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Home/Lifestyle/Philippines to revert to pre-pandemic entry rules for fully-vaccinated travelers
Philippines to revert to pre-pandemic entry rules for fully-vaccinated travelers
Rossy Wanda Send an email Mar 30, 2022
As per the latest developments, the Philippines will be reverting to pre-pandemic entry rules for fully vaccinated foreign nationals from visa-required countries; the same would come into force from April 1.
Referring to this, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Kristian Ablan stated that foreign nationals may enter the Philippines without the need of an entry exemption document (EED), provided they comply with applicable visa requirements, immigration entry and departure formalities.
While addressing a conference, Ablan added that nationals must be fully vaccinated, except for children below 12 years old, who are travelling along with their fully vaccinated foreign parents.
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He also added that foreign nationals entering the country must present a negative RT-PCR test taken within 48 hours, acceptable proof of vaccination, or a negative laboratory-based antigen test that has been taken within 24 hours before departure from the country of origin.
The spokesperson further added that once the visitors enter the country, they are no longer required to undergo facility-based quarantine, but will need to self-monitor for any sign or symptom for seven days from arrival. Reports have it that with the new policy, the country will open to all travellers including tourists.
The announcement of the new entry policy came five days after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered easing entry of foreign tourists into the country to boost international tourism, and increase foreign investment.
The latest measure is a part of the government's effort to push the country's recovery from the pandemic. The Southeast Asian country reopened its doors to foreign leisure travelers on February 10, from 157 visa-free countries after over two years of pandemic lockdown.
Philippines travelers
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Mankato oldies singers
Can't get enough of the Oldies? We've got just solution: book an Oldies Singer to perform at your next event! Whether it's a birthday, an anniversary celebration, or just a fun gathering with friends, our the Mankato, MN area directory will help you find the best one.
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Top 40 One Man Band from Minneapolis, MN (63 miles from Mankato, MN)
In addition to 60's-70's hits, Hillbily Music for the Soul offers vintage country, bluegrass, blues, and swing on acoustic flatpick, fingerstyle and bottleneck blues guitar, five-string banjo and voice. Dylan, Lightfoot, CCR, Jerry Garcia, Hank Williams, Lightnin Hopkins, Robert Johnson, Doc Watson and many well-known Americana tunes. My solo show is distinctive because it combines professional vocals with ambitious instrumental arrangments. We've been well-received everywhere we perform... (more)
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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[October 12, 2015]
Scientific Games Announces Launch of Official Mobile Apps for Arkansas Scholarship Lottery and Maryland Lottery and Gaming
LAS VEGAS and ATLANTA, Oct. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Scientific Games Corporation ("Scientific Games" or the "Company") today announced the launch of official mobile apps for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery and Maryland Lottery and Gaming. The apps were released for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets and may be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play at no cost. The Company's mobile technology provides lottery players with a ticket scanning feature and convenient mobile access to winning numbers, current jackpots, lottery game information, lottery retailer locator, winner stories and responsible gaming messaging.
Currently the leading provider of mobile apps in the lottery industry, Scientific Games provides official mobile apps for one in four U.S. lotteries, as well as the Slingo® Lottery Challenge app in collaboration with its licensor and an app for the North American State and Provincial Lotteries Association. Nearly 75 percent of mobile phone subscribers – 182 million consumers – in the U.S. now own smartphones according to data released by comScore.
Bishop Woosley, Director, Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, said, "The Arkansas Lottery was the very first lottery to offer a fully integrated loyalty club to our players. Since 2009 we have provided our players a second chance for their non-winning instant tickets along with points that can be redeemed for prizes. Throughout the years we have continued to speak with our club members for ways to enhance our loyalty club programs. I am pleased to say that providing them with a mobile app which enables them to view our lottery information along with the ability to scan tickets to enter second-chance drawings and earn points for prizes was high on their list."
Gordon Medenica, Director of Maryland Lottery and Gaming, said, "Today's lottery players are busy, tech-savvy people who want quick and easy access to information. This new app provides them with the type of convenience they have been asking for and have come to expect from the Maryland Lottery. I believe our players will respond positively to the ticket-scanning and retailer-search features."
Eleven mobile apps developed by Scientific Games are currently in use by U.S. state lotteries including Arkansas, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, New York (Slingo Lottery Challenge), North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee. The Company is developing apps to launch in additional U.S. jurisdictions in the next year and just released an updated version of the Tennessee Lottery's mobile app with draw game ticket scanning and in-store shopping features.
Michael Lightman, Vice President of Interactive Lottery Products for Scientific Games, said, "The launch of these new mobile apps is continued affirmation of our leadership in developing and delivering interactive products to the lottery industry. We pioneered the internet for lotteries back in 2001 with our second-chance bonusing solutions, and today, through our active provision of mobile web content and mobile apps, have fully transitioned our lottery interactive efforts to mobile first. Mobile enables our customers to engage lottery players in innovative ways by bringing them greater convenience, furthersimplifying retail purchasing, and delivering new and more frequent ways to win. We thank our Lottery partners for selecting Scientific Games for their mobile solutions."
About Scientific Games
Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS) is a leading developer of technology-based products and services and associated content for worldwide gaming, lottery and interactive markets. The Company's portfolio includes gaming machines, game content and systems; table games products and utilities; instant and draw-based lottery games; server-based lottery and gaming systems; sports betting technology; loyalty and rewards programs; and interactive content and services. For more information, please visit www.scientificgames.com.
All copyrights, trademarks and service marks are owned by their respective owners in the United States and elsewhere. © Scientific Games. All rights reserved.
©2001-2015 BLASTWORKS LTD. www.Slingo.com
Bill Pfund (702) 532-7663
Mollie Cole (773) 961-1194
Lottery Communications:
Therese Minella (770) 825-4219
In this press release, Scientific Games makes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results or strategies and can often be identified by the use of terminology such as "may," "will," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "continue," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "target," "should," "could," "potential," "opportunity," "goal," or similar terminology. These statements are based upon management's current expectations, assumptions and estimates and are not guarantees of timing, future results or performance. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements due to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors, including, among other things: competition; U.S. and international economic and industry conditions, including declines in or slow growth of lottery retail sales or gross gaming revenues, reductions in or constraints on capital spending by gaming or lottery operators and bankruptcies of, or credit risk relating to, customers; limited growth from new gaming jurisdictions, slow addition of casinos in existing jurisdictions and declines in the replacement cycle of existing gaming machines; ownership changes and consolidation in the casino industry; opposition to legalized gaming or the expansion thereof; ability to adapt to, and offer products that keep pace with, evolving technology; ability to develop successful gaming concepts and content; laws and government regulations, including those relating to gaming licenses and environmental laws; inability to identify and capitalize on trends and changes in the gaming and lottery industries, including the expansion of interactive gaming; dependence upon key providers in our social gaming business; retention and renewal of existing contracts or entry into new or revised contracts; level of our indebtedness, higher interest rates, availability and adequacy of cash flows and liquidity to satisfy obligations or future needs, and restrictions and covenants in our debt agreements; protection of our intellectual property, ability to license third party intellectual property, and the intellectual property rights of others; security and integrity of our software and systems and reliance on or failures in our information technology systems; natural events that disrupt our operations or those of our customers, suppliers or regulators; inability to benefit from, and risks associated with, strategic equity investments and relationships, including (i) the inability of our joint venture to meet the net income targets or otherwise to realize the anticipated benefits under its private management agreement with the Illinois lottery (or in connection with any termination thereof), (ii) the inability of our joint venture to meet the net income targets or other requirements under its agreement to provide marketing and sales services to the New Jersey lottery or otherwise to realize the anticipated benefits under such agreement and (iii) failure to realize the anticipated benefits related to the award to our consortium of an instant lottery game concession in Greece; failure to achieve the intended benefits of the Bally acquisition or the WMS acquisition, including due to the inability to successfully integrate such acquisitions or realize synergies in the anticipated amounts or within the contemplated timeframes or cost expectations, or at all; litigation relating to the Bally acquisition; disruption of our current plans and operations in connection with the Bally acquisition and the WMS acquisition (including in connection with the integration of Bally and WMS), including departure of key personnel or inability to recruit additional qualified personnel or maintain relationships with customers, suppliers or other third parties; costs, charges and expenses relating to the Bally acquisition and the WMS acquisition; inability to complete or successfully integrate future acquisitions; incurrence of restructuring costs, revenue recognition standards and impairment or asset write-down charges; fluctuations in our results due to seasonality and other factors; dependence on suppliers and manufacturers; risks relating to foreign operations, including fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and restrictions on the payment of dividends from earnings, restrictions on the import of products and financial instability, including the potential impact to our instant lottery game concession or VLT lease arrangements resulting from the recent economic and political conditions in Greece; dependence on our key employees; litigation and other liabilities relating to our business, including risks relating to product defects or other claims relating to products; influence of certain stockholders; and stock price volatility.
Additional information regarding risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in forward-looking statements is included from time to time in our filings with the SEC, including the Company's current reports on Form 8-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its latest annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 17, 2015 (including under the headings "Forward Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors"). Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and, except for Scientific Games' ongoing obligations under the U.S. federal securities laws, Scientific Games undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scientific-games-announces-launch-of-official-mobile-apps-for-arkansas-scholarship-lottery-and-maryland-lottery-and-gaming-300158236.html
SOURCE Scientific Games Corporation
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A first edition Superman comic from 1939 is placed with copies of the Constitution and a variety of holy books for use in the swearing-in ceremonies of new House members, at the Capitol in Washington on opening day of the 118th Congress, Jan. 3, 2023 AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
A new congressman just swore in on a Man of Steel comic book. There's a very Jewish lesson there.
Daniel Z. Feldman
The recent drama surrounding the selection of the speaker of the House of Representatives occupied so much media attention—almost an entire week of the news cycle—that it was unlikely many would notice another unusual event connected to the installation of the new Congress. It was one with far less national significance, but in a sense, even more unprecedented: A photograph showing the various books waiting to be used for the swearing in of new members of Congress included a rare comic book, Superman, No. 1, from 1939, awaiting California Democrat Robert Garcia's hand as he took the oath of office with the Man of Steel underneath.
As a rabbi, the thought of replacing the usual Bible with a comic book seems sacrilegious in the extreme, and I do feel the need to strongly lament that particular symbolism. And yet, also as a rabbi, there's something about Rep. Garcia's act that intrigues me. To understand why, consider the story of Superman.
The being born as Kal-El on the planet Krypton is, as we all know by now, "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." He can soar deep into space, or start fires with a glance, or see through walls, or crush stones into diamonds, or, on occasion, even turn back time. His abilities are seemingly without limit, and have caused countless youths to wish that, like him, they could fly above the Earth.
But Congressman Garcia didn't focus on these superior abilities. To his credit, he said he'd chosen Superman as part of his swearing-in text because of the Man of Steel's values: "justice ... honesty ... doing the right thing, standing up for people that need support." To further underscore these values, Garcia bundled the comic book with both a copy of the Constitution (his main text) and a picture of his late parents and his own certificate of U.S. citizenship.
Still, the actual legacy of Superman goes even deeper than those hallowed ideals, and, in fact, necessarily precedes them and explains them. Because, read carefully, the Superman story—the one that has kept the legend enduring for more than 80 years—is all about the incredible impact of chinuch.
Chinuch is a Hebrew word we in the yeshiva world use to mean education. It is broader than mere classroom instruction, connoting also preparation and dedication. It evokes a truly awesome power, not to fly or to lift unfathomable weights but to mold the soul of another through the focused love of a committed parent or the impassioned care of a devoted teacher. It is both the ability and the responsibility to impart, through teaching and modeling, a system of beliefs and morals so effectively that another person will adopt it as their own, do their utmost to honor it with their lives, and seek to pass it on to others.
The story of Superman is the story of a being with such incredible power, he could choose to conquer the Earth, to enslave all its people, to seize all its riches for himself. And yet, amazingly, the fact is that he does the opposite, at great self-sacrifice.
We have two people to thank for his ongoing dedication and commitment to doing the right thing: Jonathan and Martha Kent (although their first names have varied throughout the decades, their characters have stayed the same). Like Moses, whose origin story is read in this week's parsha by Jews around the world, the infant Kryptonian was placed in an ark and sent afloat for his own protection, only to be discovered and adopted. Unlike Moses, he was brought up not by a maniacal pharoah but by simple people who believed in service and in living a life dedicated to "truth, justice, and the American way." Infused with gratitude, respect, and responsibility, the most powerful being on Earth becomes not a despot but a hero.
The inspiration that Superman receives is carried through him to others, in fantasy and in reality as well, and therein lies its enduring value. The 2012 book Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan is actually a true story of the influence of fiction on real world awareness and activism, and the recent death of artist Neal Adams reminds us of his collaboration with Holocaust scholar Rafael Medoff on the volume We Spoke Out, detailing the efforts of comic book creators to educate on the horrors of the Holocaust through the tools of their iconic characters. Perhaps these seem like relics of a time when superheroes were heroes, rather than antiheroes or complex literary studies; perhaps such a time can still be now.
The Superman story was never about power. It was always about the impact of a strong, foundational value system, how that is painstakingly and unwaveringly conveyed by those with human vision rather than super vision, and how that effect is felt in every step, in every decision, in every mission, taken by those do who have the power.
That chinuch, that amalgamation of education and preparation and dedication, is the task of parents and of teachers, and more broadly of society as a whole, actualizing and transmitting the vision of idealistic founders. It is the work of God Himself, and would most properly be symbolized by placing one's hand on a Bible; but God has many messengers in many forms to transmit His values and to harness human powers toward them. In a better world, the world that chinuch can inspire and create, that would be the most enduring message of a new term of American leadership.
Daniel Z. Feldman teaches Talmud and Business Ethics at Yeshiva University, is the rabbi of Ohr Saadya of Teaneck, New Jersey, and is the author of six volumes in Hebrew and three in English, most recently False Facts and True Rumors: Lashon Hara in Contemporary Culture.
#Superman
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Village tours allow visitors to experience a stay in a typical Nepali village. This gives visitors an opportunity to observe the rich Nepali cultural tradition from the closest quarter and intermingle with the locals. Besides, any expenses made at that level directly contribute to the welfare of the local community, hence giving the visitor a sense of satisfaction. Village tours are conducted in Sirubari, Briddim, Ghalegaun, Ilam and other places.


