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Longines 14 karat gold black honeycomb 1952
Sold new in the affluent United States, this 1952 gentleman's Longines in 14 karat gold is a beautiful item in remarkable condition. We spend our working week searching for pieces like this one but unfortunately, they crop up far less often than they did even five years ago.
Browsers with an interest in this watch will enjoy the reading the brand overview that we have included on this website at the top of the pages listing the vintage Longines watches that we currently have for sale. For a long time now, we, and many other experienced dealers and collectors, have held the view that classic Longines models offer the very best value for money to be found anywhere in the vintage market. The sheer quality of both the cases and movements of these watches is exceptional and in many instances, the standard of movement finishing present is higher than that found on the closest equivalents by Rolex and Omega. In the first instance, during the golden years of the Swiss luxury watch industry, Longines was regarded as having more prestige than either of these brands and it is only in more recent times that its profile has become more low key. For those who understand these things and have the knowledge to assess potential purchases on the basis of quality rather than simply the signature printed on their dials, early Longines models, from the period when the company still manufactured its own exquisite movements entirely in-house in St Imier, offer the highest cost to benefit ratio of anything on the market.
When customers ask us to advise them regarding suitable vintage watches for investment, we always explain how it is paramount to buy at the top of the condition scale. There are a lot of old timepieces out there, particularly on the mass market online auction websites, and the majority of them are a world apart from those which are of a standard that is capable of satisfying the serious, experienced collector. The same thing can be seen in the world of classic cars, where rusted bodies filled with glass fibre and smoking engines vastly outnumber those vehicles with original paintwork in superb condition and engines that are mechanically as-new. In vintage watches, just as with every form of antiques, the buyer only gets what he pays for. Examples like this one are expensive, but command a price premium as the very best survivors of their type.
The solid 14 karat gold case here is among the heaviest that we have encountered and is considerably thicker walled than those sold in Europe by Omega and Rolex from the same era. Its condition is almost perfect, with only the tiniest marks to its highly polished surface that hint that this is not a brand new watch.
We admit to being slightly obsessive when we scrutinise potential purchases for our stock and always examine cases internally for evidence of past repairs and restoration. Most skilled repairers are pretty good at covering their tracks on the outside of cases, but are incapable of eliminating evidence of their work on the inside, largely due to the difficulty of fitting a polishing wheel into the tightly confined space there. It is surprising just how many times we come across cases that look beautiful externally, but are unsightly on the inside, with considerable amounts of new solder and signs of heat discolouration. This case is absolutely virgin and has not been near a soldering iron since it was first manufactured.
The case is of the snap back variety and closes very tightly. This is another point worth checking when buying an older watch. When a snap back case is loose and the case front and rear only just hold together, this is indicative of a piece that has been opened and closed a large number of times, causing the case body to either slightly wear or stretch. We like to see a very secure fit between back and front, as here, which suggests that a watch has not been tampered with and only opened up occasionally for routine servicing.
Internally, the case back is signed "Longines-Wittnauer Watch Co Inc, New York, Geneva, Montreal, Star W.C Co, 14 Karat Gold". There is a great deal that can be learned from this stamping. Longines-Wittnauer Watch Co Inc was the official American agent for Longines watches, with a subsidiary, Longines-Wittnauer Co of Canada Ltd, owning the distribution rights there. After World War II, the American government took the step of imposing high rates of duty on watches imported from Switzerland in order to protect the domestic watch manufacturers at home. The idea was that taxing Swiss watches so heavily would make them uncompetitive and buyers would opt instead for American made timepieces. In fact, what happened in reality is that the problem was circumvented by elite movement makers like Longines shipping uncased movements from Switzerland to their American agents, these not being subject to the same high rate of duty as complete watches. After arrival in the USA, these movements were fitted into cases manufactured domestically and the completed watches sold at levels that were still affordable to the same well heeled buyers that had purchased this level of timepiece before the duty was imposed.
This housing was manufactured by Star Watch Case Company in Ludington, Michigan. Star was one of the most respected case manufacturers in the USA and had been in business since 1897, initially producing cases for the Elgin Watch Company. As a long established concern with a proven track record for excellence, Star was an obvious choice when the Swiss movement makers needed cases that were in keeping with their high quality standards. It should come as no surprise then that Omega, Jaeger LeCoultre, and, of course, Longines all used Star housings on their American market watches in the immediate post-War period.
The mere fact that this case is in 14 karat gold would strongly indicate that it was an American made item, even if we couldn't confirm this from its signature. In the UK and Europe, 9 and 18 karat gold are the two purity standards regarded as the norm in the jewellery industry. In the USA, 10 and 14 karat were routinely used. When we find a 14 karat gold case, we shouldn't categorically assume that it originated in the USA, but as a practical working guideline, this is nearly always so.
Also present in the case back is the model reference 2336-P and the individual case serial number 2378644.
Externally, there is a very attractive engraved dedication "Presented to Rocco De Candici by Members of 6 & 8 Club, June 14, 1960". Some of these inscriptions are works of art in themselves and very evocative of their eras. It should be appreciated that unlike most modern engraving, which is performed by a computer controlled machine, these lovely vintage dedications were cut entirely freehand with a great deal of skill. We always leave them in place on the basis that they do not detract from the commercial value of a classic timepiece but add a sense of past life and provenance. However, for any buyer who would prefer a completely smooth back, this wording could be completely polished out with only a few minutes work at any competent jewellers.
The dial is the key to any collectible vintage wristwatch and this is among the most attractive you will encounter. In jet black, it has the added desirability of being a honeycomb item, with a texture of small squares cut into its surface. Honeycomb dials are classically 1950s and were used by almost all the top tier of Swiss makers to great aesthetic effect.
In order for any antique wristwatch to have its maximum theoretical value, it must have its original dial in excellent condition. There are no exceptions to this rule and any significant degree of deterioration or any past restoration will automatically lower the worth of a watch as it would have been with a pristine dial very dramatically. It is generally agreed that the state of a vintage watch's dial accounts for approximately 50% of its value and we wouldn't seek to argue with this view. With the passage of many years, dials become deteriorated, typically through exposure to even small amounts of moisture and dust. Very few survive in genuinely superb condition, just as, to once again return to the classic car analogy, only a small percentage of old timer vehicles have their original paintwork in immaculate order. Hence it is that serious collectors will pay high additional price premiums for dials that are untouched and indistinguishable from new.
Even when studied with a jeweller's eyeglass from a distance of a few millimetres, this dial is almost faultless. Its black lacquered surface is not faded and has only the very slightest ageing, which is almost impossible to make out, around its outer edges. The honeycomb effect is crisp and not at all worn and if can be said without exaggeration that this is one of the most attractive original dials on any watch on this website. We do sometimes see 1950s Longines models with honeycomb dials, but these are invariably heavily patinated or freshly refinished. It is unusual to locate one that is virgin and very clean, making this a difficult watch for the advanced Longines enthusiast to resist.
"Longines" is printed in gold above the dial centre point, with "Swiss" along the very bottom edge. The Longines winged hourglass is, quite correctly for a late 1950s model, applied and matches the gilt numerals and batons perfectly. This format, with Arabic numerals at the compass point interspersed with batons for the other hour positions, is often referred to by collectors as an Explorer dial, taking its nickname from the Rolex Oyster Explorer of the early 1950s that brought this layout to widespread popularity. It is one of the most visually satisfying of all vintage dial types and is worth paying a little extra to obtain over a less eye catching version with simply batons all round.
All three hands are guaranteed to be original and are in excellent condition. Finding correct replacement hands for these classic models is extremely difficult and it is imperative to confirm originality of both hands and winding crown before agreeing to purchase. It is so easy for novice to buy online and acquire something that looks fine to him, but actually has aspects that to the connoisseur are clearly wrong. Our watches are not cheap and in fact may be some of the priciest of their type to be found on the internet, but we stand by them as among the very best to be found anywhere.
Longines movements from the 1950s are the equals of those by any other maker. No other brand, including Rolex, Patek-Philippe and Jaeger LeCoultre, created movements to a higher standard. It can be said with complete sincerity that movements like the one in this watch represent the high water mark of Swiss luxury watch making so far. Better mechanical movements than these have never been built and there is a strong argument that due to financial constraints and a woeful lack of skilled craftsmen in the industry today, they are unlikely to be matched in the foreseeable future.
The movement in this watch is calibre 23Z, a remarkably beautiful hand wound mechanism that was designed, built and regulated entirely in-house in Longines' famous factory in St Imier. The 23Z is significant in Longines' history as one of the only important movements to be created in the years immediately after World War II when Europe was still feeling the enormous economic strain of the crisis.
It is very appropriate that this unit was sold new in the USA, because the 23Z was very much a response to American taste. While even the wealthy tightened their purse strings in Europe and the import of gold watches into Britain was still prohibited in an attempt to cut down on unnecessary public spending, America was booming and could afford high level luxury watches like this one. It is telling that half the movements manufactured by Longines were sold in the USA and inevitably, the company's agent there had great influence in what was planned back in St Imier.
Longines' technical director in the early 1950s was Alfred Pfister and his annual reports constantly refer to the desire to meet American expectations. The 23Z was launched officially in 1947 but did not become available to the public until Autumn the following year. The 23M that it replaced was a superb piece of engineering in its own right, but was regarded as slightly too delicate for the American market. The 23Z was every bit as elegant, but was revised to keep abreast of the latest developments, including anti-magnetic shielding and, in some of the later units, produced after this one, Incabloc shock protection.
It is interesting that Longines was so confident of its market position that it was prepared to spend a vast sum at the time to bring the 23Z to market. A remarkable 20000 Swiss Francs was spent on research and development, with a further 25000 being needed to pay for the new tooling needed to manufacture the calibre. The result was spectacular and very few collectors today would argue that it was not one of the most accomplished hand wound movements of the golden age, but always, however sure one's analysts might be, there must be an element of risk when assigning such large amounts of funds to a new project.
Even for those with no particular interest in the technical aspects of watch making, it is worth a brief look at the close up photographs of the movement that accompany this description. If you look very closely, you will be able to see that the edges of the bridges have all been bevelled rather than left at right angles. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into the various types of plate finishing used in the high level Swiss watch industry, but suffice it to say that most vintage Rolex and Omega movements do not have bridges prepared to the same superb standard. Similarly, notice that each of the jewels is surrounded by a brass ring that enabled it to be screwed into the plates. These brass sleeves, correctly known as chatons, are individually threaded and regarded as the most refined way to fitting rubies into bridges. Most movements, even by the famous makers we know today as household names, have jewels that are simply press fitted directly into the plates and on those few occasions when we see a mechanism with chatons, we know immediately that it will be of exceptional quality. Machining the brass sleeves themselves, threading corresponding holes in the plates and hand screwing each sleeve in place added greatly to the production cost of each movement. It simply wasn't commercially viable to lavish this amount of attention on watches that were not top flight and it is quite amazing that Longines examples like the one here can still be bought in original condition for less than £1000 GB pounds when to obtain the same quality, but with the Patek-Philippe signature, would certainly cost in excess of five or six times this sum or often substantially more.
This movement is signed "Longines Watch Co, Swiss, Seventeen 17 Jewels" together with the calibre number 23Z. The calibre number is repeated in the balance well and the individual serial number 8762407 is stamped on the main bridge. Falling between the two extremes of vintage Longines production for that year of 8666666 and 9000000, this clearly dates this unit to early 1952. Notice how this ties in perfectly with the early specification of the 23Z, without the addition of Incabloc shock protection that would be added in the mid-1950s. It is also worth mentioning how it illustrates that Longines, in common with its competitors, would gain advantages from bulk production, creating a significant batch of a movement calibre and then adding these to its stock room, using them up as needed over several years. This movement and case are guaranteed to be original to each other, but there is a discrepancy of eight years between movement serial number date and the year indicated on the dedication inscribed on the case back. This is not at all unusual and in our business, we often encounter completely authentic watches with cases and movements that were made anything up to a decade apart.
As called for on an American market vintage Longines watch from this period, the movement is marked with the three letters LXW next to the regulator. We have included a close up photograph of this detail with this listing. These letters are important and must be present. In the period immediately following World War II, American government legislation demanded that every movement shipped from overseas into the USA be identified by a unique serial number and a three letter code that identified its importing agent. LXW was the code assigned to Longines Wittnauer Inc in New York. This strategy was intended to be an aid in cracking down on the illegal import of movements that was done to avoid import duty. Retail jewellers were spot checked routinely and it was required that movements could be identified back to their importers in order to confirm that the correct amount of tax had been paid upon their arrival in America. We would not be happy purchasing a 1950s Longines, Omega or Jaeger LeCoultre in an American made case where the movement was not marked with the appropriate import code.
Condition of this movement is almost mint. There is no brassing to its rhodium plated surface and the whole mechanism is totally authentic and original throughout. So many old movements from the 1940s and '50s have been modified with non-standard components to keep them running, typically in the 1970s when mechanical watches had little commercial value and owners were understandably reluctant to spend money on official servicing. This unit has been cared for all its life regardless of cost and is in first rate mechanical order. It works perfectly and will last almost forever if cleaned and lubricated every three or four years. The general public often don't quite grasp just how outstanding the movements in these classic luxury watches from the 1940s and '50s actually were, but even so, they remain pieces of precision machinery and require routine maintenance in order to function properly over many decades.
An almost identical piece to this one, in the same US market 14 karat gold rectangular case and with a Explorer format dial, was sold as Lot 155 in the thematic sale "Longines: Legendary Watches" on the 28th November 1994, held at the Grand Hotel de Milan by the prestigious horological auctioneer Antiquorum. This was described in the accompanying catalogue as "Fine, rare and elegant".
The excellent book "Longines" by Daria Marozzi and Gianluigi Toselli shows another virtual twin of this watch on page 296, giving it the honour of a full page colour photograph. This has a black dial, but is with a flat surface rather than the more exotic honeycomb version here.
We have fitted this watch with a high quality crocodile skin type strap that matches its antique, classical appearance perfectly. This is not a genuine Longines strap, but it is almost the double of those items pictured with this model in Longines' advertising material from the early 1950s. This strap has never been worn and is in mint condition.
The price of this watch is £985 GB pounds, which reflects its superb condition and total originality. We could probably find the same, or a very similar model, online for slightly less, but with a restored dial or a movement with some past repair work having been performed on it. Our watches are the very best of their type and geared towards the serious collector or investor rather than the casual buyer who simply wants a vintage timepiece that he can wear to the office on a regular basis. This is a very appealing, extremely high grade watch that is almost ridiculously undervalued at the present time. For a comparable rectangular Rolex or Omega from the same period, which, rather ironically, would have a less sophisticated movement, we would certainly have to pay over £3000 GB pounds. Classic Longines models are the unsung heroes of the vintage watch market, providing Rolls-Royce quality at Jaguar prices. We cannot recommend this watch, and our other Longines items, too strongly and it seems obvious that more than those by any other maker, the best watches by Longines have to rise sharply in worth to a realistic level that reflects the exquisite quality of their movements in the near future.
Price £985 GB Pounds


