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Movie Review: Focus
Will Smith reminds us why we liked him in the first place. (We never forgot why we like Margot Robbie.)
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In Focus, Will Smith plays Nicky, a confident, smooth-talking con man who runs an organization of professional pickpockets and scammers. Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) plays Jess, a woman who leverages her looks to make cash through petty crimes and wants in on Nicky's next big scheme. There's an instant attraction between the two (who meet at a bar where she's relieving a drunk fool of his wallet), but because of the nature of the biz they're in, you can never be sure if they're playing each other, if they're being real with each other, or if there's a really, really long con afoot.
After Jess first pleads with Nicky to take her under his wing, he instead takes her out into the snow and gives her a lesson in focus (ahem), set to a jazzy, new-age instrumental that would've been more appropriate if they were in a W hotel lobby. That mood music was as out of place as a darker scene was near the end of the film. But in the middle of those two moments was a whole lot of fun and a bunch of pretty things to look at.
This is one of those movies where you'll catch yourself rooting for the "bad" guy—fast-paced pickpocketing sequences had me smiling ear to ear, amazed at how Nicky's team could lift countless wallets and watches while weaving through clueless crowds in New Orleans. Then about two seconds later I was like, "Wait, that's awful." And ever since I've been constantly touching my coat pockets and shifting my purse around when I'm walking outside because I'm convinced I'll be ripped off at any minute. So thanks for that, Will. Or I guess really I should be thank-scolding writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who clearly know a little something about charming bad boys (see Crazy, Stupid, Love).
Anyway, Jess proves herself by being able to up the stakes and improvise on the spot during the pickpocketing spree. The team pulls in $1.2 million for their efforts, and that's when we learn Nicky might not be the best person to trust with all of that cash.
Eventually, Nicky gets an opportunity to make so many millions that he'll be set for life. The only problem is that Jess may or may not be on the other side of the scam, which involves Garriga (Rodrigo Santoro), a hotshot race car driver, and his right-hand crony Owens (Gerald McRaney, doing his best "Mike from Breaking Bad" impression).
There was so much glamour, so many expensive suits, so many expensive shades, so many cool cons and so much fun trash talk between Nicky, Jess and their crew throughout most of the film that it felt good to have the old Will Smith back. (Was the "take a knee" line Nicky uttered a jokey reference to the terrible After Earth, by the way? I don't even care, I'm telling myself it was.) But then Ficarra and Requa had to go and screw it up with a lame attempt at one last twist that reached too far and fell totally flat.
I'm still glad that Focus helped remind me why I liked Smith in the first place—I've been a fan since the Fresh Prince days and even saw him in concert. The film's a weird mix of heist flick and romantic dramedy, but it mostly works thanks to Smith and Robbie's looks (let's be honest) and performances. Just be forewarned that you're going to be conned out of a decent ending.
Posted by Erika (aka "e") at 3:03 PM 0 comment(s) from my peeps!
Movie Review: Fifty Shades of Grey
It'll leave fans wanting more—and everyone else wondering what all the fuss is about.
It was February 2012. I had seven weeks off after my son was born, and everything people had told me about not getting any sleep or not having any extra time when you're at home with a newborn wasn't turning out to be true. I had several hours free each day while he napped. I asked a friend what I should read during that downtime.
"Have you heard about Fifty Shades of Grey?" she asked. I hadn't. "Well, they're calling it 'mommy porn,' but everyone I know is reading it." Hmm.
I finished the entire Fifty Shades trilogy shortly thereafter in just a few sittings. Early on I was unnerved by the similarities to Twilight... until I learned how E.L. James' story was originally some sort of Twilight fanfic... and then it all made sense. James is a horrendous writer, but—like Stephenie Meyer before her—she's at least an intriguing storyteller. I was curious enough to learn what would become of kinky billionaire Christian Grey and his air-head "girlfriend" Anastasia Steele that I saw the trilogy through despite my shame at reading something that was so awfully written. Less than a month later, the book visited me again via the cover of the Entertainment Weekly that arrived on my doorstep. A movie was in the works.
And now, three years later, that movie has arrived. I can't say I liked the novels, but I have friends who could be classified as super-rabid-crazy-obsessed fans. For their sake, I was hoping that director Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) did Christian and Ana (and their, um, unusual relationship) justice. And I believe that she did.
Actually, it was likely a combination of Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr. Banks) that saved the film from becoming a complete laughingstock. While they chose to keep in the majority of fan-favorite quotes and scenes from the book, gone are the absolute worst, most grating, and most disturbing parts. Which means film-only audiences will never know of the ultra-annoying "inner goddess" who dominates Anastasia's thoughts and is constantly, constantly yapping. Only once will they be subjected to a silly exclamation from Ana that starts with "Holy." They will see a very watered-down version of Christian the Mentally Abusive Control Freak; he comes off as a stalker in his pursuit of Ana, sure—but she's much more empowered in the adaptation.
However, the problem with taking out such big parts of the book is that you've got to replace them with something or there's just not much left to fill two hours. That's the biggest issue with Fifty Shades of Grey: it's about a recent college grad falling for a troubled, rich-as-hell businessman five years her senior who wants her to sign a contract to become his "submissive" in a BDSM relationship. The contract becomes the focus of the plot, which makes zero sense because 1) despite Christian (Jamie Dornan) claiming he "doesn't do romance," he makes almost all grand gestures associated with courtship, and 2) they sleep together, both in and out of his "playroom" without Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) ever signing the contract. What?!?
Knowing what happens in the next two novels, I'm surprised Johnson and Marcel didn't decide to tease a bit more of the trilogy's larger mysteries. Because honestly the whole contract thing became totally pointless.
So it came down to whether or not the leads could carry the film despite the weak plot. I just finished a two-season binge of The Fall, the Netflix series in which Dornan plays a serial killer. (It will 100% give you nightmares, but it's fantastic.) Because of that series, there was no doubt in my mind that Dornan is an incredible actor. In fact, some might argue that his character in The Fall has many things in common with Christian Grey. However, in Fifty Shades, his performance took a backseat to Johnson's. Perhaps that was intentional. Perhaps he was just supposed to show up and look good. Perhaps there didn't need to be any more to his character than the fact that he was a brooding billionaire with a kinky side. Lord knows the majority of female characters these days are one-note. If there was anything that made it tough for me to buy him as Christian, it was how he seemed to be struggling to contain his Irish accent.
As for Dakota Johnson, I knew nothing about her going into the film, except that she's Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson's daughter. I didn't see that in her looks, but man was it there when she opened her mouth. She's got her mom's same high, breathless voice. In an early scene where she first meets Christian, she trips and falls into his office and acts all doofus-embarrassed I was like, "Oh sweet jesus this is going to be awful." But she won me over not too long after that during a scene where Ana drunk-dials Christian from a bar. It was genuinely funny, and the fact that she was able to maintain a tricky balance of naivety, lightness and "I may be young but I wasn't born yesterday" tough-headed-ness—especially in a surprisingly humorous "negotiation" sequence where Ana strikes certain sexual acts from the aforementioned ridiculous contract—made the film's darker ending more powerful. And though the chemistry between Johnson and Dornan doesn't equal that of, say, a "Robsten" (who were dating in real life, remember), it is there.
Are you being like I was when I read the first book and wondering, "Where's all the sex?" Rest assured that there are sex scenes, and quite a few of them, but something tells me that the series' fans are going to be left disappointed on this front. Tune in to Game of Thrones any given Sunday and you'll find more freakiness that you're going to get between the film versions of Christian and Ana.
I was prepared to be just as embarrassed to admit I enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey the movie as I was to admit I'd read the Fifty Shades trilogy. But the truth is that it's just not the horrible B-movie we were all expecting it to be. It's heavy on escapism, lighter-than-expected on sex and pretty much non-existent in plot, but I had fun watching it. And that's more than I can say about the majority of plot-challenged, testosterone-fueled, badly acted shoot-'em-up movies I've seen over the years. If this is what's meant by a "girls' night out" movie, I say bring it on.
Another Home Project I Should've Done Years Ago
We have two fairly low front windows that I've always liked because they're the perfect height for both Desmond and our dog to be able to entertain themselves by watching the action on our busy street.
The problem is that our dog is, um, a little over-anxious when we leave sometimes. He jumps up on our window sill with his two front paws and barks like a madman at both us ("Come back!") and anyone else he sees ("Stay away!"). This destroyed the paint on our sill, and a year or so ago I stupidly thought that if we just sanded down and repainted the area and then always remembered to leave our blinds down when we left, we would be able to keep the sill nice-looking.
Our longtime handyman tried to warn us against this. But we didn't listen. So we got the sill repainted and then within about three days the paint was getting scratched by our dog. Then Des would roll all of his toy cars and trucks over those scratches and they'd break open and the paint would start flaking off. I kicked myself.
Here's a picture I took a few weeks ago. It got significantly worse after that.
So finally I determined that I needed to just follow our handyman's advice and have them install a wooden plank over the sill. We finally had it done today.
Just like the sprucing up of my home office, this is another project I should've done years ago! Ah, well. Better late than never, I guess.
Posted by Erika (aka "e") at 11:08 AM 0 comment(s) from my peeps!
Tags: Condo Drama, e's life, Home Projects, Household Stuff
The Joy of Remembering a Great Song
With so many platforms available to both find and listen to music these days, you can easily make a mix of your past and present favorites for your daily enjoyment. But you have to be able to remember those songs first.
My issue is that I've simply forgotten about many of my really old favorites. Ones that were a little less popular in the mainstream so they never show up on an '80s channel or a Spotify/Amazon/iTunes/whatever pre-made playlist. Ones that I have to hear randomly on a TV show or in a movie or maybe once in a blue moon on the radio and then immediately email myself about them so I don't lose them again forever.
One such song that I recently rediscovered was a pretty cheesy one from my college years: "Sweat (A La La La La Long)," by Inner Circle. (I thought it was called "Girl, I'm Gonna Make You Sweat" until I just looked it up. I also didn't realize it was by the same group who sings "Bad Boys"—what?!?)
This song was part of the lunchtime mix at the hotel we stayed at this past November in Curaçao. The first time I heard it there I totally spazzed out—it brought back great memories of Spring Breaks gone by. How I ensured I would remember it is that I took a video of Desmond eating lunch while it was playing in the background. If you feel like grooving to a reggae beat today, here's the official video. (I won't subject you to the one of a toddler eating fries.)
Another one I was even more excited about surprised me during the movie Wild (which was one of my top picks of 2014, by the way). As you may know, the film is based on the true story of Cheryl Strayed (played by Reese Witherspoon) who walks more than 1,000 miles across Pacific Coast Trail to make peace with her past. Music is incorporated in a very cool way throughout the movie, and at one point she's hiking and a song starts playing quietly in the background. She says something like, "Sing it with me, Bruce," and it grows louder. And then I could tell it was "Tougher than the Rest," which is one of my all-time favorite Springsteen songs. It was never released as a single in the U.S., but was on his Tunnel of Love album, and I went to that concert tour back in the day. It's now also on the Wild soundtrack.
Oh, how I used to looooooooove that song. I was overjoyed to hear it in Wild. It was like being reunited with a long-lost friend. But since I was in the middle of a theater, I couldn't email myself and then of course forgot about it by the time the credits rolled. Thankfully I watched the film again at home about a month later (a perk of the job: awards-screener DVDs) and then I was able to immediately remind myself to get it on my current playlist. Phew. Now I, too, can say, "Sing it with me, Bruce!"
Tags: Music
I'll Stop Procrastinating... Tomorrow.
Yesterday I enjoyed several hours of "free time" where I didn't have any client calls, appointments or deadlines. I had work to do, mind you, it's just that none of it was due yesterday.
So what did I do? I wrote a long blog post. I did a bunch of annoying administrative things. I went to the gym for a full hour. I took a shower. I got lunch at a nearby restaurant (a very rare thing indeed, as usually I just snack, per my post last week). It was a nice day.
