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MN Cup: Pandemic Pivots | Back Issues
Economy | Minnesota Budget Forecast: $876M Surplus
Minnesota Budget Forecast: $876M Surplus
The state took in more revenue and spent less in fiscal 2011 than it had previously anticipated-resulting in a forecasted $876 million balance for the remainder of the current budget period.
After a series of budget deficits, state budget officials are estimating an $876 million surplus for the remainder of the two-year budget cycle.
That's according to the November forecast released Thursday by Minnesota Management & Budget (MMB) Commissioner Jim Schowalter.
The $876 million balance is projected because during the 2011 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, the state received $358 million more in revenue than previously expected, and actual expenditures fell $205 million below prior forecasts.
Revenues for the remainder of the 2012-2013 biennium, meanwhile, are expected to remain relatively unchanged from prior forecasts, while the state is projecting $348 million less in expenditures; the bulk of those expenditure reductions are expected to occur in the health and human services area, MMB said.
According to several media reports, state lawmakers had been bracing for bad news in the forecast, after they worked to resolve a $5 billion deficit to end a 20-day state government shutdown earlier this summer. According to a report by the Star Tribune, the projected surplus follows a four-year string of deficits; the last time Minnesota was in the black was February 2007.
Law requires that the forecast balance be used to restore the state's reserves, and the new projections will result in $255 million being added to the state's cash flow account and $621 million to the budget reserve, MMB said.
"This is obviously good news and a helpful break from recurring budget gaps. It's also a reminder that Minnesota still has some significant strengths-above average economic performance and the discipline to quickly stabilize its finances," Schowalter said in a statement. "Future risk remains, but at least we now have a cushion."
Minnesota's economy has outpaced that of the rest of the nation, MMB said. And the state's unemployment rate remains well below the U.S. average.
Despite the positive news of the surplus, MMB said that expected longer-term future economic growth is actually down from the previous forecast, which was released in February. The new forecast shows a projected deficit of $1.3 billion for the 2014-2015 biennium.
MMB said that economists have "tempered their optimism" in part because oil prices, slow employment growth, supply-chain disruptions, and a decreasing confidence in government and its leaders have caused slower than expected economic growth.
The complete November budget forecast can be downloaded here.
Chase Bank to Open Three More Metro Retail Banks in First Quarter
Bio-Techne, Wilson Wolf Back New Company ScaleReady
Legalized Sports Betting in Minnesota? Don't Bet On It
C.H. Robinson Rolls Out Consumer Brand
Vanco Acquires Child Care Software Firm Smartcare
Christopher & Banks Files Bankruptcy
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Accessible360
Jeff Bazal
The Financial Planning Association of Minnesota
Ryan Antkowiak, CFP®
Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation
Ellen Brownell
Fullerton Building Systems, Inc.
Cathy Schmidt
Politics + Public Policy
Growing List of Minnesota Companies 'Pause' Political Contributions
Georgia Wins Have Big Ramifications for Minnesota Democrats in D.C.
TCB Staff
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Match-worn or prepared shirt that was used by the Paraguayan midfielder Celso Ortiz during the Europa League campaign of AZ.
AZ ended on the last place in group L (Group with Athletic de Bilbao, Augsburg and Partizan) and were out of the Europa League.
Match-worn that was used by the Belgian defender Jan Wuytens during the Europa League campaign of AZ.
AZ ended first in group L (Group with PAOK, Macabi Haifa and Shakhter Karagandy). Later on, in the further stages of the Europa League they won from Slovan Liberec and Anji Makhachkala but in the quarter finals They lost from a strong Benfica. AZ played a very good European campaign.
I am very proud to own this shirt... .
Match-worn shirt that was used by the Belgian striker Maarten Martens In the first half of the season. In januari Martens swapped the shirt of AZ for the shirt of PAOK Saloniki... but with the promise he will return to AZ one day. You will be missed there.
This shirt was used by Belgian winger Dries Mertens during the Europa League.
Dries (born 1987) is one of the most talented Belgian players. He scored 21 goals in 33 matches in the 2011-2012 season.
The shirt has large ventilation holes on the side and a white spot on the back for the numbering (UEFA restrictions).
Match worn shirt that was used by the Belgian striker Maarten Martens during the season. The shirt is short sleeved with Eredivisie patch.
Match-worn shirt that was used by captain Jan Vertonghen during the competition. The shirt is not a FORMOTION shirt but i am assured by someone from the AJAX staff that it was used by Jan at the beginning of the season. There are still some dirt spots on it.
Vertonghen played 155 matches in 6 seasons for AJAX and scored 23 goals.
Won 1x the Dutch cup and was 2x champions of Holland.
Not bad for a Belgian boy... .
in 2012 het switched the shirt of AJAX for one of Tottenham Hotspurs.


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First look at Batman unveiled in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, release date announced
A new trailer for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has unveiled the first look at Batman, in a tribute to Kevin Conroy. Additionally, the game has finally received a release date. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on May 26th, 2023. You can check out the trailer above and read below for more details:
Warner Bros. Games and DC today released a new cinematic for Rocksteady Studios' Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League revealing a first look at Batman as one of the corrupted Justice League members opposing Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark. Debuted during The Game Awards, the video features the Squad's initial encounter with The Dark Knight and closes with a tribute to Kevin Conroy, the beloved actor who passed away last month. As the iconic voice of the Caped Crusader in the Batman: Arkham videogame series, Batman: The Animated Series and countless other DC projects, Conroy returns to Rocksteady's Arkhamverse one final time and reprises his role as Batman in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
The release date for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was also officially confirmed today. Players will be able to jump into the action-adventure, third-person shooter on May 26, 2023 when the game launches worldwide for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Related Articles: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Mike Rowbottom: Pole vaulter Bradshaw rises above abuse as she and Olympic champion Nageotte share Fair Play Award
By Mike Rowbottom
Less than a year after home pole vaulter Holly Bleasdale finished sixth in the London 2012 Olympic final her career turned golden at the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg.
I was present in the Scandinavium Arena to see this Lancashire lass win the title ahead of Poland's Anna Rogowska.
After both had cleared 4.67 metres at the second attempt and failed at 4.72m there could have been a similar spectacle as occurred in the following year's World Indoor Championships, where Mariya Kuchina of Russia - later to win three world titles and the Tokyo 2020 gold under her married name of Lasitskene - and home jumper Kamila Licwinko shared the women's high jump title after both had cleared 2.00m and failed at 2.02m.
Or indeed, as occurred in last summer's Tokyo 2020 men's high jump final, where sometime training partners Mutaz Barshim of Qatar and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi suddenly and gloriously decided to share the title at the end of a long, muggy night rather than grinding the edges off each other in an arduous extra series of jumps.
Whatever Rogowska felt about sharing the title in Gothenburg, Bleasdale - as she still was then - had no hesitation. Jump-off.
After both failed once again at 4.72m the bar came back down to 4.67m and this time only the Briton cleared it.
Which is all by way of establishing that Holly Bradshaw, as she has been for many years now, is a tough and competitive cookie.
Indeed, this week the current women's Olympic champion, Katie Nageotte of the United States, described Bradshaw, who earned bronze in that delayed Tokyo 2020 competition, as "the toughest athlete I've possibly ever met."
Nageotte's comments came in the wake of the announcement that she and Bradshaw had been awarded the International Fair Play Committee (CIFP) Fair Play Award as part of the World Athletics Awards 2022.
At this summer's World Athletics Championships in Oregon Bradshaw was injured as she warmed up for the qualifying competition after her pole snapped and she landed on her neck in the pit.
Distraught, she was comforted by her American friend and rival, who eventually added gold to her Olympic title of the summer before.
Such an honour to win this alongside one of my closest friends @ktnago13 ❤
Hopefully our genuine relationship shows being nice and being competitive is totally achievable 🤩
Thank you @WorldAthletics pic.twitter.com/m3CvhZ4D2u
— Holly Bradshaw (@HollyBradshawPV) December 2, 2022
Nageotte then stepped up to defend Bradshaw after she had become the subject of social media abuse after withdrawing injured to allow another athlete to seek a place in the final.
CIFP secretary general Sunil Sabharwal commented: "When we look for an act of fair play, we are looking for an act where someone goes beyond the call of duty, at times putting themselves at risk.
"Here what we had was a series of events.
"If you think about sports media or sports history, this kind of social media hate is a new phenomenon and the Committee and the jury felt that this unwanted, unnecessary and undesired criticism by people who really don't know what is going on, needs to be called out.
"We were unanimous in supporting this."
Nageotte added that the abuse the Briton had faced demonstrated "ignorance around our sport".
The announcement of the award came a couple of days after the release of an Online Abuse Study commissioned by World Athletics that monitored the social media of 461 athletes involved in the Oregon 2022 World Championships.
"Sixty per cent of all detected online abuse was sexual or racial in nature with racism comments depicted in the form of offensive deployment of the N-word, and in the use of monkey emojis against black athletes," the report said.
"This 'weaponisation' of emojis as part of racist abuse is now common online.
"When abuse types are broken down by gender, half of all abuse targeting female athletes was of a sexualised nature.
"Abuse targeting male athletes tended to include general slurs, with a significant proportion (29 per cent) of racist abuse also detected."
Just under 60 per cent of the abusive messages were received by women, and sexual and sexualised abuse - "overwhelmingly targeted at female athletes" - made up more than 40 per cent of all detected abusive posts.
British pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw has been defended by her friend and rival Katie Nageotte, the Olympic champion from the United States, after receiving abuse on social media ©Getty Images
The report also found that abuse "tended to be driven by events outside of competition - athletes were targeted over controversies associated with athletics, but not necessarily driven by results in the stadium."
However, for Bradshaw, the abusive comments were very much drawn from something that happened within the stadium.
Last week in response to a request from insidethegames she spoke at length about the experience and her strategies of coping with the increasingly common phenomenon of online abuse.
"There were just comments as to, 'I only fell from two feet, why didn't I get up?' 'Oh, it's a squidgy mat, why couldn't she carry on?' Almost implying like I was playing on it, being a bit of a drama queen," Bradshaw said.
"In terms of falling into the report, a lot of the report was about sexism and racism.
"I've definitely experienced sexism in the past, but on this occasion it was very much relating to my performance.
"Mostly people were having a go because I withdrew after the pole snap. The thing that's frustrating was the naivety towards that. I absolutely wanted to carry on. It's a World Championship qualification and I'd prepared for this moment for the whole year.
"I'm not the kind of person to shy away from that and if I could have gone on I absolutely would have, but in terms of emotionally but also physically I was actually hurt.
"So I think just understanding the nature of the event before people make comments is really important.
"I'd struggled with abuse before, mainly about body image, how I look, relating to my personal appearance. And I think people making uninformed comments on social media - they don't understand the effect it can have on someone.
"I am not a professional footballer. I deal with my social media, someone else doesn't do it for me, so the chances are I'm going to read every single comment there is.
"I always just say to people, if you want to make a comment, make it to a friend, make it to your family at home, but do not go on Twitter and make a horrible remark, because it really does affect someone."
Britain's Holly Bradshaw was one of 461 athletes at this summer's World Championships in Oregon whose social media posts were monitored in an Online Abuse Study commissioned by World Athletics ©Getty Images
Bradshaw reflected on the abuse she has received on social media throughout her career.
"I don't think it was worse in Oregon compared to what I'd had before," she told insidethegames. "I think, given my experience, I was able to bat off what happened in Oregon, and the fact that some of my team-mates, especially Katie Nageotte, stood up and really fought back definitely made me feel a lot better.
"But I definitely feel like the abuse I received as an 18, 19, 20-year-old was a lot worse.
"I just didn't know how to deal with it, it really affected me, it was a lot more personal, whereas this one just felt like they'd lashed out at something I'd done in terms of a competition and it didn't feel like it was attacking me and my personal values.
"But that's not to say it wasn't uncalled for - it absolutely wasn't called for. Just because you couldn't see the physical injuries that I had didn't mean I wasn't hurt.
"In terms of the strategies, I would say that I have just learned as I have got older to block people as soon as they give a negative comment.
"I think a lot of the time I would go back on social media and check through them and almost that felt like advice, it was like these people who were following me were giving me advice.
"That they must be right, they must mean something. Whereas actually I have been able to distinguish between those people who are being really nice and giving me positive comments, versus those I can compartmentalise, those that are just giving their opinion where it's not really warranted or needed.
"It's not to say it doesn't still affect me, because when I read a negative comment there is a part of me inside that's like 'that's harmful to me.' But I'm able to block it and just move on because I can rationalise that they probably wouldn't say that to me if they met me in person, so they probably don't mean what they are saying.
"I've had good support on this. I've been seeing a psychologist now for the last 10 years for multiple different things. She's helped me to rationalise such comments.
"I also have multiple social media detoxes throughout the year, to really come away from all that.
"The report showed that the abuse was way more seen on Twitter, which I absolutely agree with. I very rarely have negative comments on Instagram.
"But on Twitter I tend to have negative comments made when I have a failure or when I don't do so well or on body image, anything like that. People just make comments.
"So I think for me having a social media detox, especially from Twitter to get away from all that, is really, really important - something that I've found really useful."
Mike Rowbottom Chief Feature Writer
Follow @mikerowbo
Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian.
Read more of Mike's articles
Follow @mikerowbo on Twitter
Holly Bradshaw Katie Nageotte World Athletics Oregon 2022 Athletics CIFP Fair Play Award


