text:
States of Exception
The Politics of Scripture
By Guest Post
PCUSA
The Unsettling Theopolitics of "Zionism Unsettled" (Jeffrey A. Bernstein)
As I compose this, the gloves are being taken off on all sides, and in every direction, over the matter of the Presbyterian Church USA's 310-303 approval of divesting from three companies (Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett-Packard) whose business with Israel are seen to impact the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
As I compose this, the gloves are being taken off on all sides, and in every direction, over the matter of the Presbyterian Church USA's 310-303 approval of divesting from three companies (Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett-Packard) whose business with Israel are seen to impact the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Union of Reform Judaism, who worked with members of the Presbyterian Church for an alternative solution to divestment, has condemned the boycott. Presbyterian Reverend Chris Leighton's Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church argues that the boycott is explicitly connected to the publication (and circulation) of the booklet "Zionism Unsettled" (ZU) by the Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN). Today one can find impassioned statements by Jews, Christians and Muslims on such politically diverse websites as Commentary and Democracy Now. Splits in the Presbyterian Church (that doubtless existed prior to this past week) are now visible to all interested parties; at the same time, Jewish organizations, usually bitterly divided along political and religious lines, are now finding a bit of de facto common ground. Presbyterian Reverend Larry Grimm, in calling for Jews to leave Israel and come "home" to the "promised land" of America, paradoxically reminds one of the American exceptionalism of folks like Dick Cheney.
I can best express my own experience with all of this through a few vignettes:
A friend of mine announced that she was in support of the Presbyterian boycott despite the fact that "AIPAC and Neo-Conservatives would, out of anger, label the boycott anti-Semitic."
When I mentioned my frustration over the boycott and ZU to a Jewish friend to my political and religious right, the response was, "Why are you so concerned about the Presbyterians? Are you a Presbyterian all of a sudden? This is what religions have been doing to each other for centuries. At least they don't Jihad us. Besides, isn't it hard to get worked up over it when you compare it to the bombs being dropped on Israeli towns from Syria and Hamas?"
When I mentioned this frustration to a Jewish friend whose politics more closely resembles my own, the response was, "Yes, I don't agree with the vote either, but you can understand the concerns—what's happening in the territories is horrific and it affects both Palestinian Christians as well as Muslims."
If I disagree with my first friend's assessment of the terms of the debate, I don't dispute that the impassioned responses include the charge of "anti-Semitism." And while I don't take the position she does, I acknowledge that boycotts (as in the case of South Africa) are legitimate political tools in a liberal democracy; and I don't begrudge people for using such political tools. Organized religious institutions are a different matter, as I will explain shortly. If I disagree with my second friend's (humorous, if somewhat snarky) question about whether I'm now a Presbyterian, I have to concede that Reform Judaism (the branch of Judaism in which I grew up) share many common political aims with the Presbyterians (their affirmation of marriage equality being only one example); I am, therefore, closer politically to them than to many members of my own religion. I also have to concede that, as far as criticisms go, the boycott is about as "mellow" as it gets—it's a largely symbolic protest that affects only three companies (a total of around 25 million dollars) and is registered more as a conscience vote than anything else. If Mahmood Abbas doesn't support boycotts, why should I get so worked up over them? And, at this point, my second and third friends are in agreement: Israelis and Palestinians are the real objects (and targets) of these kinds of political actions. They are the ones who are suffering from the violence in the Mideast. Why am I losing sleep over it? Can such a "mellow" boycott be anything more than simply a private institutional vote of conscience and (at most) a gentle rebuke to American Jews?
The answer to the last question would be "no" if the PCUSA's decision to boycott was simply a political matter. In fact, the existence of ZU prior to boycott transforms it (despite some protests to the contrary) into a theopolitical matter. This is where my concerns lie.
Please note what I'm not arguing. I don't believe that all Presbyterians affirm ZU—i.e., it would be no less ridiculous and generalizing if I wrote an essay called "Presbyterianism Dissected." I'm also not suggesting that the intent of the IPMN was to produce an anti-Semitic document. I'm not even sure that the authors and/or editors of ZU are aware of the problematic character of the book (I suspect that some are). These are issues for others to debate. In any case, the PCUSA seems to have acknowledged the problems with ZU by recently removing the document from their website. However, the damage has already been done.
The problem with ZU, and therefore with the subsequent boycott, is that it bases its political position on a theological characterization of Judaism that is strangely and insidiously distorted. It is, no doubt, accurate insofar as it notes that there are abiding differences between Judaism (and Islam) on the one hand and Christianity on the other when it comes to construing the relation between religion and politics. It is distorting insofar as (1) it draws the conclusion that the atrocities in the territories are wholly reducible to these differences and (2) in drawing a straight line from Judaism to Zionism to these atrocities. The takeaway from ZU is that Judaism's conception of the religion-politics relationship is the cause of the Palestinian misery—thus (in the words of Reverend Naim Ateek) "Zionism is a false theology."
To be sure, ZU does not begin with that tone. One of the interesting (but again, insidious) aspects of the text is that it begins with general, and even somewhat reasonable, attempts to cover all the topical bases of the debate. It contains excerpts, and summaries, of writings by authors from all three Abrahamic religions. It acknowledges Christian anti-Semitism, as well as Islamic fundamentalism as real problems that face Jews. And it acknowledges that Jewish voices have been valuable in the recognition of a more well-rounded and critical awareness of the history of Zionism and Israel.
However, things begin to get more ugly (and global) as the text continues: "The major American Jewish organizations bear considerable responsibility for spreading . . . fear and blindness by their uncritical support for Israel over the years, especially since 1967." I was born one year later, and I can't recall any Jewish organization (to which I belonged, or to which I was exposed) denying the fact that atrocities were occurring. Thus, while one can legitimately criticize these atrocities as political failures of Israeli governmental policies (as well as those of other political bodies in the Mideast), it does not follow that "The time has come for us all to name . . . the Jewish theological and ethical failures that Zionism has produced." What are these "theological and ethical failures"? Simply put, "the emergence of Zionist movement in the twentieth century is a retrogression of the Jewish community into the history of its very distant past, with its most elementary and primitive forms of the concept of God. Zionism has succeeded in reanimating the nationalist tradition in Judaism." So Zionism = violent Biblical theocratic Jewish nationalism. All of it? Well, no. However, ZU spends precious little time on cultural Zionism (portraying it as merely a failed minor experiment), focusing instead on political and religious Zionism. These two streams, for ZU, amount to "the merging of Judaism with idolatrous political nationalism."
One doesn't need to believe that the political and religious streams of Zionism are without blame to view the discussion in ZU as extremely one-sided. Why, for instance, are all attempts to reconceive Zionism as other than "idolatrous nationalism" futile? This is the picture that ZU portrays. Diaspora Judaism is also viewed through a narrow lens. The section entitled "What Diaspora?" ends with the following claim: "The Judeo-Arab cultural world of Maimonides and Judah Halevi has been sacrificed on the Ashkenazi-Zionist altar, and along with it the deep and rich historic culture of Mediterranean Judaism." Zionism is somehow responsible for the sacrifice of Mediterranean Judaism. I would have thought that the combined effects of Medieval Christendom, Dar al Islaam, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust had something of a hand in this destruction as well.
The full theopolitical point is driven home in charges made by Ateek: "[Our charges are] the equivalent of declaring Zionism heretical, a doctrine that fosters both political and theological injustice. This is the strongest condemnation a Christian confession can make against any doctrine that promotes death rather than life. Of course Christian theological statements have little merit in the eyes of non-Christians (Jews included) . . . [But i]n the Christian Church such condemnations carry the weight of heresy." It is unclear whether Judaism (as Zionism) is heresy, or whether Jews are sufficiently "non-Christian" to be ignored in this profession of faith. If Zionism is a "false theology," then it either is a Christian heresy or a non-Christian alien doctrine. In this way, Ateek and ZU are able to call out Christian Zionists as well as Zionism/Judaism. In sum, it looks like the only Judaism that is worthy of dialogue is the "life-affirming" Judaism that has eschewed its archaic ties to the Old Testamentary violent deity and the idea of nationalism.
I don't want to belabor the salient points made in other statements (i.e., if Palestinians can have a nation, why can't Jews? Who else have the Presbyterians boycotted and who's next? Etc.). It strikes me that the theopolitical point contained in ZU (and therefore the PCUSA boycott) illustrates something more than a straightforward political cry of outrage. If it were simply that, I might share it (one doesn't have to support, or even agree with a boycott, to be outraged at policies that would be supported by John Hagee or Meier Kahane). ZU, the IPMN, and the PCUSA boycott all suggest that Zionism is problematic because it amounts to a theology of nationality, land, and law. But what is the alternative? ZU does not state outright that it is unity "in Christ," but it is difficult for me not to wonder about supercessionist motives in this context. In any case, the argument has yet to be made as to why the Western Protestant model of religion and politics is the only model (1) in which peace can be obtained and (2) through which it can be maintained. Until then, the stated views of the aforementioned Presbyterian organizations (in other matters quite progressive) have a weird resonance with the sorts of totalizing critiques of Islam one frequently finds among commentators on the Right.
Jeffrey Bernstein is an associate professor of Philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA). His research interests include Modern European philosophy, classical German philosophy and Jewish Thought.
5 thoughts on "The Unsettling Theopolitics of "Zionism Unsettled" (Jeffrey A. Bernstein)"
Dave True says:
Nice points on the ZU–which I haven't read–sounds awfully flat-footed on Zionism. But what of the boycott itself? My sense is that support for the boycott runs much deeper than ZU.
Jeffrey Bernstein says:
My sense is that that's right, David, especially now. My hope is that its more an expression of legitimate political frustration than anything else.
Monica70x7 says:
I have noticed that the sharp distinction between Judaism and Zionism in ZU is supported by the chapter on Rabbi Brant Rosen's thought, which in turn draws on the writing of Marc Ellis. My perception is that there is not unanimity in the Jewish community regarding Zionism — whether Zionism is intrinsic to Judaism, or simply an accepted stream of thought within Judaism, or a deviant offshoot of Judaism — and that ZU promotes the approach to Zionism that is characteristic of Jewish Voice for Peace (namely, that adherence to the ethical teachings of the Hebrew prophets should trump Israeli nationalism and should certainly exclude home demolitions and population transfer). Unlike Dr. Bernstein, I do not see Protestant triumphalism in this book (and I am not a Protestant).
Thanks for your reply to my post, Monica. You're certainly right that one of the sharpest criticisms of Zionism in ZU was written by Rabbi Rosen (basing himself on Ellis). Its also true that the prophetic tradition in Judaism is oftentimes seen as a counterpoint to the 'nation' tradition. While Rosen and Ellis are not (to my knowledge) triumphalists, my concern with their approach to the question of Zionism is that it is too reductive. Zionism (as you note) is not a unitary phenomenon in the Jewish community, but I found Rosen's analysis of it to be too reductive. I don't have the text in front of me at this moment, but (if memory serves) it was Rosen who held that Zionism is a devolution of Judaism to its most archaic forms of nationalism. In my view, this is to conflate the atrocities in the territories with (a) the traditional concept of 'nation' in Judaism (of which there are also many interpretations), and (b) Zionism (the cultural and non-agressive religious forms [i.e., Buber] of which get, in my view, short-shrifted). I think that one can both legitimately express outrage (even protest) over the atrocities without having to (in my view reductively) tie it to Zionism and Judaism. Given that ZU excerpts and summarizes Rosen's view, it becomes difficult to separate his own views from the overall intent of ZU, which seems to me to wish to characterize 'living' Judaism as an exilic faith tradition that has no connection to questions of 'nationhood' (whether this be construed as a nation-state or simply as a homeland). I certainly have no authority to deny the validity of that construal of Judaism; but I do deny that it is a foregone conclusion that that is the only legitimate construal of Judaism (that's the moment that I was referring to as 'triumphalism'–i.e., that the separation of religion and politics must take the form that it does here in the US). My point is that one can agree that home demolitions and population transfer ought to be excluded without agreeing with the characterizations of Zionism (and its relation to Judaism) that are present in ZU.
aricclark says:
I think everyone in this conversation is overestimating the significance of ZU to the divestment debate in the PC(USA). If we did a survey, I would wager we'd find that maybe 30 of the 600+ delegates at the assembly had read Zionism Unsettled in any detail and many of those had done so critically. Presbyterians tend to be highly suspicious of anything that appears to be propaganda and even those likely to be sympathetic to the aims of divestment would most likely reject a document that overtly tried to sway their opinion on a theopolitical matter like Zionism. My sense, as a volunteer who was at GA specifically to advocate for divestment, is that ZU hurt our side of the argument, providing fodder for those who accused us of antisemitism. It did not help.
That said, I do think there are some very interesting conversations to be had about nationalism and ideology and how these forces are undoubtedly sources of violence even if they're not wholly illegitimate.
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text:
package com.secondthorn.solitaireplayer.solvers.tripeaks;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertFalse;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

