text:
Features The Trump Era: Who's a Populist?
By Jan-Werner Müller
Published in the March 1, 2017 Issue
Donald Trump and 'the people'
Jan-Werner Müller
Antoine Doyen
Jan-Werner Müller is a professor of politics and the founding director of the History of Political Thought Project at the University Center for Human Values. His book What is Populism? was published last year. This article draws on that book and on an essay published Oct. 26, 2016, in the Boston Review.
President Trump constantly invokes "the people." In his inauguration address, he claimed that his assumption of the office was equivalent to transferring power back to "you, the people." He also explained that it did not matter which party controls the government, but that the people control the government — and that, with his inauguration, the people ruled again. Does this demonstrate conclusively that Trump is a populist? Or is he by definition not a populist because he is so obviously himself part of a particular elite? Just what is it that defines populism?
Everywhere, or so much news coverage suggests, "the people" are rising up against "the establishment." According to Nigel Farage, former leader of the U.K. Independence Party, Brexit and the election of Trump are part of a populist "tsunami" rolling across the West. But this picture is misleading. It distorts our understanding of today's political reality in two ways: First, it equates legitimate protest against elites and specific policies with populism. After all, any civics textbook would instruct us that we, as citizens, should be critical and vigilant when it comes to the powerful — it cannot be that all of a sudden such a stance is automatically dismissed as "populism." At the same time, the tsunami image propounded by Farage leads us to underestimate the dangers posed by actual populists. The latter do not just criticize elites; they posit that there is one true, fully unified people and that they are its only legitimate representatives, or as Trump implied in his inauguration speech: When he rules, the people rule. In a diverse democracy containing many interests and identities, this idea opens the path to excluding entire groups — and possibly to authoritarianism.
Populists always claim that they — and they alone — properly represent the people, or what they frequently call "the real people" or "the silent majority." This initially innocuous-sounding rhetoric has two consequences that are detrimental for democracy. First, all other political contenders are condemned by populists as part of a self-serving corrupt elite. This kind of populist talk is never just a matter of disagreeing about policy — which is completely normal in a democracy, of course. Rather, populists always make it personal: Their competitors are bad, crooked characters who betray the people's interests (think of how Trump's inauguration speech opposed a self-serving establishment, enriching itself in Washington, to a hard-working people). Second, citizens who do not share the populists' conception of the "real people" — and hence do not support the populists politically — will have their status as properly belonging to the people put into doubt. Every populist operates with a symbolic and ultimately moral distinction between the "real people" and those who don't belong (think back to how Farage celebrated Brexit as a "victory for real people" — with the implication that the 48 percent of Britons who sought to stay in the EU weren't quite real). All U.S. populists — think of George C. Wallace in the 1960s — have deployed the pregnant phrase "real Americans."
Trump has said so many deeply offensive and demonstrably false things that a sentence that revealed him as a proper populist went virtually unnoticed. In May Trump declared at a rally: "The only important thing is the unification of the people — because the other people don't mean anything." Trump's politics are about exclusion. The specifics of who exactly gets excluded and how can vary from day to day: Sometimes he sounds nicer about Mexicans, Muslims, or African Americans; the next day he doesn't. But the logic is always the same: There is a real America, as identified by Trump, and whoever does not agree cannot be a real American (and is also implicitly opposed to "making America great again"). Hence Trump's seemingly conciliatory speeches and tweets after the election ("We will unite, and we will win, win, win!") are not really liberal democratic promises of accepting pluralism; rather, everyone has to unite on the populist's terms.
Trump's infamous leadership of the birther movement was not just a historical footnote. President Obama literally embodied two groups who in the eyes of right-wing populists don't belong to the real America: liberal elites and African Americans. It was consistent that Trump was so prominent in trying to prove that Obama was not just symbolically an illegitimate president but plainly an illegal one — an "un-American" figure who had usurped the nation's highest office.
It should be clear, then, that the lazy equation of Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders — "a populist of the right and a populist of the left," as they are often portrayed — is deeply mistaken, even if it seems plausible in light of the historical understanding of the word "populism" in the United States (as in: the People's Party representing the downtrodden against Wall Street in the late 19th century). One might think of Sanders' policy ideas as naïve or in some other form undesirable — but clearly Sanders never claimed that he is the only representative of the real America. Only Trump is a genuine anti-pluralist. What matters is not whether the populist himself could be said to be part of an elite — his promise is not that he is like any ordinary citizen. Rather, the claim is that he and he alone will execute the people's real will (as discerned by him).
This kind of anti-pluralism has adverse consequences for any democracy, even when populists do not succeed in winning office. Since "the real people" is a myth conjured up by populists, actual election outcomes or opinion polls always can be questioned in its name. If the populist does not win, it is not because he is not as popular as he thought — it is because the "silent majority," shorthand for "real people," has not yet spoken, or, even worse, has been prevented from expressing itself. In other words, the populist delegitimizes existing democratic systems as somehow "rigged." Now, there is nothing wrong with citizens criticizing election rules or other aspects of a particular democracy — any civics textbook would encourage such an engaged stance. What one cannot do is to say, as populists do: "Because we don't win, it's not really democracy."
Why have populists become so prominent? Their rise has to do with a fundamental political conflict that has increased in importance in many Western democracies. This conflict is not meaningfully described as one of "ordinary people versus the establishment." In Britain, Boris Johnson, one of the main faces of the Brexit campaign, is about as establishment as one can get there; Trump is hardly the authentic representative of Main Street. Rather, on one side of the conflict are those who advocate more openness: This means engaging with the world on the outside (both economically and culturally), but it is also about openness toward their own nations' sexual, ethnic, and religious minorities. So yes, the rise of populism has something to do with "globalization" in the widest sense, but it is not just an expression of the discontent of the supposed "losers of globalization." When the likes of Farage, Trump, and French populist leader Marine Le Pen call for "the people" to rule, they want to close their nations off by shutting borders and thereby, or so they promise, take back control; but they also want to preserve the traditional hierarchies that have come under threat on the inside.
How should other politicians address this form of identity politics? Those fighting populists should not pretend that their opponents are politicians like all others, just with more fiery rhetoric or bad manners. But they end up contradicting themselves if they demonize the demonizers or effectively end up saying: "Because you exclude, we exclude you." It's the trap that Hillary Clinton fell into when she criticized Trump voters as "deplorables." In Europe it has been a common strategy to shut populists out of TV discussions or to refuse to engage with them in parliaments. This is a mistake. Talking with populists is not the same as talking like populists. One can take the policy issues they bring up seriously without accepting the way they frame them. In the 1980s, the French National Front propounded the slogan "1 million unemployed, 1 million immigrants." It was perfectly possible to admit that people being jobless was a serious challenge, without accepting the all-too-simplistic equation offered — just as it is perfectly possible now to have a hard-nosed discussion about who really benefits from trade agreements without demonizing some shadowy establishment of "globalists."
Yet it is also naïve to think that populists can be defeated just by setting facts straight or lecturing citizens that their economic interests are ill-served by following demagogic promises. Hardly any facts speak for themselves; they are always part of a larger political narrative. In the case of populists, we are dealing with a narrative about the "real people" and their proper identity. Simply saying that whoever finds that narrative attractive is deplorable or full of resentment is bound to backfire. For one thing, this dismissive attitude confirms populists in what they have been telling their supporters all along about what elites are really like: uncaring and ultimately alien, or at least alienated from citizens' daily problems. So what to do instead? Rather than comment on their supporters, one should call out populist politicians directly and precisely on their pernicious exclusions and their habitual conspiracy theories. There is no guarantee that this will have an effect on populists' supporters. But if such counterattacks are part of a narrative about nationally shared democratic ideals, they just might work. One might do well to remember how the question "Have you no decency left?" started the undoing of Sen. Joe McCarthy, a figure comparable to Trump in his divisiveness and bullying.
The Trump Era: Reflections
Populism or Demagoguery?
Why this use of the word...
By David Skeffington
Populism is a form of...
I don't recall hearing Trump...
By John Achenbach '60
The Trump Era: Lesson of 2016
Beware the confident experts
The Trump Era: The Politics of Race and Class
How Donald Trump made 'working class' white

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Join the Magic Tree House Kids' Adventure Club to travel the world and beyond with Jack and Annie, test your knowledge, and earn rewards—just by reading!
Every page of a Magic Tree House book you read and log helps Merlin's staff gather magic. When Merlin's staff is full, he will open the locked treasure chest to reveal a golden Reading Medallion!
Each time you finish reading a Magic Tree House book, try taking the Passport Quiz. If you pass, you'll earn a special Passport Stamp that proves your knowledge!


text:
A Négyszögletű Kerek Erdő Lázár Ervin Kossuth-díjas magyar író 1985-ben megjelent gyermekregénye. Az illusztrációkat Réber László készítette. A kötet, vagyis Dömdödöm és társainak története 1986-ban elnyerte az Év Könyve jutalmat.

A Négyszögletű Kerek Erdő olyan önálló mesék füzére, melyet a szereplők személye tesz egységessé, a könyvnek nincs összefüggő története, bár néhány ponton találkozunk korábbi kalandokra történő utalásokkal, mégis a történetek önállóan is egy-egy kerek egész mesét adnak.

