text:
Heesen Yachts is een Nederlandse scheepswerf in Oss die zich specialiseert in het ontwerpen en bouwen van luxe jachten.

Geschiedenis
Het bedrijf werd in 1978 opgericht door Frans Heesen, die tot dan toe producent van kunststoffen was. Hij kocht de failliete jachtwerf Grioss Aluboats op, gelegen aan de Burgemeester Jansenhaven, en zette de werkzaamheden voort als Heesen Shipyards. Eén jaar na de aankoop van de werf, toonde Heesen Yachts zijn eerste jacht van twintig meter, het grootste vaartuig dat de werf tot dan toe had gemaakt.

De echte doorbraak van Heesen volgde in 1988 met de bouw van een snel luxe jacht, Octopussy genaamd. Het schip van 44 meter werd aangedreven door drie MTU-motoren, die per stuk 3.500 pk leverden. Deze motoren leverden een snelheid van 50 knopen, waarmee de Octopussy het snelste motorjacht ter wereld werd.

In 2008 verkocht Frans Heesen het bedrijf, dat toen ongeveer 300 werknemers telde, aan de Engelse investeringsmaatschappij Topaz Investment International. Eén van de eigenaren daarvan is de Russische ondernemer Vagit Alekperov. In mei 2022 verkocht de Rus zijn aandelen in Heesen Yachts, en werd de Osse jachtenbouwer weer helemaal Nederlands.

Scheepswerf
De hoofdvestiging van Heesen Yachts is gevestigd in Oss, in de Nederlandse provincie Noord-Brabant. De scheepswerf beslaat een oppervlakte van 4,4 hectare en bevat negen constructiehallen en vijf droogdokken.

In de loop der jaren is Heesen Yachts flink uitgebreid. Na de eeuwwisseling kocht Heesen Yachts de kade aan de Burgemeester Jansenhaven in Oss, waarmee het mogelijk werd om hallen bij te bouwen. In 2003 werd hiermee begonnen. Dankzij verdere verbeteringen in 2015 en 2016 kan de Osse scheepsbouwer nu jachten opleveren van een lengte van 83 meter.

Behalve een vestiging in Oss heeft Heesen ook een productie-afdeling in Winterswijk. Bij die afdeling maken ze het interieur van de luxueuze jachten.

Grootste jacht ooit
In 2022 ging het grootste jacht van Heesen Yachts ooit, de Galactica, ter water. Het jacht kost 100 miljoen euro en heeft een lengte van 80,07 meter, een volume van 1.700 GT en een topsnelheid van 29 knopen. De Galactica beschikt over een volwaardig helikopterplatform, dat ook kan worden ingezet als outdoorbioscoop. Verder is er een lift van kristalglas, een 7 meter lang zwembad, een waterval en een beachclub met een verzonken bar.

Nadat de Galactica de werf in Oss verliet, moest het via de binnenwateren naar Harlingen om te worden afgebouwd. Tijdens de reis bleek het jacht dusdanig groot dat het met moeite onder enkele bruggen kon varen. De operatie trok veel bekijks.

Sponsorschap
In juli 2008 werd bekend dat het stadion van de Osse voetbalvereniging, FC Oss, hernoemd zal worden in Heesen Yachts Stadion, sinds medio 2011 is het stadion omgedoopt in Frans Heesen Stadion. Heesen is al langer hoofdsponsor van de Osse voetbalvereniging.

Vermeende fraude
In 2017 kwam Heesen Yachts in het nieuws doordat het bedrijf in verband werd gebracht met de Panama Papers. Eén van de jachten van het bedrijf, de Galactica Star, bleek in 2013 te zijn gekocht door de Nigeriaanse oliemagnaat Kola Aluko. Dat gebeurde via Earnshaw Associates ltd, een bedrijf dat is gevestigd op de Britse Maagdeneilanden, en ook opdook in de Panama Papers. Heesen Yachts ontkende het jacht direct te hebben verkocht aan Aluko of aan Earnshaw. Aan wie of welk bedrijf Heesen het bedrijf in juni 2013 dan wel heeft verkocht, maakte het niet bekend.

Rechtszaak dood werknemer
Op 6 april 2017 werd een medewerker van het bedrijf buiten bewustzijn aangetroffen in de boeg van een schip in aanbouw. De man was op die plek in zijn eentje aan het lassen in de onderste punt van de kiel. Hij overleed later in het ziekenhuis aan de gevolgen van het inademen van het edelgas argon.

In 2021 liet het Openbaar Ministerie weten Heesen Yachts strafrechtelijk te zullen vervolgen. Volgens justitie kon de scheepsbouwer de dood van de medewerker voorkomen door de ruimte, waar de medewerker werd gevonden, beter te ventileren. Heesen ontkende dit, omdat er genoeg ventilatie zou zijn.

In april 2021 werd Heesen Yachts door de rechter schuldig bevonden. Het bedrijf moest een boete van 100.000 euro betalen, en kreeg nog eens 25.000 euro voorwaardelijk opgelegd. Ook moest het in vakbladen een artikel laten plaatsen waarin stond dat het bedrijf de veiligheid van haar medewerkers niet goed had gewaarborgd.

Oorlog Oekraïne
In 2008 werd de scheepswerf overgenomen door de Russische ondernemer Vagit Alekperov. In de jaren na de overname groeide het bedrijf uit van een familiebedrijf tot een wereldspeler in de jachtindustrie. Vanwege de oorlog in Oekraïne, die eind februari 2022 uitbrak en nog steeds woedt, plaatsten veel westerse regeringen rijke Russen, die banden hebben of worden verondersteld te hebben met president Poetin, op een sanctielijst. Heesen vreesde dat ook Vagit Alekperov op dergelijke lijsten zou komen te staan.

Als dat zou gebeuren, zou dat verstrekkende gevolgen kunnen hebben voor de activiteiten van de scheepswerf. Hoewel de EU geen sancties tegen Vagit Alekperov heeft ingesteld (en dat tot op heden ook niet heeft gedaan), is hij door het Verenigd Koninkrijk wel op een sanctielijst geplaatst. Als gevolg daarvan konden belangrijke onderdelen die Heesen nodig had voor de bouw van zijn jachten, en die afkomstig waren van in het Verenigd Koninkrijk gevestigde bedrijven, niet langer worden geleverd. Als dat niet snel zou worden opgelost, zou dat ernstige gevolgen hebben voor het bedrijf. En als ook de EU Vagit Alekperov op de sanctielijst van de EU zou plaatsen, zou dat nog ernstiger gevolgen hebben voor de scheepswerf. Om deze mogelijke dreiging weg te nemen en de continuïteit van de scheepswerf te waarborgen, heeft Heesen getracht de eigendom van de scheepswerf over te dragen aan een onafhankelijke stichting. Om dit te kunnen doen, had Heesen echter de medewerking van een Nederlandse notaris nodig. Om die medewerking te verkrijgen (die aanvankelijk door de notaris werd geweigerd), spande Heesen een kort geding aan bij de burgerlijke rechter te Amsterdam, waarbij het bedrijf de rechter verzocht de notaris tot medewerking te bevelen. Ten tijde van het vonnis beschikte de rechtbank echter over onvoldoende informatie om de notaris tot medewerking te dwingen, zodat het verzoek van Heesen werd afgewezen.

Kort daarna, op 18 mei 2022, besloot de notaris dat er voldoende basis was om de eigendom van de scheepswerf over te dragen aan een onafhankelijke Nederlandse stichting. Met deze overdracht werden de toekomst en de continuïteit van Heesen veilig gesteld.

Trivia
 In 2020 werd een van de jachten van Heesen Yachts, de Cosmos, nagemaakt in Lego. Daarvoor werden ruim 12.000 steentjes gebruikt.

