Some have read developments on the ground, international accords, and realignments in Iraq and Syria as the beginning of the end. They hope this will end the bloodletting, engender stability and signal the start of reconstruction, with positive implications for the two countries, their neighbors, and refugees and internally displaced Syrians and Iraqis.
But others see the latest developments as part of an advanced bid to partition Syria and Iraq, and to accommodate the interests of players such as Russia, the US, Iran, Israel, Turkey, European powers, Kurdish factions and others. This could exacerbate suffering and conflict.
US President Donald Trump has not yet been able to grasp the complexities of foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. Top members of his administration differ fundamentally on both strategy and tactics.
Furthermore, it seems Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has boasted of his ability to steer events in Syria since he forged an alliance with Iran and the regime in Damascus, is today unable to execute an exit strategy from Syria's crisis before it becomes a Russian crisis. But engagement between Moscow and the Trump administration on Syria is quite different from the time of former President Barack Obama.
The Trump administration has a different policy and approach, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson does not want to be another John Kerry, who spent his time making semi-illusory partnerships and marathon visits that did not lead to the Nobel Peace Prize that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had dreamt of.
The Trump administration's priorities are fighting terrorism and defeating Daesh and similar groups. But long-term US policy does not stop with the man currently in the White House, and is always seeking to serve fixed strategic and economic interests, as well as fixed alliances such as with Israel. For this reason, it may be worth reading developments in Syria and Iraq from the gray zone until America's internal storms quiet down.
Syria's crisis began with a quest for reform to the identity and nature of the regime, which responded with a military crackdown. The rest is history. Layers upon layers were then accumulated, with the introduction of terrorism after imprisoned extremists were released and foreign terrorists were invited to Syria. Bashar Assad resolved to turn the conflict into a "war on terror" in which he is an indispensable partner.
He succeeded on both counts, turning Syria into an arena for a war on local and global terrorism, and forging a partnership with Russia and Iran to guarantee his survival and indispensability. Assad also succeeded in turning the conflict into a global refugee crisis, with the goal of forcing others to accept his Russian- and Iranian-backed priorities.
Sources familiar with the thinking of international and regional actors in Syria speak of "realistic reconsiderations." They cite remarks by President Emmanuel Macron, who seems to have reassessed French policy and hinted at accepting Assad remaining in power "as a temporary fact" instead of demanding a clear roadmap for his departure.
The three pillars of Trump's Syria policy are freeing Raqqa from Daesh, assuring Israel's strategic interests and thwarting Iranian dominance from Iraq and Syria to Lebanon.
Raqqa will be the turning point in Syria, according to a source involved in efforts to resolve the conflict. After its liberation from Daesh, there will be no pretexts left for any side currently using the group to justify their presence in Syria, the source said. Raqqa's liberation will also have psychological and symbolic importance.
Another source said the US, Russia, Turkey, Israel and Jordan do not want partition, but "Iran hasn't disclosed its plans, although partition could also lead to a Kurdish state that Iran doesn't want." This source said Israel stands to benefit greatly from removing Iran and Hezbollah from the area adjacent to the Golan Heights, and the Russian-American arrangements in southwest Syria are a setback for Iran's and Hezbollah's strategic ambitions.
Jordan is an important part of the Russian-American accords, and benefits from them because they have removed Iran and Hezbollah from the border with the Hashemite kingdom. While Iran is not pleased with these developments, it has been forced to accept the Russian-American decision to remove any non-Syrian military presence in the south.
The three pillars of Trump's Syria policy are freeing Raqqa from Daesh, assuring Israel's strategic interests and thwarting Iranian dominance from Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. This is confirmed by multiple sources. Iran's presence in Syria, according to sources close to American-Russian conversations on this issue, is Moscow's responsibility.
Regarding Assad's fate, a source said: "No one is demanding Assad's departure now. He'll later be removed through a political process." Another source said the nature of the Syrian regime means it is unable to accommodate immediate changes. In other words, Assad is here to stay for now. But talk of his departure via an American-Russian accord that distinguishes between his removal and the regime's survival may not be far off.
Some say the countdown to the end of the conflict has started, based on Daesh's destruction, a reasonable exit of Russian forces and militias, a European role in reconstruction and a UN-backed political process. Others believe the post-Daesh phase will be long, and stability will not come to Syria or Iraq, as long as the Trump administration is stumbling in the face of Russian-Iranian shrewdness and experience.
The latter view does not agree that Iran is losing in Syria and Iraq. It says the safe zones will weaken Syrian rebels and benefit Tehran, which wants to expand them. According to proponents of this view, the Trump administration is selling the Gulf countries sweet talk while blessing and accommodating Iran's expansion in Syria and Iraq.
Some say Washington is actively backing an Iraqi prime minister who is unable to confront the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
Herein lies the dilemma: Without political solutions, what new forms of Daesh will emerge if its destruction is the only goal sought in Syria and Iraq? The Trump administration lacks the necessary experience compared to the leaders of Russia and Iran.
Shrewd US officials such as the defense secretary and national security adviser are shackled in many ways by a president who tweets his whims, and by investigations into alleged involvement of some of Trump's associates with Russia. The current phase has complex implications.
— Raghida Dergham is a columnist, senior diplomatic correspondent, and New York bureau chief for the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper since 1989. She is the founder and executive chairman of the Beirut Institute. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an honorary fellow at the Foreign Policy Association. She has served on the International Media Council of the World Economic Forum. She can be reached on Twitter @RaghidaDergham.
— Originally published in Al-Hayat.


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all Lady Wood's novels a degree of originality, joined to a careless strength—we might almost say audacity—of expression, and a breezy energy, that carry her readers on from the first page to the last,— interested in spite of the slightness and improbabilities of her plot, and amused in spite of the extremely unpleasant set of people to whom it 'pleases her to introduce them. Sheen's Foreman is neither quite so wild nor quite so clever as "Wild Weather," but it is clever enough 'to make us regret the want of restraining refinement which would make the powers of imagination and insight into character which Lady Wood possesses at once more impressive and more agree- able in their results. The group of Cornish farm-folk, among whom this .stery is laid, are drawn with much vigour. They are racy of the soil, and the elder Sheen, the grasping and tyrannical master of his young cousin (and real owner of his farm), and his foreman, "Ben," are very lifelike, but they are not people whose acquaintance is either profitable or plea- sant ; and their foils, Ben and his cousin Lucy (the old farmer's 'daughter), are too colourless to relieve the harshness of the picture. 'Lucy herself, with her boarding-school daintiness, and her imaginary love for the watery curate, who represents to her the upper world of gentility after which she longs, at one time promises to be a centre of alai interest; but her heartless cruelty and ingratitude towards her -cousin makes her, too, almost repulsive, and the interest of the story falls back upon the old farmer and his servant Biddy, who, from the first time we see her taking into her bed the neglected child who creeps to her door in the middle of the night, to the end, where we leave her in the farm kitchen tending the broken-down farmer (broken down under the burden of his well-merited punishment), and another work- louse child which, in a mood .of dim remorse and semi-conscious atonement, he has adopted, is admirably and consistently portrayed.


