Thought you might appreciate this item(s) I saw at Colombian Journal of Anesthesiology.
Pharmaceutical companies affect prescribing behavior through various means, including pharmaceutical salespeople (drug reps), drug samples, influential peers, and educational events. Information on drugs provided by industry representatives has been shown to be inaccurate. Drug samples are among the most effective marketing tools that companies have. "Thought leaders" or "key opinion leaders" are used to persuade peers to use drugs for unapproved uses, raise awareness of targeted diseases, and to shape perceptions of a drug's benefits and harms, as well as perceptions about competing drugs. Although grants provided for talks, seminars, and meetings are described as "unrestricted," it is understood that the company gets to select some speakers, and that speakers with views that undermine marketing messages will not be invited. Promotion has been shown to increase physicians' prescription of targeted drugs, and increases prescription costs.
Resumen Las empresas farmacéuticas influyen sobre la conducta para formular los medicamentos de diversas formas, incluyendo a los vendedores de las empresas farmacéuticas (representantes de medicamentos), las muestras de medicamentos, pares influyentes y eventos educativos. La información sobre los medicamentos suministrada por los representantes de la industria ha demostrado ser inexacta. Las muestras de medicamentos son una de las herramientas de mercadeo más efectivas con que cuentan las empresas. Se recurre a "Los líderes de pensamiento" o a los "principales líderes de opinión" (KOLs por sus siglas en inglés) para convencer a sus pares de que utilicen medicamentos para usos no aprobados, sensibilizar sobre patologías objetivo, y conformar percepciones sobre los beneficios y perjuicios de un medicamento, además de crear impresiones sobre medicamentos en competencia. A pesar de que se dice que las asignaciones monetarias para dictar charlas, celebrar seminarios y reuniones no deben tener restricciones, es claro que la empresa selecciona determinados conferencistas y que aquellos cuyas opiniones socaven los mensajes de mercadeo no serán invitados. Se ha demostrado que la promoción aumenta la prescripción de medicamentos específicos y aumenta los costos de ésta.
bDepartment of Management, Policy and Community Health, University of Texas, Houston Health Sciences Center, El Paso Regional Campus, El Paso, TX, USA.
How to cite this article: Fugh-Berman A, Homedes N. How drug companies manipulate prescribing behavior. Colombian Journal of Anesthesiology. 2018;00:000–000.
Read the Spanish version of this article at: http://links.lww.com/RCA/A817.
Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal's Website (www.www.revcolanest.com.co).
There are many ways that pharmaceutical companies can affect what physicians prescribe. The objective of this paper is to describe how pharmaceutical companies promote drugs through pharmaceutical salespeople (drug reps), drug samples, influential peers, studies, and educational events, and to discuss the potential adverse effects on patient care of such promotion. We will discuss personal promotion through pharmaceutical salespeople (drug reps) and peers, and the use of key opinion leaders (KOLs) to promote to groups through lunch or dinner talks and educational events. In addition, we will discuss drug samples, drug studies, and meeting sponsorship. Some of these tactics have been published in medical literature; others have been shared with us by industry insiders. Promotional strategies vary by country but the use of pharmaceutical salespeople (drug reps) and KOLs are common in many countries.
Drug samples are among the most effective marketing tools that companies have. Bringing samples every week or 2 provides reps an opportunity to promote their drugs to physicians. Samples are almost always used only for the most expensive, chronically used drugs.1 Patients are grateful for samples, and physicians almost always prescribe the same drug that was sampled. That is exactly why samples are so important; samples are meant to give physicians practice in prescribing the targeted drug and to make the targeted drug a routine part of the physician's practice.
Drug reps may bear food, gifts, or moneymaking opportunities, all of which influence physicians. Gifts do not need to be large to have a powerful effect on human relationships. Meals, pens, and other small gifts create a subconscious obligation to reciprocate. In the physician–drug rep relationship, physicians reciprocate not by returning gifts but through changes in prescribing practices.1,17 One study found that physicians who received gifts totaling less than $500 a year prescribed more expensive medications ($123) than prescribers who received no gifts ($85).6 More expensive gifts had a greater effect in a dose-related fashion.
ProPublica, an investigative reporting organization in the United States, reported on the effect of gifts on prescribing for 150,323 physicians and found that internists, family physicians, cardiologists, psychiatrists, and ophthalmologists who received any gifts from drug or device manufacturers prescribed a higher percentage of branded drugs overall than doctors who received no gifts.18 Even a few meals increased branded-drug prescribing when compared with doctors who received no payments.
A rep may invite a physician to give a dinner talk to a small group at an excellent restaurant. The subject of the talk does not matter, because this is a chance for the rep to both honor and pay the speaker, who then responds by prescribing more of the rep's drugs.
Some companies invite community physicians to sham "speaker trainings" that involve dozens or even hundreds of physicians who are invited for a weekend in a nice resort, where they are paid, entertained, and attend lectures laden with marketing messages. Attendees may hope that they will develop lucrative speaking careers, but most will wait in vain for speaking invitations. This kind of large event is usually not a real speakers training; it is meant only to influence and buy loyalty from the attendees. Real speaker trainings are more modest events that usually involve fewer than 20 well-known or academic physicians.
Reps may also invite physicians to evaluate a marketing campaign, or evaluate the sales skills of sales reps by listening to, and rating, the sales pitches of multiple reps. The opinions of the physician do not actually matter to the company, which has its own sophisticated methods for rating its reps. The strategy is to pay the physician and have the physician pay close attention to marketing messages to absorb them thoroughly.
According to industry insiders, some companies send physicians or pharmacologists employed by the company to talk to physicians at their practice sites. This may be a way of getting around regulations regarding drug reps. Because these health professionals are not sales reps, they can address unapproved uses and other subjects that drug reps are not permitted to talk about.
Continuing education is often funded by pharmaceutical companies and always contains marketing messages. These messages may be difficult to identify, because marketing messages include exaggerating the prevalence or severity of a specific condition. Sometimes, the targeted drug is not even on the market yet; marketing for a drug can start many years before a drug is approved.26 A "pre-launch" marketing message might emphasize the importance of a specific physiologic process to set the stage for acceptance of a drug that affects that mechanism, or might create a new diagnosis or an unnecessary diagnostic distinction to establish a favorable atmosphere for a new drug.
Pharmaceutical companies are legally required to represent the best interests of their shareholders, and all the activities described in this article have been carefully designed to expand market share. Pharmaceutical companies should not educate prescribers on the appropriate use of pharmaceuticals because they do not represent the public interest. The success of pharmaceutical promotion, often disguised as educational activities, is partly due to the absence of truly independent, evidence-based, prescriber education professional organizations, governments, universities, research, and regulatory agencies have left a void that pharmaceutical corporations have exploited. It is time to reverse that trend. Personal promotion to physicians by sales reps and peer promotion by KOLs are powerful and effective marketing tactics that undermine rational prescribing and patient care. Physicians should avoid seeing drug reps, attending industry-sponsored meetings and events, or utilizing any industry-sponsored educational material. Laws and regulations should be put into place to ban gifts and payments to physicians.
A.F.-B. directs PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center project in Washington DC that encourages rational prescribing. PharmedOut has a contract with the George Washington Milken Institute School of Public Health to create content for the Washington DC Center for Rational Prescribing (DCRx), which creates industry-free continuing medical education modules and resources for the Washington DC Department of Health. A.F.-B. also has a contract with the George Washington Milken Institute School of Public Health to analyze pharmaceutical marketing data from Washington DC. She is a paid expert witness at the request of plaintiffs in litigation regarding pharmaceutical marketing practices.
N.H. does not have any relationships that might constitute a conflict of interest with the issues discussed in this paper.
1. Fugh-Berman A, Ahari S. Following the script: how drug reps make friends and influence doctors. PLoS Med 2007; 4:e150.
2. Sigworth SK, Nettleman MD, Cohen GM. Pharmaceutical branding of resident physicians. JAMA 2001; 289:1024–1025.
3. Steinman MA, Shlipak MG, McPhee SJ. Of principles and pens: attitudes and practices of medicine housestaff toward pharmaceutical industry promotions. Am J Med 2001; 110:551–557.
4. McKinney WP, Schiedermayer DL, Lurie N, et al. Attitudes of internal medicine faculty and residents toward professional interaction with pharmaceutical sales representatives. JAMA 1990; 264:1693–1697.
5. Dana J, Loewenstein G. A social science perspective on gifts to physicians from industry. JAMA 2003; 290:252–255.
6. Wood SF, Podrasky J, McMonagle MA, et al. Influence of pharmaceutical marketing on Medicare prescriptions in the District of Columbia. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0186060.
7. Perlis RH, Perlis CS. Physician payments from industry are associated with greater Medicare part D prescribing costs. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0155474.
8. Yeh JS, Franklin JM, Avorn J, et al. Association of industry payments to physicians with the prescribing of brand-name statins in Massachusetts. JAMA Intern Med 2016; 176:763–768.
9. Chren MM, Landefeld CS. Physicians' behavior and their interactions with drug companies: a controlled study of physicians who requested additions to a hospital drug formulary. JAMA 1994; 271:684–689.
10. Lurie N, Rich EC, Simpson DE, et al. Pharmaceutical representatives in academic medical centers. J Gen Intern Med 1990; 5:240–243.
11. Wazana A. Physicians and the pharmaceutical industry: is a gift ever just a gift? JAMA 2000; 283:373–380.
12. Brax H, Fadlallah R, Al-Khaled L, et al. Association between physicians' interaction with pharmaceutical companies and their clinical practices: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0175493.
13. Mintzes B, Lexchin J, Sutherland JM, et al. Pharmaceutical sales representatives and patient safety: a comparative prospective study of information quality in Canada, France and the United States. J Gen Intern Med 2013; 28:1368–1375.
14. Shaughnessy AF, Slawson DC, Bennett JH. Separating the wheat from the chaff: identifying fallacies in pharmaceutical promotion. J Gen Intern Med 1994; 9:563–568.
15. Molloy W, Strang D, Guyatt G, et al. Assessing the quality of drug detailing. J Clin Epidemiol 2002; 55:825–832.
16. Spurling GK, Mansfield PR, Montgomery BD, et al. Information from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of physicians' prescribing: a systematic review. PLoS Med 2010; 7:e1000352.
17. Sah S, Fugh-Berman A. Physicians under the influence: social psychology and industry marketing strategies. J Law Med Ethics 2013; 41:665–672.
18. ProPublica, Ornstein C, Jones RG, Tigas M. Now there's proof: docs who get company cash tend to prescribe more brand-name meds. 2016.
19. Elliott C. The drug pushers. Atlantic Monthly. 2006. [Cited 11 Aug 2016]. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/04/the-drug-pushers/304714/.
20. Krumholz SD, Egilman DS, Ross JS. Study of neurontin: titrate to effect, profile of safety (STEPS) trial: a narrative account of a gabapentin seeding trial. Arch Int Med 2011; 171:1100–1107.
21. Hill KP, Ross JS, Egilman DS, et al. The advantage seeding trial: a review of internal documents. Ann Intern Med 2008; 149:251–258.
22. Spelsberg A, Prugger C, Doshi P, et al. Working Group on Health and Working Group on Freedom of Information, Transparency International Deutschland eV. Contribution of industry funded post-marketing studies to drug safety: survey of notifications submitted to regulatory agencies. BMJ 2017; 356:j337.
23. Barbour V, Burch D, Godlee F, et al. Characterisation of trials where marketing purposes have been influential in study design: a descriptive study. Trials 2016; 17:31.
24. New York Times Magazine, Carlat D. Dr. Drug Rep. November 25, 2007.
25. Fugh-Berman A, Melnick D. Off-label promotion, on-target sales. PLoS Med 2008; 5:e210.
26. Meixel A, Yanchar E, Fugh-Berman A. Hypoactive sexual desire disorder: inventing a disease to sell low libido. J Med Ethics 2015; 41:859–862.
27. Moynihan R. Key opinion leaders: independent experts or drug representatives in disguise? BMJ 2008; 336:1402–1403.
28. Fugh-Berman A. Doctors must not be lapdogs to drug firms. BMJ 2006; 333:1027.
29. Fugh-Berman A. Key opinion leaders: thus are our medical meetings monitored. BMJ 2008; 337:a789.
30. Farmacéuticas deberán reportar pagos a actores del Sistema. Eje 21, June 30, 2018. Available from: http://www.eje21.com.co/2018/06/farmaceuticas-deberan-reportar-pagos-a-actores-del-sistema/.
31. Open Payments. (database). [Cited 11 Aug 2016]. Available from: https://www.cms.gov/openpayments/.
32. Iskowitz M. Limits on pharma payments to doctors back on policy menu. Medical Marketing Media. [Cited 08 Nov 2017]. Available from: https://www.mmm-online.com/legalregulatory/limits-on-pharma-payments-to-doctors-back-on-policy-menu/article/706001/.
33. Avorn J. Academic detailing: "Marketing" the best evidence to clinicians. JAMA 2017; 317:361–362.
34. DC Center for Rational Prescribing. Available from: https://dchealth.dc.gov/dcrx.
Colombian Journal of Anesthesiology46(4):317-321, October-December 2018.
Copyright © 2019 Sociedad Colombiana de Anestesiología y Renamicación.
Published by Wolters Kluwer on behalf of the Sociedad Colombiana de Anestesiología y Reanimación (S.C.A.R.E.).