It's hard to believe it has been nearly two and half years since I first started at the DHW Lab. To begin with, I would like to say that it has been some of the best years of my life. It's a privilege working alongside the other members of the DHW Lab design team. They are all incredibly talented, passionate and friendly and I can't thank you enough for their kindness to me over the years. And Steve, let's not forget, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it!
In conjunction with my masters, my time at the Lab has been a huge learning experience. I have learnt a lot about the complexities of the hospital and challenges of practicing design in a large, well established organisation. Shifting people's mindset is never easy, but now, more than ever, I believe it's worth it. Each project, actualised or non-actualised, is a step towards helping those involved in healthcare to see the importance and value of human-centred design.
Working with designers of other disciplines has also helped me to develop my design process and the way I work best as a designer. Particular highlights include working with Eden AKA 'Illustrator & Wayfinding Sensei' on the Rosella wayfinding project, working with Nick AKA 'UX/UI & Coffee Sensei' on the Script app and working alongside Reid AKA 'Product & Life Sensei' on the privacy booth.
Probably most importantly, the Lab has made me realise that this is the type of work I want to be doing, at least in the near future. I find it both morally and creatively fulfilling. The decision to leave the Lab was therefore not an easy one. It's tough saying goodbye to my friends and family here in New Zealand. But, I hope that I can continue to find a similar sense of purpose in Toronto at Healthcare Human Factors, and potentially bring some of my learnings back with me. It will be a new adventure for my wife and I and one that I hope to share with you all when we get back.
Workspace is crucial. Make it cool, make it open plan, make it yours. It makes you want to come to work and do great work!
Hang out, talk to and ask for advice from your colleagues. If you want a true anti-hierarchical working environment you need to be mates! There is so much to learn from just chatting to one another.
Design success is measured completely differently to those in healthcare. Don't let resistance to an idea get you down. Push-back is part of the job description, so learn to be patient and content with knowing you have tried, and continue to try, your best.
Learn to tell and 'show' non-designers what you do, how you do it and why it's important. A huge part of this is making, even at the very beginning of a project. A shared understanding helps to better connect design problems with design solutions and enables non-designers to contribute more constructively to the design process.
Nick Hayes our Lead UX designer was recently featured in DesigningHealth.Care blog by James Turner. His blog highlights the work created by designers inside healthcare institutions.
This is a great article on Nick's journey to where he is today! The article focuses on what the lab is all about, including projects, approaches and challenges that take place being a UX Designer in a hospital context. It also looks at our some of our key achievements and our student cohort.
The Auckland DHB had a visit from Simon O'Connor, Chair of Parliament's Health Select Committee accompanied with Paul Goldsmith –(MP for Epsom) and Melissa Lee (MP for Mount Albert) today.
Part of their visit here was to meet with Dr Lester Levy and Alisa Claire (Chief Executive). They also got the opportunity to come in and check us out!
Justin (Co-Director) gave them a tour of the DHW lab and showed them some of our projects along with the ones that are currently work in progress. This was a great opportunity for the local MPs to learn about what a unique creation the lab is and the collaboration between ADHB and AUT and not to mention being New Zealand's first in-hospital design team.
Thanks heaps for taking the opportunity to check us out Simon, Melissa and Paul. We appreciate your support and hopefully will see you again soon!
After a lot of anticipation the Best Awards 2016 finalist were announced earlier this week. The lab is stoked to be finalist this year in four categories this including graphic design, product design, public good and interactive design.
Our resident boss cat, Eden Short's student project' Wayfinding for healthcare seeking' is a finalist in both communication design and public good. Two of our postgraduate students, Antonio Wan and Charlotte Dickson were also finalist. Antonio's design 'The little ones' was a finalist in product design. While Charlotte's children's book 'Lin Breaks her Arm' is a finalist in the public good category.
'Small Brand Identity' done by the lab is also one of the finalist in the graphic design category. This particular work identifies and visually represents the core values of the Auckland DHB.
Lastly our first ever app was a finalist in interactive design! The Script App is an educational app for medical students and junior doctors to learn correct antibiotic guidelines.
Well done to the team for all their hard work! Also a huge shout out to everyone involved!
Looking forward to the Best Awards in October.
The lab employed a new graphic designer: Say hello to our newest team member, Lauren Stewart!
Lauren is a graphic designer who specialises in layout, infographic and publication design. Over the last two years she has primarily been designing for non-profits, which has led to a strong interest in empathy-driven communication design. Her two main focuses at the Lab will be visualising Patient Pathways and supporting the Wayfinding team.
Outside of work she runs a co-working space with two friends which aims to connect underground designers and artists to the wider community. You will find her there most weekends working on pottery, zines and printing on their Risograph.
We're excited to have her onboard and look forward to her contributions to the design team!
The Design for Health and Wellbeing Lab (DHW Lab) is a new dynamic research collaboration between AUT University and the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB). The aims of the Lab include establishing and developing a community of interdisciplinary design-led research to developing products, services, systems and experiences for improved health and wellbeing of our population.
A fixed term position is available for Research Assistant to undertake design-led research to support the aims and objectives of the lab.
Contribute to data collection; this will include help with recruitment and management of research participants, conducting fieldwork, interviews, data collection, processing data (field notes, transcriptions) and literature reviews.
Produce reports of the work conducted in both written and spoken forms, including manuscript preparation.
Participate in multi-person, multi-disciplinary research and development projects involving designers, researchers, clinicians, and administration staff from AUT and ADHB.
A background in one of the following areas: Sociology, Nursing, Health Psychology, Anthropology; Organisation Studies; Science and Technology Studies; Design.
A Masters degree is preferred.
Understanding of Ethnographic / Design research.
Self-motivated but also have ability to provide meaningful contributions and work well in a multidisciplinary team.