Roughly one week ago (end of November 2018), OJ published a CTF challenge, the goal (rather simple) is to exploit this binary. I'm trying to write those article while I reverse/exploit this game. In this first article I will focus on static analysis to gather information that will be usefull later to find and write an exploit.
I always like to spend a lot (too much ?) time on static analysis, try to guess how the code would behave when run. In this binary, symbols were not removed and it's hence much easier for us to find the relevant part of the source code.
It was actually not that straightforward to re-create this, but my goal here is not to give an IDA tutorial, but to describe the steps I performed looking at an unkown binary. The first two fields are explicit, the count is the number of this item in this room followed by a function pointer that points to one of the create_* function, used to create an item that can be use by the user.
As shown previously, there is a link between a room and an item. From the rooms' list we can see that the first item we are interested in is located in the study room: the Revolver. In the setup function (or playing around in the game), we see that the study room is connected to the north of the hall room (the starting room).
When using the GET action in a room, many checks are performed, the first one checks that the room's item pointer is not null, compares the name given by the user to the item's one, checks that the item's count is not 0. Then it tries to find the item in the user's stuff (we will come back to that later).
the player already has the object with a count that is not 0 (he/she did not use the item yet), then the object can not be picked.
the count is 0, then the user once had this object, but used it, and the item can be picked up again (the counter is simply incremented).
the user never had this objet: this is the first time the user uses the GET action on this item's type. The game will create a new datastructure representing this item (which is not the same as the datastructure used by the rooms to keep track of their items).
To create an new item, the user must give it a name, the function then creates a hash (more info that later), tries to find an item with this hash in the user's stuff (I did not really figure the usage of the hash yet, so I can't explain why). If none is found, the item_create_fn function pointer that can be found in the item_room structure is called.
In order to be added to the user's stuff, the item is created on the heap (which can be interesting as, don't get me wrong, we are still trying to exploit this binary) by the item_create_fn function of the room_item structure.
Before we dig into the create_* function, I need to describe a bit the stuff symbol that can be found in this binary.
In this structure we find a pointer to the next/previous item in the list, a pointer to the room's item that was picked by the user, a pointer to the room's name and the item's hash (the one that was computed from the user's input). We can also find data related to a specific item, in this case, the serial number of the revolver as well as a boolean is_loaded that will be set to true only if we load a bullet into our revolver.
The last field of the structure is hidden_string this is filled for each item by the corresponding create_* function and does mostly nothing (I probably missed something here, but I can't find what yet).
Now that we have a rough overview of the user's stuff mechanism, let's focus on the functions that create those items.
As said previously, the goal of those functions is to create and fill an item when it's picked by the player. All of those function do at least a heap allocation using calloc and then, if needed, will set a few item specific fields. We find the hidden_string in all the item except the magnifying glass. The bullet and revolver item have an extra field storing the serial number. This serial number is a hex digit of length 18 (including the 0x prefix) that will be prompted to the player.
To conclude this part on user's item: each room can be linked to an item_type, when the user gets the item for the first time, a new object is created on the heap and added to the player's stuff, this item is a node of a linked list and contains information about its type and some information that I could not make any sense of yet.
While reading through this part of the binary, I did not find any vulnerability: bounds seems to be checks, safe functions are used, we can control many parameters. On the other hand, having some data on the heap open the door to a whole new range of exploit if something goes wrong: heap exploits.
You sureptitiously acquire a single Revolver, we've given it the secret hash of 0xCC9EE3AB.
You are currently standing in the Study. To the SOUTH lies the Hall.
You can't shoot a gun that hasn't got any bullets in it. Numpty.
The following picture shows where the item's specific use function is called, it's actually computed from the counter of the matching item, and, using some arithmetic, moved to the correct address in the all_items array.


After taking a morning stroll on the beach, swing by one of the local cafes located on Longboat Key for a healthy and hearty breakfast. Choose from eggs benedict, a tasty omelet, a fresh fruit cup as well as fresh ground and brewed coffee drinks including regular and decaf, cappuccino, Frappuccino, Americano, as well as smoothies. Most of these cafes offer both indoor and outdoor dining options.
Longbeach Cafe offers delicious homemade food, cooked by real people in a kitchen you can see and is served by your neighbor's and friends. We serve breakfast and lunch and offer a waterside patio for your dining experience. We also offer gluten free breads and wraps, as well as "to go" orders.
We feature fresh ground and brewed coffee drinks including regular and decaf, cappuccino, frappuccino, Americano, with milk, skim milk, soy or almond milk. We serve smoothies prepared from fresh fruit including tropical, very berry, chocolate banana, or your custom choice. We also offer breakfast sandwished as well as hot and cold sandwiches.
Blue Dolphin Cafes serve fresh homemade food, by friendly concerned employees in a fun, clean environment.