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Pages with script errors, Born in 1954, Canadian ice hockey players,
Hershey Bears players
Houston Aeros draft picks
Laval National alumni
Montreal Red White and Blue alumni
Philadelphia Flyers draft picks
Philadelphia Flyers players
Richmond Robins players
Washington Capitals players
Rosemont National alumni
HC Lausanne players
Bob Sirois
Position Right Wing
Shot Left
Weight 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
178 lb (81 kg)
Teams Philadelphia Flyers
Nationality Canadian
Born (1954-02-06)February 6, 1954,
Montreal, PQ, CAN
NHL Draft 53rd overall, 1974
WHA Draft 103rd overall, 1974
Houston Aeros
Pro Career 1974 – 1982
Robert "Bob" Sirois (born February 6, 1954) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey right winger who played 286 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals.
Originally drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974, Sirois played in only four games with the Flyers in over two seasons before he was traded to the Washington Capitals. He spent five seasons with the Capitals and had the honour of representing the team at the 1978 NHL All-Star Game. He then played one season in Switzerland, and then in the AHL the year after that before retiring from active play in 1982, his career shortened by a serious back injury that left him with his left leg paralyzed.
After retiring, Sirois held several positions, including being player agent. In 2009, he published a book, Le Québec mis en échec ("Quebec checked") at the Éditions de l'Homme in which he has collected the statistics of every French Canadian player drafted to the NHL and who has played in the NHL in the last 40 years, but also claims that French Canadians are victim of discrimination in the National Hockey League, using statistics to back his point of view[1].
Bob Sirois's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database
Bob Sirois's biography at Legends of Hockey
Profile at hockeydraftcentral.com
↑ http://www.editions-homme.com/ficheProduit.aspx?codeprod=346829
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Bob Sirois. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).
Retrieved from "https://icehockey.fandom.com/wiki/Bob_Sirois?oldid=266551"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to get input from user in python with multiple lines I want to get input from the user in python, but the input that is pasted in from the user has multiple new lines in it, so if I enter it as input, the new lines stop the input and I don't get the full input. For example if my input is hello\nworld (not with a literal \n but there is a new line in between the words), hello is used as the input and when the program is done executing, the terminal executes world like a command, which there is none. One way I was thinking about solving this is to have a forever loop of inputs and then combine the inputs from the multiple inputs, but that doesn't seem like a great solution because you have no good way of exiting out of the forever loop because at the end, there is another input running. Is there any way to get input from the user even if there are these breaks in them?

A: to get this task done, we can use sys.stdin instead of input(). we can use read() method (that reads all lines) combined with splitlines(). the output is a list of the input data without any new-line sequence.
import sys
inp = sys.stdin.read().splitlines()
print(inp)

A: you can get multiple line using a little logic
print "Enter/Paste your content. Ctrl-D or Ctrl-Z ( windows ) to save it."
lines = []
while True:
    line = input()
    if line:
        lines.append(line)
    else:
        break
text = '\n'.join(lines)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Sweet Potato Pancakes | The Local Palate | The Local Palate is the South's premier food culture publication.
Wrap the sweet potato in foil and bake in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until tender. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and melted butter. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture.
Peel the cooled sweet potato, place in a medium bowl, and mash. Add the honey, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well.
Add the sweet potato mixture to the pancake batter, combining well, and let the batter stand for 1 hour.
Heat a skillet over medium heat and ladle the batter in batches, ½ cup at a time, cooking the pancakes until browned on each side.
Serve with the peach butter and spiced pecans.
In a bowl, mix the honey, cayenne and salt.
Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the honey mixture and the pecans and cook for eight to ten minutes, until lightly browned and caramelized.
Remove from the heat, cool and store in an airtight container.
In a food processor, combine all the ingredients by pulsing briefly, retaining pieces of peach visible in the mixture. Keep refrigerated, but bring it to room temperature before serving.