public class DeckTest {
    private static List<String> orderedCards = "cdhs".chars()
            .mapToObj(s -> "A23456789TJQK".chars().mapToObj(r -> String.format("%c%c", r, s)))
            .flatMap(s -> s)
            .collect(Collectors.toList());
    private static Deck orderedDeck = new Deck(orderedCards);
    private static Deck startingOrderedDeck = new Deck(
            "      ??          ??          ??\n" +
            "    ??  ??      ??  ??      ??  ??\n" +
            "  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??\n" +
            "6d  7d  8d  9d  Td  Jd  Qd  Kd  Ah  2h\n" +
            "3h 4h 5h 6h 7h 8h 9h Th Jh Qh Kh As 2s 3s 4s 5s 6s 7s 8s 9s Ts Js Qs Ks"
    );

    /**
     * Asserts that the deck contains the same cards in the same order as expectedCards.
     */
    private void assertDeckCardsMatch(List<String> expectedCards, Deck deck) {
        for (int i = 0; i < 52; i++) {
            assertEquals(expectedCards.get(i), deck.cardAt(i));
        }
    }

    @Test
    void constructorWithListOfCards() {
        assertDeckCardsMatch(orderedCards, new Deck(orderedCards));
    }

    @Test
    void constructorWithArrayOfCards() {
        assertDeckCardsMatch(orderedCards, new Deck(orderedCards.toArray(new String[0])));
    }

    @Test
    void constructorWithStringOfCards() {
        assertDeckCardsMatch(orderedCards, new Deck(orderedCards.stream().collect(Collectors.joining(" "))));
    }

    @Test
    void constructorWithTooFewCardsThrowsException() {
        Throwable t = assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> {
            List<String> cards = orderedCards.subList(0, 51);
            new Deck(cards);
        });
        assertEquals("A Deck must be 52 cards, 51 sent in instead.", t.getMessage());
    }

    @Test
    void constructorWithTooManyCardsThrowsException() {
        Throwable t = assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> {
            List<String> cards = new ArrayList<>(orderedCards);
            cards.add("Kc");
            new Deck(cards);
        });
        assertEquals("A Deck must be 52 cards, 53 sent in instead.", t.getMessage());
    }

    /**
     * Returns true if card2 is one rank below or above card1.
     */
    private boolean isOneAboveOrBelow(String card1, String card2) {
        char rank1 = card1.charAt(0);
        char rank2 = card2.charAt(0);
        switch (rank1) {
            case 'A': return rank2 == 'K' || rank2 == '2';
            case '2': return rank2 == 'A' || rank2 == '3';
            case '3': return rank2 == '2' || rank2 == '4';
            case '4': return rank2 == '3' || rank2 == '5';
            case '5': return rank2 == '4' || rank2 == '6';
            case '6': return rank2 == '5' || rank2 == '7';
            case '7': return rank2 == '6' || rank2 == '8';
            case '8': return rank2 == '7' || rank2 == '9';
            case '9': return rank2 == '8' || rank2 == 'T';
            case 'T': return rank2 == '9' || rank2 == 'J';
            case 'J': return rank2 == 'T' || rank2 == 'Q';
            case 'Q': return rank2 == 'J' || rank2 == 'K';
            case 'K': return rank2 == 'Q' || rank2 == 'A';
            default: return false;
        }
    }

    @Test
    void oneAboveOrBelow() {
        for (int i=0; i<orderedCards.size(); i++) {
            String card1 = orderedCards.get(i);
            for (int j=0; j<orderedCards.size(); j++) {
                String card2 = orderedCards.get(j);
                assertEquals(isOneAboveOrBelow(card1, card2),
                        orderedDeck.isOneAboveOrBelow(i, j),
                        String.format("%s (index %d) vs %s (index %d)", card1, i, card2, j));
            }
        }
    }

    @Test
    void unknownCardsAreNeverOneAboveOrBelow() {
        ArrayList<String> cards = new ArrayList<>(orderedCards);
        cards.set(0, "??");
        Deck deck = new Deck(cards);
        for (int i=0; i<orderedCards.size(); i++) {
            assertFalse(deck.isOneAboveOrBelow(0, i));
            assertFalse(deck.isOneAboveOrBelow(i, 0));
        }
    }

    @Test
    void unknownCardIndexes() {
        assertFalse(orderedDeck.hasUnknownCards());
        assertTrue(startingOrderedDeck.hasUnknownCards());
    }

    @Test
    void tableauRankMask() {
        assertEquals(0b0100000000000010000000000001, orderedDeck.tableauRankMask('A'));
        assertEquals(0b0010000000000001000000000000, orderedDeck.tableauRankMask('K'));
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
import json
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

from . import logger
from . import api_version
from .requests_helpers import requests_retry
from ..common_docker import docker_compose_cmd, get_mender_gateway, COMPOSE_FILES_PATH

class Authentication:
    auth_header = None

    username = "admin"
    email = "admin@admin.net"
    password = "averyverystrongpasswordthatyouwillneverguess!haha!"

