text:
The Rogers Commission Report was written by a Presidential Commission charged with investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster during its 10th mission, STS-51-L. The report, released and submitted to President Ronald Reagan on June 9, 1986, both determined the cause of the disaster that took place 73 seconds after liftoff, and urged NASA to improve and install new safety features on the shuttles and in its organizational handling of future missions.

Commission members

 William P. Rogers, chairman and former United States Secretary of State (under Richard Nixon) and United States Attorney General (under Dwight Eisenhower)
 Neil Armstrong (Vice Chairman), retired astronaut and first human to walk on the Moon (Apollo 11)
 David Campion Acheson, diplomat and son of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson
 Eugene E. Covert, aeronautics expert and former Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force
 Richard P. Feynman, theoretical physicist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics
 Robert B. Hotz, Editor, Aviation Week And Space Technology
 Donald J. Kutyna, Air Force general with experience in ICBMs and Shuttle management
 Sally K. Ride, American engineer, astrophysicist and first female American astronaut in space, flew on Challenger as part of missions STS-7 and STS-41-G
 Robert W. Rummel, Trans World Airlines executive and aviation consultant to NASA
 Joseph F. Sutter, Boeing Senior Vice President and Engineering Program Director on the Boeing 747 aircraft
 Arthur B. C. Walker, Jr, solar physicist and Stanford University professor
 Albert D. Wheelon, physicist and developer of Central Intelligence Agency's aerial surveillance program
 Charles E. Yeager, retired Air Force general and the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight
 Alton G. Keel, Jr., executive director of the commission

Findings

The commission found that the immediate cause of the Challenger accident was a failure in the O-rings sealing the aft field joint on the right solid rocket booster, causing pressurized hot gases and eventually flame to "blow by" the O-ring and contact the adjacent external tank, causing structural failure. The failure of the O-rings was attributed to a design flaw, as their performance could be too easily compromised by factors including the low temperature on the day of launch.

"An accident rooted in history"
More broadly, the report also determined the contributing causes of the accident. Most salient was the failure of both NASA and its contractor, Morton Thiokol, to respond adequately to the design flaw. The Commission found that as early as 1977, NASA managers had not only known about the flawed O-ring, but that it had the potential for catastrophe. This led the Rogers Commission to conclude that the Challenger disaster was "an accident rooted in history".

Flawed launch decision
The report also strongly criticized the decision making process that led to the launch of Challenger, saying that it was seriously flawed.  Morton Thiokol called a meeting the night before the launch to raise concerns over the forecast temperature in regards to the O-Rings.  During the meeting, Morton Thiokol's engineers issued a recommendation "not to launch below 53F", the previous lowest temperature of a launch (STS-51C, a year earlier). The NASA managers challenged this and after a 30 minute offline caucus, Morton Thiokol's senior management overruled their engineers decision and gave the launch the go ahead. The concerns were not communicated beyond the Level III Flight Readiness Review (FRR). It is certain that even though members of higher FRR teams knew about the issues, there were plenty of members who could have stopped the launch but decided not to.  This was done in large part because of the management structure at NASA and the lack of major checks and balances, which proved to be fatal in this scenario.  The report concluded that:

Role of Richard Feynman

One of the commission's best-known members was theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. His style of investigating with his own direct methods rather than following the commission schedule put him at odds with Rogers, who once commented, "Feynman is becoming a real pain." During a televised hearing, Feynman famously demonstrated how the O-rings became less resilient and subject to seal failures at low temperatures by compressing a sample of the material in a clamp and immersing it in a glass of ice water. Feynman's own investigation reveals a disconnect between NASA's engineers and executives that was far more striking than he expected. His interviews of NASA's high-ranking managers revealed startling misunderstandings of elementary concepts. One such concept was the determination of a safety factor.

In one example, early tests resulted in some of the booster rocket's O-rings burning a third of the way through. These O-rings provided the gas-tight seal needed between the vertically stacked cylindrical sections that made up the solid fuel booster. NASA managers recorded this result as demonstrating that the O-rings had a "safety factor" of 3. Feynman incredulously explains the magnitude of this error: A "safety factor" refers to the practice of building an object to be capable of withstanding more force than the force to which it will conceivably be subjected. To paraphrase Feynman's example, if engineers built a bridge that could bear 3,000 pounds without any damage, even though it was never expected to bear more than 1,000 pounds in practice, the safety factor would be 3. If a 1,000-pound truck drove across the bridge and a crack appeared in a beam, even just a third of the way through a beam, the safety factor is now zero: The bridge is defective, there was no safety factor at all even though the bridge did not actually collapse.

Feynman was clearly disturbed by the fact that NASA management not only misunderstood this concept, but inverted it by using a term denoting an extra level of safety to describe a part that was actually defective and unsafe. Feynman continued to investigate the lack of communication between NASA's management and its engineers, and was struck by management's claim that the risk of catastrophic malfunction on the shuttle was 1 in 105, i.e. 1 in 100,000. Feynman immediately realized that this claim was risible on its face; as he described, this assessment of risk would entail that NASA could expect to launch a shuttle every day for the next 274 years while suffering, on average, only one accident. Investigating the claim further, Feynman discovered that the 1 in 105 figure was stating what they claimed the failure rate ought to be, given that it was a manned vehicle, and working backward to generate the failure rate of components.

Feynman was disturbed by two aspects of this practice. First, NASA management assigned a probability of failure to each individual bolt, sometimes claiming a probability of 1 in 108, i.e. one in one hundred million. Feynman pointed out that it is impossible to calculate such a remote possibility with any scientific rigor. Secondly, Feynman was bothered not just by this sloppy science but by the fact that NASA claimed that the risk of catastrophic failure was "necessarily" 1 in 105. As the figure itself was beyond belief, Feynman questioned exactly what "necessarily" meant in this context, whether it meant that the figure followed logically from other calculations or that it reflected NASA management's desire to make the numbers fit.

Feynman suspected that the 1 in 105 figure was wildly fantastical, and made a rough estimate that the true likelihood of shuttle disaster was closer to 1 in 100. He then decided to poll the engineers themselves, asking them to write down an anonymous estimate of the odds of shuttle explosion. Feynman found that the bulk of the engineers' estimates fell between 1 in 50 and 1 in 200 (at the time of retirement, the Shuttle suffered two catastrophic failures across 135 flights, for a failure rate of 1 in 67.5). Not only did this confirm that NASA management had clearly failed to communicate with their own engineers, but the disparity engaged Feynman's emotions. When describing these wildly differing estimates, Feynman briefly lapses from his damaging but dispassionate detailing of NASA's flaws to recognize the moral failing that resulted from a scientific failing: he was upset NASA presented its fantastical figures as fact to convince a member of the public, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, to join the crew. Feynman was not uncomfortable with the concept of a  risk factor, but felt strongly that the recruitment of laypeople required an honest portrayal of the true risk involved.

Feynman's investigation eventually suggested to him that the cause of the Challenger disaster was the very part to which NASA management so mistakenly assigned a safety factor. The O-rings were rubber rings designed to form a seal in the shuttle's solid rocket boosters, preventing the rockets' hot gas from escaping and damaging other parts of the vehicle. Feynman suspected that despite NASA's claims, the O-rings were unsuitable at low temperatures and lost their resilience when cold, thus failing to maintain a tight seal when rocket pressure distorted the structure of the solid fuel booster. Feynman's suspicions were corroborated by General Kutyna, also on the commission, who cunningly provided Feynman with a broad hint by asking about the effect of cold on O-ring seals after mentioning that the temperature on the day of the launch was far lower than had been the case with previous launches: below freezing at ; previously, the coldest launch had been at . In 2013, the BBC film The Challenger revealed that the O-Ring insight had in fact come to Kutyna from the astronaut and fellow commission member Sally Ride, who had secretly provided him with NASA test results showing the O-rings became stiff when they were too cold.

Feynman's investigations also revealed that there had been many serious doubts raised about the O-ring seals by engineers at Morton Thiokol, which made the solid fuel boosters, but communication failures had led to their concerns being ignored by NASA management. He found similar failures in procedure in many other areas at NASA, but singled out its software development for praise due to its rigorous and highly effective quality control procedures – then under threat from NASA management, which wished to reduce testing to save money given that the tests had always been passed.

Based on his experiences with NASA's management and engineers, Feynman concluded that the serious deficiencies in NASA management's scientific understanding, the lack of communication between the two camps, and the gross misrepresentation of the Shuttle's dangers, required that NASA take a hiatus from Shuttle launches until it could resolve its internal inconsistencies and present an honest picture of the shuttle's reliability. Feynman soon found that, while he respected the intellects of his fellow Commission members, they universally finished their criticisms of NASA with clear affirmations that the Challenger disaster should be addressed by NASA internally, but that there was no need for NASA to suspend its operations or to receive less funding. Feynman felt that the Commission's conclusions misrepresented its findings, and he could not in good conscience recommend that such a deeply flawed organization as NASA should continue without a suspension of operations and a major overhaul. His fellow commission members were alarmed by Feynman's dissent, and it was only after much petitioning that Feynman's minority report was included at all.  Feynman was so critical of flaws in NASA's "safety culture" that he threatened to remove his name from the report unless it included his personal observations on the reliability of the shuttle, which appeared as Appendix F. In the appendix, he stated:

"For a successful technology," Feynman concluded, "reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

Feynman later wrote about the investigation in his 1988 book What Do You Care What Other People Think?. The second half of the book covers the investigation and the issues between science and politics, and includes the appendix he wrote.

Feynman later reported that, although he had believed he was making discoveries about the problems at NASA on his own, he eventually realized that either NASA or contractor personnel, in an apparent effort to anonymously focus attention on these problem areas, had carefully led him to the evidence which would support the conclusions on which he would later report.

