text:
A special guest on tour of world-famous Osmonds https://www.jimmycricket.co.uk/wp-content/themes/blade/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 mhamer mhamer https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e3e9e71d9bef1ab16642587b224d590b?s=96&d=mm&r=g March 24, 2015 March 24, 2015
A special guest on tour of world-famous Osmonds
Jimmy Cricket is teaming up with several of the world-famous Osmonds for a special tour of the UK later this year.
The well-known Northern Irishman comedian will be a special guest for the series of shows, called the Andy Williams Christmas Spectacular, throughout the month of December.
The Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied history as star performers.
They started their musical careers as children and achieved further success as teen-music idols, going on to produce a hit television show and also perform as solo and group artists.
The Osmonds group first comprised brothers Alan, Wayne, Merril and Jay Osmond. They were later joined by younger siblings Donny – the most famous of all of them – and Jimmy. Their only sister Marie, who rarely sang with her brothers at that time, launched a successful solo career in 1973.
Jimmy said: "The month of December has traditionally meant pantomime time and this tour will be quite a departure for me.
"Nonetheless, it is an exciting prospect and I cannot wait to team up with the Osmonds, who have a global following and reputation.
"Although I love the art form of pantomime and the attraction it holds for children and families, I have thought for some time that there should be an alternative offering out there over the Christmas period.
"This show fits the bill perfectly and the atmosphere at each venue will be so uplifting that those in attendance will definitely leave in the Christmas spirit!"
Tickets for the tour will go on pre-sale from Wednesday morning (March 25), with tickets on general sale from Friday.
Full list of dates and venues for the Andy Williams Christmas Spectacular are as follows:
TUES 8 – MALVERN Theatres 01684 892277 www.malvern-theatres.co.uk
WED 9 – GUILDFORD G Live 0844 7701 797 www.GLive.co.uk
THURS 10 – WORTHING Assembly Hall 01903 206206 www.worthingtheatres.co.uk
FRI 11 – HARROGATE International Centre 01423 502116 www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk
SAT 12 – CROYDON Fairfield Halls 020 8688 9291 www.fairfield.co.uk
SUN 13 – WATFORD Colosseum 0845 075 3993 www.watfordcolosseum.co.uk
MON 14 – MARGATE Winter Gardens 01843 292795 www.margatewintergardens.co.uk
TUES 15 – EASTBOURNE Congress Theatre 01323 412000 www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk
WED 16 – LONDON Indigo2 08448 244824 www.axs.com
THURS 17 – WOLVERHAMPTON Civic Hall 0870 320 7000 www.wolvescivic.co.uk
FRI 18 – BRADFORD St George's Hall 01274 432000 www.bradford-theatres.co.uk
SAT 19 – BURNLEY Mechanics Theatre 01282 664400 www.burnleymechanics.co.uk
SUN 20 – NEWCASTLE City Hall 0191 277 8030 www.newcastlecityhall.org
MON 21 – EDINBURGH Queens Theatre 0131 668 2019 www.thequeenshall.net
TUES 22 – CHESTERFIELD Winding Wheel 01246 345222 www.chesterfieldtheatres.co.uk
The tour is promoted by Tony Denton Promotions and for more information about the show and for links to each individual venue, please go to the Tony Denton Promotions website at www.tdpromo.com
The Irish comedian & the Midlands crooner https://www.jimmycricket.co.uk/wp-content/themes/blade/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 mhamer mhamer https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e3e9e71d9bef1ab16642587b224d590b?s=96&d=mm&r=g March 9, 2015 March 9, 2015
The Irish comedian & the Midlands crooner
Jimmy Cricket has been asked to team up with Midlands crooner Michael George for two special shows in May.
It will mean an evening of great swing music combined with Jimmy's inimitable style of comedy. There will also be a live band and some great support acts lined up.
One production will be at the Concordia Theatre in Hinckley, Leicestershire, near to where singer Michael George is based. In fact, it is becoming an annual tradition for him to bring a show to the Concordia Theatre as this is the third time he will do so.
Each of the previous two shows have been very well attended, so everyone is expecting a packed auditorium when Jimmy joins Michael for this year's version on Saturday 23 May.
Virtually the same production will visit the Trinity Arts centre in Gainsborough a week before the Concordia one as both Michael and Jimmy head there on Saturday 16 May.
Sellout for comedy tour's opening night https://www.jimmycricket.co.uk/wp-content/themes/blade/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 mhamer mhamer https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e3e9e71d9bef1ab16642587b224d590b?s=96&d=mm&r=g February 15, 2015 February 15, 2015
Sellout for comedy tour's opening night
The You Must Be Joking tour that reunited Jimmy Cricket with three fellow well-known Northern Ireland comedians had a first-night sellout.
Jimmy headlined the series of comedy shows, which also featured John Linehan (aka May McFettridge), William Caulfield and Gene Fitzpatrick.
It was a recreation of a successful format that was part of the 2013 Cookstown Comedy Festival.
The tour was hosted by four major theatres across Northern Ireland, with the opening night playing to a full house at the Grand Opera House in Belfast.
It then visited Newtonabbey and Derry before ending with a trip to the Market Place Arts Centre in Armagh.
The quartet of entertainers also appeared on the Gerry Kelly radio show at the BBC Radio Ulster studio in Belfast.
The tour was organised by Northern Ireland's premier promotions company, David Hull Promotions, who are based in Belfast.
The show must go on… despite a bomb next door https://www.jimmycricket.co.uk/wp-content/themes/blade/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 mhamer mhamer https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e3e9e71d9bef1ab16642587b224d590b?s=96&d=mm&r=g January 25, 2015 January 25, 2015
The show must go on… despite a bomb next door
Jimmy Cricket has recalled the time that a pantomime in which he was starring went ahead despite the fact that a bomb had been planted next to the theatre.
The famous entertainer was appearing in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Grand Opera Theatre in Belfast at the time.
Looking back at the incident in 1992, Jimmy told the Lancashire Evening Post in his latest column for the Preston-based newspaper: "With the help of great architects and engineers, we got the theatre ready just in time for the pantomime, even though we had to get ready and change in portakabins!
"The fact the people from Northern Ireland didn't want the terrorists to succeed meant we did sellout business all the way through."
Book now to see Jimmy in action https://www.jimmycricket.co.uk/wp-content/themes/blade/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 mhamer mhamer https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e3e9e71d9bef1ab16642587b224d590b?s=96&d=mm&r=g January 22, 2015 January 22, 2015
Book now to see Jimmy in action
The first venue that famous comedian Jimmy Cricket will be visiting for his 2015 shows around the UK is the Plaza Theatre in Stockport on Sunday (25 January).
With the show scheduled for a 3pm start, there is the chance to have Sunday lunch with all the family, then go along to see him and laugh away the calories! Tickets are priced at £10 (£5 for under 16s).
Jimmy embarks on a tour of Northern Ireland with the You Must Be Joking show next week.
When the veteran entertainer visits the charming Lamproom Theatre in South Yorkshire during February, he will feature in a format that will afford the audience an opportunity to ask him a question, as he brings his Audience with show to the Barnsley region.
Jimmy's trip to the Victoria Theatre in Halifax on 25 March will be part of a Music Hall show that his good friend, Neil Hurst, is organising.
And he is also looking forward to visiting Bexhill-on-Sea, where the team behind the Bexhill Festival of Music are organising the show he will headline in April.
All the other venues on the list shown above right will also present Jimmy's Value for a Tenner show.
So if you live in one of the regions Jimmy will be visiting during the first half of 2015, do go along and see him in action.
Thanks to Ted Robbins for theatre sofa! https://www.jimmycricket.co.uk/wp-content/themes/blade/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 mhamer mhamer https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e3e9e71d9bef1ab16642587b224d590b?s=96&d=mm&r=g January 8, 2015 January 8, 2015
Thanks to Ted Robbins for theatre sofa!
Jimmy Cricket talked in his latest newspaper column about how a gift to a theatre from an old friend helped him to relax in between panto performances during the festive season.
The famous Irish comedian said that when he first arrived at the Charter Theatre in Preston for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he noticed a reclining sofa in his dressing room.
And he told readers in his most recent Lancashire Evening Post monthly column that he discovered it had been bequeathed by fellow entertainer and old chum Ted Robbins.
Jimmy also describes how BAE Systems employees and their families took over the first Saturday matinee performance of the pantomime.
He included a Christmas letter from his Mammy in his column, in which she talked about who gets what on the festive turkey and a nephew being arrested for picking blackberries in a computer shop.
Comedy show to return? You Must Be Joking! https://www.jimmycricket.co.uk/wp-content/themes/blade/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 mhamer mhamer https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e3e9e71d9bef1ab16642587b224d590b?s=96&d=mm&r=g December 1, 2014 December 5, 2014
Comedy show to return? You Must Be Joking!
Jimmy Cricket is to be reunited with fellow Northern Ireland comedians John Linehan (aka May McFettridge), William Caulfield and Gene Fitzpatrick to produce the You Must Be Joking tour of the province in early 2015.
The event will see the recreation of a successful show that was part of the 2013 Cookstown Comedy Festival (above).
It featured all four comedians in one unique evening of comedy.
Famous entertainer Jimmy said: "As expected, the show was a complete sellout and it was always the plan to tour it around the province at some point in the future.
"With the tour dates now set, it is time to get those chuckle muscles flexed!"
The You Must Be Joking tour schedule:
Wed 28 January – Grand Opera House, Belfast
Thu 29 January – Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey
Sat 31 January – Millennium Theatre, Derry (Londonderry)
Sun 1 February – Market Place Theatre, Armagh
Jimmy is also squeezing in an additional date with his own stand-up show, which is scheduled for Friday 30 January at the Ranfurly Arts Centre in Dungannon.
This extra date will see Jimmy visit the county from where he hails, as he was born down the road from Dungannon in the town of Cookstown in County Tyrone.