    multitenancy = False
    current_tenant = {}

    def __init__(self, username=username, email=email, password=password):
        self.reset()
        self.username = username
        self.email = email
        self.password = password

    def reset(self):
        # Reset all temporary values.
        self.auth_header = Authentication.auth_header
        self.username = Authentication.username
        self.email = Authentication.email
        self.password = Authentication.password
        self.multitenancy = Authentication.multitenancy
        self.current_tenant = Authentication.current_tenant

    def set_tenant(self, username, email, password):
        self.new_tenant(username, email, password)

    def new_tenant(self, username, email, password):
        self.multitenancy = True
        self.reset_auth_token()
        self.username = username
        self.email = email
        self.password = password
        self.get_auth_token()

    def get_auth_token(self, create_new_user=True):
        if self.auth_header is not None:
            return self.auth_header

        # try login - the user might be in a shared db already (if not running xdist)
        r = self._do_login(self.email, self.password)

        logger.info("Getting authentication token for user")
        logger.info(self.username)

        if create_new_user:
            if r.status_code is not 200:
                if self.multitenancy:
                    tenant_id = self._create_tenant(self.username)
                    tenant_id = tenant_id.strip()

                    self._create_user(self.email, self.password, tenant_id)

                    tenant_data = self._get_tenant_data(tenant_id)
                    tenant_data_json = json.loads(tenant_data)

                    self.current_tenant = {"tenant_id": tenant_id,
                                           "tenant_token": tenant_data_json["tenant_token"],
                                           "name": tenant_data_json["name"]}

                else:
                    self._create_user(self.email, self.password)

            r = self._do_login(self.email, self.password)
            assert r.status_code == 200

        logger.info("Using Authorization headers: " + str(r.text))
        return self.auth_header

    def get_tenant_id(self):
        return self.current_tenant["tenant_id"]

    def reset_auth_token(self):
        self.auth_header = None

    def _do_login(self, username, password):
        r = requests_retry().post("https://%s/api/management/%s/useradm/auth/login" % (get_mender_gateway(), api_version), verify=False, auth=HTTPBasicAuth(username, password))
        assert r.status_code == 200 or r.status_code == 401

        if r.status_code == 200:
            self.auth_header = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + str(r.text)}
        return r

    def _create_user(self, username, password, tenant_id=""):
        if tenant_id != "":
            tenant_id = "--tenant-id " + tenant_id

        cmd = 'exec -T mender-useradm /usr/bin/useradm create-user --username %s --password %s %s' % (username,
                                                                                password, tenant_id)
        docker_compose_cmd(cmd)

    def _create_tenant(self, username):
        cmd = '-f ' + COMPOSE_FILES_PATH + '/docker-compose.enterprise.yml exec -T mender-tenantadm /usr/bin/tenantadm create-tenant --name %s' % (username)
        return docker_compose_cmd(cmd)

    def _get_tenant_data(self, tenant_id):
        cmd = '-f ' + COMPOSE_FILES_PATH + '/docker-compose.enterprise.yml exec -T mender-tenantadm /usr/bin/tenantadm get-tenant --id %s' % (tenant_id)
        return docker_compose_cmd(cmd)


text:
Monday, December 14, 2009 10:02 pm
Odds and ends for 12/14
Filed under: Aiee! Teh stoopid! It burns!,Hold! Them! Accountable!,I want my country back.,I want my money back.,I want my religion back.,Religion,Salute! — Lex @ 10:02 pm
Tags: Africa, Anna Politkovskaya, Atul Gawande, banksters, David Kelly, Guantanamo, health care reform, Ingushetia, Iraq, Joe Lieberman, poverty, public option, Rumsfeld, Stephen King, Tony Blair, Torture, WMDs
Kabuki: President Obama talked tough to the bankers today, but don't be misled: If he 1) knew what he was doing and 2) were serious about it, a lot of the executives he's talking to would have been jobless by now and the U.S. taxpayer would be substantially better off.
Heck of a job, Bushie: The Bush administration's birth-control policies helped fuel a population boom in Africa, which also means a poverty boom. Nice.
Tony Blair: We were gonna remove Saddam, and if he didn't have WMDs, then we'd come up with some other reason. No, that's actually pretty much what he said. If we don't put these people in prison, our grandchildren are going to be calling us "good Germans."
Rumsfeld, 10 military officials skate on torture liability: The Supreme Court declined today to hear an appeal of an appeals-court ruling that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and 10 military officials are immune from civil claims of torture filed by four now-released Guantanamo prisoners from Britain. Even the normally reliable SCOTUSBlog hasn't elaborated on this ruling, so I'm not sure what it means, but any time the word "immunity" appears close to Rumsfeld's name, my gorge rises. (So, yeah, in case you're wondering, I've spent the last five years throwing up in my mouth a little bit.)
"The bill is a hodgepodge. And it should be.": Physician/journalist Atul Gawande, author of this groundbreaking article on why medical costs are rising so fast, says there's actually a century-old historical precedent for measures in the health-care reform bill to improve efficiency, and a successful precedent at that: agriculture. It's an unexpectedly optimistic piece. Check it out.
Burn in hell, Joe Lieberman: Ezra Klein says it best: "At this point, Lieberman seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals. That is to say, he seems willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score."
"You have toyed with me for the last time!": Fully a third of Democratic voters say they'll be less likely to turn out in 2010 if Congress doesn't pass a public option. Also, 81% say Joe Lieberman should be punished if he filibusters health-care reform. I think Lieberman should be punished in any event, just for being an ass.
Not so fast with that cover-up, there, mate: Also related to the Iraq invasion, six top physicians in Britain have launched legal action to have the purported suicide of government bioweapons expert Dr. David Kelly re-investigated. Kelly died in 2003, supposedly a suicide, just days after he was exposed as the source of a news report that a dossier of evidence regarding Iraq's WMD program had been "sexed up" to justify invading Iraq. The physicians credibly claim that the investigation was, in technical terms, screwed six ways to Sunday.
Not so fast, the sequel: The Russian Supreme Court has overturned the acquittals of four suspects in the 2006 slaying of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. All four were accused of being accomplices. The actual triggerman, who evidence in the trial said was paid $2 million, is believed to be still at large. (Earlier.)
What's going on in southern Russia? In August, 20 people died in a suicide bombing, described in Russian news reports as the latest in a series of attacks in the republic of Ingushetia. Then early today in that same area, a large bomb on an above-ground natural-gas pipeline was defused. Insights, anyone?
Ho-ho-home: Authors Stephen and Tabitha King are paying $12,999* so that 150 members of the Maine National Guard, currently in training in Indiana before shipping out to Afghanistan in January, can come home for the holidays. Glad they're getting to go home. Wish they didn't have to go overseas.
*Because he thought $13,000 was an unlucky number. One of King's personal assistants kicked in the remaining buck.
[…] is THAT all?: I blogged on the day it happened that the Supremes had refused to grant cert in Rasul et al. v. Myers et al., in which some […]
Pingback by Odds and ends for 12/20 « Blog on the Run: Reloaded — Monday, December 21, 2009 7:30 am @ 7:30 am

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The bill has been condemned as contravening Israeli law by the country's attorney general.
An Israeli ministerial committee has voted unilaterally to "legalise" settlements on occupied land condemned as illegal by the international community.
Israel's Supreme Court had ruled that the government must evacuate the 40 families who live in the Amona settlement in the West Bank and return the land to its Palestinian owners.
However the committee want to pay the Palestinians compensation for the land, and to grant the settlers the right to remain there.
Israel's attorney-general, Avihai Mandelblit, said the bill was flawed in its current form as it broke property laws.
"The attorney-general told the committee that the bill does not sit with the basic principles of the rule of law as it contradicts the position that the state must respect the judiciary's decisions in individual cases," Mandelblit said, as reported by Reuters.
The vote was condemned by the office of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, which said said the leadership would go to the UN security council and "all international organisations" in order to stop it being passed into law.
Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, and settlements there have been condemned as illegal by the UN. Palestinians say the territory should form part of the Palestinian state, and have demanded the dismantlement of the settlements.
Outgoing US President Barack Obama was highly critical of Israel's settlement policies, but US president-elect Donald Trump has pledged to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, in a move regarded by experts as potentially inflammatory. A key advisor told Israeli media last week that the new administration did not see the settlements as an "obstacle to peace".
Before becoming law, the bill will have to pass through three readings in parliament and be approved by the Supreme Court.
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for lawmakers to wait until the Trump administration takes office in January.
He said in a statement: "This is the first time that a right-wing government in Israel has a Republican president, and a Republican majority in the Senate and Congress. Therefore we cannot create facts on the ground and embarrass the incoming administration. Everything must be agreed and coordinated."