The impending arrival of our second child feels very different than the first. Ezra's pregnancy felt like a countdown to a huge, life-changing event. Amanda and I spent nine months obsessing over birth choices, registry lists and parenting philosophies. This pregnancy seems more familiar, more relaxed.
But, some of the anxieties I felt during the first pregnancy are still present. One of the biggest is the stress of choosing a name. Selecting a name for someone else is intimidating, and our baby name list is currently blank.
Amanda and I found selecting a name for Ezra to be just as difficult. Months into the pregnancy, we finally managed to compile a small list of possible names. We initially thought we could draw from that list for the new baby, but looking over the list again, four years later, our opinions of those names has soured. I also feel odd reusing them. The baby will have enough hand-me downs from Ezra, and who wants to be known by their parents' second favorite name?
Luckily, this time we have extra help. Ezra is excited to pick a name for his little sibling. Whereas I take months to come up with a couple of names, Ezra immediately decided the child should definitely be named Lucas-Fucas. I was impressed. It appears he is going to be very gifted at torturing his younger brother or sister.
Ezra immediately began referring to the baby as Lucas-Fucas, and even telling people that was the name we had selected. A few weeks later he changed his mind. Little Al was a better name he decided.
"What if the baby is a girl?" we asked.
If only I found the naming process so easy.
When Amanda's brother and sister-in-law were expecting their child, Ezra felt strongly that they should name their new baby Ezra. Like us they thought it best not to take his suggestions.


Eiji Shinjo is one of the recurring playable characters in the Battle Arena Toshinden fighting games that were released through 1995-1999. Eiji was also more or less the main protagonist and "poster boy" of the first three Toshinden games.
In Toshinden 4 / Subaru (1999) he is the unlockable boss. Eiji is the younger brother of Sho Shinjo that was an unlockable character in Toshinden 1-3.
Eiji Shinjo is a part of the very first GA-HQ Art Collaboration which was a tribute to the first Battle Arena Toshinden he was drawn by Francis Lim.


One night, a few years back, I drank a handful of Gray Goose screwdrivers and watched about 3 hours of just Nancy Sinatra videos on YouTube. She is a special lady.
This record recently got auctioned off by a friend in the Art Car community of Houston, in honor of my sister-in-law. In case you didn't know it, Houston is THE art car capital of the world, and my extraordinary artist sister-in-law, Eve, is the Creator and Queen of the Sock Monkey Mobile.