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Contested concepts and racial preference
April 05, 1999 − by CIR − in Articles − Comments Off on Contested concepts and racial preference
By Terence J. Pell
Delivered at Hamilton College, April 5, 1999
The title of my talk today is "Racial Preferences in Higher Education." But really, it should be called, "The Debate About Racial Preferences in Higher Education." Because, I want to talk today not so much about racial preferences themselves, but certain features of the ongoing debate about their use. In particular, I want to show how one feature of this debate has very different and incompatible consequences for the way schools, on the one hand, and courts, on the other, approach the question of race.
The feature of the debate to which I want to call attention is its deeply contested character. I want to show that educational institutions, on the one hand, and courts on the other, have different and incompatible ways of responding to the contestedness of race. These different institutional strategies run in contrary directions. This fact, rather than any deep disagreement about race, may underlie the current legal dispute about university admissions policies.
If I am right, lawsuits against university admissions policies are likely to continue and likely to be successful. For the same reason, resistance to these cases is likely to be vigorous and sustained by college and university officials determined to maintain the use of race in admissions. For if the argument of this paper is correct, the real dispute between courts and colleges is driven not by disagreement about what the law requires but rather by their different institutional strategies for dealing with the contested nature of the concept of race. Overcoming the divide between the courts and colleges will require a transformation in the way these institutions deal with the contestedness of race and maybe even the way we think about race. At the end of my talk, I will outline some of the concrete ways both schools and the courts are starting to effect such a transformation.
What do I mean when I say debate about race is contested? Of course we all seem to disagree about the appropriate role of race in public life. It is a "hot-button" issue that people try to avoid in polite company, like they try to avoid debates about religion or politics.
When I say the concept of race is contested, though, I mean something more than just that it arouses heated disagreement. I mean that there is something about the way the concept of race is structured that makes disagreement inevitable and in some ways unresolvable.
Moral Contestedness
Perhaps the easiest and best way to understand what contestedness is all about is by briefly considering a paper written by a British philosopher William Gallie in 1956. Gallie argued that certain moral concepts are "essentially contested." By that, he meant that debate about these moral concepts is necessarily permanent and without resolution. That is, there is no way in principle ever to resolve debate about these moral concepts because they embrace a number of different and competing conceptions.
For example, Gallie says, people often have competing and rival conceptions about what the "best" baseball team would look like. Some think the "best" team is one that emphasizes speed. Others might think the "best" team is one that has many good hitters. Still others think the team that best exemplifies baseball is the one that has the most skillful fielders.
Disputes about the best baseball team cannot be resolved in principle. Sometimes we try to settle such disputes by, for example, holding a "World Series" and seeing which team wins. But such events only serve to further debate about which team REALLY is the best team, which team, that is, truly "deserves" to be called the world champion.
Gallie's point is that there is no way to resolve disputes of this nature; they are, as he says, "essentially contested." It is in the nature of baseball for there to be different ways to play the game and endless disagreement about which of these ways is really best.
Endless debate about contested concepts, like baseball, sometimes serves a useful social purpose. Part of the fun about baseball is discussion about what baseball really means and which team truly exemplifies what baseball is all about. It would be beside the point to settle once and for all the question of which really is the best baseball team because we all recognize that part of the nature of the game is competing, essentially contested conceptions of how best to play it. So part of understanding what it means to be an essentially contested term is understanding the social purposes served by debate about moral or evaluative concepts.
In something of the same way that concepts like the "best" baseball team are essentially contested, the term "race" is essentially contested. Particularly as applied to racial minorities, the concept of race embraces a great variety of particular conceptions of what "race" means and what significance it is supposed to have in everyday life. Just as we recognize competing conceptions of baseball as all being about the same thing, we recognize competing conceptions of what it means to be an African American or an Hispanic American or an Asian American as all being legitimate conceptions of a particular racial identity. And, as the hyphenated form of those terms suggests, we strive to recognize competing racial identities as legitimate conceptions of what it means to be an American.
Whereas Gallie argues that certain evaluative terms are "essentially" contested — that is, contested because of the game-like nature of what they describe, it seems rather clear that the concept of race is contested for political and moral reasons. To generalize about a racial group, or to ascribe properties to one racial group that supposedly distinguish it from another racial group are considered highly suspect because such efforts so frequently rest on racial stereotypes and not infrequently mask invidious intentions.
In this way, the contestedness of race differs from the contestedness of baseball. The competing conceptions of baseball are more less limited to a handful of fairly easily discernible approaches to the game. We are willing to dismiss outlandish conceptions of baseball as not really being about baseball at all but about some other game. The reason for this is clear: part of the purpose of contestedness in baseball is to catalogue the different conceptions of what it means to play baseball while at the same time distinguishing baseball from other sports.
But the same is not true about race. At some level, we recognize that there as many conceptions of what it means to belong to a particular racial group as there are individual members of that group. We go out of our way to remove limits and barriers to what can count as a legitimate conception of racial membership.
In some ways, contestedness in matters of race serves an opposite function from that in sports. The idea is not so much to keep track of a limited number of alternative conceptions of race, but to make race susceptible to the broadest possible variety of different conceptions.
For this reason, we might say that while baseball is an essentially contested concept, race is a thoroughly or radically contested concept. The difference reflects the different social purposes served by contestedness. In the case of baseball we want to encourage lively debate about which of several different approaches to the game really is best. In the case of race, we limit and even discourage debate about the "best" conception of what it means to belong to this or that racial group.
Thus there almost are no circumstances in which someone outside a particular racial group would presume to make a judgment about whether a particular conception of racial identity is legitimate or not. Though members of a particular racial group may debate among themselves whether a particular individual is really "black" or really "white" such talk is considered highly problematic. In almost every case, it is used as a political tactic to marginalize a view thought to be far outside the mainstream. There is almost no case in which we would speak of the "best" conception of e.g. "blackness" as we routinely speak of e.g. the best conception of baseball.
Though much more could be said about moral contestedness in general and the specific character of racial contestedness, what I have said so far should be enough to establish that race is contested in a deep and deliberate way. This means more than that we all as a matter of fact disagree about racial issues or that they are hotly and vigorously debated or that they engender strong feelings all around. In addition, the concept of race typically is used in such a way as to deliberately and intentionally prevent particular or parochial conceptions of race from becoming ascendant. It means, that is, that the concept of race is constructed to admit of a great variety of competing conceptions about what race means and what significance it ought to have in everyday life.
INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSES TO CONTESTEDNESS — SCHOOLS
This paper contends that schools and courts characteristically resort to different and opposed strategies for dealing with the contested nature of race. I will first describe the general features of what I take to be the approach followed by many educational institutions. Then, I will contrast this with the approach followed by legal institutions. We will see, I think, that these approaches are deeply opposed to each other and are the source of inevitable and longstanding tension between courts and schools. Resolving the issue of race in University admissions will require that we better understand the inherent difference in the ways these two institutions approach the thoroughgoing contestedness of race.
To understand the different strategies to contestedness employed by the courts and the schools, we first have to understand how and why moral contestedness is such a problem for these institutions. Part of the answer is this: the concept of race is highly charged. It excites great political expectations of every sort and variety. Institutions such as schools and courts cannot long afford to "get it wrong" when it comes to race.
Yet because the concept itself is thoroughly contested, it is difficult for schools and courts to assert any particular conception of race or any racial group. Rather, they must devise policies that reflect the widest possible variety of particular racial conceptions. They must permit the concept of race to be defined by individual members of different racial groups. Thus, institutional policies must be devised in such as way as to change and respond to evolving and variable racial self-conceptions.
Anyone who has spent time in an institution of higher education is familiar with the difficulties posed by the sort of contestedness that characterizes race. Schools are bureaucracies. They must respond to variety of competing student, faculty and alumni constituencies. School officials must try to minimize controversy inherent in institutional decisions, which, no matter how carefully constructed inevitably displease one or sometimes all constituent groups.
One institutional strategy for minimizing conflict is to make decisions according to some general set of stable and uniform policies that can be explained and applied in regular fashion to particular cases. That way, even if a decision is disagreeable to some, at least it can be shown to be made according to some general and public set of considerations, rather than to serve merely the parochial interests of an individual official.
However, it is difficult to formulate stable and uniform institutional policies on the basis of a highly charged concept like race, because it admits of no particular, stable conception. A policy that looks progressive at one point in time can be attacked as insensitive and retrogressive at a later point in time. Even the language used to describe racial groups undergoes periodic change in response to developing conceptions of racial self-identity.
School officials need a way to talk about race that doesn't immediately get them into a debate about this or that contested conception of race. They need to be able to say that they are responding to the issue of race without sparking endless debate about which conception of race in particular matters to them. Their policies for taking race into account have to be broader than the sometimes changing conceptions of racial self-identity of this or that racial group. Otherwise they risk ongoing, divisive debate, and frequent changes in policy that open officials to charges of lack of seriousness and inconstancy.
To deal with this problem, schools nearly always talk about race in terms of its most general concept rather than any of its particular contested conceptions. Instead of articulating and defending a particular contested theory of why race is relevant to higher education, they tend to focus discussion on the most obvious, noncontroversial, and objective features of race: skin color and/or ethnic origin.
Reducing race to ethnic origin provides a way to refer to the bare concept of race without invoking any of its contested conceptions. This manner of speaking offers a non-controversial, bureaucratically convenient way to formulate and evaluate a uniform and stable set of policies that can't be held hostage to changing, contested, and nearly always controversial conceptions of race.
The reduction of race to its bare concept may be especially useful to school officials in formulating and explaining admissions policies. Particularly state institutions, which must respond to countless political constituencies in addition to the normal student, faculty, parent and alumni groups, may find it particularly useful to treat race in this manner. An admission office that wants to take race into account without committing itself to any particular contentious conception of race can do so by simply reducing race to its most easily identifiable attribute. Applicants can be categorized, points can be assigned, and offers can be counted.
Reducing race to the bare concept of ethnic origin offers more than convenience. In addition, it reinforces the ideal of ethnic self-determination that as we saw, is one of the purposes served by treating race as a wholly contested concept. An admission office doesn't have to commit itself to any particular conception of what minority students are supposed to bring to an institution or what they, as a racial group are supposed to get out of it. Determining the role of race in a particular institution is left for minority students themselves to establish once they arrive. All the admissions office has to do is make sure that there is an adequate number of students from different racial groups present in the entering class.
The admissions system employed by the University of Michigan undergraduate college of Literature Arts and Science represents one of the clearest examples of this approach to race. It is built almost entirely around the idea of race as skin color or ethnic origin. Grids obtained from the University of Michigan admissions office show how the racial classification works.
These grids are used to sort applications at the very first stage of the admissions process. Arrayed along the vertical axis are grades and along the horizontal axis, test scores. Clerks are instructed to find the box where an applicant's grades and test scores intersect. Within each box are two sets of codes, which instruct the clerk as to the proper handling of the application. One set of codes is supposed to be applied to non-minority students and the other to minority students.
Within some boxes, the minority and non-minority codes are quite different. For example, non-minority students with certain grades and test scores are rejected out-of-hand by the clerk. A minority applicant with exactly the same grades and test scores is passed on for further review and probable acceptance.