Fegans have doubled in size in the last 18 months yet the demand for our services continues to rise.
The kindness project has been developed to help promote emotional wellbeing within schools. This creative initiative benefits children, parents and teachers whilst providing much needed funds for our charity Fegans, enabling more local families to receive the help they need.
To celebrate World Kindness Day 2018, schools across the South East took part in our fundraising initiative to educate and spread kindness throughout the whole school, with lesson plans, assemblies and crafts. If you would like to take part in The Kindness Project for World Kindness Day 2019, register your interest today, or if you would like to run the project before November, do get in touch and we can provide you with all you need.
I have been so encouraged by the positive responses from the children. Seemingly simple acts of kindness can mean so much.
How can we grow kindness?
To celebrate World Kindness Day on 13 November 2018 Fegans provided primary schools with a whole school approach to kindness, to great success.
the opportunity to earn a free Fegans parent talk or staff training session.
Building on our recent secondary school Headspace assemblies Fegans developed an age appropriate assembly for primary schools to deliver with ease and confidence.
The fun, visuals and simple messaging will inspire infants and junior pupils to see the benefits of kindness for themselves, their family and friends, their school, their community and even the world!
By way of rewarding involvement in the kindness project every child will receive a red wristband with an inspirational wellbeing message to take home.
Would you and your school like to celebrate World Kindness Day and raise money for Fegans?
Simply download your sponsorship form, complete your acts of kindness, and return to Fegans Head Office, we will send a wristband to say thank you!


Irish children and teenagers have higher percentages of calcium insufficiencies compared to adults, attendees at a recent National Dairy Council Health and Wellbeing event heard.
Independent dietitian Paula Mee was quoting figures from surveys which found 37% of girls ages five to 12 has a calcium insufficiency.
It was found that 28% of boys aged five to 12 also had a calcium insufficiency.
"It is important to adopt healthy eating patterns from an early age so that these habits can be continued on into the teenage and adult years.
"National food surveys told us that 16% of women aged 18-64 years and 13% of women aged 65+ years have insufficient calcium intakes.
Surveys showed much higher percentages of calcium insufficiencies amongst Irish children and teenagers with 37% of girls and 28% of boys aged 5-12 years; and with 42% of teenage girls and 23% of teenage boys, having insufficient calcium intakes," Mee said.
She said that as part of the Department of Health's guidelines, three servings from the 'milk, yogurt and cheese' food group are recommended each day.
Five servings per day are recommended daily for those aged 9-18 years, due to the importance of calcium during this life stage.
"Examples of one serving include 200ml of milk, 125ml of yogurt or 25g of hard cheese, with low-fat varieties encouraged," she added.
Rugby professionals Rob and Dave Kearney, who are ambassadors to the National Dairy Council, joined the line-up of experts and celebrities in Trim, Co. Meath for a the event.
"Reflecting on the health consequences of particular food choices and evaluating portion sizes should not be about vanity," Mee said.
She said that it is more about developing a healthy relationship with food and recognising the impact on our health and wellbeing.
"If we eat badly, there can be short and long-term consequences which are not good; if we make wise food choices, there can be benefits. It's up to us," she said.


Enjoy the mystery and magic of millions of sparkling lights and FREE family activities December 7-8 during the City of Longmont's annual holiday celebration, Longmont Lights!
The Longmont Concert Band is a nonprofit organization composed of volunteer musicians. We provide quality concert band music, have fun, and give amateur musicians an opportunity to perform. See us at www.longmontconcertband.org.
For information on playing with us contact Amy O'Donnell at 303-916-5161.


Quality has and continues to be the most important aspect of LUTEC designs, this ethos is underpinned by their commitment to meet and or exceed many international quality standards including ISO9001-2008, ISO14001-2014, SA8000, QCO8000. All LUTEC products are independently tested and certified by internationally recognized test authorities. This ethos ensures they continue to provide World class quality products to World class companies.
Lighting installations for homes, terraces and gardens. Some products are unique, some are designed as a series. Two strong design elements to consider here; the light fittings own aesthetic and the light it gives out when it gets dark.
High efficiency solar panels in combination with powerful LED modules giving a really satisfactory, reliable level of light.


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Why Erdogan is an ideal counterpart for the EU
24/01/2017 Turkey Yavuz Baydar
by Yavuz Baydar
Forget the old guidebooks on how to conduct foreign policy. These are times that require that the modes and codes change. The official introduction of Donald Trump as the leader of the free world further colours a globe that has already fallen under the domination of leaders who as political figures represent an unusual, unpredictable mixture of personal and national interests.
The language of this new type of a leader, elected and self-confident, obstinate and relentless, defiant to checks and balances, has already been on display, thanks to the largely successful efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Admired by some in Europe, such as Marine Le Pen of France or Geert Wilders of Netherlands, Putin has also been a source of inspiration for Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who copy-pasted Putin's populistic strategies, with a constantly renewed crisis policy and ceaselessly tough rhetoric towards the West.
Inside the European Union, a similar approach has been enthusiastically adopted by Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, whose xenophobic policies have been spreading like a virus across Slovakia, the Czech Republic and beyond.
Much attention has been also focused on how Erdogan diverted the course of his country towards autocratic rule. This backward shift leaves all the unfulfilled expectations of an extremely diverse society. Unresolved issues and the collapse of the rule of law have shattered Turkey's accession process with the European Union. It is now on life support, regarded as in a vegetative state.
International human rights organisations and independent observers, many of them experts in law, have compared Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) immense purge of governmental institutions, mass arrests, witch-hunt of dissidents and termination of media freedoms to the playbook of totalitarian leaderships in 1930s Europe. Their genuine concerns seemed, for a time, to have found a common ground among the European leaders.
Nothing can be further from the truth. What we see and hear from the influential European capitals is simply an illusion.
"The show goes on," said a European diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.
Tusk (r) having press conference with Turkish President Erdogan (r) says the EU faces millions more potential refugees.
"In fact, Erdogan is the ideal Turkish leader for the EU," he said. "He is somebody suited down to the ground for them. With the entire discourse and attitude he has demonstrated in the past four years, he has become the proof of the arguments of all those in power positions in the EU who had kept saying that Turkey does not belong to Europe and never will.
"He has turned himself into a central figure of the clash of civilisations, perceived as imposing a political culture that goes right against the foundational spirit of the EU," the diplomat added. "He is admired discreetly for providing the ultimate argument for Turkophobes arguing Turkey was never fit to enter the EU." "But that EU is no longer," I insisted, adding that it tolerated a similar type of anti-European leadership within itself, such as in Hungary, Poland or Slovakia. He agreed.
Which brings us to the new modes and codes. In Erdogan's case, much boiled down from a European vantage point to keeping the refugee flow to a minimum.
The Turkish president does not disagree. With the help of a refugee deal that went against the European spirit of human values, he played along and helped lower the numbers of people trying to reach the European Union.
Erdogan now goes even further by declaring that most Syrian refugees would be naturalised. There are an estimated 2.7 million of them on Turkish soil. Granting them citizenship means curbing the outflow into the European Union and it sounds like music to the ears of European leaders who feel strained to maximum.
The AKP does its utmost to strip its own citizens, large numbers of those who stand in opposition, such as millions of Kurds, of the right to travel abroad, citing emergency rule. In other words, while he accuses the European Union of closing its gates to Turkey, he is encircling Turkey with barbed wire.
So, we should be left with no illusions. Erdogan has become the helping hand for the European Union to blow out the Turkish candle, a de facto guarantee for where its borders end, drawing the limits for the European conscience. There may even be those who pray in secret that Erdogan stays in power as long as possible.
What matters in the new age is a foreign policy reduced to just trade. As long as there are those to do business — nothing but business — with, forget the rest. Welcome to the age of new modes and codes.
ErdoganEUJunckerTurkeyYavuz Baydar
Yavuz Baydar
Yavuz Baydar is the co-founder of Platform for Independent Journalism (P24), an initiative to support and promote editorial independence in the Turkish press. He is a veteran Turkish columnist and blogger and was awarded the Special Award of the European Press Prize in 2014.
Trump and Brexit Britain, what now?
The end of work? It just isn't in our human nature
Turkey's Two Bites at a Cherry: Erdoğan or Democracy
Tortured to Death in Turkey: The Case of Gökhan Açıkkollu