A meséről
A Négyszögletű Kerek Erdőben játszódó kalandok kulcsfigurája Dömdödöm. Feltűnnek mellette olyan szereplők is, akiket korábbi történetekből bukkannak fel (például Bruckner Szigfrid A kisfiú meg az oroszlánok egyik főszereplője), így a mesegyűjtemény "darabkái" mesefüzérré olvadtak össze. Az 1979-ben megjelent Bikfi-bukfenc-bukferenc, majd a nem sokkal később önálló történetként hosszabb terjedelmű Gyere haza, Mikkamakka! anyaga állt össze egységes - az előző mesék morális világát összegző, betetőző - meseregénnyé A Négyszögletű Kerek Erdő címmel. A magánnyal szemben álló közösségi lét fontossága, a szeretetmitológia, a mesélő attitűd formai sajátosságai, a játék, mint lélekmentő tevékenység mind-mind olyan elemek, amik összekötik a történeteket. A történet hőseit Mikkamakka vezeti a hétköznapi világból a mesei erdőbe. Az erdőlakók (Bruckner Szigfrid, Ló Szerafin, Aromo, Vacskamati, Nagy Zoárd, Szörnyeteg Lajos és persze Dömdödöm) mindannyian különös, különc egyéniségek, akik arra kényszerülnek, hogy a hétköznapi világban el nem ismert értékeiket az Erdő zárt világában éljék meg. A külvilág kizárásával létrejövő közösség tagjai először önmagukkal, majd egymással kerülnek konfliktusba. Az egyes epizódok pergő párbeszédeiből megismerhetjük az erdőlakók csökönyös természetét, kalandjaik azonban a kisszerű vitákon túlmutatva a másik elfogadásának tanulásáról szólnak, arról, milyen nehéz feladniuk úgy önmagukat, hogy valami értékesebb részévé válhassanak, ennek az elfogadásnak lesz az alapja a szeretet. Mikkamakka kulcsfontosságú szereplője a történetnek,  a gyermekként civakodó, egymást nehezen megértő szereplők indulatait bölcs nyugalommal csendesíti, ráadásul a külső veszedelmet az ő megérkezésével tudják legyőzni, és ő az, aki mindig pontosan érti, mit mond Dömdödöm.

Szereplői

 Mikkamakka (a neve eredetileg Miskamacska volt, de mivel az író lánya nem bírta kimondani, ezért lett Mikkamakka)
 Vacskamati
 Szörnyeteg Lajos (a legjobb szívű behemót)
 Ló Szerafin (a kék paripa, lócsoda)
 Aromo (a fékezhetetlen agyvelejű nyúl)
 Dömdödöm (aki mindenre csak azt mondja: dömdödöm)
 Bruckner Szigfrid (a kiérdemesült cirkuszi oroszlán)
 Nagy Zoárd (a lépkedő fenyőfa)
 Maminti (a kicsi zöld tündér)
 Balambér
 Vadkan Valdemár
 Rezső
 Szeréna (varjú)
 Szidónia
 Géza (a gepárd)
 Medárd (a medve)
 Kicsi Zöld Tündér

Megjegyzések

Jegyzetek

Kapcsolódó szócikkek
 Híres nyulak listája
 Magyar regények listája
 A Nagy Könyv
 Lázár Ervin

További információk
 Lázár Ervin: A Négyszögletű Kerek Erdő - MEK
 Lázár Ervin: A Négyszögletű Kerek Erdő - Digitális Irodalmi Akadémia
 Lázár Ervin: A Négyszögletű Kerek Erdő - Szegedi piaristák

20. századi magyar regények
1985 regényei
Meseregények

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Home > Features > Nov. 12, 2007 – Heating up the winter sales blues
Nov. 12, 2007 – Heating up the winter sales blues
By: swadmin November 12, 2007
by Steve Bauer
Jan. 2 is a date Mystic Powersports owner Steve Peterson and his staff refers to as"D Day," the start of a three-month period where customer foot traffic "really begins to take
a dive."
Peterson isn't alone in his troubles. With recent down snow years, a struggling economy and consumers wary about their discretionary spending, dealers across the country are feeling the pinch by the winter sales blues. Powersports manufacturers, however, are stepping in to help aid dealers by creating innovative winter promotion programs and releasing product later in the season, with the ultimate goal aimed at drawing in a steady flow of customers.
Both Yamaha and Suzuki are experimenting with new ways to drive customer traffic to dealers this winter, with two approaches that although differ in style, have the potential to be equally effective in driving winter sales.
Slow winter months aren't a new problem for dealers, especially those in northern climates, who have been trying for years to attract customers to their stores when most people have stowed away their motorcycles and ATVs until spring.
To get consumer minds back on riding, Yamaha introduced an initiative this September called "Hot Winter Nights." The program gives dealers an opportunity to co-op with Yamaha to receive kit contents and promotional material for three nights of customized customer events: Hot Bikes, Cool Nights; Cool Ladies, Hot Bikes; and The Hottest Night of Winter.
Each promotion has its own unique theme. Hot Bikes, Cool Nights is aimed at promoting new bikes and accessories, along with a customization clinic. The Cool Ladies promotion focuses on riding fashion for women and a clinic on finding the right bike. Finally, The Hottest Night of Winter event consists of new bikes and new rider clinics.
"This program is a way for Yamaha to help dealers stage an event during the winter months that can potentially be a big draw," said Bob Starr, head of corporate communications at Yamaha.
Dealers can co-op with Yamaha on such promotions as advertising, a live band or disc jockey, Yamaha/Star merchandise giveaways; food and rentals; and a free 18-month warranty on select 2008 and prior year Star motorcycles.
Peterson says he's signed up for the program and has high hopes for its success.
"I think it's a great idea, Yamaha is really making a concerted effort to ensure the events are a hit with customers," he said. "The key to the whole thing is to get people to the dealership, show off the products and get them excited about riding. In the past, you could balance out your sales losses with snowmobile customers, but here in central Michigan we haven't had any significant amounts for several years."
Yamaha wouldn't comment on how many dealers they've signed up for the program, but did say it garnered a lot of interest from dealers during and after its national dealer meeting.
"We've had great feedback from dealers about this initiative," Starr said. "Yamaha's focus is on customer satisfaction, and this will allow dealers to provide an event that perhaps customers have wanted, but that a dealer didn't have the resources to do it themselves. I believe this program gives them the ability to maintain customer interest at high levels during the winter months, both by promoting Yamaha's product and also by providing customer-specific events like the riding seminars."
Byron Krentz, general manager of Cameron Motorsports in Montana, says although their snow sales have been strong, which has helped them weather recent winters, his dealership signed up for Yamaha's promotion because it not only caters to enthusiasts, but also to women and first-time riders.
"If we can put together an event that can bring wives to the dealership with their
husbands, not to mention first-time buyers,
I think it's a great promotion regardless of the season," he said. "I think the key to success is
to make the environment as welcoming as
possible, and from what I've seen from Yamaha, they'll work very hard with dealers to make sure the event is advertised properly and that it'll bring people in even if it's just to listen to
the music and win a prize."
A second selling season
Another tactic that some OEMs are adopting is what could be called a second selling season, where a manufacturer releases new product during the winter months.
American Suzuki Motor Corp. is one OEM that's experimenting with this concept, introducing more popular models later in the season to get foot traffic to dealerships.
"We're using some lead models, like our Hayabusa, that are important to Suzuki and Suzuki dealers to advertise, drag people into the store and close some sales," said Rod Lopusnak, ATV operations manager for American Suzuki. "Because they are all new models, there should be good margins in there. I think with the industry slowing down, the dealer tendency is to cut prices. Manufacturers are giving out incentives."
Lopusnak says although it's early, the results of their early product releases have been positive.
"We're just starting to ship the Hayabusa now, along with the B-King," Lopusnak said in late October. "We are seeing success with the new Hayabusa — it's definitely driving some people into the dealerships and is a very profitable model for our dealers. So that's definitely a good sign."
Suzuki dealers also are starting to get the new KingQuad 750s and the KingQuad 400. Lopusnak adds, however, that many dealers have a misconception about the national selling cycle of ATVs, which doesn't have the seasonal sales swings that are seen with other powersports vehicles.
"If you look at the seasonality chart for ATVs and even more so for UTVs, the only real months that there is a decline are January and February," he said. "It goes down to 5-6 percent (of total sales) depending on the specific model. And there is a little bit of a spike in October, November and December, but it's not that drastic. If you get a dealer who's in tune with his business, he'll realize that with all his products — whether it's PWC or side-by-sides, ATVs or motorcycles — that business is pretty flat. You're doing probably 8 or 9 percent of your business each month on average. But there is that perception out there that there are peaks and valleys regarding sales."
Adam Nash, owner of Nash Powersports in northern Iowa, says his ATV sales numbers show a definite dip during the winter, but he agrees with Lopusnak that dealers need to understand the region of the country they're located in will play a big part in seasonal sales highs and lows.
"From November-February, my sales are down an average of 10-15 percent," he said. "Once December comes and the hunting seasons are mostly over with, there isn't that much of an interest in ATVs or UTVs until spring. My sales have flowed that way each year I've owned the dealership, but I understand that's the nature of business in this region, and I try to adapt the best I can."
Nash, a multi-line dealer who carries Suzuki ATVs, says he'd like to see a combination of later product releases and an attempt by manufacturers to add more customer incentives during traditionally slow months.
"I already have had several customers asking me about the KingQuad models, and whether that will translate into sales, I don't know," he said. "But anything the manufacturers can do for dealers, especially those in the northern climates who have lost their snowmobile revenue, is a huge bonus."
A partnership
Lopusnak says he agrees that manufacturers can certainly help dealers with promotions and adjusting product release dates, but in the end it still comes down to the dealer being able to close the sale. "We are in a partnership with our dealers, and it certainly benefits everyone to have sales strong throughout the year," he said. "If you're a dealer, however, you still have to maintain that same level of service and customer satisfaction. Without that, all the advertising in the world won't help an individual dealer succeed."
Beck agrees, and says as a dealer he understands the manufacturers are there to provide tools to success, but that it's ultimately on
him and his staff to benefit from any promotional efforts.
"If we don't greet the customer, understand their needs and create a welcoming retail environment, it won't matter what kind of event we have going on outside our doors," he said. "Our sales won't increase unless we do our jobs and capitalize on the opportunities that these promotions provide us."
—Neil Pascale contributed to this report