text:
Q: Loading an Array tag from a .JSON file into snowflake I have a json file that I am loading into snowflake. One of the keys in the file has a value that is an array. The question is how do I load this tag into a separate column of type ARRAY in snowflake? It's already an array in json. Do I still need to use an array_construct(tag_name_here) function to load it up? What happens if in subsequent records, the 'industry' tag is missing altogether? Please advise.
Below is a sample of the json...
  [
   [
    {
      "title": "Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. Fourth Quarter and Year End Results to be Released on....",
      "pubDate": "Tue, 25 Feb 2020 00:49:00 +0000",
      "description": " Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. plans to announce its Fourth Quarter and Year End 2019 financial results after the market closes. In addition, the Company...",
      "industry": [
                    "Mining & Metals ",
                    "Mining ",
                    "MNG",
                    "MIN"
                ],
       "subject": [
                    "Conference Call Announcements ",
                    "Earnings "
                ]
     }
    ]
   ]

A: Take a look at the examples here:
https://docs.snowflake.net/manuals/user-guide/querying-semistructured.html
generally you're looking into extracting data rather than constructing it (just use value:industry to fill in your array column). And if the proper tag is missing in some record it will just get filled with NULL.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Yes, I know what he means. I'm becoming increasingly tolerant of weeds and have started protecting and even nurturing some. As a result, our lawn is taking on the character of a wild flower meadow, and this week I was heartened to see the first invasion of cow parsley and some self-seeded wild thyme, even as I grew 50 creeping thyme plants from seed. It's been about 4 years since we did any lawn-weeding and the biodiversity is roughly doubling every year. The only thing being crowded out is grass and moss.


Please use this form to tell us about your prior education, qualifications and work history. We are currently reviewing all initial applications. Please feel free to follow up after submitting this form to schedule an in-person interview.


Known by a number of names, including Follow the Lady and Follow the Bee, three-card monte is a confidence game in which victims, or marks, are tricked into betting that they can find a certain card, such as the queen of spades, among three face-down playing cards. After showing the target card, the dealer often uses sleight of hand before rearranging the cards quickly and giving the player an opportunity to select one of the three cards. What happens if the mark unexpectedly finds the queen?
Marco Polo was a Venetian trader and explorer who, together with his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China and visit with Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan. Polo helped generate extraordinary interest in the Far East among Europeans, and his book, Il Milione, was an instant hit at a time when books had to be painstakingly copied by hand. What famous explorer carried a heavily annotated copy of Polo's book?


Free Shipping To 69 Countries. A small fee will apply to other countries.
Powerful Samsung- The Teemo M1 has an significantly improved battery (DOUBLE discharge rate than Samsung 22P cells) which allows you to maintain high speeds, even as your battery is running low.
Bearing: German FAG bearing, the best bearing in the world.
Intelligent boot: TEEMO board automatically powers on when rolling for more than 3 feet/ 1 meter, so that you don't have to bend down to press the power switch.
Teemo boards have been strictly waterproofed before they leave the factory, but once they start to be used, maintained or swapping batteries, the water resistance of the circuit boards will be reduced.
Do not ride on wet or icy roads. Riding on wet or icy roads is dangerous potentially causing a loss of traction or control.


Paris: home of the bistro, the artful cigarette hold, and—come Fashion Week—thousands and thousands of jaw-dropping fits. That's right: the editors, stylists, buyers, bloggers, influencers, athletes, photographers, and designers who make up the European fashion caravan have alighted on Paris, and they've come ready to dress. We've got balaclavas, green hair, and McDonald's earrings. Which is to say: yeah, it's feeling a lot like Paris Fashion Week.


7162 nodes (5%) are attached to their parents as advmod.
5793 instances of advmod (81%) are right-to-left (child precedes parent). Average distance between parent and child is 2.03169505724658.
The following 32 pairs of parts of speech are connected with advmod: VERB-ADV (3580; 50% instances), VERB-PART (1143; 16% instances), NOUN-ADV (936; 13% instances), ADJ-ADV (585; 8% instances), ADV-ADV (372; 5% instances), NOUN-PART (80; 1% instances), ADJ-PART (74; 1% instances), ADP-ADV (54; 1% instances), NUM-ADV (46; 1% instances), DET-ADV (45; 1% instances), PRON-ADV (41; 1% instances), NUM-ADP (39; 1% instances), ADV-PART (38; 1% instances), ADV-INTJ (31; 0% instances), PROPN-ADV (29; 0% instances), NOUN-INTJ (13; 0% instances), NUM-PART (12; 0% instances), DET-PART (11; 0% instances), PRON-PART (7; 0% instances), CCONJ-ADV (5; 0% instances), PRON-INTJ (3; 0% instances), ADJ-ADP (2; 0% instances), ADJ-INTJ (2; 0% instances), DET-INTJ (2; 0% instances), INTJ-ADV (2; 0% instances), NOUN-ADP (2; 0% instances), NUM-INTJ (2; 0% instances), PROPN-PART (2; 0% instances), ADP-INTJ (1; 0% instances), DET-ADP (1; 0% instances), PART-ADV (1; 0% instances), SCONJ-INTJ (1; 0% instances).


text:
import vtk
from vtk.test import Testing
from vtk.util.misc import vtkGetTempDir
VTK_TEMP_DIR = vtkGetTempDir()

contr = vtk.vtkMultiProcessController.GetGlobalController()
if not contr:
    nranks = 1
    rank = 0
else:
    nranks = contr.GetNumberOfProcesses()
    rank = contr.GetLocalProcessId()

def GetSource(dataType):
    s = vtk.vtkRTAnalyticSource()
    # Fake serial source
    if rank == 0:
        s.Update()

    if dataType == 'ImageData':
        return s.GetOutput()

    elif dataType == 'UnstructuredGrid':
        dst = vtk.vtkDataSetTriangleFilter()
        dst.SetInputData(s.GetOutput())
        dst.Update()
        return dst.GetOutput()

    elif dataType == 'RectilinearGrid':

        input = s.GetOutput()

        rg = vtk.vtkRectilinearGrid()
        rg.SetExtent(input.GetExtent())
        dims = input.GetDimensions()
        spacing = input.GetSpacing()

        x = vtk.vtkFloatArray()
        x.SetNumberOfTuples(dims[0])
        for i in range(dims[0]):
            x.SetValue(i, spacing[0]*i)

        y = vtk.vtkFloatArray()
        y.SetNumberOfTuples(dims[1])
        for i in range(dims[1]):
            y.SetValue(i, spacing[1]*i)

        z = vtk.vtkFloatArray()
        z.SetNumberOfTuples(dims[2])
        for i in range(dims[2]):
            z.SetValue(i, spacing[2]*i)

        rg.SetXCoordinates(x)
        rg.SetYCoordinates(y)
        rg.SetZCoordinates(z)

        rg.GetPointData().ShallowCopy(input.GetPointData())

        return rg

    elif dataType == 'StructuredGrid':

        input = s.GetOutput()

        sg = vtk.vtkStructuredGrid()
        sg.SetExtent(input.GetExtent())
        pts = vtk.vtkPoints()
        sg.SetPoints(pts)
        npts = input.GetNumberOfPoints()
        for i in xrange(npts):
            pts.InsertNextPoint(input.GetPoint(i))
        sg.GetPointData().ShallowCopy(input.GetPointData())

        return sg

def TestDataType(dataType, filter):
    if rank == 0:
        print dataType

    s = GetSource(dataType)

    da = vtk.vtkIntArray()
    da.SetNumberOfTuples(6)
    if rank == 0:
        try:
            ext = s.GetExtent()
        except:
            ext = (0, -1, 0, -1, 0, -1)
        for i in range(6):
            da.SetValue(i, ext[i])
    contr.Broadcast(da, 0)

    ext = []
    for i in range(6):
        ext.append(da.GetValue(i))
    ext = tuple(ext)

    tp = vtk.vtkTrivialProducer()
    tp.SetOutput(s)
    tp.SetWholeExtent(ext)

    ncells = vtk.vtkIntArray()
    ncells.SetNumberOfTuples(1)
    if rank == 0:
        ncells.SetValue(0, s.GetNumberOfCells())
    contr.Broadcast(ncells, 0)

    result = vtk.vtkIntArray()
    result.SetNumberOfTuples(1)
    result.SetValue(0, 1)

    if rank > 0:
        if s.GetNumberOfCells() != 0:
            result.SetValue(0, 0)

    filter.SetInputConnection(tp.GetOutputPort())
    filter.UpdateInformation()
    filter.SetUpdateExtent(rank, nranks, 0)
    filter.Update()

    if filter.GetOutput().GetNumberOfCells() != ncells.GetValue(0) / nranks:
        result.SetValue(0, 0)

    filter.UpdateInformation()
    filter.SetUpdateExtent(rank, nranks, 1)
    filter.Update()

    gl = filter.GetOutput().GetCellData().GetArray(vtk.vtkDataSetAttributes.GhostArrayName())
    if not gl:
        result.SetValue(0, 0)
    else:
        rng = gl.GetRange()
        if rng[1] != 1:
            result.SetValue(0, 0)

    resArray = vtk.vtkIntArray()
    resArray.SetNumberOfTuples(1)
    contr.AllReduce(result, resArray, vtk.vtkCommunicator.MIN_OP)

    assert resArray.GetValue(0) == 1

TestDataType('ImageData', vtk.vtkTransmitImageDataPiece())
TestDataType('RectilinearGrid', vtk.vtkTransmitRectilinearGridPiece())
TestDataType('StructuredGrid', vtk.vtkTransmitStructuredGridPiece())
TestDataType('UnstructuredGrid', vtk.vtkTransmitUnstructuredGridPiece())