Apparently, the British invasion of the Algarve is all the fault of Sir Cliff Richard.
According to the commentary on the bus tour, it was Cliff (as he was back then) who 'discovered' this part of the World in the early sixties, and it was his passion and indeed promotion the area that started the waves of tourists that now flock to Faro Airport by the thousands on an annual basis.
They like Cliff a lot in the Algarve, and in particular in the Albufeira area where he has a home and a vineyard. A street in the town is called Rua Sir Cliff Richard, and you don't have to walk far to see a giant cardboard cut out of the man promoting his own brand of wine.
Relations between Britain and Portugal remain strong and tourism plays a significant part in that, but events in the football arena did threaten to put a slight spanner in the works. Jose Mourinho famously danced down the touchline at Old Trafford as FC Porto dramatically ended the Champions League hopes of Manchester United, only to suddenly find himself in the hot seat at Stamford Bridge, it was going to be fun.
The 'Special One' was Marmite, some loved him, some hated him, was he the image of Portugal we really wanted to see, and was he the image that Portugal indeed wanted us to see? Again, open to debate.
But, it all really kicked off in the Summer of 2006 when England played Portugal in the Quarter Final of the World Cup. Wayne Rooney accidentally stamped on Ricardo Carvalho, it all got a bit heated and Cristiano Ronaldo stuck his oar into the proceedings and was viewed by many as being responsible for Rooney's subsequent red card. But what happened next threatened to cause an international incident, Ronaldo was captured winking towards a team mate as Rooney left the field, as though to suggest he had managed to influence the decision.
Outcry, outrage, Ronaldo must never be allowed back into the Country, and even if he did, Rooney would have the nations support to dismember him in full public view. Oh, and we lost on penalties of course.
It calmed down, as it always does, and relations to this day remain intact and indeed very strong indeed. It's a good job really, Sir Cliff's wine business would be shafted otherwise!
Anyway, I spotted that local side Portimonense were scheduled to play FC Porto in a friendly fixture at the Algarve Stadium on the Thursday night of our holiday, but, wherever I looked I could find no way of how to obtain tickets. Surely though it couldn't be that hard?
It didn't turn out to be that simple, after the two of us spent some time online, it appeared getting tickets meant a trip to a local Post Office who it also appeared were the only outlet for tickets, and then you had to be registered and have an account. Angelo took care of that though, he went out of his way on a half days holiday to sort it out, what a great thing to do.
On the day of the game, we were picked up from the Reception of our resort and driven the 35 minutes to the Algarve Stadium. We talked football, tourism, Portugal, hopes and plans, all things really, the journey flew by, and soon we were parked up outside the ground that was built specifically for the European Championships.
But, while it may be a fine stadium, it is something of a white elephant. Initially it was thought Farense would use it as a home ground but as they fell on hard times it was clearly not practical for that to happen. So, it is not used as a home ground by any club sides, and isn't likely to be any time in the future. It is used for friendlies, the odd international, and for the occasional tournament, but otherwise it is an expensive 28,000 seater modern facility that is vastly underused.
The FC Porto fans were in big number, a crowd of around 7,000 were in attendance and the vast majority were followers of the side 500 kilometers to the North. To be fair though, they attract support from all over Portugal, and of course many would have been on holiday in the area also. That said, the support was superb and the atmosphere they created was tremendous, but at that same time friendly. We sat just to the side of the 'Ultras' and the show they put on with their flags and the choreography orchestrated by the chap with the megaphone was something you would only see in Southern Europe.
The game was very one sided. FC Porto raced into a 3-0 lead with the utmost of ease, but then the newly promoted side from Portimao did pull a first half goal back. To be fair though, the gulf in class was huge, but I guess in a league where three sides dominate and the rest simply jockey for position or try to survive, that isn't a huge surprise.
Two more goals followed in the second period as the sun set and floodlights lit up the pitch at the Algarve Stadium. It is a very impressive stadium, two large stands on either side of the pitch with arched roofs, while behind either goals were open banks of seating, albeit they did look somewhat temporary (think Gillingham!).
The ground is set in the middle of nowhere on the West side of Faro, but the car parks are large and the road links are good, almost perfect for say a large sporting tournament??
We got away with relative ease at the end, and again the talk flowed, but more about football and specifically Angelo's passion for FC Porto (his favourite all time player being Deco). We were dropped safely at our resort and bade farewell.
What a great evening, but all thanks to Angelo who went above and beyond in terms of his duties. But, we had a common bond, and that was football, and even if that did threaten to split our two nations in the Summer of 2006, our great national sports will only ever be a unifying force.
Obrigados Angelo Ribeiro, você ajudou a tornar nossas férias muito especiais!
I'm sure Sir Cliff would agree!


A mother daughter trip to Walt Disney World sounds really sweet. There are so many great ways to surprise her when she opens the door to your Walt Disney Room resort. I would start with the great folks at Disney Florists. I actually was able to go behind the magic and tour this awesome warehouse that makes dreams come true. They have so many wonderful ways to decorate a room that will put a huge smile on your daughter's face once she opens that door. I actually surprised my wife and had the artist's at Disney Florists decorate our room as if Mickey Mouse had been there himself, complete with his footprints, a signed card and a customized cake. It really added so much to our vacation. I would contact the helpful magic makes at 407-WDW-GIFT (407-939-4438) to begin planning. They will walk you through the entire process and make sure the magic is just right when the time comes to open that magical door. I really hope you both treasure this special occasion. If you need any other tips to make even more magical memories just let me know. I am here to assist. See you at the parks.


If you have an old mouse pad you're thinking about tossing culinary weblog Chow gives three suggestions on how to repurpose the pad as a jar opener, as beverage coasters, or as a trivet.
Gina long ago covered using a mouse pad as a jar opener and I'm not sure the neoprene will absorb moisture well enough for use as a coaster, but I definitely have a couple of old fabric-covered mousepads that i'll keep on hand for extra trivets. Make sure to only put hot dishes and pots on fabric-covered mousepads as you don't want your nice pans or serving dishes covered with burnt neoprene.


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Hedge fund Jana lines up potential directors for Whole Foods battle
Earlier Monday, shares of Whole Foods jumped almost 10 percent after Jana took a almost 9 percent stake in the company and suggested it should consider putting itself up for sale. The deadline for shareholders-read Jana Partners-to launch a director contest at Whole Foods 2018 annual meeting is September 6. It is still refining its discount 365 by Whole Foods Market' chain. (more...)
Russian Federation and Iran affirm commitment to Syrian government
Turkey has long said Syria has no future under the Bashar al-Assad regime, while Russian Federation has come to the Syrian regime's aid. After last Tuesday's chemical attack in Syria, Trump said his attitude toward Assad "has changed very much" and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said "steps are underway" to organize a coalition to remove him from power. (more...)
United CEO defends employees in plane incident
Bridges posted the video on Facebook. But she said the sound of the screams still haunt her. TMZ has learned United CEO, Oscar Munoz, fired off an email to all employees Monday afternoon after the airline was blasted on social media for the way the man was dragged off the jet. (more...)
LEADING OFF: Banner day at Wrigley Field; Verlander vs Sale
The delay didn't last long as the Tigers and Red Sox are getting ready to go as the tarp is being removed from the field. Hanley Ramirez just went down with the flu, while Brock Holt finally came back from the illness today, despite not feeling 100%. (more...)
Garcia wins first major title in playoff
Open, part of me was hoping Rosie would break that duck, but it was very hard not to root for Sergio". Rose and Garcia both had short birdie putts on the 72nd hole to win, but missed, sending them back to the 18th tee for sudden death . "But lately I've been thinking a little bit different, a little bit more positive and kind of accepting, too, that if it for whatever reason didn't happen, my life is still going to go on". (more...)
Third Fleet's carrier strike force diverts from Australia, sails toward North Korea
The Trump administration is "hopeful" they can work with the Chinese to "change the conditions in the minds" of North Korean leadership, Tillerson said, at which point "perhaps discussions" between China and North Korea "may be useful". South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Kim Hong Kyun said there was no mention of any military option in his talks with China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, Wu Dawei. (more...)
Is the end in sight for the Flint water crisis?
The state has also set aside a $10 million dollar buffer for "unexpected expenses", putting the amount almost equal to the $100 million set aside by the EPA following former President Obama's legislation in December. Scientist Marc Edwards, who first revealed Flint's high lead levels in 2015, said the current lead levels in Flint are not worse than many other older cities in the country. (more...)
More advertisers say they've ditched O'Reilly show
In a statement , Hyundai said it wanted to work with companies that "share our values of inclusion and diversity". Which is to say that, prior to detailed revelations regarding O'Reilly's reported pattern of sexual harassment and numerous settled claims, Allstate was nonplussed by former network head Roger Ailes' transgressions and unmoved by Fox News' cozy rapport with our predatory president, Donald Trump. (more...)
North Korea: Friendship with Syria 'Will Be Strengthened and Developed'
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross yesterday said the two sides agreed to speed up trade talks to help close a lopsided imbalance in China's favour, a common campaign-trail complaint of Trump's. Sitting with Mr. Trump during a major national security incident gave the Chinese leader an "unprecedented" opportunity to view at close range how the us leader, less than 100 days into his presidency, acts under pressure, John Park, a specialist on Northeast Asia at Harvard Kennedy School, said in a ... (more...)
Getting up to speed on the Wells Fargo sales scandal
In addition to the investigation led by the bank's independent board members, Wells Fargo is also being investigated by several regulators. "Pursuant to our settlement, next month Wells will report to me on its progress toward doing just that". (more...)
White House calls for domestic cuts to finance Mexico border wall
The White House indicated Wednesday that President Trump could go along with a government funding bill that does not include money to begin building his proposed wall at the U.S. The former Montana congressman promised a "very pro-Western" administration that plans to relax protections for threatened jaguars, which live in northern Mexico and parts of the southwestern United States, in order to build Trump's border wall. (more...)
Samsung Galaxy S8+ 6GB variant could come to other markets as well
While Samsung will not provide detailed earnings results until the end of the month, analysts tipped its chip division to earn a record 5.8 trillion won in January-March and propel the firm to its best overall operating profit since the third quarter of 2013. (more...)
US House votes to repeal ISP privacy regulations
The companies have said the privacy rules put them at a disadvantage compared with websites like Facebook and Google, which aren't normally regulated by the FCC and weren't affected by the rules. "The president pledged to reverse this type of federal overreach, in which bureaucrats in Washington take the interest of one group of companies over the interest of others, picking the winners and losers", Spicer added. (more...)
United States jets shift to more defensive role after Syria missile strike
In an interview on "State of the Union", the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, didn't directly answer whether the administration supported regime change. After months of allegations of ties between his election campaign and the Kremlin - the subject of current congressional and FBI investigations - Trump has found himself clashing with Putin. (more...)
Oil rises as Opec-led producers mull extending output cut deal
But OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo said he expected most of the glut to disappear in three months. A record amount of U.S. crude oil has found its way to Asia and other destinations this year and more is expected to be shipped out as traders take advantage of arbitrage opportunities by sending excess United States oil into regions where it can find buyers. (more...)
BHP shares lift on hedge fund proposal
But BHP was less keen, saying it had laid the foundations for the group to substantially grow the base value of its operations and Elliott's proposal would put this at risk. At present, BHP has a minimum underlying attributable profit payout ratio of 50 per cent. Aberdeen is the second-biggest investor in BHP's London-listed shares, with a 4.9 percent stake worth $1.3 billion, regulatory filings to August previous year collated by Thomson Reuters showed. (more...)
As Westinghouse declares bankruptcy, what happens to the nuke plants it's building?
Toshiba shares have crashed more than 50% since 2014 as losses mounted at its Westinghouse unit due primarily to massive cost overuns at two nuclear projects in the U.S. Meanwhile, Toshiba is maintaining it will not take on new nuclear construction projects and will support the reactors it already has. Toshiba is putting that business up for auction. (more...)
China and South Korea threaten tougher sanctions on North Korea
US warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the USA believes the attack was launched. From the beginning, China felt it had the situation under control. If so, it had no discernible impact. It's not hard to see why North Korea would have learned that, as Libya's disarmament was followed in less than a decade by US-imposed regime change, and Syria's 2013 agreement to scrap its chemical arsenal was followed by years of escalating USA moves aiming to remove ... (more...)
Admiral Group plc's (ADM) Neutral Rating Reiterated at BNP Paribas
Macquarie restated a "neutral" rating and issued a GBX 270 ($3.39) price objective on shares of BT Group plc in a report on Monday, February 6th. The firm now has a GBX 460 ($5.78) price target on the stock. If you are accessing this article on another site, it was illegally stolen and reposted in violation of United States and global copyright & trademark legislation. (more...)
Dotdigital Group plc's (DOTD) Corporate Rating Reaffirmed at N+1 Singer
Barclays PLC reiterated an overweight rating and issued a GBX 160 ($2.00) price target on shares of Ladbrokes Coral Group PLC in a research report on Friday, January 13th. The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 20th will be issued a GBX 0.33 ($0.00) dividend. (more...)
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When was the last time that a change you were supporting produced results that no one wanted? Unacceptable drops in productivity; unprecedented loss of customers; quality declines…none of these is what we want as outcomes. All of them are too often the unintended outcomes. Years ago, during the deregulation of the telecom industry a prospective client said this about the result of their new strategy. Our intention was to go from elephant to cheetah in the marketplace. Instead, we became an elephant on SlimFast.
As a change practitioner, how well prepared are you to avoid your current initiative's anti-goals? Have they been named? Are plans in place and sponsored to ensure they don't occur? You can strengthen your change practice, and increase the probability of change success, by bringing anti-goals into your planning process every time.