But today—and likely the rest of the week—I'm screwed. On top of the work I knew I'd have to get to today, five other client-related projects hit this morning. And now I'm cursing myself for not being more productive yesterday.
I always do this. And the reality is that I know I'll never stop. I am very, very good at justifying lighter days even though I know doing so will lead to a stressful and packed remainder of the week.
What I've learned about myself is that I work best under pressure. And since I don't have a boss per se, that pressure needs to come from me. I know that if I actually turned in crappy work or made a ton of mistakes when trying to hit a tight deadline, I wouldn't put myself in this position. But that's not the case—I am more creative, more focused, and more on my A-game when I have a ton of stuff hanging over my head.
But recently I figured out that I do enjoy having my nights off. By that I mean that for at least two and a half years after Des was born, I would work for several more hours once he was in bed after I'd already put in a full day. It sucked. I like to wind down each night with a TV show or a book, and I'd made that impossible for myself. So lately I've managed to find this seemingly perfect balance: I'll let things pile up until I really HAVE to get going on them... but never so much that it trickles into my sacred 8 - 11 p.m. Me Time zone.
There are days I wish that I could just find the motivation to do my work as it comes in and keep things even-keeled throughout the week. And who knows, maybe one day I'll prefer a more well-paced schedule. But for now this "intentionally stressing myself out" strategy seems to be working.
And with that, I better get busy...
Posted by Erika (aka "e") at 12:14 PM 0 comment(s) from my peeps!
Tags: Confessions, e's life, Freelance Life, Productivity, Working from Home
To Me, From Me
Is it just me who feels like she's in the longest-ever game of checking things off of various lists? I have four things I do that help me remember everything:
1) OUTLOOK CALENDAR
If it's something like a client call during the day, a film screening in the evening, a doctor's appointment for Desmond or another event/occasion that would prevent me or my husband from doing anything else during that same time (or requires the use of our one car), I set up an Outlook calendar invite (or Dustin sends me one). Most people I've talked to use their computer or phone's actual calendar to schedule everything... yet for whatever reason I only use it for very specific reasons.
Also, I've never synced my laptop's calendar (where all Outlook events are) to my phone. Ever. I have no idea why, but I'm not about to start now. Most people find this insane. That's me, though!
2) MY EXCEL CALENDAR
Remember my glorious Excel budget spreadsheet that tracks my life's expenses? Well, I also have an Excel-based calendar that I've been logging my daily activities in since 2006. This crazy file deserves its own post one day, but suffice it to say that EVERYTHING goes in my Excel calendar. Every. Single. Thing.
3) STICKY NOTES
What did people do before sticky notes? Surely they are the most ingenious invention of our time. Except that I don't ONLY use sticky notes to jot down things I need to remember. I use notepads, random scraps of paper, the backs of bills—pretty much anything that's nearby so that I can capture a thought before it disappears into the ether. Have I mentioned how awful my memory is?
Anyway, there's got to be hundreds of random sticky notes and other lists of things to do all around our house. Every once in a while I'll find one from months or years ago and there will still be one thing on it that I never got around to doing, so I'll toss the old note and add the forgotten item to a new sticky. And the beat goes on.
4) EMAILS TO MYSELF
The main method I use to remind myself of what I need to do—the method that results in time being blocked on my Outlook calendar or notes in my Excel calendar in the first place—is emailing myself. Any time something pops into my head that I want/need to read or watch or do or buy, I send a message to myself. That's how I remembered this very topic for today's post.
The problem is that I don't always actually DO the things I email myself. I work on a "just in time" basis, so if something isn't urgent, doesn't have a deadline of today or tomorrow or otherwise is just one of those "this would be great to read/watch/do/buy when somebody figures out how to freeze time" activities, it doesn't get deleted from my Inbox. Because I keep holding out hope that that day will come.
I stopped counting after 250 and started scrolling, but I would guess I have at least 2,000 email messages of this To Me, From Me sort still in my Inbox, dating back to May of 2012 (I got this laptop in 2012 so there are probably more on my old computer).
The thing is, this ridiculous "system" works for me. There are very few times when I totally forget to do something that is actually important. And so I'm going to stick with it.
If you're one of those perfectly organized people who has a superior system or can magically keep everything straight in her head, I don't want to hear about it. (But good for you, really.)
Tags: daily minutiae, e's life, Technology
Movie Review: Seventh Son
A strange, mostly harmless attempt at medieval fantasy. Come for the mythical beasts, stay for Jeff Bridges' bizarro performance.
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I need to get the weirdest thing about Seventh Son out of the way upfront: Jeff Bridges—who plays John Gregory, a "spook" who helps rid the world of evil creatures—sounds like he's Gandalf with really bad dentures. It's this gruff, gravelly voice belonging to a man who always seems to have his mouth full of mashed potatoes. Did director Sergei Bodrov advise him to talk like that? Or was it Bridges' idea and Bodrov was too intimidated by his star to suggest clearer enunciation? I couldn't get over it.
So that was the first thing that threw me and stopped me from being able to fully suspend disbelief, which is kind of critical with a fantasy film. The next (bigger) issue is that the entire premise of Seventh Son is illogical. Ben Barnes plays Tom Ward, a weak-seeming pig farmer prone to seizures that make him pass out. But since he's "the seventh son of the seventh son," he must become Gregory's apprentice. Huh? Wouldn't Gregory want the best and most skilled right-hand man he could find to fight supernatural beasts alongside him? Apparently not. It's gotta be Tom.
Gregory mentions that he trained his past apprentices (all of whom died on the job) for months or years, but he only has one week to get Tom in shape to help him defeat Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), a witch queen who's out for serious revenge after Gregory stranded her in an underground cave a decade ago. She's finally escaped and her evil-doing powers will be fully charged when the Blood Moon arrives in seven days. But for all the urgency this situation would seem to justify, Gregory, Tom and their tusked roadie, er, Tusk (John DeSantis), just dawdle along the countryside waiting for Malkin's various cronies to attack.
And attack they do. Those are the coolest sequences in the film; several members of Team Witch transform seamlessly into various beasts, including a bear, a dragon, a leopard, and more. But while it's fun to watch and impressive to look at, it gets old really quickly when you just don't care about any of the characters. Barnes' just can't match the screen presence of either Bridges or Moore (who's at least having fun), which doesn't make for a very believable hero. And half the time he's distracted by Alice (Alicia Vikander), a half-witch who's also reporting his every move back to home base. Vikander is a jaw-droppingly beautiful actress and is trying her best here, but despite her good looks and Barnes', they just don't share any believable chemistry. She gave me flashes of Robin Wright in The Princess Bride (my all-time favorite movie), so I hope the other six movies she has coming out this year treat her better than Seventh Son did.
The biggest crime Bodrov and screenwriters Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) and Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) committed with this film, which is based on a YA book series (what isn't?), is that the plot and character development took a backseat to the action sequences and effects. So if you're only interested in seeing really cool mythical creatures wreak havoc, Seventh Son is the movie for you. But if you're looking for a new twist on a mighty old formula, you're out of luck here.
Movie Review: Jupiter Ascending
Visually striking but otherwise forgettable, Jupiter Ascending is a big letdown.
You can never accuse the Wachowskis (The Matrix trilogy, Cloud Atlas) of not putting it all out there in their films. Jupiter Ascending might actually be the greatest example of how the writing and directing brother-sister duo let nothing hold them back in bringing their creative vision to the big screen. It's just that this time around their vision was pretty silly. Cool in parts, but still depressingly silly.
In a set-up so ridiculous and offensive to me personally that I won't even dignify it with a description, Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis)—a housekeeper from a big Russian family who, as she repeats every morning, "hates her life"—learns she's an heir to the House of Abrasax, an alien empire that controls the planets. Under her rule specifically would be Earth. When the other heirs—Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Titus (Douglas Booth) and Kalique (Tuppence Middleton)—find out about Jupiter, they want to make sure she doesn't get in the way of their own plans to reign over the universe.
That's where Caine (Channing Tatum) comes in. He's an albino human-wolf splice (you heard me) charged with whisking Jupiter away from her daily routine of scrubbing toilets and bringing her up to space to meet whatever fate the Abrasax siblings have in store for her. Hands down, the best thing about Jupiter Ascending is the anti-gravity boots Caine uses to skate around in the sky. I want some. It also didn't hurt that Jupiter lives in Chicago—it's always fun to see your hometown in a sci-fi flick, especially one where it doesn't get totally destroyed (coughTransformers 3cough).
On that note, the effects are top-notch, whether they're in the form of gigantic lizard henchmen, vast space cities or one of many chase/battle sequences. It's just that everything else falls flat. First off, it was hard to believe that Jupiter would just start rolling with things as easily as she does. When Neo finds out about the reality of The Matrix, there are several reasons why he's able to jump into his new role so quickly; when Jupiter learns that she is Jupiter Ascending's version of "The One," its anticlimactic and there's nothing to support her coming to terms with a shocking new reality. She's either holding onto Caine for dear life during a chase or asking questions clearly meant to provide the audience with clues as to what in the hell is going on. There's nothing to make you believe that an unmotivated maid could suddenly go toe-to-toe with scheming aliens who've lived for centuries.
About those aliens... Redmayne's Balem speaks in a hoarse whisper throughout for no reason that ends up mattering. So it just becomes comical. Middleton's Kalique was forgettable, and Booth's Titus was pretty much the space version of Gossip Girl's Chuck Bass. His character was entertaining, but also ultimately pointless. We're supposed to believe that the Abrasax siblings are powerful and merciless, yet for some inexplicable reason they need to follow various administrative rules when it comes to stopping Jupiter from claiming her throne. What?!?
Scenes that could've been cool were ruined with exposition. Bees swarm Jupiter while she's still on Earth and appear to follow her command. It would've been nice for the Wachowskis to let the audience figure out the connection, but no. Caine's fellow rebel Stinger (Sean Bean) has to spell out how bees recognize royalty. Get it, kids? She's like the Queen Bee!
The sad thing is that the entire cast is committed. No one's phoning it in, even though you couldn't blame them if they did. But we all know the best acting still can't overcome nonsensical writing.
I really wish I'd enjoyed Jupiter Ascending because I'm always the one bitching about remakes and reboots and adaptations and Hollywood running out of fresh ideas. But the Wachowskis have proven that just because something's creative and original doesn't mean it's compelling or good.
Posted by Erika (aka "e") at 8:00 AM 2 comment(s) from my peeps!
On the Hunt for Guiltless (But Not Gross) Snacks
I'm what you would call a "grazer"—I snack throughout the afternoon after a small breakfast. I think I read that's supposed to be better for you than eating three bigger meals per day ... but not if everything you're snacking on is unhealthy, of course.
That's why I always try to have good options available at home. I've learned the hard way that if, say, Sea Salt Caramel Bites are in my vicinity, I will eat them. All of them. After Desmond's birthday party I was tortured by the leftover cake and cupcakes—my husband and I decided we needed to give everything to our nanny that Monday or else we were going to gain 20 pounds each.
Recently I thought I'd stumbled upon a great find: Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Air-Popped popcorn. I loooove popcorn. But this stuff was THE GROSSEST.
Seriously, it's pretty damn disgusting. It tastes like you're eating those foam packing peanut thingies. I love Trader Joe's overall (semi-related note: their Brown Rice & Quinoa Fusilli Pasta is incredible), but this popcorn was inexcusable.
What I've found to be much better is the Whole Foods version. That, and Skinny Pop, both taste good and have comparable stats when it comes to calories, fat, salt, and whatnot.
Another snack staple of mine has become KIND bars—specifically these two types. I did a lot of research on all of the bars out there and these were the ones that were not only recommended by a trainer at my gym, but also seemed to meet all of the other tests I put them through.
My other go-tos:
Honeycrisp apples—the only apples I can just eat as-is (without some chocolate accompaniment). Too bad they're not in season for much of the year
Grapes, the biggest kinds I can find. I keep meaning to freeze them because I heard they're great that way, too.
Mary's Gone Crackers, um, crackers and hummus or baba ghanoush for dip.
My snack criteria, aside from needing to be healthy, is that the snack must also be effortless. As in, zero prep time.
Anyone have any other old standbys that fit the bill?
Tags: e's life, Food, Health, Working from Home