The most pronounced racial differences are in the middle zone of grades and test scores: above that zone, nearly every applicant gets accepted regardless of race and below that zone nearly every applicant get rejected regardless of race. But within that middle zone, the differences are stark. In each box, the minority line shows acceptance codes and the non-minority line shows reject codes. Accept reject, accept reject, accept reject all along the line.
These grids are admittedly an extreme example of how far colleges can go in treating race solely in terms of its bare concept. Nevertheless, it is easy to see why the underlying idea of thinking about race as a concept rather than a conception may be attractive to colleges, for it offers administrators the best of many worlds. A school can measure, count, and demonstrate what it is doing with respect to race without getting into controversial theories of why race is relevant. And it can cast its official neutrality towards competing theories of race in terms of sensitivity and support for developing and changing racial self-conceptions.
HOW COURTS DEAL WITH CONTESTEDNESS
Schools try to be agnostic to competing conceptions of race, preferring to focus instead on its least controversial characteristic. Courts take just the opposite approach. Courts are concerned precisely with competing conceptions of the significance of race. Like schools, courts are cognizant that particular conceptions of race can be both pernicious and controversial. To avoid the problems posed by competing, contested, conceptions of race, courts try to carefully distinguish between benign conceptions of race that are necessary to achieve a compelling government objective from those that are malignant or simply unnecessary. Unlike schools, which tend to let many conceptions of race flourish, courts tend to limit the use of race to a handful of extremely narrow conceptions deemed necessary to some compelling government objective. Whereas colleges base their policies on only the bare concept of race so as to be open to its different conceptions, courts base their legal principles on a few very narrow conceptions of race in order to close the doors to all other conceptions.
These are not just different strategies for dealing with moral contestedness. In addition, they are incompatible. To the extent that an institution focuses on the bare concept of race, it is expressing neutrality with any of its competing conceptions. To the extent, on the other hand, that an institution focuses on a particular conception, it is foreclosing the neutrality towards other conceptions. Thus, a school used to talking about race in terms of its bare concept cannot start talking about race in terms of a particular conception. And a court that is used to dealing in terms of very specific conceptions of race will resist utterly any effort to recast race in terms of its bare concept of skin color or ethnic origin.
Perhaps the strongest statement of the courts' reluctance to permit race to be reduced to skin color appears in the late Justice Powell's opinion in the Bakke case. Among the justifications put forward for race conscious admissions by the University of California was this: preferential admissions were necessary to "reduce the historic deficit of traditionally disfavored minorities in medical schools and the medical profession." Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 306 (1978).
Powell rejected this argument in its entirety. He said that no public university is permitted to favor or disfavor applicants solely because of their skin color. Universities may not seek some particular mix of race in their student bodies. Here is what Powell said:
If petitioner's purpose is to assure within its student body some specified percentage of a particular group merely because of its race or ethnic origin, such a preferential purpose must be rejected not as insubstantial but as facially invalid. Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution clearly forbids."
438 U.S. at 307.
Thus, whereas a school might be comfortable trying to make sure its student body had a respectable number of minority students — without imposing on those students any particular theory of why racial representation was important to the school — courts reject this approach out of hand.
Courts limit racial classifications to those that are necessary to achieving a compelling government interest. Pernicious racial classifications are illegal. So too are racial classifications that are gratuitous, that either do not serve a compelling government interest or that are not necessary to the achieving of that interest.
In general there are two government interests that the courts find sufficiently compelling to justify the use of race. First, a school make take race into account to remedy its own past discrimination, including the ongoing vestiges of such discrimination. Second, schools can take race into account to achieve intellectual diversity.
Inasmuch as most institutions of higher education are actively committed to avoiding racial discrimination, it is the second, "diversity" rationale that most often is relied upon to justify the use of race in admissions. It is based on a conception of race considerably more determinate than the "race equals ethnic origin" view relied upon by the University of Michigan admissions system.
According to Justice Powell, who first articulated the rationale in the landmark Bakke decision, an institution of higher education has a constitutionally recognized First Amendment right to "determine for itself on academic grounds who may be admitted to study." 438 U.S. at 312.
Powell went on to explain that an educational institution may have a compelling interest in taking race into account if that is necessary to achieving intellectual diversity in its student body. Powell's argument is based on his conception of the purpose of an institution of higher education, namely to foster the search for truth. It is further based on a on view about the best way to search for truth, namely to fully hear all competing positions. This purpose and the means to achieve it place strict limits on how race may be taken into account in admissions.
First, Powell is very clear that the end of intellectual diversity is not served if race is used to achieve "simple ethnic diversity." he says:
In a most fundamental sense, [this] argument misconceives the nature of the state interest that would justify consideration of race or ethnic background. It is not an interest in simple ethnic diversity, in which a specified percentage of the student body is in effect guaranteed to be members of selected ethnic groups…The diversity that furthers a compelling state interest encompasses a far broader array of qualifications of which racial or ethnic origin is but single though important element. [UC Davis'] admissions program, focused solely on ethnic diversity would hinder rather than further attainment of genuine diversity."
Second, Powell says that race cannot be used in a wholesale way to categorize and separately evaluate entire racial groups. Race cannot be used to insulate candidates of different ethnic backgrounds from comparison with one another, as occurs in a dual admissions system, where candidates of different ethnic backgrounds are kept on separate admissions tracks, each with its own procedures and standards.
How then, does Powell think race can be used? According to him, race is supposed to be one of many "plus" factors used in considering individual applicants. Powell goes on to explain that the sort of diversity that justifies the use of race requires that race have roughly the same weight in evaluating a particular applicant as many other characteristics. Powell said race should be considered along with such attributes as "exceptional personal talents, unique work or service experience, leadership potential, maturity, demonstrated compassion, a history of overcoming disadvantage, ability to community with the poor or other qualifications deemed important."
He says,
This kind of program treats each applicant as an individual in the admissions process. The applicant who loses out on the last available seat to another candidate receiving a plus on the basis of ethnic background will not have been foreclosed from all consideration for that seat simply because he was not the right color or had the wrong surname. It would mean only that his combined qualifications, which may have included similar nonobjective factors did not outweigh those of the other applicant.
According to Powell then, race may be used if it is used at all only in very sharply restricted ways and only to achieve very narrowly specified ends. In particular, race cannot be used systematically to benefit any and all applicants of a given ethnicity. A school may not give extra points to every applicant because he or she is black. It may not use one set of criteria to evaluate minority applicants and another set of criteria for non-minority applicants. It may not create a separate admissions committee or separate admissions procedures for applicants of a particular racial group. All of these systematic uses of race are illegal
Rather, race may used in an individualized manner, to evaluate particular applicants. When an admissions committee must choose between applicants of similar overall abilities, it must weigh the merits of applicant A against the individual merits of applicant B. Under these circumstances, Powell thought it reasonable to consider everything about A and B that might contribute to the intellectual diversity of the class. In that case, it would be unreasonable not to look at an applicant's ethnic background along with everything else that might be known about an applicant. For the sake of intellectual diversity, Powell argued, we can make some room for the use of race.
We may disagree with aspects of Powell's account as indeed, many have done. But the more important point is to notice the that Powell is trying to come to grips with the contestedness of race in a way fundamentally different from the approach followed by many college admissions office. Powell explicitly repudiates the view that ethnic origin alone is a satisfactory conception of race for purposes of university admissions. Whereas college admissions offices focus on ethnic origin partly as a way to avoid wading into much more controversial theories of why the consideration of race might be relevant, Powell says such an account cannot be avoided. Furthermore, the theory of race that Powell settles on is not a generic theory that applies across the board to all individuals of a given racial group. It rather requires a very individuated examination of the race of a particular applicant in light of everything else known about that applicant.
Problems created by two competing theories of contestedness
I now want to talk about some of the problems caused by the fact that schools and courts typically rely on two very different institutional strategies for dealing with the contestedness of race. The fundamental problem is this: there is very little prospect that the courts could ever develop a legal theory of race that would be able to accommodate the ways schools are likely to use race. That's because these two types of institution are driving in opposite directions: schools have to remain open to the broadest possible variety of conceptions of the significance of race, whereas courts constantly try to restrict the grounds upon which race might be relevant to higher education.
It should be noted that these two approaches to contestedness, though different and incompatible as institutional strategies, share a similar view of race and its appropriate role in everyday life. Both schools and courts want to allow individuals the greatest possible latitude to determine for themselves whether and for what purposes race has significance in their lives. Schools further individual freedom in matters of race by not imposing any particular conception of race on their students. Courts further individual freedom by closely restricting the ways that schools and other government institutions can use race. By restricting the official use of race to a small number of clearly acceptable conceptions, courts thereby limit the ability of official institutions to interfere with the ability of individuals to determine for themselves what significance to ascribe to race.
Even though courts and schools share the same ultimate objective — to get race off the backs of individuals — they pursue that objective in contrary ways. Schools interpret legal theories that permit the use of race broadly. Inevitably they step over the narrow boundaries for race-conscious decision-making typically constructed by the courts. And the courts, for their part, react to the broad manner in which schools use race as a basis for further narrowing their rulings.
The history of the use of race in college admissions since Justice Powell's opinion in Bakke twenty years ago illustrates the inherent tension between courts and schools when it comes to race. Powell thought he had provided a strong but limited basis for the use of race in admission by constructing a link between race or ethnicity on the one hand, and the intellectual mission of educational institutions on the other.
However, institutions of higher education found it very difficult to stay within Powell's boundaries. Many schools paid lip service to Powell's theory of race while utilizing admissions procedures that clearly violated it in nearly every respect. It was not until state freedom of information laws were used to obtain admissions documents from state schools that it became clear just how far afield many schools had strayed.
Though it claimed to be following the letter and spirit of Powell's opinion, for example, the University of Texas Law School for a long time separated applicant files into two piles — one for minority applicants and another for non-minority applicants. The folders then were sent to separate reviewing committees that applied widely divergent admissions criteria. As the court later found, the presumptive deny score for white applicants was below the presumptive admit scores for minority applicants. Internal memoranda revealed that school officials knew that they operated a dual admission system designed to achieve a desired ethnic mix so it was not the case that the school simply had failed to consult competent legal counsel. Indeed, as a leading law school, it should hardly have been necessary for officials to consult outside lawyers!
The problem is not that Texas and other school official are unaware of the law. The problem is rather that Texas, like many other institutions of higher education, looks at race in a way fundamentally different from the courts. Schools are disposed to view race as a bare concept that supports many possible competing conceptions. Courts, on the other hand, are disposed to narrow the bare concept of race to a particular and sometimes arcane conception. So long as these two types of institution follow these very different institutional strategies for dealing with the contestedness of race, there is little likelihood that a new Supreme Court decision, or a new legal theory, will make possible the continued widespread use of race in college admissions.
But there is a second, deeper, problem with the fact that courts and schools utilize different approaches to the contestedness of race and that has to do with the approaches themselves. For as it turns out, neither approach works very well as a practical way to deal with race.
Though they represent opposed institutional strategies for dealing with the contestedness of race, each fails for a similar reason relating to the nature of contested moral concepts. In a deep sense, the whole idea of a contested moral concept is to have it both ways — to be able to assert that something is important as a category of moral evaluation and at the same time to be able to refrain from any particular account of why it is important.
Thus, schools and courts in different ways want to acknowledge that race is important just as much as they want to establish that race isn't important. Schools want to admit minority students but they want to do it in a way that does not attach undue significance to race. Schools try to accomplish this by focusing on ethnic origin but leaving open entirely the question of why ethnic origin is relevant. They try to create the sense that the racial mix of the incoming class is no more significant than the skin color of a given individual. Something to notice, yes, but nothing terribly significant beyond that.