text:
Five suspects in Senzo Meyiwa murder case arrested
Soccer24 on 26 Oct, 2020
South Africa's Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, has confirmed that five suspects in the murder case of former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa have been arrested.
The arrests come on the day that marks six years after Meyiwa was shot to death at the home of then-girlfriend, singer and actress Kelly Khumalo in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni.
The first breakthrough came last week when it emerged that the weapon used in the murder has been found.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Cele said: "After gathering sufficient intelligence, information and evidence,
"I'm happy to announce that there has been a breakthrough in the Senzo Meyiwa murder case.
"The first FIVE suspects have been arrested between 8 am, and 10 am this morning in Gauteng and Kwa Zulu-Natal.
"These arrests are as a result of a multi-disciplinary integrated approach to this investigation which is working closely with the Directorate for Public Prosecution.
"The South African Police Service and the prosecution team are confident that we have a watertight case against all five suspects.
"At this point, we cannot reveal any further information as investigations are still ongoing and more arrests cannot be ruled out."
Kelly Khumalo speaks out on Senzo Meyiwa
South Africans fuming over lack of answers on Senzo Meyiwa's death
PreviousKundai Benyu applies for new Zim passport ahead of Algeria clash
NextHenrietta Rushwaya arrested at RG Mugabe International Airport


text:
NewsQuick Bytes
This Is What a Mumbai Auto Driver Did on Finding His Passenger Wanted to Commit Suicide
By Tanaya Singh
When Sureshchandra Pandey, an autorickshaw driver from Mumbai went out for work on a Friday evening, little would he have thought that he'd end up going the extra mile for the safety of his passenger.
When Sureshchandra Pandey, an autorickshaw driver in Mumbai, went out for work on a Friday evening, little did he think he'd end up going the extra mile for the safety of his passenger. At around 6 pm, he picked up a 28-year-old woman passenger from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, who first said that she wanted to go to Yaari Road in Andheri. She changed her mind after some time and asked him to go towards Bandstand instead. But the change of destination was not without purpose.
"The woman told me to drop her off at Bandstand so that she could jump into the sea and never be found again. I first thought she was joking and laughed at her statement. However, she repeated the same thing several times during the journey, after which I became worried," Sureshchandra told The Hindu.
Realising that she was serious, he stopped the auto in Ville Parle and asked the woman what was wrong. She said she had recently lost her job and had been very depressed. She felt she had no one in this world and had no reason to live. Moreover, when her mother came to visit her, they had a fight and she left for Delhi.
He tried to talk to her and make her feel better for the next half an hour, but soon realised that if he refused to take her to Bandstand, she would take another auto. Thinking quickly on the spot, he told her that they should go to the airport police station where the police would help stop her mother from boarding the flight. She agreed and on reaching the police station, Sureshchandra instantly ran to the duty officer to let him know that his passenger wanted to commit suicide. She was taken to the police station and counselled. Two hours later, the police sent her to Cooper Hospital where she is undergoing counselling.
"I know it is a tendency among people to shy away from such situations, but I have five children, three of them girls. What if it had been one of my daughters? How would I feel if one of them wanted to take such an extreme step and no one helped her?" Pandey told The Hindu.
Featured Image Credit: gurmit singh/Flickr


text:
Q: Why SQL Server arcgis table data is not update when arcgis rest update data? Arcgis server version 10.2, we try to get arcgis data directly from SQL Server, before we have been through arcgis provided by the rest interface call.
However, as the number of data gradually increased from 1600 to 6000, we found that the response data became very slow.
So I tried to connect directly to the table inside SQL Server to get data, which successfully solved the problem of slow data receiving.
Strangely, in our 10 experiments, we modified and queried the data through the ArcGIS REST interface, and all showed success without any problems.But the table inside SQL Server where the layer details are stored, has only been modified in real time once.
We began to wonder if ArcGIS REST has a caching mechanism that caches the user's data out of sync with the changes in the database.However, the problem that SQL Server data does not change after arcgis rest modification cannot be solved up to now

A: We directly call the relevant views in SQL Server in ArcGIS to solve the problem that ArcGIS REST is too slow to query interface data after adding interface call in ArcGIS REST.
1: Because the database query itself is fast.
2. We started to solve the problem of slow data query, but found the original table instead of the view. The real-time interface data of the service provided by ArcGIS REST is stored in the view for calling.This is the crux of the matter.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Can I create a raid with 2 different harddisks? i got 2 500GB harddrives and would like to set up a raid to avoid data loss.
both are from the same vendor but they are not the same model.
can i set up a raid or do i need some special hardware for this?

A: I've done multiple mismatched RAID arrays over the years.  No problems, it's just all the disks in the array are degraded to the size of the smallest.

A: You can set up what is known as software raid through Windows. Read more here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/36504/how-to-create-a-software-raid-array-in-windows-7/

A: According to this, you can, but be advised that you will have only 500GB available according to this source.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/132877/RAID.html

A: There are several RAID levels but with only two disks, you are somewhat limited to RAID 0 and RAID 1. As you are looking for redundancy, RAID 0 (striping) is excluded so RAID 1 (mirroring) is left.
Both of your disks have the same size and this is optimal with mirroring (otherwise, the extra size of the larger disk will be wasted).
Finally, you do not seem to have specific hardware to handle the RAID setup. This is fine too. Software RAID has actually several advantages compared to hardware RAID.
You do not tell what OS you are running but if you are lucky enough to run an OS that support ZFS, that would be the safest solution for your data and the simplest one to configure. Moreover, you could also leverage the built-in compression to increase both of the capacity of your volume and its overall performance.


text:
Newtownshandrum () is a small village in County Cork, Ireland located  west of Charleville on the R515 road. The name translates from Irish to mean 'new town of the old ridge'. Historic maps from 1829–1841 and 1897–1913 identify the village as Newtown. Newtownshandrum is within the Dáil constituency of Cork North-West.

Education
Shandrum National School is a co-educational primary school located in the village.  As of 2019, the school had approximately 140 pupils with five mainstream teachers, and two special education teachers.

Sports
The local Gaelic Athletic Association team is Newtownshandrum GAA Club.

See also
 List of towns and villages in Ireland

References

Towns and villages in County Cork


We came back from NYC on Sunday we had no food in the house, just 1/2 onion, curry leaves and some garlic in the fridge. So I got creative googled vegetable pilaf recipes and opted for frozen vegetables, it was fast tasty and healthy.
All is all great and easy dish, but may dear Indian readers feel free to send links to theirs or comment on how to perfect it, much appreciated.
So tomorrow the winner of the giveaway will be announced!
I love simple and delicious dish like this!
That looks pretty perfect to me! What a yummy and healthy meal when you have limited ingredients in the house.
Hope you have recovered from your trip.
Great way to get back into "normal" mode after traveling.
Looks easy and delicious too!
Yum, so simple and delicious.
Delicious pilaf, I love all the spices you are using here!
I love simple and tasty! It's great to see how others improvise too!
You made a lovely dinner out of practically nothing, Rebecca! Kudos!
I love rice!!!! I can eat 3 times a day. That recipe sounds delicious, Rebecca!
It looks like comfort food to me! Best of all, it's vegetarian and doesn't require a whole lot of ingredients to put together. Always, the simple is the best, and you just demonstrated that.
I love pilafs like this. So much flavor in such a simple dish. Glad you got back home okay!
Same here, I came back from Istanbul to an empty fridge .. so my solution was to to a Risotto with dried mushrooms!
Amazing and fun. Rice is so versatile. I love what you came up with!
A simple and so yummy dish with all these condiments!
Lyndsey: oh great idea for a show!
Erica: you sound like my hubby!!
yum! what a healthy and simple dish! Great idea!
This looks fantastic. I'm really interested in the curry leaves!
Diana: you can get them in a local Indian store or grow them indoors though!!
This is one of my comfort foods when hubby is gone, and makes me want some right now!
I love making things out of what I have on hand. Sometimes the best things come out of it. Looks yummy!


ADVISORY, Aug. 20, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a release issued under the same headline earlier today by The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) the headline and first sentence of the second paragraph under the "What:" section, should read "Closing Bell" rather than "Opening Bell" as previously stated.
Skateboarding's most prestigious professional competitive series, Street League Skateboarding (SLS), will visit the NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square on Friday, August 21st in honor of the 2015 Street League Skateboarding Nike SB World Tour descending upon the Prudential Center in Newark this Sunday, August 23. The world's top 25 street skateboarders will lay it on the line for a chance to advance to the official street skateboarding world championship – the SLS Nike SB Super Crown World Championship happening October 4th in Chicago. With the largest prize purse in skateboarding, absolutely nothing will be held back at the coming SLS Nike SB World Tour contest which you can catch on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports GO this Sunday at 4:30pm ET.
In honor of the occasion, Street League Skateboarding Professional Skateboarder and Nike SB Athlete Sean Malto, will ring the Closing Bell. A Street League Skateboarding Pro since 2010 and Kansas City standout, Sean has had a storied career, in which he consistently ranks in the overall top 5 in League competition. In 2011, Sean reached the ultimate street skateboarding achievement by winning the title of SLS Nike SB Super Crown World Champion.
Street League Skateboarding (SLS) is the first-ever professional league for street skateboarding. SLS features 25 of the world's most exciting skateboarders competing in an easy-to-follow, ISX™ instant scoring format on one-of-a-kind concrete skate plazas around the world, all for the largest prize purse in skateboarding history. Each Season, the elite SLS Pros compete for valuable championship points in hopes to advance to the Top Eight that will compete for title of Champion in the official street skateboarding world championship as sanctioned by the International Skateboarding Federation, the SLS Super Crown World Championship. Each World Tour stop of the 2015 SLS season will air live on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports GO with a live international webcast on Streetleague.com. For more information, visit www.streetleague.com and follow @streetleague.


