text:
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    <name>framework/ensembleModelTests.testEnsembleModelLinearParallelWithOptimizer</name>
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    <created>2016-09-01</created>
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       Example of usage of the Ensemble Model capability in RAVEN, connecting multiple External Models.
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      <revision author="alfoa" date="2016-11-14">New syntax ensemble</revision>
      <revision author="alfoa" date="2017-01-21">Adding this test description.</revision>
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Experience real Parisian nightlife in the heart of the Latin Quarter with an unforgettable pub crawl. Meet and mingle with locals as your guide takes you to all the hotspots along the legendary rue Mouffetard.
Savor the view over the sparkling lights of Paris with a glass of champagne, then enjoy a classic French meal on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower.
See Paris' finest street art as you wander through the historic avenues of the city. Learn about the culture, meet the artists, and visit local galleries on this guided walking tour.
Travel back in time on a tour that reveals the Medieval side of Paris. Follow your informative guide to iconic sites that have stood for centuries as you hear tales of the city from so long ago.
Soak up the Seine as you cruise through the heart of Paris, departing from Notre Dame.
Explore the elegant arcades and gardens of the Palais Royal, and discover the gorgeous antique shops and tea rooms in the covered passages.
Marvel at modern masterpieces and discover the role they play in art history on an exclusive tour of the Centre Pompidou. See cutting-edge exhibits and works by Dali, Kandinsky, Calle and more.
See Chartres most notable attractions on a guided excursion. Check out the famous cathedral while learning more about this century-old city with a professional leading the way.
Spend over two hours learning how to produce a large-scale graffiti mural in Paris. Work with professional graffiti artists to design something memorable and let your inner artist express itself.
Choose your location and unleash your inner model as a professional photographer captures you at your favorite Paris backdrop(s).
Explore the music of Montmartre, Paris' most creative and distinctive neighborhood. Uncover where Picasso and Van Gogh made their home, enjoying the best views of Paris.
Cruise down beautiful boulevards and past iconic monuments, exploring Paris as a passenger while a little 2CV takes you for a spin.
Your expert local guide will customize your Paris tour to cover the sights, topics, history, and shops that interest you most.
Go to some of the most iconic art galleries in Paris. Visit some of the greatest art dealers in Paris but also some more atypical galleries.


This is my shortest review so far: this play was exactly what it said on the tin. The Importance of Being Earnest is always funny. David Suchet was a good Lady Bracknell, all other performances were solid with Michele Dotrice's Miss Prism stealing the show. If this isn't your first time seeing this play, it is nothing worth writing home (or online) about though.
To misquote Lady Bracknell (rather badly): one intermission is a necessity, to have two is overindulgence. I'm pretty sure the set designer could have found a way to spare us the second one. The live broadcast already started later than usual, so adding a second intermission meant we got to go home later than we did when they showed Hamlet or Coriolanus which are after all Shakespeare's longest plays.
Just in case anyone else wondered where they had seen Michael Benz before (we did) and didn't get around to looking him up: he was The Globe On Tour's Hamlet a few years back, and a good one at that.


text:
Home > School spotlight > EVENT: Prince Edward Collegiate Institute presents The Original Musical 'The Trouble With Gingerbread: A Hansel & Gretel Story'
EVENT: Prince Edward Collegiate Institute presents The Original Musical 'The Trouble With Gingerbread: A Hansel & Gretel Story'
Categories: School spotlight
February 26 2018—Prince Edward Collegiate Institute presents The Original Musical 'The Trouble With Gingerbread: A Hansel & Gretel Story'
Friday, March 2, 2018 at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 3, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Prince Edward Collegiate Institute, Gym A, 41 Barker Street, Picton
Admission is free and tickets are available at Books & Co., 289 Picton Main St, Picton
Come with us to the County of Prince Eddy and the town of Bloomington. Here, twin brother and sister Hansel and Gretel need to overturn a curse placed upon their family by the evil witch, Grigella. Aiding them are their parents Henrietta and Rupert, the County Jack of all Trades, Biff, a Golden Rooster named Bob, and a mystical Oracle. Rock along with some familiar tunes as the twins and their parents set off on an adventure down Trail 49 to the Deep, Dark Woods, where a curse might be overturned, and some lessons might be learned along the way.
Kerry Donnell, Communications Officer, 613-966-1170 or 1 800 267-4350, extension 2354, kdonnell@hpedsb.on.ca
Last updated: February 26, 2018 at 1:55 pm

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Ski Hills Are Open And Christmas Is Coming!
Once again we got lucky with weather! We had a great time on our two night trip up to Post Creek. Students all did a great job of setting up, cooking their food, maintaining camp. Although we did not complete the day hike all the way to Flora, students experienced how to hike in more challenging terrain. I'm sure some pictures will be posted by Mr. Shea soon. Special kudos to Mrs. VanSanten for coming along as our female chaperone.
We now will turn our focus to winter sports. We have two ski trips to Whistler planned for December. Students will come home with information on this shortly. We will be getting into some cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and winter camping in the new year. Thank you for all of your support in a very successful first term of the OEA.
We also wanted to tell you about the new Mt. Waddington's Outdoors store on Vedder Road. Our students are eligible for 15% off of any purchase because they are in this program. The store has our class list so be sure to mention your student's name at the till if you are thinking of purchasing any outdoor clothes or gear for Christmas. Please see their website below.


Here's the front of the vest, mostly pinned down (looks like I need to repin the left side a bit better) and ready for blocking. I just finished it while watching some Sunday night television and spent most of the afternoon working on it. I had to rip out several rows because I neglected to remember to bind off for the neck before binding off for the armholes and I had not written that down in my instructions. I also spent the day on a quick and easy sewing project that I will document later.


Western Bulldogs forward Travis Cloke has announced his retirement after 13 seasons at the highest level.
Help decide who kicked the best goal of 2017.
westernbulldogs.com.au reviews Travis Cloke's 2017 season.
Cloke: "A driving force for our next season"
Forward Travis Cloke arrived at the Western Bulldogs during the 2016 NAB AFL Trade Period, in an exchange with Collingwood.
Cloke is a two-time All-Australian, Collingwood best and fairest winner, and was a member of their premiership side in 2010.
The 29-year-old played 246 games and kicked 441 goals in 12 years at Collingwood after being drafted as a father-son selection in the 2004 National Draft (pick 39 overall).
Cloke was a NAB AFL Rising Star nominee in 2005, Collingwood's leading goal-kicker on four occasions, and has finished in the top-three of the Magpies best and fairest a further two times in addition to his win in 2007.
The power forward boasts outstanding endurance and physical strength, a raking left boot and is a strong contested mark.