For his part, Justice Powell wants race to be a factor in admissions, but not that much of a factor. He accomplishes this by narrowing the grounds on which race can count in admissions so that in the end race is no more important than any one of a dozen other factors that at most can tip the scales between candidates who otherwise seem indistinguishable academically. On Powell's view, the race of one applicant should matter no more than the fact that another applicant happens to be from Iowa. Relevant yes, a tie-breaker sometimes, but never the sole or primary basis for admissions.
But the contradiction inherent in trying to make race significant and, at the same time, insignificant, undermines both the approach to contestedness typically followed by institutions of higher education and that followed by Justice Powell. Let's begin with the approach followed by schools.
It makes sense to say that race is no more significant than skin color if this is in fact is true. Unfortunately, schools like the University of Michigan end up reinforcing exactly the opposite conclusion. That is because these schools apply widely different admissions criteria to applicants based on race. In effect, non-minority students are admitted on the basis of highly competitive measures of academic skill. Minority students, on the other hand, are more likely to be admitted on the basis of their ethnic origin.
The reason for this follows from the heavy use of standardized test scores to measure academic promise at Michigan and elsewhere. Unfortunately, the use of standardized test scores as a proxy for academic ability creates a racial divide in the admissions process. Longstanding and significant racial disparities in standardized test scores effectively eliminate many minority applicants from consideration at schools where such scores count heavily in admissions.
To counteract the predictable dampening effect of these disparities on minority admissions, schools like Michigan employ two admissions standards, one for white applicants and one for underrepresented minorities. In effect, these schools are using an overt racial classification to counteract the effects of the racial classification that creeps into the admissions process through the heavy use of standardize tests.
But the effect of the dual admissions system is that the standards of selection for minority students at schools like Michigan are lower, as measured by the standard of academic ability used by the institution itself. This is because the standards applied to minority students are diluted by color or ethnicity — two factors which are irrelevant to academic ability. Whereas non-minority students are selected almost entirely on the basis of highly competitive measures of academic ability, minority students are selected to a much greater degree on the basis of their ethnicity.
Because students of different races are selected according to different criteria, minority students tend on average to do less well at the University of Michigan. It is not the case that membership in a minority racial group implies inferiority — that is clearly not true. What is rather the case is that the University of Michigan selects one racial group according to criteria that have no bearing on the work or study to be pursued. As a consequence, students in that racial group tend on average to do less well.
Thus while schools like the University of Michigan intend and fervently hope to make race mean nothing more than the accidental fact of one's skin color, they have created an admission system that in fact reinforces a link between minority racial groups and inferior performance. It is hard to imagine an effect more profoundly at odds with the purpose in reducing race to skin color.
The burden of inferiority created by a dual admissions system is reflected in disparate graduation rates. At NCAA Division I schools, for example, the drop-out rate for black students is approximately 60%. For whites, the figure is about 40%. At the 28 most selective colleges in the country, the drop-out rate for black students is considerably lower — about 21%. This has lead Derek Bok and William Bowen to conclude that minority students do better at more selective schools. Unfortunately, Bok and Bowen neglect to note that the drop-out rate for white students at these 28 selective schools is much, much lower — about 6%. Thus, while both black and white students drop out at lower rate at more selective schools, the disparity between black and white drop out rates in fact increases at these schools.
Powell's approach to race solves the worst problems associated with a dual admissions system because Powell expressly says that race cannot be used as the basis for two different admissions standards. Were schools to restrict themselves to the use of race outlined by Powell, the problems associated with a dual admissions system would not arise. However, it is worth pointing out that Powell's approach nonetheless suffers from a problem analogous to that posed by a dual system.
Like the approach to contested moral concepts typically adopted by colleges and universities, Powell's approach seeks to both acknowledge and suppress the importance of race. On the one hand, he says that race may be taken into account in order to achieve intellectual diversity. On the other hand, he quickly submerges race as only one of many factors that could affect a particular candidates chances of admission.
Powell's desire to have it both ways reflects a deep ambiguity. On the one hand, he seems to be saying that race is a proxy for certain convictions and points of view. For this reason, Powell says it is reasonable for a college or university to use race in order to achieve intellectual diversity among its student body.
But the idea that a particular racial group typically espouses certain political convictions, moral viewpoints or even intellectual dispositions is almost certainly false and morally quite suspect. As nearly anyone recognizes, the political convictions and viewpoints of minority college applicants are not significantly different from the political convictions and viewpoints of nearly any other group of applicants. And, it is both dangerous and destructive to assume that they would be different, for such a view depends on stereotypes about the intellectual and moral outlooks of people whose skins are black, white, or some other color. The use of such stereotypes by college admissions offices not only assumes their truth, but reinforces their use.
On the other hand, it is possible to read Powell as saying that colleges and universities may take race into limited account in order to assure an intellectually diverse student body, not because minority students generally share some distinctive intellectual outlook, but precisely to reinforce the idea that they don't. Perhaps Powell is suggesting that students learn through personal experience that race or ethnic origin almost never correlates with intellectual outlook or political viewpoint. In this sense, Powell might be saying that it is reasonable to take race into account precisely so that students can learn not to take race into account.
While I believe this second interpretation is a sensible reading of Powell, it does raise the following question. If Powell believes that race ultimately is irrelevant to intellectual diversity, how could it ever be rational for colleges to take race into account in achieving intellectual diversity? In an important way, Powell wants to have it both ways. He wants race to be relevant to intellectual diversity even though he thinks in the end race is not relevant to intellectual diversity.
It is time to pull the threads of my argument together. I have tried to show that there is a deep divide between the way courts and college admissions offices typically approach the contested issue of race. While they do not fundamentally disagree about the role of race in college and university life, they follow very different strategies for trying to make sure race is limited to that role. The deep differences in these two strategies make it difficult to see how courts and schools could agree on whether and to what extent race should be a factor in college admissions.
To the extent colleges and universities are determined to make race a concept that supports as many contested conceptions as possible, courts are equally determined to limit the use of race to one or two of its narrow conceptions. To the extent that colleges are determined not to specify the role that race plays in education, courts are equally determined to spell it out in great and arcane specificity.
I said at the beginning that I would end on an optimistic note by describing the efforts now underway by some colleges and universities to break the impasse I have described. It is time to make good on my promise. What follows is necessary impressionistic, but will serve to outline some possible approaches to solving the problem I have outlined in this paper.
To begin with, it is worth noting that the tension between the courts and the schools is profoundly uncomfortable for both institutions. Lawsuits challenging college admissions are expensive and publicly divisive. In addition, the sorts of ways colleges are typically violating the law exposes both schools and school officials to staggering sums of both institutional and personal liability. Last year, for example, a court found a community college in Ohio liable for a racial preference that it found to be a clear violation of law. Because the preference was egregious, the court went on to hold the officials and trustees of the college liable in their personal capacities for financial damages. Though these official will be indemnified by the state and will not, therefore, have to pay these judgments out of personal assets, the message is unmistakable. Colleges and college officials can no longer risk using racial preferences that seem clearly to violate existing legal standards.
If only because of the threat posed by lawsuits, I believe schools inevitably will re-assess the role of race in college admissions. At this stage, schools seem to be following one of three general strategies.
First, some colleges are now hewing to Justice Powell's opinion in ways that they didn't before. Small colleges such as Bowdoin College and Bates College (both in Maine — don't ask me why) reportedly have reduced and even eliminated the use of standardized test scores. This has greatly reduced the need to use race in a wholesale way to counteract racial disparities in standardized test scores. As a result, these schools are able to consider the race of each and every applicant as one factor among many.
A second, less hopeful approach is is being taken by schools like the University of Michigan and other defenders of the systematic use of race in admissions. Following the lead taken by Derek Bok and William Bowen in their book the shape of the river, these schools are arguing that we should abandon Powell's distinction between racial diversity and intellectual diversity. Instead of limiting the consideration of race to that which is necessary to achieve intellectual diversity, these schools want to use race explicitly to achieve racial diversity for its own sake. Of course, this is what Powell said the Constitution clearly forbids. But these schools nonetheless argue that racial diversity can be a compelling state interest when it produces good consequences. Increasing the number of minority students who enter the professions, increasing racial understanding on college campuses are some only some of the social benefits that these schools argue flow from racial diversity.
For the reasons suggested in this paper, I think it is highly unlikely the courts will accept such an approach. Sanctioning the use of racial preferences in order to achieve a certain racial mix opens the door to too many questionable uses of race, uses that could greatly increase rather than decrease the significance of skin color in everyday life.
For example, if a court decided that it was constitutional for a college or university to use race to fine-tune the racial mix of its incoming class, then it would have to permit other types of educational institutions the same freedom. Some educators now believe that all black elementary schools make sound educational sense, and on U of M's theory of racial diversity, this would have to be permitted. And if a court were to permit all-black elementary schools, it would find it difficult to strike down all-white schools. Courts would be hard-pressed to second guess any racial mix — whether all-white, all-black, or something in between — so long as a school supported it with some purported educational objective.
A third approach is that being followed by Texas and California schools. As a result of Prop 209 in California and the Hopwood case in Texas, these schools have eliminated completely the use of race in college admissions. Although minority admissions dropped significantly at some schools in the first year following the elimination of racial preferences, such drops were confined to a handful of flagship schools — 6 out of 74, to be precise. At other schools, minority enrollment was constant and in some cases increased significantly. And, in the second year following race blind admissions, minority enrollment rebounded at many (though not all) of the flagship institutions.
It is too soon to pronounce the California and Texas efforts fully successful, but is also is too soon to pronounce them a failure. Though many predicted a "re-segregation" of higher education in those states, it so far has not occurred. The reason seems to be that the flagship schools have moved away from the heavy use of standardized test scores in admissions, and simultaneously engaged in vigorous outreach efforts to stimulate high levels of minority applications. As schools in the rest of the country observe what seems to have worked in California and Texas, it is likely they, too will move away from potentially illegal uses of race to an admissions system that more and more is race-blind.
What is significant about the California and Texas approach is that it preserves and carries to a new level the approach to race traditionally favored by educational institutions. Instead of trying to defend a particular theory or conception of race, as Michigan is attempting, these schools have moved further in the direction of treating race as irrelevant to education. So long as these schools are in fact able to continue to recruit and enroll minority students, this approach probably has the best chance of working.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The FM clip is a boltable clip, with high clip strength. There are types for M16, M20 and M24 fastening material. The FM clip is especially applied with crane tracks on a steel girder or on a concrete foundation with a steel sole plate. The height of the clip is variable, so that there is a suitable FM clip for virtually every rail type.
The AM clip is a boltable, adjustable, self-blocking clip with high clip strength. The adjustability is secured by means of the square taper washer. There are types for M16, M20, M24 fastening material. Like the FM clip, the AM clip is especially applied with crane tracks on a steel girder or on a concrete foundation with a steel sole plate. The height of the clip is variable, so that there is a suitable FM clip for virtually every rail type.
The gantrail clip is an adjustable, self-blocking clip with a rubber nose and with a modest but permanent pre-stress strength. This clip is available in various types and models. By varying the height of the rubber nose there is a suitable clip for every rail type.
The KPO clip is a boltable clip, with high clip strength. This clip is applied in combination with ribbed tie plates and T-headed bolts. The SKL tension clamp is a boltable clip with high permanent clip strength. This clip is especially applied in rail constructions with concrete sleepers.
Material KPO clip: S235JR, black.
Material SKL tension clamp: 60Si2Cr, black.
Thermo-galvanized or Dacromet on request.