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Q: Firefox extension development and sqlite I am making a Firefox extension and looking for a way to store data
I see the sqlite database is available and wonder if it is possible for other extensions to do queries to my database?
From what I have found I can not see any way to do that.
Are there any other solution in Firefox to store private data.
Bob

A: Well, if other extensions know where you store the database file and what is the structure of the database, then they can easily make queries on that.
Afaik there is no real "secure" way. You can store data in preferences, but that is even easier to access.

A: You don't want to store too much data in preferences (they're read synchronously at startup!)
Just having knowledge of the sqlite filename won't work since you whoever opens the database first will lock it. The easiest way to let other extensions do queries on your database is to expose the DB connection somewhere. That somewhere could be an XPCOM service component (this is how various toolkit services such as history, bookmarks, form data etc. do it, FWIW) or simply an object you import from a JavaScript module if you only want to consider JavaScript consumers.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Verizon Hit with $3.4 Million Fine for Not Reporting 911 Outage
Emergency 911 services went down in part of California for six hours in April, but Verizon didn't let officials know until after the problem was fixed.
By Kaveh Waddell and National Journal
For six hours, nearly 750,000 California residents would not have been able to reach an emergency call center if they dialed 911 on their mobile phones.
Those six hours will cost Verizon $3.4 million.
A problem in a Verizon-run 911 system resulted in the outage, which affected nine counties in California. Verizon is required by law to report outages within 30 minutes of a problem, but officials didn't hear about the April outage until it was resolved.
After an investigation, the Federal Communications Commission reached a settlement with Verizon designed to improve 911-call-center reliability and the outage-reporting process. Verizon was also fined for the oversight.
According to the investigation, Verizon claims the outage was caused by a malfunction in a subcontractor's infrastructure. The subcontractor didn't notify Verizon until the outage was resolved, which is why Verizon didn't notify officials, the company said. But since Verizon is responsible for its contractors, it's on the hook for the fine and the conditions of the settlement.
"We take the safety of our customers and the service we provide to 911 centers and first responders very seriously," a Verizon spokesperson said in a statement. "We will continue to work with our partners to meet the standards our customers expect from Verizon."
Verizon is conducting a trial in California of a 911 service that captures location data from wireless callers, a standard called Enhanced 911 which the FCC set in 1996. Technical limitations have slowed the rollout of Enhanced 911, which is slated for full implementation in 2019.
"Americans must have confidence that they will be able to reach 911 in an emergency," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a statement. "We take seriously our obligation to ensure the nation's 911 systems function reliably. We will continue to work with providers to ensure that advances in 911 technologies lead to improved communications between citizens and first responders."
Funding for 911 services comes in large part from federal fees on consumers' phone bills. According to the National Emergency Number Association, as of 2014, California residents paid three-fourths of 1 percent of their bills for 911 services.
The outage in California was part of a larger technical problem that affected seven states and more than 11 million people, according to the FCC.
This article was updated to include a statement from Verizon.