Adam Marshall Creative - Obliterator Trailer, an indie game about space, exploration, and blowing stuff up!
The brief for Obliterator was to create an engaging trailer that Tackorama could use to promote the game and further push their unique brand of game development out. We started off collecting reference, and constructing themes to base the trailer on. We aimed to capture a balance between the subtle humour that Phil (Tackorama) likes to run throughout his games, and the dramatic, future space movie theme that is quite reminiscent of the classic sci-fi movies. The trailer grows in intensity as the soundtrack builds throughout. The game has a ton of content, and running with the limitless size of space theme, we had faster cuts and more varied shots as the trailer progressed, showing off just how much you can do throughout the game, and all of the different modes and missions available. The titles themselves were kept simple and to the point. We avoided a UI type HUD title screen, since it felt a little off due to the simplicity of the game. As for styling and visuals, it was one of my more enjoyable projects to work on, and Phil from Tackorama was great to work with. I loved exploring the juxtaposition of simple visuals and cuts mixed with immense space travel and massive level systems that the game has.
The soundtrack was also probably one of my favourites yet for any of the trailers I have worked on. The track is called 'The Destiny' and it's by 'Maxime Herve', who you can find on Art List, a music licensing website that I use for sourcing most of the soundtrack I use on the trailers I produce. Investing in good music for the trailers I work on has been one of the best choices I have made. Audio is such an integral and important part of any promotional video. The soundtrack really does the game and the trailer justice, and sells the game in the perfect light that we were looking for.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


My name is Heather Peterson, and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to my practice and share my treatment philosophy.
As a Licensed Addictions Counselor, my approach to treatment is grounded in the cognitive-behavioral tradition, and I use current evidence-based treatments like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM). Details about these methods may be found on my website.
Essentially, I am committed to working with you to create meaningful transformation. I will help you to increase your self-awareness and take steps to reshape your relationship with painful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a way that reduces their impact and influence over your life.
I realize you may have mixed emotions about substance use counseling, and you may feel reluctant about attending. That's normal and understandable. If you are considering working with an addictions counselor, feel free to contact me for a 30 minute Free Consultation. We can chat over the phone or make arrangements to discuss your needs in person and determine if I would be a good fit.


Have You Started Your 2010 Plan?
which will be a primary driver of the global reset in IT spending expectations.
With less money flowing into the pockets of fewer vendors, we can expect to see both increased consolidation and fierce competition for the IT spending that remains. Those MSP's & vendors that can help CIOs & business owners do more with less stand to benefit from this shift to low-cost, high-value computing.
And those that can't? Well, let's just say they may dream for the good old days of the global recession.
Hint: Focus on scaling your "service" offerings and not reselling "stuff".


Approximately 3000 km of high and intermediate resolution seismic data and 117 sediment cores were examined to reconstruct the late Cenozoic glacial history of Bransfield Basin, Antarctica. The complexity of a glacial setting requires seismic data with vertical resolutions of 20-30 m to adequately image the depositional environments. This study demonstrates the utility of higher resolution seismic records to develop a complete understanding of the complicated nature of glacial environments. Lower resolution data, while appropriate for studying larger-scale features, lack necessary detail and can lead to over-simplified models. Investigation of the seismic facies resulted in characterization and mapping of glacial sub-environments leading to the construction of a subpolar depositional model for glacial-interglacial cycles. In addition, these results help constrain Pleistocene climatic conditions. As seismic facies analysis indicates no significant meltwater activity, it is suggested that temperate deglacial-interglacial conditions did not exist in Bransfield Basin during the time interval studied (Pleistocene? to present). Another outcome of this study was a 13,000-14,000 yr BP minimum age for the end of the last significant glacial period with $>$800 m of ice grounded in $>$600 m of water. Examination of the data and application of the depositional model led to identification of key sites for shallow and deep drilling to further resolve questions of timing and paleoclimate.
Banfield, Laura Ann. "Seismic facies investigation of the late Cenozoic glacial history of Bransfield Basin, Antarctica." (1994) Master's Thesis, Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/13810.


N7 meeting Quincy Jones and friends in Morocco @ Mawazine Music Festival 2011.
This entry was posted in News and tagged Mawazine Music Festival, Morocco, Quincy Jones. Bookmark the permalink.
"Wall of Sound" scheduled for release worldwide!
i absolutely cannot wait to see you guys live again. What an amazing performance, so glad the internet exists and can view video like this. Thank you for sharing it.
i hope u bring out a new live dvd. hope from a gig in berlin, cause that´s the best show ever with the best fans, smile.
good luck guys, u´re so amazing and i hope u´ll be famous all over the world and everybody know Naturall 7!
i had lot of fun watching you guys.
Seen you in concert tonight ….wow your all awesome… can't wait till you come back…. keep up the awesome work….


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katara plaza
on March 22, 2015 April 30, 2019 with 0 comments	by kate	Doha
a few weeks ago i spent a whistlestop 36 hours in a city that i'm now eager to return to and explore in more depth.
qatar might be stealing headlines just now over the infamous world cup debacle but don't let fifa's shambolic handling of the event put you off visiting a country which is not only the world's richest per capita but also abundant in modern architecture, culture and islamic arts.
i had been invited to doha by ali bin ali group for the unveiling of their new katara plaza shopping mall complex, which opens its doors in 2016. the group is one of the largest retail and distribution companies in qatar and has a long-standing reputation for building successful partnerships with the world's leading brands across a diverse range of business activities. during my trip i was hosted at the luxurious w doha in the west bay; a self-styled modern sanctuary that offers up a vibrant blend of fabulous design, cutting-edge technology and spectacular spaces, whilst peering out over the blue arabian gulf. given the whistlestop nature of my trip it was a complete delight to actually be able to take time reclining in the splendor of my room, relishing a morning lie-in in the signature 'w' bed (sooo comfy!) and indulging in a syrupy pancake breakfast and lazy bath filled to the brim with fluffy bubbles.
then it was off out to hit the town and explore some of the vibrant cultural locations in the city…
the post-modern skyline of west bay is best viewed from the courtyard of the museum of islamic art, and boy is it simply breathtaking!
representing islamic art from three continents over 1,400 years, the museum is helping to transform the state of qatar into one of the cultural capitals of the middle east. designed by veteran chinese-american architect i. m. pei (best known for his design of the glass pyramid at the musée du louvre in paris), the museum stands out as an architectural gem in the doha skyline. rising out of the turquoise waters of the persian gulf, the cubistic pyramid evokes a range of traditional islamic architectural forms, with two lighting vents at the summit evoking eyes glimpsed above a veil.
i'd have loved to have had more time to explore the myriad of halls (which have hosted a damien hirst retrospective, cutting edge choreography from sidi larbi cherkaoui and an arts & disabilities festival in recent times) but alas, the tour marched on.
our next port of call was a visit to souq waqif, a cultural bazaar that literally translates as the "standing market" and is overflowing with traditional handicrafts, spices, bric-a-brac and souvenirs.
after a pit stop for lunch it was on to katara, a newly created "cultural village" beside the sea (home to the doha film institute and the qatar philharmonic orchestra) and born out of a long held vision to position the state of qatar as a cultural beacon of theatre, literature, music and visual arts in the middle east. it is here that ali bin ali's new shopping plaza will open late next year.
built on an area of over 38,000 square metres in the cultural village of katara, the plaza project is poised to become a unique commercial space blending a classical architectural experience with traditional heritage, and offering a relaxed shopping atmosphere alongside recreational cultural and entertainment experiences. the plaza will pioneer an innovative state-of-the-art system of ground cooling technology, much needed to contend with average summer highs that regularly surpass 38 °c, and can often approach 47 °c – phew!
with beautiful green surroundings and wide open spaces, katara plaza aims to become one of qatar's main open-air, walkable shopping malls, and has already succeeded in attracting galeries layfayette to become the flagship department store of the venture. designed by renowned architect bruno moinard, the store will occupy three levels, and has been designed to take customers on an impressive journey through contemporary style and an architectural representation of modernity. another distinguished tenant already secured within the plaza is french natural mineral water brand evian, who will offer an exclusive spa concept based on evian's core values of purity, health, and youthfulness, providing a refined spa experience to refresh and relax the body and mind.
there is also the unique addition of a "children's mall"; a pioneering example of innovation and architectural design in the form of two giant gifts wrapped in red and gold. the boldness reflects qatar's inclination towards developing landmarks of modern architecture, and seeks to surprise visitors with wondrous joy and delight. the drawings of it above look pretty spectacular, right?
i for one can't wait to head back to doha next year to experience it all!
katara plaza, doha, qatar. opens in 2016.
#doha #katara plaza #middle east #qatar #shopping mall
to not dare is to have already lost
on October 7, 2013 December 1, 2015
a home from home, all around the world
a one track mind


