus on the definition of "personality" in psychology. Gordon Allport (1937) described two major ways to study personality: the nomothetic and the idiographic. Nomothetic psychology seeks general laws that can be applied to many different people, such as the principle of self-actualization or the trait of extraversion. Idiographic psychology is an attempt to understand the unique aspects of a particular individual.


On September 15, the great opening of a new fusion restaurant Split with an original cuisine will take place in the format of a private party-presentation. The guests will be met with refined buffet in Pan-Asian style from the restaurant chef Roman Shchurko, unique desserts from the chef pastry maker, wide assortment of exclusive wine and exotic cocktails. The night is expected to be filled with numerous pleasant surprises and unexpected gifts: exciting show-program, sets by famous Ukrainian DJ, music improvisations by favorite saxophonist and many other. Master of ceremonies – famous Ukrainian TV presenter and showman Andriy Domanskyy.
Starting from September 16, new fusion restaurant will be opened for all visitors. The guests will be impressed with beautiful panoramic view to the city center. Refined design in loft style, open kitchen, huge aquarium with seafood, enoteca with wine from all over the world, smoking room, wide assortment of hookahs and cigars constitute an incomplete list of the premium-class restaurant advantages.
Exclusive Pan-Asian cuisine in original interpretation of our chef, as well as refined Japanese cuisine and non-traditional Ukrainian fusion cuisine will surprise our guests with interesting combination of ingredients and tastes. Original custom-made tableware and unique presentation of the dishes will add festivity and special touch to your evening. Starting from 00:00 there will be a pleasant lounge atmosphere and the best sets by the DJ.
To make a table reservation, please dial +38 (032) 242 22 00.


text:
A Retrospective 10-Year Analysis of Water Absorbent Bead Ingestion in Children
Emerg Med Int. 2018 May 6;2018:5910527. doi: 10.1155/2018/5910527. eCollection 2018.
Feride Mehmetoğlu 1
1 Department of Pediatric Surgery, Dortcelik Children's Hospital, 16140 Bursa, Turkey.
DOI: 10.1155/2018/5910527
Aim: This retrospective case series was designed to evaluate the clinical experience of pediatric patients who had ingested water absorbent beads (WABs) and review the relevant literature.
Materials and methods: A retrospective chart analysis of 21 children who were admitted to the emergency service or outpatient clinic with complaints of swallowing WABs during a 10-year period was performed. The patients were divided into two groups: 6 patients who were hospitalized and 15 patients who were observed as outpatients for groups 1 and 2, respectively. All data were screened with respect to presentation, age, gender, clinical and radiological findings, modalities of treatment, and follow-up.
Results: All patients were asymptomatic with uneventful outcomes. Laboratory studies, X-ray, and ultrasound examinations revealed normal results. None of the patients underwent surgery or other medical procedures. Gastrointestinal system obstruction or any other pathological findings were not detected after WAB ingestion. No complications were identified during follow-up.
Discussion: This first clinical study showed that asymptomatic patients do not require inpatient observation and laboratory investigations, X-ray, and ultrasound. However, results of the present study cannot be generalized to children of all ages due to the few cases of bowel obstruction reported to date in small children.


text:
November 5, 2007 Issue
The Endless Scroll
New works by Philip Glass.
In the opera "Appomattox," festive orchestral touches ironically undercut grim imagery.
OWEN SMITH
Philip Glass is without a doubt America's most famous living composer of classical music. In fact, he may be America's only famous living composer of classical music—the single one who would draw nods of recognition (or irritation) if you were to start waving eight-by-ten glossies of modern-music masters at passersby in Times Square. His Hollywood film scores, his collaborations with pop stars such as David Bowie and Linda Ronstadt, his ubiquity as a purveyor of motorized musical melancholy, all have placed him at an altitude of celebrity that eludes even the loftiest of his colleagues—Steve Reich, John Adams, Elliott Carter, and the rest.
