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October 6, 2021 12:44 pm October 6, 2021 1:09 pm Hershblogger2 Comments
…is a medium used to grow bacteria in petri dishes. Facebook is the social media equivalent.
Personally, I detest Facebook. But the recent spew of Maim Scream Media™ stories about the company are not what they seem.
These are based on "shocking" revelations, which are neither new nor surprising. Is there really anyone who believes that Facebook does not exploit its users? Does anyone imagine Facebook is not biased toward leftwing politics? Did anyone think that Facebook invented teenage angst?
Before you look at the following links, there are a couple of things you need to know about the Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen. Most important is the fact that as a member of Facebook's internal Civic Integrity team she was likely involved in the decision to suppress the New York Post's Hunter Biden laptop story. Adding credence to the idea that she's fine with corporate censorship as long as it favors leftists, is her choice of friends: Jen Psaki's PR firm and Eric Ciaramella's legal team. Ciaramella is the execrable Adam Schiff's fake whistleblower regarding Trump's Ukraine phone conversation – of which Ciaramella had NO direct knowledge.
It is reasonable to suppose that Haugen, a heavy donor to leftist causes and politicians, is not looking to provide balanced information about Facebook's political censorship. The following links are probably more than you want to read, but if you are interested in Huagen's motives you should read a couple. Her 'whistleblowing' is part of a plan to convert Facebook to a wholly owned subsidiary of Progressive propaganda.
Democrats and Media Do Not Want to Weaken Facebook, Just Commandeer its Power to Censor
-Glenn Greenwald, Substack
Human Events Exclusive: Fmr. Facebook Official Frances Haugen Plans to Testify to EU, Called Her Friend Conspiracy Theorist After Becoming a Men's Rights Advocate/Red Pill Supporter
-Jack Posobiec, Human Events
Facebook 'operating in the shadows' says whistleblower, lawmakers demand probes
– David Shepardson and Diane Bartz, Reuters
The point of these next two is that our politicians want the powers other governments are already exercising. It can happen here if politicians are successful in this attempt. Speech is violence, after all, and school boards need spaces safe from parents.
Singapore Passes Foreign Interference Law Allowing Authorities To Block Internet Content
– msmash, Slashdot
Canadian government's proposed online harms legislation threatens our human rights
– Ilan Kogan, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada already bribes subsidizes journalists)
These tell you what's already happening here:
Democrats' push for $50,000-per-year journalist tax credit sparks GOP 'media collusion' accusations
– Haris Alic, The Washington Times
Accidental leak reveals US government has secretly hit Google with 'keyword warrants' to identify ANYONE searching certain names, addresses, and phone numbers
– Natasha Anderson, Dailymail.com
So. I am not on the current bandwagon to pass legislation affecting Facebook. Yeah, social media in general is a leftist shithole, but any Democrat inspired bill is merely intended to cement that.
I do not want the people blocking stories about Hunter Biden, suppressing discussion of alternate CCP virus therapy, banning a former President of the United States for life, or otherwise manipulating opinion, to be taken over by the Feds.
Posted in Media, politicsTagged Big Brother, Facebook, Maim Scream Media™
For (targeting) the children
September 16, 2021 3:21 pm HershbloggerLeave a comment
Chinese regulators call on gaming companies to protect kids' physical, mental health
China is concerned about Chinese children's exposure to Chinese social media apps like TikTok…
TikTok Faces EU Data Probes Into Children's Safety, China Link
Bloomberg, Sep 14
How TikTok Serves Up Sex and Drug Videos to Minors
WSJ (paywall), Sep 8
Alternate sites here, summary; and here, archive.
…then maybe we should be concerned about our kids exposure to it, too. As well as exposure to our own 'social' media.
Facebook under more scrutiny after own research shows Instagram is harmful to teens
CNet, Sep 15
Posted in internet, MediaTagged china, Facebook, social media
Speaking truth to glower
March 30, 2021 2:35 pm HershbloggerLeave a comment
Mike Solana watched a hearing (which should have been called a "telling") so you didn't have to. Here.
Leave it to Congress to convert Zuck, Jack, and Sundar into quasi-sympathetic figures.
Anything the Congressional morons do in terms of regulation will be worse than leaving those 3 CEOs the f*ck alone.
They need to get Mark Steyn in front of their committee, not because he'd change any Congresscretins into critical thinkers; just for the entertainment value.
Posted in free speech, politics, technologyTagged Facebook, Google, Twitter, useless idiots
Zuckerberg's corollary
February 14, 2021 3:32 pm February 14, 2021 3:57 pm HershbloggerLeave a comment
In 1889 Herman Hollerith patented a "…method of compiling statistics, which consists in recording separate statistical items pertaining to the individual by holes or combinations of holes punched in sheets of electrically non-conducting material…" The resulting retangular cardboard slips were used, along with machines of Hollerith's design, to conduct the 1890 census. Other uses were soon found. For example, punching into a time clock… as an aid to counting beans… initiating the second largest voting dispute in US history. Unless you believe Hillary Clinton's Russiagate theory, in which case it's the third largest.
By 1947 the name for the tiny individual bit punched from the cards was established as "chad." This was a syllabic improvement over "confetto," though a fluster* of chads are still known by the plural, confetti.
It was at this point that the traditional confetti manufacturing cartel began a slow downward spiral, ameliorated only slightly by the gradual disappearance of the competition; ticker tape. Hanging chads were far in the future.
By the 1960s, Hollerith's invention had surpassed mere statistical applications, simple time recording, mundane accounting, or future farcical election chaos. Individual consumers were being assailed by "IBM" cards mailed as invoices. We were to carefully return those cards with our payment. No folding, spindling, or mutilation.
I began my IT career in those days as a "unit record operator." The cards being records, and the various machines (which on occasion mutilated the cards beyond the imagination of the most malicious consumer) being the units operated. Or maybe the single cards were considered units of record. Never thought about that until just now.
In any case, this employment gave me the opportunity to experimentally modify such dunning cards as I received. What would happen if I "overpunched" the amount due? This single new hole meant the figure was owed to me by the vendor, not to the vendor by me.
What would happen if I put a tiny red rectangular bit of tape (designed for the purpose of correction) over the hole of the leading number in the amount due? This would reduce the payment requested, from say, $13.50 to $3.50.
The Columbia Record Club, a thoroughly analog enterprise, was unfazed. Presumably, some other unit record operator had to correct the card when it was rejected by their mainframe, but I never heard about it. I suppose they anticipated enough folding, spindling, and mutilation to have procedures for it.
Meanwhile, computers got much smaller and much cheaper. Confetti dropped off the Sierra Club's top ten list of industrial waste. Computer errors no longer had to be fixed by anonymous specialists wielding keypunch machines the size of a love seat. Computers and computer errors were being democratized.
By the 1980s the general public was regularly hearing excuses from smaller businesses dependent on computers: "It's not my fault, the computer says you didn't pay that invoice," or "The computer won't let me give you a refund." This was mixed blessing. Immediate knowledge that the business was not set up to serve you has value, but it lacks the opportunity for careful sarcastic refinement provided by the calm pace of mail correspondence with a Record Club.
We hear the generic excuse, "I can't help you, our computer is messed up," less frequently these days. Of course, we're less often interacting with a human, from whom it could be just a generic excuse for inaction. Computers do not offer excuses, nor do they argue.
In the 1980s-90s I was a partner in a small business selling custom software, technical support, and business counsel to mostly small business. All my employees were required to read, as cautionary advice, Gordon R. Dickson's 1965 short story Computers Don't Argue. I like to think the lesson improved our software. Thereby improving the services of our customers to their customers.
These days there is a lot of bloviating about advanced computer algorithms as artificial intelligence: "AI." We're to regard the mindless mining of petabytes of data as intelligence. It isn't intelligence, much less sentience. And it's surely not sapience, which is implied as just around the corner. Get back to me when you can actually argue with a computer. Turing's test has been found inadequate, and playing chess doesn't qualify as intelligence.
That does not mean that the Algorithm Intelligence of Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Amazon, Pinterest, etc., etc., etc., etc, isn't dangerous. That not yet even Paramecian level of intelligence may well destroy our chances of ever knowing Artificial Sapience. The jury is out on the benefit of that possibility.
In the 21st century computer blaming tends more toward, "The network is slow today." Something with which customers are familiar, and unrelated to the specific business. If some clerk tells you their computer is impeding commerce at your expense, you take your business elsewhere. Corporations have outsourced their keypunch data entry departments to consumers.
Most people have learned to reject deflective technocratic BS as an excuse for poor service. They have, however, not learned to get off Facebook – so maybe natural intelligence is overrated.
We have reached a new level of sophistication, some strange limited modified reverse hangout neo-luddism… Here is a company whose computers are indistinguishable from their business, blaming those computers for their business problems when the computers operate as designed:
Facebook Blames 'Technical Issues" for Its Broken Promise to the US Congress
So, here's Zuckerberg's corollary of Hollerith's patent: "a method of compiling statistics, which consists in recording every separate statistical item pertaining to all individuals by holes or combinations of holes punched into the fabric of society."
*TOC group name nominee, though I would consider tumult, furore, agitation, or ado.
Posted in business, technologyTagged Facebook, technology
Seeing like a State
December 22, 2020 2:09 pm HershbloggerLeave a comment
From our friends at the International Monetary Fund comes this innovation.
"Credit scoring using so-called hard information (income, employment time, assets and debts) is nothing new. Typically, the more data is available, the more accurate is the assessment. But this method has two problems. First, hard information tends to be "procyclical": it boosts credit expansion in good times but exacerbates contraction during downturns.
The second and most complex problem is that certain kinds of people, like new entrepreneurs, innovators and many informal workers might not have enough hard data available…
Fintech resolves the dilemma by tapping various nonfinancial data: the type of browser and hardware used to access the internet, the history of online searches and purchases. Recent research documents that, once powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, these alternative data sources are often superior than [sic] traditional credit assessment methods, and can advance financial inclusion, by, for example, enabling more credit to informal workers and households and firms in rural areas."
"[C]an advance financial inclusion…" By definition, then, it can advance credit exclusion.
Websites, Twitter accounts, YouTube videos, hosting platforms, and credit card processing are all already being cancelled, shadowbanned, disappeared and denied for political reasons. Now they propose to use your computer model, search history, and the sites you visit to determine your credit score.
If you visit the Southern Poverty Law Center too often, or QAnon more frequently than you "should" according to some algorithm; if you search for "All Lives Matter" or "Green Nude Eel;" if you use a Chromebook or an obscure brand tablet – then your credit score may suffer. That could turn out to be the least of your problems.
I can't count the number of times people have told me they aren't worried about such corporate espionage when I point out what Facebook really is, or tell them why to use Duck-Duck-Go instead of Google search. "I'm not doing anything wrong and have nothing to hide." The problem, I explain, is that they aren't the ones who decide that.
"The old cliché is often mocked though basically true: there's no reason to worry about surveillance if you have nothing to hide. That mindset creates the incentive to be as compliant and inconspicuous as possible: those who think that way decide it's in their best interests to provide authorities with as little reason as possible to care about them. That's accomplished by never stepping out of line. Those willing to live their lives that way will be indifferent to the loss of privacy because they feel that they lose nothing from it. Above all else, that's what a Surveillance State does: it breeds fear of doing anything out of the ordinary by creating a class of meek citizens who know they are being constantly watched."
~ Glenn Greenwald
Posted in finance, free speech, internetTagged Facebook, free speech, Google, spy
Mau-mauing the swamp dwellers
December 10, 2020 4:29 pm December 15, 2020 12:43 pm HershbloggerLeave a comment
Facebook and YouTube continue to bury, or outright ban, well founded commentary on CCP virus public policy and the myriad election irregularities of which the Uniparty disapproves.
They aren't alone. Amazon has banned books. Twitter banned all mention of Hunter Biden's laptop, including suspending the New York Post's account.
That ban arguably lasted long enough to affect the election, and now that we know Hunter Biden has been under Federal criminal investigation since 2019 for his foreign business dealings, it seems like Twitter, et. al., should have some accountability.
The article slice below is behind a paywall. I think Glenn Greenwald is worth the less than a buck a week as an honest liberal entrepreneur. You pay as much for the CNN/MSNBC/CBS/PBS/ABC/NBC channels on your cable.
Some of what he writes is public. A link appears in TOC's blogroll under Glenn Greenwald.
Greenwald left The Intercept (he was a founder) because they spiked an article he wrote about Hunter Biden before the election. That's when I checked out his independent gig on Substack.
Greenwald (this one is paywalled) provides a gimlet eyed view:
The revelation that Hunter Biden is being criminally investigated for his business activities in China came on Monday from the investigative target himself, and he predictably and self-servingly depicted it as just a narrow probe about his "tax affairs" by the U.S. Attorney for Delaware. As I wrote last night, that by itself would be significant enough — the documents published in the weeks before the election by The New York Post contained ample information about exactly that matter, yet were widely repressed by a union of mainstream news outlets, the intelligence community and Silicon Valley based on propaganda and lies. But new reporting suggest the investigation has been far broader.
"The federal investigation into President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter has been more extensive than a statement from Hunter Biden indicates," Politico reported Monday night. Specifically, "the securities fraud unit in the Southern District of New York also scrutinized Hunter Biden's finances"; "investigators in Delaware and Washington were also probing potential money laundering and Hunter Biden's foreign ties"; and "federal authorities in the Western District of Pennsylvania are conducting a criminal investigation of a hospital business in which Joe Biden's brother James was involved." CNN's Shimon Prokupecz added that "at least one of the matters investigators have examined is a 2017 gift of a 2.8-carat diamond that Hunter Biden received from CEFC [China Energy']'s founder and former chairman Ye Jianming after a Miami business meeting."
We're slipping into fascism backwards. One normally thinks of the formal government (Mussolini comes to mind) as the instigator of fascism*, but in the current case it's most certainly rent-seeking large corporations leading the charge. And that goes far beyond our cybernetic overlords. It's also Maim Scream Media™, academiots, and corporate whores mau-mauing the swamp dwellers.
Of course, Antifa and the present cadre of BLM have raised mau-mauing to an actually dangerous level with arson, looting, assault, and murder. They would be the brownshirts.
Then, there's this:
Hunter Biden Email Reportedly Names Kamala Harris, Others as Key Contacts for 'Joint Venture' With China Energy Co
Perhaps Eric Swalwell could do with a serious "debriefing."
*That definition is fatally flawed because it includes a mention of capitalism, but the misunderstanding is pervasive. Free markets are required under capitalism. Fascism precludes free markets.
Posted in corporatism, finance, free speech, internet, politicsTagged academiots, biden, capitalism, CCP virus, china, corporatist whores, election, Facebook, fascism, Google, Maim Scream Media™, Twitter
2021 Twitter – trending
June 10, 2020 3:51 pm HershbloggerLeave a comment
What with pandemics and riots it's easy to lose track of other Leftwing panics. Like net neutrality; psychologically engineered to please large corporations who oppose free speech.
I'm old enough to remember when we were all going to die if the misnamed 'net neutrality' protocols weren't invoked immediately.
The Left doesn't forget. When they get over their paroxysm over opening the economy, and tire of insisting opposition to arson and looting is racist, they'll go back to this.
With the full throated support of Silly-Putty Valley lobbyists petitioning the General Government under the provisions of the First Amendment they despise.
The Censoring Left: 'Net Neutrality' for Thee – Not for Me
"Net neutrality" is not unlike "defund the police."
Posted in internet, law, Media, UncategorizedTagged Facebook, Google, Twitter