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Woman attacked with chemical at New Delhi Railway station
New Delhi [India], Dec 7 (ANI): A woman was attacked with some chemical at Ajmeri Gate side of New Delhi Railway Station here allegedly by her boyfriend, who is absconding now, said police on Saturday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Railways, Harender Singh said: "A woman apparently married and having a kid got separated from her husband, who is living in Telangana, had come to Delhi and was living here for the last six months as a vagabond."
"She had been with a person from West Bengal and he is also a vagabond. He was insisting her to accompany him to West Bengal but she was reluctant. Today during an altercation, he poured some chemical on her," said Singh.
"The victim was taken to LNJP hospital and then to Guru Nanak Eye hospital. A case has been registered. A manhunt for the accused has been launched," Singh said. (ANI)
chemical attack
Ajmeri Gate

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When the ore deposits were exhausted, the wood of the forests of the so called "Erzgebirge" became the most important raw material. Formatively, it influenced the region and guaranteed the people's living. The "Erzgebirge" is famous for its traditional art of woodcarving, toys and sports equipment in the whole world. The products and the history of the company Berlebach are also part of this successful trend.
In 1898 the merchant Peter Otto Berlebach founded the now oldest tripod factory in Germany, situated not far away from the Saxon art and university town Dresden. It is even the only factory in the world which ever since has continuously been working at the development and the production of wooden tripods, as far as we know. Almost from the beginning Berlebach delivered its wooden tripods and other photo accessories abroad too. A fact which is verified in the "Hamburg Export-Handbuch" from 1906. Above all England was the most important exporting country.
In 1918 the founder of the company, Otto Berlebach, retired and sold his business to three former employees of the camera factory Ernemann in Dresden. The new owners - Dittmar, Biskaborn and Heisinger, experienced specialists in the wood, metalworking and commercial sectors, brought in their large experiences in the field of photography. For many decades the firm was kept in private hands. Then in1972 it was nationalised and was run as the state owned company "Foto-Kino-Zubehör" (Photo-Cinema-Equipment). In those days the company manufactured the whole range of tripods including travel tripods of light weight as well as heavy tripods used in studios. This was for the entire GDR as well as for all the other countries of the Eastern bloc.
In 1990 the factory was put under the surveillance of the Trust Institution. The transfer of old GDR-companies into private ownership presented the unique chance of a new beginning for Germany's "ancient" tripod factory in Mulda to continue in its well-tried, successful and traditional way. However, before achieving that goal, three long years of never-ending negotiations passed until the trust administration agreed to the transfer into private ownership literally at the very last minute. Wolfgang Fleischer - one of the company's executives since 1962 and today's owner of the company Berlebach - succeeded in protecting the enterprise from going bankrupt. He bought the ground, the production plants, and the name Berlebach from the Trust Institution.
In July 1993 the production of the solid ash wood tripods started again. Essential investigations were made because a competitive production was only possible with new machines for wood- and metalworking. In 1994 the now privatised company Berlebach-Stativtechnik appeared on the international world-wide exhibition "photokina" for the first time and presented its latest range of newly developed and improved ash wood tripods. Much interest was shown in the Berlebach products and since then the world-wide export has been increasing continuously. Today they are delivered to more than 40 countries.
Berlebach ® Ash Wood Tripods - The Genuine Alternative!


Artists like La Chanh Nguyen are changing the art scene in addition to shaping the green movement. With a bachelor's degree in industrial design, the Switzerland design student has enhanced the meaning of bringing outdoor elements inside.
Nguyen's portfolio consists of traditional household items that have an eco-friendly spin. Her process is simple; she deconstructs an object and recreates it with a green purpose and function. She has redesigned objects from cutting boards and spatulas to a bath mat, and made them not only user-friendly but also environmentally appealing.
One of my favorite designs is the moss carpet, a bath mat that greens your bathroom—literally. The moss sits in a tray similar to an egg carton, and it is constructed out of plastazote, a decay-free foam. Nguyen's material choice is ideal as the foam is stiff, long lasting and able to withstand a wide range of temperature changes. Inside the cup-like shapes are three types of moss: ball, island and forest. The types of moss output a range of greens, from a dark hunter green to a pale, almost beige green. The rich green colors give the bath mat a playful pattern and depth.
Out of all of her pieces, I am most drawn to the moss carpet. It is a clean, straightforward, practical and eco-friendly design. The moss is a natural fit for the bathroom because of the humidity. Unlike conventional bath mats, it requires no washing and will not get moldy. The offbeat design brings nature indoors through a unique form.
Another fantastic eco-design by Nguyen is the kitchen garden. A simple kitchen tool holder flourishes with vertical cooking herbs. The holder is about eight inches high and has a diameter around four to five inches. The porous material and the size make for the perfect growing surface.
Nguyen's eco-friendly work redefines domestic objects in a fun and playful manner. Today, the artist is busy at the drawing boards; to see her latest work, visit her online portfolio.


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Dolly Parton's '9 to 5 The Musical' is Headed to London's West End
By Kelli McDonald 2 years
Producers Are Looking for a Young George Strait to Star in 'Tennessee Whiskey: The Musical'
Lady Antebellum Nominated For Tony Award For Best Original Score
© Copyright 2021 WOS, INC.


Learn how to use social selling tools to identify and connect with each member of the buying committee in a way that caters to individual needs and motivations.
Today, the average B2B purchase involves more than five decision makers. For sales pros, this means "getting to power" is no longer enough. People constantly change jobs and titles, and new people can be brought into decisions without notice. This means that, now more than ever, relying on a single relationship can be dangerous, especially when the parameters of a deal can change in the blink of an eye.
Successful sales pros mitigate this risk by identifying the key decision makers—the buying committee—and building relationships with each of them. In this post, we'll explain how to use social selling tools to identify the right people and communicate in a way that takes individual needs and motivations into account – a way that pulls new connections closer to you.
Naturally enough, the first step to connecting with an account's buying committee is finding out who the decision makers are. You can use Advanced Search to discover people with specific job titles within the organization and set up alerts for when someone changes jobs or gets hired into a decision-making position.
With Sales Navigator, you can save the account, then save leads within the account, to let the platform know the type of connection you're looking for. Saving leads and accounts allows Sales Navigator to make relevant lead recommendations, showing you decision makers you might have missed. The more active you are in Sales Navigator, the more relevant your results will be.
Once you find the right people to contact, be strategic about making a connection. According to a LinkedIn survey, over half of buyers will reject a cold connection outright. If you can leverage your network to broker an introduction, your communication is more likely to be welcomed.
Start with your first-degree connections. If someone at the account is already in your network, they may be willing to introduce you. If not, use LinkedIn's "How you're connected" feature to see who else in your network can provide that introduction.
With Sales Navigator's TeamLink feature, you can immediately find out if anyone in your company is connected with a prospect. It's a powerful tool for getting warm introductions beyond your personal network.
Before reaching out to make the connection, scan the prospect's profile for shared interests, hobbies, or any other commonalities you can use in your outreach. One easy way to establish a common bond is through your activity on LinkedIn Groups.
Getting to know the buying committee ensures you have a relationship with key decision makers who will ultimately move the sale forward. It also allows for a multi-threaded sales approach, so if one contact leaves the firm or takes on a new role, you won't have to start at square one. With a little time and effort, you can find the right people to connect with, broker warm introductions, and customize your approach to prove your value to each member of the committee. A good relationship with the buying committee is a great start to winning the sale.
Download our eBook, "The New Formula for Connecting with B2B Buyers," for more social selling advice that will allow you to build stronger relationships with your prospects.


In honor of our new feature The S/T Five, we're looking for your best music-related Top Five lists. Top Five outfits worn by Prince? Top Five things from a Guided by Voices song that you'd like to actually see in real life? Top Five lead singers who could beat other evenly matched lead singers in arm wrestling? Top Five foods enjoyed while listening to twee pop? Write your hilarious/awesome/mind-blowing/earth-shattering/coke-snorting Top Five lists in our comments section. We'll select our favorites and publish them on the site. Get creative people!
THE S/T FIVE: What They're Really Talking About—Vaginas!