After turning out an impressive 22 medal outing in the 2014 IBJJFAsian Open the Purebred Jiu-Jitsu Academy received an honorary certificate from the Government of Guam to commemorate their achievement as well as honoring the academy for their continued success.
"We try not to put the pressure of winning medals in the mind of their athletes, but it's always in the back of their head. I'm really stoked that the team was able to achieve their individual goals as well as getting us the team title. We're putting Guam on the map and we're letting the rest of the world know just how serious Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is on Guam and skies the limit," said Purebred's Steve Roberto on his team after dominating their 5th straight Asian Open.
Lieutenant Governor Ray Tenorio presented the award to Roberto, who was accompanied by wife Dara, his mother, and a few members of Purebred.
"It's nice to have the Government acknowledge what we do because it's a tireless effort. When the government recognizes stuff like this, it helps to really expose what these guys are doing by showing the island that it is a positive activity while representing the island well as well as representing jiu-jitsu well," added Roberto.


text:
The World of ALIEN
Cast + Creatives
ALIEN: The Musical
The Dolans
Jimmy, Rose, Jimmy Jr., Nora and Ashley
Seamus & Claire Dolan
Declan Dolan & Shannon O'Brien
Niall The Foreman
Aiden Buckley, And Pat the Bartender
Jean and Shanna, The Waitresses
Ennis, Fergus, Liam & Garret
Emeli and Eliza, The Bar Girls
(19th Century, New York)
IRISH IMMIGRATION IN THE 1800s
In the 19th century, nearly a million Irish emigrated into the U.S., during what became known as the "Irish Potato Famine." They often arrived sick and weak from lack of food and the hardships of the long journey, and without resources in an unknown land. As a result, they settled in slums that became exclusively Irish, falling prey to sickness and disease due to lack of sanitary conditions and landlords who exploited their desperation. At that time, an Irish adult lived on average just six years after setting foot on American soil. The infant mortality rate among the Irish was one of the highest in the country.
During this time, anti-Irish sentiments became fashionable. Stores and Newspapers often published "NINA" disclaimers: "No Irish Need Apply." The Irish were stereotyped as brawling, drunken men with few practical skills. Because of this, Irish men were typically utilized for incredibly dangerous jobs. They would work for less money because they did not make the same demands for reasonable working conditions as other groups.
Irish labor was an invaluable resource for the development of America, where they were most often employed for construction projects, in the course of which thousands of Irish would die. There was an expression among railway men: "an Irishman buried under every tie." If a worker was injured, he was fired, and if he was killed, his widow and children received no compensation. In the 1840s, Irish men received just under 75 cents a day for 12 hours of work.
Most Irish women worked in factories or as domestic servants. In Boston, New York and Philadelphia in 1833, Irish women making cotton shirts made six to ten cents a shirt, and could only make nine shirts a week when averaging 14 hours a day (putting the maximum pay at 90 cents per week). Ironically, the Irish were often blamed for causing economic problems, because they would work for lower wages.
We can attribute much of our early infrastructure to the hard work of the Irish. However, they were not welcomed here -- they were taken advantage of, stereotyped, insulted and abused.
When both of their parents died within the year, it was enough for the Dolan brothers to seek out a new start. They had heard of what opportunities existed in the "new world," and thought that it would be worth the risk of the dangerous journey to find a new beginning. However, once Seamus heard about how difficult the journey could be, and how challenging it could be to find a way to settle, he thought he would go ahead of his younger brothers.
It had been over a year since Jimmy and Declan heard from Seamus, so they assumed the worst, and moved on. Jimmy married his childhood sweetheart, Rose, and began to think of ways that he and his brother could manage the farm to make a living. However, due to the famine and the overwhelming debts they had to pay from their father's attempt to keep the farm productive, they lost the land. Jimmy began to think of America again, and continued to hear from others how there was opportunity and possibility for life.
Jimmy took his pregnant wife, along with his brother and they boarded the ship to New York. They were packed like sardines. The conditions were worse than he could have ever imagined. The environment of the ship was so unsanitary that many died and even more got terribly sick. Before boarding the ship, Rose shared with Jimmy that she believed she was pregnant. The look on Jimmy's face when she told him was one of joyous surprise and introspective challenge. On that ship, Jimmy learned to sleep standing up so that he could give Rose an extra bit of room to curl up and lay down.
The combination of exhaustion, the environment, malnourishment and stress brought a terrible sickness on Jimmy. So concerned for Rose and the baby's health, he barely ate and gave most of his food to his wife. At one point, Jimmy had a conversation with Declan, that Declan didn't allow him to finish. In the middle of the night, with a small ray of light from the moon peeking through a crack in the ship and shining on Jimmy's eye, he said to his brother, "Decks, if somethin' happens. I want you to..." Declan interrupted, "That's the sick talkin' Jimmy! You'll make it."
They made it. Barely.
Jimmy, Rose, Jimmy Jr., Nora & Ashley
Jimmy Dolan is the middle brother of the surviving Dolan boys. They had two other siblings who passed when they were children during the famine. After his parents' death, and after his older brother Seamus went to America and was not heard from again, he assumed the leadership role of the family at 19 years old.
The next few years before the move to America plunged Jimmy into adulthood. He married, developed his ability to work with his hands, and raised his younger brother. Although he worked constantly, the lowly educated farm boy lost his family's land to the injustice of the day. He felt indebted to make it right. He would do anything to make it right.
Rose went to school with Jimmy up until he dropped out in their 5th year to assume farm responsibilities.
She knew she loved him when she would see him pass over his own interests to help out others in need. She didn't know that it would be this very trait of her husband that she would be most concerned about in the "new world."
Though Rose felt protected and cared for by her husband, she also felt the need to protect him from a cruel world that Jimmy seemed impervious to. It was like he had an unlimited supply of strength to give of himself, but she was afraid of the day it would run out.
Nora was the child who made the journey across the Atlantic in the womb. Her mother believes that the disposition of concern that she possessed while on the ship transferred into the considerate personality of her daughter.
Jimmy Jr. was the quietly anticipated son of his father, who was more than happy with his two girls, but on the inside, longed for a son. Jimmy Jr. came along after a very terrible winter that claimed the lives of many. Jr.'s smile gave Jimmy the strength to continue on.
Ashley was born two years after Jimmy and Rose arrived in New York. Her father found work with his cousin Niall, where her mother would also work cleaning up debris. Out of the toil, and from the ash, their second born came into the world.
Seamus & Claire
Seamus Dolan disappeared after he left to America ahead of his brothers to prepare the way for their arrival. Assuming he was dead, they went on without him. However, Seamus was thrown into a whirlwind of struggle after he landed in New York. It was so turbulent that he could not find a way to get word back to his brothers about the disappointment of this new world where "Irish need not apply." Seamus thought that his brothers would assume his death, and in turn get the message to stay home. So it was a surprise to all the brothers when they saw each other on the worksite with cousin Niall for the first time. Seeing Jimmy and Declan brought Seamus much needed joy, but his brothers noticed he had changed. Their jolly, optimistic older brother was now darker, rougher, and an alcoholic.
Claire met Seamus on the ship crossing the Atlantic. She was quickly won over by his wit and positivity. He kept talking to her about all the possibilities in the land he would call, "New Dublin." He married her within a week after landing, assuming all his hopes would come to pass and he would be able to take care of her with more than enough. However, after months of searching for any kind of work and finding only hostility and discrimination because of his Irish roots, he was about to give up and take Claire on a ship back to Ireland. As soon as he opened his mouth to tell Claire, she told him she was pregnant. A spark lit up Seamus eyes and he decided that he would do anything, even endure humiliation, to take care of his emerging family. That's when he met up with his uncle's son, Niall who gave him a job that far surpassed any other work environment because of the way Niall ran things.
Claire gave birth to a baby girl and Seamus couldn't have been happier. The winter that year was incredibly hard on the Irish living in the ghettos. And like many others who struggled to keep warm, put food on the table, and ensure health, Seamus was in agony trying to meet those needs. On a tragic January night, after their little girl had been battling a sickness for weeks, with no doctor to tend to her, and no medicine to ease her suffering, Seamus and Claire's daughter passed away in their arms.
Seamus turned to work and alcohol. He would never forgive himself for what happened that night. He named his daughter Soul, and when she passed that night, his own soul went with her.
Declan was only 14 when his parents passed. His brothers kept him protected and took care of him ensuring he'd continue in school. He's the most educated of the Dolan boys and excelled in construction. He was on track to be an engineer when Jimmy decided they should move to New York. Upon their arrival the young "Decks" charismatically talked his way into all kinds of favor, even working to deliver newspapers for a while. After the Dolans joined their cousin as a part of his work crew, Declan was quickly recognized by Niall as a gifted young lad who had the potential to manage others, and being single, he wouldn't be distracted by the burdens of a family. Declan has the optimism of Seamus with the practical sense of Jimmy. He had high hopes for the new world.
Shannon O'Brien came over with her twin brother Ennis. After they lost their parents to sickness in Ireland they heard that America would give them a new start. Children of simple farmers from the countryside, they were lowly educated and had no skills. Shannon found work for Niall as a street sweeper and was able to collect a minimal amount of funds to support herself and help her brother. A pretty girl, she often caught the attention of men, but her brother's watchful eye and street savvy ways kept her from entering situations where she had to compromise herself. Recently she's been given lots of attention from Declan, who has told his brothers that he's been hit with love at first sight. Shannon isn't sure she can trust him. She's also unsure as to whether or not it's even possible to have a family in the new world without the children and parents suffering terribly.
Niall came to New York as a child with his parents, but they died shortly after and he has the faintest memories of them. Growing up on the streets he had to not only fend for himself, but he learned that the only way he was going to survive was by tolerating the insults and condescending attitudes towards people like himself. At 9 years old he started his first job carrying tools up scaffolding to high rise builders. Over the next 30 years he would work his way up to the position of foreman where he would use his influence to employ the Irish.
Mr. Eli put Niall in the position of foreman because he saw that Niall was loyal, but also had no family. Eli knew he could work Niall hard, because he had no obligations outside of his job. Niall often saw himself as the buffer between the abuse dealt to the Irish and the recklessness of the Americans. He surrendered the fact he'd have no time for a family in order to protect the Irish immigrants from such abuse. Recognizing the toll such a life took on his workmen, he used his life saving to open up a pub. At Niall's pub the workers not only found some "medicine" to sleep at night, but they also found community. They sang, danced, and shared their stories. To Niall, this was all he could give.
Aiden Buckley
Pat The
Aiden grew up with Niall on the streets. His father was a drunk and he never knew his mother. He too started work at an early age carrying tools up to the high rise workers. Aiden had a knack for scaling that scaffolding and found himself early on developing skills building at great heights. When Seamus showed up to the work site, it was Aiden who Niall chose to train him in the job. Aiden and Seamus both enjoyed conversations about justice and particularly when they were intoxicated, they would get quite philosophical. However, they always, always showed up to work in the morning.
Patrick was a thief. It was all he knew after coming into the new world. It was either steal or starve. So he stole.
One day he tried to pick the pocket of a passer by and Niall grabbed his teenage wrist and told him that stealing was no way to live. Niall took him under his wing, and gave him a job at the site. After years of faithful service, he assigned Patrick the duty of bartending. Patrick now runs the bar and is incredibly loyal to Niall for his care. Just like his mentor, he decided that it would be too much to bring a child into this hostile world. So he had no family. He considers Niall, Aiden, Seamus and Jean his family.
Jean & Shanna
Jean was a beautiful little girl. Niall had seen the teenage lass walk about the ghettos frequently. At that time he was the junior foreman at the site, and believing he knew where her life was heading, had he not intervened, he used his influence to get her a job.
She started out a street sweeper and after Niall bought his pub, he gave her the job of head waitress. She, Niall, Aiden and Patrick were like family, and they all shared the principle that in this hostile world, they can only do the best they can, take care of each other, and survive.
Shanna showed up at the worksite one day and started working. Niall tried to ask her to leave because he didn't have the funds to pay her, but she insisted on working anyway. After a few weeks she started telling a few others that she was Niall's daughter, and then she was given the job as a pub waitress. Niall never admitted to the rumor being the truth, but giving her the job made others think such was so. Jean often looks after her as she tends to be idealistic about the world she lives in.
GarretT, Ennis,
Fergus & Liam
Garrett's mother died at his birth. His father has resented him ever since. After her death, his father resigned himself to a life of alcohol. Garrett was never put in school, and never had anyone show him any skills. One day, while trying to steal some bread, Jimmy stopped him and took him into the shop to buy him all he could eat. It was the first time anyone ever showed him care.
Ennis came over with his twin sister Shannon. A bright young lad he decided that he would never subject himself to the condescending ways of Americans set out to take advantage of the Irish. Really, he had no practical skills and felt it was too late to learn the things he should've been taught as a child. So he turned to a life of hustling on the streets, and is in the formative stages of starting an Irish gang.
Fergus was the only member of his family to survive the crossing of the Atlantic. At 11 years old he had to learn to navigate life on the streets in New York. Having no education he often found it difficult to communicate his feelings, but when he met Ennis, he felt an immediate bond where his strength could support Ennis' agenda. To Fergus, Ennis and Liam were all the family he needed.
Liam arrived in New York at 3 yrs old, at least that's the age immigration wrote down. He doesn't know, nor does he remember his parents. He imagines they put him on the ship to save his life, but also entertains the idea they abandoned him early on in the new world. Liam is a humble lad having had to learn to accept the benevolence of others from such a young age. He doesn't like the ways of Ennis & Fergus, but they're all the family he has.
Emeli & Eliza
The Bar Girls
Eliza is a fun and spirited lass who hasn't had much in life, but has remained optimistic nonetheless. Her love for dancing and having a good time made her night work tolerable as long as she could get enough drink to fog her memory of the inevitable events. Recently, Mr. Eli has been requesting her company and it's been difficult for her to understand why he's ashamed of her in public.
Emeli has 5 younger siblings, her father is disabled and her mother died birthing the youngest. She couldn't make enough to feed them cleaning debris, so she tried working with the men carrying heavy materials from the quarry to the site. It wasn't enough. One night after an evening of drinking, dancing, and such, she was left a tip. It was the beginning of a lifestyle she sees as her only option.