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New Position for Ivey
Former University of Missouri football player, strength coach, and associate athletic director of athletic performance Pat Ivey will be starting a new role within the university as the Vice Chancellor for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. This shift is due to Ivey not having been retained after new football coach Barry Odom was appointed.
According to an article from the Columbia Daily Tribune, Ivey's position includes an effort to help improve attendance, retention, and graduation rates. After developing an inventory of programs offered, the Division of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity will work to build partnerships to best use resources.
Ivey had been involved with the athletic department as a lettered defensive lineman from 1993-1995, and he had worked with the department since 2004. In 2013, the same year as he earned a doctorate in sport psychology, Ivey was named as the Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by FootballScoop.com.
Ivey recently co-authored an article on mental toughness that was published in Training & Conditioning. In the article, the authors describe how they develop mental toughness in their student-athletes through motivation, preparation, focus, and emotional strength.
California Athletic Trainer & Students Save Dogs From Fire
UGA Trainer Fired & Arrested for "Illicit Conversation" Accusation
Blazing the Trail: Highlighting 3 Sports Industry Pioneers
After 45 Years, Broncos ATC Retires with Team
Ashley Labrador: 2021's Most Valuable HS Athletic Trainer of the Year
Load Management: How ATCs Juggle Large Student Bodies


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hd00:25Replication of Deoxyribonucleic acid molecule.
hd00:20Animation of rotation DNA helix or molecule from glass and crystal and chemical formulas on backdrop. Animation of seamless loop.
4k00:18Close up of a filament in a light bulb with two halogen bulbs in the background.The light switches on slowly and then changes from positive to negative and back again before switching off slowly.


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This park was once the site of a powerhouse with a prominent 165-foot smokestack. Power could be cheaply generated in Port Henry with coal delivered via barge. The plant opened in 1907 and closed in 1923. For its demolition, some 100 pounds of dynamite were used.
Located along the shoreline adjacent to the state boat launch, Powerhouse Park has received recent site improvements through town and village efforts. Installation of benches, picnic tables, a pedestrian trail, landscaping, a kiosk, and informational signage were completed in the 1990s.
Improvements for pedestrian access are needed between the downtown and shoreline, as part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the waterfront and support its downtown businesses. Two pedestrian bridges were previously constructed on Dock Lane over Mill Brook near the shoreline with grant funding, but are not connected to sidewalks.


[21:47] - Flight MWI20-1 is ready to depart FWKI with a final destination of FWCL.
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[23:01] - Arrived safely at FWCL. We hope you enjoyed your flight!


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A simple query parser implemented with JavaCC.
This interface describes a character stream that maintains line and column number positions of the characters.
An efficient implementation of JavaCC's CharStream interface.
A QueryParser which constructs queries to search multiple fields.
This class is generated by JavaCC.
Test QueryParser that does not allow fuzzy or wildcard queries.
The default operator for parsing queries.
Note that JavaCC defines lots of public classes, methods and fields that do not need to be public. These clutter the documentation. Sorry.
Note that because JavaCC defines a class named Token, org.apache.lucene.analysis.Token must always be fully qualified in source code in this package.
NOTE: contrib/queryparser has an alternative queryparser that matches the syntax of this one, but is more modular, enabling substantial customization to how a query is created.