Result
The Rogers Commission offered nine recommendations on improving safety in the space shuttle program, and NASA was directed by President Reagan to report back within thirty days as to how it planned to implement those recommendations. This is a summary of the chapter of Recommendations:
Design and Independent Oversight
Shuttle Management Structure, Astronauts in Management and Shuttle Safety Panel
Criticality Review and Hazard Analysis
Safety Organization
Improved Communications
Landing Safety
Launch Abort and Crew Escape
Flight Rate
Maintenance Safeguards

In response to the commission's recommendation, NASA initiated a total redesign of the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters, which was watched over by an independent oversight group as stipulated by the commission. NASA's contract with Morton Thiokol, the contractor responsible for the solid rocket boosters, included a clause stating that in the event of a failure leading to "loss of life or mission," Thiokol would forfeit $10 million of its incentive fee and formally accept legal liability for the failure. After the Challenger accident, Thiokol agreed to "voluntarily accept" the monetary penalty in exchange for not being forced to accept liability.

NASA also created a new Office of Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance, headed as the commission had specified by a NASA associate administrator who reported directly to the NASA administrator. George Rodney, formerly of Martin Marietta, was appointed to this position. Former Challenger flight director Jay Greene became chief of the Safety Division of the directorate.

The unrealistically optimistic launch schedule pursued by NASA had been criticized by the Rogers Commission as a possible contributing cause to the accident. After the accident, NASA attempted to aim at a more realistic shuttle flight rate: it added another orbiter, Endeavour, to the space shuttle fleet to replace Challenger, and it worked with the Department of Defense to put more satellites in orbit using expendable launch vehicles rather than the shuttle. In August 1986, President Reagan also announced that the shuttle would no longer carry commercial satellite payloads. After a 32-month hiatus, the next shuttle mission, STS-26, was launched on September 29, 1988.

After the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, attention once again focused on the attitude of NASA management towards safety issues. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) concluded that NASA had failed to learn many of the lessons of Challenger. In particular, the agency had not set up a truly independent office for safety oversight; the CAIB felt that in this area, "NASA's response to the Rogers Commission did not meet the Commission's intent". The CAIB believed that "the causes of the institutional failure responsible for Challenger have not been fixed," saying that the same "flawed decision making process" that had resulted in the Challenger accident was responsible for [[Space Shuttle Columbia|Columbia'''s]] destruction seventeen years later.

See also
 Columbia Accident Investigation Board
 Apollo 1

 References

 External links
 Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident – the Rogers Commission report on the accident (NASA.gov parsed HTML version)
 Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident – pdf version, compiled by Thomas ('thomasafb') – Volume I only

 Hearing on the Space Shuttle Accident and the Rogers Commission Report.  219 pages (14.2 MB) U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. Date: 99th Congress, 2nd Session, February 18, June 10 and 17, 1986. See also GPO Challenger index page.
  – Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger'' Accident, Appendix F – Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle by R. P. Feynman

NASA oversight
Reports of the United States government
1986 in the United States
United States Presidential Commissions
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
Richard Feynman
1986 works


text:
City of Thespians 3
By Gregory Bossler posted 08-12-2014 14:43
Ginny Butsch
Community Engagement Manager
Robert Carey
Susan Doremus
Graphics Specialist and Production Manager
Ben Ochsner
Rowan County Senior High School
We continue our series of conversations with some of our better-known Thespians by talking with the man who gave voice to Elphaba and a host of other memorable characters. (View a list of other distinguished Thespians.)
Grammy- and Oscar-winning songwriter Stephen Schwartz
Godspell, Pippin, Wicked, Pocahontas
Mineola High School, New York, 1964
Stephen Schwartz, who currently serves as president of the Dramatists Guild, has written numerous scores for stage and screen, including two musicals currently on Broadway. (In 1976, he had three shows running simultaneously!) He was recently inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Theatre Hall of Fame for his lifetime achievement, which began fifty years ago at a Long Island high school.
"The best thing about [drama teacher] Dan Wargo and the way the troupe at Mineola worked was that the students were given a lot of autonomy over the shows, so that it was a great learning experience. For instance, in my senior year, I directed a production of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None [aka Ten Little Indians] and was allowed to revise the ending so it conformed more to the original novel rather than the watered-down 'happy ending' of the published play script. Being in charge of a project like that at age sixteen, and being allowed so much creative freedom, was a great start for me."
Seven years later, he was working with John-Michael Tebelak, a Thespian from Berea (Ohio) High School, on the musical Godspell, the first of many award-winning shows.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


How often do we impose our own rules of life on others and confidently condemn anything that displeases us?
This allows us to take on a role that belongs only to God. Sadly, the moment you begin to consider yourself the authority over spiritual standards is the moment you have exalted yourself as the one who sets and supervises those standards rather than being someone in submission to those standards.
And that's the sort of thing we see when someone attempts to exalt himself over others by claiming a position that belongs to someone much more superior. Who are we to speak badly and judge others by a standard that we ourselves fail to uphold? We are called to reason honestly with our neighbor whenever rebuke is necessarily (Leviticus 19:17), but God alone is the Judge who is able to save and destroy.
Although we may not openly claim any superiority over God, we do have a tendency to exalt ourselves in subtle ways that reveal our lack of humility before Him. Not only do we attempt to judge the behaviors of those around us, but James also mentions how easily we forget our weakness and dependency on God for life itself. We falsely assume we got life under control and time at our disposal and fail to realize that saying "we will" or "I will" is the essence of sin.
Such confidence in what we're going to do in the future subtly gives off a sense of self-reliance that disregards God's sovereignty.
1. If God is the One in complete control, we shouldn't make assumptions.
It doesn't make sense to assume too many things because of the uncertainty of tomorrow and because of our fragile immortality.
Stop thinking so much about ourselves. This world isn't about us. We ought not to be so arrogant as to claim more control over our lives than we actually possess.
2. If God is the One in complete control, we should actively submit to His authority.
We should live our lives exercising our complete dependance on God.
It's okay to make plans and set goals. Good to have direction, but we must remain open to detours because ultimately we are not the ones meant to steer the wheel.
If we know that we ought to constantly acknowledge God's sovereignty and live in daily dependence upon Him then it is clearly a sin to fail and do so.
To speak as one in control over the lives of others and your own life is to speak like an atheist.
We must acknowledge the sovereignty of God through full surrender to His authority. May we put on a character that does nothing out of selfishness but counts others more significant than ourselves. A character that looks out for the interest of others over our own interests. A character that is willing to give up clinging to any particular status and willingly takes a lesser status if God calls us to. A character that is willing to give up our own lives out of obedience to our Father's will. Sound familiar?
It was God Himself that came down in order to bring us up.
Submission to His sovereignty is the pathway to true exaltation.


Letting Exte Ransomware onto the Windows operating system is a huge mistake because this infection can lead to the permanent corruption of your personal files. Although it is believed that the encryption algorithm used by this threat will become decipherable in the near future, we cannot guarantee this. Of course, if this ransomware has attacked your PC and encrypted your files, you should not rush to do what the creator of this infection wants you to do. Instead of initiating communication with them and then, potentially, paying a ransom, you should look for a free decryptor that, hopefully, would free your personal files. We are hopeful about this because other infections that derive from the same family, including Mole Ransomware, CryptoShield Ransomware, and Revenge Ransomware, are all "decryptable." Our research team has thoroughly inspected this malicious infection, and if you want to learn more about it, the information you can find in this report will be very useful. We also discuss the removal of Exte Ransomware because this task is extremely important, and you should take care of it as soon as possible.
Do you have any idea as to how Exte Ransomware got into your operating system? Was it executed as you opened a corrupted spam email attachment? Or did you let it in when executing a malicious software bundle? You might not figure out how exactly this threat got in, but if you do, make sure you do not make the same mistake again. For example, if you have opened the launcher of the threat via a spam email, you should become more cautious about that. In fact, our research team strongly recommends deleting spam emails as soon as you find them. Do not interact with the attachments or the links represented via them. Once the infection is executed, it starts the encryption process right away. Exte Ransomware adds itself to the startup to ensure that the infection is active even if the victim restarts the computer. During the encryption, the infection attaches the ".EXTE" extension to the names of all encrypted files, but the worst part is that it also changes the names of these files, which can cause problems identifying them. Hopefully, you are sure that most important files are backed up, and you do not need to worry about the rest.
To introduce the victim to the ransom demands, Exte Ransomware creates the "_HELP_INSTRUCTION.TXT" file. This file displays a message that urges you to contact exte1@msgden.net, exte2@protonmail.com, or exte3@reddithub.com. You are instructed to send your ID – which is also displayed within the message – to one of these email addresses to get more "specific" information. What does that mean? If you email the creator of Exte Ransomware, you will get instructions showing how to pay a ransom. Because of this, we are not sure how big the ransom that the infection demands is. Overall, whether it is 1 USD or 1000 USD, you should refrain from paying it because that would not lead you anywhere. Do you think that cyber crooks would provide you with a legitimate decryption key if you paid the ransom? Well, that is unlikely to happen, and so we do not recommend getting involved. The removal of the ransomware, on the other hands, is unquestionable, and you should take care of the threat as soon as possible. More importantly, you should take care of your system's protection to ensure that you do not face other threats in the future.
The manual removal guide below is not too hard to follow if you have at least a little bit of experience with the elimination of unwanted software. Of course, you do not have to go through with manual removal. Instead, you can install an anti-malware program, and we think that that it is the better option. Why? Because reliable anti-malware software can simultaneously delete Exte Ransomware and reinforce the overall system's protection you need. When it comes to the decryption of your files, we have already discussed that paying the ransom is a bad idea. We have also discussed that a legitimate file decryptor is likely to emerge, so keep an eye out for it. After you get your operating system cleaned and, hopefully, files restored, you need to ensure that your PC stays malware-free in the future. Also, you should back up your files – if you have not done this already – because that can save you from permanent loss in the future.
Type regedit.exe into the Open box and click OK.
In Registry Editor move to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
Delete two values with random names (e.g., 00FF0EBCF2F2 and BC0EBCF2F2) that represent malicious files in the %AppData% directory.
Delete two malicious .exe files that have the names of the values we already deleted (e.g., BC0EBCF2F2.exe and BC0EBCF2F2.exe).
Move to your recycle bin, right-click it, and choose Empty Recycle Bin.
Install a trusted malware scanner and immediately perform a full system scan.
Quick & tested solution for Exte Ransomware removal.