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+972 Magazine's Stories of the Week
Directly In Your Inbox
By Edo Konrad
|Published May 6, 2018
Palestinian refugees are demanding to be heard. Will we listen?
70 years later, Palestinian refugees are no longer waiting for peace talks to determine their fate. In Gaza, they are actively reclaiming their place at the table.
Palestinians seen at sunset during a protest as part of the Great Return March, near the Israeli-Gaza fence, eastern of Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip, April 23, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)
On a warm spring day in late April 1956, Moshe Dayan, then the IDF chief of staff and Israel's eminent war hero, delivered an address that would become a central part of Israel's national ethos. Dayan had arrived at Kibbutz Nahal Oz to eulogize Roi Rotberg, a kibbutz security guard who was ambushed by an Egyptian police officer and a Palestinian farmer, and then abducted into the Gaza Strip where he was brutally murdered. The chief of staff had met Rotberg the previous day during a routine visit to Nahal Oz, as the community was preparing for a number of upcoming weddings. The eulogy took him just half an hour to write.
Rotberg's murder was especially gruesome, shocking a country that had already seen a tremendous amount of bloodshed and calamity in a short period of time, imbuing the eulogy with a warrior pathos of the kind one would hear from today's leaders. "Our children shall not have lives to live if we do not dig shelters; and without the barbed wire fence and the machine gun, we shall not pave a path nor drill for water," Dayan told the crowd. "The millions of Jews, annihilated without a land, peer out at us from the ashes of Israeli history and command us to settle and rebuild a land for our people."
Moshe Dayan reviews troops in Sharm el-Sheikh at the end of the 1956 war. (IDF Spokesperson)
Dayan's speech was likened at the time to Israel's version of the Gettysburg Address, a sober statement of purpose delivered to those who shouldered the burden of carrying on the nation's mission. But the eulogy also carried a curious secondary message: it was the first public address by a high-ranking member of the Israeli military brass to acknowledge — without reservations — the suffering that Palestinians had endured during the establishment of the State of Israel, as well as the source of their rage:
Let us not hurl blame at the murderers. Why should we complain of their hatred for us? Eight years they have sat in the refugee camps of Gaza, and seen, with their own eyes, how we have made a homeland of the soil and the villages where they and their forebears once dwelt.
Not from the Arabs of Gaza must we demand the blood of Roi, but from ourselves. How our eyes are closed to the reality of our fate, unwilling to see the destiny of our generation in its full cruelty. Have we forgotten that this small band of youths, settled in Nahal Oz, carries on its shoulders the heavy gates of Gaza, beyond which hundreds of thousands of eyes and arms huddle together and pray for the onset of our weakness so that they may tear us to pieces — has this been forgotten? For we know that if the hope of our destruction is to perish, we must be, morning and evening, armed and ready.
Today, more than six decades later, as Palestinians in Gaza — the majority of them descendants of refugees of the 1948 war who fled or were expelled from their homes — march toward the border with Israel, Dayan's words resonate as strongly as ever. Before Netanyahu, before the racist laws, before two intifadas, and before the military dictatorship in the West Bank and Gaza, came Israel's policy of preventing Palestinians from returning to their villages, towns, and cities.
Israeli army opens fire on Gaza protesters sixth week in a row
By +972 Magazine | May 4, 2018
Gaza's Generation Y
By Social TV | April 23, 2018
Are Israeli Jews beginning to accept the right of return?
By Eléonore Bronstein and Eitan Bronstein Aparicio | April 18, 2018
Dozens of American Jews arrested protesting Gaza violence
By Edo Konrad | April 16, 2018
Long before bands of Palestinian fedayeen crossed the border from Gaza and often committed violent attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion ordered the army to shoot and kill Palestinian "infiltrators" — the majority of them refugees who had crossed newly-created borders in order to retrieve livestock, tools, or work their land.
Dayan's statement of purpose is clear: we displaced these people, their anger is beyond warranted — but we are not letting them come home. It was the denial of return that sparked the Palestinian national movement, which was led by those living in exile until the 1980s, when the First Intifada swept across the occupied territories. Before that uprising, the Palestinian revolution was led by those whose homeland was denied to them, who often operated out of Arab states that suffered from the lingering refugee issue while simultaneously exploiting it for political gain.
The protests at the Gaza border have various goals: to end the 11-year blockade on the Strip, to call attention to the humanitarian conditions plaguing its residents, and to bring freedom to what has been called the world's largest open-air prison. But there is a reason the protests in Gaza are being held under the banner of the "Great Return March" and are culminating on Nakba Day, when Palestinians mark their expulsion from their homeland: it puts the issue of Palestinian refugees back at the center of the international conversation.
Palestinian citizens of Israel take part in the March of Return to the village of Lubya in northern Israel, May 6, 2014. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
The consequences of the march for Israelis and their supporters, at least presently, are negligible. The carnage at the border with Gaza — with over 45 killed and thousands wounded by Israeli snipers — has little effect on a public that does not take kindly to any form of Palestinian protest, least of all the kind that puts Palestinian refugees, seen as the ultimate threat to the state's existence, at the forefront. In the spirit of Dayan, Israelis — even many of those on the mainstream left — have become convinced that the only way to ensure Jewish life in this land is by the sword (even if there is some movement in the direction of accepting return under certain conditions).
The international community, and especially activists abroad, will be forced to contend with a different question. Organizations that support justice in Israel-Palestine will have to decide not whether they support the right of Gazans to march (which they overwhelmingly do), but whether they support the central message that lies at its core: that Palestinians should be able to return to their villages, towns, and cities.
Various attempts to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians attempted to find workable solutions to the refugee problem. But with the veritable death of the peace process, Palestinian refugees are no longer waiting around for leaders to decide their fate; they are actively reclaiming their rightful place at the table, and activists of all stripes will inevitably be called upon to decide where they stand.
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With Abbas and Hamas in charge, is there a table for them to join?
An important and moving statement by Edo Konrad. It gets things right. We drown in propaganda. Konrad's words are the opposite of propaganda. They describe reality in all its complexity and get at the truth. And the real choices before us.
Itshak Gordin Halevy
I do not think anyone will want to hear the stories they have been telling for 70 years. The world is tired of subsidizing terrorism. The negationist Abbas has fallen so low that he is probably the last to go to Venezuela. What does Abbas represent? Nothing
As I said, we drown in propaganda.
"The world is tired of subsidizing terrorism."
Indeed. When will the Americans and the Europeans stop subsidizing Israel's occupation?
Israel Is the Terrorist.
Ilana Hammerman
https://www.haaretz.com/amp/opinion/.premium-israel-is-the-terrorist-1.5976966
You let yourself be manipulated with pleasure by the Haaretz which is an extreme left newspaper. It is a fact that the world is tired of the "Palestinian cause" and its begging. It is the only "People" who lives on international charity. Meanwhile, people in Africa and Asia are dying in utter destitution. Hence Israel's success in the world.
You lost your bearings a long time ago. Haaretz is normal, you are extreme right. You know a rightist has no argument when they simply say "extreme left" as if that were any kind of argument.
The rest of your post is simply incoherent.
Im palestenien lebanon now in belgium seeking for azylum ….71 years and we are treated like animals in lebanon no body talk by us.. we dont want any thing just to live in peace and dignity
Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries in the 50′ and 60′ are demanding to be heard by the leftists. Will the leftists listen?
As long as they don't repeat worn-out Zionist propaganda, absolutely.
Lewis from Afula
The best thing about the so-called "fakestinyans" is that they simply don't exist.
No distinct religion or language, no capital, no set borders, no native currency, no royal palace, no king, no founding father, no nothing.
Just a bunch of Jordanians who re-named themselves in the 1970s.
Bruce Gould
@Lewis: In fact, Israel controls the population registry of Gaza and the West Bank – http://gisha.org/en-blog/2011/11/14/the-population-registry/
"Israel continues to control the Palestinian population registry which is common to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Any change made in these records requires Israel's approval, including the registration of births, marriages, divorces, deaths or address changes."
So all Israel has to do is destroy the population registry and all the Palestinians will disappear! Lewis, that's brilliant.
The population register of self-disenfranchized Jordanians is aload of %#@U(*. Their registry contains people who died 20 years ago, double counts East Jerusalem residents, counts people who left the country years ago. Its fake – like the people themselves – because the more humans they invent, the more $$$ they obtain from UN, EU et al.
Like the racist gangsters that they are, the Israeli Right tried to disappear a few thousand Africa refugees to Uganda and Rwanda. They didn't get away with it. Likewise they are not going to get away with disappearing millions of Palestinians to somewhere else, in reality or in their own minds. Reality intrudes. The Palestinians aren't going anywhere. Looks like the Israeli right wing will actually have to drop their obsessive compulsive purity neurosis and overlord complex and actually share the land with non-Jews. In one state, it would appear. Along the way though war crimes and crimes against humanity may have to accounted for. Put the whole lot of these gangsters, Israelis and Palestinians, in one cage in a courtroom and try the whole lot of them. Like the Cosa Nostra and Ndrangheta of Sicily and Calabria.
Ben, the illegal Eritrean colonists need to go back to Africa.
Unfortunately, the uberleftist Supreme Court is still comtrolled by self-haters, communists and other miscellaneous degenerates. These bolshevik, court-appointed elites think they overide the will of the nation (ie Parlaiment). But this is now very gradually changing as the nation's mindset becomes more realistic.
I believe the illegals are illegal and we will soon say goodbye to them. Rwanda and Ugnada are waiting for them.
The Jordanians, who now call themselves Fakestinyans, are only temporarily squatting in the Land of Israel. When the European civil war gets going (in a decade's time perhaps), their illegal squatting will come to an end.
Lewis is entirely representative of the Israeli right wing. He is the real right wing. He just drops the pretenses and the polite talk. He drops the mask. I know these people. This is what they are really like.
Israel Is the Terrorist
Ilana Hammerman Apr 05, 2018
"About a week ago, on the highway between Hermesh and Mevo Dotan, two soldiers were killed and two were injured by a car that was driven by a resident of Barta'a. There are not many Israelis who know where these settlements are located and in what kind of reality they exist. But the vast majority probably have no doubt who was the terrorist here, and who, the innocent victim…. The problem is that terror has long since become the reality, and the entity that has allowed and is allowing this to happen is the State of Israel. Look at the map and find Barta'a, and maybe you'd even be interested in going there and seeing and hearing how its residents live and what their surroundings are like. I happened to do so a few days before the car-ramming incident, and it was completely clear to me – and not for the first time – that this reality is a product of the ongoing policy of terror pursued by generations of Israeli governments, and that it is this policy that gives rise to the acts of resistance against it. What's amazing is only that there aren't more such acts, because it's really and truly an intolerable situation…."
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-is-the-terrorist-1.5976966
What really doesn't exist is a Zionist movement that never contemplated violence for political gain, never used children for military purposes and always separated civilian and military sites. You can take that non-existence to the bank.
Ben really needs to stop reading Haaretz. This is essentially an ugly propaganda rag where self-haters like Gideon Levy and Amir Hass deposit their Bolshevik myths and legends. The fact that Ben keeps quoting Haaretz just shows how far deep down the Communist rabbit hole he's gone.
"…self-haters…Bolshevik…Communist…"
This too is what the Israeli right wing is really like.
The most consistent impression I get from Halevy, Geller, Lewis von Afula, et al., their shared trait, is that they either don't read about what is really going on in their country, they are willfully ignorant, do not want to know or accept what is going on, or pretend not to know. (Geller for example takes this to a comic art form: he openly declares he knows what an article says without reading it, what Palestinians really think without asking them, etc. But I digress.) And not just the right wing. The mass of Israelis. Or is there a difference at this point? People like Gideon Levy and Amira Hass and Zeev Sternhell tell the unvarnished truth about their country, as do the soldiers of Breaking the Silence, and for that the mass of Israelis hate them for it, and using downright fascist language, call them "traitors." But as Levy says, the mass of Israelis won't later be able to say "we didn't know." They know.
"Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed." – Friedrich Nietzsche
Edo Konrad is a writer, blogger, and translator based in Tel Aviv. He previously worked as an editor for Haaretz, and is currently the deputy editor of +972 Magazine.
Follow me on Twitter: @edokonrad
More from Edo Konrad
Top court throws out case demanding Palestinian kids be allowed to call parents from prison
Should Palestinian children be able to call parents from prison? Israeli court will decide
Why are Israeli liberals suddenly courting a far-right nationalist?