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THE STAGE - 22.08.11
Three cheers for Laura Mackie and ITV's decision to invest in more British drama! As Maggie Brown says in your last issue, this will be wonderful for our industry where many actors, writers, directors and production staff have felt the pinch as work opportunities have continued to decline.
It will also be wonderful for the public, many of whom are used to getting drama through turning to football, the games industry or watching the cut and thrust of television talent shows.
In the last year I believe ITV has begun to get a grip on what the public are looking for. "Downton Abbey's" popularity and success has much to do with its splendid equal spread of male and female characters of all ages well written and portrayed from the little kitchen maid to the elderly housekeeper, thereby giving the public opportunities to identify whatever their own sex or age.
Unfortunately, as it is set in the early 20th century, it does not reflect the British ethnic mix of today and it is hoped new drama will show the positive contribution women and men from minority groups in the UK make to our rich culture.
In "Scott and Bailey", which we learn has 7 million-plus viewers, it is refreshing to have two female characters within their working environment sharing their deepest feelings in two-hander scenes which we are used to seeing played by actors rather than actresses. It is very heartening to learn that Laura Mackie is looking for more drama of this kind though not necessarily with cops and robbers settings.
The public I am sure will be behind her and ITV. One of the latest comments on Equity's Viewers' Petition* is from a Jon Pierson living in Northern Ireland. His view on a more equal representation of women, particularly of older women, in film and television drama is this:
"I'm an ex-pat living in Ireland with a Freesat box. I hardly ever watch Irish TV. It's outrageous, in this day and age, that not only are too few women given opportunities but that, when they are, it is frequently in non-leading roles.
Even more disgraceful is the casting off of fine actresses with experience and maturity. How many times do we see leading men with love interests decades younger than them? It just doesn't reflect the real world."
I think he too will give three cheers for Laura and ITV. Let us hope the screen will reflect their proposed change in attitude.
Jean Rogers
Equity Vice President
*Equity's Viewers' Petition http://www.gopetition.com/online/24658.html


For the first time ever Glasgow Angling Centre will be hosting a distance fly casting competition at our upcoming Open Weekend on the 4th, 5th and 6th of March 2011 - sponsored by Hardy & Greys!
Can you cast like Hywel Morgan?
Simply fill out a form to enter and you will have two minutes to make as many casts as possible with the new Hardy Zenith Sintrix 10ft #7 and Hardy Mach line, with the longest verified cast being submitted for the competition. The customer with the longest cast on each day will win £100 worth of Hardy Greys products of their choice!


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// Copyright 2009 the Sputnik authors.  All rights reserved.
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 * Value Property LOG10E of the Math Object has the attribute DontDelete
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Information technology is a field that is constantly in motion. A good IT partner is one that constantly evaluates your infrastructure and makes improvements to keep your most important tools as useful, accessible, and affordable as possible.
But don't just take our word for it. We took all of our 2018 Google Reviews, CSAT Surveys and NPS Responses — and created a word cloud of all the comments.


One of my favorite growing plants is zucchini. I think it is because they are easy to grow, hard to kill, and produce fruit with little effort. I'm not much of a gardener but I do get my hands dirty.
Blend all ingredients except zucchini in a high power blender until smooth and starts to warm up from blender, about 5 minutes to make the Alfredo sauce.
Cut top and bottom off of zucchini. Using the julienne blade on a mandolin cut zucchini length wise to create noodles. Pour sauce over individual portions.
Since zucchini are prolific I wanted to share Spicy Zucchini Fritters from Paulette W. These are one of our family's favorites year round.


New York, US – 08 February, 2018 – Luxoft Holding Inc (NYSE:LXFT), a global IT service provider, today announced it has been listed in Competitive Landscape: Agile and DevOps Services by Neil Barton, Patrick J. Sullivan and Fabio Di Capua (22 January, 2018), a Gartner report that provides a summary, overview, strategic planning assumptions and analysis on the Agile and DevOps services market.
Gartner is a leading IT research and advisory company that produces technology-related insight intended to provide an understanding of the market and its offerings. Luxoft was listed as a Competitive Profile in the report, Competitive Landscape: Agile and DevOps Services.
The Luxoft Agile Practice was established in 2004 and is working on more than 200 projects across multiple industries including financial services, automotive and healthcare. It employs more than 3,500 Agile practitioners and senior dedicated Agile coaches/trainers. Luxoft also has a strong practice of DevOps certified engineers.
Luxoft's Agile and DevOps capabilities are coupled with a newly formed practice, Luxoft Digital, that focuses on areas such as blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), user experience/user interface (UX/UI) and cloud. As such, they facilitate a robust and scalable approach to digital transformation projects.
Luxoft was also mentioned in IoT: Think Big, Start Small, Move Fast by Denise Rueb and Nathan Nuttall (15 October, 2017), a Gartner report that provides a summary, overview, strategic planning assumptions, analysis, and case studies of deploying an Internet of Things framework.
Luxoft was also cited in the Gartner report, Competitive Landscape: IoT Service Provider, by Denise Rueb, Eric Goodness, Peter Middleton and Saniye Burcu Alaybeyi (18 September, 2017).


text:
<?php

namespace backend\models\bds;

use Yii;
use backend\models\filter\FilterAttributesRel;
use backend\models\Attribute as ParentAttribute;
use backend\models\attribute_option\Province;
use backend\models\attribute_option\Ward;
use backend\models\attribute_option\District;
use backend\models\attribute_option\Street;
use backend\models\attribute_option\BuildingProject;
use backend\models\attribute_option\Direction;

class Attribute extends ParentAttribute
{
	const DETAIL_VIEW = 'detail_view';
	const SETTING_VIEW = 'setting_view';

	/**
	 * @return \yii\db\ActiveQuery
	 */
	public function getAttributeValues()
	{
		return $this->hasMany(BdsAttributeValue::className(), ['attr_id' => 'attr_id']);
	}

	//-----------

	/**
     * @inheritdoc
     */
	public function fields()
	{
		$custom_fields = [];

		// Set Attribute Options
		if($this->type == 'select'){
			$attributeOptionClases = static::attributeOptionClases();
			if(isset($attributeOptionClases[$this->name]))
			{
				$class = $attributeOptionClases[$this->name];

				$custom_fields['table_options'] = function() use ($class){
					return $class::tableName();
				};

				$custom_fields['options'] = function() use ($class)
				{
					if($this->name == 'districtid' && $this->entity){
						return $class::find()->where(['provinceid'=>$this->entity->provinceid])->all();
					}
					if($this->name == 'wardid' && $this->entity){
						return $class::find()->where(['districtid'=>$this->entity->districtid])->all();
					}
					if($this->name == 'provinceid'){
						// get only Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh
						return $class::find()->where(['provinceid'=>['01','79']])->all();
					}
					if($this->name == 'building_project_id' && $this->entity){
						return $class::find()->where(['districtid'=>$this->entity->districtid])->all();
					}

					if($this->name == 'streetid' && $this->entity){
						return $class::find()->where(['districtid'=>$this->entity->districtid])->all();
					}

					if(in_array($this->name, ['wardid','districtid','building_project_id','streetid'])){
						return [];
					}

					return $class::find()->all();
				};
				// if($this->scenario == 'default'){
				// }
				// else if($this->scenario == static::DETAIL_VIEW){
				// }
			}
		}

		// array_merge keep values in arrays behind, then keep $custom_fields behind parent::fields()
		return array_merge(parent::fields(), $custom_fields);
	}

	public static function attributeOptionClases() {
		return [
			'provinceid' => Province::className(),
			'wardid' => Ward::className(),
			'districtid' => District::className(),
			'streetid' => Street::className(),
			'building_project_id' => BuildingProject::className(),
			'apartment_direction_id' => Direction::className(),
			'bancony_direction_id' => Direction::className(),
		];
	}
}