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


As Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. gears up for the launch of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 on February 28th, the publisher has released a special video showcasing the recording of the game's orchestral soundtrack at the iconic Abbey Road studios in London.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 soundtrack features the largest orchestra ever used in the production of a video game, and spanned several weeks of recording. Araujo's soundtrack has been designed to showcase the conflict Dracula feels, and the composer details why Abbey Road was important to the soundtrack for the PlayStation®3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC epic.


text:
Pune Travel Guide Pune Trips Plus Valley Recce - A True Story Of Courage, Passion And Brotherhood - Written By Sharath Raj
Plus valley Recce - A True story of courage, passion and brotherhood - Written by Sharath Raj
By Sharath Raj
Plus Valley
"True adventure lies in exploring unknown terrains, rest all are mere trails."
-Sharath Raj
It all started when one of my BRC course mate told me about the mighty Plus valley near Tamhini Ghat, a rarely explored but famous place among those who have been there. He showed me a few pictures which were jaw dropping. A close study of those pictures revealed the reason why very few events have been organized here.
Two huge rappelling patches of (300 ft each) out of which one was an overhang patch of more than 80% The difficulty of arranging transport to get down to a place which is in the middle of nowhere. Not much information (Directions & Route map) available online to plan for it.
With whatever little information we had, we planned for it.
The preparations started weeks before.
The day of Reckoning arrived!!!
Following equipment were mobilized for the same.
300 ft 10 mm green ropes, 150 ft, 10 mm white rope, 90 ft10 mm, 600 ft 8mm white rope (borrowed from one of our friend of another group), Carabiners, descenders, QD's, jummars, anchor bolts, harnesses, tubulars, Walkies, first Aid etc.
Food: Sufficient enough to feed us for 3 days. (Although it was a 2 day recce, we carried additional food for contingency)
Team: Harshad, Sharath, Ashish, Subhraj, Nikhil, Shashi.
The team gathered at CST station. Each member was armed with a rucksack, huge coils of ropes and equipments making us appear anything but ordinary on the crowded station. Our excitement was high, our spirits were extreme, but that day a rare silence was dominant too. The train arrived and we managed to find a few seats in the overcrowded train. Late by 30 mins as per the scheduled ETA we reached, Pune railway station where Shashi was waiting to join us for the recce. A convoy of two rickshaws took us to Swargate ST stand. The bus was at around 5 am and we still had an hour to kill. Everyone got themselves engaged in something or the other but Subhu even after a long sleep during the train journey, got cozy to have some more sleep at the ST stand proving his "Somnophilia" (sleeping beauty syndrome).
Shashi came running, "the bus is here!". We quickly got our stuff and the noise thankfully woke up Subhu and without asking much questions he came running behind us. We were lucky enough to have some rear seats available where we could park our luggage. It was a roller coaster ride and in no time the entire team fell asleep.
At 06:45 hrs - "Hey, I think it's the plus valley!" - Harshad shouted and we all sprang up to have a look but could barely see anything. Though Harshad wasn't sure, we made a decision to get off the bus and try our luck against Harshad's observation. The kind driver heartlessly applied the brakes (he was in love with the accelerator) and the conductor waved us goodbye. Though his face was still clueless about where we guys were heading towards that no man's land.
Harshad was right...It was the mighty valley of Tamhini ghat - "Plus Valley". While we were enjoying the beauty from the mouth of the valley, we quickly had our breakfast and started our final task of distributing the weight for everyone to carry not less than 10 kg in their backpack.
Sharath - Coiling the rope at the start point of Plus valley 07:15 hrs
The steep descend started with lot of loose rocks to negotiate with. After 5 mins of the descend we were astonished to see a carcass of a pulsar bike, it indicated a brutal accident which had taken place in the past. Although the silence was prominent we continued on the trail, witnessing the eternal beauty of the valley, the mighty walls with climbing bolts. The climbing walls tempted us to scale them and we decided to come back once we had settled down at the camping area. After an hour of heading straight on the trail we reached the T junction (+ intersection) of the valley. With a fair knowledge of the orientation we knew that we had to change our direction towards the right. The beauty of the valley got magnified with the sight of huge water cisterns with crystal clear water. From here we could see the dead end of the valley and knew our camping spot was approaching. Few minutes on the straight trail brought us to the huge plateau which was an idle spot for camping. We were in the cradle of nature with beautiful water cisterns around. Our joy had no bounds. Rucksacks were grounded, and we jumped inside the pool. The water was cold enough to withdraw the tiredness of the journey so far. We all were like hippos inside a pool of water, lying down lazily doing nothing when Harshad reminded us that we had to quickly start our camping setup so that we could do our climbing practice before the sun retired for the day.
The blueprint of the map prepared by Harshad 11:30 hrs
The Tent was pitched, The Hammock was hanged, wood was collected, food ration was out and we were all set to start our cooking activity.
Subhu Breaking the wood for cooking
As usual I was leading the cooking job and rest of the team were diligently under my command. And in an hours time the meal was ready; Rice and mix veg curry was on the platter. The sun had no mercy and showered us with all its energy. Taking shade under a small tree we started our meal. As usual praises followed for my recipe, these praises have now become more like a ritual than an appreciation cause whether you like it or not you have to appreciate any meal in the wild. The food made us lazier and the heat was forcing us to stay behind in our tents, so we decided to take a nap till the sun signed off for the day. Listening to each other's stories and exchanging views on the purpose of existence we retired for a powerful nap.
Our 2 BHK Tent :)
Nikhil & Ashish sleeping below the Tree shade
My Hammock - Waiting to cradle me
After a while Shashi , the non-climber in the group sarcastically commented "Looks like no one is in a mood to climb and the "josh" shown was just in the moment" , to which Harshad roared back at him and it was a good enough alarm to wake us all up. Except Shashi, the entire team gathered all the climbing gears and ropes and started heading back to the bolted walls which were approximately an hour away from us. Armed with a walkie and a kukri we left Shashi behind to guard the post till we were back.
The wall was still hot and Harshad as always was more than excited to lead the climb. His request for lead climb and his excitement, both were an usual phenomenon which we generally agreed to proceed with.
Harshad reviewing the route before his climb
"Belayer ready?" - Harshad enquired
"Ready!" - I replied.
"Starting the climb" - Harshad informed.
"Climb On" - I replied back.
Whether it is climbing or rappelling, a code of call signs are used to communicate effectively between the climber/rappeler to the belayer. No act is performed by the climber/ rappeler without the consent of the belayer on whom his life is depended and for the climber his belayer is everything.
Although the wall was a perfect 90 degree inclined one, the initial climb was easy. The luxury got diminished after climbing 25 to 30 ft. After reaching onto a ledge at around 40 ft, Harshad, did a traverse of approx. 15 ft. He got his quick draws anchored to a fix bolt since the next final climb of 15ft was an overhang with only crux holds to climb on. Struggling to find for a superior hold Harshad put all his energy on the difficult crux for more than 15 to 20 mins. I being his belayer without blinking an eye was prepared to arrest his fall which could have happened at any moment. Since Harshad had a habit of giving surprise falls, I was on my toes. Finally after a long struggle and draining all his energy, he signed off. " I Quit" He said. Having a look at my fellow audience I replied back - "ready to Rappel on". Harshad said - "Starting the rappel" to which I acknowledged - "Rappel on" and he was down in no time.
Lesson One - In mountaineering there is no shame to Quit at any point of time since you always have a next day to climb. The mountain won't go anywhere. You only have to tell yourself "It's just not my day today" and swallow your ego.
Next was my turn to climb, and Harshad was my belayer. The call signs continued, the same route was followed and after the traverse I got myself to the same problem (In climbing terms "Problem" means the path that a climber takes in order to complete the climb). I paused for few seconds to have a closer look at the problem, planned my moves and made my climb to the top. "Im there" I signed it to my belayer with a feeling of achievement. Every time you solve a problem you enjoy a moment of victory and the same emotion was going through me. After fixing a top belay setup, I rappelled down to the team.
Sharath negotiating the Crux move
Next was Ashish's turn. He followed the same route and quite easily made it to the summit. His job was to remove all the Setup and descend back safely. This is one of the riskiest part of winding up the setup since your anchor points are removed and the impact of the fall factor increases with it. Ashish was cool and did it with great ease. Maintain your calm - That's the mantra in all walks of life if not, at least in climbing. It was getting dark. We quickly coiled the ropes, mounted our head lamps and started heading back to our camping spot. Within minutes the trail was pitch dark and we had an hour to reach back to our camping area. We spoke to Shashi over the walkie to find out whether everything was ok at his end and informed him that we were going to take an hour to reach him. Everything seemed ok for some time until Subhu, who was the last man on the trail heard a strange noise, some grunting of an animal and he alarmed us. The group came closer. There prevailed a deep silence, our eyes were wide open, trying to figure out any moving object in the dead dark forest of that valley. But we couldn't hear anything. We stayed together and walked ahead.
Lesson Two - The woods may have many surprises for you when you are surviving in the wild. Any such encounter must never trigger panic amongst the group members. Remain calm, stay together with the group and face the challenge.
In the meantime the camp fire was already lit when we reached the camping area. The diner was cooked along with a spicy soup. We had a long chat and later we all went to sleep.
The bonfire burning throughout the night
"Wake up guys - It's a big day" said Harshad whose face was still tugged inside his bed sheet. He reminded us about the purpose of the day. The morning was so pleasant that we were behaving extra lazy. In a rhythm, each member got out of the tent to start the day or I would better say "to face the day".
Post all our morning chores, we headed towards the void which was barely 50 meters away. We reached a gorge which was around 40 ft below and was completely filled of water. Harshad and I lowered ourselves with a belay, from two different sides to have a closer look at the gorge for some better anchors but were disappointed to find none. We climbed back to the ledge and keeping the gorge on our left hand side we proceeded further. Struggling because of some bushes we reached an open plateau with a huge boulder which was suitable to be used as an anchor point. Ropes were uncoiled, gears were taken out and the preparations started. It was noted that the depth of the gorge was not visible from any side of the plateau, hence the question of the descend length conquered our minds.
Team at the setup Point
The anchor was ready to take us to the bottom of the gorge. A 300 ft 10mm rope was attached to the anchor point.
I closed my eyes for a sec to remember the spirit, took the dead end of the rope, coiled it a few feet, said to the team "Here we go" and threw the rope into the void.. swewwwwww. The rope was unwinding down so rigorously in such great speed that it was astonishing for us to watch , still it took more than 10 secs for it to stop with a jerk at the anchor station. Trust me, the jerk was scary.
Watch Out!!! The rope is on its way
The full length of the rope was consumed for the patch and since the base was not visible we were not sure whether the dead end of the rope had touched the base. Hence we decided to pull the rope back and to tie a knot at the dead end of the rope to safeguard the rappeler to stop his descend at the end of the rope in case the descend length was more than the length of the rope. The thumb rule says - "Whether your rope touches the base or not, it is always safer to tie a knot at the dead end of the rope, to avoid rope starvation"
We started pulling the rope to tie the knot. Despite using the jummar to pull the rope, the weight of the rope was so much that a normal person would exhaust all his energy to pull the 300 ft giant and his reliever would exhaust too. Finally the rope was up again. While I was tying the knot at the dead end, I felt that the rope was wet. On further investigating the rope, we concluded that the rope was 10 ft wet which clearly indicated just one thing, "The landing zone was in the water and not on the land!" Now the question was how deep was the water?? How far we would have to swim to come out of the water??? Our senses triggered us to plan for the worst and we felt an urge to decide for a constructive sequence, primarily the First & the Last man.
Rope line straight to the center of the pond
The primary objective of the first man was to do the naked recce of the route, communicate all the challenges to the team, decide a suitable landing zone and sanction his clearance for commencing the activity. Alike the first man, the last man too had to execute vital tasks like coiling and winding up the entire setup, preparing his own rappel line all alone and descending without his belay depending only on the main line.
Thus the following sequence was charted.
After the knot was tied at the end of the rope, the route was live again. Armed with a Walkie, few carabineers, slings & jummar, Harshad was all set to go. Trust me, however experienced a person you are, still your heart would miss some beats when you are about to lead such routes, especially when the landing zone is not visible and the terrain is unknown. Such moments make you stand out of the queue and then you lead and people just follow you!