Three years ago venture capitalists invested around $343 million into the healthcare IT field. Today that has tripled to over $955 million. This massive leap in investor interest illustrates the speed at which technology is evolving in the healthcare industry.
Even the government is seeing the potential and is planning to budget $29 billion to provide incentives to urge hospitals to digitize all of their health records.
But if healthcare professionals and institutions are paying attention, the benefits of the implementation of technology alone is incentive enough. Data analysis and artificial intelligence are becoming so advanced that doctors can input data and receive better diagnosis and treatment information.
IBM researchers have been working on developing a supercomputer that can offer diagnoses and treatment advice. This is the same supercomputer that won one million dollars on Jeopardy in February 2011.
Easier access to better and more data is only one of the many ways technology is enhancing the healthcare field. There is also the way technology is improving communication, as healthcare becomes more social.
One example of this advancement is the mobile app developed by Science Applications International Corporation that helps doctors and patients with a language barrier communicate with each other. Over 47 million United States residents can't speak English fluently, so social and mobile technology tools like this help reduce any potentially dangerous exchanges of misinformation.
Another social app that could be a potentially helpful tool for medical professionals is Doximity. It is an app specifically for physicians. It provides a collaborative platform for doctors all over the country to share and trade information and expertise that may be relevant to another doctor's case.
Some doctors can be resistant to adapting new technologies into their professional routines. But if some of the government funding marked for incentives went into basic training, it won't be long until residents are entering data into their unlocked gsm phones, and the phone becomes The Swiss Army knife of the medical profession.
Additionally, there are many apps that help patients keep track of and maintain their health at home. Patients can record their heartbeat, blood pressure, and steps taken, and then present the information to their doctor.
There are also apps like Goal Sponsors, which helps people reach goals such as stopping smoking. The app accommodates any personal goal, but patients can use the app for health-centric personal objectives. It works by pairing people with "Sponsors" who keep them on track and motivated to reach their goals. The sponsors typically have some experience with the goal paired to them. For example, a sponsor paired to a mission to lose weight might be a personal trainer. This feature gives the user a point of reference and even someone they can come to for advice as well as motivation.


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The World Transplant Games Federation (abbreviated as WTGF) is a United Kingdom-based non-profit organisation that aims to promote amateur sport amongst organ transplant recipients, living donors and donor families. The WTGF promotes the study of transplantation and aims to educate the public and raise awareness of the world shortage of donor organs. It shares new knowledge from biological/clinical studies and promotes the mental and moral improvement for recipients, living donors and donor families; and fosters international friendship and relations.

Established in 1978, the WTGF was formally incorporated in 2017 and is responsible for the organisation of World Transplant Games events, including the Summer Transplant Games and the Winter Transplant Games, both held every two years, on alternate years.

The WTGF is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee and its headquarters are located in Winchester.

Presidents
The leading executive officer of the WTGF is called the president; and since formation the following have served in this role:

Calendar

wtgf.org/worldwide-events/

European Heart and Lung Transplant Championships 2022 / 6 - 11 June 2022 / Belgium

European Transplant and Dialysis Sports Games 2022 / 21 - 28 August 2022 / Oxford, UK

Transplant Games of America / 29 July - 3 August 2022 / USA (San Diego)

See also
 World Transplant Games
 European Transplant and Diabets Games
 Asian Transplant Games
 MENA Transplant Games

References

External links

Federation
Transplant organizations
Sport in Winchester
1978 establishments in the United Kingdom
Sports organizations established in 1978

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This year, KELLER AG has organised the KELLER Open for the 14th time.
But for the very first time, this event has been staged as a charity project, with the social commitment of KELLER AG as its main focus. The company has undertaken to support social, sports, cultural, non-profit and charitable projects and work.
The organisation VASCO'S SMILE was supported, which helps seriously ill children and their relatives, and whose work is only funded through donations. The association is committed to bring joy and pleasure to the children by means of creative ideas or to provide the essential medical support – in particular if they do not have the possibility without this support.
Apart from the good cause, the weekend was, of course, intended to be great fun for all participants. There was plenty to do, not only for the competitive spirit, but also for those who simply wanted to spend a pleasant weekend in good company.
The guest list included architects, designers and planners, but also numerous entrepreneurs from different trades and many club members. Passionate golfers and beginners alike were invited. An attractive supporting program was organised for the non-golfers amongst the guests. The participants came from the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg and the bordering countries (BE, DE, FR).
Handing-over of the cheque on Wednesday, 27 June 2018 at the Country Golf Club, Clervaux. Thanks to the participation of many golfers and numerous sponsors, who we would like to warmly thank at this point, the profit from this event was able to be fully donated to the VASCO'S SMILE association!
This contribution and above all the attendance of so many participants enables KELLER AG to effectively support a VASCO'S SMILE project.


Tie your space together with contemporary area rugs from Crate and Barrel. Browse small and large rugs in bold and neutral colors. Order online. Buy Sweet Home Stores Cozy Shag Collection Solid Contemporary Living & Bedroom Soft Shaggy Area Rug, 84″ L x 60″ W, Grey: Rugs – Amazon.com FREE DELIVERY .


An advertisement appearing in a recent issue of Time Magazine, inserted there by one of the insurance companies, reads as follows: "The future belongs to those who prepare for it." This statement is very much to the point, not only regarding the necessity of buying life insurance for physical protection and economic security, but also regarding the purchase of insurance for spiritual protection and future stability.
If we consider the above statement in the light of history and experience, we find that it sets forth for us a truth that cannot be denied. The races and nations who became great and are considered great today, began from mere scratch. Our own country, America, was originally composed of a handful of Pilgrims who established the Thirteen Original Colonies. They were insignificant in so far as numbers goes. Not only were they small in number, but they had to endure hardships and privations that were almost incredible. They were beset by their English oppressors on one hand, and by Indians on the other. But those men built for themselves and their posterity a great and glorious name; an undying reputation by founding a Republic which today ranks second to none. What made these men and women dare and die for their country? They were men and women of vision; men and women who lived not only for their own selves, but for God, country, and their own posterity. They were people who wanted to build something worthwhile and everlasting.
The future of this country belonged to them because they lived and labored for the sake of their future offspring, and not for their own interests alone.
Why is it necessary to think of and prepare for the future of our faith? For the very good reason of continuing our racial and religious heritages. Every one of us received something from his parents and priests which he wishes to hand down to his children. We received these principles from our forbearers, not for the purpose of keeping them under lock and key, but for the purpose of instilling them in our children. Our great Orthodox faith, our greatest heritage in the world, has been kept under lock and key; buried in the ground, so to speak, due to the fact that parents as well as priests did not propagate it, publicize it, or try to sell it to others. Priests and parents alike are guilty of having neglected Orthodoxy.
Orthodoxy today is not as prosperous and as powerful as it might have been because its trustees and keepers have neglected it. Orthodoxy has suffered and is still suffering because its own children, priests, and parents have not treated it as a vital and necessary force, and have not measured up to its requirements. What are the results? Fewer priests and fewer churches: a general rundown of moral and spiritual principles, and the loss of a great number of our people who erroneously think that other churches and faiths are as good as ours.
Come further now and let us ask another question: How to prepare for the future of Orthodoxy? By faithfully living up to our obligations in so far as our religion is concerned. Your obligations to your religion and religious convictions are not absolved and vindicated by the mere fact that you give your financial support to the treasury of the church. The church has the first claim on your purse and your earning capacity. Those of you who think that you are doing all you can to support the church by mere material aid are treating the church as if she is an organization of charity and not one of goodness and piety.
In order to be a full-fledged, God-fearing Orthodox, you should attend Services every Sunday, unless you are providentially hindered. You should take Holy Communion as often as possible, at least three times a year. You should aid the church and back it up with everything you have so that she may be able to cope with the problems which arise from day to day.
If some of us prefer to be on the lake, or going hunting, or opening for business, or working on the books on Sundays, we are not good Orthodox. If your business obligations must be met, it is honorable to meet them, but it is more honorable to meet religious obligations for which we are going to be answerable before the judgment seat of Christ.
The future of Orthodoxy belongs to us because we are her trustees, off-spring, and her keepers. For anything to have a future requires vision, hard work, and devoted, consecrated lives. The future of this church and of every other church is centered in her young people. They are the church's future and her most valuable asset. They will be tomorrow what the parents and priest will make them today. Today is ours not to idle away on questionable amusements, not to throw away on vain and worthless efforts, but it is ours to instruct and instill right principles; to concentrate not on the things that are here today and gone tomorrow, but on those things which abide forever; not on the things whose value is measured in terms of dollars and cents, but in terms of eternally doing what under God we should do.
Your children and mine are our particular and peculiar responsibility. It is your business and mine to see to it that they attend Church School and Church Services regularly.
The world with all its alluring, deceptive powers is tugging at and pulling our children away from us. Therefore, these two hours of religious education the child receives each Sunday, plus the wholesome home training, are of incalculable worth to the child. If the child is reared with respect for godly principles, and if these principles take possession of his mind and heart, then no power on earth can take them from him.
The saddest and most heartbreaking thing in the world is to see children without any religious education or moral principles, free to come and go unhindered, roaming the streets, not being tied to parents' or church's authority. Parents and priests are taking chances; they are gambling with the world's most precious assets, the training of the children. Those who fail in their duties as parents and think that everything will come out all right are living in a fool's paradise. They will wake up some day to the reality that everything will be all wrong. They are due for a terribly unpleasant awakening and they will experience the worst shock of their lives.
"Train the child in the way that he should go, and when he grows old, he will not depart from it," said the Sacred Writer. You may rest assured that if you fail, someone else will train him in the way that he should not go, and you will live to regret it and grieve over it.
As for the future belonging to those who prepare for it, isn't that actually the anthem, the theme song of Christianity? Isn't heaven the ultimate goal of believers in Christ, the home country of those who prepare for it? As a matter of fact, the theme of the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation is to prepare ourselves to meet God. This world is our kindergarten, our proving ground, where we ready ourselves for heaven.
We conclude, therefore, that heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. This is the true theology of our religion, the basic truth of our Holy Faith. For truly and unalterably, the future belongs to those who prepare for it.
And waits my coming too.