text:
Delhi Shahdara News
"If You Don't Want It Printed, Don't Let It Happen"
IP University
Best Visit Places
Best Food Place
Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Global Covid-19 tally crosses 15 million cases
Coronavirus (Covid-19) India News Live Updates: India, the third ranked country, reported 37,724 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 648 deaths in the 24 hours ending 9 am Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
Coronavirus News Live Updates: The number of coronavirus infections in the world crossed 15 million Wednesday, according to Reuters tally. There are now 15,009,213 cases of Covid-19, at least triple the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually. The country worst hit by the pandemic is the United States, followed by Brazil. At least 616,000 people have succumbed to the disease.
India, the third ranked country, reported 37,724 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 648 deaths in the 24 hours ending 9 am Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. This took the country's tally to 11,82,915, including 4,11,133 active cases, 7,53,050 recoveries and 28,732 deaths.
President Donald Trump reiterated India was second after the United States in testing samples for Covid-19. "We're going to be over 50 million tests," Trump said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that the "second country is India with 12 million (tests)". According to a tally released by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday, India had conducted nearly 15 million tests.
In other news, most doctors who took part in the ICMR's trial on plasma therapy have found blood transfusion from recovered Covid-19 patients to those with moderately severe illness to be effective. However, they warned that the timing of the transfusion will be challenging.
In New Delhi, the serological survey conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to assess the exposure of the coronavirus in the population showed an over 20 per cent prevalence of Covid in eight of the 11 districts. Further, it also indicated that over 77 per cent were vulnerable to the virus.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, two private labs tested antibodies of nearly 10,000 people, and found that 24.3 per cent had antibodies against Covid. Dr Sujata Baveja, head of microbiology in Sion hospital, said this was good news, as it meant a large number of people were exposed to the virus, had no symptoms and got immunity. The study also found that New Delhi was more exposed to the disease than Mumbai.
In another development, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said there would never be another lockdown in Bengaluru or any other part of the state as it was impacting state revenues. He appealed to people to practice social distancing and wear masks.
Fire breaks out in Delhi's Jhilmil area, at least 3 dead
Fruit vendor stabbed to death by four friends
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LeadingWELL – online workshop for managers on how to lead happy, healthy and engaged teams.
As a manager of Ohio State's greatest resource, our faculty and staff, you have the power to create a healthy, thriving workplace. Learn how to increase your energy and discover 6 key strategies to transform your team in 2019. Interact with guest hosts as they share personal insights on how they lead happy, healthy and engaged teams.
This pilot training delivers four interactive sessions hosted from 1-1:30 on January 23, 30, February 6 and 13. Attend all four sessions to earn an invitation to attend the Health Athlete course. Sessions will include practical tips, personal stories, reflection, and time to interact with peers.


Private Jobs!! Hurry Up various Vacancies!! Muthoot Group Recruitment for Vigilance Executive Job Vacancies in Delhi. Interested and qualified candidates should apply online in official Muthoot Group website. The link for applying and how to apply Muthoot Group Jobs online is given at the bottom of this page.
Collect Report from Various Vigilance officers.


Saft is to supply backup battery systems for 800 Prima locomotives. The company will offer full local end-to-end supplier services from its manufacturing facility in Bibadi, Bangalore. Having established the Bangalore factory in 2013, the company has scaled up its capabilities to become a local supplier to India's rail market in support of the government's "Made in India" programme. This has seen it evolve from a local assembler of components to offer a complete battery system service covering the manufacture of cells as well as design, development, volume manufacturing and technical support. Previous orders included the delivery of battery systems for Chennai and Lucknow metro projects. The company will supply a total of 1600 battery systems for the double-section electric freight locomotives to provide backup power for all vehicle control and critical safety systems. The battery systems are based on its nickel-technology SRM+ cells which are designed for high energy backup in railway applications.


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Tennis Ireland nominated for Governing Body of the Year
27 Feb Tennis Ireland nominated for Governing Body of the Year
The Federation of Irish Sport has announced the shortlist of finalists for the 2018 Sport Industry Awards. The awards, which this year are sponsored by insurance company JLT Ireland were set up in 2015 to highlight the contribution that sport makes to Ireland's economy both directly and indirectly. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Wednesday, 7th March in the Banquet Hall at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8. The Awards recognise and reward excellence in the business of sport, whilst simultaneously highlighting the contribution of sport to Ireland.
Speaking at the announcement of the short-list, Mary O'Connor, CEO, Federation of Irish Sport, said "The awards were set up to highlight the importance of the business of sport in Ireland. Today sport supports almost 40,000 jobs, represents almost €2.4 billion in household expenditure and has been estimated to contribute almost €1.9 billion in tourism revenue. And that is beyond all of the other contributions sport makes in areas such as health, inclusivity, diversity and reputation both at home and abroad."
Tennis Ireland have been nominated in the Governing Body of the year category along with 5 other NGB's
Category 4. GOVERNING BODY OF THE YEAR AWARD
Ladies Gaelic Football Association
Cricket Ireland
Gymnastics Ireland
Triathlon Ireland
Tennis Ireland
Swim Ireland
For further information, visit www.irishsportindustryawards.ie and www.irishsport.ie.