"An outlandishly talented act, who deliver their payload with a thump!" Singing and playing a wide range of music, right up to modern day, this is one act that you, most certainly, do not want to miss!
Based in Marbella, The Masquerade Duo have performed all over Europe and the Middle East. A highly recommended, funky, lively act, just the thing for a great night at El Oceano Beach Hotel.
The Masquerade duo will "blow you away"!


text:
Q: I cant add a "showDetails" (beginner) (addeventlisteners) I have a very basic question which I just cant seem to work it out
I just want to basically create a function that will showDetails when I click in an object from a list which is called "pokemonList"
Nothing I do creates a function to what I need to do which is the object having a response after being clicked:
the part of the code in the question is:
.
`function eventListener(button, pokemon) {
  button.addEventListener("click", function() {
    showDetails(pokemon);
  });

}

///////////this following part is incorrect, it needs to make the ''showDetails'' be responsive and ///////////show the pokemon(object) name.  Please help me as I'm stuck and I've tried many things

**function showDetails(pokemon) {
  eventListener("button");
  console.log(pokemon);
}**

///////////////

pokemonList.forEach(function(pokemon) {
  let pokemonList = document.querySelector(".pokemon-list");
  let listItem = document.createElement("li");
  let button = document.createElement("button");
  button.innerText = pokemon.name;
  button.classList.add("stylez");
  listItem.appendChild(button);
  pokemonList.appendChild(listItem);

});`

A: At the moment showDetails calls eventListener which calls showDetails which calls eventListener etc - which is bad.
So ideally you want to

*

*Cache the list element first.

*Using event delegation assign one listener to that element that can catch events from its child elements when they're fired and "bubble up" the DOM.

*To minimise the adverse affects of repeatedly updating the DOM within your loop create a document fragment which you can append new elements, and which - post loop - you can append to the list element.

*showDetails will handle the events from the list listener. In this example it checks to see if the child element that fired the event is a button, and then logs the text content of the button - but obviously you can change that to update a separate element etc.