text:
Daily Drip
Quadruple Drawing of a "Dirty Street" in Beijing Wins International Architecture Prize
By Jake Newby October 18, 2018
Home > Daily Drip > Quadruple Drawing of a "Dirty Street" in Beijing Wins International Architecture Prize
We keep writing about this World Architecture Festival thing. It's not because they've offered us a free trip to Amsterdam for it next month (still time though WAF, eh?), it's because they keep sending us beautiful images of China-related stuff and we want to share them.
Seriously, look at these:
Here are the Chinese Projects That Made the World Architecture Festival 2018 Shortlist
Some outstanding projects in there. And then there were these:
Check Out the Stunning China-Related Entries for the Architectural Photography Awards 2018
Also very nice.
But now, they might just have gone and sent us our favorite thing of the lot as part of a press release announcing the winners of the 2018 Architecture Drawing Prize. Because feast your eyes on these incredible works from Li Han:
Li Han, 'The Samsara of Building No. 42 on Dirty Street', overall winner of the 2018 Architecture Drawing Prize
These four axonometric (which of course we all know without Googling means "an orthographic projection of an object, such as a building, on a plane inclined to each of the three principal axes of the object; three-dimensional but without perspective") drawings together are "The Samsara of Building No. 42 on Dirty Street", and they just made Li Han the overall winner of the 2018 Architecture Drawing Prize.
"Dirty Street" is a back alley bit of the Sanlitun district of Beijing, an area known for its shopping malls, seedy nightlife outlets and disappearing smattering of down and dirty restaurants. Here's what the image represents specifically:
This project comprises a chronological visual narrative of the development of a residential building in Beijing, China between 2008 and 2017. It shows how the building was transformed from regular apartments into an apparently spontaneous urban group with commercial venues in the former apartments; how these buildings were then demolished by the government in order to clean up 'first-floor-homes-turned-into-businesses'; and how the building was subsequently restored to purely residential use. It uses drawing to examine the relationship between civil society and the state in urban development.
That's a pretty good summary, but to really explore these stunning works, we highly recommend you head to the website of Li's firm Drawing Architecture Studio for a walk-through of the stages of development that each of these images portrays.
Nostalgic Indie Film "King of Peking" Comes to Netflix
B-Side China Podcast: Sinking Beijing w/ Tom Ng, Josh and Simon Frank
Sanlitun
Li Han
"Detective Chinatown 3" Posts Huge Presale Numbers, Secures US and UK Releases
5 hours ago 0
Foodies on Twitter are Protesting This "Racist" Chinese Food Term
Chinese "Queer Eye" Gets a Straight, Reductive Makeover, Angering Netizens
China's Traditional Spring Festival TV Gala Chases Younger Viewers with "Rap of China" Crossover
Jake Newby
Jake Newby is a Shanghai-based writer and editor with more than a decade's experience living and working in China. Previously managing editor of Time Out Shanghai, he's also written for publications such as South China Morning Post and the Financial Times.


text:
We respect the privacy of householders
The Group has strict policies to ensure that the privacy of householders is respected, whether in connection with a preliminary visit to your house or a Group visit.
Privacy during the visit
Contact with the householder is normally through a single member of the Group who we designate as the Visit Coordinator. Personal information about householders is not shared with other members.
Our members sign our register of attendances on arrival at a property, before the visit begins.
We remain a small organisation so that all members are well known to each other.
Householders may wish to make certain rooms 'out of bounds'.
Privacy of our written report
The information about the property that we gather during a Group visit is shared fully with the householder. Members' observations are voiced at a de-brief at the conclusion of the visit, and we encourage the householder to attend and contribute to this discussion. Subsequently, the householder receives, at no charge, a full copy of the property report.
Distribution of the property report is strictly controlled. It is not available to the public. We deposit it at the appropriate County Record Office, and also in the archive of the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum. Access to it at these locations for research purposes is subject to the prior permission of the WBSG Secretary. It is also distributed to current WBSG members.
Additionally, we add the name of the building (and its parish, but not its address, and not the report itself) to a published list of all properties we have ever visited.
Privacy policy of this website
Wealden Buildings Study Group may store the name and contact details of enquirers who use this site's Enquiry Form to contact us. We will not use this data for marketing purposes.
We will never pass information contained in the Enquiry Form to any third party without asking for and obtaining your permission for a specific purpose.
"Cookies" may be used on this site to enable us to keep track of the number of repeat visitors to the site, as part of our monitoring of the site so that we can improve it in the future. Cookies do not store personal data. There is helpful information about cookies at www.aboutcookies.org.
To ask about concerns regarding your privacy in connection with a possible visit to your property, please use our Contact Us form.


"... The paper represents the author's account of visiting Apennines, participation in the international ..."
"... Author describes the morphological structure and exomorphodynamics of equatorial mountains. They ..."
"... The morphologic structure of alpinotype mountains is described. The nivation processes and ..."
"... Conceptual-nomenclative system applied for description of the morphology and structure of the Earth ..."
"... slightly tilted, worked along the bedding. Such steps may arise on the valley flanges, on the slopes or on ..."
"... Geomorphologic convergence denominates the morphological similarity of landforms of different ..."
"... The description is given of morphological structure and the main features of relief formation in ..."
"... of their moraines (Middle Pleistocene) were obtained for the first time. In Holocene, the large ..."
"... Lena-Angara plateau occupies the central part of the southern projection of Siberian platform. The ..."