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by Alan Nance	7 Comments
A Scattering
It is more arduous to honour the memory of the nameless than that of the renowned. Historical construction is devoted to the memory of the nameless.
From where I live, some 40 kilometres to the south of Barcelona, there are two main driving routes into the city. One is motorway all the way, the other starts by taking the old coast road. It's early on a spring Sunday and I'm tracing the coastline, one eye on the road, the other drawn to the play of light upon the sea. The message sent by this solar telegraph is the same as the one I heard an hour ago in the blackbirds' song. All is well.
As I close in on the city, familiar landmarks come into view, but today I'm focused on just one, the flat-topped promontory of Montjuïc. Anybody who has visited Barcelona will know the hill, and many will have climbed it or have caught the old cable car that links it to the seafront, for Montjuïc is home to museums and botanical gardens, to the Olympic Stadium and an abandoned fortress. Clinging to its southern slopes there is a cemetery.
I had often looked down on the niches and tombstones from a soon-to-be-landing aeroplane, but visiting the place had never crossed my mind. My lost loved ones are elsewhere. I did know that this side of Montjuïc had been quarried for centuries, and that the stone had been used in the construction of many of the city's buildings. What had passed me by, until recently, was the significance of one of those quarries. I park the car and walk over towards the small group of people already gathered by the iron gates.
When the cemetery was inaugurated in 1883 it continued to reflect the social divisions of the day. The richest families built their own mausoleums, while the lower classes purchased whatever niches and memorial stones were within their means. The remains of the poorest poor, those whose families could barely get by in life, let alone pay for death, were interred in a mass paupers' grave in a space hewn from the rock of Montjuïc. Less than sixty years after the cemetery opened, the Fossar de la Pedrera, the mass grave at the quarry, became a deposit not only for the remains of the destitute but also for the bodies of those whose political allegiance or behaviour in life was despised by the country's new rulers.
Franco's troops took control of Barcelona on 26 January 1939 and within five days began to carry out summary executions. Over the following decade or so, around 1700 undesirables were shot by firing squad on a piece of waste ground by the sea, on the far side of the city from Montjuïc. In an illustration of how terror works, the bodies were not buried where they fell but transported by lorry back across the city, a macabre parade that ended with the remains being cast into the Fossar de la Pedrera.
As executions of this kind ceased, and attention shifted to industrialisation and tourism, the mass grave slowly faded from popular memory. Then, in the 1980s, the post-Franco Catalan government responded to a petition from a group of families whose past was entwined with the old quarry by commissioning an architect to bring a sense of dignity to the space. Beth Galí sought, in her own words, to create the effect of a secret garden, like one might find in the cloister of a Gothic church or monastery, a place that invites reflection. This goal has undoubtedly been achieved.
High up in a corner of the cemetery we reach a series of broad and shallow stone steps, split into three levels and shaded by trees. Six stone columns stand at regular intervals on the first level, and as I approach I realise that two of them bear inscriptions in Catalan. This is the first reminder of the place I am about to enter: Here in the Fossar de la Pedrera lie the remains of those who were shot by firing squad […] by fascist forces in 1939. Many of them remain nameless, but we pay homage to them all.
On the second and third levels there are a further twenty or so square columns, each one engraved with names and forming, as a whole, an alphabetical register of the executed whose remains are known to have been deposited here. Our guide shows us enlarged photocopies of old, black and white photographs, putting faces to some of the names. He tells us of the time he stood here and listened while a woman in the tour group explained, in shock, that she had just seen her grandfather's name inscribed on one of the columns, his resting place finally brought to light. The time it takes to know. We listen to our guide in silence, and then pass between the columns into the bowl of the old quarry.
The flat ground that stretches away towards the cliff at the far end has been split in two, grassed to the left and paved to the right. A series of stone benches mark the border between the two terrains, both of which may be walked upon. Birds and insects flit around, but no flags fly, no single monument smothers the attention. With each step forward the sense of passing through into another world, another time, intensifies. The Barcelona I thought I knew is fading, and here, in a place of calm enclosure, I am invited to learn and to begin piecing things together.
In the months following an ordinary burial, the flesh, first, and then the clothes decay, until all that is left are the bones, still arranged in anatomical order, still recognisable as an individual. Individuality is lost in a mass grave. Bones mingle and move around, and in this process of dismembering, of disarticulation, the attacks on identity that were committed during the person's lifetime continue to be suffered in death. Hearing the cak-cak-cak I look up and watch the magpie as it flies down to join its kin, spread out across the grass and pecking at the ground. I count them with the nursery rhyme – one for sorrow, two for joy – and get as far as seven.
At the far end of the Fossar, in the shadow of the cliff face, we wander with our guide among a collection of engraved memorial stones of various shapes and sizes. He explains that they have been placed here for the purpose of remembrance rather than as markers of actual burial sites. As I read the inscriptions it becomes apparent that the stories told above ground are as intermingled as the ossuary on which I am treading. Many of the memorials are to those who were executed and dumped here in the early years of Franco's dictatorship, but there are also tributes to those whose lives were lost in the Spanish Civil War, including members of the International Brigades. Scattered among them I find a stone in memory of a child whose unbaptised status made her unworthy of burial in consecrated ground.
Stepping off the grass I walk over to what appears at first sight to be a sculpture, of the kind one might find in an ornamental garden. Standing on a small paved semicircle I look down at a shallow stone arc, the ends of which are submerged in a little pond. Inside the hollow of the arc a rectangular stone plinth sits just above the surface of the water, its two longest edges each joined to the underside of the arc by a metallic lattice. The lattice in the foreground, however, is parted in the middle, giving the impression of a portal into another world. This unassuming structure is in fact a mausoleum, and it is the only place in the Fossar to house identified remains.
In the early hours of 24 January 1939 the democratically elected president of Catalonia, Lluis Companys, fled Barcelona as Franco's troops closed in on the city. On 5 February he crossed the border into France, heading first to Perpignan and then to Paris, from where he continued to represent the Catalan government in exile. Despite the subsequent Nazi occupation of northern France he refused to take up the opportunity of exile in Mexico as this would mean losing contact with his son, incarcerated with schizophrenia in a Parisian asylum. In August 1940, Lluis Companys was detained in a Breton seaside town by the German military police. At the request of the Spanish authorities he was extradited to Madrid, from where he was subsequently transferred to the fortress at Montjuïc and shot by firing squad on 15 October 1940. Having lain for over four decades in an unmarked niche within the main part of Montjuïc cemetery, the transfer of his remains to this final place of rest was a key symbolic element in the process of dignifying the site.
Death may be the leveller, but the protagonists of history are generally the illustrious. Here, however, in what was once just a quarry, paupers, the unhallowed and the ordinary victims of terror lie and are remembered alongside the president himself. This is perhaps the greatest achievement of the place. It marks the lives of named and nameless individuals and reminds us that their stories are the connective tissue with which we can re-articulate the scattered bones of the past.
Back at the car I decide to delay my journey home. I drive for half a kilometre around the foot of Montjuïc and then take the road that leads up and over to the far side of the hill. There I park and mingle among the tourists and locals who are strolling in the warm midday sun. Barcelona stretches away before me, offering up the sights of countless postcards and selfies: the towers of the Sagrada Familia, the Camp Nou football stadium, the Columbus monument at the foot of the Ramblas. All the familiar marks on the skin of a city.
My guide on the tour of the Fossar de la Pedrera was Nick Lloyd. Tours are free and take place a couple of times a month (note, however, that they are generally in Catalan). Nick is a mine of information about the Spanish Civil War, and I highly recommend his book Forgotten Places: Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War, available here, as well as in several bookshops around Barcelona. If you are visiting the city, then you really should set aside a morning to join one of his walking tours (in English) on the same theme. The stories he tells as you wander the centre of Barcelona will stay with you long after you've returned home. For more information, and to contact Nick, click here.
Information in English about Montjuïc cemetery, including how to get there by public transport, can be found here.
Tags: Barcelona, Catalonia, History, Lluis Companys, Memory, Nick Lloyd, Politics, Spanish Civil War | Permalink.
Nature Imitating Art
Friday 28 April, 20:55. Biennal d'arts plàstiques i visuals, El Vendrell, Catalonia
Wall drawing by Aileen Hamilton
Sunday 7 May, 13.34 . Garraf National Park, Catalonia.
Walk with Aileen Hamilton
Agave americana var. marginata
Wednesday 10 May, 23:07. Sant Pere de Ribes, Catalonia
What remains in memory
Tags: Aileen Hamilton, Art, Catalonia, Garraf National Park, Memory | Permalink.