Zie ook

 Lijst van jachten van Heesen Yachts

Externe links
  Heesen Yachts
  Jachten gebouwd door Heesen Yachts

Scheepswerf in Nederland
Economie in Oss

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Let them stay together. In the last YEARS, I have seen quite often that users, when installing a product such as PXC, instead of spending five minutes to understand what to do just run iptables -F and save. In short, they remove any rules for their firewall.
With this post, I want to show you how easy it can be to do the right thing instead of putting your server at risk. I'll show you how a slightly more complex setup like PXC (compared to MySQL), can be easily achieved without risky shortcuts. iptables is the utility used to manage the chains of rules used by the Linux kernel firewall, which is your basic security tool. Linux comes with a wonderful firewall built into the kernel.
As an administrator, you can configure this firewall with interfaces like ipchains — which we are not going to cover — and iptables, which we shall talk about. iptables is stateful, which means that the firewall can make decisions based on received packets. This means that I can, for instance, DROP a packet if it's coming from bad-guy.com. I can also create a set of rules that either will allow or reject the package, or that will redirect it to another rule. This potentially can create a very complex scenario.
3306 For MySQL client connections and State Snapshot Transfer that use the mysqldump method.
4567 For Galera Cluster replication traffic, multicast replication uses both UDP transport and TCP on this port.
4568 For Incremental State Transfer.
4444 For all other State Snapshot Transfer.
When an endpoint is down it may indicate that the corresponding service is stopped (run 'pmm-admin list' to verify).
check the firewall settings whether this system allows incoming connections from server to address:port in question.
For Ubuntu you may need some additional steps as for (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/IptablesHowTo#Using_iptables-save.2Frestore_to_test_rules) There are some nice tools to help you even more, if you are very lazy, like UFW and the graphical one, GUFW. Developed to ease iptables firewall configuration, ufw provides a user friendly way to create an IPv4 or IPv6 host-based firewall. By default UFW is disabled in Ubuntu. Given that ultimately they use iptables, and their use is widely covered in other resources such as the official Ubuntu documentation, I won't cover these here.
Please don't make the mistake of flushing/ignoring your firewall, when to make this right is just a matter of 5 commands. It's easy enough to be done by everyone and it's good enough to stop the basic security attacks. Happy MySQL (and PXC) to everyone.


text:
Leading a Software Development Team: Guidebook for CTOs and Team Leaders
Leading a Software Development Team
4 Examples of Companies That Have Mastered Digital Innovation
Meet four companies that were operating long before the digital era and have successfully embraced digital transformation to beat their competition and establish themselves as leaders.
readtime
Example H2
The 21st century will be remembered as the era of digital transformation. According to IDC, 40 percent of all technology spending will go toward digital transformation efforts, exceeding $2 trillion by the end of 2019. Companies are embracing digital transformation not just to gain a competitive advantage. They understand that those who fail to master digital innovation are destined to become obsolete.
Master digital innovation or become obsolete
An analysis by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute, revealed that only 12 percent of the companies that made the Fortune 500 list in 1955 still appeared on it in 2016, which shows how easy it is even for the largest and most prosperous enterprises to fall into obsolescence by failing to adapt to new technology quickly enough.
But despite understanding the critical importance of digital innovation, most companies still struggle with their digital strategies, with 78 percent of nearly 4,000 CIOs worldwide rating their digital strategy as either moderately effective or worse, according to the 2018 KPMG Harvey Nash CIO survey, the largest IT leadership survey in the world in terms of number of respondents.
"While we see progress on customer experience, organizations have not kept pace on building the necessary capabilities in operations, IT-business relationships, vision, engagement, and governance," explains global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation Capgemini in its report titled "Understanding digital mastery today."
This article is not about struggling companies, and it's also not about the Amazons and Alibabas of the world. Instead, it's about companies that were operating long before the digital era and have successfully embraced digital transformation to beat their competition and establish themselves as leaders in digital innovation.
Examples of digital innovation
1. Domino's
Anyone who's familiar with Domino's' digital strategy probably isn't surprised to see the American pizza restaurant chain occupying the top spot on our list of companies that have mastered digital innovation. Founded in 1960, Domino's has become one of the most celebrated comeback stories of the business world, and for a very good reason.
"Domino's is a technology company disguised as a marketing company disguised as a pizza company," a JP Morgan analyst famously said. In the 90s, when most other pizza companies were just starting to become aware of the existence of the world wide web, Domino's was already working tirelessly on establishing its online presence, launching its first website in 1996 and making it part of its company culture.
Online and mobile ordering were introduced by Domino's 11 years after that, the revolutionary Domino's Tracker debuted in 2008. Considering that Domino's annual revenues rose from $5.6 billion to $9.6 billion, it's safe to say that Domino's was doing something right at the time.
Recently, the company embarked on the journey of rebuilding from scratch the software used to run the stores and handle orders. The new platform will be powered by .NET, which was just upgraded to its sixth version. If you're thinking of using digital innovation to level up your business .NET 6 might be the way to go, talk to our .NET 6 experts and see if it's the right fit.
2. The New York Times
To understand the struggle of print media, all you need to do is look around the next time you're on the subway during rush hour. What you'll inevitably see are rows of heads glued to their phones, watching YouTube, messaging with friends, looking at memes on Reddit, and reading online articles.
With such a broad range of content available with a few simple taps of the screen, there's simply no room for newspaper companies like The New York Times anymore—or so everyone thought until The New York Times proved them wrong with their mastery of digital innovation.
According to an earnings report from the newspaper company, digital subscription revenue increased 40 percent year-over-year, and there are now over 2.2 million people who are paying for the digital edition of The New York Times, representing almost 70 percent of the total subscriber base.
"We have become a very data-driven company. We've built what I think is a very productive partnership between data, technology, and our partners in consumer revenue to actually put more control in their hands as well," described Tristan Boutros, SVP & COO for Digital Product, Strategy, and Design. "We've had to undertake a big systems transformation in order to truly drive a cross-platform experience for our customers that delights."
3. Walmart
"The Walmart brand is at the center of a new ecosystem which integrates shopping, services, health and wellness, and first party and marketplace e-comm," Oliver Chen, a managing director and senior equity research analyst covering retail and luxury goods, wrote in a memo to investors. "Walmart is seizing the moment to transform through innovation and utilization of unique store, grocery, and people assets."
Why is Walmart doing all this? Because it knows that only those who embrace digital innovation to improve their services can survive Amazon. The Walmart mobile app is now blending e-commerce with traditional retail by allowing customers to add up the costs on their shopping lists before they get to the store and then guiding them to items on their list once they get there.
Walmart is also doubling down on robots, using them for various repeatable, predictable, and manual tasks, such as mopping up floors, identifying which items are low or out of stock, and even unloading boxes off delivery trucks. This will inevitably eradicate some jobs, but Walmart's CEO Doug McMillon believes that more attractive jobs will be created to replace them.
4. Ikea
The Swedish furniture retail company has been recognized for its digital transformation efforts on multiple occasions, from its online catalogs and home planners to digital product design to virtual reality show booths. Keenly aware of the astronomical growth of the Internet of Things, Ikea now offers a broad range of smart home products, which includes smart plugs, smart lightbulbs, smart speakers, and smart window blinds.
The company would like to have a zero-emission delivery fleet in select locations by 2020, and possibly in all markets by 2025. In the future, self-driving delivery vehicles could be used to deliver Ikea products directly to customers' homes, along with the same amenities Ikea offers in its stores.
Known for its flat-packs, Ikea saw an opportunity to go beyond self-assembly, which is why it purchased TaskRabbit, an online and mobile marketplace that matches freelance labor with local demand, in 2017, bolstering its digital customer service capabilities to better compete with rivals. All this and more shows a remarkable ability to evolve and adapt, a key prerequisite for digital innovation.
Inspired by these examples of digital innovation?
Not all companies have what it takes to survive and thrive in the long run—that's how it's always been, and that's how it always will be. Today, digital innovation has emerged as the biggest differentiator, and there are already many companies whose digital strategies have proved wildly successful. The rest can either embrace digital transformation as well or get ready to perish.
https://images.idgesg.net/assets/2018/01/state_of_the_cio_01_ciod_winter_final.pdf
http://www.aei.org/publication/fortune-500-firms-1955-v-2016-only-12-remain-thanks-to-the-creative-destruction-that-fuels-economic-prosperity/
https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2018/06/harvey-nash-kpmg-cio-survey-2018.pdf
https://www.capgemini.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Digital-Mastery-Report_Digital.pdf
https://www.hottopics.ht/28259/dominos-cmo-on-digital-technology-innovation-transforming-his-marketing-strategy/
https://www.from.digital/insights/new-york-times-winning-digital
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2018/10/22/walmart-doubles-down-on-its-transformation-into-a-technology-company/#25085233404c
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/09/business/walmart-robots-retail-jobs/index.html
Marcin Dryka
Matt Warcholinski
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mini Reviews: Island Games, The Crown Jewel Mystery, and Found in Time
Posted by Laura at Library of Clean Reads on May 04, 2018 in Anne Elliott Caleb J. Boyer Charles Veley J.K. Kelly YA Book Reviews | Comments : 1
I've been reading a lot of books lately and don't always feel the need to write an in-depth review of them all. Here are a few that were quick reads:
Island Games by Caleb J. Boyer
Lasting Press
Category: Middle-Grade, 192 pages
Content rating: G
I like supporting young writers and was impressed that this book was written by a 12-year-old boy. It was a quick read and fairly entertaining, suitable for an audience of 8-10 years of age. Best friends Matthew and Ryan wake up on a deserted island, without their memories and have no clue why they are there. They realize they must work together to survive and are tested in what turns out to be a series of games. The novel is an admirable debut for a young writer but was lacking in character development, realistic dialogue and plot resolution. With a good editor, however, I can see this young writer developing his craft to become a successful writer.
The Crown Jewel Mystery by Anne Elliott and Charles Veley
Wilton Press
Category: Adult fiction, 113 pages
Genre: Mystery novella
After reading one of the books in this series, I was eager to read this novella that is a prequel to The Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Mystery series. It was a fast, exciting read, as we are introduced to Lucy James, a brilliant and spunky heroine who gets caught as a hostage during a bank robbery. Having grown up as an orphan in an American boarding school, she was on a quest to discover who the anonymous donor to her upbringing could be. She then finds herself in a dangerous predicament and as the plot unfold we get to see what her connection to Sherlock Holmes might be. An engrossing, entertaining and delightful read. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
Found in Time by J.K. Kelly
J.K. Kelly Consulting LLCPublished: Oct 17, 2017
Genre: Time Travel, Sci-fi
Content rating: PG-13
I was looking forward to this time travel story that promised to be exciting, but unfortunately, it wasn't what I expected. It started out good but then just didn't seem to be going anywhere. The characters spent way too much time drinking and cussing in bars, and after 50 pages, I just lost interest.
Martha Eskuchen May 7, 2018 at 12:15 AM
I was interested in your thoughts on all three of these, especially Island Games.
Glad you enjoyed the novella. Too bad the time travel didn't work out.