Growing up in the city of Detroit and the metro Detroit area, Shavon Edwards had the privilege of always having access to at least one family car. But the experiences of her relatives on the city's East side showed her from a young age that getting around the city wasn't so easy for all Detroiters.
"My granny is deep East, off of Houston Whittier," Edwards says. "She needs to get to appointments very frequently, like going to the doctor. If she doesn't have a ride, she pretty much can't get there. A church member or a family member or one of her friends needs to take her. It's not as accessible for her to take the bus because ... that could take a couple hours. Because she's older, and especially as it gets cold outside, that's not always the ideal way to get where she needs to go."
Shavon Edwards co-organized a Detroit meeting of Untokening, a grass-roots organization focused on mobility equity. Photo courtesy of Shavon Edwards.
That's inspired Edwards to join the numerous Detroit individuals and organizations working to improve access to mobility for all Detroiters. In early November Edwards co-organized a Detroit convening for The Untokening, a national collective that aims to center marginalized people's voices in advancing mobility equity.
Edwards, who works as a mobility strategist at engineering consultancy WSP USA, says there are gaps in Detroit's mobility ecosystem that those who are intimately involved in the system often overlook.
"Mobility should be accessible to everyone, regardless of your [ability], your socioeconomic status, or where you're going in the city," she says. "None of that should matter. So we're trying to fill some of those gaps and give people who usually don't have the opportunity to talk about those gaps a chance to talk about them."
Design students at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) recently had an opportunity to engage with some of those Detroiters who usually don't have a voice in mobility conversations – and apply their skills to creating solutions. That project, 2030 Detroit Equitable Mobility, was a joint effort by CCS, Ford Motor Co., communications agency GTB, and economic development organization Design Core Detroit. Two of the designs that resulted from the project will be featured in an upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian Design Museum entitled The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility.
Design Core is the steward of Detroit's UNESCO City of Design designation. Design Core staffers' partners in the UNESCO network originally inspired them to do a project focusing on mobility equity. Working with the project partners, CCS students designed three long-term mobility-related scenarios and solutions focusing on the sub-topics of health, employment, and education and socialization. For example, students came up with the idea of a bus service offering onboard entrepreneurial training services for young adults who find themselves losing time – and personal opportunity – to a long commute.
In the second phase of the project, students engaged in co-creation sessions where they worked directly with ordinary Detroiters at nonprofit Focus: HOPE to identify their mobility needs and priorities. Ellie Schneider, director of advocacy and operations at Design Core, says that yielded some surprises for the students.
"Sometimes the way we've been thinking about what the challenges are isn't necessarily the way residents would frame them," she says. "There's so much talk in the mobility space in particular about autonomous vehicles and things like that. These people can't even afford to buy a used vehicle right now, or can't buy insurance for that. Talking about autonomous vehicles is not relevant, or it's not the right starting point."
As a result, the designs that came out of the project's second phase approached mobility in quite different ways. For example, one of them suggested utilizing vehicles, bus stops, or even buildings as a kind of community billboard system to communicate neighborhood-relevant news.
Maria Luisa Rossi, chair of MFA integrated design at CCS, says the students who worked on 2030 Detroit Equitable Mobility learned a lot about engaging users in the design process – which she says can be "quite a big challenge" for designers.
"We normally have a quite big ego, and you need to be able to serve as facilitator of this kind of conversation with the user," she says. "What are their needs and what are their desires? I think what [students] learned was how to understand and how to empathize with people who are maybe quite different from them, and how to keep their own creativity serving the purpose of creating a good solution for the user's needs."
One design project suggested utilizing vehicles, bus stops, or even buildings as a kind of community billboard system to communicate neighborhood-relevant news.
Two of the designs that resulted from the project will be featured in an upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian Design Museum entitled The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility. But Rossi and Schneider both express hope that the project will continue on beyond that. Schneider raises the possibility of raising funding for CCS faculty members to publish research on mobility equity, or for a student mobility equity design challenge.
"Then we really shift to a culture of design research, where these questions are ongoing and they're not just limited to what can be done in a six-month window," she says.
Similarly, Edwards and her fellow Untokening members are trying to create a broader discussion around the idea of mobility justice. Untokening Detroit, which took place Nov. 11, was The Untokening's third convening. It drew about 110 attendees from as far as Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Toronto. Edwards says much of the conversation revolved around helping to improve the outlook for the future of Rust Belt cities through mobility.
Untokening Detroit co-organizer Heather Nugen views the failure of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan's 2016 ballot measure as a major sign that mobility equity has a long way to go in our community.
"Detroit needs to talk about mobility in a new way, and we need to engage some people we have not been engaging, because what we've been doing has not been getting us there," Nugen says.
One major takeaway from Untokening Detroit was that those individuals frequently left out of mobility discussions include not only people of color, but people with disabilities. Nugen says that as Untokening leaders look to their next convening, they're emphasizing the idea that "there's no mobility justice without disability justice."
Edwards says the convening was particularly helpful in allowing mobility equity advocates from different cities to compare notes on successful strategies. She was pleased to learn that Detroit's scooter deployment guidelines have played a role in scooter policy discussions in Atlanta. The city of Detroit requires scooter companies to place a certain number of scooters in each of Detroit's seven city council districts.
Untokening Detroit met on November 11 to strategize mobility solutions and celebrate Detroit's advances in the space. Photo courtesy of Untokening Detroit.
"We helped shape that here in the city," Edwards says. "We have scooters all the way down Gratiot, all over the place. That's something that we're doing right and can kind of set the tone for moving forward."
That's one bright spot in what mobility equity advocates see as a fairly bleak picture for Detroit. But Edwards strikes a hopeful tone about the city's current lack of equity-oriented infrastructure. She notes that other cities may have existing systems or policies in place that can make it difficult for new endeavors to increase mobility equity. But in Detroit, she says, "we're able to try new things and pilot things and not have a whole lot of restriction on them."
"We're able to start the culture shift with nothing in place," she says. "Then we can see how the public reacts to it and make changes based on that."
2030 Detroit Equitable Mobility from College for Creative Studies on Vimeo.
Video courtesy of GTB, Design Core, and College for Creative Studies.
Photos by Steve Koss, except where otherwise indicated.
Jessica Robinson: what does mobility mean to you?
What is the Detroit Mobility Innovation Initiative?


text:
Mike Watters is An Agent for Change
Mike Watters channels his passion for learning and leading to help carry Essentia Health into its next stages
By	Sara Verdi
Practicing law wasn't always on his radar. Mike Watters focused on two things during his undergraduate tenure: his history degree and his collegiate baseball career.
Photo by Elise Schmitter Photography
"I was a history major at the University of Michigan because I enjoyed it. I always assumed at some point I would get a graduate degree, but I wasn't sure in what," Watters says. After his junior year, Watters was picked up to play professional baseball.
"At some point during my professional baseball career, my fiancée at the time—now my wife—asked me 'Well, what are you going to do if you don't make it to the big leagues?'" Watters remembers, laughing. "I am sure that got the wheels turning and moved me toward law school!"
Years after becoming a lawyer, Watters says he found his career aptitude test results from a visit to the career center at Michigan. Becoming a lawyer was the number one recommendation. "It appears to have been a pretty good match," Watters jokes.
In between finishing his professional baseball career and beginning law school at Indiana University School of Law, Watters worked as a paralegal for Baker and Daniels. He was offered the job post-graduation after he had clerked with Baker and Daniels through law school and worked with them for six years before beginning an almost twenty-year tenure at CHI Health.
In August of 2019, excited for the opportunity to try something new, Watters began his position as chief legal officer and general counsel at Essentia Health. "What drew me here was that the work is intellectually stimulating. No two days are alike. I love being a lawyer, but even more, I love being around the doctors, the finance folks, the HR folks—I feel like I really get to learn the whole business. Certainly that, and the opportunity to return to Minnesota," Watters explains.
Moving back to Minnesota not only meant an opportunity to take on a new position with Essentia, it also meant being much closer in proximity to six of his seven children, as well as three of his grandchildren. "It's nice that we're physically and geographically close to them and get to see them a lot more than we did when we were in Nebraska," Watters says proudly.
Over the course of nearly twenty years at a company, there is plenty to learn about the industry and how to manage a team, and Watters plans to use his experience at CHI to bring a fresh set of eyes to Essentia. "I had the benefit of learning the healthcare system and its issues alongside some really intelligent people," Watters says. "CHI gave me perspective on how to do things well and what to do better, too. I think the lessons learned from growing during my experience there will certainly help me in my new role."
"I aspire to lead by example, to be inclusive in decisions across the organization, to seek out guidance and advice when I can. It's a balance between getting input and taking action."
At Essentia, Watters manages a core legal team of six lawyers and one paralegal, but roughly twenty people report up to him. "It's interesting after being at one company for so long," Watters explains. "Coming into a new organization, you have to learn how they do things here, or even, who does what. I'm trying to both learn and get to know the folks that report up to me. It's been a change for everyone, but the team has been brilliant with this period of change."
Simultaneously leading and learning can be an overwhelming task, but Watters sees it as an opportunity for growth. "I aspire to lead by example, to be inclusive in decisions across the organization, to seek out guidance and advice when I can. It's a balance between getting input and taking action," Watters says.
Essentia is currently at the front end of an $800 million project dedicated to rebuilding its main hospital in Duluth. It is a three-and-a-half year project that currently consumes most of Watters's time. "It's the largest healthcare construction project in the United States at the moment," Watters says. "It's going to bring on a huge amount of change, and it's going to impact both the company and the surrounding area of Duluth. It's a very large body of work, and I'm still learning and getting up to speed with it."
Though he's still getting used to the nuances of his role and the company as a whole, Watters believes that adapting to change like this is vital to leadership. "The most dangerous words in the English language are 'we've always done it that way,'" he says. "I think that's why Essentia brought me on: to look at things differently and find new solutions."
He also believes, however, that to get to great rewards, one must work through the greatest challenges that revolve around change. "Today the challenge is leading the team to make necessary changes," he explains. "A year or two from now, it could be a different challenge, but today is mostly centered around the change we are experiencing as an organization as well as my team getting used to me."
As Watters helps his team navigate the challenges that come their way, his goal is to keep an eye toward empathy to understand how everyone is affected by these changes—all in the spirit of carrying the ship forward together. He says, "I want to be sensitive towards the folks that are most impacted by the changes going on at Essentia while at the same time helping to move us collectively toward where we need to be."
Fredrikson & Byron is a 300-attorney law firm in Minneapolis, with 7 offices in the U.S. and globally. We are the firm "where law and business meet." Our attorneys bring business acumen and entrepreneurial thinking to work with healthcare and life sciences clients. Learn more about us at www.fredlaw.com.