(by Tamara Lush, YahooNews.com) AP, ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A frigid Florida winter is taking its toll on your sandwich. The Sunshine State is the main U.S. source for fresh winter tomatoes, and its growers lost some 70 percent of their crop during January's prolonged cold snap.
At Costello Sandwich and Sides in Chicago, which uses 10 to 15 cases of tomatoes a week and is now paying $25 a case instead of $15, customers can expect to get a bit less tomato on their sandwiches. The shop hasn't raised prices or stopped serving tomatoes altogether, but manager Matthew Villareal says he can see the tomatoes are soft when the prep cooks are cutting them.
There's more bad news, Brown said: Because of the continued cold weather – 38-degree temperatures were predicted Friday in some central Florida growing areas – the current crop of fruit isn't as far along as everyone had hoped.
"We thought they'd recover by early April, but now it's mid- April," he said.
"We're obviously losing market share to Mexico, and there's always a price to pay to get the customer to get back into the Florida market," Brown said.
Florida is the only place where tomatoes are grown on a large scale in the U.S. during winter. California doesn't grow them until later in the year, and much of that state's crop is used for processed foods, such as ketchup, sauce and juice. Other states grow tomatoes in greenhouses year- round, but Florida's winter tomato crop is by far the largest.
At Subway restaurants, the timing of this year's shortage was fortuitous: It hit right when the sandwich chain switches its tomato purchases from Florida to other regions.
While they so far haven't been impacted, managers are ordering different varieties of tomatoes to keep supplies steady, a spokesman said Thursday.
McDonald's Corp., CKE Restaurants Inc., (which owns Hardees, Carl Jr.) and Darden Restaurants (the nation's biggest casual dining chain, which owns Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse; Capital Grille; Seasons 52) said it's business as usual and no shortages are being reported.
Some Wendy's restaurants posted signs saying tomatoes would only be provided upon request because of limited availability.
But smaller restaurants are feeling the pinch. In Chicago, where a hot dog isn't a hot dog without chopped tomatoes, you might end up with just a bit less on the bun.
Associated Press writers Caryn Rousseau and Ashley Heher in Chicago contributed to this report.
Copyright ©2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. The information contained in this AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Visit news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100305/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tomato_shortage for the original post.
1. Florida is the only place where tomatoes are grown on a large scale in the U.S. during winter. How much of the Florida winter tomato crop was lost due to the unusually cold weather in January and February?
2. By how much have wholesale tomato prices increased over last year at this time?
3. How is the loss of much of the Florida tomato crop affecting businesses across the country?
4. How cold was the weather in Florida this winter?
5. What is the status of Florida's current tomato crop?
6. How will the loss of crops in Florida affect business for tomato growers?


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La Librairie de Paris (Madrigall Group) begins its autumn literary season
Best case 25.10.2019
Following on from the success of the Gallimard bookstore (Paris 7th), Le Divan and Le Divan Perché (Paris 15th), the agency continues its collaboration with the Madrigall group (Editions Gallimard), and renovates the iconic Librairie de Paris located on Place de Clichy.
At the crossroads of 4 districts, the Librairie de Paris is a veritable place of cultural confluence in an intellectual, trendy and popular district.
The agency has designed an architectural project of nearly 400 m2 with the ambition of revealing this location with atypical volumes by working both on the verticality of the space, with large, full height shelving, and on its depth by punctuating the journey with strong markers. From the window, large totems display the literary new releases, while giving a strong visibility on the interior of the bookstore. Beyond the door, the fluidity of the customer journey – a key point of the renovation – has been redesigned to facilitate the movement between the different departments and encourage strolling both on the ground floor through the generous alleyways and through the mezzanine and corridors filled with books.
In the centre, the Agora can accommodate the many events and book signings and places the authors at the heart of the life of the bookstore. The general atmosphere is warm; customers move smoothly from an anthracite grey atmosphere – an incarnation of the city – to a brighter atmosphere towards the back of the space evoking the quietness of the libraries. The renovation of the original parquet floors anchors the store in the spirit of continuity. Dashes of "theatre" red – in reference to the institutional colour of the Gallimard House and the many venues of the district – energise the place.
"In our business where 60% of purchases are impulse purchases, we are seeing double-digit growth rates in the wake of each of the three bookstores", says Philippe Touron, Director of the Madrigall Group's Parisian bookstores.
The graphic identity of the bookshop, an integral part of the project, has also been redesigned by the agency. It is inspired by the collages, posters and manifestos that marked the times; We can thus write evocative words and put the faces of iconic personalities who lived in the neighbourhood on the walls.
The Librairie de Paris has taken a youthful look while keeping its soul intact! It is more than ever a key player in the neighbourhood "One of the crossroads of Paris where life is teeming, at the edge of the petty bourgeois world, that of workers and employees, or in other words, Bohemia and weddings" as written in 1954, Georges Simenon in Le Grand Bob.
Lonsdale group 01.01.2020
As every year…
Uncategorized 25.10.2019
Paris becomes a global retail capital once more
Thinking 25.10.2019
What if we went from CSR to CRE?
Nicolas Venturini named Junior Partner
IPECA marks an important milestone in its transformation
Le Jardin du Petit Palais, a new design for the restaurant
UDA changes name and becomes Union of brands
Frédéric Messian, Knight of the National Order of Merit
Leading branding and design agency in France, Lonsdale helps brands, businesses and retailers to grow and create cohesive experiences.
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Betty Jean Bissette, 72, previously of Chesapeake, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 in Seville, Ohio.
Mrs. Bissette was born in Richmond, VA, the daughter of the late Raymond and Mary Katheryn "Kat" Beyke. She was predeceased by her husband, Garland "Pete" Bissette, and a brother, Thomas Beyke.
Survivors include her daughter, Karen Denise Davis; two granddaughters, Riley Tate and Erin Mae Davis; a step-daughter, Catherine Murphy; a sister, Shirley Drager; as well a numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews.
Friends are welcome to view and sign the guest book from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m., Monday at Oman Funeral Home & Crematory, Chesapeake.
To send flowers or a remembrance gift to the family of Betty Jean Bissette, please visit our Tribute Store.
"Email Address" would like to share the life celebration of Betty Jean Bissette. Click on the "link" to go to share a favorite memory or leave a condolence message for the family.


Our work is to facilitate communication with talent. Clients looking for talent will have the ability to instantly connect with rising stars to communicate, book, and negotiate. Our clients will range from TV/film production to consumer-centric product advertisers.


Before the holidays you guys gave GFX some amazing suggestions about sustainable resolutions for 2019 so I have written them up to give all of you some end of winter inspiration!
Pretty easy, but eat locally! Check out all the fruit and veg you buy in the store and see if it is USA grown, if not grown in your own state or town! Check out a farmers market, even if you are a millennial and can barely afford an avocado (like me) its a great way to meet the local farmers and maybe score some free tasters!
I can get behind that! Who doesn't love an easy 5-minute commute from your bed to your desk? Plus you have cheap coffee at your fingertips! But really working from home can cut down your carbon footprint, especially if a lot of us did it, think about how much rush hour traffic we can eliminate! Yay!
Probably the biggest fact to come out in the past few years is that the farming and meat industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, so get on that veggie wagon and go vegan or just start as a vegetarian!
Its the newest thing from Sweden, pick up trash while you run. Super simple, as you run you also pick up litter. Its a great combination to pick up some cardio, work on your squat technic and help the environment! Can you say win, win, win!
Like working from home it is all about lowering that carbon footprint, so try riding a bike to work. Don't stop there keep biking! Bike to the farmer's market, bike to the gym, bike to your fave vegan restaurant, the road is literally the limit! At the same time you will be beating your fit bit and we love being efficient!
I liked this resolution a lot, could I do it, no, I kill succulents. But still, the idea of getting into your green thumb, growing a veggie patch and then trading it with your neighbors is fun! With so much tech in the world it's sweet to go back to something simple and wholesome. Why not make a meal out of it? Combine your veggies into a delicious Sunday ratatouille, and then please invite me!
This is actually my New Years Resolution, after spending time in Denver where the city composts to moving to NYC where I'm not even sure if the city recycles, I want to compost more. I wrote a previous blog post about composting in NYC and other major world cities. But really I am working to find the closest spot where I can take my food scraps to improve my green responsibility in such a big city.
We've all been banning straws, coffee cups, plastic bags, water bottles etc, but let's do more. Let's stop using all of the above by not just one or two. If you already do that and are an epic eco-warrior, I salute you, but let's cut out more. Let's ditch plastic wrap, plastic packaging, plastic baggies, plastic beer rings, you don't have to go zero waste but let's get close to it!
Maybe more for the EU but Amtrack take notes!
Unfortunately trains in Australia, the USA, and mostly every continent is not as fantastic as Europe's, but when you can take the train over the plane! If this just is not something you think applies to you fair enough, look at it a bit differently, a lot comes in by plane, clothes, and food being one thing. As I mentioned eating locally grown food cuts down on using planes to transport it. Fast fashion too uses planes to transport, that is why they can have such a fast turnaround, so buy from a brand that uses ships or trains to transport stock (basically any brand that is not fast fashion).


Mike worked really hard for us and knows the market and real estate law very well. These were a great asset to us as was his attentiveness. He was always quick to respond to our questions and problems and made us feel like we were a priority.


Not sure if this is the tabletop fountain for you? We know how frustrating it can be and we want to make your search as easy as possible. If you want to see some of our other fountains, just click onto the links to the left. We have made more than 25,000 fountains to date and we don't show all of them here on the website. So if you don't see what you are looking for, just call us at 610-933-6919 or click our "contact us" link at the top of the page and let us know what we can create for you. Charles will get back to you right away!!! It's as easy as that.