Ashish lined up Harshad on the main rope, anchored him to the belay and said "Sharath - The belay is with you"... "Roger" I acknowledged back. We all gave him a salute - a mark of respect in EDAS for the act. To which Harshad replied "see you soon buddies" and he started to disappear into the void.
Harshad - Rappelling down
The descend was slower than normal. "The rope is damn heavy" Harshad radioed. The 300+ft rope which was hanging below was appearing heavy due to the gravitational force. Harshad had to use all his energy to pull the rope and pass it through the descenders. Also it was a 10mm rope which gave more friction in comparison to 8 & 9mm ropes. After a few minutes, the belay rope was running faster with the descend and I cud feel the heat between the rope and my gloves. For almost 15 mins, we could not hear anything from Harshad when finally he responded to our RT calls - "Guys - Everything is under control" He informed us that it was almost a 250 ft overhang patch which he had encountered and had finally stationed at just 2ft above a huge water body. We discovered that the huge pond below plus valley was nothing but the Devkund pond and Harshad was hanging in the middle of it just two feet above it. He was enjoying one of the finest surprises of his life and he was enjoying it thoroughly. He asked us to hold his belay, while he fixed a jummar and removed his shoes. He signaled to us that he was going to set himself free from the rope line and before doing that he was going to throw all his gears and walkies to the shore so that he could swim easily without any drag. So for almost next 15 mins we couldn't hear anything from Harshad until I found that the weight on the belay turned null. We concluded that he had jumped into the water and was off to his rally point. After few minutes, the RT rang .. " Im there..Safe & fine" Harshad reported his status. Hurraaaaaaay...It was a moment of joy and accomplishment. Harshad informed us that the water was deep and one needs to swim at least for 20 ft to reach to the shore. But since Harshad had the dead end of the rope with him, he could pull the rappelling person towards the shore. We pulled up the belay rope to start with the next guy. Shashi was lined up and there he went. For almost 7 to 8 mins Shashi was not visible to Harshad and when he was visible to him, he was not visible to us. From this we figured out that the initial 50 ft was a convex patch while the rest 250ft was a concave patch along with the overhang. With almost 15 ft left to descend, Harshad started pulling Shashi towards the shore to ensure that he landed out of the pond. It took close to 20 mins to clear the line followed by which the same drama of pulling the belay repeated. With every descending person, the individual activity handled on the summit increased and it was a herculean task to pull up the long belay to the summit. By now I wanted to plan out the last man's descend. Hence I asked Nikhil to stay back while I prepared my plan and Ashish who was the fourth man, too decided to stay back with me till the last man's descend plan was finalized. Hence Subhu who naturally was now third in line went down while Ashish took the belay as I started to plan out my descend plan. i.e. 'The last man descend'. Following arithmetics ran through my mind.
Subhu at the overhang section of the descend.
Subhu being pulled to the shore by the base team to avoid him land into the pond.
"The length of the descend & the length of 10mm rope is 300ft, however if this rope has to be used as a "U" setup then the rope's length would reduce to half of its actual length which would only cover 50% of the patch."
Ashish informed me about the 600ft rope which we were using as a belay, but he also reminded me about the damage in the rope after 450 ft. The guy who gave us the 600 ft 8mm rope had informed us that the rope had two cuts after 450ft. We still got it along since the patch length based on the information available was not above 350 ft, and we had thought that we would use it as a backup rope. The bottom line was that even this rope was not ideal to be trusted upon since the core of the rope was damaged from inside while the outer was still intact.
Rope Load distribution:Core loads 60% of the entire weightOuter loads 40% of the entire weight
We also had a 180 ft 10mm rope which was not even considered since the rope's length was not even one way of the descend length. In the back drop, Subhu also descended and now we were left with Ashish, Nikhil & myself on the summit. We informed Harshad about the dilemma and asked him to wait till we figured out a plan.
The blueprint of last man descend Plan which I prepared
After 1400 hrs
It was scorching hot. After lot of discussion, the following plan was charted to be executed. The 300ft rope would be joined to the 8mm white rope. The 8mm white rope would be double folded thereby reducing its length to half of the usable length i.e 450/2 which is approx. 225 ft.
"See you down buddy " I said to Nikhil with a tight hug and sent him down to the rest of the team. "Nikhil is here" minutes later Shashi confirmed that Nikhil had touched the base. "Stand by for further action" Ashish informed Shashi and turned towards me "Shall we start".
"We should...It's already 15:45 hrs" I replied.
We started to pull up the entire rope to recreate the setup as per the new plan. Since we wanted a full proof plan, we decided to do a rehearsal of the actual descend before Ashish descended down. If the plan failed the last man would not be stuck alone. With only 2 people onboard the task of pulling all those ropes became tiring in the heat. We covered our faces with a head wrap and sunglasses to avoid sunstroke and dehydration. The water available in the can had reached its boiling point...Thanks to the sun that was in no mood of having any mercy.
Ashish, Myself in the scorching heat
The green rope was ready to be launched.
"Watch out" I alarmed the team at the base.
There it goes.....
"Have both the ends of the rope touched the base" I enquired with the base team.
'Negative. It's almost 75 ft short from the base"
As expected the line was not sufficient to meet the descend length.
"Whats Next" Ashish asked me expecting for an alternate solution.
"Let's Think" I said after pausing for a breath.
Few minutes later the walkie beeped... It was Harshad on the RT.
"Go Ahead Harshad" I acknowledged him.
'I have a solution, but....' He hesitated to continue
"But what" I probed him.
"But it's a bit risky" Harshad began to elaborate his plan which was to involve the remaining 150ft of 8mm rope which had the damaged portion. He asked us to secure the damage portion with a thumb knot over the damage area to avoid the load to be transferred to the damage section of the rope.
Harshad always has a Plan B...especially weird ones during such crisis situations.
"Negative...It's way too risky" I immediately replied back.
"Yes I know" but that's the only solution to meet the length" Harshad replied.
I reminded Harshad that the core of the rope already had two break points. If it was a case where the outer was damaged, then we could have assumed that it might have been due to some sharp edge which might have come in contact with the rope, but the core was damaged in this case which meant only one thing it was definitely due to the sheer load factor which the rope has failed twice to take resulting in the two break points. Although we could have secured the damage area with the THUMB KNOT but what if there was another break while we descended through it. None of us could anticipate that.
Harshad agreed to the point and said "You guys take the call wisely but remember the time is running out"
I acknowledged back and told him that we would get back to him in 10 mins.
Lesson three: While one is exploring an unknown terrain, it is very likely that one may land up in such situations where the entire plan fails thereby forcing you to take some risks. Remember.. risk is something which is only to be taken when it is inevitable. Retire from the distress; check out for the feasible and the most executable contingency plan,let the hidden survivalist in you think and the magic which resides within the nature will join you along.
Ashish turned towards me" What's our contingency plan"
We have two options
Plan A - Check out for an alternative route Plan B - Abort the mission and return back out of the valley to the start point.
"Great..I only wanted one plan instead we have two" Ashish replied back in a comic tone or a bit sarcastically I couldn't tell.
But the plan has got its limitations - I continued
Fetching a new route would definitely take time which would simultaneously reduce our trek time to return back if the plan A pays no result. In that case we will have to back out of the valley in pitch dark and the possibility of find a suitable transport option would diminish to null.
"Great...so we have a time bound plan...and I am very much fond of time bound activities...Thanks to my boss"
This time Ashish was purely sarcastic.
We informed the base team about the plan and without wasting much time started hunting for other routes and yes the magic happened!!!
100 mtrs across the valley we could see a small rope tied to a rock. We were cent percent sure that someone might have attempted from that place.
The image of the rope being tied to the rock at the other side of the valley
I asked Ashish to immediately reach out to that place while I did the winding up of the ropes.
In 10 mins, Ashish reached and there came first good news of the day.
"Bro...Seems like this rock has been used as an anchor point to descend down" Ashish informed me through the walkie.
He also remarked that he couldn't see the landing zone from the patch.
Since I was on the other side, I decided to figure out the landing zone from my end....Hence anchoring myself to a sling, I descended a bit to check for the landing zone.
"Yes...100 ft down there is a landing zone" I informed Ashish with a sense of achievement.
The new dilemma of the situation was that after descending the 100 ft patch we had to find an anchor point from the landing zone for the next descend of 200ft if we didn't find a point to anchor from then we would be stuck there as it was impossible to climb up the patch again.
I was at a distance of more than 150 ft, I roughly figured out a boulder at the landing zone which I thought could be used as an anchor point. I informed this to Ashish who gave me a concurrence for the execution.
Without wasting anytime, I lifted the huge coils of ropes to reach the opposite side of the valley. Again the uncoiling was done. We used the 300 ft rope as the main rope in the U setup while the 8mm rope as the belay rope.
The patch was live to be inaugurated and it was decided that Ashish would rappel down first and I would be the last man again.
Since we are evacuating from the summit, it was our responsibility to ensure complete wind up of the setup up area and that no stuff was left behind. At this moment we realized that we have too much stuff to take along. This caused our rucksacks to weigh double of its actual ideal weight. We had an entire set of gears, ropes, water cans, our personal stuff and God knows what not. While Ashish got himself lined-up on the main Line, I was busy with the winding up process. "I'm done dude" Ashish informed me that he is ready to go. I looked at Ashish and then at some stuff which he had forgotten to keep in his own bag. "Seems like you are missing your flight" I sarcastically poked him with a dirty look, to which he responded with his peculiar Mickey Mouse smile! "There you are" I anchored a belay rope to his harness and reviewed whether his line was safe for action.
It was the last time for the day when I could see his face clearly in daylight and it was the first moment of the day of being left alone on an unknown territory when my entire team was down. The descent speed was average and was consistent which meant the patch was pretty idle to be rappelled on. While I was still controlling his belay, my eyes were looking around for any stuff that we would be leaving behind if gone unnoticed.
In few minutes, My walkie beeped.
"I'm there" Ashish informed me.
Though I knew we still had a long way to reach down but this update from Ashish made me feel great. It was the first progressive action after getting dead locked for hours without any action.
Ashish descending the 100 ft, clicked from the base.
I quickly got up from my belay position to remove the belay setup. I informed Ashish to move aside from the patch since I was about to set the belay rope free. It would be pulled down by the force of gravity which I feared would drag along the loose stones that were abundantly scattered over the edge of the ledge.
The belay rope was down in no time and Ashish started coiling it, while I was readying myself on the main line to begin my rappel.
"Dude at least we are not going to die tonight without water!" Ashish informed me through the walkie. "We have a huge pond hidden in the middle of this no man's land !" His excitement had no limit.
We both were constantly talking on our walkies while, the team at the base was on total standby mode . There was nothing that could be done on their end apart from sending some RT calls and receiving updates.
I started the rappel through the main rope without the use of any belay. Within few minutes I was down and I was again with my Wing Man - Ashish. It's a great feeling to be with someone, it's comforting no matter how bad the situation is, and if that company happens to be your "best buddy" then there is nothing like it!
"You guys are there! ...We can See you!" Harshad radioed us from the base. The landing zone was a "V" patch where both the walls of the valley met each other. From the edge we could see that the entire team at the base were looking up at us as if they were "star gazing". Everyone at the base appeared too small due to the height which was still to be descended.
"Bro I will manage coiling the rope ...Will you take charge of the next anchor Point?" Ashish enquired, distributing the task.
I started to scan the entire landing zone but could not see anything reliable to be used as an Anchor Point.
While the time was on a running spree like Usain Bolt, the sun too had signed off for the day and we were yet to discover an anchor point to descend the 200 ft deep valley.
There was nothing visible near the landing zone on which we had landed; hence I decided to venture out on the other side of the V patch,this involved climbing of 10 ft patch. Since I could see a ledge nearby, I was sure of some potential anchor points. Before trying this patch I thought of reaching out to Ashish, who has busy coiling the long rope and was struggling with the tangles.
"Bro..." I called out to him "I am sure we are getting the experience of a lifetime to cherish and I would always expect that Life should continue to surprise us with many more moments like these..But One thing which I wanted to say is - Thanks for staying back with me when you had a choice and a chance to descend before. You purposely stayed back knowing about the potential challenges I may encounter " I said to Ashish and hugged him for a while.
Trust me - friends like these who never ever leave you behind are precious gifts from God, and I can proudly say that I have many of these in EDAS!
