If you're looking for a way to add an extra layer of protection to your home, you should definitely consider the advantages of investing in home door alarms. These types of alarms provide ultimate protection to entry and exit points and can be used for a variety of purposes. Not only can you use them to keep intruders out, but they can provide convenience by alerting you of when someone is at the door.
The type you choose should be based on your individual needs. The majority of people want a home door alarm for the purpose of being alerted to possible intruders. Both wired and wireless alarms are available and serve the same purpose, however, each type comes with its own set of pros and cons. Due to the demand and ease of installation, there is a much greater choice in wireless home door alarms than hardwired alarms.
Like most technology on the market, home door alarms come in a variety of designs and present multiple features. The good news is, there are many door alarms that are both effective and affordable. Whether you want to be notified of intruders or the arrival of customers and visitors, door alarms can be a first line of protection.
Your front and back doors are your main entry and exit points, so this is the most common area to place alarms. Most burglars enter through the front door when breaking in, so having an alarm set here can deter a burglar from sticking around.
There are a variety of ways to make use of door alarms in your home. Many homeowners choose to place them on interior doors, such as a child's room. This helps monitor the child will provide an alert when a child leaves his or her room. For homeowners with pools, an alarm can be placed on the pool gate to notify that someone has entered the pool area. If you are choosing to place an alarm only where you think an intruder might enter, note that garages are often overlooked. A garage, however, adds easy access to your home and should always be protected with an alarm.
It is not uncommon for a business to be protected by door alarms on entry and exit doors. A door alarm used at a business can alert owners and employees of customers and suppliers entering and exiting the building. You will find that many convenient stores use an alarm that chimes to signal the employee that a customer has arrived and may need assistance. This allows employees to stock shelves, do paperwork, or other tasks instead of monitoring the door for potential customers.
Travel door alarms are reliable, powerful, and can be used in hotels, college dorm rooms, or even at home. Thieves often target hotel rooms and a door alarm can be a lifesaver. Most travel alarms are battery operated and compact. Set up is easy and they can be used on sliding doors and windows as well. While many of them tend to be basic door alarms, others boast helpful features, like an LED light, which helps you see around in the dark.
Protect America is here to meet all of your home security needs. If you would like to learn more about home door alarms, contact us today. We offer free quotes, free installation, and more.


Hebrew College is launching the second cohort of its PhD in Educational Leadership, with a specialization certificate in Jewish Educational Leadership. This program is a collaboration between Hebrew College and Lesley University, acknowledged leaders in the field of teacher education, Jewish leadership and textual sources.
The aim of the program is to develop Jewish educators or professionals who want to take on greater and deeper leadership responsibility in Jewish educational institutions and communal organizations. Since this is a part-time program designed for working professionals, the importance of being in a current position of Jewish educational leadership is a component of the integrated nature of the learning program.
The PhD program can typically be completed in three to four years. Components of the program include 48 credits of coursework, three 11-day summer residences in Boston, and a doctoral dissertation. The course of study takes place online and in three summer residencies. This is a cohort based program that enables peer support coupled with a strong advisory team to ensure successful completion of the program in a set time period.
The second cohort for this program begins this coming summer and applications need to be finalized by March 15, 2015. Further details can be found on the Hebrew College website.


text:
Exploring Federal Way as a new frontier
Overcoming Federal Way's general apathy toward exploring itself as a new frontier is essential for shedding the effects of being a hollowed-out corporate company town.
by Keith Livingston
Friday, February 7, 2020 11:30am
Keith Livingston
"Space the Final Frontier" is a phrase many of us know from "Star Trek." Bringing our gaze down to earth, the real frontier that needs our attention is being kind, caring about our neighbors, neighborhoods, creating a community that works for residents, businesses and is concerned about our quality of life.
Our imagination lets us believe that exploration is vital to our existence. Are our community leaders creating opportunities capable of making this city worthy of exploring as a future home base?
Federal Way is the 10th largest city in the state of Washington. At 98,000 residents we are a suburban community of homes, strip shopping centers, and underutilized office buildings. The reality is that we are a city with no sense of self, clear identity, neighborhood cohesiveness or understanding of how to become valued as a next generation destination for raising a family or launching a business.
During our education years most of us learned how to read a statistical bell curve. Federal Way's high point on its bell curve happened years ago. Our former marque corporation, Weyerhaeuser, its business satellites and employees who built the middle-class employment marketplace that created this city's high point on the curve are gone and still departing.
Those of us choosing to live here have an obligation to recognize that we are stuck in a descending trend line that has the potential to become a sustained economic trough. Pointing fingers at one another and playing the "he said – she said" game of community rhetoric that is common each election cycle is a recipe for exacerbating this city's problems.
Management types often use the phrase "paradigm shift" when talking about significant transitional events or opportunities. In this town of status quo thinking, and preference for public safety services above other services means our thinking is one-dimensional. Understanding what is missing and needed for building a strong sense of place and community is what our city leaders should be exploring.
We are a city begging for answers to several questions. First, "What does Federal Way need to do to become more than it is?" and "What can our city do to capture the imagination of a new generation?"
Consultants get paid thousands upon thousands of dollars and spend countless hours across this country trying to crack the code of building a better community. They establish baseline conditions through observation, discussions with staff, elected officials, a selected cross section of community leaders, prepare comparative studies with defined target cities, analyze possibilities and write reports.
The code is rarely cracked by consultants because human behavioral responses tend to be contrarian, change adverse and fear driven. Federal Way is far enough out there to be worthy of exploration but is likely to remain a fringe city within the greater Seattle–Tacoma operating sphere as long as inertia rules our politics and imagination.
Overcoming Federal Way's general apathy toward exploring itself as a new frontier is essential for shedding the effects of being a hollowed-out corporate company town. Exploring us as a change opportunity requires all of us to put on a space suit and enter a twilight zone of past, present and future all happening at the same time.
It is not entertainment, it is work – work most of us are ill-prepared to undertake. We prefer being trapped in the comfort zone of our personal drama, present reality, and 500 plus channels of content available on big screen TVs.
Observing our community's behavior and engaging in discussions with our elected elites, one might conclude we have no understanding of how to prepare a community for exploration, improvement, succeeding or reaching for the stars. Council members in most communities are a collection of competing alien egos trapped by limited vision.
Councils often follow the lead of constituents or groups operating as self-serving squeaky wheels. For change to occur, we need to become better informed and understand the challenges facing our community. Exploration of ideas and possibilities is a low-cost proposition. Implementing change and building the connections necessary to reposition a city, often with assistance from consultants, is where the excitement, community growth, and return on investment are realized.
There are two galaxies that most communities explore for solutions to challenges and the future they seek. The first galaxy deals primarily with public safety, public works and jobs. The lessor explored galaxy, where city-stars begin to shine, forms around the value builders of education, diversity, economic sustainability, and service delivery. This galaxy expands exponentially when combined with a core of quality of life services built around the arts, libraries, parks, recreation, and infrastructure aesthetics.
Public safety, public works and jobs serve as foundational building blocks. However, they are not capable of creating an imagination and destination-driven community. Premier cities are built on education, diverse sustainable employment opportunities, a solid core of quality of life considerations combined with superior service delivery. These are the essentials required for building a city that people care about and are willing to invest in.
Merging these elements into a cohesive universe is what it will take for Federal Way to become worthy of exploration and a settlement frontier for a new age.
Keith Livingston is a longtime Federal Way resident and community observer. He can be reached at keithlivingstondesign@gmail.com.
Short legislative session turns left