Thank you to everyone who serves on the board!
Family Intervention Center is grateful to our Board of Directors, who have been meticulously and individually elected based on their skills or passions. In conjunction with our amazing staff members, they help us to run our facilities so smoothly.
It is important for us to have everyone in our inner circle live by and preach our mission and philosophy. We are thankful that each member of our Board of Directors does exactly that.


text:
A fatal fungus, revealed
Cally Carswell Nov. 2, 2011
The death toll continues to mount in Eastern caves: Since the winter of 2007, when bat behavior turned erratic in upstate New York and state wildlife officials discovered thousands of bats dead in a cave near Albany, their noses smudged with a curious white substance, a million more have succumbed to a disease called white nose syndrome.
The disease has been, in a word, devastating. It's wiped out upwards of 90 percent of bats in infected caves. As HCN contributing editor Michelle Nijhuis reported for Smithsonian recently:
By the end of 2008, wildlife-disease researchers had identified the (white) fuzz as a fungus new to North America. Today the fungus has spread to 19 states and 4 Canadian provinces, and infected nine bat species, including the endangered Indiana and gray bats. A 2010 study in the journal Science predicted that the little brown bat -- once one of the most common bat species in North America -- may go extinct in the eastern United State within 16 years.
Scientists have suspected for some time that the fungus to blame was Geomyces destructans. But as Nature News reports, they couldn't be sure: "The culpability of G. destructans for this sudden outbreak was thrown into question when the fungus was found on healthy bats in Europe, where it is not associated with the grim mortality levels seen in North America. Some proposed that the fungus was not the primary cause of the catastrophic die offs, and that another factor -- such as an undetected virus -- must be to blame."
Now, they've got their proof. A study published last week in Nature confirms that G. destructans is the cause of the disease. It's an important step for efforts to protect bats, since it's difficult to fight an enemy you only sort of know. The research will "help us focus our actions or management efforts in the future," Jonathan Sleeman, director of the National Wildlife Health Center, told Science News. As for why the fungus hasn't crippled bats across the pond, mycologist Vishnu Chaturvedi told PBS' blog The Rundown, "It could be that European bats have evolved over a longer period of time and are immune or have a different way of coping with the fungus during hibernation. Or the fungus in the U.S. has subtle variations that we have not even started looking at."
The disease still hasn't shown up in the West. But as we reported last summer, some scientists think it inevitably will. It is creeping closer: The fungus has been discovered as far West as Oklahoma, though it supposedly hasn't killed bats there. If it does arrive in our region, the impacts could be more muted than out East. "Some scientists believe that Western caves are generally too warm and dry to support the fungus, ... and that the region's bat hibernation colonies are too small and spread-out for white nose syndrome to take root," Madeline Bodin wrote for HCN.
For now, says Katie Miller, a Nevada Department of Wildlife biologist and co-chair of the Western Bat Working Group's white nose committee, "We're in prevention mode." She doesn't expect the Nature study to change the work that's already underway. "The study says the primary mode of (white nose) transmission is bat to bat. There's no way for us to manage that. So our goal in the West is to manage people." It is believed that people can spread the fungus by tracking it into caves on their clothing and gear. So Western states are doing what they can to make sure cavers and scientists sanitize their clothing before entering caves. And white nose has given agencies a new reason to try to keep people out of abandoned mines, which can also host hibernating bats.
Miller says a few Western states recently secured a federal grant to collect basic information about the region's bat populations. "Bats are really cryptic and mobile. We don't know anything at all about population levels in the West," she says. "If we can have that baseline data, if (white nose) does make it out here, it'll let us know how badly we're getting hit. Back East, they don't know that. ... I'm pretty sure Vermont would've loved baseline data."
Cally Carswell is HCN's assistant editor.
Photo: A little brown bat with white nose syndrome, courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
More from Wildlife
Offshore oil rigs are a surprising safe haven


ShooterThis creature can inflict damage remotely. When distance to target is longer than half the arena, the target suffers only half the normal damage. Shooter cannot use ranged attack when blocked by enemy creature. If there's no Ammo Cart in the army, the number of shots is limited by available ammo.. No Melee PenaltyShooter has no penalty for damage inflicted during melee attack.. Range PenaltyShooter always inflicts only half the normal damage to the target but doesn't incur any penalty on melee attack.. Poisonous AttackIn addition to normal damage the enemy attacked will also be poisoned. Poisoning will cause a certain amount of damage during the next three turns.Poison damage is proportional to the number of creatures in the attacking stack (at the time of poisoning). Multiplier is 1 for Assassins and 4 for Manticores..
The dark elves have always respected assassins, but they reserve particular esteem for those killers who are masters of stealth, capable of taking their unsuspecting victims by complete surprise. The finest exponents of this art are the Stalkers. Evading the traps, swords and spells of their foes, the Stalker will slip unseen past any guard in order to deliver the fatal blow to his target.
Poisonous AttackIn addition to normal damage the enemy attacked will also be poisoned. Poisoning will cause a certain amount of damage during the next three turns.Poison damage is proportional to the number of creatures in the attacking stack (at the time of poisoning). Multiplier is 1 for Assassins and 4 for Manticores.. InvisibilityOnce per combat, this creature can become invisible to the enemy for 3 turns. If the creature attacks anyone, has its path blocked by enemy units or stops on a tile adjacent to a hostile stack it will be disclosed. If an enemy movement is blocked by an invisible unit, the enemy stops and performs a melee attack. Enemies do not retaliate to the attacks of invisible creatures. No enemy spells or effects (except area ones) will affect an invisible creature (activated ability)..
No Enemy RetaliationEnemies never retaliate after melee attacks by creatures with this ability.. Strike and ReturnCreature attacks and returns to its previous position..
Wild and reckless, Blood Sisteres believe themselves to be invincible, and are quick to attack any opponent, while deftly evading the blows of enemy blades.
No Enemy RetaliationEnemies never retaliate after melee attacks by creatures with this ability.. Strike and ReturnCreature attacks and returns to its previous position.. Immune to WeaknessThis creature is immune to Weakness spell..
Double AttackCreature strikes two blows at the target in a single attack.. BraveryCreature always has positive morale (no less than +1)..
Even slaves have leaders. Those chosen as Minotaur taskmasters command even the respect of the dark elves, for they know that these slaves will battle on to the bitter end, inspiring all those who fight alongside them to acts of bravery.
Aura of BraveryThis creature increases the Morale of all friendly stacks that stand on tiles adjacent to it to +1 in the battle and all adjacent friendly stacks have positive Morale (no less than +1)..
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. Rider ChargeFor each battlefield tile covered by this creature during attack, the target's Defense is reduced by 20% (all the way down to zero)..
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. Rider ChargeFor each battlefield tile covered by this creature during attack, the target's Defense is reduced by 20% (all the way down to zero).. Lizard BitePerforms an attack against neighbouring enemy and inflicts half the regular damage, if this enemy is attacked by an allied creature..
Armed with mighty tridents, and seated aloft ferocious and fearsome lizards, Brisk Raiders are regarded as the pride of the underworld's army. Their weapons have no weaknesses, and their martial prowess enables them to attack anyone who comes within reach on their way to their intended goal.
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. Lizard BitePerforms an attack against neighbouring enemy and inflicts half the regular damage, if this enemy is attacked by an allied creature.. Wheeling AttackOn its way to its main target, this creature attacks all enemy stacks adjacent to its route, delivering 25% of its normal damage to them without suffering retaliation..
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. No Enemy RetaliationEnemies never retaliate after melee attacks by creatures with this ability.. EnragedThis creature's Attack increases during combat when any stack of friendly units dies (except resurrected creatures or creatures summoned on battlefield by magic).The increase is proportional to the killed stack relative power in the army.. Three-headed AttackThe creature can attack simultaneously all enemy creatures standing on three adjacent cells.The Cerberus and Firehound attack 3 adjacent tiles. The Hydra attacks 6 adjacents tiles..
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. No Enemy RetaliationEnemies never retaliate after melee attacks by creatures with this ability.. EnragedThis creature's Attack increases during combat when any stack of friendly units dies (except resurrected creatures or creatures summoned on battlefield by magic).The increase is proportional to the killed stack relative power in the army.. Six-headed attackCreature attacks all adjacent tiles simultaneously, causing damage to all enemy creatures positioned there.. RegenerationThis creature restores its health by 30-50 hit points each turn..
Due to the fact that these hydras fed on giant acid spiders that dwell in the caves, their blood has undergone major transformations. A relatively small surface wound will cause it to boil and send a fountain of corrosive acid spurting forth. Thus, once wounded, the hydra may use its own blood to inflict harm on those who were impudent enough to attack it.
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. Acid BloodBeing attacked, this creature splashes out some acid, covering four tiles from the direction of the attack and delivering 25 percent of normal damage to the enemies.The acid damage is physical (it is calculated like the Hydra's normal attack against the target).. EnragedThis creature's Attack increases during combat when any stack of friendly units dies (except resurrected creatures or creatures summoned on battlefield by magic).The increase is proportional to the killed stack relative power in the army.. No Enemy RetaliationEnemies never retaliate after melee attacks by creatures with this ability.. Six-headed attackCreature attacks all adjacent tiles simultaneously, causing damage to all enemy creatures positioned there..
ShooterThis creature can inflict damage remotely. When distance to target is longer than half the arena, the target suffers only half the normal damage. Shooter cannot use ranged attack when blocked by enemy creature. If there's no Ammo Cart in the army, the number of shots is limited by available ammo.. CasterThis creature can use a set of magical spells similar to those cast by heroes. Mana reserve is limited but always set to maximum at the beginning of combat. Spellpower depends on the number of creatures (activated ability).. Whip StrikeThere's a certain chance that during a melee attack this creature will use one of the following spells, in addition to inflicting regular damage: Slow, Weakness or Frenzy. (The spell does not work on undead, elemental and mechanical units.)The spell is cast with spell power 3..
Dark elves are, without exception, captivated by the beauty of the Shadow Mistresses, but few would ever risk any kind of liaison. They know that to do so can have fatal consequences, as these Priestesses are armed with fire whips, and they do not just use them in battle.
CasterThis creature can use a set of magical spells similar to those cast by heroes. Mana reserve is limited but always set to maximum at the beginning of combat. Spellpower depends on the number of creatures (activated ability).. Whip StrikeThere's a certain chance that during a melee attack this creature will use one of the following spells, in addition to inflicting regular damage: Slow, Weakness or Frenzy. (The spell does not work on undead, elemental and mechanical units.)The spell is cast with spell power 3.. InvisibilityOnce per combat, this creature can become invisible to the enemy for 3 turns. If the creature attacks anyone, has its path blocked by enemy units or stops on a tile adjacent to a hostile stack it will be disclosed. If an enemy movement is blocked by an invisible unit, the enemy stops and performs a melee attack. Enemies do not retaliate to the attacks of invisible creatures. No enemy spells or effects (except area ones) will affect an invisible creature (activated ability)..
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. FlyerThis creature can move on to any free tile on the battlefield during its turn, regardless of the obstacles in the way.. Fire BreathDuring attack, creature damages not only the target but any other unit positioned directly behind it..
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. FlyerThis creature can move on to any free tile on the battlefield during its turn, regardless of the obstacles in the way.. Immune to MagicCreature is immune to all magical impact (including friendly spells).. Fire BreathDuring attack, creature damages not only the target but any other unit positioned directly behind it..
Only a madman would consent to do battle with a red dragon. When a dragon swoops down from the skies to attack its enemy, everything in its path is obliterated by fire, and there is no escaping the merciless wrath of its flames. Indeed there is not a warrior who can feel safe when a dragon appears on the scene.
Large CreatureThis creature is bigger than others and occupies four squares on the field.This creature takes 2x2 squares on the battlefield.. FlyerThis creature can move on to any free tile on the battlefield during its turn, regardless of the obstacles in the way.. Fire BreathDuring attack, creature damages not only the target but any other unit positioned directly behind it.. IncinerateThis creature can fly up to attack the enemy on an adjacent tile, delivering 50 percent greater damage and suffering no retaliation..
Thanks to Lord_Crusader, Labyrinth, GenieLord and Elvin for in-game screenshots.