Yet Glass's seventieth birthday, which fell on January 31st of this year, failed to create much hullabaloo in the ordinarily anniversary-addicted classical world. Last year, when Reich turned seventy, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and BAM joined forces to present a month of celebratory concerts. Glass, on the other hand, has been more or less overlooked at New York's culture palaces. The obvious explanation is that his intellectual reputation is not nearly as secure as that of Reich, his old Juilliard classmate and minimalist comrade. New-music mavens bestow varying degrees of respect and awe on Glass's major achievements of the nineteen-seventies—the evening-length instrumental cycle "Music in Twelve Parts," the mind-bending music-theatre event "Einstein on the Beach"—but they're apt to dismiss his post-1980 output, even if few can claim to have heard all of the fifty or so works that have cropped up in the present decade alone.
Quantity is the problem: Glass writes faster than most of us can listen. In this respect, he resembles two earlier twentieth-century figures, Paul Hindemith and Darius Milhaud, both of whom shifted in middle age from a brazenly youthful style to a mature, workmanlike one, generating hundreds of semi-interchangeable works. Hindemith was often linked to the concept of "music for use": if asked to write a piece for three bassoons and ukulele, he would comply, not worrying about the approval of the invisible judges of posterity. In the face of such Stakhanovite productivity, the listener is tempted to throw up his hands in frustration and dismiss the entire catalogue as so much musical scribbling. But it's worth taking the trouble to discover first-rate pieces amid the reams of pretty good ones. Certainly, no one can deny that Glass possesses an instantly recognizable signature sound; the question now is whether that signature is being produced by automatic pen.
Controversy surrounds Glass's music, but there is little disagreement over Glass the man. In the cash-strapped, attention-deprived world of contemporary music, he is prized for his generosity and humility. Last month, the Paula Cooper gallery hosted a gala for the MATA Festival, a young composers' series that Glass co-founded ten years ago. At one point, the composer Lisa Bielawa praised Glass's "quiet," "silent," and "private" support for younger composers of many different stylistic persuasions, even those who resist his influence. Glass stared at the floor while Bielawa talked. After the concert, he shook a few hands and walked alone into the Chelsea night, no doubt planning next week's oratorio.
Two big new Glass works had their premières this year: the two-act opera "Appomattox," which was recently given its first performance at the San Francisco Opera, and "Book of Longing," a hundred-minute song cycle based on texts by Leonard Cohen, which played first in Toronto and came to the Lincoln Center Festival in July. Around the same time, Glimmerglass Opera presented an elegant revival of Glass's 1993 opera "Orphée," an ingenious adaptation of the script of Jean Cocteau's film of the same name. Glass won't be neglected in New York over the long term: in the spring, the Metropolitan Opera will present a revival of the 1980 opera "Satyagraha," and Gerard Mortier, the incoming director of New York City Opera, has promised a long-overdue revival of "Einstein on the Beach." Meanwhile, recordings of Glass music seem to arrive about once every two weeks from Orange Mountain Music, the composer's own label.
To encounter a new Glass work these days is to pass through a familiar sequence of emotions. More often than not, you start with a disappointed sense of déjà vu: a rapid onset of churning arpeggios and chugging minor-key progressions dashes any hope that the composer may have struck off in a startling new direction. At times, it seems as though he had launched Microsoft Arpeggio on a computer and gone off to have tea with, say, Richard Gere. But marvellous things can happen when the composer's attention is fully engaged. In the Cohen cycle, the expected stretches of prefab Glass periodically give way to sharply characterized solos for cello, oboe, violin, saxophone, and double-bass. These set the stage for a potent reimagining of Cohen's song "You Came to Me This Morning"—it becomes a languid ballad somewhat reminiscent of the Kurt Weill of "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny," driven along by an ominously seething ensemble accompaniment. In the right context, Glass's music releases unexpected energies: those dark broken chords can unscroll like the writing on the wall.