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Prostate cancer is complicated and so is health insurance. It will be very helpful for you or someone you trust to become an expert in understanding and managing your coverage for prostate cancer treatment. Most people obtain their insurance through their employer or through government programs such as Medicare or Medicaid. However, rules for coverage have changed with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, click here for more information.
The type of health insurance coverage you have plays a big role in the amount of out-of-pocket costs you can expect to pay throughout cancer treatment and recovery. The following information will help you understand the different types of health insurance and what medical costs they usually cover.
This type of plan generally does not place any restrictions on which doctors or hospitals you choose. You simply visit the doctor, hospital, or health care center of your choice, anytime or anywhere, submit a claim form, and the health insurance company pays the bill. Typically, you share some of the cost in the form of co-payments or co-insurance, and some types of services may not be covered.
Although fee-for-service plans allow for the greatest freedom in choosing doctors and hospitals, there may be restrictions to some services, including mental health services, physical therapy, home health care, investigational treatments, or alternative medicine.
An HMO can be thought of as a health care insurance club, with patients and doctors as members. It is set up to keep health care costs down by working with patients to comprehensively manage their health care. In an HMO, a person chooses a primary care doctor from an approved network and receives referrals to see physicians other than the primary care.
A PPO is a type of health insurance in which a person is offered a network of approved doctors, and most of the medical costs are covered when visiting doctors that are part of the network. However, a PPO typically does not require you to see a designated primary care doctor who manages your care and controls your access to a specialist. It may also require you to pay a deductible or co-insurance for some services.
Medicare is health insurance provided by the federal government for people 65 and older, as well as for some disabled Americans. People over 65 who are eligible for Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits automatically qualify for Medicare, along with their spouse. Medicare has different "parts" that serve different, sometimes complementary, purposes.
Medicare Part B provides coverage for doctor services, outpatient care, physical and occupational therapy, and selected supplies that are deemed medically necessary. You may be responsible for 20 percent of the cost depending upon your plan.
Medicare Part C, also called Medicare Advantage, contains insurance plans managed by private Medicare-approved companies. It combines Medicare Parts A and B and may include prescription drug coverage.
Medicare Part D is a benefit that covers prescription drugs. Depending on your Medicare plan you may be responsible for 20 percent of the cost. Some people with Medicare prescription drug coverage may be eligible for extra help. Click here for a brochure produced by Janssen Pharmaceuticals about the Medicare Low-Income Subsidy.
Medigap policies are available for purchase to help pay the costs that are not covered by Medicare.
Medicaid is a health insurance program paid for by the federal and state governments and administered by each state. It covers people who are eligible because they are elderly, blind, or disabled, as well as certain people in families with dependent children. Each state operates the program individually and determines who is eligible and what services are covered in that specific state.
Also called exchanges, the marketplaces are a new way to choose and purchase health insurance. Depending on where you live within the United States, you can compare different health insurance plans and prices and find one that works best for you. Starting January 2014 all Americans were required to have health insurance coverage or pay a penalty.
Visit www.healthcare.gov for more information.
The Department of Veterans Affairs provides health benefits and services for eligible veterans who served in active military service. Some members of the Reserves or National Guard are also eligible. There are several requirements one must meet for eligibility and it is important to contact the VA directly if you think you are eligible for health services. Coverage generally includes treatments, procedures, supplies or services.
For veterans who are already enrolled in VA healthcare, the Choice Program allows you to receive healthcare within your community without impacting your existing VA healthcare or any other VA benefit. If you have been, or will be, waiting more than 30 days for VA medical care, if you live more than 40 miles away from a VA medical care facility, or if you face certain travel burdens, you may be eligible for this program. Visit www.va.gov/opa/choiceact for more information.
TRICARE is the healthcare program for uniformed service members (active, Guard/Reserve, retired) and their families around the world. TRICARE is a major part of the Military Health System and offers an expansive provider network offering services in military hospitals and clinics and civilian health care networks.
Although health insurance covers some of the costs of cancer care, other costs are not covered. Many of these additional expenses may be covered if you have purchased other types of insurance.
A supplemental insurance policy helps cover expenses not covered by your primary insurance or the costs you pay as part of your existing plan. This policy generally covers deductibles, co-insurance, co-payments, and other out-of-pocket expenses. It may also offer additional benefits, such as compensation for lost earnings due to missed work.
Disability insurance replaces income lost if you are unable to work due to a long-term illness or injury. Such coverage is often provided through your employer or government-sponsored programs, although individual policies are also available.
Hospital indemnity insurance provides limited coverage for hospital stays, usually a fixed amount each day up to a maximum length of stay. People may decide to purchase this type of insurance if their basic insurance plan limits coverage of hospital care.
Because most basic private insurance plans and Medicare generally provide very limited coverage for long-term care, such as nursing home care, some people decide to get additional coverage to offset the costs of such care.
ZERO360: Comprehensive Patient Support is a patient navigation program that ZERO provides in partnership with the Patient Advocate Foundation. ZERO360 connects patients with trained case managers who can help them understand their coverage options, resolve issues with their insurance providers, and find other sources of financial assistance. Click here for more information on how to get assistance through this program and on the services the program provides.


iHome Control SmartPlug Featured in Havenly — Live. Life. Loud.
Interior design company, Havenly, has featured the iHome Control SmartPlug in their new article, "Beautiful and Smart Design with Apple Homekit and Havenly'. In the article, Havenly's Director of Design, Shelby Girard, created a beautiful living room that showcases the latest, design-friendly Apple HomeKit enabled devices on the market.
The stylish design proves once and for all that functional technology really can pair well with the decor in your home.
Compatible with the Apple Homekit, the iHome Control SmartPlug lets you access any connected device from home or remotely, from any location, using the custom app on your iPhone or iPad. Control lights and small appliances using 1800 watts or less, including window air conditioners, fans, portable heaters, and more.
Learn more about enhancing your home with design and technology by reading the full article on Havenly here. And be sure to check out the full line of iHome SmartPlugs here.


Following on from yesterday's greedy individual, exclusive, mine-mine-mine theme we're serving Eton Mess today for Christmas. Yes, you get your very own. You could make it in a large collective bowl, but why would you? You would only have to fight other people for it and who needs that on Christmas Day?
Oooooh, how I love a good berrylicious Eton Mess but if you look at a traditional recipe you'll see it's made with cream, cream and a little more cream. I make mine with good quality fat reduced yogurt which saves a lot on fat and calories. Be sure to look at the sugar content of reduced fat yogurts; some are packed with sugar to make them taste good which kinda defeats the purpose of going light.
If you can't find a tasty low fat, low sugar yogurt, go for a thick full fat vanilla or strawberry version. It's only got a little more fat than it's low fat sisters but MUCH less than cream!
It's easy peasy, assembled in a couple of minutes – literally. You can make the puree days before you need it and have it waiting in the fridge (if you don't eat it over your brekkie that is).
It looks as Christmasy as a Christmas thing from the land Christmas – very important at Christmas don't you think?
It tastes like a little bit of heaven – do you need any other reason?


text:
Q: Are we allowed to define a symmetric (1,1) tensor in the following way? I've recently stumbled accross the following task: "is it possible to define a symmetric and antisymmetric (1,1) tensor?". This is in context of relativity, so we have a metric $g$ at our disposal. Moreover, anything I say here should be applicable beyond the context of relativity, on any manifold equipped with a metric.
And we recall how (anti)symmetricity of a (0,2) tensor $M$ is defined. Two vectors $V$ and $W$ are considered and the following is demanded
$$
M (V, W) = \pm M (W, V)
$$
(plus for symmetric and minus for antisymmetric) or, in indices (by plugging in $\partial_\mu$ and $\partial_\nu$)
$$
M_{\mu\nu} = \pm M_{\nu\mu}
$$
Or similarly for tensor (2,0) we'd get $M^{\mu\nu} = \pm M^{\nu\mu}$ (in that case we are plugging in two one-forms)
Now I cannot do that with a tensor (1,1) because I cannot simply flip the arguments, but I can do the "next best thing" (hence, we start thinking about how we can define an analogous property for a mixed tensor). First, we take a covector $\tilde{A}$ and a vector $V$ and since we have a metric at our disposal, we can map the covector $\tilde{A}$ to a vector $A$ as $A = g^{-1} (\tilde{A}, \, \cdot \,)$ and map vector $V$ to covector as $\tilde{V} = g (V, \, \cdot \,)$, or in components
$$
\begin{aligned}
\tilde{A} &= A_\mu \mathrm{d} x^\mu \\
V &= V^\mu \partial_\mu
\end{aligned}
\;\,
\begin{aligned}
&\to \\
&\to
\end{aligned}
\quad
\begin{aligned}
A &= A^\mu \partial_\mu \\
\tilde{V} &= V_\mu \mathrm{d} x^\mu
\end{aligned}
$$
Now we can do the "next best thing" for a (1,1) mixed tensor and demand, that an "(anti)symmetric (1,1) tensor to satisfy"
$$
M (\tilde{A} ; V) = \pm M (\tilde{V} ; A)
$$
(again, plus for symmetric, minus for antisymmetric)
Which translates to
$$
M^\mu_{\;\; \nu} = \pm g^{\mu \rho} g_{\nu \sigma} M^\sigma_{\;\; \rho}
$$
and if we unwrap the $g$'s,
$$
M^\mu_{\;\; \nu} = \pm M_\nu^{\:\,\mu}
$$
which would be in a complete agreement with how a (2, 0) tensor $M^{\mu \nu}$ was symmetric, because if we take a tensor satisfying $M^{\mu \nu} = M^{\nu \mu}$ and simply drop an index by using the metric
$$
g_{\sigma \nu} M^{\mu \sigma} = g_{\sigma \nu} M^{\sigma \mu}
$$
we get the same answer
$$
M^\mu_{\;\; \nu} = M_\nu^{\:\,\mu}
$$
You can of course verify certain properties and little identities, that are analogous to (2,0) tensors.
For example, for a general (1,1) tensor, the (anti)symmetrization would correspond to
$$
(M^{(S)})^\mu_{\;\; \nu} = \frac{1}{2} \left( M^\mu_{\;\; \nu} + M_\nu^{\:\,\mu} \right) \quad \quad (M^{(A)})^\mu_{\;\; \nu} = \frac{1}{2} \left( M^\mu_{\;\; \nu} - M_\nu^{\:\,\mu} \right)
$$
Contracting a symmetric and antisymmetric tensor gives zero
$$
S^\mu_{\;\; \nu} A^\nu_{\;\,\mu} = 0
$$
Contracting a general and (anti)symmetric tensor only "reacts" with the (anti)symmetric part of the first tensor
$$
M^\mu_{\;\; \nu} S^\nu_{\;\; \mu} = (M^{(S)})^\mu_{\;\; \nu} S^\nu_{\;\; \mu} \quad \quad M^\mu_{\;\; \nu} A^\nu_{\;\; \mu} = (M^{(A)})^\mu_{\;\; \nu} A^\nu_{\;\; \mu}
$$
The "official" answer (book, professor, grader, ...) is that this is not possible and when I present this line of thinking I get a vague "you cannot do that" or answers that stray from my definitions (like "you cannot swap indices like that", which I would understand if I did $M^\mu_{\;\;\nu} + M^\nu_{\;\; \mu}$ however that's not what I'm doing here), or even answers that indicate that the person might not understand differential geometry, like "$M^\mu_{\;\; \nu}$ is identically equal to $M_\nu^{\;\mu}$, so what you call antisymmetric part, is always zero".
Which part of my reasoning is icky? The professor pointed out to me that in $M (\tilde{A} ; V) = M (\tilde{V} ; A)$ the objects fed to the tensor on the left-hand side are different from the objects fed to the tensor on the right-hand side, but that's part of my definition (*). Is there something logically wrong with this? I'd like someone versed in this topic to give me clear reasons why this is a no-no approach.
(*) And if this is the only objection, I find it rather weak. If this was the way people are thinking in mathematics, they would never define more general concepts stemming from simpler concepts, because they would never get past this kind of sentiment. A negative number? Have you ever seen minus two cows? A root of two? I've never had a root of two goats, what kind of nonsense is that? A factorial of a complex number? Come on, you cannot have $\pi + 2i$ numbers of people to divide $3-i$ marbles between, what will you come up with next? A fractional derivative? That doesn't make any sense! How do I write it as a d$y$/d$x$? I thought that in mathematics, we look for a useful way to generalize concepts that are already known to us, even if it means to go a bit beyond what seems "common sense" at the first sight.
Edit: I have two more ways to think about this now that I recall more details from the course of differential geometry.
First way, the metric provides a canonical isomorphism, so if we can define a concept of a symmetric (2,0) tensor, we can also define this concept on (1,1) tensors by mapping the corresponding (2,0) tensor to a (1,1) tensor by the musical isomorphism. Let $M$ be an (anti)symmetric tensor of rank (2,0), then (in indices), the corresponding (1,1) tensor is
$$
M^\mu_{\;\;\nu} = g_{\nu \sigma} M^{\mu \sigma}
$$
Second way, let $\left\langle \;, \; \right\rangle$ denote the inner product. Moreover, let's observe, that any tensor of the type (1,1) that has been fed a vector now provides a natural mapping from the cotangent space to $\mathbb{R}$,
$$
M : T^*M \otimes T M \to \mathbb{R} \quad \quad \implies M (\; ; V) : T^*M \to \mathbb{R}
$$
therefore, such object is a vector. We can then combine this with the inner product and define (anti)symmetric tensor of the rank (1,1) as follows
$$
\left\langle M ( \;\cdot\; ; V), W \right\rangle = \pm \left\langle V, M (\;\cdot\; ; W) \right\rangle
$$
This way, the objects $V$ and $W$ enter the equation in a very symmetric way, so the complaint from before does not hold.
This is, by the way, analogous to how we would conclude that a Laplacian is a "symmetric (1,1) tensor"/operator. First, a Laplacian acts on a function and spits out another function, so if we somehow understand functions to be "vectors" of a certain space, then Laplacian maps every vector to another vector, therefore, is a (1,1) tensor. The inner product can be defined as an integral, i.e.
$$
\left\langle \varphi, \psi \right\rangle = \int \mathrm{d}^3 x \, \varphi (x) \, \psi (x)
$$
and under certain conditions (we consider certain class of functions), the following is true for any two "vectors" $\varphi$, $\psi$ and the operator $\Delta$
$$
\left\langle \Delta \varphi, \psi \right\rangle = \left\langle \varphi, \Delta \psi \right\rangle
$$