The idea of "Living Well" means something different to different people. For some, it might mean maintaining a healthy work-life balance or having a quality place to live. For others, it might mean creating healthy communities and protecting the environment for ourselves and future generations. For E&S Ring Management, the concept of "Living Well" informs everything we do. That's why Earth Day — April 22 — is such an important day for us. It's a time to celebrate the planet, but also a time for us to hit the pause button and consider the small steps we can all take towards lessening our environmental impact and leading more sustainable lives. With Earth Day just around the corner, we'd like to offer up a list of simple ways to "go green" and celebrate at the local level this year. Since the special holiday falls on a Saturday this year, it's the perfect opportunity to get involved. There are plenty of special events, activities and festivals happening near our communities. So, we dare you this weekend: share some love with your community and your planet!
E&S Ring has nine apartment communities throughout Northern California, including the cities of Sacramento, Novato, Petaluma, San Rafael and Pleasanton.
Grab the kids and head to the Sacramento Zoo (3930 West Land Park Drive)from 9am to 4pm on Saturday. For the price of general admission, the whole family can participate in the interactive "EdZOOcation" stations to learn more about the environment and conservation, both locally and globally. A variety of earth-themed crafts, games, activities, and face painting will be available for the kids, as will a Stuffed Animal Veterinarian, who will be happy to assess the health of your child's favorite stuffed animal. Keeper Chats will happen throughout the day and you're encouraged to bring used printer cartridges, cell phones, and prescription glasses for recycling. And, when you're finished? You can visit with the animals too.
On Sunday April 23 at Southside Park (2115 6th Street), the city's biggest Earth Day celebration will keep you in the green with live music, local artists, electric car test driving and kids' activities. Over 150 organizations and businesses will be exhibiting an array of information, goods and services, plus a variety of plant-based food offerings. Hosted by the Environmental Council of Sacramento, the festival has been going on for nearly 30 years. This year's theme is Environmental Climate & Literacy, since "education is the foundation for progress." The festival starts at 11am and ends at 4pm.
From 9am to 1pm on Saturday, join an Earth Day volunteer group to clean up litter from the streets, paths, trails, creek, parks and schools in Novato. You will be provided with a list of sites to work, plus safety vests, trash bags, some gloves and lots of others to work with at the sign-in location: Novato City Green (901 Sherman Avenue). When you're finished, you'll get a coupon for a treat at Whole Foods...plus the inner reward of knowing that you made your local Bay Area neighborhood just a little cleaner and greener!
Celebrate Earth Day in Diablo Foothills Regional Park by removing invasive plants to help create a healthy habitat from 8:30am to noon on Saturday. Meet at the Orchard Staging Area, and make sure to bring gloves and a refillable water bottle. Snacks, water and tools will be provided.
E&S Ring has 22 apartment communities throughout Southern California, including the cities of Los Angeles, Marina del Rey, Culver City, West Hollywood, Studio City, Northridge, Chatsworth, Long Beach, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Victorville, Upland, Lancaster, Camarillo and Ventura.
The Great L.A. River CleanUp has become the largest urban river cleanup in America. Each year, thousands of Angelenos come out by the thousands to show their commitment not only to their river, but to the vision of Los Angeles as a leading center of ecology-focused urbanism. The Los Angeles River is one of Los Angeles' last great open spaces, running 51 miles from Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley to the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach. The river connects more than 30 different cities and neighborhoods which represent an incredibly diverse range of communities. The recent storms have swept magnitudes of trash into the river, so the 2017 Great L.A. River CleanUp will play a vital role in keeping the river clean and healthy. On April 22 from 9am to noon, volunteers will be focusing their efforts on the mid-river section. If you can't make it this Saturday, don't fret — you'll have one more chance to pitch in on April 29 as volunteers focus on the lower river section.
The California Poppy Festival began as an Earth Day celebration and carries on the Earth Day tradition of concern and care for the environment. Taking place on April 22 and April 23 from 10am to 6p at Lancaster City Park (43011 N. 10th Street West), the festival includes entertainment, hundreds of exhibitors and more.
The Ballona Wetlands, near Marina del Rey, is one of the last significant wetlands areas in the Los Angeles basin — a beloved habitat by environmentalists for reducing the inflow of salt water to the marsh and eliminating spring floods, which brought freshwater to the wetlands. The ever-growing Los Angeles metropolis makes it increasingly harder for the plants and animals that rely on Ballona to survive. Friends of Ballona Wetlands will be organizing a group of volunteers for cleanup from 9:30am to noon on Saturday. They'll meet in Playa del Rey at the park behind Gordon's Market and Alkaline Water (303 Culver Boulevard). A free prize drawing, gloves, tools, water and snacks will be provided.
The 17th Annual Long Beach Earth Day Festival will take place at the ever-popular Aquarium of The Pacific (100 Aquarium Way) on both Saturday and Sunday, April 22 and 23 from 9am to 5pm. Visitors can listen to a variety of presentations designed to bring awareness about the all of the different ways we can get involved and protect the environment and the oceans. There will be booths from various Earth-friendly organizations and hands on learning demonstrations for all ages. The Aquarium will also debut new climate change programming and exhibits during Earth Day weekend.
If you happen to be in the Ventura area over the weekend, you might want to stop by the award-winning Ventura Earth Day Eco Fest at Plaza Park (651 Thompson Blvd.) from 10am to 5pm on Saturday. Each year, this successful community event is attended by over 5,000 people while over 80 exhibitors deliver fun, entertainment, children's activities, exhibitors and education. Attendees are encouraged to be green and bike to the event — there will even be a free bike valet!
E&S Ring has four apartment communities throughout Washington, including the cities of Seattle, Vancouver, Issaquah and Kenmore.
Washington State Parks and Recreation will allow park visitors free admission to state parks in honor of Earth Day, as part of National Park Week. On free days, visitors don't need a Discover Pass for day-use visits by vehicle. National parks that charge admission fees, including Mount Rainier and Olympic parks, will waive the usual $25-per-vehicle fee on April 22-23.


The holidays are here, my favorite time of the year. They usually come with all kinds of goodies. Unfortunately, one of these goodies can be stress. Here are some additional ways to de-stressing aside from your asana practice.
Take a steam or sauna to get a sweat going and your heart moving in a really relaxing way. Heat is heart warming and a joy to the soul.
Get a massage even if it's not the full spa shebang, a little TLC on your neck and shoulders can do wonders for your posture.
Aside from how pretty your pedi looks on the mat, the human caring touch is better than checking your text messages.
Herbal tea is soothing and hydrating any time of the day.
Even if it's cold out, bundle up and take a deep breath of fresh air. Connecting with nature brings inner peace, so go say hi to MN-- she's always there for you to breath in.
Shift your focus on the fun.
Rather than focusing on food and the plethora of holiday treats, enjoy what the holidays are actually about: spending time with people who you love. Decorate, create, play games etc.
Give yourself the gift of enjoying the season minus the love handles. Be aware and conscious of your portions sizes so that you can enjoy a little bit of everything without regrets.
Take a breath or two, it's the perfect all time de-stressor, try 5 minutes of conscious breathing.
Literally lay down with your feet up the wall to decompress everything after a long day.