This pretty deciduous fern needs normal border to moist conditions.
Narrow frond bears massed pinnae either side of the rachis. These pinnae are contracted into slightly flattened balls giving the appearance of a necklace of green beads.


text:
NYC Makes Bizarre Move in Landmark Case
Monday, the Supreme Court was all set to hear a case that could alter the future of gun control, a topic they've avoided in the past decade. New York City had added a law to the books that restricted where gun owners could take their weapons. The law did not allow anyone to take their guns outside of their home in the city to another gun range or address.
US Supreme Court takes on gun control debate for the first time in nearly a decade, hearing a dispute over a NYC gun restriction that could have major implications for gun rights nationwide. https://t.co/datlIJdOIa
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 2, 2019
Before the hearing could take place, NYC repealed the law, so it didn't seem like there was anything for the SCOTUS to rule over. The justices chose to hear the case, but may still deem it moot. This may seem like a win, but it's temporary and doesn't mean NYC doesn't have overly restrictive gun laws. Citizens (who must be licensed or certified) can transport their guns outside the city, but cannot stop to visit anyone along the way.
The law itself isn't really the point. States and cities keep creating more restrictive gun laws, but the SCOTUS could limit those efforts in one ruling. And that's what gun owners and protestors alike are looking for. If the SCOTUS makes a sweeping decision pertaining to gun laws, it could limit or expand local abilities to make their own gun laws.
Stay tuned, because we'll certainly keep you updated on the efforts and results of this case, which could impact gun rights across the US.
~To Your Survival!
How to Stop Porch Pirates From Ruining the Holidays
Black Friday Scams to Avoid
Protect Your Lungs From Wildfire Smoke
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The Most Important Survival Tool You Need


Do Lovedolls Dream of Babies?
The various ideas which are considered are divided into two ways, such as "how to create an artificial figure like a human " or "how to create a life by human cell".
There are many appearances in all parts of the world to have myths of a robot, what we call, an android and narratives of a doll with a human heart . In these days, development of android robots with the artificial intelligence has been proceeding.
In the field of reproductive medicine, technology of the gene manipulation to control life more highly study constantly, it's getting possible to give a birth by the artificial uterus. Moreover these divers attempts with state-of-the-art technology are anticipated the birth of "the android who can become pregnant ".
The android as"an artificial human figure " can be someone who asks us the way of "The Future Mother"on the facing the new decision under the circumstances of "in vitro fertilization ""surrogate mother "and "designer baby".


Eddie Waters nearly fell out of his seat.
Eddie, a long time friend of the LSO had always the same seat at the front of the stalls. in fact Eddie was so keen he often turned up when we were on tour. New York, Florida, Paris, Berlin and even Tokyo. He like to sit near the front; he said he liked to see the whites of the players eyes. Always very elegant with his long flowing hair and bottle green velvet jacket.
On this particular morning we were rehearsing William Tell Overture. I'd invited Eddie to the rehearsal. The Barbican Concert Hall was empty except for a solitary Eddie sitting in the mid stalls. Not the usual place for him, but then its not everyday that you get a whole symphony orchestra to yourself.
But for Eddie wasn't to know. Its been long time tradition for orchestras (in rehearsals only) to stamp their feet twice in the bars rest. of course. if you've only ever heard a concert performance or listened to a recording you will have never heard this. Poor Eddie nearly fell out of his seat.


text:
by Christina Dalcher
Following the release of her breakout hit, VOX, Christina Dalcher returns with MASTER CLASS, a terrifying work of speculative fiction set in an America much --- too much --- like our own that asks how far we are willing to push ourselves to achieve perfection.
In the world of MASTER CLASS, everyone has a Q score. Your Q is determined by your intelligence, earning potential, the zip code in which you reside, the career of your spouse or parents, and a slew of other details that add up to success. Stressful enough for adults, the standardized testing that comes with figuring out a child's Q has the potential to turn otherwise happy, curious children into numb, mindless robots. Even worse, the slightest drop in a score can alter their future forever. Score high, and you can attend top-tier schools from elementary school onward, guaranteeing yourself entry into a prestigious college, potential pairings with other geniuses, and a golden future. Score low, and you are bussed off to a federal boarding school where you can watch your prospects shrivel up and die.
The purported goal of this new system is to lower the costs of education, focus on the students with promise, and allow teachers to hone their talents on only the brightest and best. But the twisted reality means that the federal schools --- yellow schools --- are becoming overcrowded and forgotten, and the highest ranking schools --- silver, then green --- are pushing unreachable standards onto impressionable children.
Elena Fairchild is aware that there are flaws to the system, but why should she worry? A teacher herself, she knows that standardized tests are stressful and hard, but has no trouble passing them. With a PhD and a successful husband, she boasts a remarkable 9.73 Q, and has no reason to doubt that her daughters, Anne and Freddie --- bolstered by their parents' genes, incomes and support --- will continue to test firmly in the 9 and above range. But Elena has a secret.
"Dalcher has penned a horrifying work with devastating real-world ties that is both thought-provoking and thrilling.... Poignant, chilling and painfully self-aware, MASTER CLASS is another eye-opening read from an author who is not afraid to ask the hardest questions imaginable --- and force her readers to answer them."
On the morning that nine-year-old Freddie throws a fit and begs to stay home "sick" to avoid the latest round of testing, Elena already has a lot on her mind. Her husband, Malcolm, who once seemed so brilliant and confident, has become elitist and smarmy. As Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Education, the new system is not only championed by him but was created, in part, by him and acts as a physical manifestation of his own insecurities and ideals. Malcolm adores his eldest daughter, 16-year-old Anne, who looks up to him and has no trouble acing every standardized test thrown her way, but has largely begun to ignore Freddie, who seems to be on the autism spectrum. She is by no means unintelligent, but learns and grasps concepts differently than Anne and struggles with anxiety that pushes her into dissociative states. In other words, she's a nine-year-old who has just been told that the test she takes on the first Friday of the month can determine her entire future. No pressure, right?
Alternating between the day Freddie bombs her test and is sent away to a yellow school in Kansas and her early relationship with Malcolm, Elena walks readers through not only the course of her marriage and motherhood, but the beginnings of the Q system and the ways that the Department of Education has come to run the country. Through her eyes, we watch as suggestions --- "Parents of children with Q scores below eight points are encouraged to consider yellow schools" --- become directives, until each and every child is sorted according to their Q ranking. As more and more parents and educators "hop on the commonsense train," the education system becomes more standardized and far less humane. And now, with no warning whatsoever, the system has claimed Elena's daughter.
As she grapples with the news and considers her disgust for Malcolm, Elena reveals that she has not always been so complacent and content to live within the system. As she explains, mothers-to-be are heavily encouraged to have the Q scores of their babies tested, even in utero. If you are unhappy with the potential Q of your fetus, there are clean, brightly colored clinics where you can "take care of it." After all, who wants to raise a child with no hope for a successful, happy future? Isn't it more humane to take them out of the race before they can lose? But when she was pregnant with Freddie, Elena couldn't push herself to take the test and faked a promising result, knowing that Malcolm would force her to terminate any pregnancy that could result in a subpar child. Now Freddie is paying the price --- and Elena will do anything to rescue her from the education system.
With the fire of a mother, the gumption of a detective and the fearlessness of a warrior, Elena fights against the system until she, too, is sent away to teach at a yellow school --- the same one where her young daughter has been taken. She expects old classrooms and bland food, but what she finds is far more like a prison than any school she has ever seen, and now must save not only Freddie, but millions of children like her.
Though MASTER CLASS reads like a thriller, it moves quite slowly for the first third. I am not sure that I would have kept going had I not read VOX and knew the sort of brilliance this author is capable of. Elena's relationship with Malcolm was a particular low point of the novel. Dalcher gives him almost no redeeming qualities, and it is difficult to understand how a man so sniveling and wretched was able to woo Elena or wield any power over his colleagues. He is so villainous in all of his manners that he reads more like a caricature; I could practically see him twisting his mustache with every jab and punishment. I wish this portion of the book had been just a bit more fleshed out so we could see exactly how Elena fell into her situation, but the payoff was worth it in the end.
Dalcher has penned a horrifying work with devastating real-world ties that is both thought-provoking and thrilling. As Elena, a woman who has largely benefited from the system, starts to fight against it, every flaw and shortcoming is exposed in a way that completely rocks her worldview. Dalcher reveals the twisted fine print of the Q system so slowly and insidiously that it is impossible not to compare it to our own education system and the ways that it has failed those who are not white, upper-middle-class and gifted. But the real horror of the book comes in the form of eugenics. Slowly, carefully and brilliantly, Dalcher explains the real master plan of the Q system: to breed a master race of humans that are as intelligent as they are healthy, as self-reliant as they are subservient...and remember, this is set in America.
Poignant, chilling and painfully self-aware, MASTER CLASS is another eye-opening read from an author who is not afraid to ask the hardest questions imaginable --- and force her readers to answer them.
Reviewed by Rebecca Munro on May 1, 2020
Publication Date: March 9, 2021
Genres: Dystopian, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Women's Fiction
Publisher: Berkley
Christina Dalcher