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RYDER DIFRANCESCO
Ryder DiFrancesco has been at the top of his class since his time spent racing in the 51cc (4-6) division and his name has now become synonymous with success in the mini bike ranks. The teeneager has now graduated full-time to the supermini and is only a year or so away from hopping on the 250, depending on how much he grows, meaning that it's almost the beginning of a new era for the Californian. DiFrancesco dabbled in the Supermini classes last year but he was splitting time with the Mini Sr. divisions. The Team Dunlop Elite rider will only have one bike to focus on for the upcoming season and he feels as though his riding is better than ever, despite a long lay-off at the end of 2019 caused by a training incident after Loretta Lynn's. DiFrancesco has lit it up at the beginning of the year since making his return to racing, flashing his normal brilliance on the track at many of the Supercross Futures rounds out west. The Team Green Kawasaki rider is still building as he inches his way back towards full fitness and confidence following multiple months without riding, but he's eager to get on the gate for the upcoming spring events as the amateur motocross season kicks into full swing. We caught up with DiFrancesco to chat about the mental side of an injury, fully focusing on the supermini, and why he didn't become a speedway racer.
So, you broke your tibia and fibula training for Monster Cup last year and spent a significant amount of time off the bike. How'd that recovery process go for you?
It was tough. I haven't gotten hurt in six years, so it was something different and I had a lot of time off the bike to hang out with friends and refresh my mind so I can go back to racing. I worked hard gettin' back 'cause it was super stiff comin' out of the cast and doing all this therapy. I went out to the beach a couple of times to see Doc. G a couple of times down south and he's pretty much the one that got me back to riding. So it was tough but we're back at it.
Was the silver lining in that to have that time to spend with friends and mentally refresh?
Yeah, I was hanging out with friends like different friends, too, not just motocross friends -- goin' fishing and kind of being a normal school kid, doing what normal people do. Yeah, so it refreshed me but as soon as I got back on the bike it kind of felt like I was where I'm supposed to be.
Was it tough mentally to spend that much time on the sidelines and miss out on all those races at the end of last year?
Yeah, for sure. I went to Monster Cup and watched and it looks so much easier when you're watching from the stands and looking down at everybody, but it was tough. The time off was good and when I got back to riding I went back to work -- I don't know, it just refreshed me and now I'm better on the bike even so there were little benefits.
What were you having to do in order to get your leg recovered and keep your fitness up while you were hurt?
I took a little bit of time off after surgery, just like two weeks, and then I got back in the gym and did upper body and kept the things that I needed to keep up. I was in the cast for like two months and once I got out of it, my leg was super stiff and I couldn't walk so that was tough. But Doctor G worked his magic and now it's even stronger.
Were you a little bit behind the eightball in terms of preparation for Supercross Futures at the beginning of this year?
I had like almost a month (of preparation), but I felt good and I surprised myself getting back on the bike actually. Obviously I never forgot, but I surprised myself the first couple days and once I started getting back into motos and started working on technique I felt good. But racing...racing is just a whole different deal, so A2 was a little struggle but I knew where I needed to be and then Glendale got better and Oakland got better and then I raced last weekend at Glen Helen (for the Road to Mammoth Qualifier) and that was the best I've gone, and I think I can go even a little faster. So we're still building and it'll take time, but I think by spring nationals we'll be ready.
I saw the video you posted on your Instagram wheelieing down the street in Bakersfield, sitting on top of a shovel across the seat. Can you pretty much just ride out of your neighborhood into the hills?
Yeah, me and my buddies will hop on our pit bikes and go down the street to the local gas station. Bakersfield is a motocross playground; t's not just us riding around, there are twenty other guys riding around, too. It's pretty cool and yeah, Bakersfield's pretty funny.
I thought the comment from your dad about the #115 on the bike keeping you incognito was pretty funny...
Yeah, and I usually don't wear my monster helmet either, just wear the stock Fox helmet. (laughs)
Your dad was a speedway racer back in the day, did you get a chance to watch him race when you were young or have you ever gone to any flat track events?
Yeah, when I was born he was just in his prime and started not doing it as much as he used to. I looked up to him big time...when I would go to the races, sitting up in the stands and he'd be racing, I always looked up to 'em but now he'll still ride and anything. But two years ago he raced and that was pretty cool. I still look up to him a lot and yeah, he's a pretty cool dude.
I'm sure that's where the dream of becoming a motorcycle racer started for you, what made you choose motocross instead of flat track or speedway?
The decider was that I didn't like going left, my favorite turns were going right and speedway racers go left so that was the decider of going motocross racing. My dad rode moto, too, and when he was starting to slow down racing speedway he'd just go ride moto and I was just getting on a bike, so that was kind of it too -- just riding the little peewee track in the back.
You like left turns a little better now?
(laughs) Yeah, I kind of have to.
Although it's a different discipline, has it helped you a lot throughout your career to have someone in your corner who has a racer's mentality and has experienced the sport first hand?
It helps a lot. He knows a lot about the bike, gearing, how the track breaks down, and a lot of kids don't have that. Some dads didn't even race so I think it's a big help and it's cool having him on our side.
You've had some pretty unique opportunities throughout your amateur career through Team Green and Fox to do some promo shots and that sort of thing with legends of the sport like Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael. I know they were just a little bit before your time, but is that still a really cool experience for you?
Yeah, the day after during Supercross Futures Ricky will come watch and you watch the pros on television and he's announcing the race. So many people are watching and he's like the voice of Supercross right now with Ralph, too, so I look up to him a lot. And Jeremy, I got to ride at his ranch a couple of years ago, so I look up to both of those guys a lot. I go on YouTube every night and look up the old Bar to Bar videos and watch those guys go at it.
So Spring A Ding Ding is comin' up here in about a month, you attended the first two races we've done down there at Underground MX in Texas. What's your overall impression of that race?
Yeah, that place is super fun. Underground is always a fun track to go to and the whole race is fun; there's a pit bike race at night and there's good racing, too. Long motos and usually a good pool of riders show up there. It's a super fun race and they do a great job putting it on.
We're six rounds into the 2020 SX season and Roczen, Tomac, and Webb have separated themselves as the three main contenders in the 450 class. Who's your guy?
Tomac has to win the championship. I think I see him winning it this year but I think Webb has a good shot because he'll come in midseason. There are so many guys; I counted the other day and there are like fourteen champions in the 450 class.