Michelle is Data Compliance Director for Data Compliant, and works closely with clients to help them achieve data compliance best practice. Michelle has successfully completed the BCS/ISEB Data Protection course and is a graduate with a Diploma in Higher Education.
Since starting her career at Time-Life International twenty years ago , she has been involved in data protection, compliance, security and governance across a range of business sectors, and has worked with a broad range of blue chip clients such as Sun Life, Scottish Amicable, Reed International, The Insurance Service, the BMA and others.
Michelle spent six years as a Trustee of the National Childbirth Trust serving as Vice Chair of the Board. She advised the Board and senior management team on direct marketing, data protection and compliance issues.
As Company secretary at Fraudscreen Ltd, Michelle was responsible for ensuring data compliance in this unique and sensitive environment for nine years.


text:
NAYGN-New York Tour Indian Point Energy Center During Outage
by Paul Balik | Jul 23, 2015 | Go Nuke, Northeast
On March 4th 2015, the Manhattan-based chapter of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NAYGN-New York) went on a tour of Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) in Buchanan, NY. During this time, one of the two reactors was undergoing refueling. After hours of lessons on radiation and the various parts of the plant, the group got to observe first-hand the components inside one of the containment vessels along with other components such as the steam turbines and generators.
The group gained a strong appreciation for the redundancy in security and safety measures the plant takes to protect its workers and the surrounding environment. Cesar Penafiel, a master's degree candidate at the Columbia School of International Public Affairs (SIPA), who joined the tour said, "The tour gave us wide first-hand exposure to the tremendous amount of security and care that is taken. I would highly encourage anyone—pro or anti-nuclear—to go see the facility and witness this amazing source of power."
Besides NAYGN, other organizations represented on the tour included The Cooper Union, Columbia University School of International Public Affairs (SIPA) and Exelon Corporation. NAYGN – New York will be organizing another tour of IPEC in the summer of 2015. IPEC currently supplies approximately 25% of the electricity in New York City and Westchester County in a way that is clean, reliable, and affordable. It is for these reasons that NAYGN-New York advocates for the continued safe operation of Indian Point Energy Center.


The principles and regulations established in a neighborhood by some authority and applicable to its individuals, whether or not in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognized and enforced by judicial choice. I discovered no data obtainable for the rate at which MC law graduates who re-take the exam pass, so I assume that they pass at the very same typical price as all test takers. I personally met a law grad from the university of Miami law, more than $180k in student loans, lives with his parents, and tries to hustle folks by pretending to be a LSAT tutor by means of craigslist. At times the law areas the complete apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal. There is no nation in the globe where the law is kept a lot more inside its appropriate domain: the protection of each person's liberty and home. Millsaps administration, this is a no brainer: Listen to your alums on JJ and purchase the MC Law College right now! Editor's Note: The author of this post is an incoming associate at a national law firm.
As lengthy as 20 years ago, I knew a Yale Law and a Harvard Law grad who were struggling in middle age. If law schools cared about their graduates' profession outcomes, this crisis would have happened a decade ago. You and I are on the hook for these loans, but never single out the law schools. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you have to conclude that the law can't organize labor and sector with out organizing injustice. There are very a couple of people from law schools outside MS who sit for the bar exam in MS.
Regulatory Policy need to be used in macro just as MP and FP. This could be completed by splitting up G into harmful spending (mass incarceration, almost everything described in this post and so forth), neutral spending and advantageous spending. Bond Law is regularly ranked 1st in Australia in terms of overall good quality of the student knowledge for extremely excellent reasons. It utilised to put their graduates at a disadvantage when they competed with grads from other law schools who benefited from greater grade curves. Yes, portion of our current issue is law itself, massive vague laws, and politicized and arbitrary prosecutions.
And if government were limited to its proper functions, everyone would quickly understand that these matters are not within the jurisdiction of the law itself. Later, at the Panda Club at 949 Washington Street on Monday, November 14, Fin and Carisi speak with somebody functioning there who thinks he recognizes Eva but doesn't want a law suit from trans-folks who he thinks can sue you if you appear at them sideways. These people went to Harvard Law College and an equally prestigious undergrad college.
Rather, it is demanded that the law need to straight extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation. And it is below the law of justice — beneath the reign of right beneath the influence of liberty, security, stability, and responsibility — that every person will attain his true worth and the true dignity of his getting. Also, getting a graduate, terminal degree, I'm not confident a law school has the identical duty that say a juco, college, and so forth. Rather, they turn to the law for this despotism, this absolutism, this omnipotence.


text:
title: Connecting to Crate with Erlang
author: Chris Ward

The Crate Erlang client is built using [rebar3](https://github.com/rebar/rebar3) and we recommend you use it in your project for compiling and testing.

## Add Crate to your Project
To add Crate as a dependency, add the following to your *rebar.config* file.

```erlang
{deps,[
  {craterl,"0.2.3"}
]}.
```

And run:

```bash
rebar update
```

## Connect to Crate
To connect to a cluster, create a client instance in your application:

```erlang
ClientSpec = {local, process_name}.
Servers = [{<<"SERVER_IP">>, 4200}, "SERVER_IP:4201"].
Options = [{poolsize, 1000}, {timeout, 5000}].
ClientRef = craterl:new(ClientSpec, Servers, Options).
```

In the `Servers` tuple you can specify just one IP address in the Crate cluster, but including more than one will provide fallbacks if nodes become unavailable.

It's possible to create multiple clients on one erlang node, these are registered using a client spec tuple, such as `{local, process_name}`. The process name must be unique on each node.

## Want to Know More?
- More detailed documentation on the Crate Erlang client is available [here](https://github.com/crate/craterl/tree/master/doc).
- The **Crate Sample App** demonstrates features of Crate and [how to use them in an Erlang based application](https://github.com/crate/crate-sample-apps/tree/master/erlang) with an explanation of how the library is used [here](https://github.com/crate/crate-sample-apps/blob/master/erlang/README.md).

## Next Steps

- [Scale a Cluster](/docs/scale)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


You'll want to thank your guests! This thank you card features your favourite wedding photo, and is finished with a shimmering foil stamped 'thank you'.
Once your order is placed, you will be sent an email asking for a copy of your favorite wedding pic. This folded thank you note is blank inside for your own message. Sold singly.
Paper weight 300 gsm. Dimensions 148 x 105 mm (A6) when folded.


text:
define([
    'bluebird',
    'common/runtime',
    'common/ui',
    'common/format',
    'kb_common/html'
], function (
    Promise,
    Runtime,
    UI,
    format,
    html
) {
    'use strict';

    var t = html.tag,
        div = t('div'),
        span = t('span');

    function niceState(jobState) {
        var label;
        var color;
        switch (jobState) {
        case 'completed':
            label = 'success';
            color = 'green';
            break;
        case 'suspend':
            label = 'error';
            color = 'red';
            break;
        case 'canceled':
            label = 'cancelation';
            color = 'orange';
            break;
        default:
            label = jobState;
            color = 'black';
        }

        return span({
            style: {
                color: color,
                fontWeight: 'bold'
            }
        }, label);
    }

    function updateRunStats(ui, viewModel, jobState) {
        if (!jobState) {
            viewModel.launch._attrib.hidden = false;
            viewModel.launch.label = 'Launching...';
        } else {
            var now = new Date().getTime();

            viewModel.launch._attrib.hidden = true;

            if (jobState.creation_time) {
                // Queue status - at least in or has been in the queue
                viewModel.queue._attrib.hidden = false;

                if (jobState.exec_start_time) {
                    // Queue Status - show it, and it has finished, so show static elapsed time and
                    //   done't show position in queue.
                    viewModel.queue._attrib.style = { fontWeight: 'normal' };
                    viewModel.queue.active = false;
                    viewModel.queue.label = 'Queued for';
                    viewModel.queue.elapsed = format.niceDuration(jobState.exec_start_time - jobState.creation_time);
                    viewModel.queue.position.label = '';
                    viewModel.queue.position.number = '';

                    // Run Status -- by definition it is running or ran, so show it.
                    viewModel.run._attrib.hidden = false;

                    if (jobState.finish_time) {
                        viewModel.run._attrib.style = { fontWeight: 'normal' };
                        viewModel.run.active = false;
                        viewModel.run.label = 'Ran for';
                        viewModel.run.elapsed = format.niceDuration(jobState.finish_time - jobState.exec_start_time);

                        viewModel.finish._attrib.hidden = false;
                        viewModel.finish._attrib.style = { fontWeight: 'bold' };
                        viewModel.finish.active = true;
                        viewModel.finish.state = niceState(jobState.job_state);
                        viewModel.finish.time = format.niceTime(jobState.finish_time);
                        viewModel.finish.elapsed = format.niceDuration(now - jobState.finish_time);

                    } else {
                        viewModel.run._attrib.style = { fontWeight: 'bold' };
                        viewModel.run.active = true;
                        viewModel.run.label = 'Running ' + ui.loading({size: null, color: 'green'});
                        viewModel.run.elapsed = format.niceDuration(now - jobState.exec_start_time);

                        viewModel.finish._attrib.hidden = true;
                    }
                } else {
                    // Run Status - ensure not showing.
                    viewModel.run._attrib.hidden = true;
                    viewModel.run.active = false;

                    if (jobState.finish_time) {
                        // This can only happen when a job has been cancelled or errored out during queueing.