Figures published by the Institute for Implementation of Employees' Insurances show that the number of unemployment (WW) benefits grew by 5 thousand in August to reach 399 thousand.
Unemployment declined by 11 thousand in August. Young people almost entirely accounted for the decline. Over the past twenty-four months, youth unemployment had risen almost continually. Unemployment continued to rise, but the growth was more gradual than earlier this year. The average monthly increase over the last three months was 8 thousand.
According to the definition used by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 7.0 percent in the labour force were unemployed in the Netherlands in August; the same rate as in July.
The number of current WW benefits was 399 thousand in August, 1 percent up from July 2013 and 31 percent up from August 2012. The number of WW benefits granted to women and over-55s grew by more than 2 percent and nearly 2 percent respectively relative to July. The number of WW benefits granted to people employed in the education sector increased sharply in August. This was also the case in July and is a recurrent pattern during the summer period (end of the school year). Unlike in August last year, the number of benefits in the construction sector dropped.
In Augustus, 54 thousand new benefits were granted and 50 thousand were terminated, mostly due to resumption of work.


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The intricate scenario in Iraq. Not (only) a religious problem
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By Gabriele Quattrocchi	 On Jun 18, 2014
(In collaboration with Termometro Politico)
They are fighting just 50 kilometres from Baghdad. ISIS (ad-Dawlat al-Islāmiyya fī'l-'Irāq wa'sh-Shām), a jihadist takfiri[1] group, has gained ground in a short time revealing the inefficiency of Iraqi army and the incompetence of the different governments, which have underrated this big threat to the stability and the safety.
This analysis, popular on media but too simplistic, does not consider that the situation is the result of a "domino" effect that has involved, and is still involving, different regional and international actors. The war in Afghanistan, and especially all the civil wars in the Near East and in the Southern Mediterranean, have opened up a Pandora's box, causing chaos in a geographical area starting from Urumqi and ending in Timbuctoo, the "impregnable". Syria is the penultimate scenario of this spectacular domino effect that has blown out the head of many political leaders (literally, sometimes).
In Syria, ISIS has tried to get consent through the ranks of Qaedist groups but it's failed and had the opposition (armed opposition, too) of Al-Nusra, the only Qaedist signature in Syria, until May 4th; Al-Nusra got that Al-Baghdadi's army (Al-Baghdadi is the mystery leader of ISIS) moved to Northern Iraq[2], by calling a ceasefire. By using an effective military strategy, ISIS quickly succeeded to impose itself militarily by relying on many different allies, including ex-Baathist members (veterans of the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order) and jihadist Sunni groups (Ansar al-Islam)[3], and taking advantage of general discontent with Al-Maliki pro-Shiite government, supported by the unlikely couple Washington-Teheran[4].
Iraqi President's complaints were ineffective: he pointed his finger at Qatar and Saudi Arabia and accused them of funding and arming jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq[5]. ISIS definitely took advantage of aid (not so secret) from US and the Gulf Monarchies, but both US and its Middle East allies have lost control of it. At the beginning, Americans didn't want to establish a caliphate in the Middle East[6]; Saudi Arabia – and Qatar as well – decided on good-natured, obedient and lay allies, even though they would choose between these one and the so-called fundamentalists[7]. In fact, it has been a long time since they procured weapons and money on their own, by plundering everything; in particular, ISIS occupied Northern Iraq and stole a large amount of money and gold: according to some estimates, this would allow the terrorist organization not only to pay its own guerrilla fighters for a year without spending its savings, but also to become the richest terrorist organization in the world[8], thus representing a threat to the safety of the "faithless nations" (each country potentially is)[9].
Fighters from most worldwide hot-spots are attracted to this great prosperity[10], also because managing petroleum business could be possible. Maybe Washington's decision to intervene or not in the war might depend on this matter. 275 US troops are deploying to Baghdad for the purpose of protecting US Embassy's personnel[11]; Kerry, US Secretary of State, said that they are considering all options available to them, opening also talks with Iran (that has already taken place in the area) to coordinate military operations[12]. Despite these analyses, occupation by ISIS causes damage not only to the White House. In fact, if this situation lasts a long time, it may challenge not only the Presidency of Al-Maliki[13] but also business relating to petroleum contracts: China is buying half of Iraqi oil production and is investing in mining industry now[14]; this complicated scenario represents a great economic damage to Beijing and an opportunity for Washington.
This synthesis shows that this is a tricky situation, full of actors and possible scenarios; it does not lend itself to simplistic interpretations, reducing everything to the opposition between Sunnis and Shiites or Riyhad and Teheran. Or rather, great ethno-religious variety and many political interests have even more "liquefied" two countries, which are essential for religion, Iraq and Syria. ISIS objective is clear, as suggested by its slogan"Baqiya wa tatamaddad", which means that the Islamic state "is here to stay and it is spreading". In a changing scenario like this we have only to wait for Washington's decision, to hope Iranian and Iraqi troops will hold out and prevent ISIS from "staying and spreading", causing even more instability in the area.
[1] In general, a takfiri is a Muslim who accuses another Muslim of apostasy (the word derives from kafir, infidel). In the "journalistic style", a takfiri group is a group, usually Sunni, that distinguishes between believers and unbelievers. Violence is just against unbelievers in order to create an Islamic State, according to the precepts of the Koran. Robert Baer, The Devil We Know, Crown, New York 2008.
[2] Anon., Syria: Al-Nusra Front agrees to end fighting with ISIS, Asharq Al-Awsat. http://www.aawsat.net/2014/05/article55331936
[3] Jacob Siegel, ISIS's secret Allies, The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/13/isis-s-secret-allies.html
[4] Al-Maliki chose a centralized management of petroleum resources, mainly located in Iraqi Kurdistan, promising (but he never kept his promise) to invest again the proceeds from the sale of the black gold. This caused a problem between the leader of Iraq and Barzani, the president of the Kurdish-majority region of Iraq. Anon., Lo scontro sul petrolio fra Baghdad e il Kurdistan minaccia l'unità dell'Iraq, Asianews http://www.asianews.it/notizie-it/Lo-scontro-sul-petrolio-fra-Baghdad-e-il-Kurdistan-minaccia-l'unit%C3%A0-dell'Iraq-30094.html
[5] Anon., Baghdad mette l'Arabia Saudita sul banco degli imputati, Ansa.it http://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/mondo/2014/06/17/baghdad-mette-larabia-saudita-sul-banco-degli-imputati_4a793e56-cf3a-4f0a-b043-b1f0799c5408.html
[6] Sergio Romano, La rinascita del califfato, Il Corriere della Sera. http://www.corriere.it/editoriali/14_giugno_12/rinascita-califfato-af770062-f1ef-11e3-9d0d-44dc1b5aab8c.shtml
[7] We are referring to the Egyptian case, in which Saudi Arabia winked at Mubarak's successors rather than at the Muslim Brotherhood.
[8]Jack Moore, Mosul Seized: Jihadis Loot $429m from City's Central Bank to Make Isis World's Richest Terror Force, International Business Times. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/mosul-seized-jihadis-loot-429m-citys-central-bank-make-isis-worlds-richest-terror-force-1452190
[9] Even Jordan, frightened by a possible escalation on its own area, played its cards against ISIS, by setting Assem Barqawi free, anti-ISIS Salafi leader, better known as Mohammad al-Maqdesi, in order to avoid the penetration into its own area by ultra-extremist fringes. Areej Abuqudairi, Jordan releases anti-ISIL Salafi leader, AlJazeera. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/jordan-releases-anti-isil-salafi-leader-2014617121457552506.html
[10]They are about 30.000, according to many international sources. Anon., Iraq: Isis contro esercito Baghdad, uomini e armi, Ansa.it. http://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/mondo/2014/06/17/iraq-isis-contro-esercito-baghdad-uomini-e-armi_29bc0725-1f0f-4a43-a72e-e460f2ec7587.html
[11]Anon., US to deploy 275 troops to Iraq, AlJazeera America. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/16/iraq-tal-afar-isil.html
[12] Giordano Stabile, Iraq, rallenta l'avanzata dell'Isis. Kerry: pronti a collaborare con l'Iran, La Stampa. http://www.lastampa.it/2014/06/16/esteri/iraq-rallenta-lavanzata-dellisis-kerry-pronti-a-collaborare-con-liran-mdfbHYw5ajl9yvbeJITHtO/pagina.html
[13] Therefore, the political proximity between Iraq and Iran, a relationship that faced the US embargo against Teheran, by stipulating useful commercial agreements.
[14]Teddy NG, China pledges to pump more funds into Iraq's oil sector, infrastructure, South China Morning Post. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1434025/china-pledges-pump-more-funds-iraqs-oil-sector-infrastructure
Gabriele Quattrocchi
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Haru sat in the tiny waiting room of the Queen's Hospital, mindlessly twirling her wedding ring around her finger. Watermarks from exposed overhead pipes hugging the ceiling tear-dropped the faded mustard-colored walls. A lethargic overhead fan swished the antiseptic-infused air as 'ukulele music from KGU's "Hawaiian Hour" program filled the room. Takeshi held his mother's twitching hand in his hand. Across from them sat Tommy and Kenta.
Suddenly, the swinging door flung open. Everyone looked up expectantly. Dr. Tebbits had said the surgery would take at least another hour. Haru's mind flashed. Had something gone wrong?