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Photo Coverage: TIME AND THE CONWAYS Company Take Opening Night Bows on Broadway
by Walter McBride Oct. 11, 2017
Roundabout Theatre Company's Time and the Conways officially opened last night, October 10, 2017 and BroadwayWorld was there to catch the opening night bows. Check out our photo coverage below!
The new Broadway production of J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways is directed by Tony winner Rebecca Taichman (Indecent). Time and the Conways stars Elizabeth McGovern as "Mrs. Conway," Steven Boyer as "Ernest," Anna Camp as "Hazel," Gabriel Ebert as "Alan,"Charlotte Parry as "Kay," and Matthew James Thomas as "Robin," withAnna Baryshnikovas "Carol," Brooke Bloom as "Madge," Alfredo Narciso as "Gerald," and Cara Ricketts as "Joan."
In 1919 Britain, Mrs. Conway ("Downton Abbey's" Elizabeth McGovern) is full of optimism during her daughter's lavish twenty-first birthday celebration. The Great War is over, wealth is in the air, and the family's dreams bubble over like champagne. Jump nineteen years into the future, though, and the Conways' lives have transformed unimaginably. This time-jumping play by J.B. Priestley(An Inspector Calls) takes place at the crossroads of today and tomorrow - challenging our notions of choice, chance and destiny.
Lobby Cast Board
Alfredo Narciso, Brooke Bloom, Steven Boyer, Gabriel Ebert, Charlotte Parry, Anna Camp, Anna Baryshnikov, Matthew James Thomas and Cara Ricketts
Elizabeth McGovern, Anna Camp and Anna Baryshnikov
Alfredo Narciso, Brooke Bloom, Steven Boyer, Gabriel Ebert, Charlotte Parry, Elizabeth McGovern, Anna Camp, Anna Baryshnikov, Matthew James Thomas and Cara Ricketts
Elizabeth McGovern during the Broadway Opening Night performance Curtain Call Bows for The Roundabout Theatre Company production of 'Time and The Conways' on October 10, 2017 at the American Airlines Theatre in New York City.
Alfredo Narciso, Brooke Bloom, Steven Boyer and Gabriel Ebert
Elizabeth McGovern and Anna Camp
Gabriel Ebert, Charlotte Parry, Elizabeth McGovern and Anna Camp


Great post! Finding the good in any situation is wonderful. Get out there and re-create yourself! Quite inspirational!
'I can feel the promise in the air' ... I love that!
Ooh, I feel autumn in the air too, even though it's in the 90s. I love the idea of reinventing myself. I don't know if you felt so at the time, but what a great opportunity you had growing up to try out different facets of you.
I wish I could adapt to change as easy as you seem to. I should take a leaf out of your book and try embrace change even when it is scary! Happy Fall!


Home / Derby in the Kitchen / Bulletproof Coffee – Can your Kitchen Handle It?
Bulletproof Coffee – Can your Kitchen Handle It?
In our ongoing Derby in the Kitchen series on healthy fats, Lilith NoFair introduced us to this bizzarro "bulletproof coffee" fad out there for ditching the cream and sugar in favour of adding BUTTER to your morning joe instead.
As your humble servant, I have subjected myself to human experiments in order to test out this concept on your behalf! Lucky me!
At least 2tbs Kerrygold unsalted grass-fed butter (I like up to 6 tbps, or 80g or 88 ml).
2 cups (~453g or 500ml) of hot coffee brewed with low-toxin beans (like Bulletproof Upgraded Coffee) using a paper filter (Hario V60 pourover is my favorite brewing method, and it's only $10). (note: Booty Quake used her standard beans in a French Press – any old method would do for brewing the coffee).
So, now that you've seen the video, and you're able to learn from my mistakes… are you going to try this?? What do you think – too weird? Too scary to think about ingesting all that fat in one sitting? Shoot me a note in the comments – NoFair and I would love to hear from you!


Kawasaki Versys Forum > Classifieds > For Trade > FOR TRADE: Trade my lowering kit for your stock parts in bay area CA.
Trade my lowering kit for your stock parts in bay area CA.
I know this is a long shot, but I'll ask anyway. I just got my 2016 v1000, and it has a MW lowering kit installed, along with the cut-down kickstand, and big foot attached. The bike is too low for me. Is there anyone in the Bay Area that would want to trade my lowering kit for your stock parts? We could meet at my house where I have plenty of tools, and do the swap on the spot.... or?? I have the stock parts in the cart at RMatv, but If I could save $130 that would be great. I'll give it a few days before I hit the checkout button.


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WORLD COGNAC AWARDS
Celebrating the world's best cognacs
VIEW WINNERS
The World Cognac Awards are the global awards selecting the very best in all the international recognised styles, award and promote the world's best cognac to consumers and trade across the globe.
The Taste categories are based upon the commonly held Cognac groupings which define the style and process of cognac production. A full list of categories and detailed definitions available here.
Design winners
There are seven design categories in which an individual product can be judged, each reflecting the major product or display areas of the market. A full list of categories and detailed definitions available here.
Award winning drinks from all over the world celebrated at 2022 Spirits Tasting
The World Drinks Awards held its Spirits Tasting last night, in partnership with the Worshipful Company of Distillers, where over 200 country and world winners were poured and tasted.


Alfreton Town return to league action on Saturday afternoon, as we welcome league leaders Chorley to the Impact Arena, kick off is 3pm.
After Tuesday night's success in the Derbyshire Senior Cup semi final at local rivals Matlock Town, the Reds will be looking to build on the positive result as we progressed into another DSC final and also the positive impact on morale heading into tomorrow's game.
After taking the lead on Tuesday thanks to a Reece Styche finish from a glorious Jordan Sinnott pass, Matlock hit back with a double from Margetts, the first from the penalty spot and then a low deflected finish, it was looking like yet another frustrating performance from Alfreton with the pressure on heading into the second half.
However Billy Heath's men switched up the tempo in the second half with a crucial equaliser coming from Danny O'Brien after the hour mark before another outstanding finish from Styche turned the game around. Bobby Johnson then added a late fourth to seal our spot in the final against Mickleover Sports.
It was a much better second half from the Reds who dug in and utilised the quality throughout the side to get the job done. Attention now turns back to the league where form has seen a slide into the lower reaches of the table, although we have lost our last two league games, the gap to the drop zone has remained at eight points.
Consistency has been an issue all season for the Reds with many games providing sub plots and implosions which have cost us points on many occassions. With the league leaders in town, it will be stern test with Alfreton certainly needing to match Chorley in all departments; the Reds can no doubt play with freedom against the table toppers and will look to take the game to the visitors.
We head into the game having won just one of our last eight league games (Kidderminster 0-1), the 4-2 win over Matlock did end a run of two defeats in a row but the Reds will be looking to turn league form around to prevent the cushion to the drop zone potentially closing.
Home form has been a struggle all season with the Reds win-less in the last five league games at the Impact Arena (D3, L2), our last win at home came against Buxton in the DSC back in December.
Leaders Chorley arrive with a six point gap to nearest challengers Stockport County and have 60 points from 29 games.
Their current playing record stands at: P29, W18, D6, L5.
The Magpies have won four of their last five league games and have only lost once (Southport 5-3) in their last nine league games. Away form for the visitors has seen them win just once in their last three outings but they have scored seven goals in their last two trips on the road.
Chorley have only lost three times away from home in the National League North this season (Southport, Stockport and Bradford PA).
Chorley 3-1 Alfreton Town (Saturday 15th September 2018) - The Reds suffered back to back defeats back in September at then runaway leaders Chorley, it was Alfreton's first game since Tom Denton left for Chesterfield and it proved a difficult one, despite a Bobby Johnson screamer to pull a goal back at 2-1 mid-way through the first half.