VANCOUVER, Aug. 27, 2014 /CNW/ - Search Minerals Inc. ("Search" or the "Company") (TSXV: SMY) is pleased to announce that the Company has closed the first tranche of its non-brokered private placement financing announced on July 31, 2014. (see: Search Minerals Announces Private Placement, July 31, 2014). The Company issued 8,300,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of $415,000. Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company and one common share purchase warrant of the Company. Each warrant is exercisable into one additional common share of the Company for a period of 24 months from closing of the private placement at an exercise price of $0.10.
An Insider acquired 4,000,000 Units at the closing. All securities issued at closing are subject to a four month hold period which will expire on December 28, 2014. The Company anticipates completing the balance of the financing in the coming weeks.


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hip fracture in the elderly - the verdict?
The new strategy of treatment of glioblastoma
Scientists have discovered that targeting ID1 protein with glioblastoma can increase the effectiveness of standard therapies.
"Almost half of the elderly people who have suffered a hip fracture, will never be able to regain its former activity and independence, as before For those more elderly, or those who have different diseases, the chances are even smaller,." - says victoria Tang of the University of California, US, who led the observational study.
Despite numerous attempts of doctors to return to the process of rehabilitation of former patients to physical activity, many of the elderly fall into dependence on others.
In order to justify as much as possible the elderly person to recover from hip fracture, Tang and colleagues compared the physical condition of more than 700 people over the age of 65 years before and after the injury. Noted factors such as age, state of health, the ability to climb stairs independently, as well as to wash, cook and go to the toilet.
"The possibility of recovery of physical activity is less than 50%, regardless of the previous level, - said Tang -. Particularly low percentage observed in people older than 85 years and those with dementia was observed."
only 31% of elderly people have returned to their previous level of activity; 34 and 41 percent could walk independently and climb stairs (respectively). Among those who were very physically active before the injury, these studies have shown a little more comforting results: only 36% could live more fully without assistance, of which only 29% were themselves able to climb stairs, and 32% - to walk.
Victoria Tan believes that these indicators are very important. Patients themselves, their families and caregivers need to understand the consequences of a hip fracture, to be able to adequately prepare for the return of the patient's home and a realistic assessment of its future physical condition.
"To improve the quality of life and have the opportunity for further medical care, critical at this point is finding the values and goals of the patient in the process of caring for them," - says Victoria, which calls for a more active discussion of this issue.
Based on materials news-medical.net
Artificial cartilage for hip replacement arthroplasty
In America, we made an artificial cartilage of the hip joint, the test purged shortly.
Gold-titanium joint arthroplasty in furor
An alloy of gold and titanium to replace titanium prosthetic joints, extending the duration of their operation.
Vestibular function decreases with age 40
Researchers found that 40 years is reduced ability to perceive information about balance and spatial orientation.


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Photo Galleries > Remakes that either failed or succeeded
Remakes that either failed or succeeded
Hollywood remakes can be a sore subject in movie lovers' circles. On the one hand, they have the potential to introduce new special effects and technologies to classic stories, elevating the remake past the standards set by the original. But on the other hand, they also serve as a stark reminder that films can now be formulaic, nonsensical or reboots – all a sign of the movie industry's creative bankruptcy. Still, some have wowed audiences by showcasing a new take on the story or by casting talent illustrative of the era. Others were just a train wreck, saved only by their title and nostalgia in viewers of the original text. But the goal is always the same: improve on source material while making the film accessible, and desirable, to new audiences. With that in mind, here are 16 remakes that either exceeded or fell flat compared to their predecessors. ~Cassandra Coleman


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Q: Converting pandas DF into special dictionary? I have a DataFrame with customer_id, date, product_id that they bought. I want to convert this DataFrame to 2 dictionary
customer_id    date     product_id
1            10/3/2017  1234
2            11/3/2017  4321
1            10/3/2017  7384
2            10/3/2017  1234

I want the output like:
{'10/3/2017': {1 : 1234, 1: 7384, 2: 1234}, '11/3/2017': {2 : 4321}}

I tried to use
df.set_index(['date','customer_number']).T.to_dict('record')

But it won't give me 2 dictionaries.
{('10/3/2017', 1): 1234', .....}

A: There is problem with duplicates per group in first and third row, so was returned 1: 7384. Solution use groupby with lambda function for convert to dict per group and then to_dict for convert final Series:
d = df.groupby('date').apply(lambda x: dict(zip(x['customer_id'], x['product_id']))).to_dict()
print (d)
{'10/3/2017': {1: 7384, 2: 1234}, '11/3/2017': {2: 4321}}

EDIT:
s = df.groupby(['date','customer_id'])['product_id'].apply(list)
d = {k: v[k].to_dict() for k, v in s.groupby(level=0)}
print (d)
{'10/3/2017': {1: [1234, 7384], 2: [1234]}, '11/3/2017': {2: [4321]}}