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MMC as Security
In September 2020, THFC announced a new policy for the charging of volumetric and panellised modular housing as security, as well as a commitment to identifying a suitable housing association that would help put this new policy into practice. This led to THFC's first charging exercise with homes being built using offsite construction, often referred to as "modern methods of construction" (MMC) completing in January 2022 with borrower GreenSquareAccord.
MMC is a way of describing a range of different construction techniques; they are innovative and offer more environmentally-friendly ways of building structures. The phrase emerged from a 2005 report by the National Audit Office, which focused on new methods for enabling '…a process to produce more, better quality homes in less time.' This includes panelised units produced in factories and assembled onsite, volumetric construction producing 3D units in factories and transported to site, hybrid techniques, including floor or roof cassettes, pre-cast concrete foundation assemblies, pre-formed wiring looms, mechanical engineering composites and innovative techniques such as tunnel form or thin-joint block work.
Take up of MMC among lenders has been relatively slow, however, in part hindered by costs and lender hesitancy. Key challenges to mortgaging MMC units include:
Product quality assurance
Lifespan certainty
Medium and long-term maintenance requirements.
Future marketability
More recently, the Government has encouraged uptake of MMC, with the 2021 Affordable Homes Programme stipulating that 25% of homes being built should use MMC.
GreenSquareAccord was formed in early 2021 by a merger of Accord Housing Association and GreenSquare Group, with a footprint of 25,000 homes across the West Midlands and South West. Accord had been operating an offsite manufacturing facility since 2011 under the "LoCal Homes" brand. In July 2021 GreenSquareAccord borrowed £75m from bLEND Funding Plc as part of an exercise to fund new developments in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
In January 2022, 120 were made using timber frame units produced by LoCal homes were charged as security on the £75m loan.
The 120 timber frame properties are located in developments in and around Walsall, and all of them have been given a 'B' rating in Energy Performance. Moreover, all the MMC units also have a design life that both surpasses British Standards and are covered by Premier Guarantee Insurance. While the timber frame product falls under the DLUHC definition of MMC, it is standard in terms of construction and widely used.
This charging exercise was the first under THFC's new policy, and demonstrates its commitment to helping the sector overcome the perceived challenges around pledging MMC units as security. An emphasis was placed on the provision of comprehensive data on the units and their maintenance schedules to support valuations. In addition, new forms of assurance/insurance products like BOPAS and NHBC provide a basis for lender confidence in charged MMC units.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Great Khali - um halterofilista, ator e lutador de wrestling profissional indiano
Rub' al-Khali - um dos maiores desertos de areia do mundo
Desambiguação