A police task force investigating suspicious disappearances of several men in Toronto's gay village believed there was reason to expect "the worst" as early as August 2017, months before Chief Mark Saunders assured the public there was no evidence the disappearances were the work of a serial killer.
In fact, the day before Saunders' dismissal of the spreading fear, his officers had secretly broken into the apartment of Bruce McArthur, their prime suspect in a series of presumed murders, to search for evidence in their widening probe.
On Jan. 18, 2018, police announced the arrest of McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed Toronto landscaper. He is charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of men linked to Toronto's gay community.
According to court documents released Wednesday, members of the task force, codenamed Project Prism, had noticed a pattern between men vanishing from the village: They were all middle-aged with facial hair and self-identified in the gay community as "bears," a term for a "larger, hairier man who projects an image of rugged masculinity," police documents say.
Each spent time at the Black Eagle Bar on Church Street and each disappeared on a holiday.
At that point, investigators believed five men were missing, though eventually the tally would rise to eight.
Manherz was requesting a judge's order to compel Google to hand over data for two email addresses related to Andrew Kinsman, the last of McArthur's alleged victims to go missing. Kinsman, 49, went missing on Pride Weekend in 2017. Police noted the other missing men also disappeared on holidays: Selim Esen on Easter, Majeed Kayhan on Thanksgiving, Skandaraj Navaratnam over Labour Day and Abdulbasir Faizi over Christmas.
The Project Prism documents, all filed by investigators to convince judges to allow search warrants, offer glimpses inside the final stages of the investigation that captured the alleged serial killer. A vetted and heavily redacted version of police and court records was ordered released Wednesday by Ontario Court Judge Cathy Mocha after a request by media organizations including Postmedia.
The documents show the extent of police interest in McArthur and his alleged killings, more so than Saunders let on.
On Dec. 5, 2017, police officers covertly entered McArthur's Toronto apartment at 95 Thorncliffe Park Dr., but soon had to scramble out after a detective monitoring McArthur warned them he was heading home.
Two days later, police investigating suspected murders returned to the apartment, heading straight for a room they believed to be McArthur's bedroom, quickly searching it and copying electronic devices.
Whatever police found inside — pages on the results of their search are redacted — it did nothing to dismiss McArthur as a suspect.
The next day, however, Saunders gave his public statement debunking rumours of a serial killer stalking the gay village.
"It's one thing for an investigator to believe something, it's another thing for it to be evidence to move something forward," Gray said, adding that she spoke with lead investigator Acting Insp. Hank Idsinga, who agreed there was no concrete evidence proving the serial killer theory at the time.
"There's no contradiction to what the chief said at his news conference," Gray said.
The police investigation was hampered, at least to some degree, by a reluctance of some in the community to come forward to police, the documents say.
Skandaraj Navatnaram (left), Majeed Kayhan and Abdulbasir Faizi (right) went missing between 2010 and 2012.
One witness in the investigation into Esen's disappearance, who police found during their probe, told a detective he did "not come forward of his own accord, because he was concerned the police would 'out' him," an officer wrote.
This is the second recent release of thousands of edited pages of police and court documents on the investigation.
The batch released last Friday dealt with three victims — Navaratnam, Faizi and Kayhan — whose disappearance between 2010 and 2012 led to the launch of a Toronto police probe in November 2012 called Project Houston.
That project was closed without any arrests 18 months later, even though investigators seemed certain at least two of the men had been murdered.
The even larger batch of documents released Wednesday related to a subsequent police probe, called Project Prism, that was launched in August 2017, adding two more missing men to the list: Kinsman and Esen.
McArthur's alleged victims include the five men whose disappearances were investigated in the two probes and three additional men: Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi and Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam.
All of the men died between 2010 and 2017, Toronto police say.
Detectives uncovered a horror show: The dismembered remains of seven of the dead were recovered from large planters at a Toronto home where the alleged serial killer had worked; remains of the eighth were found later in a ravine behind the property.
Members of the LGBT community condemned police for not warning citizens that a serial killer might be loose in the gay village.
Saunders has since announced an independent external review into how the force handles missing persons cases.
The documents reveal various twists and turns of the police probe — including the widening and narrowing of suspects — and the evolution of McArthur from a "person of interest" to a suspect and finally an accused killer.
"This is an investigation that was slowly built over time." Det.-Const. Joel Manherz wrote in one recent warrant application.
The arrest of McArthur led police to investigate seven of his friends and family members as possible accomplices, going so far as to search some of their homes, the documents reveal.
"During the course of the investigation a number of McArthur's friends and family members were identified and the possibility was explored that they could have participated with him in the offences alleged," says a sworn police affidavit dated April 12, 2018 — three months after his arrest.
The next passage of seven bullet points, however, was redacted prior to the documents being released.
The redacted documents do not name those police looked into as possible suspects and those who might shed more light on McArthur himself.
Police said McArthur's estranged wife and his son were not cooperating with the probe.
"We are making efforts to trace McArthur's movements since he became an adult, however our efforts have been hampered by Janice and Todd McArthur's unwillingness to talk to police," police said in court documents filed in April 2018.
Officers said that McArthur's son was facing criminal charges and his bail stipulated he was to live with his sureties, which included his father. During police surveillance of McArthur from September to December 2017, investigators found his son worked landscaping jobs with him each week, usually Tuesday through Friday. On days they worked together, police said, Todd generally stayed at his father's apartment.
Police note Todd McArthur has more than 30 criminal convictions, primarily for harassment-type offences. McArthur's daughter, Melanie, has no criminal record. Investigators found signs of a close family – Facebook photos of family dinners and a Niagara Falls trip – despite the fact that McArthur separated from his wife in the late 1990s. Phone records obtained by police showed that, of all McArthur's contacts, his daughter and his former wife were among the people he called most frequently (ranking fourth and fifth respectively). The names of his other top contacts were redacted in Wednesday's documents.
The documents highlight the first time McArthur was identified as "a person of interest" in their probe, but that tantalizing heading is followed by three pages of numbered points of information all removed before the documents were released.
By Sept. 1, 2017, police were taking a hard look at McArthur as their prime suspect.
An officer spoke to the landlord of McArthur's apartment building at 95 Thorncliffe Park Drive, where he had lived since 2007. Tenants needed a key fob to get into the building or into the underground parking, where McArthur had two reserved parking spots. Management gave police the access logs for McArthur stretching back to June 14, 2017, the documents say.
The times and dates of his comings and goings were then used by police to isolate security footage from the building. Detectives took excerpts of the video and still frames as part of their investigation. Police also cross-referenced the apartment entry data with cell phone records.
Ontario's Ministry of Transport listed him having two registered vehicles and three previous addresses for McArthur, all of which are redacted.
On Sept. 5, 2017, police stepped up their investigation of McArthur by starting mobile surveillance on him.
He was under police monitoring "in one capacity or another," up until his arrest on Jan. 18, 2018, police say.
The surveillance help police "determine who his associates were, who his landscaping clients were and where he spent his time," but other things detectives note about the surveillance results are redacted.
In September 2017, police asked for McArthur's phone record to figure out whether McArthur was a suspect or not.
In asking the judge to order the phone records, Manherz said investigators needed to figure out McArthur's routine: Did he normally stay in the Toronto area, but leave town on the evening of Kinsman's disappearance? And what about when Selim Esen went missing?
On Sept. 14, 2017, tracking devices were placed on both of McArthur's vehicles and on Nov. 2, 2017, police obtained a rare transmission warrant — allowing police to track McArthur's movements through use of his cell phone and to identify persons he is communicating with whenever he uses his cell phone.
On Nov. 8, 2017, McArthur became an official murder suspect, with officers naming Kinsman as the victim. Officer started to follow him on "almost a daily basis," not only to learn more about him, but to protect the public from harm.
Soon after, police watched McArthur visit Agincourt Mall, deviating from his usual landscaping routine, and learned that he was working as a mall Santa on weekends and the week leading up to Christmas.
In December, police were given authority to surreptitiously enter McArthur's apartment up to five times to covertly copy data from his electronic devices and search the apartment for clues.
It was during these searches that officers had the close call when McArthur returned home; the tracking monitors gave officers enough warning to leave undetected.
After McArthur's arrest, police searched McArthur's apartment and scooped up was a large cache of electronic equipment — computers, several phones, hard drives, a digital audio recorder, USB drives, an iPad, iPod, compact discs, memory cards and others.
McArthur is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.