This world gives us many things to complain about or be disappointed by. When you're pissed off about something, you're likely to let others know about it. I do just that whenever I think it might end up helping somebody else out down the line.
But that means I also have to play my part in encouraging great service. From yesterday's post you may remember that I had People's Gas scheduled to come out and fix our screeching meter this morning. I cannot express how much I was dreading this visit. I mean, yeah, I wanted the noise to stop, but everything about gas lines freaks me out and I had visions of our place exploding into a magnificent fireball. I also had resigned myself to the fact that the serviceman would arrive precisely within the half-hour window when I was alone with both Des and our dog and it would be total chaos. I was positive that he would run into problems disconnecting our stove, furnace, water heater and dryer. I had visions of our inside pipe valves breaking and the visit escalating into an emergency (which has actually happened in the past). Like I said, I was just dreading this whole thing.
But none of it happened. Desmond and his nanny were leaving for "story time" just as the service guy arrived, so if the fireball erupted, at least they would be safe. I scrambled to secure my dog upstairs and built little barricades around the freshly painted areas I was most concerned he'd destroy. (Dogs aren't allowed in the unit where the serviceman is, they made that very clear. But our Wrigley tends to have extreme separation anxiety issues, so I feared he would not do well alone.)
The guy took about 5 minutes to replace the outside meter. Then he came in and ensured all of the connected appliances worked and that the air that got into the pipes during the switch had made its way out. (Proof of this was our stove-top burners flickering down completely and then eventually coming back on.) Everything worked. There was no drama. It didn't take up my entire day. Nothing exploded. We would live! And we wouldn't have to deal with the shrieking meter anymore. The new one was smooth and silent.
I viewed all of this as some sort of miracle because nothing ever ever ever ever goes right with a service visit to our place. Ever. On top of all that, the People's Gas rep was totally nice, efficient and went above and beyond in checking to make sure everything was working properly again and explaining how we might end up getting a credit once the old meter was tested for accuracy.
When he left, I offered him a tip. He said thanks, but he wasn't allowed to accept any money. I was impressed he stuck to that code. We said our goodbyes. I went back inside and then thought of something. I ran back onto the deck.
"Hey, what's your name? I want to call Customer Service and say how smooth everything was!"
His entire face lit up. He gave me his name and employee number and said he would really appreciate any positive comments.
And so right before I started this post I called People's Gas and just waited on the line since there was no phone-tree option for compliments. I eventually reached someone who took down all of the information and said it would be routed by email to our guy's supervisor. Yay!
Now I feel bad about not leaving a positive comment on a service-related web site for some guys who helped us with the most ridiculous issue we've ever had here this past summer. It's too painful to recount in detail, but it has to do with another contractor dropping cement bricks and other materials down our chimneys, which blocked our furnace and hot-water heater vents, which had the effect of slowly poisoning us with carbon monoxide. The guys who figured out what happened and fixed it were the ones I meant to leave positive feedback for.
But the reality is that it would most likely still be appreciated, and positive feedback can probably never come too late. And so that's what I'll go do now. Because it's really easy--and almost second nature these days--to pitch a fit loudly and publicly on social media when a product or service sucks. My view is that if I want to avoid experiencing nothing but crappy service from disgruntled employees, I need to go the extra step to encourage the people who are making an effort. If your waitress was attentive, leave her a little more. If a dude just slaved away fixing a leak in your house for two hours, tip him well. Say thanks. Send an email or make a call to let someone's boss know that they exceeded your expectations. Good karma will come back to you, I promise.
Tags: Condo Drama, e's life, Good Service
The Life-Affirming Power of Shoveling
The snow just keeps a-comin' here in Chicago. My husband couldn't have picked a better year to finally get a snow-blower.
But there are some areas where the snow-blower can't really be used. It's great for more open areas like our alley and parking spaces, but the path to get to those areas still needs to be dug out the old-fashioned way.
So please take a moment and respect how long it took my husband to clear this walkway. I had my 80-pound black lab sit out there to try and give some perspective to how high the "snow walls" are, but I'm still not sure this picture does the whole scene justice.
The problem was that my husband had not cleared another pathway in our backyard (I use that word loosely) that leads down to our electricity and gas meters. And tomorrow morning we have the gas company coming out to replace our meter because it's been making an awful sound (think a mournful, wailing cat) for months.
They made it clear that the meter must be accessible. As of 9 a.m. this morning, there was a six feet long, four feet wide, and 2 feet high block of snow preventing anyone from getting down to the meters. And so I knew it was my turn to wield the mighty shovel. And wield it I did:
The path is narrow, but there IS a path. I also shoveled the six steps leading down to the meters. It was not an easy task — as my husband said a few nights ago, "I can see why people have heart attacks while shoveling" — but I found myself getting totally pumped up about the challenge. I WOULD clear the path, dammit!
After it was done, I realized that I like shoveling for some of the same reasons I like cleaning (or certain types of cleaning): there's immediate gratification. Before I started there was no path. Now there's a path. The results of my hard work are crystal clear. It's a rush.
It also just made me feel alive. So much so that a song from one of my favorite '80s movies — the incomparable Xanadu — popped into my head while I was hacking away at the snow.
I will leave you with it so that you, too, can be inspired to get out there and do whatever it is you need to do today.
I'm ready to take on anything now, aren't you?
Tags: Chicago, e's life, Winter Sucks
For Love or Money?
Today, I'm annoyed with myself.
As a freelancer, there is always a fine balance between doing work you want to do and taking on projects you think you need to/should do because they pay decently. I still struggle with feelings of guilt/pride/bruised ego/etc. when I think about how I now make a fraction of what I used to pull in when I worked for The Man. Are those feelings strong enough to make me consider, even for a second, going back to an office setting? No. But they're pretty much always there.
And that's how I've come to find myself in the predicament I'm in today. In my usual beginning-of-the-year panic that I wouldn't have enough work in 2015 to justify my existence, I agreed to a contract position that I knew in my gut was a bad idea. It's not even a writing gig—it's phone-based. And there are very, very few things in life I hate more than being on the phone. I'm not exaggerating: I never talk on the phone. I go out of my way to avoid making all but the most unavoidable/no-other-way-around-it calls. I don't even have a phone plan. What. Was. I. Thinking taking on this work?!?
Over the past few days I've reviewed the "onboarding" materials for this new job and the pit in my stomach has continued to grow. This is going to be a disaster, I kept telling myself.
And as if the universe was trying to confirm I'd made the wrong decision, I just found out that I've been selected as the copywriter for really cool project that I'm excited about, for a client I'm a huge fan of. It's going to take up a ton of time... and now I don't want to do the phone-based thing at all.
So what do I do?
If you're expecting me to say that I'm going to follow my heart/passion/gut/inner voice and back out of the phone-based engagement... I'm sorry to tell you that I'm not. Because this is the reality of being a freelancer: it's usually feast or famine, and so I don't want to regret dropping the phone-based client three months from now when I could really use the extra cash. I'll be smart enough in the near future to not take on anything else that isn't writing or editing-centric, but for now I've made my bed and I have to lie in it.
Though I haven't started the gig yet, my understanding of the phone-based work is that you can ramp it up as much as you'd like in addition to having periods where you tell them you're not available. So I have to at least give it a shot. It is tangentially related to a part of my old career that I enjoyed, so I have to just get these negative thoughts out of my head and approach it with a better attitude. No project I've dreaded has ever ended up being as bad as I feared it would.
And so, for now, my answer to "For love or money?" is "Both." I take things on for money in order to do the things I love. And I know how lucky I am to love any part of what I do, so I'll shut up now.
Tags: e's life, Working from Home, Writing
Bad Weather, Good Deeds
As you may have heard, Chicago got hit with about two feet of snow over the course of the past 1.5 days. It was the kind of snowfall where you wake up, look outside, and are truly awed by what transpired overnight.
Awed... and then depressed because you know somebody's gotta shovel all that snow.
My husband and I had already each shoveled our front walkway once yesterday morning (though within 30 minutes after we were done you couldn't even tell) when I saw a beige blur amidst all of the blinding white out of our front window. I stopped and looked again. There was a furry Golden Retriever running around the parking lot across from us. People park there for a nearby church, so it was packed with cars and I couldn't tell if perhaps someone had just let their dog out for a run before heading back home.
So I waited and in the meantime called my husband's attention to the situation. Within about 30 seconds it was clear no one was with the dog.
If you know me, then you also know that I love animals more than I love most humans. I don't even really remember what I was doing when I figured out that the dog was loose, but I'm pretty sure I literally dropped everything and started scrambling to find my boots and coat and gloves.
Chaos erupted in our house. I was running around like a maniac putting on my stuff. Dustin was hollering a play-by-play of the dog's actions: "He's coming toward the road! Now he's running down to the church—YOU BETTER HURRY! OK now he's coming back to the lot! OK now he's sniffing the ground..."
Desmond could sense something was going on and started shouting, "Mommy gonna save the doggy?!? Mommy gonna save the doggy?!?" and then OUR dog Wrigley started barking, as if he knew a fellow lab needed help.
My biggest fear was that the dog would run into the road. We live on an extremely busy street, and with all the snow, anyone trying to stop suddenly would surely start skidding all over the place.
But the weather actually helped in this situation. Hardly anyone had ventured out that morning, and I was able to run across the street quickly. By that time the dog was back in the far end of the lot and I called to him, crouched down and clapped my hands.
Ah, labs. They're so happy and trusting. He came right to me.
But since he didn't have a leash, I had to hold him around his collar... and let me just say this not-so-little guy was ENERGETIC and strong. Once it became clear I wanted to lead him across the street, he bounded into the road and I was slipping all over the place trying to keep a hold of him while hunched down. I still can't believe I didn't fall or get hit by a car or bus, but it was like a ghost town on our street. Phew.
Once I got him into our lobby area (which is closed off from the rest of our house), the mayhem in our house went to 11. Our dog was going nuts because he knew another dog was on the other side of the door. Desmond wanted to see the other dog. I was yelling through the door to Dustin to find my phone. And the rescued doggy—"Oliver," according to his tag—was wiggling around and investigating his new surroundings. Luckily his tag had two phone numbers on it.
Once Dustin passed my phone through our cracked-open door, I called the first number and a girl answered right away. It was unclear if she even realized Oliver was missing, but she started freaking out and said she'd be right over.
Within 5 minutes, she arrived. She looked to be in her early 20s. She said her parents were shoveling her backyard and had left the gate open and Oliver must have escaped. She lived on the street behind the parking lot. And so Oliver had a happy reunion and was safe. I had done my good deed for the day.
My husband's turn came later that night. We heard a bunch of voices in our alley at around 9:30. My husband looked out and saw a woman shoveling snow behind our car because her car was stuck.
"Hey, don't block me in?!?" he yelled out from our deck.
"Are you kidding?!? Look at it out here!" she screamed, pretty exasperated.
He came back inside.
"You could go help her, you know," I said quietly. It was a lot to ask because, as I mentioned, the snow had never stopped and now had drifted in the alley to just cover everything.
"I am not going back out there," he said.
I waited a minute. "I'm just saying that that could be me out there. I did my good deed today and now you need to have some positive karma coming your way."
He left the room and didn't say anything, but I knew he was going to get all of his hardcore snow gear on. It turns out the woman was his friend's wife, and his friend had been out there, too, just out of sight. They lived two houses down. For the next hour the three of them worked to get the car unstuck and into their garage. It was a much harder job than running across the street and saving a cute doggy, let me put it that way.
And so it seems the awful weather inspired both of us to do something to help our fellow man. Our reward? A snow day today. (And a lot more shoveling and snow-blowing—in fact, Dustin's been outside for over two hours helping all of our neighbors. Seems like this whole Good Samaritan thing kind of grows on a person.)
Update: the neighbor Dustin helped last night brought over a nice bottle of wine!
Tags: Chicago, e's life