'What happened to you all of a sudden?" He inquired with curiosity.
"Nothing much...We are about to experience the toughest moment of the day...so thought I should tell you this before we are about to face it.....No matter what...We are gonna touch the base tonight..." I said to Ashish.
"Yes dude...no matter what..we are going to make it tonight and I'm glad that we both are together to share this moment" Ashish said.
A strange kind of confidence passed through our exhausted minds and we were all set to beat the worst by now.
Immediately I mounted my headlamp and said "Let's do this!" . I started the descend towards the 'V point' with my rucksack while Ashish continued coiling.
After reaching the V point which was filled with water that was knee deep, I started to climb the patch. Although the patch had comparatively good holds, but the wet shoes & the heavy rucksack were making it tough to climb. I managed to reach the ledge and immediately started checking for anchor points using the focus light of my head lamp. I saw something which was shining off the edge of the valley. I dropped my rucksack and started moving towards the shining object. The ledge was getting steeper, I knew I was moving towards the very edge of the valley, hence each step was taken cautiously , my eyes were still fixated on the shining object.
I was barely 3 meters away when I finally figured out what it was!
"Eureka! Eureka!" I started shouting on top of my voice.
"What happened dude?" Ashish curiously asked me.
"I found it bro...It's a proper bolted anchor and belay station being installed by someone" I answered back to Ashish.
I informed the base team about the discovery and there was a huge 'hurray' from them.
I attached my sling to one of the bolts and started inspecting the others one by one"
Lesson Four - When you use any anchor points /bolts installed by someone else, kindly inspect it meticulously for flaws since you might not know the history of the installation. Bolts are subjected to weathering effect.
These were 5 rings bolts which were installed in a diamond formation and a rope coil was passed through all the rings to form a web anchor point. Since the valley is usually flooded with water, these bolts were installed at the edge of the valley over a height of 15 ft to avoid contact with the water flow. The bolts appeared intact but the ropes coiled through it had withered, hence I used a 9 mm sling rope to form a coil through the bolts as an additional back up. In the meantime Ashish signaled that he was done with his coiling. I reached out to him with a rope to pull up all the ropes so that we could climb the patch effortlessly.
Sharath after setting up the last anchor
"How are the bolts?" Ashish inquired as soon as he climbed up.
"Intact, but the ropes had some damage so I installed our rope through it"
"Great....my spine is paining badly" Ashish said while stretching his back.
"Same here" I told him and started to uncoil the 300 ft rope to be used as the main rope. Although we were completely drained out by now, we didn't have much time to sympathize about it.
19:15hrs
It was really unsafe to stand over the steep edge of the anchor station, hence I anchored myself to the bolt over the edge and started pulling the green rope while Ashish was busy uncoiling the 8mm rope which was to be used as the belay rope.
I installed the 10mm green rope in "U' setup where the middle point of the rope was anchored. I alerted the base team that I was about to the throw both the edges of the rope to the base.
"Watch out & Clear the base" I told the base team.
"Roger" they confirmed back.
I promised lord Ganesha for a coconut in exchange of our safe descend and threw the rope off the edge.
There was a huge noise that the rope made in the silence and then there was pin drop silence that followed.
"Both the rope edges have touched the base with a perfect slag of one feet" Harshad informed us.
Harshad also informed us that we were damn lucky as the rope had barely touched the base with the length of only one foot that was left out.
I thanked Ganesha for his mercy and turned towards Ashish "Your Flight is ready"
Ashish started to cautiously move towards me by negotiating the exposed patch. While I was about to fix the belay point to his harness, he was suddenly hit hard by something on his face and his foot slipped. He instantly grabbed my harness and I caught him tight. Since I was well anchored to the belay station we could arrest our fall. I pulled Ashish, held him tight and immediately placed his belay over his harness.
Now there was buzzing everywhere around us and something hit me on my face too.
"Holy shit!! Honey bees!!" - I exclaimed.
"Freak...We need cover!" -Ashish yelled, hiding his face under my arms.
"Hold-on and do not move...Turn off the headlamp!" I responded back.
It was the scariest moment of the day when we were being pushed to the edge of the valley towards grave danger. Facing a honey bee attack under zero visibility; we were just holding and covering each other tightly to prevent being attacked on the face and to maintain stable position. The only sound which was heard was the noise of the bees and that of our heavy breathes.
We informed the base team that we were under honey bee attack and requested zero RT calls"
RT calls release disturbing radio frequencies for Honey bees, this could have provoked them further. Our technique worked out very quickly. In Less than a minute, the buzzing sound of the bees started to fade away. I turned on my Headlamp and got Ashish to a better position.
The moment I turned on my headlamp, I heard the buzzing return. I realised that even the light was provoking them hence I had to turned off my lamp. I informed Ashish " Bro, we have to do this in pitch dark since the light too is provoking them"
Without making much noise I got Ashish lined up over the main rope and told him to use his lamp only after descending 100 feet.
We hugged and kissed each other warmly as I said to him " All the best bro!"
"Come down soon!" Ashish said to me caringly.
"Of course I would! ...No plans to have dinner with the bees here!" I joked back.
"Belay ready" Ashish asked me.
"Yes" I confirmed that the belay was on.
"Rappelling start" He suggested of his departure.
"Rappel on" I waved him off.
I could see him disappearing from my sight into the dark void. The base team looked like fireflies as all of them had their headlamps on.
In the circle Left above Sharath and right below Ashish descending down - Clicked by the base team
In less than 30 secs I lost him from sight and there I was all alone on that hostile territory.
Assuming that he was on the overhang patch as the belay rope had got heavier and faster, I started to respond back by providing steady slag for his belay.
There was a rare silence that surrounded me and the only noise that fell on my eardrums was that of the flowing water from the edge. It was an absolute moment of isolation as I silently waited for Ashish to reach the base. After 15 mins of the descend, there were loud hurray calls coming from the base. There was no pressure on the belay rope suggesting that Ashish might have had touched the base. Still as a mountaineering practice I couldn't leave the belay until I had received a confirmation that the rappeler was off the belay. Despite having the threat of the bees I used the RT to confirm whether Ashish was down and that he was off the belay.
"What's the status?" - I radioed to the base.
" Ashish is at the base bro!" Nikhil jubilantly responded back
"Copy. I'm pulling the belay" I responded.
" Roger" Nikhil confirmed.
The news of Ashish reaching the base motivated me to the very nerve. I was so highly charged that I didn't even feel the pain or any load while I was pulling the belay up all by myself.
Once the ropes were up again, I went back to pack my bag with all the pending stuff to be carried along. I was struggling badly to wind up the patch under zero visibility over the edge of the cliff as any use of light would have been a signal enough for the bees to return back. I threw the belay rope down to control it from the base. I lined myself up on the main line and checked whether the belay was ready. I was desperately waiting to start my move when unnaturally my walkie beeped.
"Stand by Sharath.. There is a problem down here" A well-founded voice of Harshad came through my walkie.
I inquired what was the issue, to which Harshad replied "Your belay is entangled somewhere with your main rope and you will choke midway if you make any descend"
"Holy shit..what's going on?" I asked myself.
"You will have to pull back your belay to fix it" Harshad advised me.
"Roger that..Pulling up" I confirmed back. I used my sling to anchor myself back to the bolt and started pulling up my belay. I could clearly hear the buzzing sound of the bees coming closer and then going away again. At that moment I was not at all bothered about the bees but was worried about the belay rope which was making my day stretch even longer. I got the maximum length of the rope, it didn't show any signs of tangles. I coiled the dead end and threw it once again to the base.
"Check the belay" I asked Harshad to check the belay
"Negative...It's the same story" Harshad replied.
"Seems like one coconut to Lord Ganesha was not a fair deal in the bargain" I said to my consciousness.
Pausing for some breathe and thinking for a while I turned my walkie on.
"Harshad...I am removing the belay and leaving it on the base"
I continued "I will rappel on the main rope without my belay"
" It's a huge overhang without any support to transfer your weight onto.. your heavy bag will turn you upside down" Harshad warned me about the possible challenge that I would encounter while negotiating the overhang portion of the descend.
"Copy ...You pull down the main rope to control my descend and with the other hand I'LL keep the rope close to my chest to hold the weight of my bag to avoid being pulled back"
"All the best" Harshad signed off .
I immediately coiled the belay rope and threw it to the base, removed my sling from the bolts and got over my main rope.
"I can do it" I motivated myself and informed Harshad over the walkie that I was starting my descend.
Without the use of the headlamp it was difficult to figure out my leg moves but still the initial patch was doable. After descending for some 30 secs, I started to feel the distance between my toes and the wall widen.
"Yes..there comes the overhang"
As soon as I lost my foothold from the walls, my bag started pulling me back. With my left hand I was firmly holding the rope to keep my upper body straight while I tried to maintain the center of gravity near my waist without it shifting to to my shoulder instead. With every feet that I descended my forearms started pumping badly. I knew I was optimally using my energy and tried to maintain the steadiness of my descend as far as possible. The lights from the base team's headlamps were blinding my eyes but I had no leisure to use my hands to operate the walkie and inform them about the visual disturbance that they were unknowingly causing. The descend continued and when I was less than 80 ft away from the base, my arms started to feel unsteady due to the lack of energy. It is at this moment that my line swinged a bit and my position shifted, now I was directly under millions of droplets of water that were falling from above. The droplets fell all over my face rebooting my dropping energy. It rejuvenated me to fight back for the last battle in which I was only few feet away to win.
I screamed louder to warm myself up. I had just 20ft left to descend, when the hurray calls from the base team started echoing in my ears.
"Take those torch beams off my eyes" I shouted and started to laugh aloud.
"Subhu had a doubt whether it was you or someone else descending down hence we flashed the lights on you" The first stupid joke that I heard that day was cracked by Shashi.
Everyone laughed out loud and I my feet finally touched the ground.
I couldn't make out any faces due to the flashlights blinding my eyes, but my eyes were searching for Ashish. Someone came hugged me and said "Finally we are down". It was Ashish whispering into my ears.
"Yes we are down!" I hugged him tight. The entire team clustered around us to share the joy and it was a perfect moment of celebration!
Its was 20:35 hrs, I immediately checked my watch
"Bro...I am cooking kheer for you" Shashi informed me.
"And bro ..i'm preparing the curry..you take rest" Subhu followed Shashi.
Although it was my KRA to cook, the team decided to spare me from any task for the night.
While the entire team was busy preparing the dinner, I and Ashish were lying on the rocky bed near the shore of the huge pond, gazing at the point far above us where we were immobilized for hours.
Our Life guardians
White light of Sharath's head lamp at the "V" point spotted from the base
Circle above - The "V" point from where we started our second descend -Left bottom seen is the entire team at the base
Left to right: Sharath, Shashi, Nikhil, Subhu, Ashish & Top right corner Harshad
It was a moment to be lived, an experience of a lifetime, a bond of friendship, trust of companionship. The crisis situation had evolved us to a new level of handling disasters with appropriate decision making skills without panicking or getting stressed out. Proving once again to us our ability to survive against such odd situations. Although the learning is not yet over, the syllabus is vast, at times the teacher is strict and you need to be a diligent student because you cannot afford to fail in her exams as there may be or may not be a second chance given.
There are many new places still left to explore, and in the bargain the nature I am sure will continue to give us many more experiences and would teach us more things about survival. Remember, with every such encounter with the nature, there is an experience, and in every experience there is a lesson taught which will stay with you for a lifetime.
My golden mantra which I always prefer to follow in all situations is - "Check all challenges, but take only those which you are bound to, rest are evitable" - Sharath Raj
- A true story Written by Sharath Raj
Content Edit Courtesy - Amruta Deshmukh
Team EDAS
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We have a lot of rain in Devon, particularly Mid and North Devon, those warm, wet, westerly winds whip over the moors and deposit beautiful water everywhere, filling the rivers and flooding the land. This makes it literally a 'lush' place to live, this time of year is pretty squelchy under foot, perfect for wellies! ☁☁but it is also the archetypal 'green and pleasant land' the grass is usually green all year, it has good pastures to support farmland and there are wonderful wildlife havens in green spaces everywhere. The simple gift here is that the Water element supports life and is fundamental for all life to thrive.
The Winter season, the season of the Water element gives us a chance to nourish and support this essential, fundamental aspect of life in ourselves. Rest and keeping hydrated are simple ways we can do this, preparing the ground for our seeds to grow come Springtime....how absolutely 'lush' is that!!