text:
APPEARS IN News
Utah's Early Closure of Swan Hunt Attests to Species Recovery
by Alan Peterson - Monday, January 6, 2020
On Dec. 6, hunters in Utah got an email from the Division of Wildlife Resources indicating that the state's tundra swan hunt was ending immediately—two days before its original Dec. 8 closure. All permit holders were made aware that it was no longer legal to harvest a swan. For the first time in the 57-year history of the state's annual tundra swan hunt, it was closed early. Is the closure a harbinger of negative impacts on an endangered species, or, is it actually an indicator of successful recovery?
The hunting of swans is carefully regulated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) because the less populous trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) is sometimes found with tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus) and the two species are similar in appearance. Trumpeter swans were nearly eliminated in the United States by the early 20th century but a large population was located in Alaska in the 1950s, which became the basis for reintroduction of the birds to their traditional ranges. Today trumpeter swans have rebounded and their numbers are increasing.
Utah's trumpeter swans are considered part of the Rocky Mountain Population (RMP) of trumpeter swans including breeding populations in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Many conservation efforts over the last 20-plus years have focused on increasing trumpeter swan numbers in the RMP. Those efforts have included habitat improvement, the encouragement of trumpeter migration dispersal, captive breeding/release and even feeding programs.
The author shows off a juvenile tundra swan he harvested during Utah's legal and regulated tundra swan hunting season. The season closed early for the first time since it was established, a testament to the efforts of state wildlife agencies and hunters to conserve the birds. (Image by Alan Peterson.)
Many of these efforts have been undertaken in the Red Rock Lakes and Henry's Fork areas of Idaho and Montana surrounding the Yellowstone National Park region. Red Rocks Lakes National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1935 in order to help struggling trumpeter swan numbers. Led by the USFWS, and often paid for by Pittman-Robertson (P-R) Act funds, these efforts have been very successful in bringing trumpeter numbers in the Rocky Mountain Population from around 100 to over 1500 trumpeter swans in the last 20 years. According to the continent-wide survey undertaken every five years, the trumpeter population has increased from about 4,000 birds in 1968 to about 50,000 birds in 2010. Today trumpeter swans are considered a species of "least concern" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
According to Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources' Migratory Game Bird Program Coordinator Blair Stringham, "Restoration efforts for the trumpeter swan population have been a huge conservation success. Populations have increased to the point we can offer more hunting opportunity. We can also harvest more trumpeter swans and not have an impact on the population."
The opportunity to pursue swans is an important example of the wildlife conservation success that can be achieved through the combined efforts of federal and state agencies and hunters to preserve and protect habitat and species. Federal agencies have provided planning, funding and research as states have implemented those plans, often paid for by P-R funds along with license fees and taxpayer monies. It goes without saying that any conservation initiatives to save trumpeter swans benefit untold numbers of other species. Hunters' efforts ripple throughout the ecosystem.
Tundra swans are hunted in nine states: Montana, Nevada, Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Virginia, North Carolina and, new this year, Delaware. Idaho is considering a season.
Swans In Flight
Enjoy this peaceful short on swans in flight and at rest, filmed by the author.
Perhaps the greatest challenge facing hunters is distinguishing these two large white waterfowl species from one another. Hence, the careful federal regulation. In Utah, the state instituted an online orientation course that hunters must pass before they can apply for a permit. The course helps hunters understand regulations but, most importantly, helps them identify trumpeter swans from tundra swans. Stringham believes the course has been effective in saving many trumpeters. The effectiveness of the course is evidenced by the fact that other states direct their hunters to Utah's course.
Since 1962, when Utah became the first state to offer a hunt for the plentiful tundra swan, the quota has never been reached in any state. On average, no more than two trumpeter swans are taken each year in Utah. The previous high was seven trumpeters. Recently, because of the success of wildlife conservation efforts on behalf of the trumpeters, Utah increased the number of swan permits from 2,000 to 2,750. The USFWS increased the trumpeter quota from 10 to 20 birds. Few suspected that 2019 would see an early closure.
Utah hunters are required to bring a harvested swan into wildlife officials for positive identification within 72 hours. This way, the number of trumpeter swans taken can be monitored on a daily basis. Once the quota of 20 birds is reached, the hunt is closed. That number was reached on Dec. 6, mandating the first closure at any time, in any state.
These tundra swans were working to decoys. (Image by Alan Peterson.)
Though exact causes of the increased take are still under investigation, many suspect weather as the culprit. In October 2019, the Idaho/Montana region that provides staging and wintering areas for trumpeter swans experienced early and unusually cold weather. Much of the open water relied on by trumpeters was frozen solid, forcing the birds to migrate farther south and west than they normally travel in search of open resting and feeding areas. Utah usually only sees around 100 trumpeters during the fall migrations but the marshes surrounding the Great Salt Lake retained open water that attracted increased numbers of trumpeters.
In Nevada, the federally mandated quota of five trumpeter swans was reached in the last weekend of the 2017 season so there was no closure, according to Nevada Department of Wildlife's Wildlife Staff Specialist Russell Woolstenhume.
Woolstenhume adds, "Swan hunting is a lot of fun. Nothing like having those big birds flying into your spread. Swans provide a great opportunity that is not available everywhere, and, as a result, we draw hunters from across the U.S. Hunting conditions are never crowded. Swans tend to be a pretty easy hunt compared to many more wary waterfowl species."
After a successful day of trumpeter swan hunting, the author stopped to fully appreciate the sunset over the Great Salt Lake marshes. (Image by Alan Peterson.)
Stringham agrees. "Swan hunting is very popular with hunters because many move through Utah, they are not hard to find and they are easy to pass-shoot or decoy," he explained. "It is a lot easier to do than goose hunting because it requires less equipment and most are found on public hunting areas."
Though all states where tundra swans are hunted encourage hunters not to take trumpeters, the limited numbers harvested during the waterfowl seasons have negligible impact on the trumpeter population. Hopefully, more normal future weather patterns and ever-increasing hunter education through courses such as the NRA's free online hunter education course will see a return to the single-digit harvests of trumpeter swans.
So, even though a higher number of trumpeters were harvested in Utah this year, forcing the season to close two days early—because of successful efforts to conserve and increase the species' population and hunters' efforts to harvest only tundra swans—swan hunting will continue to provide waterfowlers a unique opportunity for years to come.
To stay abreast of hunting-related news on the local, national and international fronts, follow NRA Hunters' Leadership Forum on Twitter @HuntersLead.
About the author: Alan Peterson is a filmmaker living in the paradise between the Wasatch Range and the Great Salt Lake. He loves shooting over his pudelpointer, Trigger; casting dries for cutthroats, and seeing cupped wings over decoys. All of this is only possible because of a very patient wife. Peterson is presently working on a documentary on the history of duck hunting on the Great Salt Lake and one on the life of fishing innovator, George Gehrke.
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service USFWS trumpeter swan Cygnus buccinator tundra swans Cygnus columbianus Blair Stringham Russell Woolstenhume Alan Peterson
New Study Touts Impact of Hunting and Shooting Access on National R3 Movement
Why Due Diligence Is Critical When Booking an Overseas Hunt
Meeting Demand by Building Shooting Ranges with Excise Tax Funds
Another Group Petitions Feds to Ban Lead Ammo on Public Lands


Are flashes of light in my vision a sign that my intraocular lens is failing?
I had lens implants in both eyes in the mid-1990s due to taking Prednisone. Now I think one of them is failing. I'm seeing little flashes of light in my peripheral vision that are circular just like the lens. I've also noticed the eye aching from time to time. Do these lenses fail after a certain time and have to be replaced?
Lens implants don't fail and don't need to be replaced. Rarely they can move and cause visual symptoms. However it is more likely that your symptoms are unrelated to your implants. You should definitely see an ophthalmologist as soon as possible. Flashes of light in the vision may represent a more ominous event such as a tear in the retina. This should be evaluated by an ophthalmologist, who will check your retina with a dilated eye examination.


text:
Q: Subclass lookup (I'm developing in Python 3.1, so if there's some shiny new 3.x feature I should know about for this, please let me know!)
I've got a class (we'll just call it "Packet") that serves as the parent for a bunch of child classes representing each of a few dozen packet types in a legacy client-server protocol over which I have no control. (The packets often have wildly differing behavior, so I just gave them each their own class to make my life easier.)
When receiving a packet, I'll have a simple "dispatch" function that checks the packet header to determine the type, then hands it off to the class that knows how to deal with it.
I do not want to maintain the lookup table by hand -- it's inelegant and just asking for trouble. Instead, I'd like the table built at runtime by examining all of the subclasses of Packet, which will have class variables specifying what packet type they correspond to, e.g.:
class Login(Packet):
    type_id = 0x01

I thought, of course, about iterating through object.__subclasses__(), but I've found slightly varying viewpoints on the safety and propriety of using it for things like this, including implications that it is implementation-specific and may not work in places other than CPython, and that it may disappear from CPython in the future. Am I being too paranoid? Is __subclassess__ considered a "real" part of the language now?
If not, what's a good "pythonic" way to approach this?

A: "I'd like the table built at runtime by examining all of the subclasses of Packet,"
This is guaranteed to cause endless problems.  This kind of thing puts a strange constraint on your subclasses.  You can't use any abstract superclasses to simplify things.
Here's a specific example of what won't work if you "automatically" discover the subclasses.
class MessagePacket( object ):
    """superclass.  Ignore me, I'm abstract."""
class Type_01( MessagePacket ):
    type_id = 0x01
class Type_023( MessagePacket ):
    """superclass with common features for type 2 and 3.  Ignore me, I'm abstract."""
class Type_02( Type_023 ):
    type_id = 0x02
class Type_03( Type_023 ):
    type_id = 0x03
class Type_04( MessagePacket ):
    """superclass for subtypes of 4.  Ignore me, I'm abstract."""
    type_id = 0x04
class Type_04A( Type_04 ):
    discriminator = lambda x: x[23] == 'a' or x[35] == 42
class Type_04B( Type_04 ):
    discriminator = lambda x: True

That should be enough to show that "automatic discovery" is doomed from the outset.
The correct solution is to have a Factory class which embodies the correct subclass hierarchy, exploiting all features based on -- well -- manual design.
class Factory( object ):
    def __init__( self, *subclass_list ):
        self.subclass = dict( (s.type_id,s) for s in subclass_list )
    def parse( self, packet ):
        if packet.type_id == 04:
            # special subclass logic
        return self.subclass[packet.type_id]( packet )

It doesn't seem too onerous a burden to include the following:
factory= Factory( Subclass1, Subclass2, ... SubclassN )

And when you add subclasses, add to the list of subclasses that are actually being used.