Wood Group is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Amec Foster Wheeler. Wood Group's new ordinary shares will be admitted to the premium segment of the Official List and to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange with effect from 8.00 a.m. (London time) today, 9 October 2017.
This transformational acquisition creates a global leader in the delivery of project, engineering and technical services to energy and industrial markets.
We become a business of significant scale and enhanced capability delivering services across a broader range of geographies and sectors, differentiated by the quality of our people, enabling technology and know-how. Wood is better placed to serve customers than ever before, with a more comprehensive range of capabilities and the potential to deliver efficient integrated solutions with fewer customer interfaces.
We expect to deliver significant cost synergies and incremental revenue synergies in a less cyclical business which retains a predominantly reimbursable, asset light model with a balanced risk appetite.
Our integration planning is well progressed and we have ensured that appropriate risk management and control processes are in place from Day 1. We have a clear organisational structure, my Executive Leadership team and their direct reports have been announced and we are now focussing on implementing a best of both approach for the wider organisation.


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FacebookTwitterInstagramPoint of View
Discovering Your Body
Knowing Your Body
MANAGING YOUR PERIODS
Beauty and You
Enjoying Your Body
Mythbusting
Being Sexual
Sex With Yourself
Sexual Confidence
Sex With Others
Keeping It Safe
Being Together
Sex in Relationships
Institutional Violence
'Our bodies are where self-esteem, desire and sexuality come together. The more attention we pay to our needs, the better we are able to take care of ourselves.'
FromThe Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability, ed. Kaufman, Silverberg and Odette, 2003
I'm never going to look like the women in advertisements and posters, and this makes me feel really bad about the way my body is.
Join the club. The ads you see and hear are designed to sell products, and they've figured the best way to do this is by lowering women's self-esteem. By equating certain types of bodies and looks with pictures of happiness or love, women feel like they must look like those pictures in order to be satisfied or loved. As a woman with a disability, this can become even further complicated. Not only do you get the message that all women are receiving ('your body isn't beautiful') but an added one as well – 'your disability means that you can never be beautiful, so we're not even including you in our target audience.'
The people setting the standards for beauty are not interested in making us feel good about ourselves, and while it's far more easily said than done to reject these ideas, it's important that we try. Becoming familiar with or sharing experiences about other women's bodies is perhaps the best way to realise that the images of the female body we see around us have very little to do with real women's bodies, which are more textured and beautiful than the most intricately Photoshopped model can ever be.
My body looks and functions differently. Can anyone ever be attracted to me?
es, of course they can, and rest assured (or be appropriately disconcerted) that you aren't alone in your self-doubt. The unattainable standards of physical appearance set by the images and messages around us makes it hard for all women – disabled and nondisabled – to see that there really is no connection between desire and 'beauty' as it is defined by popular culture. All around us are images of sexually aroused women with seemingly 'perfect' bodies – and it makes many of us believe that in order to achieve this ecstasy or love, we have to look like them.
But in reality, desire and sexual attraction are far more complicated than popular culture or visual media would have us believe. Cast aside for a moment those images and ideas, and think about what desire – as a physical sensation: a tugging of the heart or a throbbing of the loin – means for you. Is it a glossy magazine page of a semi naked person? Perhaps instead it's the slight smell of sweat on someone you are sitting next to on the train. The sound of a thunder storm. The jumping sensation in your stomach each time your best friend holds your arm. Attraction is a multifaceted arena where different senses collide with memory, thought and sexual fantasy – and these imposed beauty standards may have absolutely nothing to do with it.
Isn't beauty supposed to be an important part of life? If all these ideas of beauty are so false and misleading, what, or who, can ever be beautiful?
Okay, so start by thinking about an older woman you love and respect – it could be your mother, an aunt, a caregiver, or a school teacher. Imagine the lines on her face, the touch of her wrinkled skin, or her slightly rasping voice. Is she beautiful? What about some of the most energetic, passionate or kind women with disabilities that you know? Can you sense beauty there despite falling hair, aged skin or prosthetic limbs? I'm sure you can. The saying that 'beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder' is overused – but that's because it's true.
Societies set false standards of beauty, against which women with disabilities are often harshly judged. But the real beauty secret is not Fair & Lovely cream, rounder breasts or a perfectly straight back – it's that beauty itself has no definition, no standards and no rules. This can be hard to understand given that our eyes and senses are trained to see certain kinds of bodies or faces as beautiful. Many women with disabilities are using online spaces, art, and writing to put forward their own ideas of beauty. For instance New Mobility wheelchair blogger Jamie has created a site called 'I Look Good Today' where she uploads attractive images of herself along with fashion advice. In another blog, Melina , an artist who has scoliosis says she always believed that 'only the "perfect" body should be represented in art, [but then] started painting bodies with scoliosis…and discovered that it gives a magnificent flow to the body.' Or look at Bodies of Difference , where Ashley uses photography to explore the relationships between disability, sexuality, self-esteem and body image, while expanding ideas of what it means to be beautiful.
The Scale of Disfigurement
'For me I was almost happy to be burnt [from the acid attack] because it meant freedom from my husband. But at the time, I just didn't know the scale of disfigurement that I would have to face in the future. I was doing all the right things
Read More on The Scale of Disfigurement!
A quadriplegic writer discusses everything from fashion to make up to wheelchairs
Bodylogues: an ode to your body parts
Melina paints her scoliosis
Nadia LaSpina's digital body art
Bodies of Difference: documenting atypical, beautiful bodies
Made with Love by 13 Llama Interactive for Point of View