text:
Q: Sharepoint GetListItems returns no rows I have a jax ws client to call GetListItems given a list name and view name and it all works fine locally on my windows 7 machine. However when I deploy to my Linux server the same service return zero rows. There are no exceptions and I have compare the soap request for both machines and it the same
Has anyone faced this issue before?

A: Have you authenticated with the SharePoint site? There is an excellent writeup on SharePoint ajax authentication here: https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/79803/how-to-authenticate-user-in-sharepoint-online-using-javascript
From the previous link, here is the code to authenticate:
var soapDataString = "<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'> \
  <soap:Body> \
    <Login xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/'> \
      <username>username</username> \
      <password>password</password> \
    </Login> \
  </soap:Body> \
</soap:Envelope>"

// Call web service
$.ajax({
  url: "http://mywebsitename:2355/_vti_bin/authentication.asmx",
  type: "POST",
  dataType: "xml",
  data: soapDataString,
  success: resultsFeedback,
  contentType: "text/xml; charset=\"utf-8\""
});

function resultsFeedback(xData, status) {
   alert(xData);
   alert(status);
}


text:
Q: How do three.js transforms and CSS3 3D-transforms correspond? I am working on an open source tool for navigating and visualizing human anatomy.
The main object of interest is a 'chessboard' taking up most of the screen. Dragging the board around performs certain CSS3 3D-transforms. A 3D object (a head, in the example below) is shown hovering over the board, rendered with three.js.