// Cache the list element, and add a listener to it.
const list = document.querySelector('.pokemon-list');
list.addEventListener('click', showDetails);

const pokemonList = [
  { name: 'Bob' },
  { name: 'Ron' },
  { name: 'Sue' },
  { name: 'Jane' }
];

// Check that the child element that fired
// the event is a button, and log its text content
function showDetails(e) {
  if (e.target.matches('button')) {
    console.log(e.target.textContent);
  }
}

// Create a document fragment
const frag = document.createDocumentFragment();

// Loop over the array and for each object
// add create a list item, and a button, append the button
// to the list item, and then the list item to the fragment
pokemonList.forEach(pokemon => {
  const listItem = document.createElement('li');
  const button = document.createElement('button');
  button.textContent = pokemon.name;
  button.classList.add('stylez');
  listItem.appendChild(button);
  frag.appendChild(listItem);
});

// Finally append the fragment of list items
// to the cached list element
list.appendChild(frag);
.stylez { background-color: lightgreen; }
<ul class="pokemon-list" />

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Citizenship: What does it mean?
TBy Harry Boyte
he world looks different from South Africa, where I've been this summer, building relationships with democracy groups and universities. The trip demonstrated to me, especially as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks draws near, that our country's profession of innocence in the world is not so innocent.
The George W. Bush administration has called for a national debate on Iraq, but I am convinced there is a deeper debate to which the issue must be tied. We need to discuss, "What is citizenship in the 21st century?" and "What are citizens called upon to know, to be and to do to help address the world's mounting problems?"
The Bush administration's division of the world into good guys (led by a United States full of virtuous, kind, compassionate volunteers) versus evildoers (terrorists and their supporters) disguises a unilateral projection of U.S. power with the language of a moral crusade. It also rests on a particular view of the citizen – the citizen as volunteer – which needs to be challenged.
Higher education institutions, including the University, are called to take civic leadership on both fronts. We need to educate our students, staff and the society about a world that is far more complex than any simple "good and evil" division. This requires a view of the citizen as far more than a volunteer.
The neat divisio n of the world into good and evil hides the turbulence of a world roiling with different voices, enormous problems and bitter conflicts. It also has an air of stunning unreality from the vantage of South Africa. South Africa still remembers the "quiet diplomacy" – which most saw as toleration or even sympathy – that both the Reagan and George H. Bush administrations demonstrated toward the apartheid government, a regime based on racist and brutal repression that ended with the nation's 1994 democratic elections.
In 2002, even moderates and conservatives in South Africa are shocked by the George W. Bush administration's talk of war on Iraq. "Remember Hiroshima, Mr. Bush" read the banner headline in "The Star," Johannesburg's leading newspaper, after Bush officials raised the possibility of using nuclear weapons. President Thebo Mbeki, who has urged partnership with the United States and other western nations, expressed anger the United States has downplayed the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Bush vacationed at his Texas ranch while 40,000 world leaders and activists discussed such problems as the 1.1 billion people who lack clean
drinking water and the 2.4 billion who need access to sanitation.
A simplistic division of the world also denies United States' greatest strength, as University graduate Thomas Friedman recently observed in The New York Times. Taking issue with those who attacked the University of North Carolina for assigning a book on the Koran to incoming freshmen, Friedman argued the U.S. democracy's vitality is most evident when the society "challenges its own truths by presenting alternative possibilities."
The Bush administration's moral framework also rests on a particular concept of citizenship. Bush made the idea of the citizen-as-volunteer the base note for his policies long before Sept. 11. In his initial campaign announcement, Bush articulated "the noble calling of a nation where the strong are just and the weak are valued." He accused Al Gore throughout the campaign of "trusting government, not the people." He used citizen-service as the center of his inaugural address. "I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort," Bush proclaimed, "to be citizens, not spectators, to serve your nation, beginning with your neighborhood."
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has called for a new patriotic spirit in which volunteerism and service figure as centerpieces. Thus, in his Nov. 8 address on the nation's course in facing the "terrorist threat," Bush used the concept of "a nation awakened to service and citizenship and compassion" to define "American civilization" itself, at war with a ruthless enemy. "We value life," Bush declared. "The terrorists ruthlessly destroy it." To enlist Americans in the fight, he called for "all of us (to) become a Sept. 11 volunteer, by making a commitment to service in our communities."
In general, higher education has been less successful in debating views of citizenship than in conveying the complexity of the world. Bush gets his view of the citizen as volunteer from communitarian theory, the dominant concept of citizenship today in U.S. higher education. The nation's leading communitarian theorist is Robert Putnam, a Harvard University professor and president of the American Political Science Association. Putnam has described declining patterns of voluntary association in U.S. life.
The question is how to address such decline. Putnam argues for a reinvigoration of what he calls "social capital," or a spirit of volunteerism. Though a Democrat, he helped Bush draft his inaugural address and, along with other communitarians, celebrated a "citizenship-championing president" in the White House. Moreover, Putnam argued that signs of increased social solidarity in the United States after Sept. 11 are evidence of new citizenship.
Such a view of citizenship is detached from power, politics and the vast diversity of the United States and the world. "Social capital," like Bush's volunteerism, calls up positive images of human connection, compassion and caring. It resonates in a society increasingly depersonalized, fragmented and materialistic. Yet compassion and caring do not convey boldness and courage in fighting injustice, ingenuity in addressing problems, or political skill in dealing with others with whom we may have sharp ideological or value differences.
These are the traits we must cultivate in our students and in ourselves if Americans are going to engage with others across national boundaries in addressing the challenges of the 21st century.
I agree with Bush – and his communitarian advisors in higher education – that we need to be "citizens, not spectators." But I disagree with their definition of the citizen. As the University launches the council on public engagement this fall, debate about "What is a citizen?" needs to become a central question.
Harry Boyte is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship.


text:
My Big Fat Greek Life: The Entire Series
2003 TV-PG 2h 32m DVD
Nia Vardalos stars in this sitcom inspired by the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," as lovable Nia and her charming WASP husband, Ian (Steven Eckholdt), return from their honeymoon and embark on newlywed life alongside Nia's traditional Greek family. This collection includes all seven episodes of the short-lived television series, which pokes fun at extended family and the couple's attempts to adjust to married life.
Nia Vardalos, Steven Eckholdt, Lainie Kazan, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin, Gia Carides, Michael Constantine, Jayne Eastwood, Ian Gomez, Joey Fatone, Rita Wilson, Frank Stallone, Rusty Schwimmer, Edward Hibbert, John Aniston, Yanni, Ken Hudson Campbell
Peter Bonerz, Pamela Fryman, Gail Mancuso
TV Shows, TV Sitcoms, CBS, TV Comedies
Spanish (Neutral), Greek, Portuguese
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
TV-PG - This program contains material that parents may find unsuitable for younger children.


text: Q: Object Detection: Aspect Ratio and Scale of Anchor Boxes I am working on an object detection problem on my own dataset. I want to figure out the scale and aspect ratio that I should specify in the config file of Faster RCNN provided by Tensorflow object detection api. The first step is image resizer. I am using Fixed shape resizer as it allows batch size of more than 1. I read that this uses bilinear interpolation for downsample and upsample. How to calculate the new ground truth box coordinate after this resizing. Also, once we have the new ground truth box coordinates, how do we calculate the scale and aspect ratio of anchor boxes that can be specified in the config file to improve the localisation loss.


Bicester U12s sign off season in style!
Bicester boys saw out their season in true style, with an impressive victory over the visiting Didcot team. Conditions were set fair and offered an opportunity for some flowing Rugby, nevertheless even the boldest of odds-makers could not have predicted the 7-4 win in the first game, made possible by Bicester's lightning start. Cameron F opened the scoring, running in the first of three tries with a powerful run from his own half. After a period of possession and great support play exemplified by an industrious Joe C, Michael W ran in the first of a brace of tries. Despite a brave Didcot effort in the second half which saw the visitors score four tries, the Bicester boys remained resolute. Ollie G assured victory with two tries, putting the result beyond doubt. The first was a superb try, evading all attempts to stop him as he jinked, dummied and side-stepped all the way from the Bicester try line to score.
Game two, was a Ba-Ba's, mixed team affair, in which James P, exhibited a great attitude and sportsmanship leading the line for the visitors. The mixed sides saw a balancing out of possession with both teams seeing plenty of the ball. After much to'ing & fro'ing, Edward T, reinvigorated by his new 'pay as you score' deal combined his strength with some powerful running to score his first try of the morning. Didcot players were also amongst the tries, scoring twice. Ollie G made another contribution quickly turning defence into attack, shortly followed up by Ellis G-B who dived over in the corner for his try. Not to be outdone, Michael W scored an impressive try, running the length of the pitch to ensure the spoils were shared at 3-3. Great endeavour, support play and team ethic by all was hallmarked by Cameron. F's magnanimous pass to his Didcot counterpart, despite having beat the opposition with only the try-line in sight. Indeed, both teams personified the values of our great game and were a pleasure to watch.
In the final game, which was a return to the normal proceedings, Bicester set out to continue their dominant performance from the first game. Indeed, they succeeded to underline their great performance with another 7-2 victory. Cameron F rounded his day off with a hat-trick of tries, while Edward T profited (quite literally!) again by securing a brace. Ells G-B darted down the wing to score his second of the day, while Ciaran M, eager to impress his fresh-faced fan club, topped off an impressive display at fly-half with a determined try, evading a bamboozled Didcot defence.
A great morning's Rugby and deserved win. Each and every one of you should be proud of yourselves - well done boys!