We are a conveniently located Eagle's Landing Stockbridge daycare and Preschool providing educational childcare.
Looking for a Quality Daycare in Stockbridge and Eagle's Landing?
Before/After Care with Pickup from Local Elementary Schools!
ABC's location in the city of Stockbridge is conveniently located less than 5 minutes from exit 224 on I-75 at Eagle's Landing Pkwy and Hudson Bridge.
This center services surrounding neighborhoods such as Eagle's Landing, Stockbridge, Covington, Hampton, Locust Grove, Jonesboro and Ellenwood.


silversatsuma wedding photography: Tears of joy.
It doesn't happen often, but sometimes I am really overcome by the emotion of a wedding ceremony, and I am not afraid to admit that at this wedding I shed more than one tear!
From the moment I met Fleur I had a special connection with her, one of those deep-rooted bonds that you just can't explain. Perhaps it's her kindness, openness, and sense of humour ; in fact she reminds me of a very close Israeli friend of mine, Efrat, a kindred spirit. I was delighted to be asked to dinner at Fleur and Ismael's house before the wedding so that I could get to know them and their two fabulous dogs (Gringo and Youpie) before the wedding. For them, the most important thing about the day was their union, shared with very close friends and family, it was going to be a small intimate affair.
Nothing could have prepared me for the beauty of the surroundings or indeed the emotion of the ceremony, as you can see there were tears of joy shed by all. Absolutely incredible.