                        // Queue Status - it is out of the queue
                        viewModel.queue._attrib.style = { fontWeight: 'normal' };
                        viewModel.queue.active = false;
                        viewModel.queue.label = 'Queued for';
                        viewModel.queue.elapsed = format.niceDuration(jobState.finish_time - jobState.creation_time);
                        viewModel.queue.position.label = '';
                        viewModel.queue.position.number = '';

                        // Finished Status
                        viewModel.finish._attrib.hidden = false;
                        viewModel.finish._attrib.style = { fontWeight: 'bold' };
                        viewModel.finish.active = true;
                        viewModel.finish.state = niceState(jobState.job_state);
                        viewModel.finish.time = format.niceTime(jobState.finish_time);
                        viewModel.finish.elapsed = format.niceDuration(now - jobState.finish_time);
                    } else {
                        // Queue Status - in the queue
                        viewModel.queue._attrib.style = { fontWeight: 'bold' };
                        viewModel.queue.active = true;
                        viewModel.queue.label = 'Queued ' + ui.loading({size: null, color: 'orange'});
                        // console.log('position???', jobState);
                        if (jobState.position) {
                            viewModel.queue.position.label = ', currently at position ';
                            viewModel.queue.position.number = jobState.position;
                        } else {
                            viewModel.queue.position.label = '';
                            viewModel.queue.position.number = '';
                        }
                        viewModel.queue.elapsed = format.niceDuration(now - jobState.creation_time);

                        // Finished status -- ensure not showing
                        viewModel.finish._attrib.hidden = true;
                        viewModel.finish.active = false;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        try {
            ui.updateFromViewModel(viewModel);
        } catch (err) {
            console.log('ERROR updating from view model', err);
        }
    }

    function renderRunStats() {
        var labelStyle = {
                textAlign: 'right',
                border: '1px transparent solid',
                padding: '4px'
            },
            dataStyle = {
                border: '1px silver solid',
                padding: '4px',
                display: 'inline-block',
                minWidth: '20px',
                backgroundColor: 'gray',
                color: '#FFF'
            };
        return div({ dataElement: 'run-stats', style: { paddingTop: '6px' } }, [
            div({
                class: 'row',
                dataElement: 'launch'
            }, [
                span({
                    dataElement: 'label'
                }),
                ' ',
                span({
                    dataElement: 'elapsed',
                    class: 'kb-elapsed-time'
                })
            ]),
            div({
                class: 'row',
                dataElement: 'queue'
            }, [
                span({
                    dataElement: 'label'
                }, 'Queue'),
                ' ',
                span({
                    dataElement: 'elapsed',
                    class: 'kb-elapsed-time'
                }),
                span({
                    dataElement: 'position'
                }, [
                    span({
                        dataElement: 'label'
                    }),
                    span({
                        dataElement: 'number'
                    })
                ])
            ]),
            div({
                class: 'row',
                dataElement: 'run'
            }, [
                span({
                    dataElement: 'label'
                }, 'Run'),
                ' ',
                span({
                    dataElement: 'elapsed',
                    class: 'kb-elapsed-time'
                })
            ]),
            div({
                class: 'row',
                dataElement: 'finish'
            }, [
                span('Finished with '),
                span({
                    dataElement: 'state'
                }),
                ' on ',
                span({
                    dataElement: 'time'
                }),
                ' (',
                span({
                    dataElement: 'elapsed'
                }),
                ' ago)'
            ])
        ]);
    }

    //  function renderRunStats() {
    //     var labelStyle = {
    //             textAlign: 'right',
    //             border: '1px transparent solid',
    //             padding: '4px'
    //         },
    //         dataStyle = {
    //             border: '1px silver solid',
    //             padding: '4px',
    //             display: 'inline-block',
    //             minWidth: '20px',
    //             backgroundColor: 'gray',
    //             color: '#FFF'
    //         };
    //     return div({ dataElement: 'run-stats', style: { paddingTop: '6px' } }, [
    //         // div({ class: 'row', dataElement: 'lastUpdated' }, [
    //         //     div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: labelStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'label' }, 'Last updated')),
    //         //     div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: dataStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'elapsed', class: 'kb-elapsed-time' })),
    //         //     div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: dataStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'time' }))
    //         // ]),
    //         div({ class: 'row', dataElement: 'queue' }, [
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: labelStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'label' }, 'Queue')),
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: dataStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'elapsed', class: 'kb-elapsed-time' })),
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: labelStyle }, 'Position'),
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: dataStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'position' }))
    //         ]),
    //         div({ class: 'row', dataElement: 'run' }, [
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: labelStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'label' }, 'Run')),
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: dataStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'elapsed', class: 'kb-elapsed-time' }))
    //         ]),
    //         div({ class: 'row', dataElement: 'finish' }, [
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: labelStyle }, 'Finish'),
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: dataStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'state' })),
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: labelStyle }, 'When'),
    //             div({ class: 'col-md-2', style: dataStyle }, span({ dataElement: 'when' }))
    //         ])
    //     ]);
    // }

    function factory(config) {
        var container, ui, listeners = [],
            jobState = null,
            runtime = Runtime.make(),
            listeningForJob = false,
            jobId;

        var viewModel = {
            lastUpdated: {
                elapsed: null,
                time: null
            },
            launch: {
                _attrib: {
                    hidden: true,
                    style: {}
                },
                label: null,
                elapsed: null
            },
            queue: {
                _attrib: {
                    hidden: true,
                    style: {}
                },
                active: null,
                label: null,
                elapsed: null,
                position: {
                    label: null,
                    number: null
                }
            },
            run: {
                _attrib: {
                    hidden: true,
                    style: {}
                },
                active: null,
                label: null,
                elapsed: null
            },
            finish: {
                _attrib: {
                    hidden: true,
                    style: {}
                },
                active: null,
                state: null,
                time: null,
                elapsed: null
            }
        };

        function startJobUpdates() {
            if (listeningForJob) {
                return;
            }
            runtime.bus().emit('request-job-update', {
                jobId: jobId
            });
            listeningForJob = true;
        }

        function stopJobUpdates() {
            if (listeningForJob) {
                runtime.bus().emit('request-job-completion', {
                    jobId: jobId
                });
                listeningForJob = false;
            }
        }

        function handleJobStatusUpdate(message) {
            jobState = message.jobState;
            // console.log('got job update', message.jobState);
            switch (jobState.job_state) {
            case 'queued':
            case 'in-progress':
                startJobUpdates();
                break;
            case 'completed':
            case 'error':
            case 'suspend':
            case 'canceled':
                stopJobUpdates();
                break;
            default:
                stopJobUpdates();
                console.error('Unknown job status', jobState.job_state, message);
                throw new Error('Unknown job status ' + jobState.job_state);
            }
        }

        function listenForJobStatus() {
            var ev = runtime.bus().listen({
                channel: {
                    jobId: jobId
                },
                key: {
                    type: 'job-status'
                },
                handle: handleJobStatusUpdate
            });
            listeners.push(ev);
        }

        function stopListeningForJobStatus() {
            runtime.bus().removeListeners(listeners);
        }

        function start(arg) {
            return Promise.try(function () {
                container = arg.node;
                ui = UI.make({ node: container });

                // var lastUpdated = model.getItem('exec.jobStateUpdated');

                container.innerHTML = renderRunStats();

                // updateRunStats(ui, jobState, lastUpdated);
                jobId = arg.jobId;
                // var jobState = model.getItem('exec.jobState');
                // updateRunStats(ui, jobState);

                listeners.push(runtime.bus().on('clock-tick', function () {
                    updateRunStats(ui, viewModel, jobState);
                }));

                listenForJobStatus();
                runtime.bus().emit('request-job-status', {
                    jobId: jobId
                });
                listeningForJob = true;

                ui.updateFromViewModel(viewModel);

            });
        }

        function stop() {
            return Promise.try(function () {
                stopListeningForJobStatus();
                // runtime.bus().removeListeners(listeners);
            });
        }

        return {
            start: start,
            stop: stop
        };
    }

    return {
        make: function (config) {
            return factory(config);
        }
    };

});


The UNMC College of Dentistry needs and appreciates charitable gifts of all amounts to create and sustain a margin of excellence in comprehensive oral health clinical instruction, research, and patient care programs. Private philanthropy will be critical to achieving and sustaining the dental college's status as one of the finest institutions for oral health education in the entire country. Every gift is a direct, constructive way to give back to the school that helped shape the careers and lives of dental alumni, and each contribution is a sound investment in the future of oral health care in America. Thank you for considering this special opportunity to help the UNMC College of Dentistry. The dental college's departments, programs, and the corresponding funds to support them are listed below.
This fund provides resources to support a variety of college-wide educational programs with emphasis on areas of greatest need and opportunity.