Project managers and site admins can send notification emails to active project members directly from the GUI. Login to CONS3RT and select a project that you manage. Click on the button next to "Manage" and select the "Email Members" option from the dropdown menu. Enter your message in the pop-up menu and click "Send" when complete.


Top episode as ever. It was interesting to hear about the 'director's cut' - well, I'm far to mean to but it. I like this sort of thing as an extra, but not a thing of itself. The Pro-Teen stuff was a highlight, but all those OMG!s would drive me bananas.
Fantastic work Doug, both here on the site and filling in on the show. It's good knowing we have a backup should I ever enter witness protection.


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Staff and learner voices inform our thinking
Giving greater voice to staff and learners was a recurring theme in the feedback gathered during the Reform of Vocational Education consultation in 2019.
Te Pūkenga is committed to making sure staff and learners are empowered and have a strong voice. This commitment will ensure we are responsive to the needs of all regions of New Zealand and their learners, industries, employers, and communities.
Work is continuing to confirm the process that will establish staff and learner committees, so these groups are directly represented on the Te Pūkenga Council. Once staff and student committees are in place a representative from each committee will be nominated and become a full member of Te Pūkenga Council.
We ran a series of workshops with staff and learner representatives and unions. Alongside this, a survey was shared with all network staff during October to gather wider input on the committee and election process.
The survey asked for comments about who should be represented in the staff committee, what the election process could look like, understanding of the committee purpose, and how the committee should operate.
Almost 700 staff from across New Zealand responded to the survey. Their responses confirmed that the opportunity for staff voices to be heard through these committees was really important. Responses also confirmed that representation needs to reflect all staff groups - academic, administration, learner support roles and others, with recognition that the committees needed to reflect the ethnic diversity of our workforce.
Feedback on the election process reinforced the importance of the elections being established and run in a way that will not be influenced by senior management at subsidiary organisations. A number of respondents felt it was important to make sure that the process was carried out in a way that ensures regional representation is very strong, so this voice can be heard.
In terms of how the committees operate and their focus, the key theme which was highlighted through the survey was a desire for the committees to be two-way channels for communication and consultation. The value of this group being a recognised voice for those they represent, while also being empowered to take information back to their teams and share it, was strongly reflected in the feedback.
Following the survey, some time is being taken to make sure the election process and committee establishment will be carried out in a way that aligns with staff feedback and is fit for purpose and for the future.
The creation of the staff and learner committees will occur alongside the establishment of the Māori committee which is also well underway.
As an interim step, existing staff and student unions continue to have a regular timeslot within Council meetings to give voice to their ideas and issues directly.


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David Irving, Holocaust denier, Hitler apologist, and at one time a respected historian, has been around for decades touting his abhorrent beliefs, long before 1993, when Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz), Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, published Denying the Holocaust: The growing assault on truth and memory. In 1996, after the book was published in the United Kingdom, Irving filed a case in the English High Court against Penguin books (Lipstadt's UK publishers) and Lipstadt herself. He accused her of writing about him in such a way that misrepresented his beliefs and undermined his reputation as an historian. Specifically, she had accused him of being racist and anti-Semitic, and had deliberately falsified evidence to support his thesis that there were no gas chambers, no Holocaust, and indeed no campaign to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
Lipstadt decided to take him on; to win, the burden was on her to prove that what she had written was true. Her British legal team was led by Anthony Julius (Andrew Scott) who represented Diana, Princess of Wales in her divorce. The barrister was the hard-drinking, heavy-smoking, impeccably tailored, and utterly brilliant Richard Rampton (Tom Wilkinson). Both Wilkinson and Scott are superb: restrained, witty, eloquent, and always compelling. They have the best lines in David Hare's excellent script.
Lipstadt's legal team, to her horror, tell her they will not be calling any survivors to the stand. 'But they are the proof,' she says. Irving will be representing himself, they explain, and he will ridicule any survivors in cross-examination. Also, they add, no one's memory is complete: it will not be difficult for Irving to trip these people up on small, even irrelevant details. She remains unconvinced until they show her a film clip of Irving with a survivor. It is a distressing scene, but they make their point. And they won't be putting her – the expert and the accused – on the stand either. It is her case, but she's not allowed to speak. She disagrees with their approach, but retains them nonetheless.
This is a thoroughly absorbing film about the intricacies of the law and the differences between opinion and belief on the one hand, truth and facts on the other. It shows, convincingly, that fake facts and alternative facts are deliberate lies, and if such are used to support a thesis, that thesis is false. It is a film that also demonstrates that all opinions are not equal, and along the way it shows the importance of an independent judiciary. In short, Denial, about events that happened nearly twenty years ago (the case went to court in 2000), a film finished before Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, is extremely relevant today.
Timothy Spall portrays a truly convincing Irving. Even when everyone says he is wrong, he knows he is right; he doesn't even need to speak, his facial expression speaks for him. It is testimony to Spall's brilliance that he evokes Irving so well – a man with a physical presence and bearing that Spall in no way approximates. Spall's Irving is terrifying, beguiling, likeable, hateful – all at once.
Weisz has a harder task with the overly emotional Dr Lipstadt. The character is neither as complex as Irving nor as interesting as the lawyers and their strategies. Weisz provides a creditable performance given the limitations of the role.
A minor strand of the film shaped around a Holocaust survivor (Harriet Walter) is overwrought, wincingly so. Every now then there are shots with a hand-held camera in an unnecessary and unsubtle attempt to ramp up the temperature. And while the statue of Queen Boudicca on The Embankment was probably part of Lipstadt's London experience during the trial, this monument, representing fight and determination, comes across as heavy-handed and clichéd. But these are relatively insignificant quibbles in an otherwise admirable film.
Denial (Entertainment One), 110 minutes, is directed by Mick Jackson and based on the book History on Trial: My day in court with a Holocaust denier (2005) by Deborah Lipstadt.