text:
Q: How to setup the Cascade Delete? I have several tables:
Clinic
 - Id
 - ...

ClinicRequest
 - Id
 - ClinicId
 - ContactDataId
 - ...

ContactData
 - Id
 - ...

"Clinic.Id" is one-to-many "ClinicRequest.ClinicId", and "ClinicRequest.ContactDataId" is one-to-one "ContactData.Id". (Also, "ContactData" has same one-to-one relation with another tables and this relation will later need cascaded delete too)
Basically, I would like to achieve cascade delete on "Clinic" object and, subsequently, on "ClinicRequest" object.
I tried establishing this using ForeignKey ON CASCADE DELETE, but it seems I can only do it backwards, which is (Primary key table-ContactData-Id)(Foreign key table-ClinicRequest-ContactDataId), and that is not what I need. I can do this with Triggers, but I've read it is a bad practice. Also, I definitely don't want this logic to be present in my application.
Can anyone please give me any directions how to deal with this?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Both technology and the demands of tech consumers are constantly evolving, and with that comes an ever-changing landscape of opportunities and challenges for the companies on the front lines. For many engineering teams, the only way forward is through a combination of creative thinking, tech innovation and teamwork.
We asked four local tech leaders about the most interesting challenges their teams have faced recently, and the technology they used — or built from scratch — to overcome them.
Sovrn helps independent publishers and content creators grow their audiences, engage their readers and monetize their content with a suite of advertising and analytics tools. VP of Platform Engineering Kyle Gilliland shed some light on the technology his team used recently to overcome a big Big Data challenge.
What's an interesting technical challenge your team has faced recently?
Most recently, Sovrn engineered a transformation of our data ingest and processing capabilities. With over 4PB of data ingested per month and millisecond low-latency data requirements helping to run our ad-exchange, the challenge was to execute this without disruption of service and build a scalable solution that would meet our current and future business demands.
What technologies did you use to overcome this challenge?
Given the tight business timelines we have on data processing, data movement and analytics, we looked at solutions engaging micro-batching and elastic, cloud-based compute clusters.
One of the first steps was to evolve our ETL strategy into a formal data lake and separate our data storage from our data compute capabilities. We are now working to evaluate the way that we process data, leveraging technologies like Hive and Spark to find congruences within our data jobs and simplify the computing methods. By structuring our data in this manner, we have endless opportunities to mature and evolve the way data is provided to our business and customers.
What process do you use for vetting and implementing new technologies? How do you help developers succeed when using technology they may not be familiar with?
When evaluating new technology, we start with the defined business needs, develop an understanding of available options, then work through various proofs of concept that derive a technology selection. Being in an industry of constant change means we need to create an environment that supports and champions our engineers and staff to evolve and push the limits of technology. At Sovrn, we cultivate a culture of learning to enable our engineers to explore, expand and grow their technical skills that bring value to our business.
Wunder Capital is driving the solar industry forward through its online investment and project management platform, which helps develop, manage and fund solar energy projects. Co-founder and CTO Dave Riess explained both the rewards and challenges of working with a largely proprietary software platform — and how his team continues to think outside the box to drive their product forward.
After pulling in some external resources to give our team a crash course in accounting, we were able to develop a design that excelled in all of the places where off-the-shelf solutions came up short. Our portfolio servicing infrastructure, which is supported by our custom accounting system, has become a huge asset to the business — in large part because our ability to iterate every aspect of the underlying software quickly enables our business team to make product choices that are not constrained by technical accounting limitations.
Most of our systems are currently written in Ruby. After some fairly extensive experimentation, we've found an expressive, dynamic and mature environment like Ruby to be an incredibly powerful way for us to ship production code quickly and support rapid iteration.
When vetting everything from engineering process iterations to technology choices to architectural decisions, we endeavor to be painfully explicit about what problem we are trying to solve and then we focus exclusively on making a decision along dimensions that directly contribute to solving that problem.
When debating the relative merits of a set of options, it's easy to default to a complicated multivariate analysis along numerous dimensions of your various options, and in doing so, it's easy to lose track of the original question. It may sound pretty obvious, but making sure your problem statement is very well defined, and then keeping the conversation centered around that problem, is a very powerful way to make sound decisions.
Kapost's B2B marketing platform enables businesses to map out and implement their content strategies, collaborate across teams and departments, and measure the success of their campaigns. Director of Data Science Elliot Cohen explained how his team has leveraged the latest technologies to automate and streamline previously manual user workflows.
Every day, marketers use Kapost to create, organize and track content. Part of the workflow is tagging each piece of new content with the initiatives, personas and strategies with which it is aligned.
Tagging is essential to successful content operations, but it can also be time-consuming. We are applying natural language processing and machine learning on previously tagged content to auto-suggest tags for new content. This has the potential to simultaneously streamline user workflows and improve alignment with initiatives.
We are leveraging the speed and scalability of Spark to train hundreds of NLP models across our customer base. After training, we can serve predictions for new pieces of content with a lightweight Python Flask app.
What process do you use for vetting and implementing new technologies?
Before investing in a new technology, we implement a well-scoped, time-boxed engineering spike. The spike — or spikes — serve as a proof-of-concept and vetting mechanism for practical considerations such as software dependencies, usability and cost. If the spike is deemed successful, then we will proceed to a first-cut MVP.
Travelers Haven takes a tech-driven approach to short-term housing, combining the expertise and personal touch of a full-service housing firm with the convenience and speed of a tech platform. Director of Engineering John Siladie gave us insight into how his team is keeping its product on the cutting edge, even 10 years after its founding.
Tell us about an interesting technical challenge your dev team faced recently. What impact did that challenge have on the business?
We recently started working on a new initiative to help consumers with their short-term housing needs, and this new paradigm required us to think differently about our technology and product development workflow.
We decided to write an entirely new front-end application in React for our consumer-focused product, which allowed us to iterate quickly on our MVP and get our application in front of our customers right away to get their feedback.
How do you help developers succeed when using technology they may not be familiar with?
Since React is a new technology for our team, we needed to ensure all our developers were on board quickly. One of our core values is "Never Failed, Only Learned." We learn together and share our findings to support each other when working with new technologies and frameworks such as React.


Dr. Charles Judge has been freeing people from pain since 1998 in his clinic at 3 Post Office Road, Suite 104 in Waldorf, Maryland. As a Chiropractor with experience, he is committed to promoting the health and well being of his patients.
Dr. Judge uses a "whole person approach" when taking care of his patients. By combining the very best hands-on-technique, state of the art physiotherapy procedures, and providing the newest and best natural vitamins and mineral supplements on the market today, Dr. Judge is able to help you to accelerate and/or maintain your journey to good health.
Doctor of Chiropractic with P.T.


This green anarkali with blue sleeves has hand embroiderey all over bodice to give it a festive look.
The antique Gold and Pearl C cut Jhumkas by Curio Cottage will look grand and royal. This is what sets the shine apart. A pinch of green in the jewellery is the key element.


Designed for local media, agency or other advertising oriented business wanting to expand participation beyond the membership platform. Consists of a minimum of four fully transferrable Professional level memberships (additional Professional level memberships available @ $225 each). Includes non-exclusive sponsorship of various AAFHR activities. Your company will be the Presenting Sponsor for one of the nine monthly luncheon events including logo representation and podium recognition. Your spokesperson will have 3-5 minutes to inform our guests about your company and its offerings. You can distribute informational brochures or other marketing materials to our guests. Your company will be represented as a Corporate Sponsor in all luncheon event publicity and promotion materials and be eligible for a 50% discount on any ADDY Award sponsorship package. Does not include tickets to ADDY Awards, Golf Tournament or additional social events.
Membership is transferable to any member of your organization. Includes food and admission to every meeting except the ADDY Awards and Golf Tournament, offers discount for ADDY entries, free job listings, web links and banners on the club website and AAF discounts.
Membership is non-transferable, offers member access to website, email alerts, discount to all club functions and events, free job listings, and AAF discounts.
High School and College Students. Membership is non-transferable, offers discount for ADDY entries, free job listings.
NETWORKING - Meet the folks who make the advertising business in Hampton Roads run.
PROGRAMS - Ten great programs. Educational, informative and yes, fun!
ADDY® AWARDS - Honoring the best creative work from our advertising community since 1939.
SCHOLARSHIPS - Annual Rising Star scholarships are awarded to local students who will someday follow in our footsteps.
LEGISLATIVE - We are represented at state, regional and national levels ensuring no counterproductive legislation passes.
RECOGNITION - Awarded annually to an outstanding member of the local advertising community.
PUBLIC SERVICE - Local market participation in the American Advertising Federation's national public service campaigns.
BENEFITS - Reduced cost life insurance, telephone service, rental cars, subscriptions and automatic membership in the AAF.


Peter van der Hijden has been Head of Sector Higher Education Policies at the European Commission DG Education and Culture. He has worked for many years on the Erasmus programme and the Bologna Process. Peter now works at DG Research and Innovation, where he deals with universities and researchers in the context of Innovation Union, European Research Area and Horizon 2020.
Peter has studied law at Nijmegen, Leiden and Maastricht University. Before moving to Brussels, he worked at Maastricht University as Vice Registrar of the University Council and Secretary to the Law Research Committee.