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Despite growing support for marijuana, nationwide legalization faces rocky road
WASHINGTON — Ask advocates of marijuana legalization how their cause fared during the 2017 state legislative sessions and they'll tell you that though the gains were incremental, they're hopeful that several legislatures will eventually make possession and sale of the federally prohibited drug legal.
Ask the same of people who oppose legalization and they'll say it's been a banner year — they choked efforts to legalize recreational marijuana in many statehouses and stalled implementation of pot sales in at least one other.
Lawmakers in at least 23 states considered legislation to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana this year and 16 states weighed bills to establish medical marijuana programs.
[related_articles location="left" show_article_date="false" article_type="automatic-primary-section" curated_ids=""]But even as public support for marijuana continues to grow, few of those measures survived. That's in part because many lawmakers are concerned that the Trump administration may begin strict enforcement of federal drug laws, political analysts say. Many legislators are also beholden to conservative supporters and face little political pressure to sign off on marijuana legislation, the analysts say.
G. Terry Madonna, a public affairs professor who coordinates polling for Franklin and Marshall College, says legislatures are unlikely to take up legalization because most are controlled by Republicans who are less likely to support marijuana legalization and because supporters of legal marijuana don't care enough about legalization to pressure lawmakers into voting for it.
"The question I always ask is, 'Do (voters) care about it?' " he said. "What's the level of concern that they have. And right now, for the vast majority of Americans, it's not a cutting-edge issue."
Opposition from powerful law enforcement groups, including police and prosecutors, also keeps legislators from passing marijuana bills, said Mark Kleiman, a public policy professor at New York University.
"Nobody wants to see the uniforms (supporting) their opponent," he said.
FILE – In this Nov. 21, 2014, file photo, medical marijuana is rolled into a joint in Belfast, Maine. The pot legalization campaign is pushing back against efforts for a 20 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales ahead of legalization in 2018. Lawmakers are pondering the best way to tax pot to bring in state revenue and discourage the black market. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, file)
This year lawmakers in Vermont got close to being the first to legalize recreational marijuana, only to see the legislation they passed get vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican. A compromise bill that would legalize possession of marijuana, but not establish a system for growing and selling it, is expected to pass early in the 2018 legislative session.
So far, voters in eight states have legalized recreational marijuana and regulate sales of the drug. West Virginia this year became the 30th state to legalize medical marijuana, and in New Hampshire, a new law decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug.
Each year more bills to legalize recreational marijuana are being introduced in state legislatures. But most lawmakers are still unwilling pass them, leaving it up to voters to decide if the plant that opponents say is a gateway to hardcore drug use should be available for mass consumption and regulated similarly to alcohol.
"You don't get out of a hundred years of hysteria easily," said Jim Borghesani, communications director for a successful campaign last fall in Massachusetts to legalize recreational marijuana through a voter referendum. "A lot of public officials are just afraid of this issue, even though the public just keeps passing these ballot initiatives."
Voters in California, Maine and Nevada also moved to legalize the possession and sale of recreational marijuana last year, joining four other states that have acted through ballot measures.
But the referendums can be light on implementation details, and once they're passed, it's often up to legislators to pass laws that govern how and where marijuana can be sold.
For Massachusetts and Nevada, the processes for establishing a system to sell recreational marijuana couldn't look more different.
The ballot measures in both states proposed to start allowing marijuana sales in 2018. But almost immediately Massachusetts lawmakers pushed back implementation by six months.
Nevada officials did the opposite, moving the first day of sales up to this July. Dispensaries sold so much pot in the first few days that they almost ran out.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts lawmakers were still slugging out the details of sales and regulation. A proposal in the Democratic-controlled state House, backed by more than four-fifths of its members, would have upended the ballot measure, raising the tax rate on marijuana from 12 to 28 percent and nixing a provision that would allow voters to decide whether pot shops could open in their town, leaving that authority to local lawmakers.
Lucio Ortiz shops for marijuana at The Source dispensary, Saturday, July 1, 2017, in Las Vegas. Recreational marijuana became legal in Nevada on Saturday. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A version of the bill in the Senate, also controlled by Democrats, would have maintained the tax rate and referendum procedures approved by voters and included an amendment to expunge old marijuana criminal records.
Just last week the House and Senate released a compromise bill that rewrites the recreational marijuana law as well as a 4-year-old medical marijuana statute. It would increase the tax on recreational marijuana to 20 percent and allow voters in towns and cities that approved the ballot measure to make the call on whether shops would be banned. The Senate's expungement provision was scrapped.
"The advocates — and the people who vote for these measures can sometimes get upset. It's not how they anticipated it would be regulated," said Karmen Hanson, who tracks drug policy for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Sales are now slated to begin next July, delaying what the Massachusetts Revenue Department expects to be $64 million in tax revenue in the first year of sales, as well as the creation of new jobs in the sector. Borghesani speculates that if the state takes too long to implement marijuana sales, investors looking to capitalize on marijuana companies might lose interest in Massachusetts.
Other states were able to implement their marijuana programs without costly delays, he said. "We're going to be in it six more months than we need to be, and that doesn't help anybody."
Advocates have long been watching Vermont, expecting that it would become the first Legislature to legalize recreational marijuana. But while the Legislature signed off on the measure, the governor's veto put the state with at least 20 others that failed to pass recreational marijuana bills this year. Some, including New York and Illinois, will carry their bills over into 2018, while others such as Connecticut and Mississippi killed the bills before they received a vote from the full legislature.
Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, considers these failures a big win for his coalition, which lobbies against legalization, but favors reducing punishments for low-level marijuana crimes.
He said voters sign off on marijuana ballot measures with little understanding of what the potential laws mean and how they will impact their communities. Once marijuana is legal, they realize they don't want it in their neighborhoods, he said.
"Even people that might be OK generally with marijuana, they don't want the smell increasing as we're seeing in cities like Washington, D.C., and Boston," Sabet said.
FILE – In this May 14, 2013, Rosy Solis, left, and Nicole Denis help fill medical marijuana prescriptions at the Venice Beach Care Center medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles. California would set standards for organic marijuana, allow pot samples at county fairs and permit home deliveries under legislation set to be considered by lawmakers Thursday, June 15, 2017, as the state prepares for next year's start of legal marijuana sales. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
In about half the states, ballot measure laws won't allow for votes on marijuana. That means widespread legalization ultimately lies in the hands of legislatures.
More than 1 in 5 Americans live in states that have legalized recreational marijuana and more than 60 percent live in places with medical marijuana laws. Legalization of recreational marijuana began in 2012 in Oregon and Washington. In those states, like many in the West, it is relatively easy to change laws through ballot measures. But legalization has spread east in the past half-decade.
Still, 17 states have enacted no laws to legalize marijuana in any form or lessen the penalties for possessing and using it.
Advocates say legalization in states like Maine and Massachusetts could prompt lawmakers in other East Coast states to consider legal pot as a way to generate revenue and create jobs.
Matt Simon, the New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, a nationwide organization that lobbies for marijuana legalization, said once sales are established in a few states, especially in a compact region like New England, more will be willing to legalize.
For example, though Vermont is expected to legalize possession, and not retail sales, next year, the state and others in that region will eventually legalize retail sales, he said.
"The reality is that retail markets are coming to the region," Simon said. "It is changing the thinking."
Tags: California, Federal government, marijuana, Medical Marijuana, Recreational marijuana, Regulation
Thousands apply for cannabis permits in Emerald Triangle, but few in Sonoma County
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text:
29 Become American Citizens in Naturalization Ceremony
29 men and women from 20 countries stood in the Russell Smith Federal Courthouse on Thursday morning to take the oath of citizenship from U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto.
In her message to the new citizens, Judge DeSoto brought home the meaning of the national motto E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many, One.
"I look at all of you, and it's amazing the countries that you came from, the different genders, religions and ethnicities that you represent, and that's part of what makes America great," said Judge DeSoto. "We're not great because we're just one. You don't lose your identity when you become a citizen. You enhance America by your own individuality and your differences, and I thank you for that."
Judge DeSoto, in her first ever naturalization ceremony, also gave some words of wisdom about the nature of politics in America.
CITIZEN - JUDGE DeSOTO
"One of the phrases bandied about these days is 'fake news', so be careful where you get your information," she said. "We have a saying in America, 'straight from the horse's mouth', and there are plenty of ways to get information about candidates and about issues. You can go to city council meetings, you can listen to debates. Make sure that you inform yourselves as best as you can, because ultimately when you vote, it's your decision."
CITIZEN MALAYSIA WOMAN
One of the new citizens, Zee Lin Cheok is from Malaysia and works at a nonprofit agency in Anaconda. She said the most difficult aspect of the naturalization process was the exam, particularly one subject.
"History," she laughed. "I'm not good at history, so I had to memorize American history, but it's a really good story about how Americans made America great. From your history, so many have fought in wars, but we keep growing and it's really great. The life is a lot easier, the systems are really convenient especially when it comes to daily life, for example: we used to hand wash all the dishes and sun dry all the clothes in Malaysia but here we have a dishwasher and dryer that can make life a lot easier. I also enjoy the work-life balance and the freedom here, that's why I choose America."
Some of the other countries represented were Belarus, Bulgaria, Brazil, Burma, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Philippines, St. Lucia, South Korea, , Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom and Venezuela.
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Pakistan has taken up the Indus Waters Treaty issue with International Court Of Justice and World Bank.
Reviewing treaty, PM Modi had said, "blood and water can't flow together"
Stung by reports that India is reviewing the Indus Waters Treaty after the Uri terror attack, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that "blood and water cannot flow together", Pakistan has approached the World Bank.
The World Bank "committed itself to timely fulfilling its obligations under the treaty while remaining neutral," said a statement issued by the Pakistani Embassy in Washington today.
Reports say Pakistan has also gone to the International Court of Justice.
The World Bank brokered the 1960 agreement that regulates the flow of six rivers between India and Pakistan.
A delegation led by Pakistan's top lawyer, Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali, met senior World Bank officials in Washington on Tuesday. The team reportedly urged the World Bank to accelerate the process of appointing judges for a Court of Arbitration. The treaty gives the global lender an important role in establishing the Court of Arbitration by facilitating the appointment of three judges, called Umpires, while each country appoints two arbitrators.
Pakistan's foreign policy adviser Sartaz Aziz said in the National Assembly yesterday that if India revokes the treaty, it will be treated as "an act of war or a hostile act against Pakistan".
Pakistan's pre-emptive strike follows PM Modi's meeting on Monday to assess the treaty as India debates tough steps against Pakistan after 18 soldiers were killed in an attack on an army base in Kashmir's Uri on September 18.
Sources say one retaliatory move being considered by the government is to "maximise" the use of water from the rivers governed by Pakistan - Chenab, Jhelum and Indus. This will impact Pakistan as it depends on snow-fed Himalayan rivers for everything from drinking water to agriculture.
The Indus Waters Treaty gives India rights to use the eastern rivers - Ravi, Sutlej and Beas - and Pakistan has control over the three western rivers.
In a series of moves to isolate Pakistan, India has also pulled out of the SAARC summit in Islamabad and PM Modi has also called for a deliberation on Thursday of whether to downgrade the country's status as a trading partner.