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Tuesday's Forum
Steven L. Taylor · Tuesday, August 4, 2020 · 65 comments
FILED UNDER: Open Forum
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter
Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 07:24
How can you watch this exchange and think that this person should be in charge of managing the response to a deadly pandemic?
Indeed. Somebody said it's like an episode of Veep.
Teve says:
@dustinkcouch
doctor: i'm afraid i have some bad news
me: better than having fox news 😉
doctor: hahahaha 🙂
me: i'll be here all week haha 🙂
doctor: haha give or take
@sam: like the guy said, the fundamental thing to know about Trump is that he's a moron.
@sam: My god, the man is dumb. It's like one of those skits on the Tonight Show or whatever where they pull people off the street and ask them to point out where the US is on a map, and the people can't.
Census Bureau will finish count earlier than expected, deliver data to Trump
The Census Bureau said late on Monday that it would finish collecting data for the decennial count next month and work to deliver population tallies to President Donald Trump that meet his constitutionally questionable order to exclude undocumented immigrants for the purpose of congressional apportionment.
The agency, which is part of the Commerce Department, had said this spring that it would require more time to complete its data collection because of the coronavirus pandemic. But amid a renewed push by Trump to remove those in the country without documentation from the count, Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham now says the data will be sent to the president by the end of the year — and not next spring, when Joe Biden could be in the Oval Office.
Clearly, this census will be incredibly inaccurate whether by inadequate counting or blatant manipulation of the numbers.
I have two questions to throw out there:
1) Since a census is Constitutionally required, can a census be so botched as to be unconstitutional and, therefore, as a remedy be forced to be redone?
2) While a census is every ten years as mandated by the Constitution, is there anything preventing a census be taken at other times and can that be used to apportion the Representatives?
CSK says:
I can't watch this. I suffer too badly from vicarious embarrassment.
Trump on John Lewis:
"I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration. He didn't come to my State of the Union speeches. And that's his right. Again, nobody has done more for the Black Americans than I have. He should have come. I think he made a big mistake."
God help us.
I've been wondering how the RNC was going to adjust the convention. The DNC has been planning and working on a virtual convention for months, while the Republicans had been (foolishly) clinging to the notion that theirs would be in-person. They now need to revamp the entire thing.
I've done political event planning before, and to completely start from scratch on something this big, with only a few weeks to pull it off, is going to be a challenge to say the least.
We now being offered the following:
– A "nightly surprise."
– "Still under-wraps venues"
– Tributes to "the forgotten men and women of America" and, wow,
– "and attack cancel culture, "radical elements" of society and threats to public safety."
The "still under-wraps venues" means they are having trouble coordinating and nailing down details. It's not some clever surprise, it's bad planning.
Via Axios.
Unsure about (1) but (2) happens a lot. There's a technically Census every year – it's just not the big national one. People get randomly selected to answer questions so that they can keep up the sampling data.
There's nothing prohibiting a yearly Census other then costs and politics. It's a basic requirement, not a ceiling of action. Remember, the Census was envisioned during a time when you *needed* years between to be able to count everyone in a growing, pre-industrial Age. There's no reason we couldn't redo a botched Census since it's just mandated we do one – not that we use that data in a timely fashion like a few months or so. Also, we probably *do* have all the proper data but it's not be analyzed correctly. Census data is kept private for 75 year so they're hoping nobody's going to go digging…. problem is that can be rectified by Congress in a one-time pass. Reported results can theoretically legally be modified as long as the base data that was collected during the Census is present since the false data would be lying to Congress. IANAL, just someone who did the Census last time around……
I read this really funny joke about trickle-down economics. I'd tell it, but 99% of you won't get it.
OzarkHillbilly says:
@Kathy: Ouch.
@Jen:
It's like one of those skits on the Tonight Show or whatever where they pull people off the street and ask them to point out where the US is on a map, and the people can't.
Many years ago I saw a game show where one of the contestants was asked which continent Morocco is on. The contestant answered, "India."
Mister Bluster says:
@Kylopod: Oh, no…that is cringe-inducing.
I get that mine was not a "normal" upbringing. Living all over the place makes one keenly aware of geography. But still, the poor grasp some have on it stuns me.
@Kylopod: my favorite if I remember correctly it was Jay Leno and crew waited outside the movie exits for Saving Private Ryan, and asked the viewers what war the movie was about.
"The Civil War?"
It reminded me of the time I was in a movie theater in Florida watching a Bond movie, and they very obviously are in Germany in the movie, and people are speaking German, and the lady behind me whispered loudly to her friend, "THEY'RE IN RUSSIA".
SC_Birdflyte says:
@Scott: I think a close review of "census" data from 2020 would be a high order for a Biden administration. If found to be inadequate, the whole exercise should be redone and no state should be allowed to use the inadequate data for redistricting.
JFC Trump was just at some event and he pronounced Yosemite "Yo-Semite…Yo-simnite".
https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/status/1290664848620236800?s=21
@Teve:
Oh. My. God. I guess whoever wrote the speech for him didn't realize he'd need a pronunciation guide for…Yosemite.
And we're supposed to believe he was a top student at Wharton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqvCJwS12c0&feature=youtu.be&t=32
EddieInCA says:
You can't make this stuff up…
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/watch-trump-supporter-boasts-of-barely-ever-wearing-condoms-and-says-thats-why-hell-never-wear-a-mask/
A supporter of President Donald Trump this week boasted that he "barely" ever wears condoms — and he linked this to his defiance over wearing a face mask during the coronavirus pandemic.
As recorded by Right Wing Watch, Trump super fan Brenden Dilley, who is described as a "MAGA life coach," said during a podcast this week that nothing will convince him to wear a face mask.
@EddieInCA:
And what, pray, is "a MAGA life coach"?
Michael Reynolds says:
@CSK:
A KKK recruiter?
Brenden Dilley is the guy who said two months ago that if Trump gave them the go-ahead that he and other right wingers would shoot protesters. He said last summer that he didn't give a shit if something he said about the Democrats was true or not as long as it hurts them.
Great guy.
Gustopher says:
@EddieInCA: "Barely ever wears condoms"?
Is it because they keep falling off his tiny manhood, or because no woman will let him near?
I kind of wish the Biden campaign would start distributing blue MAGA hats and appropriate the slogan, just to point out how much greater American was four years ago. Add an Eagle in a circle patterned after the Obama O with the flag…
And trigger the Repubs.
@Teve: Yo, Semite Sam was one of my favorite WB cartoon characters, and I was pleased to see a strong portrayal of a Jewish man as a gunslinger.
The big nose is unfortunate, but, we can't really judge them by today's standards — it was very progressive for it's time.
Lol. Jonathan swan: "There's some very committed leakers in this White House. Very committed to their craft."
Sleeping Dog says:
@Gustopher:
and resurrect the Are you better off today, than you were four years ago? line.
Monala says:
@Gustopher: Apparently Yosemite Sam was meant to be Jewish.
Looking at the data, over the last five weeks, the COVID deaths every week have been higher than the previous week.
WTF just happened in Beirut?
I know little about explosives, but the video at the top shows a massive blast.
@Kathy:
Early reports indicate that it may have been an accident and the result of stupidity (storing explosives in an urban area) rather than a terrorist incident. But this is Lebanon, who know.
DrDaveT says:
@KM:
There's a technically Census every year – it's just not the big national one. People get randomly selected to answer questions so that they can keep up the sampling data.
Hypertechnically, what happens every year is the American Community Survey (ACS), and it is not a census. A census is (by current definition) a head count — an enumeration of all people living in an area. Sampling is not permitted as an alternative to attempting to count everyone.
The ACS replaces the "long form" census, which used to be done at the same time as the decennial census for a random subset of census households. The ACS is less detailed, but it has the advantages of a higher response rate and being done every year, so that timely data are available on a variety of questions.
Republicans have persistently resisted attempts to change the law (or amend the Constitution?) to permit statistical sampling to inform the census. They know that the census is most likely to completely miss people in districts that tend to vote Democratic, and so the inaccuracies of the census are biased in favor of the GOP.
@Sleeping Dog:..Early reports indicate that it may have been an accident and the result of stupidity (storing explosives in an urban area) rather than a terrorist incident. But this is Lebanon, who know.
Major General Abbas Ibrahim, of Lebanon's General Security Directorate, said the massive blast that shook Beirut's port area on Tuesday was caused by confiscated "high explosive materials."
Today in amusing Twitter threads:
A man was on the beach and found what looked like a rock with teeth. He posted a photo on Twitter with the question: "Anyone know what this is, or should I just chalk it up to the fact that it's 2020, so of course rocks have developed teeth?"
Several people responded that it is in fact a natural phenomenon; rocks sometimes develop fissures, and calcium and other minerals sometimes fill in those fissures, forming what looks like teeth.
inhumans99 says:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ouch indeed…but still worth an upvote, lol.
@Monala: found an image: Link
@Monala:
Well, it's an interesting objet to put on your coffee table, I suppose.
@Bob@Youngstown:..Other items of interest regarding your absentee or VBM ballot:
Just saw your reply to my comment on Monday's Hoisted on his own anti-VBM Petard thread. Thanks for the update.
If Trump the Dullard is convinced COVID-19 cases are a result of testing, then why hasn't he simply ordered testing stopped? Wouldn't that save like, perhaps, 150,000 people, and keep hundreds of thousands more out of the hospital?
@Monala: Langoliers!
Sometimes Trump's statements that the high number of Covid-19 cases are the result of greater testing sound like an object-permanence fallacy, but he's also said it makes the country "look bad," which I think is the core of what bothers him. In other words, he's saying it doesn't matter how many people are actually sick as long as they're not labeled as having Covid-19. He's perfectly fine sweeping the problem under the rug as he claims all those other countries are doing. All that matters to him is keeping the statistics down, not keeping the actual cases down.
It isn't hard to enter the head of a man who cheats at golf.
Just a random whine: I'm making changes to a script in order to make it more marketable today, shoehorning a 'theme' into something designed to be just scary fun, despite knowing it's the wrong choice for a year from now, let alone two or three years from now. It's infuriating. People a couple years from now will be sick to death of good-for-you themes. They'll be sick of politics, sick of being sick, sick of being lectured and hectored.
@Kylopod:
I still don't get it.
Then he'd have over one thousand deaths per day of some mystery disease, which is also overwhelming hospitals, and there'd have to be research to determine what it is, and how to treat it, and more research for a vaccine, and it will turn out to be COVID-19 all along.
There are two ways I can make it make sense: 1) trump the Moron cannot think past the next step (which would explain a lot); 2) Trump is, in technical terms, nuttier than a fruitcake.
1) trump the Moron cannot think past the next step (which would explain a lot); 2) Trump is, in technical terms, nuttier than a fruitcake.
It's not one or the other.
Why can't 1 and 2 be true simultaneously?
This is just sad.
Daniel Weissbein @DanielWeissbein
I look forward to his 10 min explanation next event. "It's a tricky word. Slippery like an ice rink. Possibly foreign. And it starts with a Y, which is sometimes a vowel. Did you know that? Not many people knew that. So, I'm trying to read this word with leather shoes on…"
Good joke on Twitter:
"If Trump ignored Covid-19 any more, we'd have to change its name to Tiffany."
If Trump were less than 100% loathsome, yes, I'd think it was sad, and I'd feel bad for him. But…
Then he'd have over one thousand deaths per day of some mystery disease
Not some mystery disease. According to Trump, it's just old people with preexisting health problems who are dying from the virus, and their deaths can therefore be blamed on those other problems instead of Covid-19. Some of what Trump says about this is gaslighting, but I think he truly believes this particular claim. It's what a lot of people in his echo chamber are saying, and it fits his simplistic way of looking at the world and poor understanding of any remotely nuanced scientific explanation.
I wasn't being flippant with the golf analogy. I do think he looks at it as a game of staying under par.
The Republican Party Is Racist and Soulless. Just Ask This Veteran GOP Strategist.
Stuart Stevens says he now realizes the hatred and bigotry of Trumpism were always at the heart of the GOP.
@Sleeping Dog:
Yeah, I kind of realized that after I hit "post."
But that works, even with his devoted cult base, as long as you don't know any young(er) people dying of it.
@Kathy: And there's the rub….school's have been closed this entire time, so they "think" kids don't die from it, but we haven't really tossed them into the germ pools at the schools themselves yet, so in about 4-6 weeks, we'll have definitive "data" on that….and they're probably gonna say that's fake news, too, all these suddenly dead kids OBVIOUSLY had un-diagnosed pre-existing conditions. (eyeroll)
@Michael Reynolds: Do you get to pick the theme, or was one assigned to you?
You cannot go wrong with man's dehumanization of the other. Always popular, topical and relevant. Or the power of friendship. Either.
Or both.
The power of friendship can overcome man's dehumanization of the other, which is why so-and-so is one of the good whatevers.
The cartoon Animaniacs often ended with a moral, which was selected by spinning a wheel, and then read off in monotone by Wacko. His sister Dot would always complain that the theme made no sense and had nothing to do with anything.
@Jax: They were so young that no one had time to diagnose all their pre-existing conditions.
(We are so fucked… At least not all states are opening schools at the same time? We will hopefully only kill half as many children, parents and teachers…)
@Jax:
Some children may have preexisting conditions, like asthma, that may complicate things. All the more reason to keep schools closed.
That aside, it boggles the mind they are willing to risk the lives of children to carry out a delusion.
@Kylopod: When Nick Cordero, a 41-year-old Broadway actor and dancer, died, several Trumpers claimed it was because of all his "pre-existing conditions" – such as lung infections, pacemaker for his heart, amputated leg – even though he had none of these things before Covid, and all of them because of Covid.
@Jax: I wonder if there will be any reports of the outcomes of the hundreds of kids sickened with Covid at a Christian camp in Missouri and a YMCA camp in Georgia. How many kids were asymptomatic, and how many developed symptoms? Of the latter, how many became very sick? How many recovered, and of those recovered, are there any lasting symptoms or conditions? Did any of them spread the disease to other family members?
The kids have to go to school so the parents can go back to work so the billionaires can get Even Moar Money. If Little Johnny infects Papaw or Abuelita, them's the breaks.
@Monala: There IS data, I just saw it the other day on the one in Georgia! I will look for it. Basic memory says it turned into a "super-spreader" event, and they were still tracking the outcomes….I want to say some 260 ended up infected at the time of the writing?
@Monala: The pre-existing conditions thing is something they are telling themselves to distance themselves from potential illness.
The problem with that is, even being overweight is a pre-existing condition with this disease.
It's also bullsh!t to use that as an excuse. Cancer survivors. High blood pressure too–which many Americans don't even realize they have. A 9 year old kid who had received an organ donation died from covid.
Screw all of these people who write off human beings with a "well, he/she had a pre-existing condition."
@Jen: Fer real. If we're at the point where we're deciding who's getting kicked off the island (planet earth), let's start with them. Most of them are also the people who write off "the poor" and "the immigrants (whispering, because they can't say that part out loud anymore) of color".
In a heartbreaking and infuriating case, Aurora, CO police detain a black family, cuffing their children (ages 6-17) and making them lay prone on the hot ground, based on looking for a stolen motorcycle with Montana plates. The Colorado family's SUV had a similar plate number.
The video, where the terrified children are crying, is very hard to watch. The police department has apologized.
Stuff like this makes me support defunding and abolishing existing police departments, even if in calmer moments I don't think that's the best answer.
Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 00:05
@Monala: The video was absolutely horrifying, I cried. I am so fucking sorry that shit is this way. It's not supposed to be this way.
The Aorora, CO. police don't know the difference between a motorcycle and an SUV?
It's Time for a Tuesday Forum