And if dont need one item lists:
s = (df.groupby(['date','customer_id'])['product_id']
       .apply(lambda x: list(x) if len(x) > 1 else x.iat[0]))
d = {k: v[k].to_dict() for k, v in s.groupby(level=0)}
print (d)
{'10/3/2017': {1: [1234, 7384], 2: 1234}, '11/3/2017': {2: 4321}}

A: Adding on the solution by jezrael, you could use list inside the apply function instead of dict to get the output you need. That way duplicates won't be deleted as we see by using dict.
d = df.groupby('date').apply(lambda x: list((zip(x['customer_id'], x['product_id'])))).to_dict()

The output is :
{'10/3/2017': [(1, 1234), (1, 7384), (2, 1234)], '11/3/2017': [(2, 4321)]}


INTRODUCTION – Laparoscopic gastric bypass (LGB) is performed with relatively low mortality and short inpatient length of stay (LOS). This study evaluated regional and urban vs rural variations of inpatient mortality and LOS for LGB.
METHODS AND PROCEDURES – Patients undergoing LGB for morbid obesity in the 2006 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) were identified. Cumulative incidence of inpatient mortality and mean LOS were determined for each census region within the United States (US). Outcomes were classified by the National Center for Health Statistics Urban-Rural classification system for each region.
RESULTS – According to NIS data, an estimated 59,327 patients underwent LGB in non-federal US hospitals in 2006. The mean patient age per region varied from 37.6-46.5 years with an overall mean age of 43.1 years. Overall inpatient mortality was 0.91 per 1,000 operations (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.39-1.29 per 1,000 operations). There was no detectable variation in mortality by region or Urban-Rural classification.
The LOS for operations performed in an urban center ranged from 1.85-3.01 days, whereas in suburban areas the LOS was 2.25-2.94 days. In non-urban regions, the mean length of stay after LGB was nearly one day longer than in large central metropolitan regions (3.29 days vs. 2.30 days).
CONCLUSIONS – LGB as a treatment for morbid obesity was associated with very low inpatient mortality, withno regional variation. There was a widerrange in LOS for operations performed at urban centers when compared to non-urban centers. Overall length of stay after LGB was longer in more rural regions.