WHAT'S MAIA UP TO | Maia's Angels | Sprinkling angel love around the world one angel at a time.
Angel LOVE is going GLOBAL!!!
Maia is so excited, her Nana, Grandad, Aunty and Uncle are on a big trip to Europe at the moment so we are getting LOTS of updates and photographs of angels in some very special places!!
Her aunty has left some ANGEL LOVE there!!!
We are super busy at the moment, making LOTS of christmas Angels ready for the silly season.
Make sure you get in early with your xmas angel order so that we have plenty of time to get them to you wherever you are in the world!
Thank you for popping over to visit our page.
If you want to read about how Maia's Angels about check out the WELCOME tab but if you want to get straight in and order your angels then click on the 'How to Order' tab and all the info you need is RIGHT there!!!
Thanks so much for your support and remember ….


The 16th edition of SIAL CHINA 2015 took place in Shanghai New International Expo Centre, 6-8 May 2015. Taking over 115,000 sqm (+20% over 2014) exhibition area, 2,734 exhibitors (+14% over 2014) from 61 countries all over the World and 21 regions in China and 61,296 visitors (+11.5% vs 2014), 2015's growth marks a new milestone in SIAL CHINA's history.
The Opening Ceremony – An epitome of the international network behind SIAL On May 6th, a delegation of ministers (Argentina, Czech Republic, Poland and USA), ambassadors, consuls and trade officers participated in the Opening Ceremony of SIAL CHINA 2015.
Most of all the pavilions were well represented. China was represented by many high-ranking officials while the guest country of Honor – USA, was represented by Consul General of the U.S. Consulate General Shanghai and Ministerial Agriculture Counselor from Beijing Embassy.
This year, USA has been the Guest Country of Honor. USA had a strong representation during the SIAL CHINA 2015 with more than 100 companies presenting pork and poultry in hall E3 and a great diversity and ingredients and beverage products in hall E1.
Poland pavilion was located in hall W4, on a surface of nearly 1,000 sqm, featured with dairy products of the highest quality, traditional meat and poultry products, fruit and vegetables preserves, natural juices, beverages and alcohol drinks as well as confectionery products.
Heilongjiang joined this year as the Guest Province of Honor with 40 companies showcasing rice, edible fungus, blueberry wine and other health and organic products.
Among all the well-designed pavilions and stands in SIAL CHINA, there are always quite a few shining even brighter. The independent jury awarded the Best Designed Pavilion to Korea Pavilion for their impressive ethnic decoration and the Best De signed Individual Stand goes to Segafredo Zanetti Espresso from Korea.
SIAL Innovation competition, showcase of the latest food and beverage exhibited in SIAL CHINA has revealed for its 11th edition with great success: 94 selected innovative products from 56 companies from 22 worldwide countries and regions; 11 Finalist products and 3 Awards for Gold /Silver/Bronze Award! The SIAL Innovation Finalists and the SIAL Innovation Gold/Silver/Bronze Awards were given by the juries to highlight the best of the best innovative products exhibited in SIAL CHINA 2015. This year the Gold Award goes to LISE BACCARA from France for its Parfum Culinaire; the Silver Award goes to BROOKLYN BREW SHOP from USA for its Beer Making Kit ;the Bronze Award goes to TPT INTERNATIONAL GROUP (CHINA) CO., LIMITED from China for its range 3+3 Fruit Honey!
The competition was endorsed by World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS) for its 2nd year. Keen competitions among 12 top international chefs from USA, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand and 12 top national chefs from Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Zhejiang were held. During the Awarding Ceremony on 7th May, Malaysia team won the Special Gold award, Thailand and USA won the Gold medals. The pavilion organizers from Poland, Japan, and USA also animated La Cuisine by SIAL area with their excellent culinary demonstrations and products during 3 days.
Partnered with Ivie – a global marketing consultancy delivering expertise from concept to reality, the 4th edition delivered its pitch perfect topics featuring industry leaders such as CGF, Daymon, Hailiang Group, BIO Farm, XTC, Australian Organic, Parishine, Maruha Nichiro, and many more. This year covers topics from food innovation and trends to food safety, from private label to food quality, from organic food to imported food, and many more. Meanwhile, we recorded the full panel discussion as well as the conference which will be shared on its online channel YouKu.com. Please stay tune for the online presentation updates.
In its 2015 edition, SIAL CHINA presented World Tour by SIAL, helping to understand the specific characteristics of the food market by geographic area. 28 billboards featured with best-selling products and the information to define the retail strategies, from Australia to Canada, from Brazil to Russia, the United States, India and even China were displayed along the corridors to the South and East Lobbies.
This is a special session organized by The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a global parity-based industry network bring together with CEOs and senior management of 400 retailers. Titled as "Food Safety: Achieving the Global Vision", CGF presented the session in the form of panel discussion and briefed the responsive principles to see through the intriguing retail market with experts from COFCO, Carrefour, Wal- Mart, Cargrill, Aeon, Metro, Nestle, Tyson foods and so forth.
With the strong support from Café Culture Magazine and Australian Asian Specialty Tea Association (AASTA) and sponsored by Brita Water Purification System, the first edition of China National Specialty Tea Brewers Cup Event was launched by SIAL CHINA successfully. Providing guidelines to combine traditional tea and other natural food materials together, this event shows characteristics of tea drinks and also contestants' creativity. After the twoand- half day contest, the top 3 contestants stood out. Huang Jianhua from Taiwan came first, Wei Chuwei from Guizhou second and Gu Zongquan from Beijing third.
With 4 well-selected sponsors, the 4th edition of Chocolate World saw 14 sessions successfully held within 3 days and attracted over 550 professional visitors. Among all the sessions, the "Chef Show" and "MAXIMS Show" were the two biggest highlights of this edition. The former involved a contestant line-up of chefs from top 5 hotel management groups. Mr. Yang Jun, the pastry chef from Beijing Parkview Wuzhou Hotel was crowned with the laurel of dessert.
"MAXIMS Show" presented a brand new chocolate-making demostration in the form of drama. At the same time, it collaborated with three-star Michelin chefs to hand-make truffle chocolate on-site and created an elegant Salon with French wine and chocolate, pushing this exhibition into the new climax.
The third edition of The Fresh – Right Seafood Right Wine was held together by CAPPMA and SIAL CHINA. 14 sessions within 3 days attracted 251 professional visitors and more than 40 journalists and media. 36% of the visitors were from HORECA industry. With the strong support from Hainan Fisheries Office, Weihai Fisheries Bureau, Ease Scent Wine Education Group as well as MSC, this event invited Mr. Jin Liang, a prestigious chef to perform the live culinary demonstration along with famous educators from Ease Scent. In addition, the largest Chinese aquatic enterprise ZHANGZIDAO together with MSC initiated the new consumption concepts of "Sustainable Fisheries for a Fresher Life" onsite.