Facial recognition software can be very useful when it is used to check people's identities for security purposes, or to catch criminals by matching them against a video surveillance tape. Various types of this software are used by police, security services, passport control officers and other government departments.
There are also proposals to use this software instead of passwords at, for example, ATM machines. This type of software is already available to download into your computer. It uses your webcam in real time to scan your face and allow you into websites so you won't have to remember lots of passwords. Large employers can also install this type of software to safeguard your work computer from misuse by others. They can also attach it to employee time tracking software so that can log you in or log you out of your workplace except you.
Now the social networking site Facebook is going to implement facial recognition technology on its site. You will no longer have to 'tag' your own photos with your friends' names individually. The software will do it for you. One of the problems is that the default setting allows automatic tagging. This means that you will have to 'opt out', instead of having to 'opt in'. U.S. Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts is very concerned about this development and said "If this new feature is as useful as Facebook claims, it should be able to stand on its own, without an automatic sign-up that changes users' privacy settings without their permission". One of the reasons this development is worrying is that many people, especially young people, never even look at their privacy settings, never mind change them! This software may make them extremely vulnerable as even if they don't 'tag' themselves, their friends may be able to 'tag' them automatically regardless.
In the future you could take a photo with your camera phone of someone you don't know and upload it to your Facebook page and then find out their name. It is already technically possible for the software to link the photo to their name and for you to be able to see their page profile. However because "it's a very touchy subject" according to the product manager of Facebook Photos, Sam Odio, Facebook is not linking photos with page profiles at the moment. If or when they do, it would make it very easy for people with malicious intent to find out lots of information about someone and harass them over the internet or in person. Stalkers would have a field day as it would be almost impossible to find out who had information about you to use it against you.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, already believes that privacy is no longer a social norm. Facial recognition software combined with GPS and Google maps may mean that soon there will be no such thing as privacy. Even ten years ago police were able to use this type of software to scan crowds. At the 35th Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, the police, without the awareness of the public, found 19 people with outstanding arrest warrants by using facial recognition. Many people feel that the use of this technology, especially when it is used covertly in this way, is an infringement on personal freedom and liberty. They also believe it may be the first step on a slippery slope to a totalitarian society.
To guard your privacy be careful what you post and upload online. It will be there forever!


text:
Legislative elections were held in Cyprus on 6, 7 and 8 June 1883. They were the first elections to the newly established Legislative Council.

Background
The Legislative Council was formed in 1882, and consisted of six official members appointed by the High Commissioner and twelve elected members, three of which were Muslims and nine of which were non-Muslims.

Electoral system
The island was divided into three constituencies, each formed of two districts. Each constituency elected one Muslim and three non-Muslims. Muslim voters had one vote, whilst non-Muslims could vote for up to three candidates. Due to the high levels of illiteracy, voting was not secret, with voters required to tell the polling officers their candidates of choice, often in front of agents of the candidates.

Suffrage was limited to men aged over 21 who had been permanent residents during the five years prior to the election, and had paid either the verghi tax (which was levied as an annual payment of one four-thousandth of a property's value, 4% of rental income or 3% on profits or salaries) or rent for a dwelling or shop within the last year. However, of the estimated 40,000 taxpayers in the territory at the time of the elections, only those that had been able to pay their taxes on time were able to register to vote. A total of 21,073 voters were registered, of which 16,727 were Greek.

Campaign

Muslim
Mehemet Ali Fehim and Ahmed Rashid were the sole Muslim candidates for the Larnaca–Famagusta and Limassol–Paphos constituencies respectively. Both were elected unopposed.

The Nicosia–Kyrenia constituency was contested by three Muslim candidates from Nicosia, including Keoroghluzade Hussein Ata.

Non-Muslim
The Larnaca–Famagusta constituency was contested by six non-Muslim candidates; Sotiris Amfietzis (Mayor of Famagusta), Kyprianos Economides (Bishop of Kition), Richardos Matei (an agronomist and landowner), Theodoros Peristianis (a lawyer), Zenon D. Pierides (a trader) and Arthur Young, a British district commissioner.

The Limassol–Paphos constituency was contested by eight non-Muslim candidates; Christodoulos Karydis (Mayor of Limassol), Georgios Loukas (a teacher), Georgios Malikides (a trader), Christodoulos Modinos, Dimitrios Nikolaidis (a trader), Tourmousis Paschalidis (a trader), Dimosthenis Pilavakis (a landowner) and Kyprianos Economides, who was also running in Larnaca–Famagusta.

In Nicosia–Kyrenia, six non-Muslim candidates contested the three seats; Efstathios Constantinides (a professor), Paschalis Constantinides (a lawyer and money lender, and brother of Efstathios), Grigorios Dimitriadis (a landowner), Ioannis Pavlidis (a teacher), Michalis Siakallis (a grain dealer), and Richardos Matei, who was also running in Larnaca–Famagusta. Although the Governor of Nicosia had pointed out to the Registrar that Matei was not registered to vote and could not be a candidate, his nomination was accepted.

Results

Muslim seats

Non-Muslim seats

Aftermath
Kyprianos Economides (Bishop of Kition), was elected in both Larnaca–Famagusta and Limassol–Paphos. He informed the High Commissioner that he intended to keep his Larnaca–Famagusta. A by-election was subsequently arranged for 17 July, which was contested by Dimostheni Chatzipavlou, Michail Efthyvoulos and Georgios Loukas, a losing candidate from the original elections. Chatzipavlou was elected with 1,172 votes to 231 for Efthyvoulos and 45 for Loukas; voter turnout was just 24.6%.

Michalis Siakallis died within a year of the election, and a by-election was held in the Nicosia–Kyrenia on 4 March. Ioannis Pavlidis, who had finished fifth in the 1883 elections, was elected with 505 votes, defeating Nikolaos
Róssos (429 votes) and Theodoulos Konstantinidis (85). Voter turnout was only 16.1% of the 6,324 electorate.

Limassol–Paphos representative Dimostheni Chatzipavlou resigned from the Council in 1884. In the by-election on 5 November, Dimitris Pieridis was elected with 820 votes, defeating Ioannis Karemfylakis (175 votes). Voter turnout was 15.6% of the 6,533 electorate.

The final by-election of the Council's first term was held on 24 December 1885 following the resignation of Pieridis. Socrates Fragoudis was elected with 686 votes, defeating Karemfylaki (60 votes). Voter turnout was 15.4% of the 4,849 electorate.