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The top X chromosome gene-based findings included the androgen receptor (AR), which has been well established as a baldness associated gene , along with its upstream (EDA2R) and downstream (OPHN1) genes. EDA2R plays a role in the maintenance of hair and teeth as part of the tumor necrosis factor receptor. Onset of male pattern baldness could be influenced by EDA2R via activation of nuclear proto-oncoprotein c-Jun, which is linked to transcription activation of AR . Two other genes included in the gene-based findings, OPHN1 and ZC4H2, have previously been associated with X-linked mental retardation [26, 34]. One limitation of our X chromosome analysis was that it contained genotyped SNPs only. The imputed X chromosome SNP data for UK Biobank have not yet been released but will likely provide further clues about the genetic architecture of male pattern baldness.
Evidences show that postmenopausal alopecia in normoandrogenic women also improves with finasteride at a dose of 2.5 mg per day. There are also studies that confirm that in postmenopausal women with AGA, finasteride 1 mg/day taken for 12 months did not increase hair growth or slow the progression of hair thinning. Finasteride does appear to be successful in some patients, but further studies are required to determine its efficacy and optimal dosing regimes.
Internet Technology Iron supplements – for those with iron deficiencies. scalp pigmentation because of sun exposure. Unlike androgenetic alopecia in men, women's hairlines rarely recede and complete baldness does not usually occur. Nevertheless, this gradual thinning can be extremely noticeable and cause great emotional and physical insecurity. It is important for those experiencing these effects to reach out for help, as there are many forms of therapy widely available that can help both the physical and emotional aspects of the experience.
Search How Can Male Pattern Baldness Be Treated?
What is androgenetic or androgenic alopecia ("male-pattern baldness," "female-pattern baldness")? What is androgenetic or androgenic alopecia ("male-pattern baldness," "female-pattern baldness")?
According to some research, low-level laser light therapy can stimulate hair growth in women and men. However, additional studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of this type of treatment, as it is possible that laser treatment companies may have partially funded this research.
What causes female pattern baldness and who is at risk? (Image source) A drug designed to treat osteoporosis may help treat hair loss and it's being considered a possible breakthrough for bald people.
More from Live Science Advertising ^ Kabai, P. (2010). "Might early baldness protect from prostate cancer by increasing skin exposure to ultraviolet radiation?". Cancer Epidemiology. 34 (4): 507. doi:10.1016/j.canep.2010.04.014. PMID 20451486.
Prostaglandin D2 findings offer hope for Homer's dome. The most significant gene set, GO:0005667, corresponded to the transcription factor complex gene set, which includes the gene ALX4. ALX4 was found to be mutated in a patient with frontonasal dysplasia, presenting with alopecia . Of the other genome-wide significant gene sets, ENSG00000141027 (NCOR1 subnetwork), includes members of the histone deacetylase (HDAC) family . HDAC9 is associated with male pattern baldness (the present paper and Li et al. ). GO:0003682 (transcription factor binding), includes the murine gene Cux1 that is important for, amongst other things, hair growth . GO:0003712 (transcription cofactor activity), includes the gene AIRE, which is associated with alopecia . MP:0000097, (short maxilla), and GO:0044212 (transcription regulatory region DNA binding), both include the murine gene Grhl1. Grhl1-null mice suffer from a delay in coat growth and later hair loss . It is important to note that, as with all pathway analyses, the results are dependent on the gene sets defined in the databases used. These rely on accurate functional annotations, which are continually updated.
Female pattern hair loss is a frequent condition. There are over 21 million women affected by FPHL in the U.S.A (2). This disease is important because of the intense emotional distress it causes by disrupting self image (3).
The course of typical alopecia areata is not predictable with a high likelihood of spontaneous remission. The longer the period of time of hair loss and the larger the area involved, the less likely the hair will regrow spontaneously. Therefore, there are a variety of treatments, but none of these can confidently be predicted to impact the course of this disease. Local steroid injections intracutaneously may be very helpful in restarting the hair growth cycle in treated areas. Steroid creams, lotions, and shampoos have been used for many years but are of limited benefit at best. Although oral systemic steroids are known to induce hair growth in affected patients, their long-term use is contraindicated because of the likelihood of undesirable side effects.
Menopausal Alopecia (androgenic alopecia) is associated with hormone changes. As estrogen reduces, hair-follicles become increasingly vulnerable to the effects of androgen exposure. Anti-androgen therapy may reduce further hair loss, but is currently unlikely to initiate the return of the lost hair.
Newest from the GoodRx Savings Blog Side effects of flutamide are severe. These include hepatotoxicity (3 in 10,000 users) and breast tenderness, both of which are dose-related. It is recommended that serial liver transaminases are checked in the first months of treatment, and it must be stopped or if transaminase levels exceed twice the normal limits.
Male pattern hair loss is an inherited condition, caused by a genetically determined sensitivity to the effects of dihydrotestosterone, or DHT in some areas of the scalp. DHT is believed to shorten the growth, or anagen, phase of the hair cycle, from a usual duration of 3–6 years to just weeks or months. This occurs together with miniaturisation of the follicles, and progressively produces fewer and finer hairs. The production of DHT is regulated by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase.
5 / 14 Female pattern baldness is a type of hair loss that occurs in about one-third of all women, most commonly after menopause. Hair loss may occur on the top or sides of the head. Cosmetic, medical, and surgical therapies are available for the treatment of female pattern baldness.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24386074 ^ "The hair pull test". Keratin.com. Retrieved 28 March 2012. Gain Essential Business Knowledge this home remedies can surely prevent the hair loss ???
911 call: Guard felt 'threatened' before T.I.'s arrest Androgenetic alopecia.
Lymphoma Life Sciences Links Celeb Galleries 7.1	Myths You may also want to try a toupee. Toupees are small wigs or artificial hairpieces that can be worn to cover the bald spot.
I was diagnosed with female pattern hair loss in 2005, after several years of losing hair on and off. I was losing hair in the middle, from behind my hair line, and I was frantic to stop it.
Research at NCBI Book An Appointment Today Before going for hair thinning treatment, make a point of understanding the root cause of the problem. Sometimes it can be as a result of medication you are using. This medication can interfere with your treatment. Consult your doctor if some recent drug you've been taking seems to coincide with the onset of hair loss. Hair styles that pull the hair too tightly should also be avoided. Getting to the root of the problem will help you regain your hair faster.
Find out how to delay female pattern hair loss and reverse hair loss with PRP treatments by contacting Dr. Green to schedule an appointment today at (212) 535-3088 or contact her online.


"As my husband and I anticipated the birth of our first child we thought it might be nice to have the help of a doula. We had no idea how crucial Lauren would be in the birth of our son! Our labor lasted a long 40 hours, and Lauren was with us for the majority of that time, both at our home and at the hospital. My husband said more than once that we could not have done it without her!
"We can't speak highly enough of Lauren. Throughout my pregnancy and the first few weeks postpartum Lauren was always accessible to answer any questions and provide the encouragement I needed to make it through my pregnancy and transition to motherhood. Lauren is nonjudgmental and always made us feel comfortable being ourselves.
"Lauren was an amazing doula for both my labor and postpartum recovery. She was so encouraging and had a calming presence and strength about her that I loved and leaned on. During my pregnancy she took the time to get to know me and my desires for birth and provided encouraging tips along the way. Birth is such a personal experience, and we felt very comfortable sharing it with Lauren because we knew we could trust her. She had a great knowledge of the laboring technique my husband and I took classes on (Bradley Method) and was helpful in reminding us of different positions to try. She also made a great team with my husband and nurses, and I appreciated how she advocated for us at the hospital. She freed my husband and I to focus on laboring and our new little one once he arrived. During postpartum, she was an invaluable resource for all of my questions (so many questions!) and supported me while I transitioned into my new role as a momma by checking in on me, providing food, and so much more."


Claim in 2017: "Because we [the U.S.] have stood firm, Russia is now—despite the boasts of its leaders—plagued by dwindling financial reserves, a historically weak ruble and poor international relations."
Claim in 2016: Russia's GDP contracted by 40% between 2013 and 2015. Its economy is now half the size of Great Britain's.
Claim in 2014: Immigrants aren't rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity.
Claims in 2015-2016: Russia is internationally isolated.
Claims in 2014 and 2016: Life expectancy in Russia is falling.
Claims in 2014-2015: Russia's population is shrinking.


text:
Q: iMac I/O very slow - hardware issue? How can I diagnose fault? I have a 3 year old iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013) running OS X 10.13.5 with 8 GB RAM and 1TB HDD.
It's been running very slow (takes minutes to open an Application, about 30 seconds to open a folder, etc). I've checked for viruses and malware but found nothing. I've scanned through log files in Console but also found nothing.
I decided to re-install OS X and was performing a backup. There's 650GB of files and Carbon Copy Cloner has taken 7.5 hours to backup 595 GB. Activity Monitor is running and on the Disk tab reports Data read/sec at 577KB and Data written/sec at 311KB.
This seems slow. No evidence of any resource problem (CPU is mostly idle, RAM fine, no network I/O at the moment).
Is the backup time normal? 8 hours to copy 600 GB seems slow to me but maybe not?
If the slow backup time is not normal, how can I diagnose if there's a hardware I/O problem?