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Using Share911
Introduction to Share911
How to Clear an Incident on Share911
Modified on: Mon, Nov 9, 2020 at 12:52 PM
How to clear an incident on Share911 depends on what type of alert was issued or notification was sent. Even though Broadcast Alerts, Emergency Check-ins and Notifications are sent to users the same way (as a push notification, text and/or email), they are, in fact, different and need to be cleared in different ways. A Broadcast Alert is sent on the Broadcast page, an Emergency Check-in is sent on the check-in page and a Notification is sent on the Notify page. Below we discuss how to clear each type of incident.
How to Clear a Broadcast Alert
After an alert is issued and the emergency is completed, authorized members of your channel, or a member of a public safety agency, can issue an All Clear on the channel. This is done within the Broadcast feature. Select All Clear Alert and then Broadcast All Clear. Ideally, an All Clear should be issued as soon as the incident is completed.
Occasionally, for one reason or another, an All-Clear is not issued and the alert remains active on your channel after the incident is over. In this case, you can either manually clear the incident by going to Manage Channel and selecting "Clear Events" or you can wait for the system to reset overnight, thereby clearing the alert.
*Please note that to be able to clear an incident in Manage Channel, the user needs to have "Manage Channel" and Broadcast Alert permission.
How to Clear an Emergency Check-in
When a member of your staff makes an emergency check-in, such as a threat nearby or a medical emergency, the red box containing the notification on the LiveView page will remain on this page until it is manually removed. It can be removed in one of two ways:
The individual who made the emergency check-in can change his or her status to secure; or
An authorized member of your channel can go to Manage Channel and select "Clear Events."
How to Clear a "Security/Assistance Needed" Emergency Check-in or Notification
When someone checks-in as "Security/Assistance Needed," the emergency check-in appears as a notification. See Share911 Notify to learn how to send a notification.
Like other notifications, you clear the incident by clicking on the blue box that says "Update Incident" when the notification has been opened.
From the drop-down menu under Current Status, select "completed."
Please note that to be able to update a notification, you need to have "Create Notification" permission. Thus, the person who made the Emergency/Assistance Needed" check-in most likely would not be the same person who will clear the incident.
What is Share911?
Getting started for new users
Share911 Training Video


In dozens of past posts, I have argued that the government is to blame for the current economic crisis. For example, the Federal Reserve's efforts to artificially lower interest rates set the stage for the recent housing crisis. I further argued that the leverage created by the Fed's expansion of the money supply coupled with the fractional reserve banking system, causes the well known "boom-bust" cycle, i.e., a period of artificial nominal growth resulting from the creation of paper money followed by a spectacular bust as investment's that depended on the continuation of price increases from the credit expansion eventually go bad - as soon as the government turns off the spigot.
But while investors expect the market — up more than 80 percent this year — to keep rising, Chinese leaders are alarmed. They worry that too much of the $1 trillion lending binge by state banks that paid for China's nascent revival was diverted into stocks and real estate, raising the danger of a boom and bust cycle and higher inflation less than two years after an earlier stock market bubble burst.


Discussion in 'Mac Apps and Mac App Store' started by G3ck092, Aug 10, 2017.
I have one album by Eminem, and for some reason it is split into 8 different entries all titled 'Eminem', shown in the image below. The album and artist are written exactly the same, I can't see any logical reason for this. I changed the seperate songs to a different artist and back, no effect. They are in the same folders and even all titled in a similar style in Finder. Anyone know how to fix this? Thanks.
Check CMD-i on each song, does it correctly state "song x of y" where x is different for each song?
I've had things like this before. Almost always solved by adjusting metadata. Check album artist is the same for each track. As above check all tracks are assigned to the same album. Basically you need to go through all the metadata, check the sorting metadata, this can mess everything up. Close and restart iTunes after you've adjusted something too.
I've got a few albums where one or two tracks just won't list with the album. I've changed and double checked everything, but for some reason iTunes just won't let them join in! Mystery.
Once in a great while you have to drag an album out of iTunes. Eliminate it from your library, and then put the tracks you dragged out back in to make it accept it as a single album.
They're all set to the right track number, disc, artist etc. It's ripped straight from the CD too, so that should make it even more accurate.