Melbourne co-captain Nathan Jones believes new teammate Steven May was "stiff" to cop a one-week ban for his collision with Brisbane's Jarrod Berry.
Jones doesn't believe the incident should have been categorised as a bump.
"It's contentious if you're calling it a block or a bump," Jones told SEN Breakfast.
"I think it was a block. I sort of understand the AFL's stance around head knocks and the look of things, but I think you see those incidents, the action that Steve did, multiple times per game.
"We're actually taught to do that as part of defensive skills so I think at times you're going to have bigger guys run into smaller guys and the blow is going to look more significant than other times.
The Demons take on Port Adelaide at the MCG in Round 1.
Show that your heart beats true. Sign-up as a Melbourne FC member today and receive a free cap and two bonus tickets to any Melbourne FC Home game! Call 1300 DEMONS and quote "SEN" or sign up here today.


text:
Karnov V1
1988 Electric Dreams
Coding: Greg Duddle
Graphics: Dave Jones, Don McDermott
Sound: Unknown
Last updated: April 24, 2022 by fgasking
Jump to: Comments / Gallery / History
Electric Dreams/Activision seemed to have a bit of a knack of having cancellations, but also games which when eventually released, looked far different to the preview screenshots shown in the press early on.
Like with Time Scanner and R-Type, you perhaps won't be too shocked to learn that Karnov followed a similar scenario by featuring preview shots in magazines which looked a heck of a lot different to the final released version.
Karnov ended up as a very poor port of the ZX Spectrum game, very slow and buggy overall. A shame, as the Spectrum version was actually superb. However, things could have been very very different. Although one disgruntled fan of the arcade mocked up his own C64 shots for Zzap!64's letter pages, there was a real full multi-coloured version in production at one stage – albeit, very briefly as we are about to learn.
Both Commodore User and Zzap both printed early preview shots, which you can check out for yourself in the scans area. Although not painting a picture of how the game actually would have played, it certainly looked decent enough.
Greg Duddle (programmer of the released version) didn't know anything about another version, but we believed that it was Greg's team that had worked on a proper C64 conversion at some stage. So we pressed on and attempted to contact others from that time.
We eventually got in touch with Don McDermott, who worked on a number of conversions in Greg's team. He confirmed that Mr Micro at the time was overworked with projects, and there were not enough people to work on them.
Mr Micro had done the ZX Spectrum conversion first, with just Don on artwork, with Dave Jones doing the loading screen/main menu artwork (before leaving shortly afterwards). Once this was complete, the team knew that they had to get swiftly onto the C64 and Amstrad versions afterwards.
They assumed that enough time had been allocated to do the work – but nope, the team had just weeks , with the work having to be done whilst juggling other projects that had already been committed to. As a result, the hard decision was made for the C64 version to be a straight Spectrum port.
However, C64 sprites and backgrounds (as seen early on in magazines) had already been started by Don for Level 1, but were chucked away when the decision was made to do a port. Don knew the outcome wasn't great, but the team had no choice due to the deadlines set from Activision and the limited team size.
The screens seen were Don's graphics being ran through either a quick port of the ZX Spectrum engine or the very early beginnings of a proper C64 conversion. There was very little in the way of playable code at this stage before the decision was made to just port the ZX Spectrum code over.
Don sadly also doesn't have anything of the early prototype work, so it could be a miracle for anything to be found or seen of this early version. If you happen to chance across anything of it, please do get in touch.
Contributions: Don McDermott, Greg Duddle, Vinny Mainolfi
Supporting content
24/04/22 – Story confirmed and credits finalized. Big tidy up of piece too.
06/02/22 – Suggested developer credits added.
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1986 System 3
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In Bonus, DS, Features, Reviews
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text:
What is the average class size?
Our Pre-K 3 class caps at 9 students, all other classes cap at 12 students.
What is the goal of the admissions process?
At The Circle School, we want to make sure that your child is given the biggest opportunity to succeed and develop. We conduct our family and teacher interviews in order to find the best fit for each child and their family.
When is the application deadline?
We accept applications year-round as well as offer an open-door policy for families and potential students to come visit. After commitments are received from current and returning families, admissions interviews for waitlist families are made beginning in mid- February and into March. Additional applications will be accepted after this timeframe as space allows. Please contact us for availability.
How diverse is The Circle School?
Our families come from a range of ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and family composition.
What is Circle School's religious affiliation?
The Circle School is not affiliated with any religious organization or church. Many religions are represented among our community, and we consider ourselves to be a welcoming place for all religious backgrounds.
At this time The Circle School offers financial aid to select returning families only. Once a full year has been completed at the school, a family may be considered for financial aid. The process includes evaluation of co-op participation as well as the family's ability to pay.
What are the school hours?
The school day runs from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm for all classes. The school opens at 7:30 and after school care is available until 6 pm for an additional charge.
What schools do students attend after The Circle School?
Circle School alumni have been successful in many different schools, no matter when they leave the program. Our alumni can be found at Keystone, Incarnate Word High School, International School of the Americas, North East School of the Arts, as well as at various public and charter schools throughout the city.
What special classes are offered?
Current classes include P.E., Art, Music and Gardening. We are always looking for new opportunities and explore new options and additions as they become available. Please see our Specials section for more details.
Please see our section on the co-op.
MY CIRCLE SCHOOL
217 Pershing Ave. San Antonio, TX 78209 210.822.0461 (Phone) 210.822.6989 (Fax)


Great Russian Nutcracker's Kissy Doll is a hit at NYC Fashion week!
Did you see Moscow Ballet's Kissy Doll at the Indashio event for NYC Fashion Week? Check her out in the backstage photos, taken at the Park Avenue Audi Forum, meeting up-and-coming designer Indashio and Olympic Skater and model Johnny Weir.
Moscow Ballet and Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory announce winners of "Ballet Art Juried Exhibiton"
Summer Intensives keep student dancers on their toes!


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    return HttpResponse('refund charge')

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Sébastien Ogier was the shock leader of Rally Guanajuato Mexico on Friday evening after an action-packed day sidelined half the drivers from the headline World Rally Car category.
He overcame the handicap of opening the roads with an inspired tyre choice for his Volkswagen Polo R this morning to claim the advantage. He protected his lead this afternoon to end 13.5sec ahead of team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala.
Ogier expected to lose time this morning as he swept the gravel roads of slippery stones. But in unusually low temperatures of 7˚C in the mountains near Guanajuato, his decision to fit two soft compound tyres paid dividends.
He smashed his rivals in the 44km El Chocolate stage and held off Thierry Neuville until the salvation of more equal conditions during the afternoon's repeated tests.
"It was a really great day. I made a clever tyre choice, one of the best we've done. It was hard and I had to push from the first metre to the end. That's always my target but I'm very pleased with this one," he said.
A further boost came with the high number of retirements. With most likely to return tomorrow under Rally 2 rules at the head of the start order, he will not have to sweep the roads.
Neuville's challenge ended in the second pass through El Chocolate when he punctured and then rolled after hitting a bank, damaging his Hyundai i20's radiator.
That promoted Latvala into second. The Finn struggled for confidence this morning, but a mid-leg pep talk from his engineer revitalised him and he won two stages this afternoon.
An early spin caused by gear selection issues left Mads Østberg in ninth. But he charged up the order in Citroen's DS3 and was 16.0sec behind Latvala in third.
Andreas Mikkelsen battled with Elfyn Evans all day. The Welshman had the best of the morning on roads Mikkelsen had not driven before, but the Norwegian consolidated fourth this afternoon and was 18.7sec ahead in his Polo R.
Dani Sordo was sixth in an i20, the Spaniard overcoming daylong gearbox issues and a puncture to head Martin Prokop's Fiesta RS, who encountered a cow in the road and survived a lurid incident after a pace note issue. WRC 2 drivers Yurii Protasov, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Nicolas Fuchs completed the top 10.
Ott Tänak retired after rolling his Fiesta RS into a lake in SS3, he and co-driver Raigo Molder lucky to escape as the car sank to the bottom.
Hayden Paddon broke his i20's right rear suspension after hitting a rock, Kris Meeke snapped his DS 3's track control arm after swiping a bank and Robert Kubica punctured a tyre and damaging his steering after doing likewise. The steering later broke and he rolled.
Lorenzo Bertelli went off and Benito Guerra broke the rear right suspension on his Fiesta RS.