Education and workforce partners think outside the box to serve students and job seekers.
We recognize that different students have different needs that can't always be met by a one-size-fits-all education system. We have worked hard to meet these diverse needs through programs like Transition Plus, Online Learning and our Adult Education Programs.
In partnership with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)/North Minneapolis Workforce Center, Minneapolis Community & Technical College (MCTC) and NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center, we are designing and developing the new West Broadway Education and Career Collaborative.
The general concept is to serve non-traditional learners with a focus on students who have left high school before earning their diploma or who are at risk for leaving high school. It will be a place for people to re-engage and move to their next step whether that is a job/career path, training or post-secondary education. This is an opportunity to combine what we know works well with something new that has great promise.
Dual credit opportunities—high school/GED and college credit earned simultaneously through partnerships with MCTC and other community colleges.
MPS K-12 and MPS Adult Education career pathways with a direct connection to jobs or training.
Extended service hours -- evenings/weekends and flexible scheduling to align with the needs/schedule of the learner.
Project-based learning where real-world problems capture students' interest and provoke serious thinking as the students acquire and apply new knowledge.
21st century technology with flexible spaces to support both large group and small group learning.
Vocational work assessment and exploration with direct connection to employers.
Intentional connections made between academic learning and work-based learning opportunities.
Developing internships/apprenticeships to engage participants in real-life job experience in a specific career.
A place where community services and education work together to serve the youth and adults in the community.
A "community as campus" concept, allowing students/job seekers to incorporate services from community agencies into their plan to reduce redundancy and duplication.
Building Size/Layout: The building is two-stories of equal size and approximately 47,000 sq. ft. The North Minneapolis Workforce Center and NorthPoint Health and Wellness will be on the first floor along with up to three retail spaces. (The retail will face Broadway and then entrance for the building will face Aldrich.) An educational center headed by Minneapolis Public School and partnered with Minneapolis Community and Technical College will be on the second floor.
Parking/Transportation: Located at 800 West Broadway, the building is centrally located on the 14 and 30 buses and near the 5 and 22 bus route. Onsite parking is also available.
Join us every second Tuesday of the month for a Community Update on the West Broadway Education and Career Center. Meetings held at the current North Minneapolis WorkForce Center from 8-9:00 a.m.
Individuals requiring an accommodation to attend one of these meetings, contact the WorkForce Center at 612-520-3500 or minneapolisnorth.wfc@state.mn.us.


The 54 weekly Torah readings, or Parashat Hashavua, each get their own title. The titles are commonly derived from the first meaningful word or words in the text. Mostly, the titles translate to unrevealing phrases like "And he called," "Elevate!" or "Send for yourself." Only five sections are named for biblical characters. In the fifth reading of Exodus, that rare privilege goes to Jethro: a non-Israelite, the father-in-law of Moses, and the priest of Midian.
The Jethro Torah portion (Yitro in Hebrew) covers Exodus 18:1 to 20:23. The section begins where Pharaoh ends. The Israelites are encamped opposite Mount Sinai, gathering their daily portions of manna and quail. As they enter their seventh week of freedom, God is about to call them into covenant as a "kingdom of priests" and a "holy nation." God's people—His "treasured possession"—are primed and ready to receive their foundational laws. But before the earth-shaking events of Sinai, Exodus takes a pause to expose a hiccup in Moses' leadership style and detail the recipe for its correction.
Jethro is the father of Moses' wife Zipporah. Jethro is first introduced in the Bible when Moses escapes Egypt and flees to Midian—somewhere in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The justice-driven prophet Moses instinctively defends Jethro's daughters from rowdy shepherds, even though he is on the run from Egyptian law. Grateful, Jethro opens his home to Moses, despite his refugee status, and gives him his daughter Zipporah in marriage. Moses lives in Midian and works as a shepherd for 40 years. When Moses hears from God through the burning bush, he first consults Jethro. Jethro understands and supports Moses' return to Egypt, despite his leaving behind Zipporah and his children.
When Pharaoh and the mighty Egyptian army are humiliated by a group of monotheistic slaves, news quickly spreads throughout the land of the accompanying plagues and miracles. Jethro hears the rumors and sends word to Moses that he is coming to their wilderness encampment. He brought with him Zipporah and Moses' two sons.
The Bible says nothing about Moses' reunion with his wife or sons. However, Moses kneels before his revered father-in-law. He escorts him into his tent and relays all the details of the Israelites' safe passage out of Egypt. Jethro listens and proclaims, "Now, I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly." Jethro was so moved that he offered a sacrifice to God. Aaron and the 70 elders of Israel shared a meal with Jethro; the Bible notes that the presence of God was there in the tent.
The next day Jethro observes Moses in his daily role of judge over all the Israelites. Moses hears the disputes between the people from morning to evening. Jethro, a seasoned leader of his own tribe, perceives that Moses is leading without delegating. He is destined to wear himself out. Jethro, acting as an executive consultant, specifies the judicial system necessary for such a large group of people. He advises Moses to appoint a hierarchy of wise elders to hear minor disputes. The major issues are reserved for Moses. Moses chooses capable men from all Israel and makes them officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
In the first chapter of Deuteronomy, the Torah repeats the invention of the Israelite judicial system again, with the same organizational details. In Deuteronomy, however, the idea comes directly from God after hearing Moses complain of his workload. No mention is made of Jethro. So why would the Exodus account give credit to Jethro and the Deuteronomy account omit the role of a Midianite?
The author's omission in Deuteronomy likely has something to do with the fact that the Israelites' relationship with the Midianites grew complicated. Intermarriage with Midianites brought idolatry into the Israelite camp. In Moses' last battle, he severely punished the Midianites for their corruptive influence. Hundreds of years later, Gideon and his undersized army put a final end to Midianite attack. Attributing the invention of Israel's judicial system to the leader of an enemy people was likely an unsettling detail. The fact that Jethro's contribution is preserved in Exodus gives immense credit to the reliability of that oral tradition.
Today, in Israel, there is a non-Jewish minority group, the Druze, who identify as descendants of Jethro. Jethro is not only regarded as their ancestor but also their chief prophet and spiritual founder. The Druze people number around 120,000; they mostly live in hillside villages in northern Israel. The larger Druze community crosses over the borders into Syria and Lebanon and edges towards one million. Ethnically, they are Arab. Strict monotheists, the Druze religion is secretive and difficult to label, but it blends Greek thought with Islamic ideas, although they do not identify as Muslim. Druze men are easily recognizable by their mustaches, puffy pants and white turbans. Famous for their hospitality, Druze do not proselytize and their texts are secretive, so questions about the religion often go unanswered to outsiders.
The traditional tomb of Jethro, in Tiberias overlooking the Sea of Galilee, is the holiest site for Druze. Every year, on April 25, Druze assemble in the courtyard at the tomb of their chief prophet to arrange their community affairs. The Druze religion opposes pilgrimages, but the April festivities have a certain pilgrimage quality to them. The Druze community officially broke with Arab nationalism when Sunni Muslims tried to seize the venerated tomb. From then on, the majority of Israeli Druze have fiercely attached their future to the democratic Jewish state. Israel, in turn, recognizes the Druze as a protected religious community.
Since 1948, Druze soldiers have fought alongside Jewish Israelis, and died, in every one of Israel's wars. Druze today have disproportionately high numbers in the most elite combat units. They hold high positions in Israel's government. They cross party lines in the Knesset. On the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Druze police are charged with maintaining law and order. Their presence is seen as less provocative than having Jewish police on the sacred site.
Jewish and Druze soldiers say they are bound by a "covenant of blood." The blood covenant reflects their belief that Jethro is their progenitor. Therefore, they too, in their own reincarnated beliefs, are descendants of Abraham. Midian was one of the five children Abraham had with his second wife, Keturah.
In 2014, rabbis and students stood reciting their morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue when Palestinian terrorists wielding knives and axes burst into the room. In their frenzied murdering spree, they killed four rabbis. Bloodied tefillin and prayer books scattered over the floor. The first responder was a Druze traffic officer, Sergeant Zidan Saif. Saif rushed into the synagogue alone and engaged the terrorists in a gun battle. Eyewitnesses said that because of Saif's bravery, the terrorists were prevented from moving upstairs where there were even more worshippers. Saif later died from his wounds.
Saif's funeral was held in his Galilee hometown. He left behind a young wife and baby girl. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews in buses traveled the 95 miles from Jerusalem to attend the funeral of the slain officer who came to their defense. Thousands of Druze were present. The two tight-knit communities from the extreme opposite poles of the religious spectrum reached out of their own comfort zones and grieved as one. A flood of white turbans converged with a wave of black hats: a covenant of blood.
For those who follow the story of modern day Israel, it often feels as if new chapters of the Bible are being written right now. It is not difficult to imagine a scribe, chronicling how the 21st-century descendants of Jethro now fight as protectors of the same justice system that their great ancestor once helped create. Jethro's legacy lives on.
Shelley Neese is the author of The Copper Scroll Project.