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Embryo research is 'science without ethics'
adult stem cell research, embryo, embryonic stem cell research, ethics, life, pro-life, stem cell research, stem cells
William Batz, who has a doctorate in philosophy and is the secretary for social concerns at the Diocese of Pittsburgh, recently answered questions from the Pittsburgh Catholic on stem cell research from a Catholic perspective.
What are stem cells? Is the Catholic Church opposed to stem cell research?
Stems cells are relatively unspecialized cells that can divide and make more stem cells or any number of cells with more specialized functions. A stem cell in our blood can make new red blood cells, for example, or white blood cells or other kinds of cells, depending on what the body needs.
The church is not at all opposed to stem cell research using cells obtained from adult tissue, umbilical cord blood or other sources that pose no moral problem. Useful stem cells have been derived from bone marrow, blood, muscle, fat, nerves and even teeth. Some of these cells have already been used to treat a wide variety of diseases. Thousands of lives have been saved by adult stem cells, most often in the form of "bone marrow transplants" for leukemia and other conditions, where the active ingredient in the bone marrow is stem cells.
Adult stem cells have been used already to help people with Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, lupus, multiple sclerosis, heart damage, sickle cell anemia and dozens of other conditions. Research on adult stem cells shows the most promise. Advances in deriving stem cells from adult tissue – so-called induced pluripotent stem cells – may actually make embryonic stem-cell research obsolete before long.
Why is the church opposed to embryonic stem-cell research?
The church will always raise a prophetic voice to defend the sanctity of human life, and to oppose the destruction of innocent human life for any reason. Embryonic stem cells generally come from embryos that are five to seven days old. The process of extracting stem cells located in the inner mass of the embryo necessarily kills the newly formed human being.
Those who propose to harvest stem cells by destroying human life in the embryo would like us to think that human embryos do not merit the same respectful treatment that society accords to human life at later stages. Early embryos do not have faces or eyes, though they are precisely as human as the rest of us. The science of embryology makes it clear that human embryos are human beings, not plants or other animals. Each of us was once an embryo – a small cluster of cells sitting on the point of a sewing pin. Because human life in embryonic form is different in size and appearance from life in later stages, advocates of embryonic research are eager to portray this human life as different from the rest of us, and hence fair game for destruction at the hands of other humans who are no longer embryos themselves.
By contrast, the church insists that all human beings should be treated with respect for their life. It is not moral to destroy some human lives in the interests of others. With good reason our society reacted with horror at stories of live human experimentation in the Nazi camps years ago. Instinctively, most of us know that it is gravely immoral to mutilate or destroy human life in order to pursue scientific research.
The advancement of science is a noble goal, but science without ethics can become a threat to the dignity of the human person. The choice is not between science and "ideology," as some claim, but between science that is ethically responsible and science that is not.
Some frozen embryos will die anyway. Why is it wrong to try to get something good out of them?
We will all die anyway, but that gives no one the right to kill us first. Some embryos are left over from in vitro techniques and unable to survive, but one bad choice does not justify another wrong choice to kill them for research, or to make taxpayers pay for such destruction. Trying to justify experiments on human beings who will die anyway poses a threat to death row prisoners, terminally ill patients and others. If it is legitimate to harvest cells from embryos that will die anyway, why isn't it legitimate to harvest organs from those in hospice care, for example? Do we have the right to accelerate another person's death because we have good uses for their body parts?
Doesn't a ban on embryonic stem-cell research impede the discovery of new cures? Is the church telling us to choose the lives of embryos over the lives of suffering patients?
The church is calling us to respect the interests of both. We must help those who are suffering, but we may not use a good end to justify an evil means. Actually this is a false dichotomy. The claim that embryonic research will lead to new cures is largely speculation. Embryonic stem cells have never treated a human patient. Trials suggest that they are too genetically unstable and too likely to form lethal tumors to be used for treatment anytime soon. Yet, supporters are wedded to this approach, having invested a great deal of money and effort.
More than a few in the research community fear that federal money may now be diverted from adult stem-cell research with its proven successes to an avenue of research that has yet to produce one useful therapy, and one that may become obsolete before long anyhow. Scientists as well as moralists have asked whether the president's decision to make federal funds available for embryonic research is a wise choice. It more likely reflects a triumph of money and politics over both scientific judgment and morality.
How is human cloning related to stem cell research?
In human cloning, the DNA from the nucleus of a person's body cell is inserted into an egg whose own genetic material has been removed. The egg is then stimulated to begin to develop into an embryo. The cloned embryo would genetically be an almost twin to the person who supplied the body cell. It is a way of manufacturing a human being according to pre-set laboratory specifications. The cloned embryo can then be killed to harvest its stem cells, perhaps to treat the original cell donor with less likelihood of rejection. This is the ultimate reduction of a fellow human being to a mere means or instrument of other people's goals.
Fortunately President (Barack) Obama has stated that he will not support human cloning. Many secular and religious groups, including some who disagree with the Catholic Church about abortion, have also raised serious moral concerns about cloning and embryonic stem cell usage.
Are Catholics alone in this fight?
Ultimately, the question of research on early and defenseless human life is not a concern of Catholics alone. Opposition to the treatment of early human life as a mere object or commodity in the laboratory transcends religious and political divisions. All people of good will understand that a civilization is defined by how it treats its most poor and vulnerable members, including the most vulnerable human life of all – the early child in its mother's womb.
Catholics would add that human life is created, loved and redeemed by God. It is priceless at every stage. A human being in embryo form is no less precious to God than an elderly person taking her last breath.
This article appeared in the March 13, 2009, issue of the Pittsburgh Catholic.
Catholic Schools Week activities planned across region Jan. 30 – Feb. 3
Catholic Schools Week kicks-off in archdiocese with Mass at Holy Trinity School
January 24, 2023 Clergy Official
PCC Capitol Wrap for Tuesday, 1-31-23


See and other posts of Entertainment category at www.tyres-new-zealand.com. Read comments!
The basic tread of a tyre contains jagged lines that run parallel to each other. The image of this tread can also be used in art projects, crafts, and Halloween costumes along with Halloween installations like mock-crime scenes. If you want to paint a tyre track, find an image of a tyre treads available near you and you will be able to paint it. Don't have a mare today.
Tyre what? Yes, tyre shaving. Chur…We'll forgive you if you're not familiar with it, as this art has understandably become less popular and less necessary in the time since the radial tyre overtook the market in the '60s and '70s. Before then, tyre manufacturing was not very accurate and new tyres actually came with extra tread—they were so far out of round, you'd need to have your installer shave tread off to make them circular or "true." And so, shortly after the radial tyres' popularity brought with it advances in tyre manufacturing, those tyre shaving machines and the guys that ran them began to fade away.


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Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed files petition saying 7 new witnesses can exonerate him
Posted 3:33 pm, November 13, 2019, by CNN Wire
Lawyers for Rodney Reed, the Texas inmate set to be executed next week, said in a legal filing that testimony from seven new witnesses help to prove his innocence.
Monday's filing with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, provided to CNN by the Innocence Project, lists seven witnesses who have provided testimony that the court has not seen before — four of whom provided sworn affidavits within the past few days.
Reed was sentenced to death more than 20 years ago for the 1996 assault, rape and strangling of 19-year-old Stacey Stites in Bastrop. But Reed and attorneys with the Innocence Project say they have evidence that exonerates him and instead implicates Stites' fiancé at the time, Jimmy Fennell, who was a police officer.
The case has drawn the attention of lawmakers, religious leaders and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna, and more than 2.8 million people have signed a petition on freerodneyreed.com asking Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the execution, scheduled for November 20.
The new witness affidavits, which come from neighbors, colleagues, and associates of Stites and Fennell, paint their relationship as abusive and difficult. There is also additional testimony that underscores the assertion that Stites was engaged in an affair with Reed.
One witness attested that Fennell said something like, "You got what you deserved" while looking at Stites' body at her funeral service.
The new testimony aims to refute the prosecution's portrayal of Fennell and Stites as a happy couple eagerly anticipating their upcoming wedding and further cast Fennell as a potential suspect in his fiancée's murder.
Fennell was never charged in her death. His attorney, Robert Phillips, said his client denies any involvement in Stites' death, and he said the stories were lacking in credibility.
"There's no evidence that's worthy of presenting even to a grand jury that Jimmy Fennell was somehow involved," Phillips said.
Related: Man freed from jail uses new freedom to start dream business
The Innocence Project leads Reed's defense
The lead prosecutor for Reed's case maintains he is guilty and has said that DNA evidence from Stites' body proves it.
"A large amount of credible evidence, including irrefutable DNA evidence, the testimony of witnesses, and the pattern Rodney Reed followed in committing his other sexual assaults, show beyond a reasonable doubt that he raped and murdered Stacey Stites," Lisa Tanner said.
But Reed's attorneys say his DNA was on Stites' body because they were engaged in a consensual sexual relationship.
The Innocence Project noted that Reed, who is black, was convicted by an all-white jury. The group also says the murder weapon was never tested for DNA evidence and that forensic experts admitted to errors in their testimony, and that a former prison inmate claims someone else confessed to the murder that sent Reed to prison.
Bryce Benjet, a senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project, called the case a "miscarriage of justice."
In 2008, Fennell pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and improper sexual activity with a person in custody while he was an officer in Georgetown, Texas. A woman he detained when he was responding to a domestic dispute call accused him of rape. He was sentenced to 10 years.
A former inmate who served time with Fennell said in an affidavit filed this month that Fennell confessed to killing Stites.
"Jimmy said his fiancée had been sleeping around with a black man behind his back," wrote Arthur Snow Jr., who was serving a sentence for forgery in a Texas prison in 2010, in the affidavit.
"Toward the end of the conversation Jimmy said confidently, 'I had to kill my n*****- loving fiancée,'" he wrote.
Topics: death row, execution, exoneration, Rodney Reed, Texas
Texas appeals court blocks Rodney Reed execution
Harvey Weinstein's sex assault trial starts Monday, here's what to expect
City of Portsmouth suing sheriff over jail
Man convicted of killing fiancée Kelsey Berreth, sentenced to life without possibility of parole
"Odor of pure blood": Several witnesses testify of 'bloodbath and chaos' in Pasquotank Co. prison attack
Real estate tycoon Robert Durst admits writing note giving location of body, lawyer says
Ethan Couch, who killed four people in 'affluenza' case, arrested again in Texas
Judge rules City of Portsmouth can't condemn city jail, must repair for safety
Missouri inmate executed despite activists' concerns he could suffer because of his rare disease
Kidnapped from a birthday party and killed, 'Cupcake' McKinney to be laid to rest in Birmingham, Alabama
Watch: Impeachment hearings continue Thursday as two more witnesses testify publicly
Key witness in ex-cop Amber Guyger's murder trial shot to death in Dallas
3 Baltimore men freed from prison 36 years after they were wrongfully convicted of murder