A: __subclasses__ IS part of the Python language, and implemented by IronPython and Jython as well as CPython (no pypy at hand to test, right now, but I'd be astonished if they have broken that!-).  Whatever gave you the impression that __subclasses__ was at all problematic?!  I see a comment by @gnibbler in the same vein and I'd like to challenge that: can you post URLs about __subclasses__ not being a crucial part of the Python language?!

A:
>>> class PacketMeta(type):
...     def __init__(self,*args,**kw):
...         if self.type_id is not None:
...             self.subclasses[self.type_id]=self
...         return type.__init__(self,*args,**kw)
...
>>> class Packet(object):
...     __metaclass__=PacketMeta
...     subclasses={}
...     type_id = None
...
>>> class Login(Packet):
...     type_id = 0x01
...
>>> class Logout(Packet):
...     type_id = 0x02
...
>>>
>>> Packet.subclasses
{1: <class '__main__.Login'>, 2: <class '__main__.Logout'>}
>>>

If you prefer to use the __subclasses__() you can do something like this
>>> class Packet(object):
...     pass
...
>>> class Login(Packet):
...     type_id = 0x01
...
>>> class Logout(Packet):
...     type_id = 0x02
...
def packetfactory(packet_id):
    for x in Packet.__subclasses__():
        if x.type_id==packet_id:
            return x
...
>>> packetfactory(0x01)
<class '__main__.Login'>
>>> packetfactory(0x02)
<class '__main__.Logout'>

A: I guess you can use Python metaclasses (Python ≥ 2.2) to share such an information between classes, that would be quite pythonic. Take a look at the implementation of the Google's Protocol Buffers. Here is the tutorial showing metaclasses at work. By the way, the domain of Protocol Buffers is similar to yours.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Bestbuy 's Club Unlocked Off All Program Games Nuked 20 Gamer Each state/county/city may have their own Health Agency and training requirements. Please consult your manager for information on contacting your local Health Agency.


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On this Wheelchair Handling course you will learn the basic principles of back care and how to safely assist ambulant people and wheelchair users.


With flights to New York , you may be on your strategy to the bright lights of Broadway and Brooklyn's good brunch scene. I also noticed American Airways flights ranging from Charlotte then altering in Boston then changing once more in Miami on their way to St. Thomas for $483, however that routing is ridiculous and probably not worth it. Our leading edge know-how mixed with our deep travel experience ensures that the Mobissimo travel web site always finds the most cost effective tickets and flights. You'll be able to simply find and guide your airline tickets on the final minute of your time.
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When you own an Arkansas outdoor recreation operation, you need a specific type of insurance. At Moss Insurance Group, we can help you select the perfect coverage for your dude ranch, guest ranch, outfitter and guide operations. Our carriers specialize in Outdoor Program business.
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William "Bill" Mathis, who teaches Introduction to Criminal Justice at Texas Christian University (TCU), is always on the lookout for solutions that will help him teach more efficiently and effectively, as well as help students learn more efficiently and effectively. On that front, he gives high marks to MindTap® Criminal Justice, as do his students.
In efforts to engage his students and illustrate the realities of the criminal justice system, Professor Mathis integrates his professional experiences (as a civilian chief of police, watch commander, and serving-instructing in law enforcement in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy) as well as real-world videos of relevant topics into his courses. Gathering these materials and preparing for classes can take a significant amount of time, so when Cengage Learning did a MindTap presentation at TCU, he was more than intrigued. When MindTap became available with his text in use (Criminal Justice in Action by Larry K. Gaines and Roger LeRoy Miller), he jumped at the chance to use it.
In this case study, you'll learn why Professor Mathis finds MindTap to be as effective as it is efficient. You'll read about the features that have helped his students learn and retain the material, as well as the reporting tools, which help both him and his students keep track of their progress in the course. He also describes the efficiency-enhancing benefits of MindTap's progress app, which offers a gradebook with meaningful, easy-to-use analytics.
You'll also see why and how Mathis's that students appreciate, and benefit from, MindTap. Students say they're more engaged, and they also appreciate features such as flashcards, an easy-to-access glossary, and search functionality; they also like the due dates and assignment lists, which help them stay on top of their coursework. What's more, 92% of those who completed a course survey rated the online learning platform as excellent or good.


During my employment as the Program Assistant to the Keystones to Opportunity Grant at Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13, I participated in several aspects of planning and reporting associated with the federal grant. Pennsylvania was one of only six states to be awarded federal dollars to support literacy from Birth-Grade 12. Pennsylvania's grant totaled $38.6 million. While 95% of the funding was distributed directly to the awarded LEA's, 5% was designated for state leadership. It was this 5% budget that I managed. This budget included salaries and benefits, statewide activities and professional developments, materials and supplies, etc.
Having the opportunity to work on the back end of a federal grant has been one of the most valuable experiences. As a grant reader, it is clear that what may seem like "small" mistakes to the applicant can be big deterrents to those reviewing the application. I have also learned that while some grants are flexible, many grants are strict in what funding may be used for, and therefore, not all grants are for everyone and in no way is it "free money". Grants are commitments.
This document is a Powerpoint that was created by me and presented to a group of Reading Specialists from 22 different school districts at their monthly meeting at Intermediate Unit 13. The director of the meeting asked that I create a presentation sharing various web resources that are available that may support the Reading Specialists. This Powerpoint is organized into categories for easier reference. This Powerpoint was shared on the Reading Specialists Sharepoint.
While there are many presentation tools available, I chose to create a Powerpoint since I knew I would be sharing this presentation with all participants. Many participants are familiar with Powerpoint and it may be saved as a PDF document if desired. This presentation address the needs of both elementary and secondary Reading Specialists.
During my Independent Study for Instructional Technology Administration (K-12), I examined an Educational Technology Report. This document is the Educational Technology Report for Warwick School District. I chose to examine this district because it employs a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy and is a local district.
Examining the Educational Technology Report helped me see not only the items that were currently in place to support technology integration, but the projected plans for further technology incorporation within the district. I greatly appreciated viewing the plans specifics such as who would work to accomplish each goal.


Dublin's Indie Rock - Quality Sounds Only.
Our long-standing relationship with Phantom continued in 2012 as they commissioned a brand new sound for Dublin's rock station. Working to the concept of "music that rocks" we created powerful package that layers guitar and aggressive noises juxtaposed with vox pops. This unique combination injects a vibrancy and playfulness into the sound. With the move to all Irish voice artists, the transition to a new sound was complete.
Based around ten core idents and three news sequence beds, the complete package totals an incredible 90 cuts. Each cut receives a full remix, lots of cutdowns and various dry and semi-dry versions.
This package is now available for worldwide syndication - get in touch for details.
Phantom approached us in the autumn of 2008 to create a fresh package for the station. The package is a consolidation of the sound we devised two years previously, with some new twists while remaining true to the original sound and thoroughly rock n roll.
Deeply alternative and aggressive idents juxtapose cuts that really don't take themselves too seriously. There's also a new strongly thematic news sequence, with seamless transitions between the beds. Phantom doesn't have a sonic logo per se, but we injected powerful mnemonics into the themes for strong brand recognition.
We like music. Especially alt. indie rock and stuff. So when the guys at the former Dublin pirate, Phantom FM, went legit - meaning they finally had some budget for their imaging - and decided to spend the cash on a launch package from noise fusion, we were chuffed.
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FANS of Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers will get the chance to relive their classic hits at a Playhouse show – and you could win tickets.
In Dreams brings together the best tributes to the legendary stars of the 1950s and 1960s on the same stage for one night only next month.
All the hits from Pretty woman, It's Over, Only The Lonely and Wake Up Little Susie will delight audiences.
Together with backing band The Rockets, the show's mix of West End and international stars is sure to make it a feel good night.
Damien Edwards will perform as Roy, having starred in four tours of The Roy Orbison Story in the past 10 years.
Tim Harwood will play Buddy Holly, who not only matches the rock and roll legend for sound but the image, too, with a range of tailor-made Holly-style suits.
Completing the line-up is Colin Fidoe and Geoff Bates who have been performing as The Everlys for more than a decade, winning awards and appearing on TV shows as the famous duo.
In Dreams is coming to The Playhouse on July 14 from 7.30pm.
To enter, simply answer the following question: Complete the title of this famous Roy Orbison hit: Pretty _____?
Send your answer, along with your name, address and a daytime telephone number to In Dreams Competition, Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury, 32 Waterloo Street, Weston-super-Mare by 9am on July 6.
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Applications to Oxbridge, Russell Group universities and top independent schools such as Harrow, Eton and Dulwich.
I am a private tutor, providing support for students that complements and develops what they are being taught at school and university. I also teache students who are not attending classes at school. Having achieved top grades in exams, I am able to guide my students towards exam success. In addition to face-to-face tutoring, I tutor online, so distance is no barrier. Online tutoring strongly encourages students to explain their thought process, which is crucial to their intellectual development, as well as being beneficial for Oxbridge interviews.
I take the view that tutoring goes beyond just solving academic problems. I will coach students and help them to develop their own working methods to succeed over the long term. I believe a key factor in the success of private tutoring is tailoring the lessons according to individual students. I find it rewarding to see students who previously admitted to struggling academically become much more confident in their abilities and flourish as they work together on their areas of weakness.
I am academically qualified to a very high standard. At school I achieved A* grades in Mathematics, English Language, Double Science, Geography, French and Latin, and A grades in English Literature and Music for GCSE. Then at A Level I obtained A grades in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics (before the A* grade was introduced), achieving 100% in many papers. At the same time as A Levels, I sat STEP examinations Mathematics II and Mathematics III achieving Grades 1 and 2 respectively.
I am a keen musician and whilst at school I achieved piano grade 8, music theory grade 6, singing grade 5 and violin grade 5. During sixth form I undertook an astrophysics research project at the University of Hertfordshire, as was awarded a Nuffield Science Bursary gold award. I also won the role of Financial Director of a successful Young Enterprise company at my school.
I read Mathematics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, obtaining an upper second degree. At university I sang in Magdalene College chapel choir, was Magdalene College badminton captain, and played on the ladies pool team representing Cambridge University.
Following my time at Cambridge University, I went to BPP Law School and studied the GDL and LPC. I completed my training contract at Norton Rose and qualified as a solicitor. I then worked as a litigation solicitor in the city for many years. I am still a practicing solicitor and currently work as a consultant to a law firm. In addition to this, I am an accredited civil and commercial mediator.
I am currently studying part time for a masters at King's College, London in Philosophy.
I am a keen tennis player and play for The Queens Club. I also practice yoga regularly and I'm learning to sail!
One of my most challenging private tuition jobs was helping a student who had given up on going to classes at school for A Level Mathematics, who suffered from a lack of confidence. We went through the entire module syllabus from scratch. To bring him out of his shell, I used a variety of teaching methods from worked examples to power point presentations, to keep it fresh and interesting. The student had no trouble grasping the material. When exam time was nearing, my student and I discussed revision techniques and put together a schedule in order to help him prepare for the exam. He achieved the grade he wanted and, initially having given up all hope of obtaining an A Level in Mathematics, he was delighted with the result.