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Parks & Public Space
Plans & Policy
Is Washington Addicted to Authorities?
Ray Dubicki
This article is adapted from testimony for HB 2882 prepared by the author and presented to the Washington House of Representatives Committee on Housing, Community Development and Veterans. The written testimony was much more concise and interesting than Ray's rambling three minutes of oral testimony, so you're getting the good stuff. The bill was voted out of committee and is currently in House Rules.
The Washington State Legislature is considering a bill to create the Interbay Community Preservation and Development Authority. The creation of such an authority was recommended by the Interbay Public Development Advisory Committee as part of the proposal to manage development of 25 acres of newly developable land available when the Washington National Guard moves to North Bend.
As mentioned here before, the Armory sits at the center of tangled infrastructure and competing interests. Successful development of the Armory site depends on repairing these crucial links and coordinating all these competing players. A public authority has the opportunity to cut through this complex fog.
But why a public development authority? Interbay is one of three bills in the state legislature this year establishing or amending public authorities: SB 6469 amends health authorities for behavioral health treatment, and SB 6592 amends the definitions of tourism authorities. Municipalities, counties, and the state are relying on public authorities to perform more functions. We must ask: is this appropriate?
Publicly displayed affection
A public authority is, in short, a corporation. Set up by a government, a public authority gets a focused charter stating its purpose, a board of directors, and power to perform the tasks set in the charter. The board of directors can include an assortment of local officials, community members, and agency representatives–whomever is allowed in the legislation. The authority's powers can include entering into contracts, engaging litigation, and buying and selling land. Authorities are created to spur cooperation, such as King County and Seattle's unified regional homelessness authority. Some authorities get specified powers directly from the government that creates them. These may include local historic and zoning control or public bonding authority.
The Legislature routinely relies on public authorities of various sorts. In the 2019 legislative session, 40 bills passed and signed by the governor permitted funds to be allocated to a public authority for purposes as diverse as stadiums, transit, housing, and health care. A good example is how the legislature's 2019-2020 transportation budget (HB 1160) identified three authorities to receive funds:
Section 214(2) allocates $350,000 to partner with a public development authority or organization to pilot transit-oriented development at Kingsgate Park-and-Ride in Kirkland.
Section 222 allocates almost $900,000 for a consultant to "make recommendations related to specific entities, including inter-jurisdictional entities, policies, and processes required for the purposes of furthering preliminary analysis efforts for the ultra high-speed ground transportation corridor."
Section 306 allocates $17,000,000 for a new I-5 bridge to be constructed under an inter-jurisdictional authority with the State of Oregon.
More locally focused, Public Development Authorities (PDAs) are chartered by local governments to create a specified project or manage an ongoing neighborhood task. There are more than 70 public development authorities in Washington State. They are spread throughout 22 of the state's 39 counties with the most being in King and Spokane Counties.
There may be more authorities in the pipeline. Several studies released by the City of Seattle over the last year propose addressing particular issues with the creation of a corporate authority outside regular government. The Seattle Planning Commission's white paper titled "Evolving Seattle's Growth Strategy" calls for land trusts and other anti-displacement strategies "key components of a more equitable growth strategy." The city's Affordable Middle-Income Housing Advisory Council report recommends creating a "Transit-Oriented, Land Control Entity." This entity would leverage the region's investment in transit with the creation of a multi-jurisdictional entity to "consolidate and align regional housing strategies" around regional transit infrastructure.
The most clear summary of why we are relying on authorities came unexpectedly from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. Their search for cultural space "requires a market to act against its own short-term interests and to instead invest in long-term strategies. This report explores the creation of an intermediary that can exist simultaneously inside and outside the market." We want these authorities to straddle worlds. That we have so many worlds to straddle means we're making a lot of authorities. We don't track how they all work together.
The Increasing Intermediary
The specific flavor of authority proposed for Interbay is a Community Preservation and Development Authority (CPDA). This is a state level authority, created through an act of the Washington Legislature. The recommendation to create the Interbay CPDA also included a series of proposed amendments to the enabling legislation (RCW 43.167.003) because "as currently codified, that statute creates numerous obstacles for the Interbay project." The report proposes amendments to the purposes, powers, and structure of the The need for these amendments are born out by how few times the CPDA statute has been used, even while the overall number of public authorities is expanding.
Though 13 years old, the CPDA statute is currently used in only one place: the Historic South Downtown CPDA. It is chartered for "preserving, restoring, and promoting the health, safety, and cultural identity of Seattle's Pioneer Square and Chinatown-International District neighborhoods." The organization applies for state grants for park and public space improvements, marketing, and technical assistance.
The convergence of public authorities in the International District/Chinatown and SoDo. (Google Earth edited by the author)
The Historic South Downtown CPDA borders two other public authorities: the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District created by King County and Washington State to manage T-Mobile Park; and the Washington State Public Stadium Authority created by Washington State to manage Century Link Field and the Exhibition Center. The Historic South Downtown CPDA also overlaps with the separate Seattle's Chinatown International District Public Development Authority, a locally created PDA with no shared board membership or organization. The Historic South Downtown CPDA is also surrounded by three other authorities: the Port of Seattle, Sound Transit, and King County Metro.
These public corporations are part of a larger conversation. We are handing significant powers to corporate entities across the governance spectrum. Almost 80% of new housing in the United States is built as part of a homeowners association–a quasi-government whose elections are based on land ownership rather than citizenship. Our elections are managed by state level franchises of two governance management companies: the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee Services Corporation. Relationships with our schools often occur through a parent-teacher organization, another non-profit corporation. And this is separate from the giant tech companies who have stumbled into being governments.
A Balanced Governance Ecosystem
On some level, it makes sense to create a corporation with a specific list of goals and let it go with enough autonomy to get the job done. It takes care of the messiness of governing, elected officials do not have to micro-manage a particular task, and taxpayers get the efficiency and focus of an entity with a clear task.
But in practice, we are not cutting through clutter. When you have a situation like Chinatown-International District and the stadiums with seven different authorities pulling different directions, the authorities are the clutter.
Our governments are dropping new entities into an already crowded field, dividing the attention and participation of interested voters, and shirking their own oversight obligations. Groups of homeowners are spinning up associations with opaque membership and outsize voice. The rules of engagement between these entities are unclear. We are manufacturing a middle layer of governance creatures. We're creating perpetual entities and we have no say in how they play together or who is actually in charge.
It is important that we look at projects like Interbay as candidates for incorporation as a public authority. That is the current tool that we have to steer development at the Armory. We must also understand that, from the day it is established, the Interbay CPDA will be directly competing with numerous other corporations costumed as authorities, associations, trusts, and companies. It will be part of a governance ecosystem growing in our state. We must start asking if this ecosystem is healthy or if it's just running wild.
Ray Dubicki is a stay-at-home dad and parent-on-call for taking care of general school and neighborhood tasks around Ballard. This lets him see how urbanism works (or doesn't) during the hours most people are locked in their office. He is an attorney and urbanist by training, with soup-to-nuts planning experience from code enforcement to university development to writing zoning ordinances. He enjoys using PowerPoint, but only because it's no longer a weekly obligation.
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Paul W. February 12, 2020 At 9:29 am
Good piece!
I have a more critical take on this unique feature of governance around here. There are far more quasi-governmental entities and limited-purpose governments here than elsewhere in the country. They began proliferating like mushrooms after a fall rain in 1980, due primarily to some unique SCOWA opinions. Too many exist as a convenient excuse for policy-makers to abdicate responsibilities of governing, ensure cronies get big contracts, AND remove control from the public over whom pulls certain governmental strings. Sound Transit is the most extreme — its unaccountable board is responsible for a host of bad policies the public is powerless to change or curtail.