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text:
Mission, Vision & Code Of Ethics
STAR Team
Honorary Auditors
IFPAS Love Fund
Financial Practitioners Professional Indemnity
(FPPI) Insurance Programme
Professional Trainers
IFPAS, a not for profit organization, started as the Singapore Insurance Agents Association (SIAA) and officially registered with the Registry of Societies on 18 March 1969.
On 25 October 1978, the Association changed its name to the Life Underwriters Association of Singapore (LUA Singapore) to represent all life insurance practitioners in Singapore.
LUA holds 1st Sales Congress on Nov 15 – 17 with 299 delegates. Lawrence Wilkinson from the United States and Bod Chambers from Australia were main speakers.
LUA raises $40,000 for National Kidney Foundation, its first community service effort.
LUA's 10th anniversary, with membership figures standing at 1,700.
LUA moves to Parklane Shopping Mall.
Holds first Mandarin seminar for Mandarin-speaking members.
LUA membership numbers cross 2,500 mark.
Membership goes up to nearly 4,000.
LUA organises 1st Asia-Pacific Life Insurance Council. Holds Asia-Pacific Congress with 1,500 agents from the region.
LUA launches bilingual newsletter for members.
LUA adopts Life Underwriters Training Council Programme from the US, incorporating Personal and Business Insurance courses, as well as modules in Professional Growth and Fundamentals of Financial Services.
LUA hosts first Asia-Pacific Agency Managers Congress, a three-day event for 800 managers from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, United States, the Philippines, Japan and Australia.
LUA hits 7,000 member mark.
LUA raises $500,000 for Community Chest.
LUA launches Professional Ethics Programme.
LUA launches Bachelor of Business degree in collaboration with RMIT University, Australia and Singapore Institute of Management.
LUA newsletter re-named Coverage, with new features including lifestyle articles and classified advertisements.
LUA's 20th anniversary is celebrated with the launch of the Life Insurance Practitioner of the Year award.
1st Life Insurance Specialist Symposium: Emerging distribution Channels in the 21st Century
LUA and the National Kidney Foundation officially open a dialysis centre on Jan 30.
LUA introduces Associate Financial Consultant designation.
LUA re-locates to a five-storey building in Hong Kong Street.
LUA launches MBA Financial Services Certification.
On 29 January 2003, it changed its name to the current Insurance and Financial Practitioners Association of Singapore (IFPAS) to reflect its representation of not just members from insurance films but all members who provide financial services.
IFPAS launches Fellow Chartered Financial Practitioner (FChFP) designation.
IFPAS is appointed by Singapore College of Insurance (SCI) to organise and market Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) programme .
IFPAS "Strategical Technical Advance Response" (STAR) team, a dedicated 'think tank' designed to engage FAIR, is formed in July.
First IFPAS Day marked on Oct 30, at Hersing Hub in Toa Payoh. Features appreciation ceremony for past presidents, company CEOs and FinCARE beneficiaries.
IFPAS launches the Education Roadmap on 27th September, which was graced by the then-President of the Life Insurance Association (LIA), Ms Annette King.
IFPAS Alliance embarked on a community engagement initiative service – Financial Counselling, Aid and Resilience Education (FinCARE®) on 2nd October, which was graced by the then-Assistant Managing Director (Capital Markets), MAS, Mr Lee Chuan Teck. It was also an opportunity to launch the SEED Money Programme. At the same time, IFPAS was able to raise a fund worth $100,000 to the needy children under The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (SPMF), through the generous hearts of our fellow practitioners and various insurance industry companies. The cheque was presented to SPMF Chairman Han Fook Kwang.
Minister Chan Chun Sing proposed on the involvement of IFPAS in the new government health scheme, MediShield Life on 4th August.
In October, IFPAS Alliance STAR Team welcomed a new addition to the group, Frank Ng of Great Eastern Life.
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IFPAS, in collaboration with MOH, PA and PMO, piloted the 1-to-1 pro bono MediShield Life Consultation at Buona Vista CC on 6th July.
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IFPAS officially launched the 1-to-1 pro bono MediShield Life Consultation islandwide on 2nd November and was graced by Minister Chan Chun Sing.
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The Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF) launched a new set of competency standards for financial planning on 22nd April. IFPAS played a key role in developing the national accreditation standards through a tripartite collaboration with IBF and SCI.
IFPAS successfully completed the 1-to-1 pro bono MediShield Life Consultation, which benefitted over 8,500 residents across Singapore
Official appointment of IFPAS Advisory Board (AB)
In January of this year, IFPAS has been engaged by Ministry of Health (MOH) to participate in focus group discussion (FGD) sessions to review on proposed enhancements on ElderShield.
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As part of our efforts to drive unity and camaraderie among the industry practitioners, IFPAS was pleased to have held its inaugural IFPAS RUN on 17 March 2019, 7:00am at Marina Barrage. The event was graced by Guest-of-Honour Minister Chan Chun Sing and saw a total of 3,000 IFPAS members and their families and friends. Our aim was to bring the various financial institutions together under the umbrella of IFPAS to signify unity among the financial practitioners, as we geared towards a common goal and that raised professionalism and excellence in the business. Part and parcel of the profession is creating an impact to the community, especially the underprivileged and target community groups. Financial practitioners are more than salespersons, they are individuals whose expertise and knowledge are valuable for the benefit of society at large, which promotes association social responsibility.
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In French-Australian submarine deal, broader political and strategic context mattered
Bruno Tertrais
Published 28 Apr 2016 12:29 0 Comments
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Economic good news is rare these days for the current French Government. So earlier this week, when the announcement that Canberra had chosen the French option for what was termed in Paris the 'contract of the century', it made headlines throughout the day in French media.
President Hollande himself made an impromptu visit to the headquarters of DCNS, the French submarine company. It was reported that DCNS would have a share of about €8 billion of the contract and that it would create some 4000 jobs in France (3000 for DCNS and 1000 for its subcontractors).
Coming on the heels of an unprecedented string of major contracts for the French aerospace industry, notably with Indian and several Arab countries, this victory for Paris validated the Hollande team's approach of a better organised and more patient approach to major arms deals.
This success will undoubtedly comfort the French naval industry, perhaps also increasing the chances for other export successes (Norway is said to be interested in French subs). Incidentally, the improvement of DCNS's financial health may also ensure that the timeline for producing the next generation of French submarines — after the Barracuda will come a new class of SSBNs — will not be hindered by industrial and employment considerations.
Both Canberra and Paris understandably focused their initial comments on the economic dimension of the decision and the concrete domestic consequences in Australia and in France, and there is every reason to believe that these considerations — rather than international politics — were paramount in Australia's decision.
I would argue, however, that the broader political and strategic context of the bilateral relationship mattered, and, perhaps more importantly, that the submarine contract will cement and broaden this relationship.
'It's a 50-year marriage', said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on French radio. Paris wants such mega-contracts to be based on a strategic partnership and not only on purely commercial interests. But the reality is that Australia and France were already engaged in this way. A leading Australian defense contractor, Thales Australia, is a parent company to Thales, which itself has has a 35% share in DCNS.
As is well-known, Paris is one of Canberra's only military partners in the region (this author remembers a conversation in Nouméa, New Caledonia 10 years ago with a senior Australian officer, who was keen to tell him 'We really like having you in the Pacific region'). While the long-term future of a French presence east of Australia will be partly determined by the 2018 referendum in New Caledonia, there is no doubt that Paris will continue to be a key military partner for Canberra. Currently, French forces in the Pacific region include two frigates, five maritime patrol aircraft, as well as helicopters and land forces, based in Nouméa and in Papeetee. In the Indian Ocean, another two frigates are based in La Réunion, one of several French territories there. France also claims a minor share of the Antarctic continent.
There's also the fact that Canberra and Paris probably never have had a better and closer political relationship. The removal of the longstanding obstacle of French nuclear tests — the last of which took place exactly 20 years ago — helped improve it. In the past decade, several active Australian ambassadors have played an important role in ensuring that Australia is well-placed on the Parisian 'mental map' (the fact that the terrace of the Australian ambassador's residence is one of the best places to watch the Bastille Day fireworks has not hurt). Attendance of the ANZAC Day celebrations in Villers-Bretonneux has been an eye-opener for many French politicians, officials and experts regarding the depth of Australian feelings towards French soil. It was not only for commercial reasons that Jean-Yves Le Drian had decided to attend the 2016 celebration and deliver a speech there.
The successful 1.5 track annual strategic dialogue, held since 2010 under the auspices of the Lowy Institute and the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, has revealed how close the two countries's strategic worldviews are. They share, inter alia: an alliance with the US, but a strong desire for independence (and occasional doubts about the long-term future of US extended deterrence); defiance vis-à-vis Chinese ambitions in Asia (despite their wishes to maintain good relations with Beijing); and a strong concern for jihadist terrorism and the influence of ISIS in Australian and French youth.
The French submarine model proposed to Australia is an offshoot of the domestic Barracuda program, which will give birth to the six French Suffren-class SSNs entering service between 2017 and 2028. Although the Australian versions (temporarily named Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A) will enter service later than the French ones, the contract will make the French and Australian navies 'sisters'. There is no doubt that the addition of industrial and operational naval links between the two countries will increase their cooperation and mutual understanding. France sometimes feels lonely in Europe when discussing interests in what Australian rightly calls the Indo-Pacific region. It is glad to have a strong partner for the coming decades.
It may not stop there. Given France's excellent defense relations with India, there may be a future for a 'French component' in the Australian-Japan-India strategic triangle.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user G20 Australia 2014.
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Becker's Spine Review, "How should spine surgeons approach a shifting landscape?"
By Megan Wood
The tidal force of payers
Jocelyn Idema, DO, of Mid-Maryland Musculoskeletal Institute in Frederick, believes outpatient spine is heading into a favorable future, encouraged by Medicare and private payers accepting more procedures in the setting. Spine surgeons must still convince these payers of the benefits of outpatient spine, however.
"Emerging spine technologies coupled with creative healthcare resource strategies must be developed in order to stay competitive to these payer systems and methodologies," says Dr. Idema. Although traditionally spine surgery ranked among the highest-reimbursed specialties, Dr. Idema says the industry now faces heavier scrutiny for authorization of the need for these surgeries and continued care.
And payers aren't just impacting providers, but patients, as well, says Scott Blumenthal, MD, of Plano-based Texas Back Institute.
"Having insurance is only half the game — access is the problem," says Dr. Blumenthal. "It is becoming more and more of a closed network, with patients not being able to go to their provider of choice."
Surgeries driving the market
Dr. Blumenthal believes spine deformity surgery and cervical artificial discs, specifically, will drive the spine industry. Payers support this trend by approving more deformity payments due to the economic benefit, and shying away from approving more standard spinal fusion surgeries.
"I think deformity is charging ahead now and will continue to do so until the market can no longer sustain it, because it's expensive," says Dr. Blumenthal.
Artificial discs are expected to surpass the benefits of cervical fusions, according to LDR's five-year data on its Mobi-C artificial discs. Two-level disc replacements using Mobi-C demonstrated a success rate of 61 percent, compared to a success rate of 31 percent for anterior cervical discectomy and fusion procedures. The Neck Disability Index score improved 37 points for disc replacement patients, compared to 28 points for fusion patients.
Dr. Blumenthal believes cervical artificial discs will take about three years to five years to gain steam in the industry. He also thinks interspinous process spacers will reappear in the industry in 2016 and 2017 as more surgeons will learn how to perform outpatient surgery for spinal stenosis with spacers.
While most spine deformity cases are better in the inpatient environment, cervical artificial disc cases can fit in the ASC setting. Many training spine surgeons are eager to learn minimally invasive techniques, says Dr. Blumenthal, because they see the market's shift to the outpatient setting.
Although a major shift to the outpatient setting is occurring, Dr. Blumenthal cautions not all patients are appropriate candidates for spinal surgery in ASCs; some still need to undergo such procedures in hospitals or short-stay surgical hospitals.
"Don't overreach," recommends Dr. Blumenthal. "You have to discriminate and not force the patient where you want them to go, but do it where the data is and where medicine is most suited in the setting. We're still in the infancy for outpatient spine surgery."
Delivering value-based care
As traditional healthcare delivery models evolve to meet value-based care demands, spine surgeons will rely on emerging technologies to achieve outcomes measurements needed to prove we are still delivering the highest levels of spine care. In addition to emerging technologies and devices driving the market, spine surgeons need to look into alternative and creative ways to improve the entire spine surgical experience.
Dr. Idema and her team established a program to enhance the spine outpatient process for patients. The "PreHab" program connects spine surgical candidates with their healthcare team weeks before the scheduled surgery.
"Essentially, our healthcare teams go out to the patients' houses well in advance to work on proper techniques that will be used immediately following surgery," explains Dr. Idema.
Therapists perform full-home assessments, identifying medical equipment needs. They also collaborate with patients and their families to address discharge needs and potential sub-acute rehabilitation facility placements.
"By addressing these often overlooked areas for continuity of care, we are able to deliver a more comprehensive patient experience," says Dr. Idema. "Patients are getting more involved in their patient care experience and are better informed on what they want from providers."
Pictured from left to right: Dr. Jocelyn Idema and Dr. Scott Blumenthal
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