text:
Home Brandon Bass Lakers Rumors: Brandon Bass 'Expected' To Be Traded Before Deadline
Lakers Rumors: Brandon Bass 'Expected' To Be Traded Before Deadline
Lakers Vs. Kings Preview: L.A. Looks To End Losing Streak
The Los Angeles Lakers are no strangers to making trades during the regular season and this year, more than one deal could be made before the NBA deadline on Feb. 18.
With only a few weeks left before the deadline, players on the Lakers roster are starting to surface in trade rumors. Unlike in years past, no big-name players have been linked to the Lakers in these trade rumors, but three players, in particular, have been mentioned as potential trade bait for Los Angeles.
According to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, Brandon Bass may be one of the three most likely to be moved before the trade deadline:
The player that's more likely to be moved is forward Brandon Bass. The Lakers tried Bass on at a low dollar amount hoping he could contribute and be something of a tutor for forward Julius Randle. With the Lakers going nowhere fast, Bass is one of the guys the front office is expected to move by the deadline.
Bass has dealt with a nagging foot injury that may complicate things if the team is intent on trading the veteran forward. Despite that fact, Bass could be involved in a deal before Feb. 19 via Kyler:
Bass has been nursing a problematic foot, so that is a concern, but the sense is the Lakers will be players at the deadline and Bass could be on his way out.
Nick Young and Roy Hibbert have also been mentioned as players on the Lakers that could be headed elsewhere before the buzzer sounds on the trade deadline.
Los Angeles is rumored to be looking to trade Hibbert to a playoff contender. Young, however, has been on the trading block for quite some time and could also be moved to a playoff team looking for a bench scorer of his caliber.
Lakers Rumors: Coaching Search Moving Slow In Hopes Of Doc Rivers And Quin Snyder Becoming Available
After seeing the Sacramento Kings and Charlotte Hornets taking steps to find their next head coach, the Los Angeles Lakers…
Andre Drummond Rumors: Lakers, Celtics & Knicks Remain In Contention
Even though the Los Angeles Lakers did not make any moves at the trade deadline, there are still avenues of improving the roster…
Lakers Rumors: D'Antoni Won't Take Marshall Job, Returning To Lakers?
[new_royalslider id="138″] The speculation continues to swirl about the immediate future of…
Lakers Rumors: Rob Pelinka Told Kyle Kuzma He Would Not Be Traded Unless For 'One Of The Game's Three Best Players'
The Los Angeles Lakers have stayed quiet since the announcement by Magic Johnson that he would be stepping down…


text:
The Expanding Economic Pie & Grinding Poverty
A review of data from the past 200 years indicates not only a huge increase in the world's population, but an even more significant increase in real incomes. This is illustrated using the data series developed by the late Angus Maddison of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that included historic estimates of economic performance by geographical area (nations and other reported geographies) from 1500 to 2000. The Maddison data is expressed in international dollars adjusted for purchasing power, so that the impact of inflation and differing prices is factored out, to the extent feasible. Caution is required, however, because there are difficulties with longer term purchasing power and inflation time-series, not least because technological advances make it nearly impossible to accurately account for the changed standard of living. For example, there were no telephones of any sort in 1820, yet today, low-income Nigeria has 143 million mobile phones, nearly 90 for every 100 persons.
I extended the Maddison data for another 10 years, to 2010, using the database of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and converted all data to 2010 inflation adjusted international dollars.
Fast Population Growth and Faster Economic Growth
Between 1820 and 2010, the world population grew from 1.0 billion to 6.8 billion as indicated in the databases. This 550% increase, however, pales by comparison to the increase in the world real gross domestic product (GDP), which grew nearly 13 times as fast as the population (Figure 1). The relationship between rising urbanization and increasing wealth is evident in comparing Figure 1 to Figure 2 from the recent feature What is A Half-Urban World. Between 1820 and 1900, the real economic growth rate was 1.5 times of that of population growth. This improved to 2.2 times between 1900 and 1950. In each of these succeeding decades, the economic growth rate relative to population growth was even greater, except in the decade of the 1980s when economic growth was 1.9 times population growth. Despite the economic difficulties, particularly in Japan and the West, 2000 to 2010 showed the largest rate of economic growth compared to population growth, at 3.0.
GDP Per Capita (Purchasing Power)
The real GDP per capita data strongly indicates the expanding economic pie. In 1820, the world GDP per capita was approximately $1100, expressed in 2010$, adjusted for purchasing power. By 1900, this had nearly doubled to $2100. The largest gains came after 1950 when the GDP per capita reached $3500. Since that time the GDP per capita has risen to $12,200 (Figure 2).
A History of Poverty
Even so, the history of economics is a history of poverty. University of Rochester (NY) Economist stated the case this way:
Modern humans first emerged about 100,000 years ago. For the next 99,800 years or so, nothing happened. Well, not quite nothing. There were wars, political intrigue, the invention of agriculture – but none of that stuff had much effect on the quality of people's lives. Almost everyone lived on the modern equivalent of $400 to $600 a year, just above the subsistence level.
The $1100 GDP per capita from 1820 would rank among the poorest areas in the world today. The world's richest area at that time was the Netherlands, which had a GDP per capita of $3100. This is more than Nigeria today, with its 143 million mobile phones and nearly as high as the GDP per capita of India.
Distribution of Income
Today, the large majority of the world's population lives in lower income areas.
16% of the population lives in areas with a GDP per capita of less than $2500. The largest of these are Bangladesh and Tanzania.
29% of the world's population is in areas with a GDP per capita of $2500 to $5000. The largest are India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and the Philippines.
26% live in low middle income areas with a GDP per capita of between $5000 and $10,000, such as China and Ukraine.
14% live higher middle income areas (a per capita GDP of $10,000 to $20,000). The largest such areas are Brazil, Mexico and Russia.
10% of the population lives in relatively well off areas (a GDP per capita of $20,000 to $40,000) including France, the United Kingdom, Korea and Japan.
Only 5% of the world's population enjoys a GDP per capita exceeding $40,000, the largest of which are the United States, Germany, Canada and Australia. (Figure 3).
The Richest Areas
The very richest countries in the world on a per capita basis are generally small. Oil rich Qatar has the highest GDP per capita at nearly $100,000 annually. Europe's Luxemburg is the second most affluent, followed by the city-state of Singapore. Resource rich Brunei-Darassalam is the world's fifth richest area. The United States ranks sixth and is by far the largest of the richest areas. More than 55% of the world's population in areas with more than $40,000 GDP per capita lives in the United States. The balance of the richest 10 is completed by the United Arab Emirates, another oil rich Gulf state, the world's other large city-state, Hong Kong, as well as the Netherlands and Switzerland in Europe (Figure 4).
Generally, IMF data indicates that the largest high-income world economies have experienced real GDP per capita growth of from 40% to 80% since 1980. The UK has grown the most among the examples, while Italy has grown the least (Figure 5). Germany's lower growth rate is, at least in part, due to the complexity of combining virtually bankrupt East Germany with far healthier West Germany in the early 1990s. The US has been hobbled by its housing bubble-induced economic bust, which hurt other economies as well. Canada's recent stronger growth could presage an improved ranking in the years to come. Other areas, such Italy, Spain, Japan and France could experience slower growth in the future, due to the seemingly intractable fiscal difficulties and, in some cases, demographic stagnation or even decline.
Who's Growing Rich Fastest?
A number of countries have experienced spectacular growth in their GDP per capita over the past three decades, according to the IMF data (Figure 6). Oil rich Equatorial Guinea experienced the greatest growth, reaching a GDP per capita more than 16 times the 1980s figure. Equatorial Guinea is small, with a population of only 700,000 people (similar to the size of metropolitan areas such as Colorado Springs, Colorado, Hamilton, Ontario or Florence, Italy).
The broadest and most significant progress has been made by China. According to the IMF data, in 1980 China had the second lowest GDP per capita of any reporting area, ranking above only Mozambique. This was approximately the same time that the economic reforms began, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. By 2010, China's GDP per capita had reached more than 12 times the 1980 figure. China's gross GDP-PPP grew more than that of any other area. Once on the low end of the poverty league table China now has entered the middle rank in terms of wealth.
Other areas have also done well, especially in Asia. The largest of these include Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. One African area is included among the fastest growing per capita economies, Botswana (Figure 6). Each of these areas grew from four to five times in GDP per capita from 1980.
The Poorest Areas
All 10 of the world's poorest areas are located in Africa. The poorest is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with a GDP per capita of less than $400. Torn by civil war its GDP per capita would rank it among the poorest areas even in the 1820 listing. The four next poorest areas have also faced severe domestic disruptions, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Eritrea (Figure 7).
Some Areas Getting Poorer
The severity of the world's poverty is indicated by the fact that 26 of the 138 areas for which there is data experienced declines in their GDPs per capita from 1980. The population of these declining areas was about 300 million, or approximately four percent of the world's total. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the world's poorest area, experienced a 60% decline in real GDP per capita, which was the largest decline.
While the economic pie has expanded much faster than its population, there is still plenty of poverty in the world. It is no surprise that the developing world focused the attention of the recent 2012 Rio +20 conference on poverty, with a declaration that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge facing the world today.
Wendell Cox is a Visiting Professor, Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Paris and the author of "War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy Threatens the Quality of Life."
Photo: Regency Park, Shanghai (by author)
education could develop
Submitted by baronbarnaby88 on Tue, 07/23/2013 - 16:05.
education could develop managerial skills. The good thing with education is that it could prepare you to manage people. You will be taught about how to develop your verbal skills which would then be your key to managerial jobs.paper writer
Email this comment
Submitted by colinstead on Mon, 04/08/2013 - 10:13.
There's not that much to smile about. there has certainly been some huge changes in the last 200 years - not least the greed of the few wealthy autocrats teeth whitening gel
Of course the world has
Submitted by Michelle Williams on Tue, 12/11/2012 - 03:42.
Of course the world has changed a lot for the last 200 years. Sometimes the progress is even too fast, everything changes so quickly. People are more dependent on money these days, we want not only to provide ourselves cash to cover basic living needs, but to be financially independent and influential. On one hand, life has became easier because of the knowledge we have, but on the onther hand it's more expensive, becase a lot of things depends on money, it's possible to say that money run the world and people use loans and do their best to improve their financial states.
Michelle from http://bit.ly/N1y0Iq