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EAYPS
Operation THRIVE
The Next Mission
HeartStrides is a nonprofit organization served by a governing board of directors. Directors volunteer their time to act as advisors and advocates of our mission and to assure proper allocation of funds. Directors also assist in garnering support and contributions on behalf of the organization to assure services retain the highest standards and remain financially accessible to our military personnel and at-risk youth.
Kristy Dees
Latrayl Murphy
Kristy is our "lead mare" and Founding Director of HeartStrides and owner of Healing Hearts Ranch. She is a PATH International certified riding instructor, a level two centered riding instructor, certified peer counselor, certified recovery coach and lead clinician for our programs. She is a huge advocate for recovery support in our community.
Latrayl is a retired US Army Staff Sergeant. She is the mother of three (two boys and a girl), a very chubby cat and a dog. Her love for horses began when she was referred to HeartStrides for equine therapy in 2017. Latrayl has been a valuable member of our team ever since and joined the board to help move the organization forward.
Cathy Mahon
Tanya Greenfield
Cathy is the founder of Life Lessons with Horses. She is a certified professional coach, teacher and facilitator of equine assisted learning. She is a retired Physician's Assistant after 30 years in surgery and primary care.
Info coming soon
Dan Clark
Laura Vogel
Daniel Clark is the founder of Critical Concepts Consulting, a training and consulting company. He is retired from the US Army/Reserves after 30 years as a psychologist, and has worked for the WA State Patrol as the Department Psychologist for 25+ years.
Marj Brost
Sue Brooks
Sue has worked as a Substance Use Disorder Professional since 1994. She also has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. She has experience working with persons with Co-Occurring challenges throughout her career. Sue has been a foster parent in the past and is also an adoptive parent.
Copyright © 2022 HeartStrides Therapeutic Horsemanship - All Rights Reserved.


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Q: Is there a way to tell gcc to ignore ""? When running sloeber (a arduino eclipse plugin build on managed build system of cdt) following command is executed and fails:
'Starting combiner'
"D:\eclipse\sloeber\eclipse\/arduinoPlugin/packages/arduino/tools/arm-none-eabi-gcc/4.8.3-2014q1/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc" -mcpu=cortex-m4 -mthumb -Os -Wl,--gc-sections "-TD:\eclipse\sloeber\eclipse\/arduinoPlugin/packages/Maxim/hardware/arm/1.0.3/system/CMSIS/Device/Maxim/MAX32620/Source/GCC/max32620.ld" "-Wl,-Map,D:\workspaces\junit-workspace\363_max32620_fthr/Release/363_max32620_fthr.map"  -o "D:\workspaces\junit-workspace\363_max32620_fthr/Release/363_max32620_fthr.elf" "-LD:\workspaces\junit-workspace\363_max32620_fthr/Release" -Wl,--cref -Wl,--check-sections -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--entry=Reset_Handler -Wl,--unresolved-symbols=report-all -Wl,--warn-common -Wl,--start-group     .\sloeber.ino.cpp.o   "D:\eclipse\sloeber\eclipse\/arduinoPlugin/packages/Maxim/hardware/arm/1.0.3/system/startup/Build_max32620/system_startup_max32620.a" "D:\eclipse\sloeber\eclipse\/arduinoPlugin/packages/Maxim/hardware/arm/1.0.3/system/MAX32620PeriphDriver/Build/PeriphDriver.a" ""  D:\workspaces\junit-workspace\363_max32620_fthr/Release/arduino.ar  -Wl,--end-group -lm -gcc --specs=nosys.specs
arm-none-eabi-gcc: error: : No such file or directory

The problem is caused by a "" in the command. I understand that gcc interprets "" as a file input and does not find the file. As to gcc this is a error which he reports as good as he can.
When I remove the "" all is fine but... the actual command in the makefile is:
${A.RECIPE.C.COMBINE.PATTERN.1}  $(LINK_OBJ) ${A.RECIPE.C.COMBINE.PATTERN.2} ${A.ARCHIVE_FILE_PATH} ${A.RECIPE.C.COMBINE.PATTERN.3} ${JANTJE.EXTRA.ALL} ${JANTJE.EXTRA.LINK}

To be able to remove the "" I need to expand the command. I used to do so but I'm working on being able to support non-expanded commands to get something else to work.
So I was wondering if I could gently ask gcc to ignore these "expansion leftovers".
Note 1: I am processing files from multiple parties. If a supplier thinks it is a good idea to do something like "${A_VAR}" where A_VAR expands to nothing there is little I can do.
Note 2: I can reproduce this problem in Linux and windows. From the information I see cygwin would handle this case (I didn't test)

A: This is not an answer to the question but a way to avoid the issue.
I defined A_VAR as -DIDefinedThisHere
As a result the command contains now "-DIDefinedThisHere" instead of ""
As it is a compilation command gcc accepts the command. As I use a very special define Name, it is very unlikely this will cause issues further downstream.
In my case I picked a define name that points to where the define is defined. There I added some comments on why it is defined.
The idea is that when someone has a bug because A_VAR does not resemble what "it should be", they at least will be routed to the root cause and some explanation why. :-s.
(for the record, that person will probably be me.


View all state races and keep track of your favorites by starring any state to have it appear in your "My Races" tab. All times are displayed in eastern (ET) time zone.
*In the event of a 50/50 split, the President's party will determine control of the house.


text:
Film Review - Death of a Gentleman
In 2011, two journalists, Brit Sam Collins and Aussie Jarrod Kimber, united by a love of cricket, set out to make a film about the future of Test cricket. Death of a Gentleman, directed by Collins, Kimber and Johnny Blank is a record of their journey.
Largely due to its popularity in the Indian sub-continent, cricket is now the second most popular sport in the world. Death of a Gentleman opens with references to the Gentleman's game and the spirit of cricket. The purest form of the game, two innings Test cricket is a legacy of imperialism and is scheduled to last five days. Collins and Kimber believe Test cricket is threatened by the rise in popularity of three-hour Twenty 20 cricket.
Death of a Gentleman begins by following the fortunes of Ed Cowan, an Australian batsman, who made his debut at the Melbourne cricket ground in the first test of Australia's home series against India in 2011. The Boxing Day Test drew upwards of 70,000 spectators indicating that the game was in good health in Australia at least.
Collins and Kimber then switch focus to the governance of the game, in particular the role of India and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). On the back of their surprise triumph in the inaugural World Twenty 20 in 2007, the BCCI set up the Indian Premier League (IPL), described as combining Bollywood and cricket. The best players in the world were signed up for huge fees and the money generated was staggering. Chief among the beneficiaries were the BCCI and the IPL franchise owners.
Death of a Gentleman reveals how the BCCI financially dominates the International Cricket Council (ICC), the governing body of world cricket now located in Dubai. Although the ten eligible Test nations initially shared ICC's revenue equally, the BCCI wanted more. The ICC's revenues are now worth over one billion US dollars in TV rights for upcoming world competitions. The main share of this comes from the sale of TV rights in India.
The Woolf report, written by an eminent British judge and commissioned by the ICC under its then chief executive, South African Haroon Lorgat, attempted to make the ICC more transparent and accountable but was opposed by the BBCI who joined forces with its English and Australian counterparts. Collins and Kimber secured interviews with Giles Clarke, pompous chairman of the English Cricket Board, Lalit Modi, the former IPL commissioner pushed out by the BCCI and N. Srinivasan, the evasive president of the BCCI. His company, Indian Cements, own Chennai Super Kings, one of the dominant IPL franchises. In 2014, the filmmakers travelled to Dubai where a new financial arrangement, giving India over a third of ICC revenues, was agreed and Srinivasan was elected as ICC Chair and head of its anti-corruption unit.
This would have been a good place for Death of a Gentleman to end, but it continues for a further twenty minutes focusing on the 2013 Ashes series and the end of Cowan's career. The closing credits feature an appeal to 'change cricket'. It's a complex account, dominated by talking heads, and Collins and Kimber cover too many strands making it difficult to unpick. Death of a Gentleman is for diehard cricket fans only.
Originally published by Cine-vue.com