A person's smile can have an enormous influence on how others perceive them. At Signature Smiles in Toms River, Dr. Carmela LaFalce specializes in offering the highest-quality cosmetic dentistry work. Between regular oral exams, to teeth whitenings and dental implants, Dr. Lafalce will make sure your smile looks beautiful for years to come.
To put it simply, people with beautiful teeth tend to smile more frequently. In conjunction, those who are self-conscious of the quality of their teeth, are typically uncomfortable standing out.
Social butterflies often have a set of pearly-whites that they love to share. Which leads us to the next benefit.
Those who smile frequently, appear to others as more positive, in-turn making them more likable. Even if someone has a great personality, no one will know if they're afraid to show it.
Many underestimate how much of a social aspect is present in the workplace. Hard work will go a long way, but people also prefer to work with employees they enjoy spending time with. A positive, charismatic persona could be the key to taking the next leap in one's career.
In addition to the mental benefits of having a great smile, there are hidden medical benefits to it as well. Tooth pain, such as from cold substances and sugar on sensitive teeth, can be remedied with the best Toms River cosmetic dentistry work.
Using either fillings, crowns, or dental implants, the damaged or decayed portions of teeth can be removed, and replaced with sturdy material to keep you smiling.
As a large bonus, these fillings and implants will help prevent future decay in those areas.
For more information on the best Toms River cosmetic dentistry work available, contact Signature Smiles, at (732) 244-4114.


Traveling with the family pet is a potential hazard for both the animal and owner. Pets can cause distractions for the driver and sudden stops could cause severe injury or death to the pet.
An EU Regulation for transporting animals came into effect from 5 January 2007 and is intended to improve the welfare of animals during transport for economic activity. Even though these regulations are not intended for traveling with pets, it is important to note that the European Union has recognized the need of fitness to travel and the importance to be attentive to the safety and health not only of drivers, but also of animals being transported.
Today, more and more people consider their pets as true members of their families, and there are now many pet travel products that make traveling with pets easier and much safer. Animals tend to get upset and disorientated when traveling by car. Knowing how to cope with this is vital to their wellbeing - as well as your own!
We need to ask whether it is a good idea to take your companion animal on vacation with us – is it best for the animal as well or only best for us?
Early acclimation to car travel is the key. If your pet dislikes traveling by car, it might be worth taking it out for a few trips in the car before you set off to try to prepare it for the journey ahead.
If you will be going over international borders, make sure you have your pet's proof of rabies vaccination and their current health certificate to hand.
Some companion animals shouldn't travel at all. If your companion animal is very young or very old, sick, recovering from surgery, or pregnant, then leave her at home.
On the day you leave, maintain your pet's usual feeding routine. Anything out of the ordinary will probably make them feel more uneasy.
Keep favourite toys and food handy as animals tend to respond better when they are surrounded by familiar things.
As soon as you know your companion animal is vacationing with you, see your veterinarian.
Have your vet check your companion animal's general fitness and ability to travel.
Check with your vet that your pet has had fully up-to-date vaccinations.
Take along a jug of cold water in case other water sources are not available.
Stop every couple of hours to allow your pet to get some exercise. Remember to pack the lead!
Don't let your pet put its head out of the car window in case grit and dust get in its eyes. This can cause a nasty injury or infection.
Be sure to keep the windows closed, or open them slightly on a warm day.
Don't leave your pet alone in the car if you can help it. The temperature can soar very quickly inside a locked car.
If you must leave your pet in a parked car, make sure you lock the doors and park in some shade.
Keep a first-aid kit containing bandages, gauze squares and antiseptic cream in the car. Anti-diarrhoea tablets are also useful. Ask your vet to recommend the best ones for your pet. You should keep the phone numbers of your vet and a 24-hour emergency vet hospital near where you are staying with the kit.
If you'll be at your vacation spot more than just a few days, if possible get a reference from your vet for another vet at your destination. When you get to your destination, find the veterinarian's office on a map or ask around for directions.
Knowing where to go if problems arise will make it easier on everyone.
It is important to consider the fate not only of human passengers in the unfortunate event of an accident, but also our animal passengers!
No matter what transportation you choose, your companion animal should wear a collar, license, and proper identification at all times.
The identification tags should have your companion animal's name, your name, address and telephone number on it. If there is room also add the name and telephone number of a person who could serve as an emergency contact in case your companion animal is lost.
A nylon collar or harness is best for either a cat or a dog. Never allow your companion animal to travel wearing a choke-chain. The collar-pull could become snagged on the carrier or other object and he/she may choke to death.
A cat must wear a safety stretch collar to prevent getting hung up on hooks, branches, or other protruding objects.
Keep handy your companion animal's shot records, a written description and several photos of your companion animal in case he/she becomes lost.
You will need these to claim your companion animal from the local animal center when they find him/her. The written description should include your companion animal's name, height, weight, color, and any distinguishing marks.
(5) No person shall drive, pull or push a vehicle upon a sidewalk: Provided that the provisions of this subregulation shall not apply to a perambulator, invalid chair, baby cart or child's play vehicle.


Anyone who has cared for a senior dog knows that there's something extra special about them. Whether they seem more appreciative of their soft bed or a friendly pat on the head, or stopping more often on their usual strolls to smell the proverbial roses, they capture our hearts more every year that passes.
With a focus on wellness and preventive care, the doctors and staff of West Hills East Veterinary Clinic are here to help you and your beloved dog through every life stage, and to support you when your dog reaches their senior years. Like humans, dogs are prone to illness and health conditions as they age, but many of these problems are manageable with medication, treatments, and careful monitoring. Education about senior dog challenges, diseases and observation can be a huge help in keeping your dog happy, healthy, and comfortable through their golden years.
Age-related diseases and chronic illnesses are a part of living with an older dog. Early diagnosis and treatment of these illnesses is critical to your dog's long-term health and quality of life. Many conditions can be prevented from progressing into more serious illnesses when detected early and managed properly. Once symptoms appear, the conditions may be too difficult or costly to diagnose and treat. Our goal is for you and your dog to enjoy the longest, healthiest life together. For this reason, we recommend a comprehensive exam at least every 6 months for your senior dog. We also recommend routine annual blood tests and urinalysis for our senior patients so that we can detect conditions early, when intervention is most effective.
Because dogs age more rapidly than people, dramatic changes in health can occur in as little as 3 to 6 months. If you notice any of the following signs, we recommend that you call our office to schedule an appointment for an exam.
At West Hills Animal Hospital & Emergency Center, we provide specialized medical care for senior dogs as well as monitored care for chronic health conditions including heart conditions, kidney disease, and other age-related concerns.
In addition to the care we provide for your dog here at our facility, there are measures you can take at home to keep your senior dog happy and healthy. As your dog gets older, it is important to minimize stress with a comfortable lifestyle. There are many ways to make small adjustments in your dog's life to keep them comfy as they age. For instance, adding additional bedding gives their aging joints a soft place to rest. A ramp to assist your dog in getting into the car or up the stairs will allow them to go all the places they usually do with less stress on their body. Make it easier for them to get to their favorite places and avoid unexpected falls by adding steps or platforms to help them get where they need to go.
A proper diet and plenty of exercise can also help your senior dog stay healthy and keep their spirits up. This will help your dog maintain a healthy weight, and reduce the risk of conditions such as arthritis and diabetes. Regular play and exercise will also keep their mind sharp and strengthen the bond you share with your special friend!
The entire staff at West Hills East Veterinary Clinic is here to help you and your dog through every life stage. Please contact us today to schedule your dog's senior wellness exam and to discuss any questions you have about your dog's healthcare.