The transformation of the head is synchronized with that of the board. But this is currently a very imperfect synchronization, realized by trial-and-error.
How do the 'CSS 3D world' and the 'three.js/WebGL 3D world' correspond? For example, where is the 'camera' in the CSS world? Is there a way to synchronize the two properly? Even better, is there a library?

A: They do synchronize. Try hacking http://threejs.org/examples/css3d_sandbox.html.
You should be able to create a CSS3DObject and a PlaneGeometry that line up perfectly, assuming the same camera is used to render both.
var geometry = new THREE.PlaneGeometry(100, 100);
var mesh = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );

mesh.position.copy( object.position );
mesh.rotation.copy( object.rotation );
mesh.scale.copy( object.scale );

scene.add( mesh );

In fact, here is a fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/L9cUN/
three.js r.66


text:
virtualenv_root = File.join(node.travis_build_environment.home, "virtualenv")

# Install virtualenv and pip
include_recipe "python::virtualenv"

# Install the things we need to properly build Python
[
  "make", "build-essential", "libssl-dev", "zlib1g-dev", "libbz2-dev",
  "libreadline-dev", "libsqlite3-dev", "wget", "curl", "llvm", "liblzma-dev",
  "libncurses-dev", "tk-dev",
].each do |pkg|
  package pkg
end

# Get pyenv which we'll use to install the various Pythons we wish to support
git "/opt/pyenv" do
  repository "git://github.com/yyuu/pyenv.git"
  revision   node.python.pyenv.revision

  action :sync
end

# Install pyenv's python-build command so that it's available in the system
execute "/opt/pyenv/plugins/python-build/install.sh"

# Create a directory to store all of our Pythons in
directory "/opt/python" do
  owner "root"
  group "root"
  mode  "755"

  action :create
end

# Create a directory to store our virtualenvs in
directory virtualenv_root do
  owner node.travis_build_environment.user
  group node.travis_build_environment.group
  mode  "0755"

  action :create
end

# Store a list of all of our bin dirs
bindirs = Array.new

# python-build environment variables
build_environment = {
  # Adapted from Ubuntu 14.04's python3.4 package
  "PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS" => "--enable-unicode=ucs4 --with-wide-unicode --enable-shared --enable-ipv6 --enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions --with-computed-gotos",
  "PYTHON_CFLAGS" => "-g -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security",
}

# Install the baked in versions of Python we are offering
node.python.pyenv.pythons.each do |py|
  # Get our on disk name for this python
  if /^\d+\.\d+(?:\.\d+)?(?:-dev)?$/ =~ py
    pyname = "python#{py}"
  else
    pyname = py
  end

  # Actually do the installation/building to the full version python
  execute "python-build #{py} /opt/python/#{py}" do
    creates "/opt/python/#{py}"
    environment build_environment
  end

  # Add a nonstandard pythonX.Y.Z command in order to support multiple installs
  # of the exact same X.Y release.
  link "/opt/python/#{py}/bin/#{pyname}" do
    to    "/opt/python/#{py}/bin/python"
    owner node.travis_build_environment.user
    group node.travis_build_environment.group
  end

  # Record our bindir
  bindirs << "/opt/python/#{py}/bin"

  # Create our virtualenvs for this python
  python_virtualenv "python_#{py}" do
    owner       node.travis_build_environment.user
    group       node.travis_build_environment.group
    interpreter "/opt/python/#{py}/bin/python"
    path        "#{virtualenv_root}/#{pyname}"

    action :create
  end

  # Add any aliases that exist for this Python version
  node.python.pyenv.aliases.fetch(py, []).each do |pyalias|
    if /^\d+\.\d+(?:\.\d+)?(?:-dev)?$/ =~ py
      pyaliasname = "python#{pyalias}"
    else
      pyaliasname = pyalias
    end

    link "#{virtualenv_root}/#{pyaliasname}" do
      to    "#{virtualenv_root}/#{pyname}"
      owner node.travis_build_environment.user
      group node.travis_build_environment.group
    end
  end

  # Create a symlink 'pypy3' that points to PyPy3 binary
  # We need to get around https://bitbucket.org/pypy/pypy/issue/1796/pypy-pypy3-in-the-same-path
  if py =~ /^pypy3/
    link "/opt/python/#{py}/bin/pypy3" do
      to "/opt/python/#{py}/bin/#{py}"
      not_if "test -f /opt/python/#{py}/bin/pypy3"
    end
  end

  # Build a list of packages up so that we can install them
  packages = []
  node.python.pyenv.aliases.fetch(py, []).concat(["default", py]).each do |name|
    packages.concat node.python.pip.packages.fetch(name, [])
  end

  # Install all of the pre-installed packages we want
  execute "install packages #{py}" do
    command "#{virtualenv_root}/#{pyname}/bin/pip install --upgrade #{packages.join(' ')}"
    user    node.travis_build_environment.user
    group   node.travis_build_environment.group
  end
end

# Create a profile script that adds our Python bins to the $PATH
template "/etc/profile.d/pyenv.sh" do
  owner node.travis_build_environment.user
  group node.travis_build_environment.group
  mode 0755

  variables({
    :bindirs => bindirs,
    :build_environment => build_environment,
  })

  source "pyenv.sh.erb"
  backup false
end


Weekend at last! Oddly enough, this weekend is more forgiving than the others because there's a lot of time for me to do personal stuff. Weekends like these are getting rare so I'll take advantage of it. I love talking about how I do things so that's what I'm gonna do now.
Warhammer: Invasion - Get outta my way!
This is the first illustration that I did for a card game and I feel so fortunate to have been commissioned to do this and several other illustrations that followed. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous when I received the briefing for the project. For this particular card, I was told to paint a frenzied orc swatting a goblin while charging. The following links lead to the reference images for both characters.
Prior to this, I have never drawn anything related to Warhammer. In fact, I've never even played any Warhammer game and that made me twice as eager to please. When my art director instructed me to do three thumbnails, I decided to make four instead.
The required dimensions for the image added challenge. It's no simple task to come up with an image implying a horizontal composition on a squarish canvas. I made these four and my AD selected the first one.
Given that it's a quick thumbnail, I got the proportions of the orc all wrong. He looked too human and the goblin didn't look like a Warhammer goblin then. I took care of that when I did the tight sketch.
When I was at this point in the process, I kept thinking how my brain's gonna get fried with all those details. However, details are what make a painting look nice. That plus the fact that this composition was approved by an art director who definitely knows what he's doing gave me a measure of encouragement. Here are more progress shots.


GREE Forum > Forums > Crime City > Syndicate Recruitment > Rising Phoenix Recruiting!
View Full Version : Rising Phoenix Recruiting!
Rising Phoenix has open spots to add a few active members looking for a light hearted and organized atmosphere. This syn is consistently a top 150 team with a habit of finishing SLTQs, cruising through epic bosses and cats. Groupme is a must as we do all our coordinating from that app.
Check the webpage below for more syn information + a link to one of our groupme rooms. PM me with any questions!
bump again, get in here brooos.


Whether it's for work, a special occasion, a casual dinner out, or just a relaxing weekend at home with your family, you'll find just the right outfit, all created to fit your budget.
You will find it's easy to build a wardrobe that's full of stylish, trendy and quality apparel and accessories.
in sizes 14 to 32.
You won't find more plus size style, comfort and variety anywhere else!


Ballistic gelatin testing is one of the best methods we have available today for predicting the real-world performance of self-defense ammunition. We've used Clear Ballistics synthetic gelatin to test over 150 handgun loads, including Remington 230 Grain. We fired 5 rounds into the gel with a four-layer cloth barrier to determine whether heavy clothing would affect the penetration and expansion characteristics of the bullet. All rounds were fired from a Kahr CW45 to reflect the type of short barreled compact pistols that are most commonly carried by legally armed citizens.
Above, you can find photos of the actual bullets suspended in the test medium. Images of the recovered bullets are below on the left and high-speed footage of the first bullet fired into the gel is below on the right. All of the data we collected from our test of Remington 230 Grain is in the chart below that along with diagrams that might give you an idea of how this load compares to other .45 ACP (Auto) products.
Great price, great service from Lucky Gunner as always.
I own many .45 ACP's and they all readily digest and dispense the Remington Golden Saber 230 grain HP. Bullet has a friendly shape for even the most finicky 45's.