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Home People on the Move Shana Daby Joins Greystone's FHA Underwriting Team
Shana Daby Joins Greystone's FHA Underwriting Team
Daby's Expertise in Affordable Housing Will Support West Coast HUD Originations
NEW YORK, June 13, 2017 — Greystone, a real estate lending, investment and advisory company, today announced that Shana Daby has joined as a Managing Director and Deputy Chief Underwriter within the FHA lending team. Ms. Daby brings 14 years of real estate finance industry experience to Greystone and will focus on HUD affordable housing transactions, particularly in the Western U.S.
Prior to joining Greystone, Ms. Daby was a Managing Director and Deputy Chief Underwriter at Barings Multifamily Capital LLC. She also held previous FHA underwriting roles at ACRE Capital LLC and CWCapital (acquired by Walker & Dunlop). Additionally, she spent six years underwriting tax credit equity investments at PNC Bank. At Greystone, Ms. Daby is based in the Vancouver, WA office and reports to Nikhil Kanodia, COO of Greystone's FHA lending group.
Ms. Daby earned a Master's degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University and undergraduate degrees in Finance and Spanish from the University of St. Thomas.
"I am thrilled with the opportunity to help grow Greystone's West Coast HUD presence, especially in the affordable housing sector, which is an area of focus for both FHA and Greystone," said Ms. Daby. "Greystone's commitment to leveraging technology in new and innovative ways, and constantly refining its due diligence processes is totally transforming the client experience through FHA underwriting and I am excited to be a part of such a dynamic team," she added.
"Shana is an underwriting marvel who blends the unique combination of underwriting expertise with big picture vision, understanding what we need to focus on today in order to be the absolute market leader in a year from now, 5 years from now, and 20 years from now," said Mordecai Rosenberg, head of Greystone's FHA lending business.
"We are already achieving levels of speed and efficiency that are simply unprecedented in the industry, and all of the credit goes to the phenomenal team we have built and continue to grow. Shana is clearly in the category of 'best-of-the-best' and will be instrumental in continuing to propel Greystone to new heights," he added.
About Greystone
Greystone is a real estate lending, investment and advisory company which consistently ranks as a top commercial lender. Our range of services includes commercial lending across a variety of platforms such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, CMBS, FHA, USDA, bridge and proprietary loan products. Loans are offered through Greystone Servicing Corporation, Inc., Greystone Funding Corporation and/or other Greystone affiliates. For more information, visit www.greyco.com.
FHA Underwriting Team


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Home » WWE News » Roman Reigns Says He Doesn't Like CM Punk & Doesn't Know Many People Who Do
Roman Reigns Says He Doesn't Like CM Punk & Doesn't Know Many People Who Do
by H Jenkinson September 29, 2020 September 29, 2020 at 1:54 pm
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CM Punk is a controversial character. Some fans love his brazen attitude, but others might not give the best referral.
Loaded Management podcast recently spoke to Roman Reigns where he discussed Phil Brooks in a very blunt manner. The Tribal Chief and The Second City Savior could lock horns in the ring someday, but if that doesn't happen Reigns might not be too broken up about it.
Roman Reigns said that he doesn't like CM Punk, and he doesn't know many people who do. If Punk ever returned, a contest against the Universal Champion is a dream match. He's about putting business before anything, so it if happens Reigns knows it is a big money match fans would want to see.
"All the way from someone as big as The Rock to someone like CM Punk – someone who really hits home with our audience and hardcore fans. If you've watched wrestling for the last 10-15 years and love it and it's in your blood, then you probably have some kind of feelings about that guy. I know I do. Just by doing one of these things, he made my job a lot harder. If it's something that the fans can get behind and can sink their teeth into and really dive into the creative with us, then I'm willing to do it."
"I don't like the guy. I don't know many people who do. I just don't know many who do, but I'm willing to put business first and make really good content if that's the case. He'd probably have to be slapped around a few times in order to get his mind right, but if he's willing and the fans and audience are going to like it and be into it, then most likely I'm going to be into it."
CM Punk has given zero indication that he is interested in a return to the ring. Roman Reigns probably doesn't have to worry about facing him anyway, but it's very interesting to hear him speak on the matter.
Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the quote
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Alberto Del Rio Kidnapping & Sexual Assault Trial Starting Next Week


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Can The Red Sox Get Their Game On And Redeem A Slow Start To Season?
admin May 17, 2022 4 min read
It's not been an ideal start for the Boston Red Sox. With more than 20 losses already on their record this season, they're in the dregs of the AL East standings, and it's a bad look for one of baseball's most recognizable franchises.
As passion for the team is always present and Massachusetts sports betting bonuses and platforms may come to the state this year via a bill that's already passed the Senate, both those inside and outside the organization hope Boston can turn things around.
So can the Red Sox rebound after a slow start to the season?
Red Sox have proven they can win
Despite its shortcomings, this team has still proved this season that it knows how to win.
Take Boston's 11-3 win over the Texas Rangers on May 14. The Red Sox had an offensive outburst, scoring double-digit runs and earning their first series win in a month. J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers both hit home runs, giving fans the type of excitement that has been sorely lacking this season.
And in the game prior, a 7-1 win for Boston, Xander Bogaerts made a play that wouldn't be eye-catching in the scorebook, but helped spark the Red Sox to a four-run burst in the sixth inning, just one of several positive moments for the team that weekend.
"We scored all those runs, but it started with a hustle play (by Xander Bogaerts)," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, according to NESN. "That kid at shortstop, for everything we've been going through, he shows up every day, and he plays hard. Broken bat, ground ball to short, he hustled to first and he changed the game with that play."
In those wins over the Rangers, the Red Sox saw the type of team they know they can be, and the type of success they know they could have before it's too late this season.
"Nothing has changed," Cora said after the 11-3 win, according to The Associated Press. "Just we got off to a bad start, and we know where we're at."
"We're getting there," he added, per the news outlet. "Good at-bats. Bottom of the lineup did an amazing job … Kept the line moving. It was another good one for the offense."
Martinez, Devers and Bogaerts could be key to Boston's possible turnaround. They are three of the team's strongest hitters, and Martinez in particular is a wizard at both smacking hits and otherwise getting on base.
If the Red Sox expect to turn their game around, they will need to focus on consistent, base-to-base offense as much as power hitting, and Martinez can certainly help the cause there.
And Boston certainly has the will to win. Cora even shaved his beard in the hopes it would help his team stop its skid.
"If we win 10 in a row, it's on me because I should have recognized that before," Cora said jokingly, according to ESPN.
Turnaround could happen in June
If the Red Sox need a specific opening to help truly gain momentum, it could come in early June.
Boston will face the Oakland Athletics on the road from June 3-5, squaring off against a team that's also seen its share of disappointments this season.
Oakland has also lost more than 20 games already. Its fans are frustrated, as lack of winning, front office mismanagement and other issues have left them feeling hopeless still early in the season.
"It's an unfortunate situation for everyone," infielder Jed Lowrie said, according to The New York Times. "As a pro, as a big leaguer, you have to do your job. We understand there are grievances, but that's above my pay grade. Hopefully it can get solved. Let's put it this way: it has to be solved."
No one series can solve all of a franchise's woes, but dominating another team can surely help. The Red Sox are a much larger brand and have arguably a more talented roster than the Athletics, so there's always reason to expect Boston to cruise past Oakland when they meet.
Doing so would not only help Boston's spot in the standings, but maybe its confidence, too. If the Red Sox haven't already turned a corner and started winning by then, the opportunity to kick off that process may be given to them on a silver platter once June rolls around.
The MLB season is a long one, with plenty of chances for twists and turns in any team's story. Whether it's against the Athletics or at any other point in the campaign, the Red Sox are due for a turnaround, and it just may happen for one of the league's most storied teams.
Cora won't have to worry about shaving his beard any more if it does.
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Theatre is being used to provoke discussions on inequality and exclusion in a project run in collaboration between Dr Nigel Eltringham, Reader in Anthropology at the University of Sussex, and Dr Shana Swiss and Professor Paul Heritage of the People's Palace Projects, a research centre in the Drama Department at Queen Mary University of London.
Stages, directed by Shana Swiss and supported by the Peace Development Fund and National Lottery Awards for All, is a practice-based enquiry into how performance can be used to stimulate reflection on 'othering' processes that lead to discrimination, violence and social exclusion.
The project enables people to experience the power that theatre has to clarify issues, challenge attitudes and develop solutions. It also aims to develop citizen activism and community engagement with decision makers and power holders, while increasing the understanding of the processes that lead to exclusion and those that mobilise behaviours that challenge discrimination and embrace difference.
Having spent 20 years researching the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Dr Eltringham is interested in the role theatre can play in alerting audiences to the surreptitious presence in the UK of attitudes and processes characteristic of genocide. He is collecting research data during the devising, rehearsal and performance of the dramatic pieces.
Each performance in the project uses 'The Ten Stages of Genocide' model, developed by Greg Stanton of Genocide Watch, as a catalyst for dramatic content. The model presents the risk factors of genocide as a process with phases that can be identified early, challenged, resisted and interrupted.
Using this model, groups collaboratively create performances that address inequality and social exclusion, reflecting local realities and sparking conversation.
The first performance for the project, Stage 3, devised by students from Queen Mary University working with theatre director Dr Canan Salih, premiered in July 2018 at Rich Mix (Bethnal Green) as part of 'Tafahum', an Erasmus-Funded project in Tower Hamlets which brings young people and decision makers together to address concerns for the community.
Just ten minutes long, the play addressed the process of being categorised based on race, age and socio-economic background, placing participants in positions that question their perceptions of power and powerlessness. The production was strongly linked to young people's sense of belonging and citizenship rights.
Stage 3 will be performed next in Brighton (14 October), Dover (20 October), and Hastings (3 November) as part of Safe Passage's Our Turn campaign, whose goal is to resettle 10,000 child refugees in the UK over the next 10 years. This initiative was inspired by the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport, when Britain rescued 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi Europe on the eve of WWII. Further performances are planned in Harwich, Southend-on-Sea, and London.