text:
1st Obama-Romney debate
Some words from the first presidential debate between Obama and Romney at the University of Denver, Oct. 3, 2012.
Transcript: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/03/transcript-first-presidential-debate/
Are we going to double-down on the top-down economic policies that helped to get us into this mess?
preexisting
But, number one, preexisting conditions are covered under my plan.
And the essence of the plan is that you would turn Medicare into a voucher program.
health care provider
I used to consult to businesses -- excuse me, to hospitals and to health care providers.
businessperson
As a businessperson, I had to have -- I need to know the regulations.
trend line
One is to simply leave a whole bunch of people uninsured and let them fend for themselves, to let businesses figure out how long they can continue to pay premiums until finally they just give up, and their workers are no longer getting insured, and that's
hand over fist
But you also had banks making money hand over fist, churning out products that the bankers themselves didn't even understand, in order to make big profits, but knowing that it made the entire system vulnerable.
But I also want to close those loopholes that are giving incentives for companies that are shipping jobs overseas.
running mate
I know that you and your running mate keep saying that and I know it's a popular thing to say with a lot of people, but it's just not the case.
spending cut
Well, that's how the commission -- bipartisan commission that talked about how we should move forward suggested we have to do it, in a balanced way with some revenue and some spending cuts.
Number four, get us to a balanced budget.
Now, in order for us to do it, we do have to close our deficit, and one of the things I'm sure we'll be discussing tonight is, how do we deal with our tax code?
tax cut
And this is where there's a difference, because Governor Romney's central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut -- on top of the extension of the Bush tax cuts -- that's another trillion dollars -- and $2 trillion in additional military spe
The approach that Governor Romney's talking about is the same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003, and we ended up with the slowest job growth in 50 years, we ended up moving from surplus to deficits, and it all culminated in the worst finan
But I wouldn't designate five banks as too big to fail and give them a blank check.
AARP thinks that the -- the savings that we obtained from Medicare bolster the system, lengthen the Medicare trust fund by eight years.
So 77 government programs, everything from aircrafts that the Air Force had ordered but weren't working very well, 18 government -- 18 government programs for education that were well-intentioned, not weren't helping kids learn, we went after medical frau
reelect
There's no question in my mind that if the president were to be reelected you'll continue to see a middle-class squeeze with incomes going down and prices going up.
It's just -- it's -- we've got -- when the president took office, 32 million people on food stamps; 47 million on food stamps today; economic growth this year slower than last year, and last year slower than the year before.
tax break
I want to provide tax breaks for companies that are investing here in the United States.
When it comes to our tax code, Governor Romney and I both agree that our corporate tax rate is too high, so I want to lower it, particularly for manufacturing, taking it down to 25 percent.
reassign
The first two weeks she's got them, some of them sitting on the floor until finally they get reassigned.
It's energy and trade, the right kind of training programs, balancing our budget and helping small business.
So now I want to hire another 100,000 new math and science teachers, and create 2 million more slots in our community colleges so that people can get trained for the jobs that are out there right now.
overpay
$716 billion we were able to save from the Medicare program by no longer overpaying insurance companies by making sure that we weren't overpaying providers.
But in order for us not to lose revenue, have the government run out of money, I also lower deductions and credits and exemptions, so that we keep taking in the same money when you also account for growth.
institutionalize
Now, so what this board does is basically identifies best practices and says, let's use the purchasing power of Medicare and Medicaid to help to institutionalize all these good things that we do.
And the answer is, yes, we can help, but it's going to take a different path, not the one we've been on, not the one the president describes as a top-down, cut taxes for the rich.
bring down
That is, I want to bring down rates.
ROMNEY: ... people, right, not for current retirees.
The segments as I announced in advance will be three on the economy and one each on health care, the role of government and governing, with an emphasis throughout on differences, specifics and choices.
There will be six roughly 15-minute segments with two-minute answers for the first question, then open discussion for the remainder of each segment.
LEHRER: That is a terrific segue to our next segment, and is the role of government.
extrapolate
But -- but what it did do is to -- if you extrapolated how much money we're talking about, you'd look at cutting the education budget by up to 20 percent.
middle-class
How we pay for that, reduce the deficit, and make the investments that we need to make, without dumping those costs onto middle-class Americans, I think is one of the central questions of this campaign.
unbalance
Now, if you take such an unbalanced approach, then that means you are going to be gutting our investments in schools and education.
make sure
Number three, make sure our people have the skills they need to succeed and the best schools in the world.
repeal
And ironically, if you repeal Obamacare, and I have become fond of this term, "Obamacare," if you repeal it, what happens is those seniors right away are going to be paying $600 more in prescription care.
federal deficit
This is, theoretically now, a second segment still on the economy, and specifically on what to do about the federal deficit, the federal debt.
But our training programs right now, we've got 47 of them, housed in the federal government, reporting to eight different agencies.
Let's start the economy, segment one, and let's begin with jobs.
land grant
So, in the middle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said, let's help to finance the Transcontinental Railroad, let's start the National Academy of Sciences, let's start land grant colleges, because we want to give these gateways of opportunity for
Or do we embrace a new economic patriotism that says America does best when the middle class does best?
gasoline tax
He said he and his son calculated how much they pay in taxes, federal income tax, federal payroll tax, state income tax, state sales tax, state property tax, gasoline tax.
I'm Jim Lehrer of the "PBS NewsHour," and I welcome you to the first of the 2012 presidential debates between President Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee.
in and of itself
This is a -- this is a tax in and of itself.
So to finish quickly, briefly, on the economy, what is your view about the level of federal regulation of the economy right now?
The idea, which was originally presented by Congressman Ryan, your running mate, is that we would give a voucher to seniors and they could go out in the private marketplace and buy their own health insurance.
churn out
out of work
I was in Dayton, Ohio, and a woman grabbed my arm, and she said, "I've been out of work since May.
end up
If you believe that we can cut taxes by $5 trillion and add $2 trillion in additional spending that the military is not asking for, $7 trillion -- just to give you a sense, over 10 years, that's more than our entire defense budget -- and you think that by
It's an honor to be here with you, and I appreciate the chance to be with the president.
Now, let's move to health care where I know there is a clear difference, and that has to do with the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare.
My grandparents did.
I don't have a tax cut of a scale that you're talking about.
They can buy a computer for their kid who's going off to college, which means they're spending more money, businesses have more customers, businesses make more profits, and then hire more workers.
bipartisan
I'm Jim Lehrer of the " PBS NewsHour," and I welcome you to the first of the 2012 presidential debates between President Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee.
When it comes to making college affordable, whether it's two-year or four-year, one of the things that I did as president was we were sending $60 billion to banks and lenders as middlemen for the student loan program, even though the loans were gua
And it also says that you're going to have to get rebates if insurance companies are spending more on administrative costs and profits than they are on actual care.
Entitlements.
You said, "Look, I'm going to extend the tax policies that we have now; I'm not going to raise taxes on anyone, because when the economy is growing slow like this, when we're in recession, you shouldn't raise taxes on anyone."
reform school
And when it comes to education what I've said is we've got to reform schools that are not working.
We've going to make sure that you've got to have a living will so -- so we can know how you're going to wind things down if you make a bad bet so we don't have other taxpayer bailouts.
First, we've got to improve our education system and we've made enormous progress drawing on ideas both from Democrats and Republicans that are already starting to show gains in some of the toughest to deal with schools.
broaden
He said he was going to broaden the base.
Every school district, every state should make that decision on their own.
But I'm not going to reduce the share of taxes paid by high- income people.
People in the coal industry feel like it's getting crushed by your policies.
We're a nation that believes that we're all children of the same god and we care for those that have difficulties, those that are elderly and have problems and challenges, those that are disabled.
push through
What you did instead was to push through a plan without a single Republican vote.
And we know where it came from: two wars that were paid for on a credit card; two tax cuts that were not paid for; and a whole bunch of programs that were not paid for; and then a massive economic crisis.
fend for
One is to simply leave a whole bunch of people uninsured and let them fend for themselves, to let businesses figure out how long they can continue to pay premiums until finally they just give up, and their workers are no longer getting insured, and
They're now going to have to be paying copays for basic checkups that can keep them healthier.
Do you see a major difference between the two of you on Social Security?
cutback
My cutbacks will be done through attrition, by the way.
And using that money, we were actually able to lower prescription drug costs for seniors by an average of $600, and we were also able to make a -- make a significant dent in providing them the kind of preventive care that will ultimately save money
state line
OBAMA: But the fact of the matter is that some of the prescriptions that he's offered, like letting you buy insurance across state lines, there's no indication that that somehow is going to help somebody who's got a pre-existing condition be able t
rate of growth
The problem with raising taxes is that it slows down the rate of growth.
What we've said is to states, we'll give you more money if you initiate reforms.
structurally
Social Security is structurally sound.
take office
And it wasn't just that small businesses were seeing costs skyrocket and they couldn't get affordable coverage even if they wanted to provide it to their employees.
Now, you know, that may not seem like a big deal when it just is, you know, numbers on a sheet of paper, but if we're talking about a family who's got an autistic kid and is depending on that Medicaid, that's a big problem.
You had loan officers were -- that were giving loans and mortgages that really shouldn't have been given, because the folks didn't qualify.
unintended
And it includes within it a number of provisions that I think has some unintended consequences that are harmful to the economy.
rule out
Now, Governor Romney has ruled out revenue.
The federal government taking over health care for the entire nation and whisking aside the 10th Amendment, which gives states the rights for these kinds of things, is not the course for America to have a stronger, more vibrant economy.
And how do we make sure that we are reducing spending in a responsible way, but also, how do we have enough revenue to make those investments?
And over the last four years, small- business people have decided that America may not be the place to open a new business, because new business startups are down to a 30-year low.
trickle
The president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more -- if you will, trickle-down government -- would work.
First of all, I don't have a $5 trillion tax cut.
And so I've put forward a specific $4 trillion deficit reduction plan.
And I worked with Democrats and Republicans to cut a trillion dollars out of our discretionary domestic budget.
In fact we've seen layoffs of hundreds of thousands of teachers over the last several years, and Governor Romney doesn't think we need more teachers.
First of all, the Department of Energy has said the tax break for oil companies is $2.8 billion a year.
The approach that Governor Romney's talking about is the same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003, and we ended up with the slowest job growth in 50 years, we ended up moving from surplus to deficits, and it all culminated in the worst financial cr
devastate
The secretary of defense has said these would be even devastating.
But there's still a problem, because what happens is, those insurance companies are pretty clever at figuring out who are the younger and healthier seniors.
You've said the same thing, you're going to simplify the tax code, broaden the base.
Many of the legislative functions of the federal government right now are in a state of paralysis as a result of partisan gridlock.
OBAMA: When I walked into the Oval Office, I had more than a trillion-dollar deficit greeting me.
It's called premium support, but it's understood to be a voucher program.
We've got a program called Race to the Top that has prompted reforms in 46 states around the country, raising standards, improving how we train teachers.
ROMNEY: Well, I would repeal and replace it.
principled
But, ultimately, part of being principled, part of being a leader is, A, being able to describe exactly what it is that you intend to do, not just saying, "I'll sit down," but you have to have a plan.
What are the major differences between the two of you about how you would go about creating new jobs?
add up
OBAMA: When you add up all the loopholes and deductions that upper-income individuals can -- are currently taking advantage of, you take those all away, you don't come close to paying for $5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in additional milita
As a matter of fact, free people and free enterprises trying to find ways to do things better are able to be more effective in bringing down the cost than the government will ever be.
Good evening from the Magness Arena at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado.
So at Cleveland Clinic, one of the best health care systems in the world, they actually provide great care cheaper than average.
And as a consequence we'll have a better trained workforce and that will create jobs because companies want to locate in places where we've got a skilled workforce.
Number two, open up more trade, particularly in Latin America, crack down on China, if and when they cheat.
endow
Second, in that line that says we are endowed by our creator with our rights, I believe we must maintain our commitment to religious tolerance and freedom in this country.
Electric rates are up.
fall apart
And over time, if traditional Medicare has decayed or fallen apart, then they're stuck.
We have to work on a collaborative basis, not because we're going to compromise our principle, but because there's common ground.
It's going to have to be tweaked the way it was by Ronald Reagan and Speaker -- Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill.
Word List Actions:
Create a new Word List