text:
England, Southampton Guide (A): Historic Pubs and Hotels
Explore the history of Southampton through seven historic pubs and bars that have served and accommodated some of the city's most famous visitors, including King Henry V, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Queen Victoria and Lord Nelson. Enjoy and drink and soak up stories of Agincourt, the Pilgrim Fathers and the crew of the Titanic.
This article is featured in the app "GPSmyCity: Walks in 1K+ Cities" on iTunes App Store and Google Play. You can download the app to your mobile device to read the article offline and create a self-guided walking tour to visit the attractions featured in this article. The app turns your mobile device into a personal tour guide and it works offline, so no data plan is needed when traveling abroad.
Walk Route
Create Your Own Self-Guided Walks in Southampton
Guide Name: Historic Pubs and Hotels
Guide Location: England » Southampton
Guide Type: Self-guided Walking Tour (Article (A))
# of Attractions: 7
Tour Duration: 2.0 hour(s)
Sight(s) featured in this guide: • The Bosun's Locker • The Star Hotel • The Dolphin Hotel • The Duke of Wellington • The Red Lion • The Grapes Public House • The Admiral Sir Lucius
Author: Steve Bond
Author Bio: Steve Bond lives in Southampton and has an interest in local history and beer drinking.
1) The Bosun's Locker
On this sight, back in the early nineteenth century, was the home of Jane Austen, the famous author of classic works such as 'Sense and Sensibility', 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Mansfield Park'.
Jane and her widowed mother came here in 1807 to stay with her brother, Frank, a naval captain, and his wife, Mary.
They rented the house from the Marquess of Landsdowne, who lived opposite in a mock-gothic castle. It came with a large garden that backed onto the old city walls, which was reached by the river when the tide was high. A set of steps allowed them to ascend the walls and enjoy the unspoilt western views across Southampton Water and the New Forest.
Jane lived here until the spring of 1809 when she and her family moved thirty miles North West to the village of Chawton, where she lived for the remainder of her life.
2) The Star Hotel
In 1740 a natural freshwater spring was discovered at nearby Chalybeate and Southampton was transformed into a fashionable spa town, attracting the great and the good to sample the waters. Many people travelled by coach from London and so many coaching inns sprung up in the city centre to accommodate them, including the Star Hotel which was built in the late 1700's.
Perhaps the most famous visitors to grace the building were the Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria, later to become Queen Victoria, who stayed here in 1831. Today, her visit is commemorated by a bedroom suite and the Royal Standard that sits proudly on top of the building.
3) The Dolphin Hotel
Dating back to at least the 15th century, this old coach house has accommodated and entertained many famous people through the ages, including William Shakespeare, who performed with his players in the courtyard.
Queen Victoria stayed here regularly on her way to Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight, stabling her coach and horses in the yard. Another visitor was Lord Nelson, who stayed here on 13th April 1801, just a few days after receiving his promotion to Vice Admiral of the Blue.
The famous author, William Makepeace Thackery, wrote part of his classic novel 'Pendennis' here, supposedly writing much of it whilst sitting in the large bay windows that dominate the exterior. Another author, Jane Austen, was also a regular visitor, attending the fashionable fortnight assemblies and celebrating her 18th at the hotel on the 16th December 1793.
Other famous people to have stayed include Orsen Wells, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, who all stayed before boarding transatlantic cruise liners to America.
The hotel has a bar and restaurant where you can enjoy a drink and possibly spot one of the six resident ghosts that walk the corridors.
4) The Duke of Wellington
Dating back to the 12th Century, this building was built upon Norman vaults and cellars and owned by Benedict Ace, one of Southampton's first Mayors.
In 1338, a French raiding party of several thousand soldiers, sailors and pirates set upon the city, sacking and damaging many of the buildings, including this one which needed extensive repair. One of the pirates, Lanfranco Grimaldi, used his booty to go on and capture the Principality of Monaco, which is still ruled by the Grimaldi family today.
In 1494 the building was bought by Roland Johnson, a Dutch brewer, who came over from Holland and opened up a brewery and pub for the first time, which he called 'The Bere House'.
It has remained an Inn ever since and has bore silent witness to some of the city's most historical events. The Pilgrim Fathers would have passed it on their way to the Mayflower - moored at the bottom of Bugle Street - as would Henry V and his troops as they marched through the nearby Westgate on their way to Agincourt.
In 1771 the pub was renamed 'The Shipwright's Arms' to reflect the many ship workers, sailors and dockers that frequented the area. Then in June, 1815, it was renamed again, changing to 'The Duke of Wellington', to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Waterloo.
5) The Red Lion
With its cellars dating back to 1148, The Red Lion is one of the oldest pubs in Southampton and was the location of a major historical event. It was here in 1415 that Henry V held the trials of three traitors, before departing for the Battle of Agincourt.
Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope of Masham and Sir Thomas Grey of Heton were all charged with conspiring to kill the King and were tried in a make-shift court room within the pub, known forever after as 'Henry V's Court Room'. The three men were found guilty, condemned to death and summarily executed at the nearby Bargate, located at the North end of the High Street. A commemorative rubbing describing the event can be seen in the Court Room. The trial would later be featured in William Shakespeare's famous play, 'Henry V'.
It may come as no surprise to hear that the pub is supposedly haunted, being home to twenty one ghosts, including an old grey haired woman frequently seen standing behind the bar. Step inside and explore the creaky staircase and timbered galleries of this beautiful Tudor building.
6) The Grapes Public House
The Grapes is a grade two listed building and was built in the early nineteenth century, with the wrought iron signage above the doors being added a few years later. Being so close to the docks, the pub has always been popular with crew and seaman, especially fireman and engine room workers who would pop in for a pint before their leaving on their latest voyage.
The pub is known locally as the 'Titanic Pub', for its collection of Titanic photographs and memorabilia, including a signed full-sized blueprint of the ship's design.
7) The Admiral Sir Lucius
Built in 1870, the Admiral Sir Lucius was once the official headquarters of the Eastern Docks, Southampton's first purpose built dockyard. The harbour has since been transformed into Ocean Village, a yacht marina and entertainment centre, but back in the day the area was known as Mudland and was chosen as the new dock site due to its natural deepwater channels, which enabled larger ships to berth.
The foundation stone for the new dock was laid on the 12th October 1838 by Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis in front of a massed crowd of twenty thousand people.
Curtis was a career Naval man, joining as a boy and quickly rising through the ranks, becoming Captain of the HMS Magicienne at the age of just twenty four. He served in the Napoleonic War, most notably during the blockades of the French-held islands of Ile Bonaparte and Ile de France in the Indian Ocean. On his return to England his career continued to flourish, being made a Companion of the Order of Bath in 1815, a Knight Commander of the Order of Bath in 1862 and then Admiral of the Fleet, the Navy's highest rank, in 1864.
The docks themselves have been witness to many historical events. When the Crimean War broke out in 1854 many of the troops passed through here, boarding ships to take them to the port of Sebastopol in Russia, now the Ukraine.
Similar troop deployments was repeated again for the Boer War of 1899 and the First World War in 1914.
At the end of the building are two memorial plaques that commemorate the dock workers and seaman that lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars.
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text:
#include <aws/chime-sdk-messaging/model/ListChannelBansResult.h>
#include <aws/core/utils/json/JsonSerializer.h>
#include <aws/core/AmazonWebServiceResult.h>
#include <aws/core/utils/StringUtils.h>
#include <aws/core/utils/UnreferencedParam.h>

#include <utility>

using namespace Aws::ChimeSDKMessaging::Model;
using namespace Aws::Utils::Json;
using namespace Aws::Utils;
using namespace Aws;

ListChannelBansResult::ListChannelBansResult()
{
}

ListChannelBansResult::ListChannelBansResult(const Aws::AmazonWebServiceResult<JsonValue>& result)
{
  *this = result;
}

ListChannelBansResult& ListChannelBansResult::operator =(const Aws::AmazonWebServiceResult<JsonValue>& result)
{
  JsonView jsonValue = result.GetPayload().View();
  if(jsonValue.ValueExists("ChannelArn"))
  {
    m_channelArn = jsonValue.GetString("ChannelArn");

  }

  if(jsonValue.ValueExists("NextToken"))
  {
    m_nextToken = jsonValue.GetString("NextToken");

  }

  if(jsonValue.ValueExists("ChannelBans"))
  {
    Aws::Utils::Array<JsonView> channelBansJsonList = jsonValue.GetArray("ChannelBans");
    for(unsigned channelBansIndex = 0; channelBansIndex < channelBansJsonList.GetLength(); ++channelBansIndex)
    {
      m_channelBans.push_back(channelBansJsonList[channelBansIndex].AsObject());
    }
  }

  return *this;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Keeping Creativity Alive
12 November 2018 | Diane Helentjaris
Rebekah Harding is metamorphosing. Shedding the accoutrements of childhood, she's closed down her blog "Beat Bias with Bekah." Rather than online articles like "Weaponized Avocados Break Deli Clerk's Jaw," she has moved on to writing about adjusting to college life in "Away from home, alone" for The Temple News.
Last year she sparred with her Virginia high school administration over censorship. This year, as a Temple University freshman, she's learning to navigate gritty, but urbane, Philadelphia. Already, Rebekah has given an on-the-street witness account to the police after a dust-up between snow cone purveyors and skillfully avoided being peed on by a horse ridden by a homeless man.
Those of us traveling this road ahead of her know she'll be twisting and turning any number of ways through her future, but still, it seems pretty clear she'll somehow be dancing with the written and spoken word along the way. Whether Rebekah ends up writing white papers or standing before a camera, her willingness and ability to clearly share her opinion, to speak up, and to tackle any number of obstacles is already in place. At eighteen, she appears to be among the few who keep a grasp on their creativity.
Each and every five-year-old — with the rarest of exception — will draw you a house, sing you a song and tell you what they think. For most, this charmingly fresh immediacy soon fades. As Picasso said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once he grows up."
Science bears Picasso out. In their 1993 book, Breaking Point and Beyond, Jarman and Land share provocative research results. Using a creativity test developed by NASA to identify innovative engineers and scientists, George Land assessed a cohort of children. While the test identified ninety-eight percent of the kids as creative at age five, by age fifteen only twelve percent remained so. And, by adulthood, the early results flipped. Only two percent of the 280,000 adults tested had creative characteristics. Land's conclusion: non-creativity is a learned behavior.
How does anyone survive this? Rebekah and her mother, Susie Harding, both implicate kindergarten. While others may recall this as a time of little boys eating paste or being forced to rest on floor mats, Rebekah remembers "writing full pages from a prompt." Her teacher, Mrs. Valentine, "contributed to me liking to write…It didn't have to be a task, but more of a method of communication." Gwen Valentine set the ground rules early: she would be having the children express themselves through writing. "No matter what," the parents were not to correct their children's work. Instead, families should confine their involvement to encouraging comments such as, "I love the way you wrote what you thought." Even though at first glance, the writing could be tricky to decipher, Rebekah's parents played along. Rebekah has been an enthusiastic writer ever since.
Susie firmly believes Rebekah's academic work flourished as long as she had access to artistic outlets. As early as kindergarten, the Hardings enrolled Rebekah in an "artist circle." Later, she'd spend summers at the public school system's "Summer in the Arts" program. At home, the youngster had a designated space and supplies to make her papier-mache penguins named "Pedro." Rebekah's innovative spirit also fuels her ability to teach herself when formal channels fail.
In middle school, Rebekah befriended a group of Korean students who were temporarily in the US with their families. She picked up a few Korean words but soon wanted to know more. She had become frustrated by her limitations when visiting their homes and meeting family members who spoke no English. Since her school did not offer Korean language classes, Rebekah taught herself. Pulling together online resources, she learned to speak, read and write Korean. After exhausting those tools, she participated in two summertime immersion courses in Minnesota. She now proudly considers herself fluent in Korean.
Eventually, struggles in high school unearthed a new stress in her life. Diagnosed for the first time as learning disabled, Rebekah still bristles at the reactions she encountered from some adults. Thankfully, she had a tool to dealt with this situation: communicating her opinion in writing. And write she did. She had hoped to contribute to a website dedicated to her specific learning disability but found they "only value expert opinion." Rebuffed, but not vanquished, she created her blog, "Beat Bias with Bekah." She set up her website, monetized it, and taught herself enough coding to withstand hacking attempts by other teens. In her blog, she tackled many of the big problems lurking just under the surface of any high school: racism, sexism, depression, suicide, meanness and bullying. Rebekah found herself sparring with school officials and describes a "censorship culture" in which "some topics are off limits." "Don't you think it's a bit bold?" was one response to her blog.
Rebekah began writing frequently for online magazines, often addressing the thoughtless way those who are different are treated. For her birthday, her parents paid for her business card. Rebekah contracted with a girlfriend to design the graphic logo. By seventeen, she became listed in Amazon as the editor for her friend R. M. Evan's book, Quarantine (The Quarantine Trilogy), first of a planned dystopian fiction trilogy. She is especially proud to be quoted, and to have her work discussed, in Ms. Magazine's article, "The Future of Disability Rights Activism is Female."
Rebekah's accomplishments — her fearlessness and thoroughness — are breathtaking. If Land's research findings are accurate, then she is among only two percent of the US population holding on to their creativity. Retaining or rekindling that spark has both philosophical and pragmatic appeal. But one positive experience — like Mrs. Valentine's class — is not enough. Other actions, such as the environment created in the Harding home, are required. Scholars like K. H. Kim, Ph.D., an educational psychologist on the faculty of William and Mary College, have begun to pull together a body of work on promoting creativity and innovation. Dr. Kim has "dedicated her career to the research on creativity and innovators in hopes of helping individuals, especially those who feel different, misfit, or are viewed as troublemakers so that they can use the power of creativity to achieve their dreams." You can find some of Dr. Kim's recommendations — which are specific and doable — at her website https://kkim.wmwikis.net. You can also find Rebekah Harding's latest writing for The Temple News at https://temple-news.com
Additional articles regarding creativity:
What is Creativity and Who Decides
The Need for Creativity
Turning Anxiety into Creativity
Rebekah Harding