A: Yeah, it makes sense, but then $M$ is called "self adjoint" instead of "symmetric".
More precisely:
In finite dimension you have an isomorphism $\Phi: V^{**}\simeq V$ so, given the bilinear map $M:V^*\times V\to F$ you can get an endomorphism $\tilde M:V\to V$ given by $\tilde M(v) = \Phi(M({-},v))$ (and conversely from any endomorphism you can get a bilinear map, but I guess you know this).
Then the equation
$$\langle \tilde M(v),u\rangle = \langle v,\tilde M(u)\rangle$$
precisely says that $\tilde M$ is a self adjoint endomorpism, meaning that $\tilde M$ is self-adjoint with respect to the inner product $\langle-,-\rangle$.
It's a usual practice (as you yourself did) to conflate $\tilde M$ and $M$, and thus it is usual to say that $M$ itself is self adjoint.
In general, any linear endomorphism $A:V\to V$ in a finite-dimensional inner product space $V$ has a unique adjoint $B:V\to V$ such that
$$\langle A(v),u\rangle = \langle v,B(u)\rangle.$$
Also note that if you choose an orthonormal basis for $V$, then the matrices representing $A$ and $B$ with respect to that basis are tranposes of each other, but this need not be the case if the basis is not orthonormal.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Some opening words "Human beings make their history themselves, but they do not do so voluntarily, not under circumstances of their own choosing, rather under immediately found, given and transmitted circumstances." – Karl Marx It's been a frantic flurry of message threads, late night emails, and artistic touchups since we first came together just a very, very short while ago (that might be the understatement of the century), but it's finally here. Welcome to The Daily Opium – an experiment with the transformative potentials of the social sciences… with a little help from the Internet.
LIMA, Peru — Peru has been basking in kudos from officially declaring a vast new national park in the remote Amazonian wilderness known as Sierra del Divisor. President Ollanta Humala traveled there over the weekend to unveil the park — nearly 5,500 square miles of stunning tropical rainforest, home to numerous threatened species, including jaguars and various kinds of monkey. He was under international pressure to protect the area from illegal logging, the cultivation of coca — the key ingredient in cocaine — and the construction of clandestine roads. How Many Minimum-Wage Hours Does It Take to Afford a Decent Life? - News So much of the talk surrounding the jobs crisis focuses on unemployment, but a huge portion of those who do have jobs are barely clinging to a decent lifestyle. In 2010, one in five American adults worked for poverty-level wages, 4.4 million of whom earned wages at or below the federal minimum. The infographic above, from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, makes painfully clear just how hard it is to make ends meet on these wages.
40 maps that explain the world Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. So when we saw a post sweeping the Web titled "40 maps they didn't teach you in school," one of which happens to be a WorldViews original, I thought we might be able to contribute our own collection. Some of these are pretty nerdy, but I think they're no less fascinating and easily understandable. A majority are original to this blog, with others from a variety of sources. Raleigh teen challenges state inaction on climate change Raleigh, N.C. — An eighth-grader at Ligon Middle School in Raleigh isn't old enough to vote but is taking on the state of North Carolina. Hallie Turner, 13, was in a Wake County courtroom instead of a classroom on Friday morning, hoping that a state judge would force the Environmental Management Commission to accept a petition she presented last year seeking to cut carbon dioxide emissions in North Carolina by 4 percent a year and an annual report on the state's efforts to meet that goal. The commission rejected her petition, saying it was incomplete.
Sisters of mercy, devotion — and dismay In Philadelphia last week, a child sexual abuse trial involving Catholic clergy led to a bombshell — a bishop from West Virginia was accused of abuse. In Kansas City, a Catholic bishop goes on trial in September, accused of failing to report suspected child abuse. Last year church officials paid $144 million to settle abuse allegations and cover legal bills, and although many of the cases went back decades, church auditors have warned of "growing complacency" about protecting children today. So who's in trouble with the Vatican? Uldine - What Does My Name Mean? - Meaning and analysis of this name of Uldine A Few Testimonials " The Kabalarian Society provides succour, happiness, and fulfilment to diverse people through Name Analysis and reports. The Society generates life's purpose for every enquirer."
Satter and Eilperin failure to demonstrate learning When delivered, on a silver platter, an opportunity to demonstrate learning and fulfill the Fourth Estate's essential role of fostering a more informed public, Associate Press reporter Raphael Satter and Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin trip over themselves in a rush to press and disseminate deceptive truthiness rather than engage in truthful reporting. Satter seems to double down on reporting innuendoes and falsehoods disproven in multiple investigations by institutions around the world. Although their context couldn't be determined, the excerpts appeared to show climate scientists talking in conspiratorial tones about ways to promote their agenda and freeze out those they disagree with.
What You Can Do to Help Do you work at a place, or have access to images and video that would fit in here, or even something you think would make national news even if it doesn't fit in here? Contact me (chris@documentingreality.com) and let me know what you have. I can assure your 100% anonymity. I keep no IP logs, so even if someone were to inquire where the stuff came from, I couldn't tell them, because there is no way I could look it up. I did the same thing with NTFU, when the police wanted names of the military people who submitted gory war pictures, I sat in jail with my mouth shut. They never uncovered the identity one single person who submitted an Iraq war picture to my site.
Danger to Earth lungs About half the 15,000 tree species in the Amazon - the world's most diverse forest - are threatened by deforestation, an international study says. The report lays bare the destruction of an ecosystem often referred to as the lungs of the Earth. "At least 36 per cent and up to 57 per cent of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened," said the study in the journal Science Advances, which used criteria from the respected International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Under a business-as-usual scenario, about 40 per cent of the original Amazon forest would be destroyed by 2050, the researchers found. But with stricter conservation measures, they said, that number could be halved.