"Appomattox," a dramatization of the last days of the Civil War, with a libretto by the British playwright Christopher Hampton, starts with fifteen solid minutes of déjà vu. Conversations among the familiar principals—Lincoln and Grant, Robert E. Lee and his wife—are rendered in sometimes awkward vocal lines; there's a creaky documentary feel. Later in the act, the opera comes alive. The burning of Richmond, the Confederate capital, is conveyed in a nightmarish sequence that has some of the barrelling energy of the opening movement of Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony; festive touches in the orchestra, from glittering percussion to booming tuba, ironically undercut the grim imagery onstage. The figure of Lee takes on tragic dimensions; he is superbly portrayed by the baritone Dwayne Croft as a man fighting with all his heart for a cause in which he does not fully believe. In Act II, Hampton's artful libretto begins leaping forward in time: to the rollback of civil rights during Reconstruction, to the brutal confrontations of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, and, finally, to the confused racial landscape of the present day. Close to the end, the stage is given over to Edgar Ray Killen, a former Klansman who was belatedly convicted, two years ago, of participating in the murder of civil-rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964. Sung with snarling intensity by the bass-baritone Philip Skinner, Killen delivers a taut, high-flying aria of unrepentant hatred, ending with the question "Am I right?" Despite its flaws, "Appomattox" makes its points with blunt moral force, next to which most contemporary American operas seem timid.
The most consistently inspired of recent Glass pieces is the Eighth Symphony, which had its première in 2005, and which Orange Mountain Music has recorded with Dennis Russell Davies and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. Against all odds, this work succeeds in adding something certifiably new to the overstuffed annals of the classical symphony. There are three sections: a twenty-minute movement in moderate tempo, a twelve-minute passacaglia slow movement, and a final movement that is slightly slower than the second and about half as long. The musical material is cut from familiar fabric, but it's striking that the composer forgoes the expected bustling conclusion and instead delves into a mood of deepening twilight and unending night. The first time I heard the CD, I found myself staring into space for several long minutes, surprised by the enveloping sadness of the symphony's ending. And surprise is what has been missing from much post-"Einstein" Glass.
Has Glass entered the late-period renaissance that his admirers have long awaited? Maybe so, although no one should discount all that other work in his catalogue, even those middling pieces which seem to fade away immediately after they have been heard. Glass is really a composer in the spirit of the Baroque, producing music on demand, tailoring each piece to the occasion. He is the determined antithesis of the Romantic artist, the one who writes in suffering secret for a posthumous public. This is perhaps the most significant message that Glass delivers to the young composers whom he assists behind the scenes: stop dreaming of Beethoven and get your music played. ♦
Published in the print edition of the November 5, 2007, issue.
Glimmerglass Opera
Reich, Steve
The Pathos of "Cheer" and the Extraordinary Deceptions of Cheerleading
By Jia Tolentino


With the temperatures higher this winter than they have been for many years, thinking about the barbecuing equipment you require for the warmer months ahead may not seem quite so strange now. Now is a great time to get your hands on affordable gas barbecues, with many retailers clearing the stock and introducing new ranges ready for the glorious summer ahead (we hope!).
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Weber's innovative and versatile Q Series is incredibly popular with beginners and experienced BBQ users alike, starting with the compact and portable Q100 which is great for trips to the beach, picnics at home or quiet evening on the patio. Next in the series is the Q200, the mid-sized Q barbecue, which comes with its own stand and can also be used with the Weber permanent cart for portability. The largest Q barbecue is the Q300, with an impressive 464inch² cooking grate area and super strong design the Q300 is the big brother of the Q range and with two burners, you can easily grill or roast great tasting food.
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You can usually find me in the garden up to my elbows in soil and foliage. I'm always in my garden rummaging through the shrubs, planting seasonal plants and discarding the unwanted weeds. My blogs will consist of my gardening adventures; providing you with top tips and handy guides to help you get your garden blossoming in no time.
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