text:
5 Takeaways from Trump's State of the Union speech
By JILL COLVIN Associated Press
Republicans stand as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump delivered his second State of the Union speech Tuesday night, calling on Democrats and Republicans to work together and making only brief reference to the rancor that has dominated his presidency.
Five key takeaways from his remarks:
HE'S NOT BUDGING ON THE WALL
"I will get it built," he declared in his Tuesday evening speech.
Addressing a joint session of lawmakers, Trump yet again hammered his now-familiar case for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, insisting the situation represents a crisis that demands a physical barrier. But the president outlined no plan or new strategy for convincing Congress to approve money to build the wall. He issued a broad call for all sides to "work together, compromise, and reach a deal that will truly make America safe."
Trump notably made no reference to his continued to threat to circumvent Congress by declaring a national emergency if lawmakers refuse to give him the billions of dollars he's demanding.
The White Housed decided the speech was an inappropriate venue for such an announcement, especially after Trump said he'd allow congressional negotiators to run out a three-week clock that expires on Feb. 15 before taking any action. He has all but dismissed their efforts.
THE HOUSE WAS IN ORDER
Would they boo? Hiss? Jeer?
With Democrats now in charge of the House and amid a bitter border wall battle that led to the longest government shutdown in the nation's history, the White House was bracing for a less-than-friendly reception from those gathered in the House.
Instead, the 82-minute speech was punctuated by lighthearted moments, including when lawmakers from both parties sang a spontaneous rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Judah Samet, a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh who survived a shooting that killed 11 people in October. Trump joked that the lawmakers wouldn't break into song for him.
The president also prompted cheers from the freshmen female House Democrats when he touted the number of new jobs created that women have filled.
The women — dressed in white in honor of early 20th-century suffragettes — stood on their feet, with one raising her hands in the air in a "raise the roof" motion.
Trump seemed taken back by the outbursts. "You weren't supposed to do that," he said before congratulating all the women who hold seats in Congress. The women jumped back up and high-fived each other, chanting "U-S-A!"
SHUTDOWN? WHAT SHUTDOWN?
Trump made no reference to the 35-day government shutdown that rocked the nation's capital, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay and freezing many government services the first month of the year.
It was a notable omission from a president who had once said that he would be proud to own the shutdown — and came just 10 days before the government is set to run out of money again.
Trump did note that Congress "has 10 days left to pass a bill that will fund our government, protect our homeland, and secure our southern border." But he didn't mention the funding deadline.
It was a different story for Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat who delivered her party's response to Trump and spoke about how she'd joined volunteers to distribute meals to furloughed federal workers during the shutdown.
"Making their livelihoods a pawn for political games," she said, "is a disgrace."
AN APPEAL TO THE BASE
As he does often in his toughest political moments, Trump tried to rally the Christian conservative voters who have proven to be some of his most loyal backers. He seized upon recent controversies surrounding "late-term abortions" and warned against legislation that he claimed "would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother's womb moments before birth."
"These are living, feeling, beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and dreams with the world," he said, calling on Congress to pass legislation that would limit abortion rights.
Trump also singled out embattled Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam by title, though not by name — claiming he would "execute a baby after birth." Northam in an interview last week defended, in rare occasions, the practice of third-trimester abortions. He has since been under fire for a photograph on his medical school yearbook page featuring a person in blackface standing next to a person wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit. He denies he's in the photo and rejecting calls for his resignation.
A FEW SWIPES AT DEMOCRATS
Even as he called for a new age of bipartisanship and urged lawmakers to "govern not as two parties, but as one nation," Trump couldn't help but take few digs at Democrats, including the "resistance" movement in defiance of his presidency.
"We must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good," Trump said at one point.
Later he touted an "economic miracle" taking place across the country that he said could only be stopped by "foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations."
As for the new wave of socialist fervor in the Democratic Party, Trump declared, "Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country."
Follow Colvin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/colvinj


text:
← GEOTERRORISM: 60 Geoengineered Firestorms In California Come Out Of Nowhere
HUGE! Trump Finally Throws Down The Gauntlet →
Rose McGowan Attacks Ben Affleck Over Harvey Weinstein: 'You Lie'
Posted on October 11, 2017 by State of the Nation
By CARA BUCKLEY and MELENA RYZIK
In a sign that the controversy over the producer Harvey Weinstein could engulf other people in the film industry, the actress Rose McGowan accused Ben Affleck of lying on Tuesday about his knowledge of Mr. Weinstein's alleged sexual harassment and assaults of women.
Ms. McGowan, in a tweet and a subsequent email exchange with The New York Times on Tuesday night, said she had told Mr. Affleck that Mr. Weinstein had behaved inappropriately with her.
Mr. Affleck, who rose to stardom with help from Mr. Weinstein on the 1997 film "Good Will Hunting," had said earlier Tuesday that he was "angry" over Mr. Weinstein's alleged abuse of women, but he gave no indication of whether he knew about it. "I find myself asking what I can do to make sure this doesn't happen to others," Mr. Affleck said in a statement.
Hours later, Ms. McGowan addressed the tweet to Mr. Affleck accusing him of omitting information in his statement. She quotes him telling her that Mr. Weinstein had mistreated other women.
Rose McGowanCreditMatt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for TCM
"'GODDAMNIT! I TOLD HIM TO STOP DOING THAT' you said that to my face," Ms. McGowan wrote in the tweet. "The press conf I was made to go to after assault. You lie."
Mr. Affleck has not responded to Ms. McGowan's tweet. He did not respond to requests for further comment.
The Times emailed Ms. McGowan to confirm that she was asserting that Mr. Affleck knew about Mr. Weinstein's mistreatment of her because she had told him, and that she was accusing Mr. Affleck of lying because his statement did not acknowledge awareness of Mr. Weinstein's behavior.
"I am saying exactly that," she replied to The Times. She wrote nothing further.
Mr. Affleck had been one of many Hollywood allies of Mr. Weinstein who remained silent following a Times report on Thursday about three decades of allegations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Weinstein and at least eight settlements with women. On Tuesday, The Times reported additional accusations by actresses including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, and The New Yorker published harrowing accounts of women who told of being raped by Mr. Weinstein.
Mr. Affleck and Harvey Weinstein, center right, at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards in 2013. CreditChristopher Polk/Getty Images for BFCA
Mr. Weinstein has denied the sexual assault accusations as described in The New Yorker and he has characterized other allegations as "off base." But he has also apologized for "the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past."
Mr. Affleck, in his statement posted to Twitter Tuesday, wrote that he was "saddened and angry" and that new reports of more serious assaults — which include accounts of forced oral sex — "made me sick." But he did not say whether he knew anything about Mr. Weinstein's treatment of women. Other actors, like Meryl Streep and Judi Dench, said they were unaware of the accusations, and Glenn Close said she had heard "vague rumors."
In 1997, Mr. Weinstein reached a $100,000 settlement with Ms. McGowan after an episode in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival, according to the Times report on Thursday.
Ms. McGowan and Mr. Affleck appeared together in the 1997 movie "Going All the Way" and the 1998 movie "Phantoms."
While several prominent actresses spoke out on Monday against Mr. Weinstein, Mr. Affleck was one of a small cadre of prominent male figures in Hollywood with ties to Mr. Weinstein who criticized him on Tuesday after the new reports in The Times and The New Yorker.
Matt Damon, Mr. Affleck's longtime friend and film collaborator, said in an interview with Deadline on Tuesday that he "never saw" Mr. Weinstein harass or abuse women and that he would have put an end to it if he had. Mr. Damon's and Mr. Affleck's film careers were kicked off by "Good Will Hunting," which Mr. Weinstein backed.
"This type of predation happens behind closed doors and out of public view," Mr. Damon said. "If there was ever an event that I was at, and Harvey was doing this kind of thing and I didn't see it, then I am so deeply sorry, because I would have stopped it."
Several directors with close ties to Mr. Weinstein, such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, have not responded to requests asking them to comment about what it was like to work with him.As for other filmmakers who have worked with the producer, an email to the director Stephen Daldry also received no response, and a representative for the director James Gray, who has been critical of Mr. Weinstein's invasive editing techniques, said he was in production on a new film and unable to speak. Phyllida Lloyd declined to comment.
As more women have come forward, questions have swirled over who in Hollywood might have known something and even directly or indirectly enabled him or protected him. Roughly two dozen former assistants and young actresses have said the powerful and widely feared producer routinely asked them to his hotel room under the pretense of talking about roles or work, and then solicited massages while he was naked or wearing a bathrobe, or sexually forced himself on them.
Ms. Paltrow told The Times that when she was 22, Mr. Weinstein invited her to his hotel bedroom for a work meeting and later proposed a massage. She said she had fled in terror and later relayed the incident to her boyfriend at the time, Brad Pitt. Mr. Pitt confirmed that he later confronted Mr. Weinstein at a theater premiere and told him to never touch her again.
Mr. Affleck later dated Ms. Paltrow, though it is not known whether she relayed news of the incident to him.
George Clooney has also weighed in on the controversy, telling The Daily Beast in an interview that was published Monday night that while he was aware of rumors that young actresses had slept with Mr. Weinstein to get roles, he had been unaware of any misconduct or the settlements Mr. Weinstein had reached with women.
"I didn't hear anything about that, and I don't know anyone that did. That's a whole other level, and there's no way you can reconcile that," said Mr. Clooney, who has worked with Mr. Weinstein repeatedly over 20 years. "There's nothing to say except that it's indefensible."
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/movies/rose-mcgowan-ben-affleck-matt-damon-weinstein.html