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Asheboro High School denies student diploma for wearing Mexican flag over gown; School district releases new statement
by: Emily Mikkelsen, Daniel Pierce
Posted: Jun 4, 2021 / 11:19 AM EDT / Updated: Jun 6, 2021 / 10:17 AM EDT
ASHEBORO, N.C. (WGHP) – The community is in an uproar after a graduating senior at Asheboro High School was denied his diploma.
According to witness video, Ever Lopez was wearing a Mexican flag over his gown when he walked across the stage, and he received his diploma holder but when he went to retrieve his actual diploma, he was refused and allegedly told he had to apologize.
Triad organization starts 8:46 Series to keep conversation about race going
Many viewers have reached out to tell FOX8 about this situation, saying that other students also had similarly decorated their regalia and were not punished.
Lopez told FOX8 he was in possession of his flag throughout the graduation. He did not put it on until he began to walk the stage, and was only confronted when he reached his principal.
"She was like, 'You cannot be wearing that,' and I was like — I was in shock," Lopez said. "I was like, 'What?' And she was like, 'You can't be wearing that flag, it's a distraction.' I was like, 'There's no way you're telling me this now.'"
Asheboro City Schools states that wearing a flag of any kind was against the stated dress code for the graduation ceremony.
You can read the full statement released by Asheboro City Schools below:
First and foremost, we strongly support our students' expressions of their heritage in the appropriate time and place. Our graduation dress code is clearly shared with students ahead of time, and the wearing of a flag of any kind is a violation of the dress code. In the past two years we have allowed students to decorate their mortar boards as a nod to their individuality and creativity. We are very clear with students that this was the ONLY acceptable deviation from the standard cap and gown regalia. Unfortunately, we will now be reevaluating that decision for future senior classes in light of the situation that occurred last night.
We continue working to resolve this issue with the student and his family so that he will receive his diploma from Asheboro High School. He has worked very hard and we commend him on this great achievement. We are confident in his abilities and we know he has a bright future ahead of him.
The accusations being made about our school and district are disheartening. We work with each student daily to ensure they receive rigorous instruction, equitable opportunity, and compassionate care in a safe and inviting learning environment. Across our school and district, we are passionate about seeing all students succeed.
Leigh Anna Marbert, the public information officer for Asheboro City Schools, released a second statement on Friday afternoon, saying the "incident at AHS last night has been misrepresented across a number of social media platforms."
That new statement can read below:
Unfortunately, the incident at AHS last night has been misrepresented across a number of social media platforms. The heart of the issue is the fact that the student did not follow the established dress code for the event and detracted from the importance and the solemnity of the ceremony. Our dress code is in place to ensure the dignity of the event is upheld and is fair to all students. Graduation is a milestone event and it is grossly unfair for one individual to diminish this event by violating the dress code.
Furthermore, the following information are the facts of what happened last night.
· The student attended and fully participated in the graduation ceremonies at AHS.
· This incident is not about the Mexican flag. Students were encouraged to express their identity by decorating their mortar boards. A number of students followed the protocol and had the Mexican flag and other representations appropriately displayed during the ceremony.
AHS has a long standing tradition of high standards for our students. Graduation is no different. These policies are in place so that all students and families have the opportunity to enjoy graduation. We are disheartened by the many comments by those not present at the event, along with those by individuals who do not have all of the facts.
AHS has long celebrated and embraced a diverse student body and will continue to work on behalf of all students.


text:
Mutamayizeen Al-Khadraa () () is a special secondary school located in Baghdad, Iraq.

The school was established by the Ministry of Education directly for students who met high academic requirements. Along with Baghdad College. Two high schools were established (one for boys and one for girls) in 1990 in the neighborhood of Al Khadhraa. After the fall of the former Iraqi regime in 2003 and the restructuring of the Ministry of Education, the quality of education decreased significantly. Most of the professors with doctoral degrees emigrated from Iraq. For these many reasons, K.D.S hold the education to high, different level for students, and collaboration with the best teachers in Baghdad from long time ago.

At the current moment, many schools have been implemented whether in Baghdad or in the provinces for the same purposes.

K.D.S has earned the most efficient education award from the Ministry of Education in Iraq for the year 2020. Their graduated students are always proud of the school work around ages.
Around half of the Medicine students in Baghdad's public universities have graduated from Distinguished Schools (whether this one or other schools with similar educational systems)

Prior to enrollment, students must pass academic and IQ tests to be accepted in. The students study in English rather than Arabic for scientific subjects.
This matter caused polemics due to the fact that, although these students study different curriculums from those of other schools, no special procedures have been implemented to invest in their academic capacities

Schools in Baghdad
1990 establishments in Iraq
Educational institutions established in 1990

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Transcript of television interview – ABC News Breakfast
Subjects: Budget 2017, cuts to infrastructure investment, Deficit Levy, Medicare Levy
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: We're joined now by Labor MP Anthony Albanese from Parliament House. Anthony Albanese, good morning, thanks for joining News Breakfast.
ALBANESE: Good morning Virginia.
TRIOLI: Now look, some aspects of the infrastructure announcement in the Budget had already been anticipated and was even part, I think, of a previous Budget handed down by Joe Hockey. But looking at it as independently as you possibly can, can you see any considerable growth coming from those infrastructure projects over ten years?
ALBANESE: Not at all. That's the problem here Virginia. There was actually a cut in this year's Budget of, just last year they said $9.2 billion. The figure in the actuals is $7.6 billion. There is a decline each and every year of the forward estimates so that by 2020-21 that figure is down to $4.2 billion. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, the industry group, have said that this is the lowest level that infrastructure investment has been for over a decade. This is all spin. And in the outer years, in the never-never, saying they are going to do something.
For example the so-called $10 billion rail investment fund is nothing this year, nothing next year, nothing the year after and $200 million the year after that. I mean, this is a joke. Absolutely not a dollar being spent between now and the next election, in terms of the Budget.
And what we've seen is a series of delays, a series of shifts, in some cases, double counting, in the Budget Papers itself. It's interesting that they couldn't get it right. It says 75, but it says 70 in their actual documents, but they are double counting. They are counting $1.2 billion towards the METRONET rail project, but then it says $1.2 billion for Perth Freight Link. It's the same money. You can't spend it twice.
TRIOLI: All right, we've got some infrastructure specialists joining us later in the program to break that down so we'll get to your points and your criticism later…
ALBANESE: But there's only one new project, astonishingly. The only actual real investment announced in this Budget is $13 million for a road called North Collector, which is near Nowra that I certainly hadn't heard of and we presumed it was near Collector. It's not. That's it. That is the only, in Budget Paper No. 2, it clearly indicates new infrastructure investments, that's it for on Budget investment in this Budget.
TRIOLI: Let's move on to other matters now if we can Anthony Albanese. The Opposition's considering arguing for the retention of the Deficit Levy, in order to support the Medicare Levy in return and the increase there. Can you clarify what your position is going to be on that one?
ALBANESE: Well Bill will be announcing it tonight, but clearly the papers have been briefed. Not surprisingly that Labor objects to the idea that if you're a millionaire you get a $16,400 tax cut as a result of the abolition of the Deficit Levy. But if you're earning $22,000 or above, you're going to be hit with a new tax in terms of the increase in the Medicare Levy.
TRIOLI: So is that going to be the non-negotiable for the Opposition? That that Levy has to stay in place in order for there to be any support? Or you are arguing for an either/or here?
ALBANESE: Our position, Bill will outline the details tonight, but our position has been for some time that you shouldn't have a tax system that hits those people at the low and middle end and lets people at the top off scot-free. Whether it's individuals or the big $50 billion tax cut for corporations that's still in there and is unfunded.
TRIOLI: Anthony Albanese, am I wrong in picking up that you're a bit narky that the papers have been briefed on that this morning?
ALBANESE: No, not at all. It was a Shadow Cabinet decision to do that.
TRIOLI: Look John Howard yesterday described the Budget as a highly political document. How badly though, do these politics marginalise you, marginalise the Opposition, given that they've really manoeuvred into your space?
ALBANESE: It's all colour and movement though, Virginia. And what we've seen in the past…
TRIOLI: Well it's not if it translates into a big bump in the polls, which conceivably it could.
ALBANESE: We'll wait and see. But what we saw in 2014, if you go back and have a look at the front pages, in 2014 or 2015 or 2016 for that matter, what you get is a big splash about success and growth and how the Government has a strategy and it all went to pieces over a period of days.
This one, in terms of its flawed infrastructure strategy, of course has already been picked apart by people like Michael Pascoe, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. In terms of healthcare, people are pointing out that the change to the freeze on Medicare payments has been deferred for three years. I think people will have a look at the fact that they're going to be paying more taxes, but millionaires are going to be paying less tax as a result of last night's Budget.
When you look at the education changes, there's a $22 billion difference between what Labor committed to in agreements with the States and Territories, with the Catholic Education Office and with independent schools and what the Government is putting forward. There's no plan, actually, for jobs and growth coming out of this Budget. What we're seeing is higher unemployment, lower jobs growth, lower economic growth and deficits without a real plan for how the economy is going to grow. You can invest in people through education, skills and training, or you can invest in infrastructure. This Budget, from this Government, does neither.
TRIOLI: Just turning to you Anthony Albanese, you've absolutely ruled out any tilt at the leadership, but given the politics of the time and the economic shifting of the Government right now, does the leadership approach then of the Opposition now need to shift too?
ALBANESE: Look what we do Virginia is get on with the job of doing each of our jobs that we have as a team.
TRIOLI: Sure, but my question goes to when the Government that you're opposing shifts ground so substantially, doesn't your approach need to shift too?
ALBANESE: Our values don't shift. Our approach on issues is one whereby we determine our action collectively and we move forward in a united way. But our values don't shift. We stand for the many, they stand for the few. We stand for economic growth, but economic growth with a purpose so that the mass of the population can benefit. They haven't broken away from standing for the top end of town and this Budget shows that.
TRIOLI: Ok, Anthony Albanese, good to talk to you this morning. Thank you.