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Q: How to change the default bullet style in Powerpoint 2013? How do I set a custom bullet style as default, which can be used anytime.
OS - Win 7 (64)
Office 2013
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Doping at the Games: Why the Olympics Banned These Drugs
By Sara G. Miller
Doping drugs
(Image credit: lazyllama / Shutterstock.com)
For Olympic athletes looking to boost their athletic prowess, the wide world of doping drugs provides ample opportunities.
Very competitive athletes are vulnerable to the idea that drugs may help them gain a "secret edge," said Tom Hildebrandt, a psychologist and the director of the Appearance and Performance Enhancing Drug Program at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.
There's also a belief that "everyone's doing it," whether they are or aren't, Hildebrandt said. This makes doping seem normal, he added. [The 'Doping Arms Race': How Athletes Evade Testing]
Indeed, doping violations have been found in every sporting class in the Olympics, said Rhonda Orr, a senior lecturer in exercise and sport science at the University of Sydney in Australia. (A sporting "class" is a broad category that includes several disciplines. For example, the cycling class includes road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking and BMX.)
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) maintains an extensive list of substances and methods that might increase performance and that are banned during competitions, and in some cases, banned for use even when athletes aren't competing.
WADA rules apply not only during the Olympics, but also other high-stakes competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, the Tour de France, and international tennis competitions.
Here is a look at what's been banned from the Olympics, and how these substances and methods are thought to work in the body to give athletes an edge.
(Image credit: Satyrenko/Shutterstock.com)
The big ones in this group are the androgenic steroids; these are the drugs that come to mind when you think of steroids.
Androgenic steroids work by binding to the body's androgen receptor. There are two naturally occurring compounds in the body that normally do this: testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. These compounds are made in the body from cholesterol, which is converted into the hormones through a series of steps. But when making the compounds in the lab, chemists can construct other chemicals that resemble either testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, by similarly binding to the androgen receptor.
The androgen receptor is found throughout the body, but it plays a primary role in how muscles make protein, Hildebrandt said. When a compound successfully binds to the receptor, it signals to the body to make more muscle.
But building up muscle isn't the only effect of taking androgenic steroids; they also have a more immediate effect, Hildebrandt told Live Science. The steroids can increase the amount of heat-shock proteins in muscle, he said. These proteins help protect the muscle cells during very intense exercise, such as weightlifting or sprinting, Hildebrandt said.
Growth factors and peptide hormones
(Image credit: RomanenkoAlexey/Shutterstock.com)
Growth factors, such as growth hormone, are substances that primarily act on muscle and bone to, as the name implies, promote growth. More technically speaking, these substances promote cells to replicate, Hildebrandt said. The end result is bigger muscles.
Another compound that falls into this category is erythropoietin, also known as EPO and compounds that act in the same way. But instead of stimulating muscle growth, EPO tells the body to make more red blood cells, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency. More red blood cells mean the blood can carry more oxygen to muscles, which enhances performance. Using EPO is sometimes called "blood doping."
This group of drugs may present the biggest challenge to Olympic officials, Orr told Live Science.
The trouble is that these drugs include naturally occurring hormones, which "present more complexities for detection than drugs from the other classes" do, Orr told Live Science.
Indeed, a blood test for growth hormone "has been a long time coming," Hildebrandt said, but researchers have finally come up with one, he added.
For some other substances, such as insulin-like growth factor-1, no test has been sanctioned yet, Orr said.
Beta-2 agonists
(Image credit: Kues/Shutterstock.com)
Beta-2 agonists are typically found in asthma inhalers, where they act to help relax the muscles of the bronchial tubes (which connect the windpipe to the lungs) when a person is having an asthma attack. For athletes who have asthma, the WADA does permit the use of inhalers.
But when certain beta-2 agonists are taken orally, rather than inhaled, the drugs can have a different effect: These drugs enhance an athlete's performance by preventing muscle from breaking down, Hildebrandt said.
The benefits of preventing muscle breakdown are twofold: First, preventing breakdown makes it easier for athletes to build up their muscles, Hildebrandt said. Second, blocking muscle breakdown can help athletes with endurance, he said. And with greater endurance, athletes can avoid muscle fatigue, he said.
Hormones and metabolic modulators
(Image credit: Rocksweeper/Shutterstock.com)
This is another category of drugs that act on an athlete's muscles, Hildebrant said. Similar to beta-2 agonists, the primary effect of these substances is to prevent muscles from breaking down, he said.
One way to prevent muscle breakdown is to lower the amounts of hormones in the body that normally do just that. The stress hormone, cortisol, is the body's natural primary player in this breakdown.
The substances in this category may, for example, lower the amounts of cortisol in the blood, Hildebrandt said. This can give athletes an edge in the final push of an event, he said. For example, if cortisol levels are lower, a sprinter wouldn't feel as much of a burn in his or her muscles in the last segment of the race, he said. This way, the sprinter doesn't have to fight as hard to get the same output, he added. [5 Experts Answer: Is Hormone Replacement Therapy Safe?]
Diuretics and masking agents
(Image credit: Guschenkova/Shutterstock.com)
Diuretics, which make a person produce more urine, can help athletes shed unwanted water weight before a competition. But athletes also sometimes use these compounds to help flush other drugs from the body, so that these compounds don't show up in urine tests, Hildebrandt said.
In this way, diuretics act as what's called a "masking agent," a substance that's used to cover up, or mask, the presence of other doping drugs in a lab test, he said.
The WADA also bans other substances that act as masking agents.
(Image credit: Mikael Damkier/Shutterstock.com)
Stimulants can give athletes a "psychological edge," Hildebrandt said. These are drugs that increase a person's energy, attention and focus, he said. For a tennis player in a 5-hour match in which each stroke matters, for example, stimulants could provide a boost, he said.
Narcotics & cannabinoids
(Image credit: Dean Drobot/Shutterstock.com)
Narcotics, which are drugs such as opioids, and cannabinoids, which include marijuana and marijuana-like substances, may seem like odd choices for people whose aim is to enhance athletic prowess. However, the substances in this category are banned because of their pain-blocking abilities.
Athletes taking these drugs can compete through pain that would force other people to give out, Hildebrandt said. For types of sports where the amount of pain an athlete has to endure matters (think boxing or wrestling), blocking pain could give a person an advantage, he said.
(Image credit: Peter Bernik/Shutterstock.com)
Glucocorticoids are forms of stress hormones and are related to cortisol, Hildebrandt said. They play a role in what's called "general arousal" in the body, he said. Think of the fight-or-flight response: A person's heart rate and blood pressure go up, and he or she feels "amped up," Hildebrandt said. For athletes, this means they become more primed to act and can respond to things quickly, he said.
Nonapproved substances
(Image credit: Phattana Stock/Shutterstock.com)
The name "nonapproved substances" may appear redundant, as none of the substances banned by WADA are approved for use by athletes. The nonapproved substances category, however, represents a broader class of substances: those which are not approved for any reason for human use, Orr said.
These include drugs that are still in clinical trials, discontinued drugs, designer drugs and even veterinary drugs, Orr said.
The substances that athletes are willing to use in order to gain an edge are expanding, presenting a challenge to Olympic officials as they attempt to keep up with testing, Orr said.
Banned Methods
(Image credit: angellodeco/Shutterstock.com)
In addition to banning drugs, WADA also bans several performance-enhancing techniques, the most familiar of which is blood doping. Injecting drugs like EPO is one way to ramp up your body's supply of red blood cells, but another way is to simply remove some amount of your own blood (as is done during blood donation), and then later inject it back into your body.
Athletes sometimes train at a high elevations, where the lower levels of oxygen trigger the body to produce more red blood cells. Such training isn't banned, but sometimes athletes then store some of their blood that has extra red blood cells, and re-inject it before a competition, Hildebrandt said. This practice is banned, because it gives these athletes extra red blood cells to carry more oxygen to their muscles,.
Blood doping has been around for a long time, and labs do have a way of testing for it, Hildebrandt said. Basically, they look for a higher-than-usual amount of red blood cells in a blood sample, he said.
WADA also lists "gene doping" as a banned method for athletes. In theory, gene doping would involve modifying the genetic pieces of muscles to give athletes an advantage; however, this technique isn't ready for use just yet, Hildebrandt said.
Sara G. Miller
Sara is a staff writer for Live Science, covering health. She grew up outside of Philadelphia and studied biology at Hamilton College in upstate New York. When she's not writing, she can be found at the library, checking out a big stack of books.
Cryptic lost Canaanite language decoded on 'Rosetta Stone'-like tablets