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Home » Health » The CDC Is Sacrificing Kids for Big Pharma
The CDC Is Sacrificing Kids for Big Pharma
"Why the Rush for Toddler Vaccines?" asks Wall Street Journal editorial board member Allysia Finley in a July 4, 2022, op-ed.1 Indeed, many are asking that same question, and I'm glad the legacy media's WSJ had the courage to print it.
In the last days of June 2022, the United States became the first country in the world to grant emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer's and Moderna's COVID jabs for toddlers as young as 6 months.
The Food and Drug Administration issued the EUA June 17,2 and the very next day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended all toddlers get the shot as soon as possible.3 President Biden called it "a very historic milestone, a monumental step forward."4 But is it?
"COVID was clearly a health emergency for adults in 2020. By contrast, the urgency now feels political," Finley writes.5 "In fact, we don't know if the vaccines are safe and effective. The rushed FDA action was based on extremely weak evidence.
It's one thing to show regulatory flexibility during an emergency. But for children, COVID isn't an emergency. The FDA bent its standards to an unusual degree and brushed aside troubling evidence that warrants more investigation."
Another person who thinks the EUA of the COVID shot for infants is part of political theater is Toby Rogers, Ph.D. In the video above, he discusses the authorization process — which he watched live — with "Against the Wind" host Paul Thomas. Rogers reveals how the FDA and CDC "trampled scientific norms, ran roughshod over proper methods and abandoned science." He tells Thomas:
"What you want from a process like this is good science — having hard conversations and sifting through evidence of signals and noises in order to make good decisions on behalf of the country. What you get instead is politics — getting products across the line no matter what."
COVID Is Inconsequential for Young Children
Finley points out that only 209 children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years have died from COVID, per CDC data.6 She uses the word "from," but the evidence suggests most children die "with" COVID and from other serious health conditions such as cancer.7,8,9
That said, Finley does note that the two children in Pfizer's pediatric trial who developed the most serious infections "also tested positive for other viruses," so "it's possible that many hospitalizations attributed to COVID this winter were actually instigated or exacerbated by other viruses."
Another telling statistic is that the number of toddlers hospitalized with COVID between October 2020 and September 2021 was about half the total number of toddlers hospitalized with influenza the previous winter.10 That data, again, comes from the CDC, so clearly, they're fully aware of how the COVID risk compares to other common infections.
Shots Don't Work Well in Young Children
Finley then goes on to discuss effectiveness, noting that while the shots initially seemed to offer robust protection for adults, the same cannot be said for children. The Moderna shot was only 51% effective against symptomatic Omicron infection in 6-month-olds to 2-year-olds, and a mere 37% effective in 2- to 5-year-olds.
This is lower than what we normally accept for vaccines, which makes the authorization even more irrational. Why use such an experimental injection with such poor effectiveness in children who aren't at grave risk of death from the infection in the first place? Pfizer, meanwhile, claimed its shot was 80% effective, "but this is misleading," Finley says, and goes on to explain:
"For one, Pfizer contravened numerous clinical-trial conventions. Its initial protocol involved only two doses, but this failed to generate the antibody levels required for FDA approval. So Pfizer added a third dose, which the FDA generously allowed. Usually the agency won't let drugmakers make a course correction when a trial ends in failure.
Pfizer then planned to track at least 21 cases to establish a bare-bones measure of efficacy. By comparison, Moderna tracked more than 250 cases. Yet Pfizer truncated its data collection on April 29 … even though a mere 10 cases had been recorded after the third dose.
It's hard not to conclude that Pfizer cut corners to avoid getting beaten by Moderna. But as a result too few cases were documented to measure with any degree of confidence Pfizer's vaccine efficacy …
More troubling, vaccinated toddlers in Pfizer's trial were more likely to get severely ill with COVID than those who received a placebo. Pfizer claimed most severe cases weren't 'clinically significant,' whatever that means, but this was all the more reason that the FDA should have required a longer follow-up before authorizing the vaccine.
Also worrisome: Most kids who developed multiple infections during the trial were vaccinated. This warranted more investigation, since experimental vaccines for other diseases sometimes increase susceptibility to infection.
Scientists are also discovering that triple-vaccinated adults who were previously infected with the Wuhan variant have a weaker immune response to Omicron, leaving them more susceptible to reinfection. This phenomenon, called 'immunological imprinting,' could explain why children who received three Pfizer shots were more likely to get reinfected."
CDC and FDA Are Recklessly Throwing Caution to the Wind
Basically, the CDC and FDA are betting that giving the COVID jab won't blunt toddlers' immune responses to other infections, be it a SARS-CoV-2 variant or something else. This is reckless in the extreme, seeing how the immune system of young children is still immature and faces countless potential foes on a daily basis.
This ongoing "training" that the immune system undergoes during the first few years of a child's life is what allows them to develop a well-functioning immune system over time. Immunological imprinting could throw a huge wrench in the works, making children less able to combat infections.
Young children are exceptionally "hardy" and can bounce back from most infections. However, that's provided something hasn't been done that prevents their immune system from functioning normally. Of course, we also know the shots are associated with even more serious effects, including heart inflammation, neurological disorders and cancer.
"The FDA standard for approving vaccines in otherwise healthy people, especially children, is supposed to be higher than for drugs that treat the sick. But the FDA conspicuously lowered its standards to approve COVID vaccines for toddlers. Why?" Finley asks.11 Why indeed? What are they thinking?
Sadly, they're likely not thinking about children's health at all, but rather Big Pharma's profits. The EUA authorization of the COVID jab for toddlers eliminates all questions about whether the FDA and CDC are captured by pharma or not. They are.
That's now beyond clear, and the consequences of this blatant capture are likely to be far-reaching. It could even destroy the childhood vaccination program as a whole, as parents are now catching on to the fact that these agencies are corrupt to the core and basically work as covert promotional agencies for Big Pharma.
CDC Is Breaking Trust in Childhood Vaccination
Leslie Bienen and Tracy Beth Hoeg addressed the CDC's self-imposed self-destruction in a July 5, 2022, Tablet magazine article,12 in which they noted that "With its unscientific push to vaccinate all infants and toddlers against COVID, the agency will harm vaccine uptake for more significant diseases."
The duo cites polling data13 showing a majority of parents are skeptical of the CDC's recommendation to jab their young children. Only 18% of respondents said they were eager to get their babies and toddlers inoculated, while 38% said they would wait and see if there are side effects; 27% said they would "definitely not" get their child jabbed.
According to a January 2022 Hart poll, only 44% of Americans believe what the CDC says.
For comparison, COVID "vaccine" uptake among American 5- to 11-year-olds as of June 22, 2022, was 29% for two doses and 36% for one dose.14 In my view, even 18% of parents of infants — nearly 1 in 5 — is too high, and a sign that many still aren't accessing information that might save them from a world of heartache.
Other interesting polls cited by Bienen and Hoeg include a January 2022 Hart poll,15 which found only 44% of Americans believe what the CDC says. That does not bode well for the CDC, and not just as it pertains to COVID, but other vaccinations as well.
Indeed, one of the few silver linings of COVID is that people are starting to wake up in droves, realizing the entire childhood vaccination program has been misrepresented, just like the COVID shots are being misrepresented. For example, I recently interviewed Dr. Robert Malone, who stated:
"I'm now completely in the same camp as Bobby Kennedy, in that I believe the entire vaccine enterprise needs to be revisited, and it's unequivocal. We do not have the data to support the safety and efficacy of the current pediatric vaccine schedule, and all of the components of the pediatric vaccine schedule need to be reassessed for risk benefit ratio. Both as individual products and as combined products."
That interview hasn't been published yet, but will be coming out shortly. He too has noticed that many are now starting to question ALL vaccines, thanks to the FDA's and CDC's irrational and unscientific approach to the COVID jabs. As noted by Bienen and Hoeg:16
"Speaking in absolutes about vaccine safety and efficacy regardless of trial standards can backfire … Furthermore, if the identification of safety signals is not quickly acknowledged, it becomes even harder to recover trust."