text:
\section{Introduction}

On March 11, 2020, the COVID-19 disease was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). As of August 19, the disease has infected over 22 million people worldwide with over 770,000 deaths. Individual face mask usage has been demonstrated to reduce transmission rates. However, within the United States, individual face mask usage has become a polarized topic.
Face masks can be differentiated into two categories. The first category are N-95 masks, which fit the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) certification for filtering at least 95 percent of airborne particles \cite{N95}.
Only N-95 masks have been shown to effectively reduce both infection and transmission rates; thus, they are the only masks that healthcare workers can use to minimize the chance of contracting COVID-19 when interacting with patients within close quarters. Other types of masks include surgical grade masks, reusable masks, and homemade face covering; these masks have been shown to be effective at preventing transmission \cite{mask_effective}, but not at preventing a mask wearer from infection.
These masks are not NIOSH-Approved and are not sufficient for healthcare workers who are in close contact with patients on a daily basis.
During February, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) official policy towards face masks was not to wear face masks for personal use. The CDC was concerned that recommending face mask usage as a policy would encourage hoarding behavior by non-healthcare workers and prevent healthcare workers from getting enough N-95 masks. These concerns were motivated by concerns of hoarding behavior\footnote{Hoarding behaviour was observed on other essential supplies, such as hand sanitizer}.

On February 29, the Surgeon General tweeted:
\vspace{0.2in}
\begin{quote}
{\it
    ``Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching \#Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!"
    }
\end{quote}
\vspace{0.2in}

However, on April 03, the CDC reversed its earlier stance towards personal face mask usage, citing studies that showed the high amount of asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 \cite{news2}.
The rationale behind the policy change was that although there is no conclusive evidence that wearing a non-NIOSH-approved face mask prevents one from getting sick, asymptomatic carriers who wore non-N-95 face masks  prevent others from getting sick. Within the news media, shifts in governmental policy such as the one on April 3, along with inconsistent face mask policies by governmental officials, have been blamed for face masks becoming a political statement and an increasingly controversial topic \cite{news1}.
Given potential confusion about the effectiveness of masks as well as shifts in public policy towards face mask by governmental bodies such as the CDC, it becomes important to measure and understand both public perception of the public towards face masks and how public perception is affected as a result of policy shifts. To this end, our study utilizes demographic inference and sentiment analysis to track public perception of face masks. We also introduce change point analysis on the sentiment time series as an effective method of testing whether events cause statistically significant shifts in sentiment.

In summary, our contributions in this study are as follows:

\begin{itemize}
    \item We employed state-of-the-art, multi-modal demographic inference techniques to characterize Twitter users over a wide amount of demographics of interest;
    \item We performed topic modeling and analysis on a novel and relevant subtopic of COVID-19---face mask usage; and
    \item We applied iterative offline sentiment time series detection on Twitter data with demographic filters to confirm the findings from existing surveys and uncover new insights in public opinion on this polarizing national issue.
\end{itemize}

\section{Related Work}
Twitter has been verified as a valuable source of data for analyzing and predicting various large-scale societal events such as elections \cite{1click}. During other pandemics such as the 2009 H1N1 pandemic \cite{H1N1} and the 2014 Ebola outbreak \cite{ebola}, Twitter has been used to monitor public sentiment towards the pandemics. Sentiment analysis and topic modeling research has been done on various aspects of COVID-19 such as investigating college students' sentiment towards the pandemic \cite{Duong_college} and analyzing the use of controversial terms such as "Chinese Virus" \cite{chinese virus}.

The majority of literature on face mask usage during COVID-19 has been on assessing face mask effectiveness and modeling effects of universal face mask usage \cite{mask_effective}, rather than measuring public perception towards face masks. Notably, there has not been any work specifically analyzing public perception towards face mask usage during COVID-19. Face mask usage is of particular interest considering recent news coverage surrounding politicization of mask usage and face mask mandates by corporations and state legislatures. Furthermore, demographic inference of users is important in light of sparse demographic reporting for those infected by COVID-19 and disparities found in infection and fatality rates along race, age, generational, racial, and economic lines \cite{covid_dem}.  We built upon previous research in social media demographic inference that analyzes users' location, gender, race, and occupation using publicly available data \cite{M3, race}. Previous works on Twitter demographic inference differ from our approach in two ways: they either focus on a slim set of demographics (three or less) or only take a single aspect of a tweet object as input (only text, for example) \cite{twitter_demo}.
In contrast, the recent advances in machine learning  makes it possible to utilize a \emph{multi-modal} approach to demographic inference along a \emph{wide} set of demographics.

Change point detection is an effective method to discover statistically significant shifts in time series data. Existing work on exploring sentiment time series graphs resulting from social media data has been sparse. Ref.  \cite{sent_change} uses online sentiment change detection to detect sentiment changes on Twitter streams of a specific hashtag and offline change detection is used to try to rediscover the shifts. Our approach differs in a few ways: we use an exact offline change point search algorithm rather than an approximate online change point search algorithm that detects changes in variance, an arguably more precise and efficient method \cite{PELT}; we iterate through multiple time series filtered through demographics (which is more specific than a hashtag constraint); and we use VADER \cite{VADER} for sentiment analysis which is valence-aware and specifically tuned for social media data, rather than a generic sentiment analyzer.

\begin{figure}[htpb]
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=.9\columnwidth]{images/frame/framework.png}}
\caption{Overview of the demographic inference framework.}
\label{framework}
\end{figure}

\section{Demographic Analysis}
\subsection{Pre-processing}
We sampled tweets from a Covid-19 Twitter chatter dataset for scientific use \cite{dataset}. The dataset contains COVID-19 tweets that start from January 11, 2020 and, at the time of writing, continues to be gathered. We restricted our analysis of the data up to August 10, 2020. Each tweet is cleaned of URLs, hashtags, emojis, and  on Twitter. A version of the tweet containing emojis and hashtags is kept to feed into our sentiment analyzer. Every tweet is also tokenized, where each string is broken down individual words useful for sentiment analysis. A regex search for tweets that contain the terms in a dictionary of mask-related terms (e.g. ``face mask'' and ``mask'') along with a set of mask-related hashtags (e.g \#facemask) is applied to the data set and the tweet language is restricted to English. We recover the full JSON Twitter objects using hydration. Deleted tweets could not be recovered and are thus thrown out. Additionally, twitter accounts that were found to have a high chance of being an organizational entity rather than a person from the M3 model were also thrown out. After pre-processing, a total of 1.2 million tweets are gathered that mention mask-related terms spanning from January 11, 2020 to August 10, 2020.