Today, at 6.30 pm, Valentina Presutti is giving a webinar about "Automation of Knowledge Extraction and Ontology Learning".
Context: Building & maintaining knowledge bases & ontologies is hard work and could use some automated help.
Perception: Various parts of AI, such as NLP and machine learning are developing rapidly and could offer help.
Motivation: bring together various researchers to discuss the issues and state of the art.
Estevam Hruschka (Associate Professor at Federal University of Sao Carlos DC-UFSCar & adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University) will speak on work growing out of Never-Ending Language Learning (NELL).
Abstract: NELL (Never-Ending Language Learner) is a computer system that runs 24/7, forever, learning to read the web and, as a result, populating and extending its own ontology. NELL has two main tasks to be performed each day: i) extract (read) more facts from the web, and integrate these into its growing ontology; and ii) learn to read better than yesterday, enabling it to go back to the text it read yesterday, and today extract more facts, more accurately. This system has been running 24 hours/day for over seven years now. The result so far is an ontology having +100 million interconnected instances (e.g., servedWith(coffee, applePie), isA(applePie, bakedGood)), that NELL is considering at different levels of confidence, along with hundreds of thousands of learned phrasings, morphological features, and web page structures that NELL uses to extract beliefs from the web. The main motivation for building NELL is based on the belief that we will never really understand machine learning until we can build machines that learn many different things, over years, and become better learners over time.
Abstract: A machine reader is a tool able to transform natural language text to formal structured knowledge so as the latter can be interpreted by machines, according to a shared semantics. FRED is a machine reader for the semantic web: its output is a RDF/OWL graph, whose design is based on frame semantics. Nevertheless, FRED's graph are domain and task independent making the tool suitable to be used as a semantic middleware for domain- or task- specific applications. To serve this purpose, it is available both as REST service and as Python library. In this talk I will give an overview of the method and principles behind FRED's implementation.
Abstract Deep learning networks are getting better and better at recognizing visual and acoustic information, from pictures of cats to human faces, from gunshots to voices. But to make sense of a movie scene, or to interpret speech, machines need world models, namely semantic structures capable of connecting the dots from perception to knowledge. In my presentation I will talk about the state of the art of the art in the integration between machine learning algorithms and ontologies. I will also briefly illustrate how this integration is nowadays a key requirement for enabling intelligent services in the Internet of Things.


text:
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We seek to be a diverse and inclusive workplace where people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities feel safe, valued and respected, and where the principles of employee inclusion and embracing difference are strongly reflected in our culture and values.
We offer an exciting array of career paths and the opportunity to use your training and experience in roles where you will make a positive difference to the lives of many Queenslanders.
We encourage people of all ages, life stages, caring responsibilities, gender identity, sexual orientation, intellectual/physical abilities, cultural background and ethnicity to apply for positions with us.
We will help you build a challenging and rewarding career while maintaining a healthy work-life blend.
Competitive salary and working conditions
You will enjoy a range of competitive salary and working conditions including:
Salary and salary packaging — Each position within the department is given a salary range. A number of salary levels exist within each range. Your appointment to a salary level will depend on your qualifications and experience. In most cases, a new employee will commence at the first level of the advertised position's salary range and will be eligible for an annual increase until the top of the salary range is reached for that position. The department also offers salary packaging for items such as superannuation contributions, motor vehicle leasing and electricity.
Competitive superannuation — While QSuper is the default superannuation scheme for Queensland Government employees, you are able to choose your superannuation provider. No matter who your provider, you can contribute between two and five per cent of your salary. This is matched by the compulsory employer contribution of between 9.75 per cent and 12.75 per cent. You can also make voluntary contributions, choose to salary sacrifice, transfer money from other funds or make and receive spousal contributions. Further information can be found on the For Government website.
Flexible working possibilities — Your hours of duty will vary depending on your occupation and type of employment. Some staff are employed on a roster or part-time, others may have variable hours and sometimes staff might have to work outside core business hours. If you do work outside of business hours, the department has flexible working arrangements including accrued time. (See "Support to maintain work-life blend" below).
Recreation leave — You will normally receive a minimum 20 working days per year (pro rata for part-time employees) for recreation leave plus 17.5 per cent leave loading. This can vary in certain regions, for example, in some northern and western parts of the state, you will receive recreation leave of 25 working days per year plus additional travel allowances. Some shift workers receive 25 working days per year plus allowances. Recreation leave may be taken at half pay.
Sick leave — You will be eligible for 10 working days sick leave (pro rata for part-time employees) each year on full pay that accumulates if not taken. This leave may be accessed for caring responsibilities of immediate family or household members.
Long service leave — You accumulate long service leave at the rate of 1.3 weeks per year of service. Generally, you are eligible for long service leave after 10 years, however you may be permitted to take long service leave for a pro-rata period after 7 years continuous service. Long service leave may be taken on half pay.
Remote and regional incentives — We offer excellent incentives to people who are willing to work in remote and regional locations.
* Conditions of employment will vary for casual staff.
Our department recognises that cultural capability of all of our staff is integral to being able to better support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, partner more inclusively with key organisations and engage genuinely with communities. Accordingly, all staff upon commencement undertake Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural capability training.
Some positions may require the role to be undertaken by a person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background due to the particular client group and the nature of the work.
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As part of our commitment to diversity, we seek to support our employees to maintain an optimal blend of work and life through offering a range a range of flexible work possibilities including:
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Compressed hours — a formal arrangement where normal, full-time hours are worked (e.g. 36 hours, 15 minutes a week) over fewer than normal days. This arrangement is often used to work a nine-day fortnight.
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Leave at half pay — long service and recreation leave may be taken at half pay to extend the number of days that can be taken.
Purchased leave — Eligible employees may apply to access an extra 6 weeks leave over a year. While this is technically without salary, fortnightly deductions from your pay set aside money to fund this extra leave.
Parental leave — Eligible employees will be entitled to 14 weeks paid maternity/adoption leave. An employee may also be granted up to 2 years unpaid parental leave (inclusive of the 14 weeks paid leave) to be their child's primary carer. Employees may also apply to work part-time until their children start school.
Carer's Room — Our department is a family friendly workplace and our employees have access to a room which may be used for short-term emergencies when a dependent has an injury or non-infectious condition and other care is not available or for staff who require a facility to breastfeed and infant or express milk.
Special leave — An employee may be granted up to 5 days leave in any 12 month period that is reasonably required for an emergency situation or on compassionate grounds.
Cultural leave — Staff may access any of the leave types listed here in order to meet obligations under traditional law, customary law and family obligations, and to celebrate religious and cultural observances including, but not limited to, Rosh Hashana, Eid al-Fitr, Orthodox Easter, Diwali, Sorry Business, NAIDOC, Mabo Day and Coming of the Light Festival. In addition, special leave without salary may be provided for up to 5 days cultural or religious leave each year.
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Employees have access to confidential free counselling to resolve problems affecting their work and/or personal life through an Employee Assistance Service (EAS). This service is also available to an employee's immediate family members.
We will offer learning and professional development opportunities throughout your career. The Workforce Capability Strategy provides a commitment to improve our staff's capabilities, attract new staff and deliver better outcomes for our clients.
You will be able to keep your skills up-to-date so you can provide the best support possible to people in need. Mentoring and supervision opportunities are also available.
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This has been developed by the Public Service Commission.
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The Study and Research Assistance Scheme supports employees who undertake further education, provided the area of study or research is relevant to the services we provide and is linked to our strategic outcomes.
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text:
Provincial lobby group outlines priorities
Cord ImportNovember 24, 20104 mins read
With the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) anticipating their provincial lobby conference at Queen's Park in the upcoming weeks, their General Assembly held on the weekend of Nov. 4 allowed the member schools to outline the organization's priorities. Three of OUSA's policy papers — regarding student financial assistance, accessibility and international students — were re-evaluated and approved during the plenary session on Nov. 7.
"There's a never ending stream of changes that could be made to improve [the Ontario Student Assistance Program] OSAP for students," said Alexi White, executive director of OUSA. Last spring, the provincial government made several changes to the program, including doubling the in-study income exemption from $50 to $100 per week, however there are still shortfalls OUSA believes must be addressed.
"One is lowering the parental contributions," White explained, noting that OSAP calculates a greater parental contribution requirement than the national student loan, leaving many students under funded. He added that OUSA's policy on the student loan system is also advocating for a decrease in the interest rate currently set on the loans, from prime plus one to simply the prime interest rate which although seems insignificant would make a huge difference to a student repaying their loans years after they graduate.
Saad Aslam, who attended the conference along with four members of Laurier's external affairs committee (EAC), said that one of the important issues that were addressed was in the accessibility paper that discussed providing more assistance to minority and first-generation students.
Aslam sees these students with the potential to contribute a new perspective to the post-secondary system. "Getting students here who are a diverse part of the population I think is a big thing because with their different life experiences," he said.
Reaching out to prospective post-secondary students, as outlined in the policy paper, must begin to be tackled in the primary and secondary school systems. "Most students would have made up their mind whether they are going to [post-seconary education] or not before they even enter high school," Aslam said, conveying some of the statistics that were researched in formulating OUSA's policies.
In response to the provincial government's decision to make international students a high priority at the release of the budget last spring, OUSA developed policy recommendations to ensure the quality and success of the education international students receive.
White explained that government must ensure that campuses have greater support services available to international students in order for them to adapt to life in Canada and excel in their academics. Furthermore, a tuition cap is required to prevent universities from charging international students more than the actual cost of their education, which subsequently is used to offset other costs of the university.
"Right now [international tuition] just whatever number the respective university wants to throw out there and that's a problem because we're not getting the best and brightest students, we're getting those that can afford it to come here," said Aslam.
As the provincial election is less than a year away, OUSA is acting strategically in presenting the needs of students to government. They are prioritizing items, such as the reallocation of tax credits for PSE to upfront grants, that were committed to by the current government but have yet to be instated.
Utilizing their upcoming lobby conference to present their ideas to different parties is also intended to gain positive responses in the long term, especially because it will be the last conference OUSA has prior to the election.
"All of the parties have gone in to their platform building mode right now," said Aslam, "We've had consultations with most of them in terms of what we would like to see for post-secondary education students."
Aslam expressed that OUSA would be diligent in following up with party officials to ensure that education remains a priority going in to the election.
Laurier commemorates Remembrance Day virtually
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What the cancellation of OUA sports programming means for Laurier Athletics
ByAlyssa Di Sabatino4 mins read
OUA announces the cancellation of sports programming for the fall term
COVID-19: A summary of major Canadian and local news
BySophia Cole4 mins read