References

1883 in Cyprus
Elections in Cyprus
Cyprus
June 1883 events

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
OPINION: European governments were cautious on AstraZeneca vaccines but they were neither stupid nor 'political'
John Lichfield
@john_lichfield
EuropefeatureOpinion & Analysisvaccine
Photo: Christophe Stache/AFP
It is the best of decisions and the worst of decisions. Everyone can claim to be right. Everyone is partly wrong, writes John Lichfield on the pausing of the AstraZeneca vaccination campaign across Europe.
The European Medicines Agency handed down its judgement on Thursday. The AstraZeneca vaccine is effective and safe to use. Most European countries which had suspended AZ vaccinations are expected to resume today or in the next couple of days.
But – despite what is being reported by some – the EMA did not dismiss out of hand concerns that AZ shots can lead to blood clotting disorders in perfectly healthy young people.
The agency said that there was indeed evidence of "a small number of cases of rare and unusual but very serious" clotting problems associated with AZ. Nonetheless, on balance, the EMA said, it had come to a "clear scientific conclusion" that AZ shots were safe to use. The huge benefits far outweighed the tiny risks.
Fair enough. Balance and clarity have been in short supply in this sorry saga until now.
Unfortunately, there is no sign that will change soon.
Were European governments wrong to suspend their AZ roll-out at the start of the week? The pause will undoubtedly have dangerous side-effects on vaccine resistance, and specifically AZ resistance, in European countries.
On the other hand, ploughing ahead regardless of the evidence of rare clotting disorders emerging in several places – in Norway, in Germany, in Austria and in Italy – might have had an even more calamitous effect on public opinion.
Let us, for once, be fair to governments. They were placed in a very difficult situation. France, for instance, where there were very few AZ side-effects, did not want to suspend an AstraZeneca programme which had just started to take wing.
President Emmanuel Macron was bounced into his decision by a domino-tumble of suspensions imposed by Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and others.
France is the most vaccine-sceptic country in the world. How could Macron say that there was no reason to stop briefly to think when all his neighbours were stopping briefly to think?
READ ALSO How worried should France be about its vaccine-sceptics?
Little of this was reflected in the coverage in the British media. With some honourable exceptions, the consensus view in the UK was that the EU was being "stupid" or seizing on flimsy reasons to attack the AstraZeneca vaccines because a) AZ was British or b) AZ had failed to supply the EU with all its promised doses.
In other words, it was all "political". In truth, it was the opposite. Politicians in a score of European governments decided, rightly or wrongly, that their political interest – the belatedly accelerating vaccine programme – must briefly give way to medical and legal considerations.
Only Belgium stood up to this trend. The Belgian government said that it would be "irresponsible" to interrupt an AZ vax roll-out which WOULD save thousands of lives because very rare side-effects MIGHT take a handful of young, healthy lives.
That was a courageous decision by Belgium but I don't think that it makes the decision taken by the others irresponsible. We live in a time of instant experts and easy answers but sometimes there are no easy answers.
It has been widely asserted in the UK media, and by the UK government, that there is no obvious connection between the AZ vaccine and clotting disorders. It is also asserted that such "thromboses" have actually been less common among the AZ-vaccinated than in the population as a whole.
Neither of these things, it now turns out, are true.
A Norwegian study found on Thursday that there was a clear link between AZ vaccinations and three youngish Norwegians who suffered rare brain thromboses or strokes, one of whom died. On Tuesday, Germany's health ministry of health said that there had been seven cases of "cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), including three deaths, among the 1.6m million Germans people who had received an AZ shot. That was three or four times higher than the normal rate.
Science magazine reported that in five countries 13 people aged 20 to 50 had suffered from widespread blood clots, low platelet counts, and internal bleeding. Seven had died. This was "more frequent than would be expected by chance".
"It's a very special picture" of symptoms, said Steinar Madsen, medical director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency. "Our leading haematologist said he had never seen anything quite like it."
I am not trying to start – or re-start – a scare story.
I think vaccination is great. I think the AZ vaccine is wonderful. One week ago I had my first shot in a French doctor's surgery. It was AstraZeneca. I have a history of blood clotting problems. I have no regrets that I took the shot. I'm looking forward to my second in June.
The EMA and Belgium are right. The need to vaccinate rapidly against Covid is so urgent that, on balance, a small risk of clotting problems is a risk worth taking.
But that's not so simple a choice as much of the British media – BBC included – would have us believe. Life-death accountancy is not straightforward.
Is it worth risking the lives of few young people who are broadly unthreatened by Covid to protect the lives of tens of thousands of vulnerable older people?
European governments had little choice but to stop to review the evidence. The easiest way to fuel anti-vaccine feeling in France – and probably other EU countries – is to create the impression that vaccination is a politico-industrial juggernaut which cares nothing for potential or actual side-effects.
Yes, EU countries are sometimes more risk-averse than Britain.
Yes, the UK has, so far, got away with, even hugely benefitted, from a series of risky short-cuts on vaccines.
Yes, the EU should find a way to make these common health decisions in advance, not after the damage is done.
Yes, President Macron and others were wrong to make baseless accusation against the AZ vaccine in the past.
Yes, the blood-clot scare will cause greater AZ-scepticism in the EU for a while (and then the effect will, hopefully, fade).
But for Britain to shout down understandable caution as "stupid" or "political" or "an EU attack on our vaccine" is foolish and hazardous.
John Lichfield is the former foreign editor of the UK's Independent newspaper. He also worked in Brussels covering the EU and spent 20 years as the France correspondent for the newspaper. He now writes opinion & analysis articles for a number of publications including The Local.
Rob - 24 March 2021 at 08:38 CET
I read a very long and detailed analysis of the issue with vaccine production and supply, especially as it relates to the AstraZeneca vaccine and the exclusivity clause that the British government inserted into their contract for supply (which is behind a large part of the supply issues into Europe). One comment that was made in that very long chain of discussion that is relevant here is this: Most EU countries take responsibility for the welfare of their citizens, and that demands caution when side effects were reported from this vaccine (as the side effects were statistically higher than expected). The UK government appears to have thrown caution to the wind and is willing to take risks with its population in its drive to get everyone vaccinated.
You can decide for yourself which approach you prefer…If you think the risk is acceptable…I suspect if you think it is, it will remain acceptable only so long as it is not you or your loved ones that fall victim to that risk…
steven6464 - 1 April 2021 at 19:00 CEST
Hi Rob. I think in reply I would say the view that the UK government has thrown caution to the wind and doesn't take care of its citizens welfare is inaccurate, indeed very harsh. It was the UK government that financed the development of this vaccine which holds huge distribution advantages over many of the others when it comes to a global vaccination program. Equally, they have pursued strong lock-down measures, even if a week late in the first wave. Surely their strong pro-active vaccination approach including the 12 week vaccination gap (so that more people get protection) fully supports just how much they are caring for public health.
The debate about this vaccines safety may continue for some time. Of course I understand that potential side-effects should not be ignored – that would be insane. But as at this time there is no proven link with the vaccine; indeed I have read (but not fact-checked) that the risk of clots is lower than that from taking the contraceptive pill. However what is for sure is the risk of hospitalization and death, even amongst the 18-49 year age group, from Covid, is significantly higher without being vaccinated.
Meanwhile the virus is again out of control leading to further EU lockdowns and further economic hardship which will bring its own repercussions. I noticed Merkel said "everything is based on one principal and that is trust". I wonder how many trust Sputnik V, a still unauthorised, adenoviral vaccine that may now be sourced from our beloved, trusted Russian friends.
Terrible times. I hope everyone can receive their jab asap, whichever one is offered.
steven6464 - 22 March 2021 at 22:58 CET
This vaccine has undergone rigorous trials in the face of a pandemic. It has been authorised by the WHO, the EMA and MHRA and after today's latest trials, shortly by the FDA. Macro et al should hang their heads in shame.
The EU "governments" have been both "stupid" and "political" sir, and many Europeans will now pay for it with their lives. The worst article I have read during this whole pandemic.
Mrs Cooper - 22 March 2021 at 13:03 CET
Why don't the authorities just get on with vaccinating the 'forgotten' tranche, and stop this pointless arguing about who's vaccine it is. All the while its not in somebodies arm its useless.
Johanna - 1 April 2021 at 16:18 CEST
Astrazeneca apparently changed name: Vaxzevria (previously COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca)
Why? I guess because too many young died, now people refusing. They hope it is quickly forgotten, in the weeks to come they only mention Vaxzevria, and no association with Astrazeneca, until the same happens………oops. All feels a bit dodgy, like a cover up.
Alan Mack - 22 March 2021 at 18:07 CET
Yes but you are extremely unlikely to end up in hospital or die from Covid – seems like a no brainier
I must comment on your statement that " most people react quite badly to it " that is the AZ jab. I live in the UK and know many, many people who have had the vaccine with no side effects other that a sore arm and/or feeling of tiredness.
I agree in an ideal world we shouldn't be injecting rapidly developed vaccines into people. However, I think you might have noticed that this not an ideal world and our chances of dying from Covid are massively higher than from a possibly resultant blood cot or any other possible side effect. But ultimately it is a personal decision and I respect people's decision not to have a vaccine although I really do not understand it !
Also a comment to the author of the article – the consensus in the UK is not that we think European decision making is stupid or political ( unless you take the " gutter press " seriously), we are just bemused by the lack of a clear plan and the constant smoke from various politicians trying to blame others for what has been a very poor vaccination programme from start to finish.
Johanna - 20 March 2021 at 18:09 CET
I have to donate to a less priviledged older person in Africa? Can you explain this opinion exactly please, because to me this does not make sense. It is the same as telling a child 'eat your bread because in Africa children do not have bread'.
It is the same as 'this vaccine is safe because the WHO or whoeverr says so. The drug companies do not make statements 'our vaccine is 100% safe', they make sure not to be reliable if something goes wrong. And nobody knows at this point in time or it is as safe as anyone wants you to believe. Short term? reasonable safe. Long term? ???? nobody knows.
Today they say A, tomorrow B, astrazeneca is today so safe that the french goverment does not allow it for under 55, while a week or two ago it was no good in the elderly. Are they crazy? maybe…… maybe they know more than we do………. maybe not crazy. Get a flower pull off the leaves, crazy, not crazy, crazy, not crazy, crazy etc. Time will tell…….
wow, I prefer not to have an injectable stuck in my arm without knowing long term side effects. Have you read the patient leaphley from Astra zeneca? I have even called them. They are unable to explain when feeling naussia is just a commen side effect (more often than 1 in 10 or when you urgently need to call in medical care. The answer is 'we do not suggest you take this vaccin nor do we say don't take it. I refuse Astra zeneca, you obviously trust whtever they tell you. First it was useless in the old, now healthy young people dropped dead and voila, France says only for those over 55. They say that because the who or whoever told them it is perfectly safe. I prefer not to have AZ simply because most people react quite badly to it, some say that's good, extra immunity, I think the reaction is too strong for most people and I think too this might trigger other responses, auto mmune problems later on. The fact that several healthy 20 to 50 year old dropped dead is something I find hard to accept as 'the price to pay for sociery. Another point is the goverment want everyone vaccinated, if they want that they might give people choice and not threaten 'if you do not take it now, your turn is last'. Well if they want it that way…… I wait. This strategy might be unwise because I am sort of a super spreader…….. by not changing my mask when I sneeze or cough, not poisoning myself with desinfected gel every time I enter a shop, by touching my mask, by being alife and breathing.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I'm drained into the words that play out in my head. I say it's just voices of the people who hurt me in the past, the voices I cut ties with. But in there the loudest voice is my own. I try to cut ties with the past me. I need to leave her behind and let her be stronger than she thinks she is. I need to stop feeding that part of me who still resents her. I need to learn to love that version of me. I need to forgive her for all the times she didn't fight. I need to fight now for her and prove to her that it was not wasted time all along. I need now more than ever to let all the parts of me unfold, even the parts I'm ashamed to face again. I need to face the little girl inside and tell her she was never weak, she just didn't understand. I want to tell her she wasn't cursed, only special. I need her to know that the loneliness is temporary. I need her to know that the real her is worth finding. I need her to know she did her best and it was enough. I need to tell her she never fails until she stops trying. I need her to know it'll be worth it. I need her to bring the hope back because mine is dying out.