\subsection{Valence-Aware Sentiment Analysis}
The Valence Aware Dictionary and Sentiment Reasoner (VADER) model is used for processing text and predicting valence scores and sentiment \cite{VADER}. The model utilizes a long short-term memory (LSTM) architecture and is trained on a gold standard of tweets created by 20 raters. The VADER model is chosen because it adjusts its rule-based compound score according to emojis and other common social media features that other sentiment models do not take account of. VADER outputs a number a normalized value from $[-1,1]$. Thus, we consider a positive VADER score of as having positive sentiment (such as $.04$), a negative VADER score as having negative sentiment (such as $-.04$), and a score of 0 as having neutral sentiment. When we refer to the VADER score of each demographic, we are referring to the average VADER score of that demographic.

\subsection{Age, Gender, and College Student Classification}
Age and gender are two demographics of interest. In particular, Covid-19 has been shown to have a higher mortality rate amongst the older population and COVID-19 death data reveals that men suffer a higher fatality rate from COVID-19 \cite{covid_dem}. We extract age and gender using the M3 model, a multi-modal deep learning system for inferring the demographics of users from four sources of information from Twitter profiles: user's name (first and last name in natural language), screen name (Twitter username), biography (short self-descriptive text), and profile image \cite{M3}. During the process of retrieving the profile images, we discard entries that contain a faulty profile image link, invalid picture format, deleted profiles, or users that do not output a prediction for any other reason. In the end, we are left with 1.09 million tweets which are able to have their age and gender predicted.

\begin{figure}[htpb]
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/ag/ag_dist.png}}
\caption{Age and Gender Distributions of All Users}
\label{ag_dist}
\end{figure}

College students are a demographic uniquely impacted by COVID-19. Previous work on analyzing college students has shown that college students react more negatively to COVID-19 than the general population \cite{Duong_college}. In the early days of the outbreak, it was reported that students continued to travel to popular spring break locations. We followed the methodology employed in \cite{Duong_college} to build a college student classifier. We gathered a gold standard balanced set of training data composed of 250 college students and 250 of non-college students. Two different raters hand labeled the entries. A score was assigned to each Twitter user if the raters agreed on the score.

Ref. \cite{attributes} finds that users reveal their identifying attributes in the possessive form. We build upon a list of attributes that identifies a user as a college student from \cite{Duong_college} (e.g. ``my textbook'' and ``my professor'') and their point wise mutual information (PMI) to obtain a custom list of distinguishable attributes. We downloaded the full timelines of 100,000 users; due to Twitter rate limits, we are unable to download more than this number of timelines. We ran a 80/20 train-test split on our training data and converted the collection of timelines into a matrix of TF-ID features using a TF-ID vectorizer. We then extract relevant terms of the timelines for the training data and ran the relevant terms through a random forest classifier using our training labels to determine and predict class labels for whether the user is a college student or not using the list of identifying attributes. Users that displayed a high frequency of terms such as ``professor" and ``textbook" had their labels manually overridden to be college students.

\begin{figure}[htpb]
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/col/col_ag_dist.png}}
\caption{Age and Gender Distributions of College Students}
\label{col_ag_dist}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[htpb]
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/ag/sent.png}}
\caption{Average Sentiment Score across each Demographic}
\label{all_sent}
\end{figure}

A large majority of our data appears to be drawn from the Male, over 40 category when we look at all users. Previous Twitter demographic research \cite{attributes} have found that Twitter users skew young. However, a majority of our data finds Twitter users in the 40 and over age demographic (Fig. \ref{ag_dist}). One potential conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the 40 and over demographic disproportionately tweet about face masks as they are over represented. The gender distribution of the college students appears to coincide with the known fact that females attend college at a higher rate than males as the female college population is larger in the college student data set than the entire data set. The $\leq$18 and 19-29 categories make up $82.8\%$ of the college student data. This implies that the college student classifier is reasonably accurate, as most college students fall within this age range.

Two key observations can be made on this data: females were found to have a higher average sentiment than males and college students have a different outlook on face masks than the general population. The fact that females have higher sentiment than males agrees with current surveys showing men are less likely to wear masks \cite{survey2}. College males had positive sentiment towards face mask in comparison to males in the overall data set. College females had higher sentiment than females in the overall data set. The college students in the $\leq$18 and 19-29 categories had higher sentiment than the counterpart in the complete data set. The college 30-39 and $\geq 40$ categories had opposite sentiments from their counterparts. We are not sure why this is. One factor that might have skewed the sentiment data for these two categories is the fact that the two categories should be underrepresented in the college population. Any inference that a user is both a college student and is over 30 is, according to probability, likely a result of an error from either classifier.

\subsection{Location and Average Household Income}
Approximately, 8.2\% (89,380) of the gathered twitter data which was able to have the user's age and gender inferred had a non-empty location. The location were checked against a list of cities within the United States. Only locations matching a city were kept. The median household income of the zip code associated with the city is retrieved and associated with each data point. We grouped household income based on the zip code's median household income's relationship to the real median household income within the entire United States (above, equal, below), which is 63,179 as of 2018 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Each county is classified according to the 2013 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) classification scheme \cite{RUCC}. The RUCC classification scheme assigns each county in the county a number from 1-9. The schema differentiates metro areas based off population size and non-metro counties by level of urbanization. A county is assigned a number from 1 to 3 if it is considered a metro area and a number from 4 to 9 if it considered a non-metro area. We investigate the sentiment of each state through the four regions identified in the United States Census Bureau: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. From this point forward, we refer to each region informally as East Coast, Midwest, South, and West Coast respectively.

Within our dataset, there are more metropolitan users than rural, more coastal users than the South and the Midwest, and more above average income users. This coincides with previous research on these specific demographic categories which implies that our methodology is reasonably accurate.

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[scale=1.5, width=\columnwidth]{images/loc_income/cen_geo_dist.png}
    \caption{Geographic Area and Census Region Distribution.}
    \label{fig:cen_geo_dist}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/loc_income/inc_dist.png}
    \caption{Median Household Income Breakdown}
    \label{fig:inc_dist}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/loc_income/loc_sent.png}
    \caption{Average sentiment by geographic area and census region distribution.}
    \label{fig:geo_sent}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/loc_income/inc_sent.png}
    \caption{Average sentiment by Zip Code median household income.}
    \label{fig:inc_sent}
\end{figure}

Rural counties had more negative sentiment while urban counties had a higher positive sentiment. A possible explanation may be that face mask usage is more of a concern in metro environments due to higher population density in these areas. We also note that Twitter users are more represented in metropolitan and coastal regions in general. The Midwest and South also have negative sentiment in contrast to the coastal regions which have positive sentiment. This could potentially be due, again, to the population density difference, among other reasons (see Fig. \ref{fig:geo_sent} for comparisons). Above average income users and average users had positive sentiment, in contrast to below average income users. One explanation for this observed trend is that living in a zipcode with a higher median household income is correlated with living in a coastal, metropolitan region, as these regions tend to have a higher cost of living. Another explanation could be the fact the low-income households are more adversely affected by COVID-19.