The South Sydney Rabbitohs Head Coach Anthony Seibold has named halfback Adam Doueihi to make his NRL debut following a knee injury to Adam Reynolds sustained in last Saturday's clash with the New Zealand Warriors.
Sam Burgess will shift into the front row with Mark Nicholls moving to the interchange bench, and Cameron Murray will start at lock.
The Rabbitohs vs Panthers match will kick off at 5:30pm with the North Sydney Bears set to take on the Penrith Panthers in the Intrust Super Premiership and Jersey Flegg matches at 3:10pm and 1:15pm respectively at Panthers Stadium on Saturday.


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DOMINO'S AND SAN CHURRO AMONG WINNERS OF PETA'S 2019 VEGAN FOOD AWARDS
From Dairy-Free Mozzarella to Vegan Beef Pizza and Everything in Between
Sydney – As the number of vegans in Australia has grown to up to half a million and hundreds of thousands more Australians are choosing to limit their consumption of animal-derived foods for religious reasons, because of environmental concerns, or because of food allergies or intolerances, the market for meals, snacks, and beverages free of meat, eggs, and dairy is stronger than ever – and PETA is recognising some of the most exciting new plant-based offerings with its 2019 Vegan Food Awards.
Sixteen categories are included in this year's awards, and here are just some of the winners:
Best Vegan Cheese: The Alternative Dairy Co Mozzarella
Made entirely from plants, the sensational mozzarella by The Alternative Dairy Co is melty, tasty, and 100% Aussie-made.
Best Vegan Pizza: Domino's Plant-Based Beef Taco Fiesta
Brand new and available nationwide, this must-try pizza sensation is packed with smoky flavour and spice and is simply delicious.
Best Vegan Burger: Hungry Jack's Vegan Cheeseburger
This game-changing burger comes complete with meaty patties grilled to perfection, non-dairy cheese, and vegan mayo.
Best Vegan Menu: San Churro Vegan Menu
San Churro's new vegan menu offers a wide selection of indulgent, generously sized, and innovative desserts that are great to share.
Other winners include Event Cinemas/Over the Moo (Best Vegan Ice Cream), Balfours Bakery (Best Vegan Pie), Suzy Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher (Best Vegan Chicken), and The Cheesecake Shop (Best Vegan Cake).
"From dairy-free mozzarella to 'beef' pizza, food and beverage companies are upping the ante with innovative and delicious vegan options to meet the booming demand for animal-friendly fare," says PETA spokesperson Emily Rice. "Concerns about health, the environment, and animal suffering are driving more and more people to select plant-based foods, which is why vegan eating is at an all-time high."
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to eat" – notes that each person who eats vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year a terrifying, bloody death in today's meat, egg, and dairy industries. Plant-based meals are also greener: the United Nations has said that a global switch to vegan eating is necessary to offset the worst effects of climate change. In addition, vegans are less likely to suffer from heart disease, strokes, diabetes, obesity, and cancer than meat-eaters are.
A copy of the PETA Vegan Food Awards logo is available here, and high-resolution images are available upon request. For more information and to view the full list of winners, please visit PETA.org.au.
ICONIC SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BAKERY AMONG WINNERS...
PETA Vegan Food Awards 2019
ZHIVAGO, CAMILLA AND MARC, AND SANS BEAST...


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Home > Article > Introducing Google Cloud and Google Workspace support for multiple Identity providers with Single Sign-On
Introducing Google Cloud and Google Workspace support for multiple Identity providers with Single Sign-On
by Kartika Triyanti August 10, 2022
Google is one of the largest identity providers on the Internet. Users rely on Google's identity systems to log into Google's own offerings, as well as third-party apps and services. For the business customers, Google provide administratively managed Google accounts that can be used to access Google Workspace, Google Cloud, and BeyondCorp Enterprise. Today Google are announcing that these organizational accounts support single sign-on (SSO) from multiple third-party identity providers (IdPs), available in general availability immediately. This allows customers to more easily access Google's services using their existing identity systems.
Google has long provided customers with a choice of digital identity providers. For over a decade, they have supported SSO via the SAML protocol. Currently, Google Cloud customers can enable a single identity provider for their users with the SAML 2.0 protocol. This release significantly enhances the SSO capabilities by supporting multiple SAML-based identity providers instead of just one.
Business cases for supporting multiple identity providers
There are many reasons for customers to federate identity to multiple third-party identity providers. Often, organizations have multiple identity providers resulting from mergers and acquisitions, or due to differing IT strategies across corporate divisions and subsidiaries. Supporting multiple identity providers allows the users from these different organizations to all use Google Cloud without time-consuming and costly migrations.
Another increasingly common use case is data sovereignty. Companies that need to store the data of their employees in specific jurisdictional locations may need to use different identity providers.
Migrations are yet another common use case for supporting multiple identity providers. Organizations transitioning to new identity providers can now keep their old system active with the new one during the transition phase.
"The City of Los Angeles is launching a unified directory containing all of the city's workforce. Known as "One Digital City," the directory provides L.A. city systems with better security and a single source for authentication, authorization, and directory information," said Nima Asgari, Google Team Manager for the City of Los Angeles. "As the second largest city in the United States, this directory comes at a critical time for hybrid teleworkers, allowing a standard collaboration platform based on Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites. From their experience, Google Cloud's support of multiple identity providers has saved us from having to create a number of custom solutions that would require valuable staff time and infrastructure costs."
To use these new identity federation capabilities, Google Cloud Administrators must first configure one or more identity provider profiles in the Google Cloud Admin console; Google support up to 100 profiles. These profiles require information from your identity provider, including a sign-in URL and an X.509 certificate. Once these profiles have been created, they can then be assigned to the root level for your organization or to any organizational unit (OU). In addition, profiles can be assigned to a Group as an override for the OU. It is also possible to configure an Organizational Unit or group to sign in with Google usernames and passwords instead of a third-party IdP.
For detailed information on configuring SSO with third-party IdPs, see the documentation here.
OIDC Support, Coming Soon
Currently, SSO supports the popular SAML 2.0 protocol. Later this year, Google plan on adding support for OIDC. OIDC is becoming increasingly popular for both consumer and corporate SSO. By supporting OIDC, Google Cloud customers can choose which protocol is best for the needs of their organization. OIDC works alongside the multi-IdP support being released now, so administrators can configure IdPs using both SAML and OIDC.
Article Google Cloud Google Workspace Identity & Security Multiple Indentity Providers Single Sign-On
Introducing Google Cloud Backup and DR
Announcing new simple query options in Cloud Logging
Scheduling a command in GCP using Cloud Run and Cloud Schedule


Today's quotes are related only in that they are four of my ten favorite inspirational quotes.
Video games make great holiday gifts.
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Our Water Quality Monitoring Program is no joke.
It's clearly still winter outside, but my mind keeps wandering towards summer. I'm sure I'm not alone. Winter in North Idaho can be a little rough. Don't get me wrong, I love playing in the snow and we've been blessed with a bunch of it this year. However, I would also like to see that big yellow ball in the sky (the sun?) a whole lot more.
Summer is also on my mind because that's when we'll kick off our 7th season of our Water Quality Monitoring Program. Starting in June, you'll find us out on the water with a group of rock-star citizen scientists collecting water samples once a month through October at 15 locations around the lake and river.
I've written about our monitoring program before and how in love I am with all our volunteers. We seriously COULD NOT run this program without them. Today, I want to share with you how powerful the water quality data that comes out of this program really is.
We started the program in 2012 because we strongly disagreed with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) decision to remove the Pend Oreille River from the list of Idaho's impaired waterways. The river was originally placed on the list for excess phosphorous, which contributes to overgrowth of aquatic vegetation and algae.
DEQ then reversed their decision and said the river was fine. What? We shared some water testing results that showed high levels of phosphorous in river samples. DEQ didn't take our results seriously because they have very strict criteria for accepting data from outside the agency. So we created a program that meets their criteria. Problem solved!
Since that time, DEQ has used our data to take a much closer look at what's been going on in Boyer Slough. DEQ didn't know that Boyer Slough was suffering from extreme nutrient pollution until we shared our data with them. They followed up, confirmed our findings, and have since included it on the list of impaired waterways in Idaho. DEQ is now working on developing a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) that will limit the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous that can enter the slough. This should really help improve the slough's water quality.
EPA has also used our data to help them create discharge limits for wastewater treatment facilities. Sometimes the discharge limits are good at protecting water quality and sometimes they're terrible. Most recently, that was the case with the permit written for the Kootenai Ponderay Sewer District that discharges to Boyer Slough. Boyer Slough can't catch a break.
While the amount of phosphorous that could be discharged was tightly restricted (yay!), the amount of nitrogen that could be discharged was ridiculous. We shared the nitrogen data we have collected over the years with EPA and requested they ratchet down the amount of nitrogen that could be discharged to the slough. Guess what? They did! Much more than we ever thought they would.
We're so proud that we've created real positive change for our local waterways through our Water Quality Monitoring Program. We hope to continue to do so for a very long time. If you want to learn how to become a part of our rock-star citizen scientist team, please let me know. You can also support this program by becoming a member. You can join today at www.lpow.org.