Hawsons are pleased to announce that Peter Wilmer has joined the firm as Corporate Finance Partner.
Peter is highly experienced in the field of corporate finance having worked for two firms of Chartered Accountants, including a national firm, as well as two major banks. Peter will head up the corporate finance team at Hawsons replacing Kevin Gregory, who has been at the firm for 15 years.
For more information on our corporate finance services please click here.


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Debbie Boulton takes up role as Richardson Swift's first managing director following rapid expansion
Bath-based accountancy firm Richardson Swift has appointed Debbie Boulton as its first managing director.
Debbie, pictured, has been a director of the firm for seven years and takes up the new role this month.
Richardson Swift director Derek Swift, who co-founded the business with Mike Richardson in 2009, said the decision to promote Debbie had been unanimous among its board members.
He said the firm launched with just six employees but had expanded rapidly over the years and the time had now come to have someone in charge who could build on its success and guide it in a more strategic direction.
"Having worked closely with Debbie, we all felt she had the skills we need and we are delighted that she has agreed to take on the role," he said.
Richardson Swift, which has a mix of private and corporate clients, now employs around 40 people and last year acquired Chartered Tax Adviser status in addition to being Chartered Accountants.
Its directors have a broad range of expertise and pride themselves on working collaboratively with their clients to provide innovative tax solutions.
Debbie joined the firm in March 2013, having previously spent just over nine years with Bath-based Target Chartered Accountants and then 15 months with regional accountancy firm Bishop Fleming following its acquisition of Target.
She currently leads Richardson Swift's client advisory team and will continue to work closely with clients after her appointment.
Debbie said: "The best bit of my job is working with growing, aspirational businesses, helping them to achieve their business and personal financial goals, and becoming a key part of their business.
"I am looking forward to overseeing the exciting developments we have planned at Richardson Swift in the next year and beyond."


text:
package org.opensaml.xml.signature;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;

import org.opensaml.xml.util.XMLConstants;
import org.opensaml.xml.validation.ValidatingXMLObject;

/** XMLObject representing XML Digital Signature, version 20020212, DSAKeyValue element. */
public interface DSAKeyValue extends ValidatingXMLObject {

    /** Element local name. */
    public static final String DEFAULT_ELEMENT_LOCAL_NAME = "DSAKeyValue";

    /** Default element name. */
    public static final QName DEFAULT_ELEMENT_NAME = new QName(XMLConstants.XMLSIG_NS, DEFAULT_ELEMENT_LOCAL_NAME,
            XMLConstants.XMLSIG_PREFIX);

    /** Local name of the XSI type. */
    public static final String TYPE_LOCAL_NAME = "DSAKeyValueType";

    /** QName of the XSI type. */
    public static final QName TYPE_NAME = new QName(XMLConstants.XMLSIG_NS, TYPE_LOCAL_NAME, XMLConstants.XMLSIG_PREFIX);

    /**
     * Get the P child element.
     *
     * @return the P child element
     */
    public P getP();

    /**
     * Set the P child element.
     *
     * @param newP the new P child element
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    public void setP(P newP);

    /**
     * Get the Q child element.
     *
     * @return the Q child element
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    public Q getQ();

    /**
     * Set the Q child element.
     *
     * @param newQ the new Q child element
     */
    public void setQ(Q newQ);

    /**
     * Get the G child element.
     *
     * @return the G child element
     */
    public G getG();

    /**
     * Set the G child element.
     *
     * @param newG the new G child element
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    public void setG(G newG);

    /**
     * Get the Y child element.
     *
     * @return the Y child element
     */
    public Y getY();

    /**
     * Set the Y child element.
     *
     * @param newY the new Y child element
     */
    public void setY(Y newY);

    /**
     * Get the J child element.
     *
     * @return the J child element
     */
    public J getJ();

    /**
     * Set the J child element.
     *
     * @param newJ the new J child element
     */
    public void setJ(J newJ);

    /**
     * Get the Seed element.
     *
     * @return the Seed element
     */
    public Seed getSeed();

    /**
     * Set the Seed element.
     *
     * @param newSeed new Seed element
     */
    public void setSeed(Seed newSeed);

    /**
     * Get the PgenCounter element.
     *
     * @return the PgenCounter element
     */
    public PgenCounter getPgenCounter();

    /**
     * Set the PgenCounter element.
     *
     * @param newPgenCounter new PgenCounter element
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    public void setPgenCounter(PgenCounter newPgenCounter);

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Police in southern Vietnam have busted a gang that was allegedly involved in armed violence and drug trafficking.
The gang led by Nguyen Duc Cuong, 30, was based in Dong Nai Province but had also spread its tentacles to Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong Province, and Vung Tau.
It began operating in 2010, offering protection for gambling and illegal activities at massage parlors and bus stations.
The police arrested 37 members on Monday and Tuesday, all aged in their 20s, but only held 28 for further questioning.
They seized many weapons including four guns, an electric whip, and many machetes. They also found some heroin.
Cuong said he had another gun bought in Cambodia more than a month ago that he had used in a fight in Dong Nai. The police are looking for it.
Cuong had stabbed a man in September last year, thinking he was trying to steal his girlfriend. The victim did not dare complain to the police fearing further attacks.


The best way to find out how we can help is to speak to us by calling 01635 41547 for a no-obligation consultation. If you prefer that we call you, complete the form to request a call. You can see the league tables in action by visiting Newbury & District league.
Or if your club needs a smart online way to manage its courtbookings and/or your membership, with powerful tools for maintaining contact with members, visit www.courtbookings.org.uk.


text:
Italian Paralympic boss welcomes hosting of IWAS Wheelchair Fencing World Championship
By Max Winters
Italian Paralympic Committee President Luca Pancalli believes Rome "is once again the star of a major sports event" as the city prepares to host this year's International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) Wheelchair Fencing World Championships.
It was announced in May that action will take place at the Hilton Rome between November 6 and 12.
Fencers will battle for medals in 2,500 square metres of event space at the venue, which is located next to Rome's Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport.
Speaking at a press conference to launch the championships in the Italian capital, Pancalli paid tribute to the country's Para-sport heritage but also shared his optimism for the future of the Paralympic Movement.
"Rome, the city that marked the dawn of the Movement with the first Paralympic Games in 1960, is once again the star of a major sports event," he said.
"Thanks to fencing, and the Movement in general, the Paralympics is emerging in the world with increased awareness and passion.
"We have become an organisational model for the sport."
Also in attendance at the press briefing were the Italian wheelchair fencing team, who recently returned from the IWAS World Cup in Warsaw.
The Italian wheelchair fencing team were also in attendance ©IWAS
Male and female epee and foil fencers will compete in the A, B and C categories across the six days of competition later this year.
There will also be men's and women's sabre competitions in both the A and B categories.
In addition, team competitions will be held using all three swords.
IWAS Wheelchair Fencing chairman, Pal Szekeres, expressed his belief that the key organisation's involved in hosting the event will produce a superb competition.
"I am confident that co-operation between the Italian Paralympic Committee, Italian Fencing Federation and IWAS will make for a fantastic World Championships where the heroes of Rio 2016 will meet with upcoming fencing heroes of the future," he added.
Italy can boast one of the world's leading wheelchair fencing stars in the form of 20-year-old Beatrice Vio.
She won the foil B sabre gold medal and team foil bronze at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
May 2017: Rome to host IWAS Wheelchair Fencing World Championships
May 2017: Workshop held to boost wheelchair fencing in Slovenia
April 2017: IWAS to launch second-tier competition for wheelchair fencers
April 2017: IWAS aim to develop wheelchair fencing for athletes with prosthetic limbs
March 2017: Wheelchair fencers benefiting from United States' mentoring programme
Max Winters
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Max is a junior sports politics reporter at insidethegames.biz.
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