\subsection{Ethnicity}
We attempt to infer the ethnic profiles of each Twitter user in the 1.09 million users whose age and gender are previously inferred. First, we extract the first and last name utilizing a name parser; any middle names or titles are disregarded. We also craft a set of rules to remove any names that are not legitimate names (e.g. having a long sentence as a name). Then, the first and last names into an LSTM model trained on US census data from a Wikipedia database of names and their associated race \cite{race}. Ultimately, we are able to infer 900,000 legitimate names. For example, an entry with the first name John and the last name, "Smith," would output a prediction for a Greater European, West European, British name. The ethnic prediction methodology yields 12 separate racial profiles corresponding with the Wikipedia training data. We group the 12 different racial profiles into 5 major groups: European (Germanic, Britain, East European), Hispanic (which includes Spanish origin names), African (as well as Muslim), East Asian and Indian.

Notably, there appear to be less users with a name of European descent than expected based off existing census data. The most significant finding from the racial analysis is that the only ethnic profile to show negative sentiment is the European ethnic profile. This coincides with the ample media reports on the stronger resistance to face masks among this ethnic group \cite{survey1, survey2}.  Also, East Asian and Indian profiles have higher sentiment than African and Hispanic ethnic profiles.

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/ethc/ethc_dist.png}
    \caption{Ethnic profile distribution.}
    \label{ethc_dist}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/ethc/ethc_sent.png}
    \caption{Sentiment by ethnic profile.}
    \label{ethc_sent}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Political Affiliation}
Ref. \cite{1click} finds that 92\% of Twitter users who follow a political candidate, only follow candidates of a single party. The methodology is not able to be emulated exactly, due to the Twitter rate limits, so a modified methodology is utilized. First, the tweets are filtered for keywords drawn from a political keyword dictionary (which includes the names of presidential candidates, among others). This increases the likelihood that the user is politically active (e.g. follows a Democrat politician or Republican politician). Next, the ``following'' list of each user that passes the initial filter is downloaded. The timeline is checked against a list of the verified senators and presidential candidate Twitter account ids. Per the 92\% one party heuristic from \cite{1click}, it is assumed that if a user follows a candidate of one party, they only follow candidates of that party, and the respective party affiliation is attached to the user. This allows for retrieval of a higher volume of users with assigned political affiliation given Twitter rate limits. Ultimately, 241,199 users are able to be assigned a political affiliation.

\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/pol/pol_sent.png}
\caption{Sentiment and distribution across political affiliation. }
\end{figure}

The fact that there are more Democrats within the collected data is unsurprising, given that existing Twitter demographic research shows that most Twitter users are identify as liberal \cite{twitter_demo}. It is notable that Republicans have sentiment that is more negative than the Democrats' sentiment is positive. This finding also agrees with current surveys \cite{survey2}.

\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{images/lda/lda.png}
\caption{Word count and importance of topic keywords.}
\end{figure*}

\section{Topic Analysis}
Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) is utilized to discover universal topics within the chatter dataset. Only noun, verb, adjective, and adverb lemmas are kept in each token to extract the most relevant information. The bigrams and trigrams are computed. The \emph{NLTK} stop words package is supplemented with a custom dictionary of virus-related words (i.e. infection, covid19) to ensure only novel topics. The LDA model with the highest combination of coherence score and subjective interpretability is chosen. Four topics are chosen to analyze and table \ref{tab:table1} shows the rough topic groupings with an example representative tweet.
\begin{table}[ht!]
  \begin{center}
    \caption{Latent Dirichlet Analysis Topics Description and Example Tweets}
    \label{tab:table1}
    \begin{tabular}{l|l}
    \hline
      \textbf{Topic Description} & \textbf{Example Tweet} \\
      \hline
      \multirow{5}{.3\columnwidth}{Topic 1: Mask at School and Work} & No requirements appear to be included\\ & for masks or any other additional\\ & safety and prevention. When the majority \\ & of teachers and support staff are \\ &  home sick thatll be a short school year. \\
      \hline
      \multirow{6}{.3\columnwidth}{Topic 2: Governmental Mask Policy} & About time Governor DeSantis mandates  \\ & the wearing of masks in public. \\ & Lives before politics Governor,\\ & and for people who refuse to wear masks, \\  & idiosyncrasies have no place in a pandemic. \\& I applaud the Florida lawyer for his efforts. \\
      \hline
      \multirow{2}{.3\columnwidth}{Topic 3: Post-Pandemic Events} & Wear a dang mask   if you want to \\ & see Big Tex again. \\
      \hline
      \multirow{6}{.3\columnwidth}{Topic 4: Public Health Concerns} & ``From a medical standpoint it would be \\ & extremely rare to have a condition where \\ & you truly could not wear a mask,'' \\ & said Dr. Clay Callison, a pulmonary \\ & disease doctor and and UT Medical \\ & Center's Chief Medical Information Officer. \\
      \hline
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
\end{table}

\subsection{Analysis}

Each topic is interpreted to have an overall theme. Subtopics are identified by reading through representative example tweets and then listing subtopics that reoccur often. Four topics are identified: Masks at School and Work, Governmental Mask Policy, Post-Pandemic Events, and Public Health Concerns.

The first topic talk about masks at school and work. Two subtopics are highlighted: concern for a lack of safety precautions in school and places of work work and observations about mask usage at school and work. One interesting reoccurring concern within the first subtopic is that places of work and school are reopening prematurely, which is expressed within the example tweet in Table \ref{tab:table1}. Many tweets express doubt towards proposed efforts to reopen safely. Tweets within this subtopic may claim that ``teachers and students will die" when schools reopen. The second subtopic of tweets contains observations about the rates of mask usage at school and work. The observations almost always center on a lack of face mask usage at school and work. For example, a few tweets talk about seeing crowded schools in a state where no students are wearing masks.

The second topic talks about governmental mask mandates and policies. Many of the tweets talk about state officials such as the state governor or other elected public officials. Notably, a large portion of the tweets talk about Trump's usage of masks. There are many tweets that comment on the tweet Trump created on July 20, 2020 about wearing a mask. The tweets either claim that Trump is being hypocritical or thanking Trump for being patriotic (per the language of Trump's tweet). Some tweets express a conspiracy that Trump is wearing a mask because he is being ``forced to'' by some entity. When discussing political officials other than Trump, tweets range from congratulating state officials for their policies towards face masks or complaining about the state officials' policy. The topic also includes discussion about mask mandates at stores such as Walmart, Walgreens, and Kroger. There is also many mentions of the CDC and WHO. For example, one tweet claims that the CDC is guilty of ``criminal negligence'' regarding ``lies about mask''. This verifies our earlier hypothesis that Twitter users may have been confused about policy changes.

The third topic talks about post-pandemic events. The tweets talk about what people plan to do when the pandemic is over or what events that they missed due to the pandemic. Some of the tweets are formulated as a plea to wear masks so that people can go to certain events that they are not able to during quarantine. For example, a tweet may ask people to wear masks ``if they ever want to see a concert again''. When examining tweets early in the pandemic, from around late March to early May, there are tweets talking about how the pandemic would be over soon. For example, a tweet may talk about how a year from now, everyone would look back and say, ``remember when we had to wear masks''.

The fourth topic talks about general public health concerns. Under the umbrella of general public health concerns, there is a recurrent line of discussion on the effectiveness of masks. Tweets may cite research on masks or claim that masks are not effective at all. Tweets that claim that masks are not effective cite multiple reasons. A few cite religious protection; for example, one tweet says that there is ``no need to wear a mask'' and that one can ``JUST PRAY''. A few tweets mention N-95 masks. The tweets that mention N-95 masks appear to display understanding of the difference between N-95 masks and other masks. For example, a tweet that talks about N-95 masks may mention an N-95 mask's ability to protect one ``to the microns''. A non-trivial amount of tweets are about self-made masks. These tweets detail masks being made out of miscellaneous materials such as cloth.

\section{Experiment}
We are interested in studying the shifts in public policy by governmental entities as these shifts have been speculated to have contributed to the polarization surrounding individual mask usage. We assume that a shift in policy enacts a shift in the sentiments of tweets about masks. Specifically, we are interested to discover if any public policy shift has a statistically significant effect on the sentiment time series. Since we have access to the full sentiment time series, our experiment can be formulated as an \emph{offline} change point detection problem. Broadly, our methodology is the following: we iteratively run an offline change point detection algorithm to detect any statistically significant shifts in average sentiment for each of the sentiment time series filtered by each demographic. Then, we look within the news for a governmental shift event $\pm 3$ days around the detected change point to account for reactions to news streaming in for a few days and associate the news event with the change point.
\subsection{Problem Formulation}
Modifying notation from \cite{PELT}, we formulate our problem. Let $y=\{y_t\}_{t=1}^{N}$ be a sentiment time series and let any sentiment time series be denoted as $\mathcal{T} \subset N$. We create a sentiment time series for each demographic $D$ as follows: set each $y_t$ as the mean of all sentiments $s$ of the users $u \in D$ in that demographic are included in the calculation.

A change point is a time $\tau$ in a finite time series $\mathcal{T}$ such that there is a statistically significant change in variance $\sigma$ between $y_{1:t}$ and $y_{t+1:\mathcal{T}}$. There are $K$ such points where $K \geq 0$. We utilize the Pruned Exact Linear Time (PELT) algorithm which assumes we have unknown $K$, have access to the full time series $\mathcal{T}$, runs in $\mathcal{O}(N)$, and looks for the best time series segmentation $\mathcal{T}$ that solves exactly for

\begin{IEEEeqnarray}{c}
\min _{\mathcal{T}} V(\mathcal{T})+\beta(\mathcal{T})
\end{IEEEeqnarray}

where $\beta>0$ is a smoothing parameter and $V(\mathcal{T})$ is a criterion which we seek to minimize\footnote{For more detail on PELT, please read \cite{PELT}}.

We run PELT on every demographic sentiment time series as well as the sentiment time series of the complete data. We only find one proper segmentation: within time series is filtered by political affiliation; the results are displayed in Fig. \ref{rep_time} and \ref{dem_time}). PELT finds two change points: at $66$ and $145$ days after January 27, 2020. This roughly this corresponds to April 04, 2020 and July 20, 2020. A change in the color of the background of the graph (alternating blue and red) denotes a detected change point.
\subsection{Discussion}
When looking at the news events relevant to masks that might have caused the sentiment change, two policy shift events could potentially be correlated with the change: the shift in policy by the CDC on April 03 (1 day before April 04) and Trump's tweet on July 20, 2020 about wearing a mask. The specific tweet that President Trump sent from his account said:
\vspace{0.2in}
\begin{quote}
{\it
    ``We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!"
    }
\end{quote}
\vspace{0.2in}

During the previous topic analysis, these two events were cited by many tweets. Only the time series filtered by political affiliation yielded results with PELT search. From January 27 to April 03, both Republicans and Democrats had positive average sentiment. However, after April 03, Republican average sentiment dropped to negative sentiment while Democrat average sentiment became positive. After Trump tweets about wearing a mask on July 20, 2020, there was a shift up in Republican average sentiment. However, Republican average sentiment stayed negative. Democrats, in contrast, had a downshift of average sentiment, but stayed positive in sentiment score. This finding is interesting, as it may imply that political affiliation is the only consistent demographic in predicting how a person's perception will change towards a mask policy change, even though political affiliation is correlated with some of the other demographics inferred in this study (such as a rural location). This finding builds upon existing survey data that show Democrats are more likely to wear masks than Republicans \cite{survey2}.

\subsection{Limitations}
The limitation of this approach is an inability to treat for confounders. Any detected change point may have resulted from another news event that is not the CDC shift or Trump's tweet about wearing a mask. However, given extensive news media coverage on these two events, there is a high likelihood that any statistically significant sentiment shift detected in those date ranges is a result of the major events.

\begin{figure}[htpb]
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/ts/rep_time.png}}
\caption{Republican sentiment time series change point discovery with Pelt search.}
\label{rep_time}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[htpb]
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/ts/dem_time.png}}
\caption{Democrat sentiment time series change point discovery with Pelt search.}
\label{dem_time}
\end{figure}

\section{Conclusion and Future Work}
Consistent public policies are essential for managing public health. To this end, we introduced multi-modal demographic inference combined with valence-aware sentiment analysis topic analysis. We also conduct an experiment utilizing offline change point detection for sentiment analysis.

Our demographic inference finds some illuminating insights: 1) males had negative average sentiment while females had positive sentiment towards face masks, 2) the same age and gender of college students, when compared to the broader population, had different perception towards face masks, 3)
people with European ethnic profiles had negative average sentiment while every other ethnic profile had positive sentiment.

Finally, our experiment using PELT search for Twitter sentiment analysis shows that the April 03, 2020 CDC policy shift event, and Trump tweeting about wearing a mask on July 20, 2020, when considering the time series filtered by political affiliation demographic, were statistically significant sentiment change points. We also find that Republicans appeared to decrease their average VADER score in reaction to the CDC policy shift, while increasing their average VADER score in reaction to Trump's tweet. Democrats, on the other hand, had their average VADER score increase in reaction to the CDC policy shift and decrease in reaction to Trump's tweet.

Potential future work could include the use of a filtering algorithm to reliably catch fake twitter accounts. This would decrease the amount of bots and fake twitter accounts within the data set and increase the number of authentic users in our data set. We acknowledge that some demographics may prove difficult to predict. As one example, many Asian Americans have European names that they prefer to use when online. Future modifications to address this deficiency may involve utilizing a multi-modal approach to predict ethnicity, similar to how age and gender is predicted.

Social media data mining and sentiment analysis have the potential to be important tools in measuring public response to abrupt policy changes during pandemics. More governments and health organizations can leverage social media data mining technology to improve policy outcomes.

\section{Acknowledgment}
We thank Viet Dong for providing the student classification algorithm.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


On Facebook, Scotty described the song as one that "may be my favorite song I've written," and we can see why.
Watch Scotty McCreery Premiere "Five More Minutes" at the Grand Ole Opry below.
Great song. McCreery has such a beautiful voice and it perfectly matches this song. This is a major winner!!!!


1. Some soft paint mobile sales truck at high speeds the process of sand particles hit the car body may also cause small scratches. For these vehicles, the body can do to seal the glaze, it can form a network of strong protective film, improve the hardness of the paint, the effect can be maintained for about a year. The coating can also achieve a similar effect.
2. For the bottom of sale truck, it can be chassis armored or plastic sealed, which protects the chassis acid rain, corrosion, protective layer so that the original is not easy to dry, fall off, which can be prevented with pebbles on the chassis of the impact.
3. Mobile sale truck encountered rain and snow, the gap at the bottom of the body and interior floor at all easy to accumulate sludge, if not timely cleaning, this moisture will be hidden. Thus, the inner and outer rims for wheels, doors, trunk bottom corner of the door key hole and the wiper frame moving parts, etc., should always be checked, while maintaining the smooth flow of the doors and body ministries drainage holes, check the car cover humidity, such as carpets, floor to prevent rusting parts.
4. If the corrosion is not very serious, you can start with very fine sandpaper dipped in water gently rubbed off the water rust, but avoid chaos without direction grinding, grinding to a straight line in the same direction. So completely wiped, coated with a layer of primer.
5. Do not park vehicles outdoors or put vehicles on car clothing during windy weather. Because the inner layer of paint will repeatedly beat, especially if the garment within the blowing sand, it will draw numerous road vehicle body small scratches, paint over time will result in black hair. After the sand Do not use cloth or duster to clean the car body direct sand, but should rinse with water, it is also in order to prevent sand duster and rag on scratch paint.
6. Treat with toothpaste. If a new small scars, you can use a circular motion like toothpaste applied to the scratched area. Role is to reduce the scratch mark, to prevent rust.


text:
Schedule & Guidelines
Web Affiliation
Give Suggestions
Prayers for Souls
Century Timeline
Lectio Divina Stages
Portsmouth Institute
Portsmouth Abbey 1919
Sculpted Sermons
Homilies & Reflections
January Saints
Conversion of St Paul
All Saints & Feasts
In Memoriam: Fr. Julian Stead
Homily at Funeral Mass for Father Julian Stead, O.S.B.
Oblates Newsletter
RECAP OF THE OBLATE DAY OF RECOLLECTION SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2019
What is Oblation?
Manquehue
Cata and Alvaro
In Memoriam: Brother Francis
Story by Brother Francis
Abbey Classics
Newman and the Oxford Movement
DIES MEMORABILIS
PORTSMOUTH 'S DEBT TO THE EBC HOUSES
The Christian Hope
What does God's coming mean to us?
QUOTIDIAN, THE MONASTIC WAY
Words, words
March for Life Experience
Walking the Camino
Seasons of Change
Lectio at the Abbey
Self Retreat
Discernment Retreat
Group Retreat
Stop By Visitor
Benedictine Vocation
Benedictine Vows
Vocation Inquiry & Visit
Lenten Day of Recollection
Sunday, March 15, 2020, 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Location: Portsmouth Abbey Church of St Gregory the Great and Queen of Peace
(Picture: Br. Benedict imitating Christ by washing the feet of a student altar server from the Portsmouth Abbey School.)
Dear Oblates & Friends of Portsmouth Abbey,
The Meditation of the Day for Sunday, February 16, in this month's edition of Magnificat is titled, 'Called to Surpassing Righteousness.' It is a translation from the original Italian edition of daily meditations by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. (+1952), a Belgian Carmelite priest, teacher and spiritual director. Providentially perhaps, he cites a quote which reflects the theme of our next Day of Recollection:
"Christ has called the whole human race to the lofty heights of sanctity....There are some who say that sanctity is not everyone's vocation; on the contrary, it is everyone's vocation, and all are called to it....Jesus Christ has given himself as an example for all to imitate."
Our conference at the Abbey for Sunday, March 15, will focus on "A World View of Imitating Christ in the Context of the Way of the Cross." To this day Christian communities around the globe re-enact the devotional practice of the Stations of the Cross on the Fridays of Lent, in particular on Good Friday. It is believed that the Blessed Virgin Mary and the early Christians retraced the actual steps of Jesus in the years following his crucifixion. This continued through the Middle Ages when pilgrims to the Holy Land returned to their own countries and reproduced the stations. In more recent times the Church has granted indulgences to those who imitate Christ and "make" the stations in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
Remember, too, that on the night before he died, that is on Holy Thursday after the Last Supper was finished, Jesus humbly washed the feet of his disciples. Afterwards he exhorted them, and us, by saying, "I have given you an example so that you may copy (i.e. imitate) what I have done to you." (John 13:15)
Attached is a flyer with details for our day together. The school students will be in the middle of their spring break so the relatively empty campus will afford us a contemplative atmosphere during this penitential period. The conference will take place in the Abbey Church, with seating in the monks' choir.
One last thing to share with you. On Thursday evening (February 13th ) at The University Club in Providence, author and N.Y. Times Op-Ed contributor Ross Douthat ventured north from his home in New Haven as the guest of The Portsmouth Institute. Chris Fisher, the Institute's Executive Director, introduced Ross, Auxiliary Bishop Robert C. Evans, other clerics and religious, as well as other guests who included a number of Portsmouth Abbey Oblates.
Chris stressed the underlying importance of the program's academic and educational goals by saying that "the concerns of the teachers [at Portsmouth Abbey School and St. Louis Priory School] are the students' souls, not just their salaries" following graduation. Well said.
I look forward to seeing all of you in Portsmouth Abbey!
Much love & in Christ,
Br. Sixtus O.S.B.
Director of Oblates
© Copyright - Portsmouth Abbey
285 Cory's Lane I Portsmouth, RI 02871 | (401) 683-2000


I've waited all my life to see some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series hit the big screen. For those who don't know it, Discworld is kind of a Monty Python-esque take on your typical "swords and sorcery" fantasy universe. It has spanned dozens of books ranging from stories about wizards to stories about private detectives.
In 2011, there was a Kickstarter to put together a short film based on one of Pratchett's Discworld fables. Recently the trailer for the film finally made it's way out. And it looks like that signature Pratchett humor has made the transition well.
I can still hope to see a big budget version of a Discworld story one day, but for now this is absolutely wonderful to see.


Three More Characters Announced For Super Smash Bros.
Nintendo promised one new Smash Bros. character reveal this morning and instead gave us three: the returning Captain Falcon and two characters from Fire Emblem Awakening—Robin and Lucina.
Captain Falcon has been in the Smash series since it first debuted on Nintendo 64. The other Fire Emblem characters are total newcomers, joining Marth and Ike to raise the total Smash Fire Emblem count to a whopping four.
Robin, by the way, is the official canon name for the main hero. You'll be able to play as both the male and female versions in the new Smash, which is out this fall for 3DS and Wii U.
Note: the original headline for this post said four characters were announced, but we've altered it to clarify that Chrom isn't playable.


text:
Serena Williams' Daughter Olympia, 2, Paints Her Dad's Nails In Cute New Video
Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian took to Instagram on Feb. 26 to share an adorable video of their two-year-old daughter Olympia painting his nails with a paint brush during art time.
Erin Silvia
February 26, 2020 11:37PM EST
Serena Williams' daughter Olympia, 2, is learning how to paint and she has her dad Alexis Ohanian to help! The 38-year-old tennis champion's tot could be seen using a paint brush and paint to color 36-year-old Alexis' hands in a new adorable video he posted to his Instagram on Feb. 26 and it is truly enjoyable to see. "Looks like @initialized needs to invest in the future of nail painting 🙃💅," Alexis joked in his caption for the video.
Kathy Hilton Breaks Silence On Daughter Paris Welcoming 1st Child: 'Thank You For This Perfect Addition'
Serena Williams Wears Subtle Tribute To Koalas Affected By Wildfires At Australian Open
Serena Williams, 38, Cartwheels On Court Following Her First Tournament Win Since Becoming A Mom
"7, 8, 9, 10!" Olympia excitingly says in the video before proceeding to put Alexis' hand down on the table and use her paint brush to paint his hand. "Why you painting the top of my hand? You just wanted to paint the top of my hand," Alexis says to the the baby gal before she moves the brush to his nails. "You giving me nail polish? What do you know about nail polish?!" he goes on to ask her before laughing and finishing with "Alright, there you go. Business dad life."
This isn't the first time Olympia has been seen on her parents' social media pages. Before Alexis' latest post, he took to Instagram on Feb. 22 to share a different video that showed her picking mangoes in the rain. As it started raining in the clip, the little girl yelled "Papa!" to which Alexis replied that "it's only raining a little bit." It then proceeds to rain harder and Alexis decides it's time for him and his mini-me to go home. "Okay now it's raining a lot. Let's go, let's get out of here," he says.
Looks like @initialized needs to invest in the future of nail painting 🙃💅
A post shared by Alexis Ohanian Sr. (@alexisohanian) on Feb 26, 2020 at 12:06pm PST
We love seeing cute clips of Olympia whenever we can and can't wait to see what else she gets up to soon!