A: Backups that take 16 hours are certainly normal if you have lots of small files top update and copy (lots been 200,000 or so). Diagnosing failing / failed drives is generally easy for a technician since the system logs IO errors to the system log and hangs to Library/Logs. On the end user level, you won't be able to run a filesystem check / repair disk / erase disk using Disk Utility without errors when a drive is failed or failing. (Unfortunately you may get no warning other than a slowdown before it fails, so good on you for having a backup now)
For backups, the HDD access time is what limits things - doubly so if your source and destination are spinning drives or worse, a remote network volume. HDD might handle several hundred IOPS (input and output per second) best case and the backup process throttles IO usage to not impact the running system so if the backup ran in the foreground what might take an hour might stretch to dozens since it's throttled.
Now that your backup is done, how long does it take to make a backup if you quit all the apps running, and don't have any launch when you log in and then perform this test.

*

*Log out of your account (and any others if you fast user switch)

*Log in and start no apps except the terminal app in Utilities folder

*Run a blocking backup and time exactly how long it takes

The command for that is:
 time tmutil startbackup --block

On a 2015 MacBook with SSD backing up to a new USB 3.0 HD, you might see this for a very small change in data from the last backup interval on a smoothly running system:
mac:~ me$ time tmutil startbackup --block
Total copied: 61.64 MB (64633164 bytes)
Avg speed:    39.21 MB/min (685202 bytes/sec)

real    2m26.550s
user    0m0.046s
sys     0m0.046s

If you post a couple of these with actual times we can discuss if it's worth erasing the drive and repartitioning it and running some speed benchmark tests or if you just need an SSD instead of HDD or if this is a sign the drive is failing and you'll be super glad you have a backup to restore once you replace that drive with a new HDD that runs at full speed.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


For every US tech giant, a domestic version is launched in Russia – witness Yandex and Vkontakte, Google and Facebook's respective equivalents. Amazon is another example: its Russian equivalent since 2008 has been Ulmart, a St Petersburg-based e-commerce firm that currently ships consumer goods to more than 240 cities across Russia.
But while Ulmart's digital storefront, which offers everything from tyres to baby clothes to pet toys, might resemble Amazon, the similarities end there, says Denis Solovyov, the company's chief investment officer. "In Russia, the majority of customers live in apartments, not houses, and as such delivery of goods to their doors is not always efficient, so we had to develop an operating model that takes that into account," he says.
The solution? Taking full control of delivery processes and launching a hybrid model between e-commerce and traditional bricks-and-mortar stores, in which customers pick up goods ordered online. "Such a solution decreases our operational costs, especially with regards to the most costly last miles of delivery," says Mr Solovyov. Since implementing that model in 2009, the company has launched 450 pick-up points.
Additionally, Ulmart operates a network of 46 urban fulfilment centres, located in major Russian cities that also store the most frequently ordered products, which are offered via door-to-door delivery or pick-up point delivery, as well as two suburban fulfilment centres for products ordered less frequently.
Despite the recession in Russia and shrinking consumer spending, Ulmart's growth continued between 2015 and 2016. "The past two years were a good time to scale up the business model of Ulmart, and scale up the logistical network – and that was especially good because of the devaluation of our currency, as we enjoyed a cheaper execution of our projects," says Mr Solovyov.
By 2021, apart from ramping up operations of its wholesale club Ryady, in line with the Ulmart 2.0 expansion strategy announced two years ago, the company plans to launch 11 new suburban fulfilment centres and two regional distribution centres across Russia.
"We want the network area around our centres to be no wider than a radius of 300, or maximum 400, kilometres to cover the area, to make it achievable to reach the furthest destination overnight," says Mr Solovyov.
As it expands across Russia, Ulmart is eyeing promising new markets, where residents are becoming increasingly economically active, but still might be underserved by existing retailers.
Asked what cities in Russia recently passed Ulmart's location benchmarking exercise, Mr Solovyov points to Krasnodar, a city of 744,000 people located on the banks of Kuban river, and Yekaterinburg, a city of 1.3 million on the border of Europe and Asia.
"Both cities are big markets and have economically active populations, but they are not yet saturated when it comes to consumer products," he says.
Apart from national expansion, Ulmart recently announced that it was increasing its technological capabilities by adopting blockchain, a distributed database technology, in order to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods.
"Consumers complain to us about [counterfeit goods] and ask us to do something. The blockchain will let us join forces with major manufacturers and anyone can then merely point towards a barcode or QR code and follow the entire history of the product from production line to Ulmart's fulfilment centre," said Ulmart chief international officer Brian Kean at the #Blockshow conference held in Munich in April.
Just one month later the company went ahead with yet another tech-related announcement, with Dmitry Kostygin, the company's CEO and chairman, stating that beginning in September, Ulmart's customers will be able to pay for their orders with Bitcoin.
"As blockchain technology is coming into our operations to fight counterfeit items, we see that the mystery that existed around Bitcoin three years ago has significantly receded," said Mr Kostygin.
The Russian economy appears to be far from a full recovery. The most recent analysis by EY – 'Russia: a pulse on the consumer products market' – states that Russian consumers remain resilient and price-sensitive, but Ulmart is not the only company betting big on future market demand in the country.
In April, Spanish clothing giant Inditex revealed that it will start garment production in Russia, and French retail group Auchan announced plans to invest $355m into opening 20 new supermarkets and four hypermarkets in Russia by the end of 2017.
Earlier in the year, Lenta, Russia's second largest hypermarket chain, reported 21% increase in fourth-quarter 2016 sales and Dixy Group, one of Russia's largest food retailers, recorded a 4% revenue increase in the same period.
Paired with an increase in e-commerce sales noted in the EY report, this could prompt Ulmart's foreign competitors to work on getting a foothold in the market. Ulmart is unfazed by such a prospect, however.
According to Ulmart executives, even giants such as Amazon might have more success in developing self-driving cars and drone delivery techniques than succeeding in e-commerce in Russia – especially given Amazon's reliance on third-party delivery companies, such as FedEx or USPS, and lack of similar partners in Russia.
It is a bold statement. Then again, it took boldness to create a business in light of Russia's inefficient postal system, lack of infrastructure and the sheer size of the country.


A homeless man who threatened to cut off the Premier's head pleaded guilty to two charges of making death threats yesterday.
Jared Gordon, 29, admitted he sent two threatening e-mails to David Burt. But he denied a count of blackmail, and the prosecution said it would not proceed with that charge at this stage.
The sentence was followed by a series of images of guns.
The offences happened on October 12, 2017, and March 28, 2018. Gordon was charged in Magistrates' Court last May and remanded in custody after he was unable to come up with a guarantee for bail.
Simone Smith-Bean, for Gordon, asked that his bail conditions be changed to remove the need for a guarantee.
Acting Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe extended Gordon's bail, but left the need for a guarantee.
Mr Justice Wolffe asked for a psychological assessment and a social inquiry report on Gordon and ordered him to stay at least 100 yards away from the House of Assembly, the Cabinet Office and Camden House, the official residence of the Premier.