text:
VIRTUS Scholar
Content Browsing Platform
Virtus Interpress is happy to present the newly launched content browsing platform called Virtus Scholar.
The aim of the platform is to provide our readers with a helpful tool that will make the information search process easier and more efficient. With Virtus Scholar it has become possible to browse a specific journal(s), books and even the news section. You can simply type in the keyword and choose the search area from the dropdown list.
The editorial team of Virtus Interpress is constantly working on updating the thematic collections of papers, where scholars can find plenty of articles on various topics within the scope of corporate governance. You can also find the link to these collections below the Search bar.
Recently we have improved the functioning of Virtus Scholar by adding "Platform Statistics". By clicking the respective button you will be redirected to the webpage which provides the key statistical data. This statistics is divided into 2 parts: Geographical Statistics (downloads data counts starting from August 2018) and Article Views Statistics (views data counts starting from March 2017).
The first section is an interactive map that graphically presents the worldwide download statistics (papers in pdf. documents) from our website. The table next to it summarizes this statistics for 2 periods (current month and in total).
The second section presents the number of article views for all 8 journals published by Virtus Interpress and below it, you can find Top-20 most popular papers (based on the number of views) in terms of 3 periods: current month, current year and in total. In the same section, you can find Top-20 quarterly papers noted by the editors. The topics of the papers vary within the journals published by Virtus Interpress. You are welcome to explore the latest research in the fields of corporate governance, gender diversity, risk management, financial performance and banking.
We are planning to keep updating the platform in future and will keep our network posted as the changes are made.
Whole Website in News Section in Books in Journals Journal of Governance and Regulation Risk Governance and Control: Financial Markets & Institutions Corporate Ownership and Control Corporate Board: Role, Duties and Composition Corporate Governance and Sustainability Review Corporate Governance and Organizational Behavior Review Corporate Law & Governance Review Corporate & Business Strategy Review
PLATFORM STATISTICS
Check thematic collections of papers published in our journals here.
Nothing found for:


text:
May the Year of the Monkey be a Good One for Malaysia's Environment
A crab-eating macaque gazes pensively into the camera. Let's hope all monkeys will have plenty to celebrate throughout this coming Year of the Monkey. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Year of the Monkey is just about to kick off according to the Chinese calendar so we might as well make the coming year one in which we pay a lot more heed to the wellbeing of monkeys and other wildlife. That is the message of Ang Lai Soon, a Malaysian Chinese environmentalist in Sarawak, for the citizens of the country.
The earth's resources are finite, he warned, and we will continue recklessly exploiting them at our own peril. He noted that the planet, already overpopulated, will see further population explosions in coming decades, especially in India and on the African continent. The number of people on earth is projected to rise to over 11 billion by 2100, from the current 7-plus billion, thereby ballooning by another 40% within less than a century from the current figure. All these new mouths to feed will place further strains on already stressed ecosystems in developing countries, which can ill afford to feed and house their current populations as it is.
"This [is] the most important day in the year for every ethnic Malaysian Chinese, and is one when we can allow ourselves to be proud of our contribution to the harmony and prosperity our nation enjoys," the prominent social and environmental activist said. Cheers to that.
Here is hoping that the coming year will be a better one than 2015 – the Year of the Sheep in the Chinese zodiac – was, given that last year was fraught with plenty of setbacks and outright disasters. Primary among them was the bauxite fiasco in Pahang, which wreaked havoc on the local ecology, both on land and in the sea. Wildlife trafficking remained rampant and government initiatives to curb it appeared to be half-hearted and generally inefficient.
"We have not seen any notable illegal wildlife trader arrested [over the past year]," environmental activists Sean Whyte and Jennifer Yeap pointed out in early January while reflecting on the environmental failures of 2015. "We have seen more cases of illegal logging – though, seemingly, law enforcement officials have not." They added: " Attitudes towards animals in Malaysia seem entrenched in the 19th century."
That may be a bit harsh as the country has come a long way in addressing environmental issues, albeit with mixed results. Yet it's undeniable that far more will need to be done if citizens of the nation want to ensure that their children and their children's children will enjoy the same natural bounty as they and their parents have done. May the Year of the Monkey be a good one in Malaysia for wild animals, monkeys included!
Tags: population explosion, Sarawak, wildlife trafficking, Year of the Monkey


Import and view GPS eXchange format (GPX) files. GPX-Viewer views GPX files exported from many GPS devices and other apps that create GPX files.
Import GPX files using iTunes file sharing, eMail, an URL, or from iCloud.
- Choose Apple Maps, Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps, or a custom map tile source URL.
- Chart elevation vs. track points or distance. Share the chart.
- Send the waypoints to Apple Maps or Google Maps.
- Optionally disable screen auto-lock to keep the device from sleeping.
- Create folders to better organize your GPX files.
- Set different location tracking modes.
- Import GPX files to the current GPX file.
- Customize the color for waypoints, track points, routes and tracks.
- Hide or show the waypoints, track points, routes or tracks on the map.
- View track points on map.
A sample GPX file is included.
We also have a GPX Viewer and GPX Editor for the Macintosh computer. Visit our web site for more info.


text:
Q: protobuf repeatedly writes out a non-repeated field while serializing i have a weird problem.
I added one field to my protobuf like this:
{
    optional uint32 avg_body_length = 90;
    optional uint32 pub_body_length = 95; //new field
}

My program(a service running continuously) updates pub_body_length and then writes it to some storage periodically.
After several hours, i found the size of the serialized protobuf grew rapidly.
By analyzing the serialized protobuf manually, it turns out field pub_body_length appears thousands of time with the same value.
I use c++ and the version of protoc is 2.4.1
Anyone has any clue?


text:
Statement by Minister Martin on the death of UN aid worker Andrew Grene in the Haitian earthquake
Statement by Minister Martin on the death of UN aid worker, Andrew Grene, in the Haitian earthquake
United Nations, Press Releases, Latin America, 2010
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, T.D., made the following statement after the confirmation he received from the UN that Mr. Andrew Grene, an Irish citizen, has been identified as among those killed in the Haitian earthquake.
"I have learned with great regret from the UN of the death of Mr Andrew Grene in such tragic circumstances inHaiti. I want to extend my own personal condolences and that of the Irish government to his family in the United States and Ireland on this very sad occasion.
He was a true humanitarian, working for the good of the people ofHaiti. His post in the UN in Haiti was as Assistant to the Secretary General's Special Representative, Mr. Hedi Annabi, who also tragically lost his life when the earthquake struck.
Andrew is part of a long and honourable Irish tradition of public service with the United Nations. His family, and indeed Ireland, can be very proud of his work. He was also a citizen of the United States and I know that that country also takes pride in his achievements.
My thoughts are with Andrew's wife and children and all his family and friends at this difficult time.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal."