One month ago a friend and housemate committed suicide. You guys would have liked him. On the first week of uni he stripped naked and ran around our house for no apparent reason other than to make us laugh. I miss him every day. His death has shaken the very foundations of my happiness, and for those of you who know me you will understand that happiness is who i am not just something i feel.
BUT he is not gone. I know this. The universe wastes nothing, nothing ever disappears without a trace, nature does not know extinction, merely transformation. I spoke to him outloud today for the first time and realised for the first time since his death that things will be ok.
This may seem like a strange place to write this but i want everyone who sees this to realise something about life. I want you to tell everyone who is important to you that you love them. Do it now. Please. The last time i saw Matt was a few days before he died and i gave him a hug and told him i loved him and i would miss him because he was leaving the next day to go home for a while. I didn't know he wouldn't be coming back, and I'm so happy that was the last thing i said to him.
Want to let you know that i love you all. To everyone i have met, you made such a difference to my life, i wouldn't be the person i am today without so many of you casaites! The casa left its print on my heart and i hope my print is still running around the casa catching mice :) and all of you who i am yet to meet, i love you too because if you are reading this you are the kind of person i want to have in my life!
The last month has been a test of my character, as i am currently in the middle of my exams aswell, and for anyone thinking about taking a law degree,just to warn you, ITS SO FECKING HARD!! This is literally the hardest thing i have ever had to do. If i manage to come out of all this with my sanity (as much as i ever had) and a pass i will be practically indestructable. I feel so strong just for getting this far.
Submitted by alisonshine on Sun, 20/06/2010 - 17:57.
Thank you for all your comments. I did it. My last exam was on monday. I survivded the hardest challenge i have ever faced, both academically and emotionally and not only that but i have come out smiling.
My exams went well, and i am finally ready to come to terms with what has happened. Matt will never leave my thoughts, he is still in the universe, his energy is not lost and that makes me smile.
I love you all for your strength and support now and always. I am hoping to come to the casa during the summer, around August time, I hope there will be some friendly faces around then :) I'll let you know closer to the time when i hope to come, i'm hitching to finland for the rainbow gathering i think so will hopefully swing by on my way back!
Submitted by valentina on Mon, 14/06/2010 - 21:30.
When I read your post, on the same day you wrote it, I cried.
So many of your feelings resembled mine. so many times and for so many different people, I cry and I feel life being nourished by these tears.
Nobody likes to talk about death. None. It scares us as something we know exist and we want to ignore.
yet is there. in my smile and in the happiness of my hugs. in my love for life and in my fears. as something that simply exist, as much as rainbows.
I wish I could explain more what death means to me, and how much affects my life on daily basis, but sometimes there are no words that can communicate. like sometimes there are things we cannot see but we need to sense.
I wait to hug you tight.
Submitted by Katherine on Sun, 13/06/2010 - 00:54.
Submitted by robino on Wed, 09/06/2010 - 14:54.
It takes courage to write this story and this is also why I admire you Alison! I hope you and friends found good ways of dealing with your friend's decision in a collective way, as talking about this together really helps to understand your feelings.
We had a similar experience in the casa more than a year ago when we learned that we would never see Aris back again. That was a very difficult experience for many. We spoke a lot about this together, and sometimes we still do. We also wrote about it here on the website, but not before personally contacting most people who knew her.
Last week at the travel filmfestival in Berlin I was reminded again about how difficult these situations can be, when Annick was giving a talk about female traveling and I was thrown back into my emotions of fear of loosing yet again another person. I asked her how to deal with that and the answers she gave were very similar also to yours.
I was reminded again how important it is to indeed let those people who are close to you, or who give meaning to your life, to share love with them when you can, and to let them know - whenever you can - how much you appreciate them. Thanks for writing that down.
Wish you all the best & much care, love.
Submitted by Jass on Tue, 08/06/2010 - 18:46.
My best friend died late last year, just before I got to casa for the first time.
Hold strong. So strange I haven't met you yet as even my younger brother has stayed with you..
Submitted by dcarpano on Mon, 07/06/2010 - 18:57.
I am sorry to hear about you loss, a few weeks ago I got the same news about a friend of mine from back home. I was not able to say good-bye to him before I left, and it really bothers me that the last time I saw him I took it for granted that I would see him again.
Experiences like this make us stronger though, and teach us a few things about life. In the end, as you said, nothing is destroyed. Your friends energy is still with us, as are the energies of my friend, and all of the other before us who have passed on.
Everyone who reads this, especially ms. sunshine: I love you, and send you a mega-hug!


text:
Q: How to replace many Spaces with one':'? The number of spaces is different for each row.How to replace many Spaces with one':'?
*******There are spaces in middle of name.example:
Angle Shift    J614

output: Angle Shift:J614    not Angle:Shift:J614
code:
configDir={}
configList=[]
for configs in config_info.split('\n'):
    configs=configs.strip()
    if (configs.find(':')>0):
        continue
    if (configs==''):
        continue
    configs=configs.replace(' ',':')
    configList.append(configs)
configDir['config']=configList

Output:

'HandlingTool::::::::::H552',

'Chinese:Dictionary::::H538',

'4D:Standard:::::::::::R782',

'Analog:I/O::::::::::::H550',

'Angle:Shift:::::::::::J614',

'Auto:Software:Update::ATUP',

'Automatic:Backup::::::J545',

'Background:Editing::::J616'

Data sample:
enter image description here

A: regex is what you need:
import re

pattern = r" +"

text = 'HandlingTool          H552'

sub = re.sub(pattern=pattern, repl = ":", string=text)

print(sub) # HandlingTool:H552

A: You should try this, for every row of your input file
out = ":".join(list(filter(None, inp.split(' '))))

inp =  'HandlingTool        H552'
out = 'HandlingTool:H552'

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The company ICar Services specializes in car related greeting and transport services.
Our company combines the talents of a team that has more than 15 years of experience along with the most prestigious luxury houses, restaurants, Parisian palaces, business services, road shows and event professionals.
What drives and inspires us: a passion for things well done, quality in detail, pleasure in customized service.


We all do it from time to time. Whether it's a night of partying and then a mad rush to work the next morning; or helping the children with homework and then trying to catch up with some leftover work from the office. Next thing you know, it's 2:30 in the morning and you're yet to get to bed.
Interestingly enough, while some may pride themselves on being workaholics, overworking your mind and body could never be good for your health. Take it from me: I've seen people get ulcerated stomachs, hypertension and even heart attacks because of stressing themselves mentally.
In fact, one of the fittest people I know suffered a heart attack at age 50; and it is his firm belief that a lack of rest and constant worry about his finances led to his dire situation.
The answer is simple: plan and prioritize. You are not alone. Some of the most successful people have had to manage their time, just like you, in spite of children, studies, finances…and even in-laws!
1. Be selfish. This doesn't mean being self-absorbed or narcissistic. It simply means learning to say no and ensuring that you make time for yourself and stick to it.
And remember how much time can be devoured by the television and social media. As I sit here writing in a waiting room, I can see two employees of this organization. One is excitedly playing a game on his phone and the other has been watching CNN for the past half hour.
I like #1, Somehow, I am not in that selfish act, I somehow look at it that I need to have my customers satisfied, but from my own example, ( Being stressed and overworked ) we are only human and must take A back seat sometimes, and take care of ourselves.
Thank you for reading, Kathy-Ann Clarke. You have hit the nail on the head!


text:
Authorities find bodies of missing man and his grandson
Another tragedy on an Arizona hiking trail, the second in two days.
The bodies of a 63-year-old grandfather and his 12-year-old grandson were recovered by search and rescue teams.
The pair were visiting from Prescott Valley and had set out to hike the Mormon Batallion Trail south of SR283 near Gila Bend.
The trail is the route taken by a group of Mormon volunteers, recruited by the army during the Mexican-American war.
Shortly after sunrise, the MCSO teams recovered both bodies.
"We received a call from a woman who said that her father and son were last heard from Monday evening by telephone at a hotel where they were staying," said Christopher Hegstrom.
A short time after that call, investigators on 4-wheelers headed out on the trail off SR283, after a hotel manager told them the pair left for the area between 8 and 9 a.m. Tuesday, reportedly to take pictures and hike the route.
"They went out there, and that was the last anybody had seen or heard from them," said Hegstrom.
What appears to be his mother's page is filled with condolences, prayers, and messages remembering the young man who many say was special, vibrant, and made everyone smile.
MCSO investigators say evidence indicates the boy and grandfather hiked at least six miles before turning back.
"About a half mile back from there is where the grandfather was located late last night around midnight," he said.
MCSO says that it appears at some point the two became separated, the 12-year-old boy may have left to get help. Crews found him about 4 miles away from his grandfather.
"He was about a mile and a half from the trailhead where he was located," said Hegstrom.
The car the two left parked at the trail head was towed; now his family is left with heartache and hope for answers.
MCSO says it does not appear the two had food or water with them on the trail. The Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office will determine an exact cause of death.
Shooting at Phoenix Wendy's: Suspect arrested after teenage fast-food worker was shot in head
As Phoenix hospitals fill up amid new COVID surge, doctor says people with mild cases can be treated at home

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Published in Animal Science at December 2, 2014. By: J.-L. Rault, K. McMunn, J. Marchant-Forde, D. Lay. Gas alternatives to carbon dioxide for euthanasia: A piglet perspective. ARS-USDA.
A humane, practical, economical and socially accepted euthanasia method.
The use of nitrous oxide as an anesthetic/euthanasia agent may prove to be affordable, feasible and more humane than other alternatives.
The neonatal stage is a critical time in the life of a pig, when they are prone to become sick or weak. This is the stage at which most euthanasia procedures are required if the pig is judged unable to recover. Any euthanasia method should be humane, practical, economical and socially acceptable to be universally accepted.
How is the research setup?
This research sought to: 1) identify a method of scientifically determining if piglets find a gas aversive, using an approach-avoidance test which relies on the piglet's own perspective (Experiments 1 and 2), and 2) test different gas mixtures to determine if they are effective and humane for neonatal piglet euthanasia, using a two-step anesthesia-euthanasia procedure (Experiment 3). The investigators hypothesized that nitrous oxide, and alternatively argon and nitrogen, were less aversive than carbon dioxide and would induce anesthesia prior to using carbon dioxide to complete the euthanasia procedure.
Pigs were allowed to walk freely between one chamber filled with air and another chamber either gradually filled with gas (Experiment 1) or pre-filled with gas (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 tested carbon dioxide, CO2 (90%) and air (10%); nitrous oxide, N2O (60%) and CO2 (30%); argon, Ar (60%) and CO2 (30%); and nitrogen, N2 (60%) and CO2 (30%).
Since piglets had to be removed when they became panicked, the test was shortest (P < 0.01) for the pigs in the CO2 treatment compared to pigs in the N2O/CO2, Ar/CO2, and N2/CO2 treatments, 3.1 ± 0.2, 8.5 ± 0.6, 9.6 ± 0.4, and 9.9 ± 0.1 min, respectively. Nonetheless, all gas mixtures adversely affected the pigs, causing the pigs to leave the test chamber. In Experiment 2, piglets were allowed to enter a chamber pre-filled with N2/CO2 or N2O/CO2 (both 60%/30%). Pigs exposed to the pre-fill chambers entered a state of panic in less than 20 s, much faster in comparison to the gradual fill method, which support than this method was more aversive.
In Experiment 3, piglets were euthanized using a 2-step procedure. Pigs were first placed in a gradual fill chamber with 1 of 4 gas mixtures: 90% CO2, N2/CO2, N2O/CO2 or N2O/O2 (the last three mixtures at 60%/30%) followed by placement into a 90% CO2 pre-fill chamber when the pigs became panicked or were anesthetized. All three gas treatments that contained CO2 killed pigs more quickly than N2O/O2 (P < 0.05). However, N2O/O2 was the only treatment that anesthetized the pigs instead of causing squeals or panic, although requiring about 12 min longer. Although longer, a 2-step procedure in which pigs are anesthetized with a mixture of N2O and O2 prior to being euthanized by immersion in CO2 may prove to be more humane than CO2 alone.
They found that nitrous oxide in oxygen appeared to be less aversive than nitrous oxide, nitrogen, or argon all combined with low (30%) concentrations of carbon dioxide or 90% carbon dioxide by itself. This study is the first to investigate the use of nitrous oxide at sufficiently high concentrations to cause anesthesia.
Nitrous oxide, commonly referred to as laughing gas, has been widely used in human surgery and dental offices for its pain-relieving, sedative and anxiolytic effects. It is cheap, non-flammable, non-explosive, legally accessible and not classified as a drug in the U.S., and already commonly used in the food industry as a propellant for food products. Development of its use into an automated procedure will allow producers to implement it with little effort. Thus its use as an anesthetic/euthanasia agent may prove to be affordable, feasible and more humane than other alternatives.
South China Morning Post, March 1, 2017. Experts said signs of resistance in a new strain of the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus against a drug used to treat people with the infection needs swift investigation to clarify how to handle the mutation.
Two patients in Guangdong province with a new and more virulent strain of the virus have shown signs of failing to respond to the drug Tamiflu, the Nanfang Daily reported this week, citing Zhong Nanhsan, an expert in respiratory diseases.
Virologists said the finding did not mean the drug was ineffective against bird flu, but a swift investigation was needed to assess how to handle the situation. There have been over 1,200 laboratory confirmed cases of human infection for bird flu in mainland China since the first was reported in 2013.
As of Sunday, 94 people have died from the illness on the mainland this year. The number of deaths so far this year have already surpassed the total number of H7N9 fatalities last year, which was 73.
The drug resistance was found in two patients found to have the mutation of the virus, the report said. The new strain was identified by the China Centre for Disease Control.
Taiwan's Centre for Disease Control announced earlier this month that gene sequence analysis of a H7N9 bird flu patient, who fell ill after visiting Guangdong, found the virus had a mutation that was resistant to antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza. The patient, a 69-year-old businessman, died earlier this week.
Zhong was quoted in the Nanfang Daily as saying most patients on the mainland were responding to Tamiflu treatment, suggesting the mutated strain of H7N9 was not the dominant virus, or "a considerable amount of viruses" did not mutate.
He Jianfeng, chief expert in infectious diseases at the Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told the newspaper both patients with the new strain had taken Tamiflu before and it was not clear whether the drug resistance was caused by previous use of the treatment or the virus mutation.
Professor Malik Peiris, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong who published a paper in the medical journal The Lancet four years ago saying H7N9 patients in Shanghai had previously shown antiviral resistance, said Tamiflu resistance occurred occasionally in bird flu patients treated with the drug before.
His further work showed these patients can be treated with alternative antiviral drugs. Professor Peiris called for a quick investigation into the latest H7N9 virus mutation.
"We need more information on how widespread this resistance is in recent viruses, especially those with the high pathogenic mutation," he said.
Tamiflu can still be useful for treatment and early use of the drug will reduce the chance of resistance developing and increase the chance of a cure, he added. Patients who have begun antiviral treatment need to be monitored to see whether there was a good response and to change to alternative drugs if there was no improvement, he said.
Although commonly used in other settings, defining animal welfare as part of a CSR (corporate social responsibility) setting is not new.
There are many ways to define CSR. What they have in common is that CSR describes how companies manage their business processes. This is to produce an overall positive impact on society. The phenomenon CSR is a value concept that is susceptible to particular ideological and emotional interpretations. Different organizations have framed different definitions – although there is considerable common ground between them.
Some important national players of the food chain at different steps (mainly food retailers and food services) have included animal welfare in their CSR.
The Anoxia technique is developed as alternative for existing animal stunning methods that are based on the use of CO2, electrocution, neck dislocation, captive-bolt, as well as killing methods like de-bleeding and maceration.
In the past 10 years, Wageningen University and University of Glasgow conducted several studies that proved that the technique could be applied successfully for culling poultry (Proof of Principle Anoxia Technique). This was the start of the development of several applications based on the Anoxia principle, using high expansion foam filled with >99% Nitrogen.
Last November 2016 the campaign started the launch of the commercialization of the Anoxia applications in Holland, Germany and Sweden, focusing on the areas where a solution is most needed: piglets (< 5kg) and poultry (> 3kg) on farms.
After 10 years of research & development a revolutionary new stunning technique is introduced. Based on the principles of animal welfare as described in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the International Standards of OiE: The Anoxia technique – stunning and killing animals by placing them under atmospheric conditions in an environment without oxygen. The solution is not only simple and safe and cost-efficient; it is also not physically demanding to the farmer and his employees.
The principle guarantees that the animal(s) are placed in an environment with pure nitrogen, once the high expansion foam, filled with 100% nitrogen, replaces the atmospheric air inside the container. From that moment on, the animal inhales pure nitrogen, an atmospheric gas that all living species are used to and that can be inhaled without any physical reactions because atmospheric air contains 78% nitrogen that is inhaled by every breath.
The newly developed and patented technique is simple. All it needs is a soap dispenser connected to a water tap; a soap concentration; a bottle of pure nitrogen including a regulator; a standard waste 240/340/370 liter wheelie-bin container; and the Anoxia lit that closes and seals of the container. Inside the container, a high expansion foam generator is placed, connected to the water/soap and nitrogen through flexible tubes, connected to the inside of the lid. A chiffon is added to the lid, in order to allow atmospheric air to escape the container when it is filled with foam.
According to the Standard Operating Procedure, the water/soap and the nitrogen tubes are connected to the electrical valves on outside of the Anoxia lid. Then the animal(s) are placed in the bin, next to the foam generator. The lid is closed and the foam production is started.
After 30 seconds, the container is filled completely with foam. At the moment that the foam is placed in the container via the chiffon, the foam production is stopped and the chiffon is sealed off. Throughout the foam production process the animals remain calm. The high concentration of nitrogen replaces the oxygen in the blood and via the longs; nitrogen is transported to the organs instead of oxygen. The first organ that reacts is the brain that immediately shuts of consciousness.
The contractions of the muscles start after the brain is no longer able to control the movements of the muscles and is not a sign of stress, like with traditional gas stunning methods, where oxygen is gradually replaced with gasses like CO2 or Argon.
Therefore the Anoxia technique is the revolutionary alternative for existing stunning methods that are based on the use of CO2, electrocution, neck dislocation, captive-bolt, as well as killing methods like de-bleeding and maceration.
The first application that's introduced on market in Germany, Holland, Sweden and Denmark can be applied for Stunning and killing piglets less than 5 kg; – poultry > 3kg (turkey and parent stock); and embryos in partly-hatched eggs.
For more detailed information on the Anoxia technique, please visit www.Anoxia.EU, or send your request for information to the N2GF team at info@n2gf.com and one of our consultants will come back to you as soon as possible.
[at the picture – Large mobile sprayers spew sanitizers into Seongho Reservoir in Icheon, Gyeonggi, on Thursday, to prevent highly pathogenic avian influenza from spreading in the region.] Published at December 15, 2016 in the Korean Joonang Daily.
It's official – the H5N6 avian influenza (AI) virus that touched down in Korea one month ago. It has caused the largest amount of damage the domestic poultry industry has ever experienced with bird flus. That's 284 farms hit, nearly 15 million ducks, chickens and quails culled, and more to go. No other AI virus in the past has killed this many birds. Egg prices are soaring, now fixed at around 6,580 won ($5.63) per tray of 30 at the largest discount retail chain, E-Mart. Paris Baguette raised prices by an average of 6.6 percent earlier this month, their first hike in almost three years.
According to local experts, the crisis will last through April 2017 unless the government dramatically reforms current measures, which have been criticized for being far too weak. In an article published Tuesday, the Korea JoongAng Daily wrote that the first major government meeting discussing the outbreak was not held until one month after the virus was discovered on Oct. 28 in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, in the feces of migratory birds. By then, it had been a week since it reached nearby farms.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it would "negotiate" whether to raise the national AI crisis level to the highest of the four-tier system, from the current level 3. On Thursday it was upgraded. "Things can really get worse unless the central government closely collaborates with regional governments and farms," said Seo Sang-heui, a veterinary medicine professor at Chungnam National University in Daejeon.
Kim Jae-hong, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Seoul National University, warned that for the domestic poultry farming industry the next one to two weeks will be a matter of "life or death." One problem is that regional governments are not doing enough to quarantine areas, due to a lack of human resources and money. In a recent investigation by the Ministry of Public Safety and Security, there were 20 cases in which a government office wrote on official documents they set up an AI control team for their communities, but did not actually do so.
In Sejong City, a farmer was caught shipping off 100,000 chickens to his retailers last month and reporting to the government the next day that his farm appeared to be hit by AI. It later tested positive and authorities are now investigating whether he had known about the infection ahead of time. In a country where the government relies on farmers to report viruses on their own, and punishes those who turn out to have failed to take proper quarantine measures in the first place, many farmers hesitate to report their circumstances. Moreover, movement bans are imposed on poultry farmers and their vehicles at locations where the virus has tested positive, but rarely are these restrictions taken seriously.
Published at 15 December 2016 in The Standard Hong Kong, by Mary Ann Benitez and Carain Yeung.
World Health Organization director- general Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun warns bird flu H7N9 is particularly worrying as it could be a flu pandemic strain. This is because H7N9 is unique as it does not make chickens sick but is deadly in humans. Sick birds could usually provide early warning for imminent outbreaks, Chan told The Standard. This comes as Macau reported its first human case of H7N9 yesterday. "The biggest challenge for the world is the next influenza pandemic," Chan said.
ASF is considered a major threat to Danish pig producers, largely due to its presence in locations of export and its highly contagious nature. With the industry continuously under strain to make sure extensive measures are in place to safeguard the country from the disease.
Soren Sondergaard, vice-chairman, of SEGES Pig Research Centre, said that ASF prevention utilised a massive amount of the annual budget but was necessary as an outbreak could cost the sector billions of kroner.
New regulations have been implemented to mitigate the risk, including new regimes which call for trucks to be thoroughly cleaned and held in a restricted area for a certain amount of time between transportation.
In the event of an ASF spread, parts of Denmark would be closed off with immediate effect, in order to ensure the flow of production could still continue in other areas.
As the virus is a noted problem in countries with vast numbers of wild pigs, Mr Sondergaard suggested that culling regimes could be another option to consider, as well as changing the drop off points where live animals are exchanged.
New outbreaks of avian influenza have been reported among wild birds and poultry across Europe since the end of October 2016. The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N8 virus is identified in Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
EFSA experts are supporting Member States in their data collection activities. These collections are aimed at identifying how the virus enters poultry farms and the risks posed by wild birds. This information will help EFSA to re-assess the risk of introduction of avian influenza into the EU. The risk assessment is based on new scientific knowledge. The updated scientific advice will be published in 2017.
The European Commission has called on Member States to be vigilant and to reduce the risk of further outbreaks. They will do so by taking measures such as increasing biosecurity levels in poultry holdings and backyard flocks.
EFSA has worked on this topic extensively in recent years. Its work has included a scientific opinion on migratory wild birds and their possible role in the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses.


text:
Articles Posted in Stockbroker Regulation
Leahy Amendment Would Provide Whistleblower Protection While Holding SEC and CFTC Accountable If They Don't Follow Up on Tips
Published on: May 25, 2010 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP
A number of watchdog groups want Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) to support an amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill that he is sponsoring. The bill lets the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission set up bounty programs for whistleblowers that approach them with information about financial fraud. However, if the government doesn't act on these tips, the bill has two key provisions that prevent whistleblowers and the public from ever finding out. Leahy's amendment would eliminate the provisions while protecting the identities of whistleblowers.
In a letter to Senator Dodd, the groups said that such limits on public access are "poison pill secrecy measures" that would not only prevent the public and whistleblowers from ever knowing whether the tips were pursued, but also would keep the latter from proving they are whistleblowers if they were ever retaliated against. The groups said that such secrecy would allow regulators to avoid being held accountable if they failed to act on any whistleblower tips.
The watchdog groups that support the amendment include Public Citizen, OMB Watch, the Project on Government Oversight, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, OpenTheGovernment.org, Government Accountability Project, Common Cause, Progressive States Network, Consumer Action, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Americans for Financial Reform, and the National Fair Housing Alliance.
Related Web Resources:
S.3217 – Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, OpenCongress.com
Read the groups' letter to Senator Dodd (PDF)
Posted in: Stockbroker Regulation
Updated: May 25, 2010 12:53 pm
Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, DeutscheBank and other Firms Fined for Failing to Deliver Trade Confirmations.
Published on: October 9, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP
NYSE Regulation fined 14 of its member firms a total of $10.4 million in fines for failing to deliver trade confirmations to their clients and other violations.
Citigroup Global Markets received the heaviest fine of $2.25 million for failing to deliver trade confirmation documents in more than a million consumer transactions. Lehman Brothers and DeutscheBank were each fined $1.25 million.
Other firms sanctioned included UBS Securities; Bear Stearns & Co.; Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC ; Banc of America Securities LLC; Goldman Sachs & Co.; JP Morgan Securities; Wachovia Capital Markets LLC; and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. Fines levied against these firms ranged from $375,000 to $800,000.
Posted in: Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, J P Morgan - Chase, Stockbroker Regulation, UBS and Wachovia
Updated: October 9, 2007 4:32 pm
EKN Financial Services Fined and Sanctioned for Transactions in Unregistered Securities
The NASD imposed a $200,000 fine against EKN Financial Services Inc. and levied sanctions against the firm's CEO, President, Head Trader and Financial and Operations Principal for improper short selling in connection with three unregistered PIPE securities offerings. As part of the settlement, EKN was also suspended for six months from engaging in transactions in PIPES.
"This action represents NASD's continued commitment to ensuring that those firms and individuals who engage in improper activity involving PIPE trading will be held accountable," said the NASD's Head of Enforcement. "Suspending the firm for six months from future PIPE deals illustrates the seriousness with which we view these violations."
A PIPE is a private offering in which accredited investors agree to purchase restricted, unregistered securities of public companies. The companies agree, in turn, to file a resale registration statement so that investors can resell the shares to the public. Only after the PIPE shares registration is approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are investors free to sell them on the open market.
Enforcement Actions Against Brokerage Firms And Individuals Went Down in 2006, Says Study
Last week, a securities law journal published a study illustrating how securities regulators went "soft" last year. According to the study, NYSE and NASD fined securities companies and individuals $111 million in 2006, which was lower than the $184 million in collective fines that their two regulatory units issued in 2005. Regulators only issued 19 actions of $1 million or greater. There were 25 such actions the year prior.
The report cited a similar decrease in penalties at the SEC. Penalties issued in 2005 were $1.5 billion. Penalties went down to $974 million in 2006.
Barbara Roper, Consumer Federation of America's Director of Communications, says, however, that public-company managements and brokerage firms actually outdid themselves in their handling of research-analyst conflict, accounting scandals, and mutual fund-trading scandals.
Updated: October 8, 2007 1:21 am
NASD Successor "FINRA" Hypes Retail Investor Online Info Section
Published on: September 7, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP
The new Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has launched a section on its website to provide online information for retail investors.
The "Market Data" section on FINRA's website provides data on equities, options, mutual funds and corporate, municipal, Treasury and Agency bonds. The site also provides a page for all stock exchange-listed companies, including a company description, recent news stories and Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and an interactive list of domestic securities the company issues.
The site also provides equities indices and the FINRA-Bloomberg Active U.S. Corporate Bond Indices for investment-grade and high-yield bonds. Additionally, the site features U.S. Treasury Benchmark yields, market news an economic calendar and other information indicating current market conditions.
Posted in: FINRA and Stockbroker Regulation
Updated: September 7, 2007 5:59 am
State Regulators' Association Seeks to Abolish Bogus Finanical Advisory Designations
The North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. of Washington (NAASA) plans a vote by its members by the end of this year on a proposal which would make it a violation of state securities regulations to "misuse, mischaracterize or fraudulently represent a designation that has little or no value," said the President of NASAA, Alabama securities commissioner Joseph Borg.
Mr. Borg announced the NASAA plan at a hearing being held this week by the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Mr. Borg appeared to testify on matters involving securities fraud of the elderly, and within his presentation he chose to specifically adress the use of questionable senior financial adviser designations.
State securities regulators have authority to take action against financial advisers for unethical sales practices, such as churning and selling unsuitable products, he said. "This would be an enhancement to cover fraudulent use of designations," Mr. Borg said. NASAA initiative is part of ongoing efforts by state and federal regulators to beef up regulatory authority to protect seniors from financial fraud.
Posted in: Senior Investors and Stockbroker Regulation
Updated: September 6, 2007 6:00 pm
New York Court Sides with Ameritrade – Redefines "Best Execution"
Published on: August 5, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP
Justice for investors is simply denied in New York courts and a trend of no justice for investors threatens to spread nationwide as more and more "activist" business-friendly judges are appointed to the federal bench.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, known to be friendly to Wall Street, has struck again, this time ruling Ameritrade was not required to route orders to multiple markets to fulfill its duty of "best execution" of trades. This is one of many case filed by investors which was dismissed, with prejudice, in a decision which could affect investors nationwide. (Gurfein v. Ameritrade Inc., S.D.N.Y., No. 04 Civ. 9526 (LLS), 7/17/07
Although language on Ameritrade, Inc.'s Website advertised that it had the capability of distributing customer orders to multiple markets and could thereby seek best execution, the judge decided this did not oblige Ameritrade to route orders to different markets for execution. The judge also found Ameritrade had no duty to the plaintiff to execute the limit order at the "best price" or fulfill the "best execution" regulatory requirement.
Posted in: Broker-Dealers and Stockbroker Regulation
Published on: August 5, 2007
Updated: August 5, 2007 8:30 am
What Worries Your Broker? This Should Scare You!
Published on: July 31, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP
"There are two things I worry about: Clients dying and the government putting me out of business," said a Merrill Lynch rep who says he gets about 80% of his revenue from B-shares shares and fee-based business. Apparently, the safety of his clients' assets must be down the list.
Meanwhile, regulators are currently engaged in a crackdown on brokers who shove clients into B-shares when the breakpoints of A-shares are much more appropriate, and those who use wrap accounts then ignore their clients. Hundreds of millions of mutual fund load refunds have been ordered. It has been discoverd that some clients have paid $5,000 to $20,000 per transaction while ignored in fee-based accounts at major firms.
Loss of the fees "would make me wonder whether I should stay in business," said Curtis Mohr, a Pasco, Wash., broker affiliated with Royal Alliance Associates Inc. Good riddance!
Citigroup's Smith Barney Unit Ordered to Pay $50 Million over Widespread Fraud Charges
In one of its final regulatory acts before being folded into the NASD, the New York Stock Exchange's regulatory unit has censured and fined Smith Barney $50 million over illegal trades, failures to supervise and record-keeping violations. The firm agreed to the sanctions without admitting or denying the charges.
The Smith Barney unit of Citigroup Global Markets Inc. will pay a fine of $10 million to the NYSE, and a fine of $5 million to the State of New Jersey, related to a "separate regulatory matter arising out of the same conduct." An additional $35 million will be paid into a restitution fund to compensate victims.
The NYSE regulators say Smith Barney agreed to these huge sanctions to resolve charges related to a variety of fraudulent trading activities, including excessive trading, improper trading in mutual fund shares, improper trading in variable annuity mutual fund sub-accounts, illegal market timing trades, plus the firm's failures to supervise and to maintain adequate books and records.
Posted in: Citigroup, Smith Barney - Citigroup and Stockbroker Regulation
As Wall Street Seeks to Lower the Bar, Investors Continue to Say They Value Ethics
It seems that Wall Street has convinced state and federal regulators, as well as Congress and Presidential candidates, that the regulatory bar must be lowered if we are to compete in the international securities market (or perhaps Wall Street's donations have affected the judgment of these politicians). Yet, studies continue to show that most investors prize a company's behavior over rich returns.
After the crash of 1929, and for over 70 years, our securities markets have been regulated by a network of federal and state securities laws. During that period, U.S. financial markets have thrived and becme the envy of the world. Conventional wisdom is that investors want to feel safe in investment waters – as shark free as possible. Yet, those on Wall Street, many of whom have proven themselves to be sharks, lobby regulators and lawmakers to attempt to win a "race to the bottom" in worldwide financial regulation.
Yet a recent study found, for example, that two-thirds of investors say they would sell their shares of a company that engages unethical but legal behavior-even if that behavior brought in higher returns. These results were found through poll research performed by Opinion Research Corp. for Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management.
Updated: July 21, 2007 3:24 am


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'Venom' Movie Will Also Feature the Villain Carnage
While it's still a question (not official yet) as to whether or not Venom, Black & Silver, and other Sony Spider-Man properties will join Tom Holland's web-slinger in Marvel's cinematic universe, Sony is moving forward full-steam ahead with their own cinematic universe (again). Last month brought the news that Tom Hardy will be playing Eddie Brock a.k.a. Venom in a spinoff for Sony, which will be directed by Gangster Squad helmer Ruben Fleischer. It's unclear to this point as to how Venom's story will work if it's no longer tied to Spider-Man, but as news brought today, that doesn't seem to worry Sony.
In a lengthy in-depth article about everything Marvel-Sony, The Hollywood Reporter revealed today that Venom will also feature the villain Carnage, a long-time fan favorite character. Other than knowing that fans have been hoping and wishing for the character for a very long time, I don't know much about Carnage. But thanks to Collider, here's a little description on the character:
The character first appeared as serial killer (ugh) Cletus Kassidy. Kassidy shared a cell with Brock in prison, and Brock escaped using the symbiote. However, the symbiote left some of itself behind, merged with Kassidy, and the Kassidy became Carnage. His powers include physical strength, shapeshifting, and all of Spider-Man's powers. Basically, Venom is "What if Spider-Man was an anti-hero?" and Carnage is "What if Spider-Man was a bad guy with lots and lots of powers?"
I don't know how much faith I have in Venom and what Sony is cooking up over there. They've made fantastic Spider-Man movies before, but the minute they decide jump on the cinematic universe train, everything goes down in flames. I'm all for seeing all these characters on the big screen, but it takes time. I have no doubt Tom Hardy can be a total badass as Venom, but what about the bigger picture? Where does it go? Especially without their main draw in Spider-Man? A Venom vs Carnage fight sounds absolutely amazing, but that isn't everything. Hopefully third time's a charm, right? Venom hit theaters on October 5th, 2018.
Categories: Marvel, News
Tagged as: Sony, Tom Hardy, Venom
'Han Solo' Spinoff: Why Phil Lord & Chris Miller's Exit Is a Good Thing
See Over 40 New 'Transformers: The Last Knight' Images; Watch 10+ Minutes of BTS Footage with New Video


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It's 2018, and believe it or not, a lot of people still aren't fastening their seat belts every time they get in a car. We mean a LOT of people.
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Here's the thing: Driving or riding in a motor vehicle without the proper safety restraints can be dangerous—even deadly. How dangerous exactly? To answer that, we've rounded up some facts and figures about seat belts and car seats, as well as how they're used in the US.
According to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), only 89.7 percent of all motor vehicle occupants regularly used a seat belt in 2017. That's actually down from 90.1 percent in 2016.
Think about that for a minute. With a total U.S. population of about 325 million, that means approximately 33.4 million people aren't wearing seat belts on American roads, or about one out of ten.
What's the problem, you ask? According to the NHTSA's latest data, in 2015 there were 35,092 people killed in car crashes. Of those, 48 percent weren't wearing seat belts. In addition, 80 percent of all passenger vehicle occupants who were thrown from a car during an accident (usually due to not wearing a seat belt or not wearing one properly) died.
In that same year, NHTSA estimates that seat belts saved 13,941 lives, and another 2,804 people could have been saved if everyone had simply buckled up.
You might be thinking, "What about airbags? Don't those do anything?" Yes, they do, but they're not enough on their own. Airbags are designed to work together with seat belts to protect you in a crash. In fact, the force of a rapidly opening airbag could injure or even kill you if you're not wearing your seat belt.
According to the NHTSA, children's car seats were used incorrectly in 59 percent of all cases in 2015.
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NHTSA also estimates that about 248 children under the age of 5 were saved by car seats in 2015.
You may be wondering, "How do I know which car seat to use for my child?" or, " How do I properly install my child's car seat?
For more information on this topic, we recommend you take a look at this website. NHTSA also has some detailed instructions on how to install your child's car seat and where to go to have it inspected for safety. If in doubt, always follow the instructions that come with your car seat or booster, as well as the guidelines outlined in the owner's manual of your vehicle.
Hopefully you never get in an accident, but if it ever happens to you, you'll be glad you purchased reliable auto insurance beforehand. The right auto insurance policy can help pay for injuries you or your loved ones might experience in a car crash, as well as damage to property.


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Ide's has been added to 2 tunebooks.
I've posted this tune in memory of Con Durham who passed in the summer of 2012. Though Con was a great piper, he played this tune on whistle with Mazz O'Flaherty on guitar on their album "An Ar Sli'". The transcription posted here is a loose interpretation as I hear it for banjo but Con himself probably never played this the same way twice. As Mazz related, Con played this for Ide's first communion and Ide played it for a memorial concert in Dingle for Con's family last year. I promised Mazz I would play it every week until I couldn't play anymore but I never play it at sessions.
As a reel, it's rather slow. Con played it at just over 80 bpm (if you count it off in cut time.) It almost has a "hornpipey" (or barndance,) feel if you add a little swing to it. It easily accepts ornamentation. I hope you enjoy it.


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Live / Photography / Reviews
LIVE: Wonder Women – Written in the Margins, Manchester Jewish Museum 12/03/2016
Posted on March 12, 2016 by Noctula Press	Leave a comment
©Francesca Nottola 2016
Manchester Jewish Museum, 10.03.2016
Despite my interest in Jewish culture and 'synagigs', I have never been to the Manchester Jewish Museum, so I am very excited to be here tonight, especially after seeing pictures of this wonderful grade II listed building, which is the oldest surviving synagogue in Manchester. I admire the architecture and I get in, unwisely spending my last £3 on a glass of kosher white wine. Genuinely wondering how wine can be kosher, I drink away my ignorance and read the panels on the walls illustrating Jewish rituals and, with great strength, I resist the poster invitation to try on some traditional garments. The venue is buzzing and, in the Exhibition Space, a zine-making workshop has been run by Manchester artist Cherry Styles, creator of The Cheapess zine.
My eyes are welcomed by the beautiful synagogue hall with wooden benches and an inlaid wood balcony. I fear walking into this marvel with a drink, but I am kindly authorised to do so, so I proceed. The wall underneath the majestic painted glass bearing a menorah motif has been decorated with some cream-coloured curtains and hundreds of cards and letters scattered all over the carpet. A young lady is sitting at a desk, writing. I soon discover that the lady is Bolton-born poet, playwright, performer and Hippocrates Prize for Young Poets judge Clare Pollard. With Joni Mitchell and Björk in the background, among others, Pollard introduces us to her contemporary translation and interpretation of Ovid's Heroides (Epistulae Heroidum), an interesting series of letter poems from Greek mythological heroines to their partners far away. Among the most well-known: Sappho, Penelope, Medea and Ariadne. Not having read Ovid's text, it's impossible for me to understand how much modernity is already embedded in the original and how much is creatively sprinkled on by Pollard. What I do know, though, is that Pollard's performance is engaging, erudite and desecrating, making these BCE Greek ladies talk like some proud, love-torn 2016 undergraduates. Being used to hearing about Greek and Latin literature in Italian, hearing their names in English is interesting and the thing that amuses me most – because in my head 'fleece' is only the polyester one – is the golden vellum referred to as 'fleece'. All this fuss for a strip of polyester! Thanks to Clare Pollard for encouraging, with her translation and performance work, a discovery of this classic.
The next event tonight is the panel discussion about women in the music industry and their representation in media. BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Stuart Maconie facilitates the discussion with Vanessa Reed (Executive Director of PRS for Music Foundation, a charity that supports the creation and performance of music in the UK), Roxanne de Bastion, singer and songwriter, Chris Long of BBC Manchester Introducing and journalist Laura Snapes (The Guardian, Pitchfork, FT, Uncut, Wire and ex NME, the latter unanimously considered despicable by the entire planel. Snapes recalls the time she had to browse the NME archive to write a celebratory piece about Kate Bush and she was shocked to find nothing but 'dismissive, sleazy' materials. NME's sexism is defined tonight as 'endemic, systematic and just horrible').
Maconie opens the discussion by going straight to the core of the problem of gendering the music world by admitting that, as a journalist, getting rid of the old school sexist lad-culture language apprehended at NME is not easy. A concept reinforced by Chris Long, who blames the reiteration of clichés also to tight deadlines and quick turnaround for journalistic pieces. Among the vocabulary on trial tonight, apparently only used to stereotype women, according to Roxanne de Bastion, 'quirky', 'feisty', 'songstress' (I'm sure I've read songster too) and 'confessional' (hated by Joni Mitchell). Which makes me think of the recent discussion about English dictionaries and how their represent sexist reality with examples like 'rabid feminist'. It is indeed an interesting debate, with Maconie venturing into Wittgenstein's theory of language as shaping reality. I appreciate that Joni Mitchell and Roxanne de Bastion reject the attribute as stereotyping and sexist, and I agree with Maconie that the term may have a dismissive connotation as something girly, straight outta a teenage diary, but I don't think it's sexist and I think it is appropriate to describe some of Mitchell's work. In the end, is male music not out of their teenage diary? Do they not talk about heartbreak? What are Bonnie Prince Billy, Bill Callahan or Nick Cave if not 'confessional'? Is it sexist to label some of their work so?
Maconie, to prove the double standards used when writing about male and female musicians, reads some paragraphs from the hilarious piece written by Louise Bruton in the style used in the press to talk about female musicians. It's brilliant and to the point. However, does this mean that we can deny the relevance of 'sexiness' in selling music? Shall we pretend that sexiness does not matter in bringing us close to other people, including musicians? I'm afraid this would be a massive lie. Have you ever been in the pit when Morrissey gets on stage and witnessed the utter madness he arouses in 50-year-old men? I have. My ribcage was almost crushed by this horde of crazy men running towards the stage last minute flattening anything separating them from their god. 'Homoerotic' does not even cover half of that madness. If no music journalist had recorded David Bowie's boots, Morrissey's shirts, Siouxie Soux's or Robert Smith's hair or Amanda Palmer's body paint and only talked exclusively about the music, the history of music reporting would have represented a reality that does not exist.
Another thing is, obviously, to talk only about those details. To me, the perfect example of how not to do journalism is the famous Daily Mail report about Amanda Palmer's breast escaping her bra at Glastonbury while totally ignoring her performance, which generated the best possible response by this fantastic musician. When I write a review, everything counts, not only the music: lights on stage, the audience, how much a performer speaks, what they say, what they choose to wear, how the stage is decorated, how they interact with other band members, eye contact, engagement, detachment, etc. It can't only be the music. Musicians are humans with a body and a personality who make aesthetic choices that involve also make-up and clothing, which do reveal things about them that are linked to their music. I'm not a member of the 'close reading' school of critics. I like to take everything into account, and if a musician is sexy I'll write it, regardless of gender. What do I mean by 'sexiness'? It's not about being sexually suggestive or flirting with the audience. It's about charisma and casting a spell over an audience. It's about the ability of being desirable, through appearance, words, body movement, looks, smiles, voice. Think of David Bowie. Obviously his music, ideas, concepts and lyrics are fantastic works of art, but what would have David Bowie been without make-up, differently-coloured eyes, costumes, physicality on stage, charming smiles, his looks straight into a TV camera, kisses to Lou Reed and licking Mick Ronson's guitar? He did receive his good dose of journalistic homophobic abuse. Did he care? I doubt it. I can imagine him laughing amused at the embarrassed prudes reporting about his extraordinary performances.
Vanessa Reed highlights how sexism is abundant not only in rock and, surprisingly, in indie too, but also, or perhaps even more so, in opera, and mentions the outrage caused by Rupert Christiansen's unqualifiable review of mezzo soprano Tara Erraught. Despite the outrage, though, the infamous reviewer has proudly stuck to his 'guns' and is still writing for The Telegraph. Stuart Maconie also mentions the research about blind auditions and gender bias in hiring orchestra performers and how the discussion is hopefully bringing change into classical music. (By the way, have you noticed how many non-white musicians are there in orchestras or in the audience? That's for another panel). Shall we talk about jazz? How many female jazz musicians do you know who are not vocalists? I have never met such a sexist, dismissive, condescending sleazy man as my former jazz guitar teacher. And that's a genre traditionally considered the exclusive realm of the intellectuals (= white middle class men). God bless popular music, every day.
Roxanne de Bastion also draws attention to the viciousness of gender-specific questions (maternity, work-life balance, appearance, etc), irrelevant comparisons (to other random female musicians, rather than genre-specific musicians of both genders) and of what I also think is one of the main issues: the 'female' musician label, that casts female musicians as a species of their own existing only in ghetto festivals and International Women's Day events, like women artists and female directors. To de Bastion's mention of the offensively recurrent question only asked to female musicians: Do you write your own music?, Vanessa Reed responds that women too are responsible for perpetuating such assumptions, as in the case of Imogen Heap thinking that Taylor Swift did not write her own music. In defence of Imogen Heap though, I think it's not irrational nor sexist to wonder whether a pop artist does everything on his/her own, although Taylor Swift has shown authentic talent. I think, in this case, it's a matter of genre, rather than gender. Do Justin Bieber, One Direction or Robbie Williams write and produce their own music? I would tend to think they don't, but I'd have to check that. It's the way pop is served in the media plate that makes a journalist doubt about a performer's actual music and songwriting skills, given that, usually, the bigger the scale of advertising, the more inversely proportional the talent of the artist. I acknowledge though that a female pop artist would get asked the question more often than a male musician. As to music production, also discussed tonight, I don't expect any lead songwriter/performer of any gender to be also a producer, and I am always surprised when they are, since they already have so much to do with music, promotion/press and live performances. It requires technical skills that not every musician (regardless of gender) has. So yes, clearly there are fewer female producers, clearly there is sexism and gender bias, but I think that sometimes people charge with sexism (or racism) questions that are legitimate.
The real depressing issue is touched upon by Vanessa Reed: only 16% of British musicians are women, she informs us. I sincerely had not realised it, since these days I read so much about Du Blonde, Laura Marling, PINS, Savages, Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice for example, that I did not think the figures were so grim. Reed blames the figure particularly to the more restricted availability or role models for younger women. True. How many of us have professional or even non professional female musicians in their family? I don't. I do have a professional male musician in the family who passed on his old guitars, and family members who love music and regularly attend music events, but no professional performers. Would having a professional female performer in the family have helped in making me a professional musician? Obviously yes. You just need to read a few biographies of the most important artists and achievers in any field, and behind their success there will most likely be a parent working in the same industry or being committed to do anything possible to make their children succeed, for the best or worst. It's not always the case, but the importance of role models and support is key to success.
Reed, who assesses applications to fund emerging musicians, also reports an interesting episode in which a male member of the committee said about a participant that, since 'she was not a Florence nor an Adele', she was doomed. It is immensely depressing that in a board assessing applications a so-inclined brain has the power to make decisions, but we need to admit that, nowadays, young women do have female role models in most music genres, with some of them headlining festivals and selling out shows everywhere in the world. Not as many as men, but we have to give them visibility. Undoubtedly, many of them have had to go through a lot of abuse and mockery, but they are now the history, present and future of music, and many male musicians would quote Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Siouxie Sioux, Kate Bush, Kim Gordon, Elizabeth Fraser or Nina Simone as their inspiration. As de Bastion adds, in other less institutionalised genres like punk, women have always done their thing, regardless. They are the fierce heroines we look up to, our Wonder Women. Reed also mentions the work of composer Anna Meredith, who ditched her classical career to join indie label Moshi Moshi and has just released her debut album Varmints.
Going back to Taylor Swift, Stuart Maconie argues that he was surprised to see that Kanye West was not crucified to the extent he expected for his lyrics about making that Taylor Swift bitch famous and that Liam Gallagher would have got a much stronger response had he said that. I wouldn't bet on this and, thank god, Kanye West and Liam Gallagher both get the online storms they deserve, although the former's success remains untouched. Not being a fan of either, their stupid narcissistic rants pass me by. De Bastion and Snape also introduce the topic of money, how music managers hand the hard-earned cash to the male members of a band or how male writers get paid or get paid earlier or how female writers are not even considered to be members of staff when music magazine directors are asked about their contributors.
Other hot topic of the conversation is the notorious interview by Rachel Brodsky for SPIN to The Last Shadow Puppets, Miles Kane and Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, a piece that really is emblematic of the plummeting decline of masculine civilisation, particularly if contrasted to the passion, hard work and success in every field achieved by women worldwide so far. It's not good to generalise, but it's impossible not to spot a losing-the-plot trend in that interview. It shouldn't be a woman's problem that a lot of men have lost the plot, but it does affect women when that lost purpose becomes frustration and, potentially, aggressiveness, hatred, abuse or violence, as demonstrated by the cases of publicist Heathcliff Berru and producer Dr Luke Gottwald. Look at this picture again, please. A notable, extremely relevant absentee in the conversation tonight is Mark Kozelek, aka Sun Kil Moon. I did not go and bow to Laura Snapes for the perfect way she responded to that disgusting situation, but I wish I did. The co-writer on my website, Stefania Ianne, was at that gig in London when Kozelek called Snapes a 'bitch', and she reviewed that gig. Ianne says she wouldn't go so far to define him sexist or a misogynist, while I'd put his picture under both dictionary items. I lost all interest in his music after the War On Drugs episode, another 'masculine decline' story, and I part ways from people who dissociate art from life and support musicians like him. An artist is a human being with a behaviour and moral stances. I'm not going to give money and applaud any sexist, homophobic, racist hateful turds. Yes, turds.
The debate then moves to the role of social media, and Stuart Maconie asks if social media are making things better. Panellists all agree that they are, by democratising access to media and by enabling the people who have historically been misrepresented and oppressed voice their experience and opinions. The internet, in general, has enabled a drastic redesign of centres and peripheries, an upheaval of hierarchy and of ranking of voices and a display of international talent that happily bypasses music managers. Laura Snapes and Vanessa Reed, in this respect, mention how interesting, refreshing and enjoyable it has been to read music history as told by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Carry Brownstein of Sleater-Kenney in their memoirs.
It seems a fantastic moment to be a woman in the arts right now. It's true that a shameful lot needs to be done still to readdress the balance in favour of women (and queer, non-white, older, impaired, poorer artists), but the internet has helped immensely in working on such imbalance. There are no excuses and there is no room for victimism any more. We have agency and the power of words. There will still be many insecure, anxious, sexist people in the music industry, but as long as we ignore them and ally with those who also want to see change happen, we have our chance now, as 'female' journalists and artists. There are a lot of acclaimed men in the arts who use their fame to promote the work of less privileged artists, and these are the people we need to work with. We need to go and create our reality. There is crowdfunding, there is government and charity funding for independent music, let's use those resources. Reality has to change and can be changed.
The panel discussion ends soon after 9pm, with no room for questions from the audience unfortunately, but leaving us to what will be a thrilling performance by Serafina Steer and Natalie Sharp. Steer, London-based singer/songwriter, harpist, composer recently turned bassist in Bas Jan, has already released three albums, one of which produced by 'quirky' Jarvis Cocker, and will be performing at Islington Mill on 27th March. Natalie Sharp, aka Lone Taxidermist, is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, performer, costume designer, videomaker, make-up artist, 'cosmic synth diva and London bus chronicler'. Tonight the two are presenting the 'world premiere' of Medea, 'live soap opera, noise poem, mini (high) drama' based on Clare Pollard's translation of Ovid's Heroides and commissioned by Brighter Sound specifically for the event. As their inspiration for the opera, they quote Diamanda Galás and Marc Almond.
What follows is a powerful interpretation of the Greek myth of sorceress Medea and her involvement with Jason and the above mentioned golden fleece, source of so much ado. If I said that I undertood the text sung by Sharp, I'd lie. In the end it's opera, so that's normal as we did not get the libretto. So I can only comment, really, on the extraordinary, fascinating physicality of her dancing performance through which she brings Medea to life and the incredibly varied spectrum of vocal delivery with which she matches Steer's disquieting, experimental music. Steer is at the dock station, managing the musical background from her laptop and she briefly intervenes, wearing a mask, and occasionally disappears under the desk. They are both wearing beautifully crafted tunics and elaborate theatrical make-up. A particularly intense moment occurs when Sharp, while performing, approaches Clare Pollard in the audience, who seems to be admiring ecstatic the way in which these two superb artists have interpreted her interpretation of Ovid's interpretation of the classical Greek myth of Medea, also revisited by Pier Paolo Pasolini and the divine Maria Callas in this 1969 film you may want to watch. The performance ends at 21.30 with a warm satisfied hug between Steer and Sharp. Kate Lowes of Brighter Sound thanks us for attending, and I would like to thank Brighter Sound for their fantastic work promoting music, in general and, specifically, for the interesting meaningful non ritualistic events to celebrate the work of women and International Women's Day this week in collaboration with Creative Tourist, the Manchester Jewish Museum and Band On The Wall.
I leave with a sense of fulfilment. I have learnt a lot, about new artists, different points of view and initiatives to support emerging talent. I am also terrified of writing about a female musician now because the sexist, objectifying non gendered-biased remarks I normally use for both genders might be misinterpreted as targeting only women. Not true. May Devendra Banhart always exhibit his beach body through his flattering skin tight t-shirts. We'll always be there to appreciate. His truly fantastic, quirky, genius, confessional music, of course.
Tags: Amanda Palmer, Anna Meredith, Bas Jan, BBC Manchester Introducing, BBC Radio 6 Music, Carry Brownstein, Cherry Styles, Clare Pollard, David Bowie, Devendra Banhart, Elizabeth Fraser, Epistulae Heroidum, Ezra Furman, Greek mythology, Imogen Heap, Joni Mitchell, Kim Gordon, Laura Snapes, Manchester Jewish Museum, Medea, Morrissey, moshi moshi, Natalie Sharp, Nina Simone, Ovid, Patti Smith, Pier Paolo Pasolini, PRS for Music Foundation, Rachel Brodsky, Roxanne de Bastion, Serafina Steer, sexism, Sleater-Kenney, social media, SPIN, synagigs, The Cheapess zine, Wittgenstein, Wonder Women. Bookmark the permalink.
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After 5 pages, or maybe the the thirteenth time it's toddled up to your lap, you start omitting large swaths of story. Why would anyone in their right mind put this damn many words in a board book? It's like performing an interpretive dance for a telephone pole. When it's over, you're exhausted and quite certain it missed the point.
Or maybe you've read this one: It cajoles you into making embarrassing sounds or singing strange little songs and when all is said and done, you feel like an idiot.
It may not make you sing, quack or read until you're blue in the face, but this damn book is misery in disguise. It insults, it bores. It can turn a warm, soft, snuggle fest into Dissociation-ville USA.
Fear not, you listless, embarrassed board book reader. There is hope.
Between you and me, books don't even matter yet.
For the first couple years, most humans tend to be into things like light and faces and fresh air and anything that happens to be on the ground. So if you just hang out near your kid and go outside once in a while, you're probably good.
If you want to get all fancy by throwing a board book into the mix, then it might as well be something you find highly amusing. Or something that will entertain your kid while you go have a cocktail.
For the later, behold, the wimmelbilderbuchs of Ali Mitgutsch!
My awesome neighbor Slowmamma loaned me these!
These are "teeming picture books," meaning that they have full-spread detailed pictures on every page. And a few characters who continue their story from page to page. Delightfully, unlike their Richard Scary counterparts, they have No Words.
If you've stayed with me this far, then my favorite board book will come as no surprise.
We have Lisa Brown to thank for this breath of fresh air and good ol' renegade McSweeney's for publishing it.
Inside, you'll find visual recipes for those toddlers who tend to forget that mama likes two olives in her gin martini.
It's amusing as hell for the people who know how to read.
Oh, I know what you mean. I have become really good at the "Readers Digest Condensed" versions of books.
And, though they aren't board books and are read for my older kids, there's the AMAZING ILLUSTRATIONS/HORRIBLE STORY books. There's these pop-up books that I can't help but loving the pop-ups in them, so we have several…but the stories are inane.
And I love Eric Carl. Seriously, his books taught my son to turn pages, and yeah, he was staring to read them at 4, so I love his books. But why is the book with all the animals I KNOW the sound to asking "White duck, white duck what do you SEE" but the book with Flamigoes and Hippos and all sorts of animals which I have no idea how they sound are asking "Flamingo, flamingo, what do you HEAR." Why oh why Mr. Carl did you do that to us poor parents? Cause I could quack like a duck and BAA like a sheep but I really, really do not know how to flute like a flamingo.
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Mother's Pizza
Mother's Pizza was once a beloved Canadian brand—until it closed its doors in the late 80s. Decades after, Mother's Pizza came to us with a quest to revive the famed chain restaurant, and appeal to a younger consumer who was unfamiliar with the original brand.
We were tasked with creating a blueprint for a premium family restaurant, balancing its nostalgic roots with a contemporary dining experience. So we set to work.
We immersed ourselves in the roots of Mother's Pizza, modernizing its logo (yet carefully maintaining its authenticity amongst original aficionados), and sprinkled nods to the past throughout the design of all the restaurant's elements: wall décor, menus, glassware, uniforms, signage, packaging, and pizza boxes. We created a fresh look with updated photography, a tone that was welcoming (but a little cheeky), and ads that appealed to old fans and new young ones alike. Since launching the first Mother's Pizza in Hamilton in 2013, Mother's Pizza has opened 3 more locations throughout Ontario, to an incredible success—and it's only ramping up. What can we say? It's been a slice.
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Seil Chat • View topic - Which is the Best Antivirus Software for Laptops?
Post subject: Which is the Best Antivirus Software for Laptops?
Hi friends, I have purchased a New Laptop, I would like to know which is the best antivirus for Laptop.
Post subject: Re: Which is the Best Antivirus Software for Laptops?
I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free, and can be downloaded from here.
Your laptop probably came with a trial version of Norton, Macafee or one of the other 'big' antivirus programmes. It is very important that you uninstall this from the laptop before installing MSE or any other antivirus package. (Uninstall it via the add/remove programmes feature in the Control Panel).


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HR Case Management
Reaping the rewards of Self-Service
by Sunrise | Nov 7, 2006 | Blog, IT Service Management | 0 comments
The Derbyshire Building Society measures the benefits of introducing InternetDesk to the Helpline.
Geraldine Comery, IT Business Delivery Manager at The Derbyshire, introduced InternetDesk to the Helpline in April 2004 with an aim to further improve service to the Society's internal IT users. We asked Geraldine what effect this had had on performance.
Q: Geraldine, in a nutshell, what has InternetDesk done for the department?
A: The greatest impact of InternetDesk has been to relieve the burden on the phones, which has enabled us to improve our service to the users. It has also helped to increase the number of first line fixes quite substantially. In a nutshell, the introduction of InternetDesk has meant that the team is working smarter and performance has improved accordingly.
Q: How was InternetDesk received by your end users?
A: Our statistics show that the users have adopted self-service wholeheartedly. The large amounts of traffic that have been directed away from the phones are testament to this. On average, we are getting 8.6 Internet Desk calls for every 10 answered phone calls*, and in the last two months of last year, we actually received more calls via the internet than we answered via the phone channel.
Q: So what kind of impact would you say this has had on the quality of service you offer?
A: Firstly, it has meant that the percentage of answered phone calls has gone up massively, from an average of 76% before InternetDesk was implemented to 96% afterwards**. Not only are we answering more calls but as a direct result, it also means that the average time to answer a phone call has almost halved – from 22 seconds before to 13 seconds with InternetDesk**. In short, more calls answered, much faster. Secondly, it has extended the hours during which the users can log calls to outside staffed phone times.
Q: And how about actual fixes?
A: Our first line fix rate has really improved, and this increased productivity and has freed up extra capacity. As a result, we have been able to transfer several tasks from other IT support teams to the Helpline.
Q: So what would you say to managers considering introducing InternetDesk?
A: Just look at the statistics above and you have your answer Lets just say that I would not like to lose the InternetDesk as a channel of communication now.
Also bear in mind that self-service is really something that users would expect of a Helpline in the 21st Century. Just look at other types of service that offer it: petrol stations, supermarket checkouts… Why should corporate IT service lag behind?
To find out how you can benefit from Internet Desk, drop us an email at welcome@sunrisesw.com
* average ratio logged over the 6 month period September 2005 February 2006
** average percentage of answered phone calls over a period of 6 months September 2003 – March 2004, compared to the same period September 2005 – March 2006.
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Depending on what sections of society you're aligned with, the notion of an on-demand workforce a la Gigwalk or Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is either the dawning of a glorious new day in the American workplace or the terrifying epitome of modern alienation and exploitation.
For a lot of business owners, shareholders, technocrats, and diehard fans of the free market, the on-demand workforce is awesome: it lets you forgo the hassle of a drawn-out hiring process; you don't really need to worry about benefits; the cost of labor is extremely cheap; and you only have employees when you need them.
And there is a certain fantasy of fluidity to the on-demand workforce that can make it seem attractive to the "99 percent" as well: armed with a smartphone, you can be your own boss. You're not stuck in an office for eight mind-numbing hours; you're choosing your own work instead of having work assigned to you. It sounds liberating. Freeing. Positively all-American.
But consider that the relative freedom of the on-demand workforce also comes with a measure of significant insecurity. Because you are not an official employee of a company, you don't receive benefits. Your wages are markedly lower than they would be for an official employee, which means you have to cram as many tasks into a day as you can just to make enough money to cover your bills. And it's not like you have much of a support system: instead of coworkers, with whom you can collaborate, vent, and enjoy your time at the office, you have other members of the on-demand workforce trying to undercut your bids and win the task for themselves. Hey, everyone has to eat, right?
So the fantasy of freedom becomes a vision of isolation, insecurity, and struggle. Maybe the on-demand workforce isn't so great after all? At least, not the way it is right now.
Founded five years ago, TaskRabbit used to operate on a bidding system: someone posted a task, and other people vied for the chance to do that task by offering competing bids, with the cheapest laborer winning. But as Casey Newton reports for The Verge, TaskRabbit is scrapping this model in favor of a new approach to the on-demand workforce — one that takes more cues from Uber (Newton calls TaskRabbit's new model "Uber for everything") than MTurk.
In the Uber model, users log onto the service, check for available drivers, and then choose from those options. It's not an auction so much as it is a menu. TaskRabbit is going to follow this example. Now, when people post tasks, they don't spark a bidding war. Instead, users who submit tasks will be shown three contractors who are available for the task and their rates. Choose your contractor, and you're good to go.
The decision to rework TaskRabbit's model was sparked, in part, by growing dissatisfaction among workers. In the summer of 2013, TaskRabbit noticed that, despite adding 1.25 million users and doubling the number of contractors on the platform that year, the percentage of completed tasks was declining. The tasks were there; the contractors were available. But the work wasn't getting done.
What's more, contractors often felt like they were underselling themselves in the bidding process. Driven to win tasks by offering the lowest rates, many contractors were accepting work for smaller and smaller amounts of money — amounts that would be obscenely low by most standards. At a certain point, winning bids need to be so low that doing the task is no longer worth the money. The bidding model breaks down.
Under TaskRabbit's new model, the bidding war is replaced by an online marketplace. People choose contractors according to their work history and their rates. Contractors can set prices for their work and only accept tasks from people who are willing to pay that money. Such a model puts a lot more power back in the hands of contractors, empowering them to offer their services to clients at fair prices rather than grovel for the chance to mow someone's lawn for $10.
I mentioned earlier that, while notions of an on-demand workforce can encourage visions of liberation and rugged individualism, the reality is often one of insecurity and exploitation: workers spending hours a day trying to find jobs, accepting projects for meager wages, barely — if at all — scraping by. This isn't mere conjecture.
Writing in The New Inquiry, Jason Huff describes a project he undertook to collect stories from members of Amazon's Mechanical Turk on-demand workforce. The stories he received were quite sobering.
Huff also found that many of these workers turned to MTurk to help them feel productive and worthwhile while searching for full-time employment. MTurk was a refuge for the (hopefully) temporarily unemployed. But what if the on-demand workforce became a more widespread form of employment? Could people actually sustain their lives over the long term using a system like MTurk?
According the Huff, that's unlikely. The workers he heard from often made it clear that they struggled to survive with MTurk as their main source of income. "Why can't there be a place like this that actually offers the chance of making five or seven or ten dollars an hour?" one worker asked, opining on the brutally low wages that MTurk offered. Tasks often paid "a penny or a nickel," this worker said.
Huff also points to an article in The Nation that concludes that MTurk workers are "one of the most exploited workforces no one has ever seen." This picture of the on-demand workforce is far less rosy than the one many of us hold in our heads.
Given the conditions produced by MTurk, it's easy to see that TaskRabbit's new model is a step in the right direction. By allowing contractors to set their own rates — to value their own work — TaskRabbit puts power back in their hands. Hopefully, economically stability follows.
So far, TaskRabbit has seen good results with the new model, according to Newton. While testing the model in London, the company found that the number of users grew three times faster, the number of people who used the service more than once was 50 percent higher, the amount customers spent on tasks doubled, and the number of completed tasks doubled, compared to the old model.
The fact that people spent more money on tasks is probably the best news for TaskRabbit contractors, as it signals a move away from the ruthless pursuit of slashed prices encouraged by a lowest-bidder-wins auction model. Perhaps contractors will be both empowered and able to pay their bills?
Now, the new model isn't perfect. There's still little in the way of job security, and the competition remains l insanely fierce between contractors, just in a different way. Instead of battling over prices, contractors will have to battle over their rankings, as a better ranking means a better chance of showing up in a customer's top-three search results when they post tasks. But at least people are being reasonably paid for their work now.
As on-demand labor platforms further destabilize an already precarious workforce, it's good to see some companies — like TaskRabbit — encourage marketplaces where workers can actually – possibly — maybe — prosper.


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Round up of the Season
Autumn 2021 was certainly a Season we at Welsh National Opera can all be proud of – a full Season, the first since our Spring 2020 Season that was cut off by Covid-19. At times we were unsure as to whether it would happen, but happen it did, and now it is all over we are looking forward to 2022 and all that a brand new year brings. But first, let's look back:
We opened the Autumn Season at our home, Wales Millennium Centre on 9 September with our classic production of The Barber of Seville, a favourite that was appreciated by an audience so glad to be returning to live theatre:
'Congratulations on a splendid comical treat'
'Thank you so much for another fabulous production! Took mum (who's 87) to Barber of Seville … and it was a sheer delight! Once again, thank you for bringing such joy, especially in these trying times'
'A very much welcomed back WNO! The performances were superb!'
Our other Autumn opera was a brand-new production of Puccini's Madam Butterfly, brought into the 21st century by director Lindy Hume. With its white rotating set proving so much more than just a stark box, the simple setting allowed the glorious music to come to the fore, emphasising the emotional wrench endured by Butterfly. Receiving four and five-star reviews as well as countless positive responses from audiences throughout the tour:
'We absolutely loved this production...It was/is a triumph and having seen it I can't imagine any other production coming anywhere near the bar you have set.'
'I wish to congratulate you and all those responsible for the quite outstanding production of Madam Butterfly. My wife and I left on a cloud of enchantment and praise for the whole evening. The set is quite spectacular and intriguing.'
'I was so gripped, moved, entranced, uplifted and shattered, that I felt I had to write. What a fabulous Butterfly for our times.'
'Spell-binding, moving, beautifully, beautifully sung, staging superb. An incredibly refined performance. Just a magical, unforgettable evening.'
In Cardiff, Birmingham and Southampton we also put on WNO Schools Concerts that proved more popular than ever after the disruption to education (and lives); providing a welcome respite and chance for the students - and teachers - to enjoy the experience of a live orchestra performance.
Our return to the stage actually began with trial concerts at St David's Hall and at Wales Millennium Centre in early July to test how performances in front of an audience could work this year. WNO Orchestra also returned to St David's Hall in November as part of the newly renamed Cardiff Classical Concerts as well as appearing again at Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama's Opera Gala, marking the complete return to our supporting role to the students there.
Finally, the memorable appearance by WNO Youth Opera at the opening of the Sixth Senedd on 14 October, in front of Her Majesty The Queen, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall. They performed a special arrangement of Ar Lan y Môr which, by being included in media coverage of the event, allowed their talent to be seen far and wide. Marking a highlight of the past 18 months for many of the young singers WNO encourages and supports.
This Season may well have been a long one, with the tour stretching over three months and our last performance at Venue Cymru on Thursday 2 December; but all dates were successfully reached and it felt so good to be back.
Be the first to know about WNO's forthcoming events and activities and get a glimpse behind the scenes of our busy opera company
Madam Butterfly Puccini Wed 16 Mar 2022 – Sat 14 May 2022
Cardiff, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Plymouth, Birmingham, Llandudno, Liverpool, Southampton
Honeymoon hope turns to betrayal and despair
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