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How much money does a Rockette make?
What are the height and weight requirements to be a Rockette?
Who is the oldest Rockette?
Is there a black Rockette?
Do the Rockettes have other jobs?
What do Rockettes eat?
Who is the first African American Rockette?
What is the average height of a Rockette?
Are the Rockettes all white?
Will the Rockettes tour in 2020?
How often do the Rockettes perform?
How long is Macy's Day Parade?
How did the Rockettes start?
Has Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade been Cancelled?
Is the Christmas Spectacular Cancelled?
Typically, each Rockette receives a paycheck of between $1,400 and $1,500 each week. Because these famous dancers only perform seasonally, this only amounts to between $36,400 to $39,000 per year. The Rockettes do receive their benefits year-round, though.
Do the Rockettes have a weight requirement?
In terms of personal stats for each of the Rockettes we know a few things. Each of the Rockettes must be between 5ft., 5.5 inches and 5 ft., 10.5 inches tall and must be able to kick over their heads. Conservatively estimated weight per Rockette: 100 lbs.
The requirements for being a Rockette are to be 5'6″-5'10.5″ tall and proficient in ballet, jazz and tap. If a dancer does not meet those height requirements, it is out her control.
What is the average age of a Rockette?
Many of the Rockettes are young mothers, Snow said. During the rest of the year, the Rockettes — who range in age from 18 to 41, work in a variety of professions — perhaps as teachers, yoga instructors or dancers on Broadway.
Jane Finnegan Pearson
How many Rockettes are there 2020?
There are a total of 80 Rockettes—40 Rockettes in each cast, and only 36 of us perform onstage at a time. Each cast has four "swings" who can fill in the spots for nine of the women on the line. 10. We Rockettes need to be a certain height.
Jennifer Jones (born August 1, 1967) is an American dancer and actress. In 1987, she became the first African American Radio City Music Hall Rockette.
How much does it cost to see the Rockettes?
Prices vary by date; for example, you can expect to pay between $45 and $150 per person for a ticket during the month of November, but tickets closer to Christmas fall in the range of $65 and $220. The price includes a facility surcharge of $6, which is used to help pay for the cost of running the box office.
Some of the women actually teach classes when they're not Rockette-ing. Several work at dance cardio hotspot Body By Simone in New York City, while others are yoga instructors or teach other group fitness classes. 3.
Do the Rockettes actually sing?
In recent years their show has become increasingly athletic (and a hint sexier), with more kick lines and aerobic dance routines. Rockettes tend to get asked back year after year, which makes it one of the steadiest gigs in the business — and one of the few gigs for jazz and tap-dancers who don't also sing.
Throughout the day I eat protein and carbs, and treats are important," says Cichra. Her favorites: chocolate covered strawberries and pizza. Sometimes, if their Instagram photos are to be believed, the Rockettes even splurge on cupcakes. Even with their voracious appetites, the dancers still lose weight.
How many black Rockettes are there?
Now, one of six black and bi-racial women in the 2019 Christmas Spectacular — three in each cast — Pierce hopes audiences embrace women of color as part of a cohesive whole, "It's important to see a group of strong, inspiring, confident women working together, no matter what color," she said.
Is there a dress code for the Rockettes?
You can wear just about anything there. No dress code. Like any other theater, people dress from jeans to suits. Most people wore dress pants or dress jeans and nice tops or sweaters.
The Rockettes need to be a certain height – between 5'6" and 5'10 ½". It may look like all the dancers are the same height, but they're not. They stand on stage in height order to create the illusion by placing taller dancers in the center of the line with the dancers gradually decreasing height on either side.
Where do Rockettes dance?
Discrimination and lack of diversity The Rockettes were created in 1925, but the first non-white Rockette, a Japanese-born woman named Setsuko Maruhashi, was not hired until 1985. The Rockettes did not allow dark-skinned dancers into the dance line until 1987.
What shoes do the Rockettes wear?
The Rockettes all wear custom LaDuca shoes that for some numbers are painted to match their skin tone, and Capezio tights that are shade-matched, too.
The Rockettes' 2020 Christmas Spectacular is canceled over Covid-19 concerns. (CNN) There will be no Rockettes kickline on the Radio City Music Hall stage this holiday season for the first time in its nearly 90-year history.
Who are the current Rockettes?
Get to Know the New 2018 Radio City Rockettes: Maile Makaafi, Sophie Silnicki, McKenzie McGrath and Emily King. to hear from them about their audition experience, their early introductions to the Rockettes, and the best advice they received from senior Rockettes. 1.
The 36 women can fit shoulder-to-shoulder along the 66-foot stage. They perform eight dance numbers per show, up to four shows daily, 200 shows a season. The show produces 350 laundry loads weekly. Rockettes must stand between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-10 1/2 and be proficient at tap, jazz and ballet.
Will the Rockettes perform this year in the parade?
"We look forward to welcoming audiences bac
k for the 2021 production, which is on sale now," it said. So far, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which also features the Rockettes, has not been canceled.
The three-hour parade is held in Manhattan, ending outside Macy's Herald Square, and takes place from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thanksgiving Day, and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1953. Employees at Macy's department stores have the option of marching in the parade.
Are the Rockettes performing in the Thanksgiving Day parade?
The Radio City Rockettes perform at this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Radio City Rockettes are a precision dance company.
The origins of the Rockettes, the world's most famous precision dance team, can be traced to 1925, when impresario Russell Markert of St. Louis, Missouri, billed a group of women dancers as the Missouri Rockets. Following a positive reception locally, the dance team began a nationwide tour.
Do Rockettes have to be a certain height?
We Rockettes need to be a certain height. Each of us has to be between 5'6″ and 5'10½" and must demonstrate proficiency in tap, jazz, and ballet.
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Has Been Cancelled 3 Times Since 1924 — Why 2020 Wasn't The 4th03:41.
Is Radio City Music Hall shutting down?
Bankruptcy and threat of closure Alton Marshall, president of Rockefeller Center, announced that due to a projected loss of $3.5 million for the upcoming year, Radio City Music Hall would close on April 12.
"We regret that the 2020 production of the 'Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes'" has been canceled, Madison Square Garden Entertainment said in a statement, citing "uncertainty associated with the Covid-19 pandemic." …
How many seats are in the Radio City Music Hall?
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Street Trauma is a mixtape by English hip hop collective D-Block Europe. It was released on 27 December 2019. The album was BPI certified Silver on 19 March 2021.

Release
In early December 2019, rapper Young Adz announced on his official Instagram that the group would release their next mixtape on 27 December 2019.

Singles and charting songs
"No Cellular Site", the mixtape's only single, reached number 29 on the UK Singles Chart. Two other songs, "Creep" and "Molly World", charted the week of the mixtape's chart debut, reaching numbers 53 and 63 on the UK Singles Chart, respectively.

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

2019 mixtape albums
D-Block Europe albums
Self-released albums