Jefferson Vann reveals the significance of Jesus' promise of life to the woman at the well.
Next, we visited Jesus by night, along with Nicodemus, (John 3:1-21) and learned that this gift would be God's own Son, who would be lifted up like the desert snake,3 so that the ones believing in him might have permanent life.4 But those who do not believe will be condemned. Jesus did not go into detail with Nicodemus about the nature of that condemnation, but Nicodemus knew the fate of those Israelites who did not look in faith at the desert snake. They rejected the remedy. They died. They never made it to the promised land.
Then, we looked at the words of John 3:31-36, where we discovered there are two kinds of people. There are the believers (ὁ πιστεύων) in Christ, and the rejectors (ὁ ἀπειθῶν) of Christ. Only the believers will receive permanent life (ζωή αἱώνιος). The rejectors await God's wrath, which will destroy them.
The next time we encounter ζωή, Jesus is having another one-on-one conversation. He is at Jacob's well in Sychar of Samaria, and he sits at the well for a mid-day rest, and a drink of the water. A Samaritan woman approaches, and he asks her for a drink. The woman was actually surprised at the request, because Jews from other regions of Palestine made a point of avoiding Samaritans.
The first thing Jesus says in response to her surprise is "if you knew the gift of God…" John had already identified the idea of the Messiah being a gift given by God as a major theme of his Gospel. The Messiah was to give believers the right to become children of God.5 He was to give grace and truth.6 John explained that his prophetic gift comes from heaven.7 But that Jesus speaks the very words of God, because God has given him the Spirit without limit.8 Jesus is the Son, whom the Father loves, and has given all things into his hand.9 He himself is God's love gift, to be lifted up for people to believe in, so that they do not perish.10 So, John wraps up all of his "gift" ideas in the person of Jesus.
Here's where it gets interesting. Jesus tells this woman that she could have asked him, and he would have given her something called "living water" (ὕδωρ ζῶν).11 The word "living" is a participle form of the verb ζάω, which corresponds to the noun ζωή. This is the first time we encounter the verb in John's Gospel, but (as we have already seen) the noun has served as a marker for another major theme for John. Jesus is talking about that permanent life (ζωή αἱώνιος) that he had mentioned to Nicodemus. John frames his soteriology (doctrine of salvation) using this phrase.
Now, we have an advantage over the woman at the well, because we have already read John 3, but she has not. She does not have any of the background that I just mentioned. The only water she knew about was the water in that well, and she could see that Jesus did not even have a bucket with him. Even Jacob — whom she considered their mutual ancestor – needed to dig that well, and draw water from it.
Jesus was not at all ashamed of this woman's response to him. He wanted her to tell him where she was. That would give him an opportunity to share what he had to offer. He offered her a drink of the well, which was himself. He assured her that if she took a drink from him, she would never thirst again.
I should not have to remind you that this woman was a sinner – and a notorious one. She did not qualify to drink of the waters of the well of permanent life by virtue of her holiness.
The woman wants to avoid the real subject, so she falls back into an old controversy about worship, where the best place to worship is. The Samaritans had taken up the opinion that Mount Gerizim was the best place to worship since it had been the mountain where the Israelites had pronounced God's blessings upon the obedient.13 The Samaritans believed that God had met with Abraham here. Jesus answers the woman's questions about where the best place to worship is,14 so, she tries to avoid the real subject again by saying that when the Messiah comes, he will set everyone straight.
That's when Jesus makes one of his earliest declarations of his own true identity. He tells the woman "Ἐγώ εἰμι." Those two words were the same that God used to identify himself to the patriarchs.
When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, he told them "… "It is I. (Ἐγώ εἰμι) Don't be afraid."20 When the unbelieving Jews questioned him about his relationship to Abraham, he told them "Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am (Ἐγώ εἰμι)."21 When Judas came with the soldiers seeking to arrest Jesus, he told them "Ἐγώ εἰμι" — at which statement, they collapsed backward and fell onto the ground.22 When Paul was having his Damascus road conversion, and asked who it was who was speaking to him, Jesus said "Ἐγώ εἰμι Ἰησοῦς" (I am Jesus).
Jesus did not tell the woman at the well any of those things about himself that day. But he did tell her what she needed to know. He is the source of the living water that led to never thirsting again. He is the source of permanent life. She believed this truth that day, and brought her village to meet Jesus. She had been set free that day, and committed herself to the new task of supplying others with what they are thirsty for.
22John 18:5-6 (see also 18:8).
23John 6:35 CSB (see also John 6:41, 48, 51).
24John 8:12 CSB (see also John 8:18,24,28).
25John 10:7 CSB (see also 10:9).
26John 10:11 CSB (see also 10:14).


text:
PACKING MY LIBRARY
An Elegy and Ten Digressions
by Alberto Manguel
The archbibliophile writes nostalgically of his "last library," the most recent of a succession of collections that have defined him over a lifetime.
Now director of the National Library in his native Argentina, a post formerly held by Jorge Luis Borges, Manguel (Curiosity, 2015, etc.) professes to a certain discomfort at public libraries: he values the materiality of having one's own books in which there is no guilt taken in writing in the margins. He wholly endorses Petrarch's observation, "I feel that I have never enough books." Departing from Walter Benjamin's famed essay on "unpacking the library," Manguel writes of the heartbreaking challenge of boxing up the 35,000 volumes he housed in the Loire Valley of France, "a fantastic creature made up of the several libraries built up and then abandoned, over and over again, throughout my life." Benjamin had to abandon his own library under more fraught circumstances, a step ahead of the Nazis, but that does not diminish the elegiac quality of Manguel's slender book, made up of a main essay punctuated by 10 "digressions" that take in love of the book among peoples of the book, Shakespeare, Callimachus, and other tropes of bibliophilia and bibliomania. Borges figures, of course, and his spirit is always close to the main text as well, especially as Manguel takes up residence in the library in Buenos Aires and finds himself not just the book lover and writer of old, but also "accountant, technician, lawyer, architect, electrician, psychologist, diplomat, sociologist, specialist in union politics, technocrat, cultural programmer, and, of course, administrator of actual library matters." Add philosopher to that list, for the author closes with a meditation on what books have to say about how our lives are lived and governed, with a reminder that they "are reminders of better things, of hope and consolation and compassion." The tropes are well-worn, but the author brings a fresh hopefulness to the enterprise of books and reading.
Vintage Manguel—a pleasure for his many readers and admirers.
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24th, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15th, 2018
More Biography & Memoir >
More Essays & Anthologies >
MORE BY ALBERTO MANGUEL
ALL MEN ARE LIARS
HOMER'S THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY
THE SECRET SUPPER
by Javier Sierra
A READING DIARY
STEVENSON UNDER THE PALM TREES
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT BOOKS
by Leah Price
by David Denby
by Matthew Battles
by Larry McMurtry


text:
package org.glamey.training.concurrent;

import com.google.common.util.concurrent.RateLimiter;

import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

/**
 * @author zhouyang.zhou. 2017.07.25.11.
 */
public class RateLimiterDemo {

    private static final RateLimiter LIMITER = RateLimiter.create(2, 2, TimeUnit.SECONDS); //设置每秒可以处理的总量

    public void test() {
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
            double acquire = LIMITER.acquire();
            System.out.printf("强制等待的时间 %s%n", acquire);
            final int index = i;
            new Thread(() -> doIt(index)).start();
        }
    }

    private void doIt(int i) {
        int sleepTime = 2;
        try {
            System.out.printf("开始处理[%d],thread=%s,大概持续%d秒%n", i, Thread.currentThread().getName(), sleepTime);
            TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(sleepTime);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        RateLimiterDemo demo = new RateLimiterDemo();
        demo.test();
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
Coin & Numismatic News PNG Applauds Efforts to Battle Coin Doctoring, Monitors Suit
PNG Applauds Efforts to Battle Coin Doctoring, Monitors Suit
Professional Numismatists Guild
(Long Beach, California) — The Board of Directors of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) met in Long Beach, California on June 2, 2010 and issued the following statement.
The Professional Numismatists Guild Board of Directors applauds the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) in its efforts to battle the deceptive practice known as coin "doctoring." The deliberate, deceitful alteration of a coin can pose an egregious financial consequence to individual collectors, investors, dealers as well as the general public. PNG believes the unconscionable practice of "doctoring" is an enormous detriment to the numismatic marketplace.
We congratulate and support both Numismatic Guaranty Corporation and Professional Coin Grading Service for their diligent work to detect "doctored" coins, and encourage both organizations to continue to aggressively combat this assault on the hobby.
"Doctoring" of coins is a definite violation of the PNG Code of Ethics, Section 7, that prohibits members from "knowingly dealing in counterfeit, altered or repaired numismatic items without fully disclosing their status to my customers." "Doctoring" is also a violation of Section 4 of the PNG Code of Ethics that prohibits "misrepresenting the quality of a coin."
The PNG Board regrets that three of its member-dealers have been named among the defendants in a Federal Court Complaint filed May 28, 2010 by Collectors Universe, Inc., the parent company of PCGS. The PNG takes allegations such as the ones made by PCGS very seriously. The board will monitor the progress of the complaint and react promptly, appropriately and in accordance with the organization's bylaws.
Furthermore, in response to the recent influx of fraud related hobby concerns, the PNG board has pledged to revisit, review and update each and every ethical standard adopted by the PNG over the past 55 years.
In particular, the board acknowledges the need to clearly define the term "doctoring," in order to establish an enforceable criterion for its membership. The PNG board is unified in its resolve to nurture and maintain the PNG member-dealers' standards of excellence through a more proactive posture regarding egregious acts of fraud in the numismatic marketplace.
About PNG
Founded in 1955, the Professional Numismatists Guild is a nonprofit organization composed of many of the top rare coin and paper money dealers. For additional information, visit online at www.PNGdealers.com or call (760) 728-1300.
PNG Approves 3-Point Definition of Coin Doctoring
PNG Forms Coin Doctoring Definition Committee Headed by Albanese
PNG Formalizes New Coin Doctoring Definition
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