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Home » Apply now for CAB Colvin Scholarships
Meat and Poultry Industry NewsBeef
Apply now for CAB Colvin Scholarships
KEYWORDS Certified Angus Beef (CAB)
By Jera Pipkin
Students already helping lead the beef community could win a share of $33,500 by applying online for the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) brand's Colvin Scholarship. The Fund has awarded more than $250,000 to 76 college juniors, seniors and graduate students since 1999.
The program honors Louis M. "Mick" Colvin, CAB co-founder and executive director for its first 22 years, for his vision and tireless efforts in support of the brand becoming a reality. After his retirement, the fund was established to carry on his legacy of achieving dreams and inspiring others.
Five juniors or seniors already making a positive impact will be awarded $7,500, $6,500, $5,000, $4,000 or $3,000 next spring. Applications, due by Jan. 18, 2019, include two letters of recommendation and two essays, with up to 500 words on career path choices and up to 1,000 words on how CAB could best differentiate itself from nearly 150 other Angus brands or programs.
To apply, visit the brand's "Careers" webpage at www.certifiedangusbeef.com/recruiting/ and click on the link in the "Scholarship and Seminar Opportunities" section.
"The Scholarship is such a blessing," said Elisabeth Forker, last year's first-place undergraduate winner at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "The ag community and the beef industry in particular are so good at ensuring that young people have the opportunity to continue their education."
A graduate-level scholarship for $7,500 is available to those pursuing applied or basic research and a degree related to high-quality beef production. To apply, graduates should submit a report outlining details of their research.
"I don't know if I would have decided to stick around for more education without it," said Michael Cropp, the top 2018 graduate winner. "I was able to get out of undergrad with minimal debt, but it definitely helped kind of cover some bases and continue on [at Iowa State University]."
Winning the scholarship conveyed a confidence-boosting message: "I can do this. Might as well."
First-place undergraduate and graduate winners also receive an all-expense-paid trip to the 2019 CAB Annual Conference in Asheville, N.C., where they can connect with industry leaders in production, packing, retail and foodservice. A golf tournament and auction at the event provide funding for the scholarships, with totals regularly setting new records.
Highlights this year, besides raising more than $15,000 at the Colvin Golf Classic, included a hand-crafted meat cleaver purchased at auction for $25,000 by Japan-based S Foods. Another international distributor, Triple J Five Star of Guam, bought an Angus cowhide rug with the CAB logo stitched on for $7,500.
Winning bids for three items by CAB barn painter Troy Freeman included $16,000 for a future office painting party by Chicago-based partner Amigos Foods, which also bought Freeman framed art for $10,000. Another partner donated a baseball signed by legendary pitcher and guest speaker Jim Abbott to raise $3,000 more for the cause. Sysco Corporation again won the bidding for the right to name next year's Golf Classic.
"It was incredible," said Lindsey Hoover, CAB Education and Events Planner. "Just about everything that came up sold higher than usual, whether that was because of our 40th Anniversary or being in Hawaii, I don't know."
The Colvin legacy is secure, she said, not only with the brand he cofounded but in the growing scholarship program and most significantly, those 76 students already assisted in the past 19 years.
Selected by the Colvin Scholarship Fund Committee, applicants are judged on their activities, scholastic achievement, communication skills and reference letters. Winners will be notified in March.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2018, the CAB brand remains dedicated to adding value to Angus cattle by providing consumers a consistent and high-quality eating experience. The brand based in Wooster, Ohio, annually sells more than a billion pounds of the best beef worldwide through a network of 19,000 licensed partners. To learn more visit https://www.certifiedangusbeef.com/press/colvin/.
Source: Certified Angus Beef
CAB Colvin Scholarship applications close Jan. 17
Southeastern Meat Association 2020 scholarships are now available
2018 Colvin Scholarship winners named
Meat Industry Suppliers raise over $150,000 for scholarships
What Would Jesus Really Eat? The Biblical Case for Eating Meat
Food Safety in the Seafood Industry: A Practical Guide for ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000 Implementation
Advanced Technologies for Meat Processing
International Assn. for Food Protection


Software developers need a solid environment to work in that will help bring their applications to life. And collaboration is more important than ever before, as today's development projects expand in complexity and scope. The Visual Studio development system is a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help software developers create innovative, next-gen applications. VTC veteran author Mark Long will introduce you to the Visual Studio 2008 development environment. Helping you get started developing useful and expandable next-gen applications. To begin learning today, simply click the links.


Every day, Denyse Lynch goes into the Woodhaven Long Term Care Residence in Markham to help care for her 96-year-old father.
She helps feed him, shave him and most importantly, she gives him companionship.
She is among 28 per cent of Canadians age 15 and older who provide care to family members or friends with long-term health conditions, disability needs or aging needs, according to a Statistics Canada report released Tuesday.
Like Lynch, 39 per cent of caregivers look after the needs of their own parents.
Another nine per cent help parents-in-law, eight per cent help spouses and five per cent help children.
"You have to. If you have a heart you have to be there for them," Lynch says of her father, Marc Lefebrve.
For the first time, the survey looked at the types of health conditions requiring care. Age-related needs topped the list with 28 per cent of caregivers tending to these needs.
Cancer was next at 11 per cent, followed by cardiovascular disease at 9 per cent and mental illness at 7 per cent.
Lefebrve has arthritis and some dementia, but "age is his chronic condition," his daughter says.
The most common type of help, provided by 73 per cent of all caregivers, was transportation to run errands, shop or attend medical appointments. The next most frequent types of activities were house cleaning and meal preparation at 51 per cent followed by house maintenance and outdoor work at 45 per cent.
The information from the report was gleaned from the 2012 General Social Survey on Caregiving and Care Receiving.
A previous report, released in 2008, showed that 22 per cent of seniors who receive caregiving support live in care facilities, including assisted living and long-term-care homes.
Tuesday's report showed that one in four caregivers help with medical treatments and provide personal care, including help with bathing and dressing. Two-thirds of those who performed these activities did so at least once a week.
Overall, caregivers typically spent three hours a week caring for an ill or disabled family member or friend. The amount of time varied depending on the relationship between caregiver and care receiver.
More than one quarter of caregivers — or 2.2 million individuals — could be considered "sandwiched" between caregiving and raising children. Most were women between the ages of 35 and 44 and were helping parents or parents-in-law while also having at least one child under age 18 living at home.
About half of caregivers providing care to children and spouses reported feeling some psychological distress, for example depression or isolation. About a third had to consult with a medical professional for help.
Meantime, the report also found that 19 per cent of caregivers receive some form of financial support. Help from family and friends was the most common at 12 per cent, followed by government programs at 7 per cent and a federal tax credit at 5 per cent.


Say I give you two puzzle pieces with shapes on them that look a little like tetriminos. I tell you to turn them into a square of a single color, but there aren't enough pieces, and they're in the wrong orientation. And beside all of that, one's red and one's blue. That's the type of problem Fuusio ($0.99) places in front of you in each of its 160 levels. Everything you need to do with your shapes can be done, you just need the right operator blocks. The right ones are there in every puzzle, laid out for you on a grid – all you need to do is figure out how on earth they're supposed to solve your problem.
The game's big trick is this: each piece can only affect an adjacent space on the game's grid. They can't move, they can only interact or fuse with another piece. This immediately narrows the approaches you can take to solving each puzzle, especially when you move beyond 3×3 level grids. Fuusio is a game of logic and process flow. What pieces will you need to create a square? How can you manipulate them to make them fuse with each other? And in what order do you need to complete those steps for it to all come together in the end?
Fuusio boasts a stunning variety of levels. With such a substantial toolbox, the developers were able to put together 160 levels that rarely feel like they're repeating themselves. In one level you might take a shape, rotate it, recolor it, combine it with another, shift their parts to the left and then reverse the whole works before you can finish a single square. In another you'll have to complete a maze of pieces that need to be combined in just the right order if the whole thing isn't going to fall apart.
There are no hints in Fuusio, but there are also no restrictions. If you're stuck in a level, undo your last moves or start fresh. Or just leave it alone. Since the levels can be completed in any order, you can always pop out at any moment, try something else and come back refreshed. Like some of the great logic puzzles, this is a game that allows you to devote your attention to just one puzzle and feel rewarded when you finally discover the answer.
Given enough time and focus you could certainly learn Fuusio inside and out, but the game doesn't give it up easily. You have to work for your scores here, and the work can be hard going. I love that Fuusio doesn't shy away from complexity, that behind its stark, minimalistic exterior lies a mess of tools and techniques that can be combined and recombined to create ever-greater challenges. Every day we see games that pander and require as little of us as possible; it's always a relief to play one that's willing to ask for more.