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The instructor was very prepared and was a master of her field. She was well prepared for all of her classes and had a variety of learning styles in mind when she prepared her lessons. She held the interest of her diverse class every day for the entire day. She taught, and inspired all of her students! Very enjoyable and informative class!
Overall, it was very good and I would recommend it to a friend. The teacher understood how to control the classroom, provide interesting engagement activities, and make the class think.
Very informative, and provides an extremely helpful network to further one's goal of teaching English abroad.
The instructor was excellent! Impressed with her skills as a teacher!
The in-class instruction was the most useful, as it helped to summarize and simplify the large amount of info in the texts.
I really liked that the most time was spent on preparing classes as that is essential to why we're taking this.
The way the course was organized made it easier to move from topic to topic quickly, while still being able to grasp all of the content.
The course materials, the instructor's enthusiasm and first-hand knowledge, and sharing of class experiences was fantastic.
I learned a lot through the collaborative atmosphere. Our instructor made class fun and interesting.
I would definitely recommend this course to a friend! I learned a lot about learning styles, teaching, teaching styles and how to keep students focused and that learning a language can be fun.
As a non-native speaker of English, I felt very comfortable with all the material taught in class, and my classmates were very friendly and welcoming.
This is a great program for people who want to teach English as a second language.
Our instructor was excellent all around and made the class interesting, fun, understandable, and useful.
"The instructor had a lot information to share and was easy going and approachable. This course was helpful, fun, and I feel one hundred times more prepared to live and teach abroad."
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I loved this course! I learned a lot, gained confidence, and I'm sad it's over!
All of the experience and knowledge the instructor had was fantastic, as well as the hands-on work preparing lesson plans. I am much more confident than I was before I started the course.
It's very professional and gave me lots of tools to work with.
The confidence I gained in being able to critically think about teaching ESL and forming my own style of teaching was extremely useful.
I found the high level of student participation through mini-presentations and the practicum to be very useful.
"Our instructor was great! She was very enthusiastic and informative. She also brought a lot of good stories to the class from her past experiences with teaching and traveling abroad."
"I thought the opportunities throughout the class to plan hypothetical lessons were great. Our instructor did an amazing job of scaffolding teaching by modelling lessons, having us plan in groups, then having us jigsaw plan and teach, then plan and present individual lessons."
"The course schedule is reasonable, the materials are very helpful, and the small class size makes for good one-on-one contact."
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text:
require 'spec_helper'

describe DOW do
  it 'has a version number' do
    expect(DOW::VERSION).not_to be nil
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: How to convert Pandas rows into dictionaries a certain way Let's say I have a data frame (df) like this:
   FileID  MatchCat  Match  Freq  CatIDType  CatID
0  001     fruit     apple  3     food       123
1  001     company   apple  3     tech       456

I have used the following to convert this to be able to write it to json (not done here):
    temp_df = (df.groupby(['FileID','Match','Freq'], as_index = False)
        .apply(lambda x: x[['MatchCat','CatIDType','CatID']].to_dict('r'))
        .reset_index())
    temp_df.columns = ['FileID','Match','Freq', 'MatchInfo']
    j = temp_df.to_dict('records')

Ouptut of j:
   [
    {
      'FileID': '001',
      'Match': 'AAPL',
      'Freq': 3,
      'MatchInfo': [
                     {
                       'CatIdType': 'food',
                       'CatId': '123',
                       'MatchCat': 'fruit'
                     }
                   ]
    },
    {
      'FileID': '001',
      'Match': 'AAPL',
      'Freq': 3,
      'MatchInfo': [
                     {
                       'CatIdType': 'tech',
                       'CatId': '456',
                       'MatchCat': 'company'
                     }
                   ]
    }
   ]

However, I want to now look like this (consolidate into one since Match and FileID is same for both):
    [
     {
      'FileID': '001',
      'Match': 'AAPL',
      'Freq': 3,
      'MatchInfo': [
                     {
                       'CatIdType': 'food',
                       'CatId': '123',
                       'MatchCat': 'fruit'
                     },
                     {
                       'CatIdType': 'tech',
                       'CatId': '456',
                       'MatchCat': 'company'
                     }
                   ]
    }
   ]

Is there a simple way to change the code to achieve this?

A: try this,
from pprint import pprint

pprint(
    df.groupby(['FileID', 'Match', 'Freq'])['MatchCat', 'CatIDType', 'CatID']
        .apply(lambda x: x.to_dict(orient='r'))
        .reset_index(name='MatchInfo').to_dict(orient='r')
)

[{'FileID': 1,
  'Freq': 3,
  'Match': 'apple',
  'MatchInfo': [{'CatID': 123, 'CatIDType': 'food', 'MatchCat': 'fruit'},
                {'CatID': 456, 'CatIDType': 'tech', 'MatchCat': 'company'}]}]


Met a really great couple today from Montana, Tyler and Almira. It is Tyler's birthday. "Happy Birthday!"
Almost mating season for these little guys.
Warm pool near the river.
Clear pool near the river.
A group from London, England pays a visit to the hot springs lead by Seth. A good group of people.
Some very kind people that I met today at Arizona Hot Springs. Jennifer, Jim and Alex.
Andrew was on the trail early last night and ended up sleeping there until he had enough light to make it down to the hot springs.
Recently united couple. Congratulations! Thanks for sharing the floating fruit basket.
This a view of the river from sauna cave. The water is low enough in the morning to walk over to the cave without swimming.
I met some really nice people kayaking. This is Amber and Lance, the leaders from Prescott, AZ.
They had set up camp near the bottom of Gold Strike Canyon. Nothing like camping in a beautiful area only to wake up to an endless warm shower.
A couple out enjoying the beautiful day by hiking Gold Strike Canyon.
Richard was kayaking with Amber and Lance.
Jamie from Roswell, GA, also kayaking with Amber and Lance. Dave was also with them but did not capture a picture.
Deanna, Mike, Chris & Nicole.
Deanna taking a portrait of Nicole and Chris.
Reflection of the blue sky in the water.
It was a really nice day for a hike to Arizona Hot Springs. We met Ian, a tour guide, Deanna, Mike, Nicole and Chris. We also met a couple from Pennsylvania and Leigh from Atlanta. Nice people out today enjoying the beautiful weather and unique hot springs. Hiking with my son Ryan from Atlanta. There was also a large group there from San Diego.


This is the 25th breast cancer awareness month. We are being asked to celebrate that fact -- which is symptomatic of the problem. Why do we try so hard to make breast cancer palatable, comfortable, pink?
October. Another breast cancer awareness month with buildings and bridges aglow in pink. One year since the last one. And around the world another 500,000 women dead of breast cancer. Almost 40,000 in this country alone. Actually, this is the 25th breast cancer awareness month. We are being asked to celebrate that fact - which is symptomatic of the problem. Why do we try so hard to make breast cancer palatable, comfortable, pink? I really don't feel like celebrating.
Twenty five years ago, in the United States, 110 women died of breast cancer every day. Twenty five years and billions of private and public research dollars later, that number is 110. Every day. Not much progress, is it?
What have we been talking about since the last awareness month? We spent weeks and months arguing over whether to screen women once a year or once every other year. The public and media were up in arms because a group of objective experts questioned the benefit and frequency of mammography screening. Should we let women decide what to do? Or should we just tell them? We argued over whether a new drug that shrank a tumor for several weeks but didn't make women live longer, or improve their quality of life -- and had life threatening side effects -- was good enough. Such low expectations. We deserve more.
I don't feel very pink about any of this. I feel angry. I am frustrated at the lack of progress. And I feel used. I have helped convince the government to give billions of dollars in research funding to the worldwide scientific community. I have seen others push to spend billions more in mammograms and billions in awareness campaigns. I have lost count of pink light bulbs. But I haven't lost count of the too many women who have died.
When will we call for an end to this madness? When will we get serious about ending breast cancer?
How about now? It is time. Twenty years ago, after my diagnosis, I joined a group of women who launched the National Breast Cancer Coalition with a mission to end breast cancer. We thought our work would be complete by now. It's not. Over the past two decades I have seen science develop incredible technology that could help find answers and expand our understanding of the disease. It is now time to harness all of this knowledge and all of these tools. It is time for a new approach and a refocus on our goal: not the goal of a new drug or a new way to find cancer. That is just not good enough. The goal needs to be the end of breast cancer. At the current rate of progress it could be 500 years before that happens. And that makes me very angry.
We're setting a deadline: end breast cancer by January 1, 2020. And we have a plan to get there. Many will say it cannot be done. But we have never tried. They will say that science doesn't work that way. Well, it can and it must. It is time. A deadline changes everything.
I know it is controversial to declare a deadline. I know that, to say the least, it will be exceedingly difficult to achieve it. But that is how it should be. There is comfort in arguing over mammograms. We have been doing that for more than 30 years. We know about that, we cling to it, no matter what the evidence tells us. We cheer every new drug as though it were a real breakthrough, though none of them are. We feel safe and somehow hopeful if there are new drugs to take, even if they have little or no benefit. It's time to give up comfort. It's time to give up easy. It's time to give up good enough.
Between now and the next breast cancer awareness month hundreds of thousands of women will die of breast cancer. How many more of these "celebrations" will you accept? It is time to get real about ending breast cancer. Take all of that energy pushing for awareness and let's come together to achieve the deadline. It's time to give up hope and take up action. Get angry. Get motivated. Get on board. Tick tock.