Visiting an auto repair shop can be a dreadful experience, especially if you know very little about how your car works. Shady mechanics are adept at detecting ignorance — they absolutely love to make money off of sitting ducks, which is why it's important to avoid them altogether. By merely familiarizing yourself with the basics of Auto Maintenance 101, you can save loads of money and prevent lots of unnecessary stress. The following sites offer the most knowledge, best tips, and useful how-tos for those who aspire to be more self-sufficient. With a few crash courses, you'll be a home auto mechanic in no time.
Of course, there are some good auto repairmen out there. Enter Mark Gittelman, or MasterTechMark, an ASE Certified Master Technician with a quarter-century of auto repair experience on his resume. He's written a book on his time in the industry, and isn't afraid to stand up for the average driver.
Auto repair guide Matthew Wright has years of experience in the auto industry and thus a wealth of knowledge to share with readers. His site features sections on troubleshooting various issues, auto basics such as tools and terminology, and DIY repairs ranging from regular maintenance to advanced repairs. Few auto repair sites are as comprehensive as this one.
One of the most reputable car information sites on the Internet, Edmunds' mission is to "empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders," which it carries out by providing readers with how-tos and maintenance tips.
The automotive section of Popular Mechanics not only offers numerous interesting tidbits from the auto industry, but an entire DIY Auto section equipped with Q&As, product reviews, and tips and troubleshooting. Recently, the automotive section featured an article entitled "Confessions of a Car Dealership Service Manager," in which a service manager with 23 years of experience lends his advice on dealing with his peers in the industry.
"Everything the DIY car enthusiast needs to know about basic car maintenance." There's a bible for every part of the car, enabling you to learn as you go. Additionally, the site provides product reviews for a variety of parts.
The name says it all. Learn how to jump start your car, change the wiper blades, charge the battery, change the spark plugs, test the alternator, and much, much more. It's a great starting point for a car repair novice.
Kevin Schappell has a mechanical engineering degree and has owned 35 cars, so auto repair is his forte. Auto Shop 101 is a great place to receive a full education on everything from cooling to electrical.
In an effort to promote better car care, this site posts articles on car engine maintenance, car parts, general maintenance, seasonal maintenance, and even detailing. Readers can supplement their research with helpful how-to videos.
In addition to dispensing tips and advice on checking your car and car repair basics, Car Repair Guide authors a section on advanced car repair, which is certainly useful for those daring DIYers who are already accustomed to tinkering with cars.
Nothing fancy, just all the car care knowledge for which you could possibly ask. This site certainly has DIY-ers covered.
Yahoo! answers question regarding air filters and oil, battery and electrical issues and other important categories. The explanations are refreshingly comprehensive, sparing no details.
Entirely devoted to auto repair, 10w40 discusses every essential topic and allows readers to ask a trusted mechanic when they have more complicated questions. You can also purchase detailed auto repair manuals for more rigorous jobs.
The company provides factory repair information for more than 70,000 shops around the country, and shares the same information with DIY drivers. Its easy-to-browse site offers original manufacturers' diagnostic and repair procedures, each of which are most coveted by those who prefer to do things by the book.
Amateur grease monkey see, amateur grease monkey do. The site that enables you to "watch, learn, discover" has a section devoted to maintenance and repair, with useful how-tos that anyone can follow.
Ask or find questions relating to a problem you're currently experiencing and receive repair tips to help you finish the job. And when you officially become a home auto mechanic, you can help novices by submitting tips of your own.
Common service items are addressed with explanations describing a problem's severity or lack thereof. They'll let you know if you should bother doing it yourself — if they give you the green light, you'll save yourself a lot of money.
The experts at AutoMD, a site that deals with auto repairmen for the consumer, compose how-to guides and videos addressing a multitude of issues. Each is simple, clear and concise, so that you can jump right into your maintenance or repair project.
Run by Frankie D'Antoni, a catalog writer for a major auto manufacturer, this blog dispenses information "they won't normally tell you in repair shops." He covers basic and advanced troubleshooting in a manner that's easy to digest.
With an author obsessed with cars, BuildThreads is perfect for advanced home mechanics who take the hobby to an extreme. The site documents a variety of build ups from around the world, featuring pictures and descriptions of the coolest projects.
Much like BuildThreads, MotoIQ is designed specifically for the car lover, providing DIY projects for enthusiasts who devote hours upon hours to fixing up their rides.


Developers in China have found the perfect solution for the tedious rush hour traffic of each day. Just like the old sayings, if you can't go around it, go OVER it! That's right, they've designed a new bus that could actually let cars 2 meters or less drive below it as it passes by overtop! This design is being created by Shenzhen Huashi Future Car-Parking Equipment actually looks pretty promising! It's almost a train looking design with passengers on the top floor of the Bus leaving a large gap between the ground and it for cars to drive by! (Hooray for no more annoying stopping as you're stuck behind a bus picking up passengers on a busy route) They plan on beginning construction of its first 186km track at the end of the year in Beijing's Mentougou district!
You can see a video of it in action at the source link!
Better book your flight now!


On August 31, 2015, The Rational Argumentator celebrates a successful end to its thirteenth year of existence. While TRA's visitation is still recovering from the Yahoo-initiated closure of Yahoo! Voices in 2014, publication activity continues to be abundant. With the addition of Wendy Stolyarov as an Assistant Editor, more rapid and efficient publication of articles is now possible and has been ongoing for several months. As always, TRA continues to emphasize quality of content to set itself apart as a bastion of high intellectualism and thoughtful discourse that resists both information overload and the dumbing-down effects of the "bite-sized" media culture.
Total thirteenth-year visitation for all TRA features was 892,082 page views – compared to 1,430,226 page views during the twelfth year. The 37.6% decline in visitation is explained by the unfortunate closure of Yahoo! Voices (formerly Associated Content) in July 2014, which eliminated a popular channel through which TRA content was previously accessed and read. However, the milestone of 9 million cumulative views was still exceeded during TRA's thirteenth year. TRA's lifetime visitation stands at 9,068,668 page views. I am hopeful that, during TRA's fourteenth year of operation, the 10-million-view threshold will be exceeded due to an increase to visits directly to The Rational Argumentator's domain. TRA's thirteenth year was marked by the publication of 228 regular features, compared to 314 regular features published during the twelfth year, 208 regular features published during the eleventh year, and 306 features published during the tenth year.
Growth in special features has also occurred during the thirteenth year, including special pages dedicated to new Minecraft skyscrapers, The Actuary's Free, Open-Source Study Guide for SOA Exam GIADV: Advanced Topics in General Insurance (the only study guide for this exam known to me to exist at this time), and six of my new musical compositions. Furthermore, all of my past musical compositions have been remastered and are now available on YouTube in a playlist where they can be listed to in chronological order of their composition, accompanied by my works of fractal art or other inspiring imagery. Listeners can now conveniently hear all 82 of my compositions to date from one convenient location, with automatic transitions between individual works.
A significant innovation in TRA's outreach activities occurred in 2015 in the form of new video panel discussions held via Google Hangouts on Air, where I recorded conversations with a variety of philosophers, technologists, and futurists – including Demian Zivkovic, Peter Rothman, Kyrel Zantonavitch, Franco Cortese (here and here), Adam Alonzi (here and here) and also facilitated discussions among multiple guests regarding how to accelerate technological progress and how to encourage more people to become techno-optimists. A major public-relations success, facilitated by the same means, was the Movement for Indefinite Life Extension (MILE) Demonstration of March 21, 2015, of which I and Wendy Stolyarov hosted the first three-hour segment.
The spread of my most famous work, Death is Wrong, has continued. This children's book on indefinite life extension, illustrated by Wendy Stolyarov, is now available in four languages: English, Russian, Spanish, and French. The French Edition of Death is Wrong – La mort, c'est mal! – was published in May 2015 and was made possible due to the generous translation efforts of Philippe Castonguay. We continue to welcome and greatly appreciate any volunteer efforts to translate this vitally important book into as many languages as possible. Since Death is Wrong was made available as a free PDF download, a total of 3,440 copies have been downloaded from TRA directly – and likely, many more have been downloaded from external file-sharing sites to whose data I do not have access. As a result, the electronic versions of the book have now reached over three times more people than the 1,029 paperback copies that were shipped for distribution to children in 14 countries in 2014. I am pleased by this impact, but wish to see it continue and expand by orders of magnitude. The more awareness there is of the feasibility and desirability of reversing senescence and greatly reducing the probability of involuntary death, the more likely the majority of people will recognize the imperative of greatly accelerating technological progress in our lifetimes.
As TRA enters into its fourteenth year, it will continue to be characterized by the quest for permanence and the expansion of its voluminous content base through the publication of additional thoughtful and thought-provoking features. The promotion of individual liberty, rational philosophy, indefinite life extension, and uplifting esthetics will remain hallmarks of TRA's mission and output. We will continue to exert a positive, enlightening influence on cultural and political discourse, while always adhering to the high standards and unyielding moral principles that have enabled TRA to endure while short-term-oriented publications have faltered. The Rational Argumentator is now among the oldest extant Internet-only publications, and it shall long outlive many of its more ephemeral counterparts.