By now, some 18 months into the COVID jab rollout, it's clear the FDA and CDC are paying no attention to safety signals whatsoever, and if they ever change course and acknowledge that 2.2 million-plus adverse event reports,17 including more than 29,000 deaths, are a problem, it'll be far too late for them to recover. They're essentially done for. There's no coming back from a betrayal like this.
Why Did Two-Thirds of Toddlers Drop Out of Pfizer's Trial?
When you consider how shoddy the pediatric trials were, I don't see how any parent would risk giving the COVID jab to their child. As explained by Bienen and Hoeg:18
"Approval for the COVID vaccines in infants and toddlers is based on two trials that used changes in antibody levels as an estimate of efficacy, but did not assess protection from severe disease, hospitalization or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), important outcomes that parents worry about.
In a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) meeting on June 28, Pfizer Vice President for Viral Vaccines, Kena Swanson even acknowledged19 that 'there is no established correlate' between antibody levels and protection from disease.
In the Pfizer trial, the confidence interval — which shows the possible range of protection level — was alarmingly wide, with the lower bound suggesting the possibility of a 380% increase in the chance of infection after the third dose.
Additionally, neither trial met the 50% efficacy requirement established by the FDA for approval of adult COVID vaccines. Peter Marks, the FDA's top vaccine official, told20 Congress in May that the efficacy requirement would be lowered for the pediatric vaccine simply because vaccine efficacy against the omicron variant was lower in general."
In "How Vaccine Trials Routinely Rig the Results," I also discussed other red flags, such as the fact that 3,000 of the 4,526 children (aged 6 months through 4 years) enrolled in Pfizer's pediatric COVID trial were excluded, without explanation.21
Oftentimes, trial participants drop out or are excluded due to severe side effects. Here, we don't know why two-thirds of the participants were eliminated, and according to Dr. Clare Craig, a diagnostic pathologist, a 66% dropout rate should have been sufficient to deem the trial null and void (see video below).
With so few participants, it not only becomes impossible to determine efficacy against real endpoints such as severe infection and hospitalization, but you also cannot determine if there are rare side effects.
It's All About Securing Indemnification
🧐So I'm guessing everyone is wondering why the FDA voted unanimously to give not one — but THREE shots of the C@ViD 💉to the youngest of children when there's N🚫 emergency.
It is IMPERATIVE they have this approval.
R. obert K. ennedy Jr. tells us why: pic.twitter.com/denjlTchMF
— NEWSNANCY (@NewsNancy9) June 15, 2022
The stark truth we now face is that the FDA and CDC are no longer in the business of protecting public health. They are securing profits for the drug industry, and getting EUA for infants and young children is a crucial step toward securing permanent legal indemnity for the drug makers.
As explained by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in the short video clip above, they need this last remaining age group to be included under the EUA, because once the emergency is finally declared "over," the next phase of liability shielding requires that the shots receive approval by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
This is the group that decides which vaccines are to be added to the childhood vaccination schedule. Once the vaccine is on the childhood vaccination schedule, the vaccine makers are permanently shielded from liability for injuries and deaths that occur in any age group, including adults.
You can learn more about this indemnification process in "The Real Reason They Want to Give COVID Jabs to Kids," which features my interview with Alix Mayer, board president of the Children's Health Defense's California chapter.
So, the reason the FDA and CDC are acting so irrationally and ignoring safety signals is because they are not working to protect you. They're working for the drug industry, and they've just sold out our children.
The end goal is to give drug companies permanent immunity against liability for injury and death from the COVID shots in all age groups, and to get there, they first need the EUA to cover all children.
After that, the ACIP approval becomes more or less a matter of rubber stamping. This is what they've become, and I see no future in which these two agencies survive. All we need is enough people to understand what they've done, and that day is coming.
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Excellent amenities and wonderful stay. Staff is very courteous and helpful. Coffee was too good. Free wifi with excellent speed was offered which is a plus. Situated in Central London with walking distance to public transport, shopping areas and parks. Very secure area overall.
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MICHAEL WOLSEY: Time to bury some myths about government
By Waterford Now 17th June 2020 No comment
Before, during and since the talks on government formation a number of myths about the last general election have been regularly repeated.
The first of these is that Sinn Féin won the election, or, as several of the party's supporters told Joe Duffy's Liveline programme, Sinn Féin "got the majority" of the votes.
In fact Sinn Féin got 24.5% of the first preference votes, which is a long way off a majority.
Fianna Fáil got 22.2% of the votes and those parties each won 37 seats. Fine Gael got 20.9% of the votes and won 35 seats.
The second myth is that there is something fundamentally undemocratic about excluding Sinn Féin from government.
It is neither undemocratic nor unusual. After every election some parties are excluded from government Usually the party with the second biggest vote gets left out. Occasionally it has been the party with the biggest vote, if it can't muster sufficient support in the Dáil.
That's the way we do it and the way most democracies in Europe do it.
Northern Ireland is different. Governments there are put together under the d'Hondt system which gives parties ministerial representation in proportion to the number of seats they win.
It is not, I think, a good system and it only works at Stormont – when it works at all – because the Executive has very limited powers. In any case, it is not the system we use in the Republic. Under our system there is absolutely no reason why two parties that secured more than 43% of the vote should not go into government with a third party, the Greens, that won more than 7% of the vote.
True, those who voted FF and FG did not necessarily expect the two old rivals to enter into a coalition. But the parties have a lot in common and worked closely together throughout the lifetime of the last government, so the deal is not a great surprise. It would have been more surprising, and more of a policy shift, if either party had gone into coalition with Sinn Féin.
In the immediate wake of the election, Sinn Féin tried to put together a government involving the Greens, small parties of the Left, and Left-minded independents. Had they succeeded, they would happily (and properly) have excluded Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael from government, despite their combined 43% vote, and given cabinet places to parties that won less than 5% of the first preferences.
And here we come to the third myth, being peddled, in particular, by representatives of People Before Profit, that this Government of the Left is still achievable. If that is true, all they need do is go back to the Dáil, propose Mary Lou McDonald for Taoiseach and vote her into power.
To achieve this, the People Before Profit and Solidarity grouping, which has trouble holding itself together, would need to unite the forces of Sinn Féin, the Greens, Labour, the Social Democrats and almost every independent in the Dáil, including some the Left wouldn't touch with a barge pole and who are equally happy to keep a social distance from the Left, a socialist distance we might call it. So, please let us hear no more of this nonsense.
There are three realistic possibilities facing the country. One is the proposed three-party coalition. Another is a government of FF, FG and some independents. The third is a general election, preceded perhaps by a short-term minority government, formed simply to pass some vital legislation and keep the country ticking over until medical advice says it is safe to go out and vote.
Eamon Ryan has backed the three-party option because he believes the country needs a stable government and he would rather be part of it, and achieve some of the Green agenda, than outside achieving nothing.
I am not sure that the required 66% of Green Party members agree with him, particularly since the Green electorate includes Northern Ireland members who have no skin in the game.
The Greens are an unusual political party, as indicated by the fact that Mr Ryan is facing a leadership challenge from Catherine Martin, the woman who led the government formation talks on his behalf and who says she supports the deal – as well she might, since she negotiated it.
Ms Martin's challenge has reduced the chances of getting the deal over the line. I hope I am wrong, but I fear we may be heading for the polls next autumn.
Tags: d'Hondt system Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Greens Joe Duffy's Liveline Labour People Before Profit Sinn Féin the Social Democrats
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