When it comes to designing a catchy poster, it seems like even some experienced designers find themselves blocked and unable to come up with anything worthwhile. What is it about posters that brings out this anxiety in people, and how should one approach such a design task if they find themselves faced with one?
One of the biggest perceived challenges is often related to making good use of all available space. A poster offers a large area to work with, and you have to make sure that it's utilized properly. However, as we'll find out below, this doesn't mean filling up every single square inch with artwork.
A technique commonly used in photography involves the creation of an invisible, subtle "path" that will guide the eyes of the person looking at the photograph. This can work very well for the design of a poster as well, and it can actually be a very powerful technique in this context when used right. If you have some intricate knowledge of color theory and similar topics, you can easily make sure that your audience will follow a very precisely defined path.
As we said above, you don't necessarily have to fill every part of the poster with content. In fact, leaving wide open spaces can be a very powerful technique with a great impact on the perception of the final image, but it has to be done with caution and knowledge. It's very easy to mess things up and create the wrong impression when trying to rely on negative space in your design, so if you're not feeling too confident with that, you should definitely leave that part of the job to a professional designer.
A mistake that commonly gets overlooked, the wrong choice of fonts can have a disastrous effect on the overall perception your poster creates. Not only among people knowledgeable in design, but all viewers in general. Make sure that you coordinate these decisions with someone who understands this field and knows which fonts work well and which ones don't.
And once you've secured a good design, you of course have to make sure that you can get it printed properly and without any complications. That's where a reliable printing partner comes in, and if you don't know where to turn for such services, get in touch with us, the best NYC printer, and we'll show you the way.


text:
Dad's sickening 'education for future boyfriend' child rape
A father of two young children pleaded guilty in the Roma District Court after he raped his partner's daughter about forty times, labelling it "education for a future boyfriend".
Georgie Adams
1st Dec 2020 5:30 PM | Updated: 2nd Dec 2020 1:56 PM
A SOUTHWEST child sex predator who repeatedly had sexual intercourse with his partner's 14-year-old daughter under the guise of "education" became the prey when he spent time in prison awaiting to face his charges, a Roma court has heard.
The Roma District Court heard on Monday, November 30, a Quilpie man aged in his thirties, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, engaged in a sexual relationship with his partner's daughter, who was 14-years-of-age and turned 15 during the three-and-a-half-month unlawful stint.
The courtroom heard, at the end of 2015 the complainant moved to Queensland to live with her biological mother - the defendant's partner and mother of his two children, aged three and six.
Crown prosecutor Farook Anoozer told the court, the victim had a "disadvantaged" upbringing, having being adopted, fostered cared and lived on the street.
Brisbane District Court Judge Vicki Loury QC said for several months, the defendant engaged in regular sexual contact with the complainant and on the weekends, when he returned home from working away, would go into her room and have unprotected sex while her mother was in another room sleeping or intoxicated.
"In December 2016, you entered her room and asked if she wanted to be educated and you pulled out your penis and she sucked it until you ejaculated on the floor," Judge Loury said.
"She would suck your penis then you would have sexual intercourse, then she would suck your penis again.
"You told her that she should participate in a three-way with her mother.
"Another time you were intoxicated and told her it was education for when she had a boyfriend.
"You inserted a dildo into her vagina.
"In March 2017, you had sex until you ejaculated onto the ground and it seems not long after that, she overdosed on painkillers then went to live with adoptive parents."
Mr Anoozer said the complainant left her mother in Queensland to go live back with adoptive parents in New South Wales.
While there, she reported her incident to police however the complaint never went through due to her mental state.
"She returned to her mother in Queensland and the defendant contacted her and asked her to send him nude pictures," Mr Anoozer said.
"The mother confronted him and he made admissions."
The defendant was located in November 2019 and remanded in custody for 370 days.
Mr Anoozer said the complainant was willing to engage in this sexual relationship at the beginning but would cry because she felt "guilty" and "sorry for herself".
Defence solicitor Steven Kissick reassured the court that the defendant was not married to the mother and didn't know the complainant until later in her life.
"She (the complainant) never lived with her mother, unfortunately had a terrible life in New South Wales it would seem," Mr Kissick said.
"The defendant and the mother drove down to Sydney in December 2015 and that's the first time he had anything to do with her.
"It arose in circumstances where the mother said she had an attraction with him - it wasn't like a father role for many years, he was in many respects a stranger to her and that might provide some underlying reasons why he abused his relationship with this young girl.
"It's not a gross breach of trust, she was underage and he was aware of that and he should have known better and exercised control.
"He admits he drunk an excessive amount of alcohol when home on the weekends, it doesn't excuse his actions but further explains them."
Mr Kissick said his client attempted to commit suicide when the matter first broke and while in custody lost his front teeth from an assault and became the victim of a violent sexual assault on two occasions.
The lawyer submitted that his client receive four years imprisonment, wholly suspended.
"He is unlikely to reoffend … it didn't arise in particular planning from him, he has no prospects to contact her again," he said.
"He wants to return to work as soon as possible and does not pose a general danger at large to young girls."
The defendant pleaded guilty to six offences, including maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child under 16 years, unlawfully procured to commit an indecent act while under your care and four counts unlawful carnal knowledge of a child under 16 while under your care.
Judge Loury told the defendant this was "serious offending" which could result in life in prison.
"You were in a position of trust to her," Judge Loury said.
"I accept you were not a father figure for many years, but your offending occurred over three-and-a-half months and it was unprotected sex which could have resulted in pregnancy or other health issues.
"You dressed up the situation as 'education'."
The defendant was sentenced to four years imprisonment, suspended after 370 days, which he had already served.
The defendant was free to go back into the community and must not commit another offence within four years.
Mum, 32, admits sex with boy, 14
roma district court
court crime rape roma district court violence


This HTML version was constructed by John Waters, who also prepared the diagrams and the bibliography.
Version 3.1 – Last modified 9th April 2018 to incorporate some long-overdue corrections and updates. A more completely revised version will be released in due course.


ISLAMABAD: Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan Friday apprised the National Assembly that surplus stock of essential food items including wheat, rice, sugar and maize, was available in the country.
Responding to various questions during Question Hour, he said currently 5 million tons wheat, 4 million tons rice, 1.5 million tons sugar and 2 million ton maize were in the stock.
He said there was no proposal under consideration to introduce Ration Card system in the country as rationing was introduced during shortage and price hike.
The Minister said the government used the channel of utility stories corporation for supply of the essential food items to the general public at the reasonable rates whenever required.
Regarding a supplementary question, he said Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Ltd (PASSCO) procured over 100,000 tons wheat in Sindh and surplus stock was available in Sindh and Balochistan.
Regarding inquiry about appointments in PASSCO, the minister said National Accountability Bureau was conducting inquiry in this regard.
Meanwhile, Minister for Housing and Works Akram Khan Durrani said summary had been sent to the Prime Minister for eligibility of constitutional bodies employees for government accommodation. The case was being pursued vigorously, he added.


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3rd-idea
What is stiff-person syndrome? Celine Dion postpones tour due to rare disorder
By rd-ideacom December 20, 2022 December 17, 2022
Celine Dion revealed on Thursday that she is suffering from a rare neurological disorder called stiff-person syndrome that is affecting her everyday life.
The iconic singer announced the news in a video posted on social media and said she has postponed her 2023 tour.
"While we're still learning about this rare condition, we now know this is what has been causing all of the spasms I have been having," Dion said. "Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal chords to sing the way I'm used to."
What is stiff-person syndrome?
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke describes the syndrome as "a rare neurological disorder with features of an autoimmune disease."
"SPS is characterized by fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs and a heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as noise, touch and emotional distress, which can set off muscle spasms," NINDS said.
Only about one or two in a million people are affected by stiff-person syndrome, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Spasms from the disorder can be triggered by "sudden movement, cold temperature or unexpected loud noises," according to Johns Hopkins.
What are the symptoms of stiff-person syndrome?
Symptoms of stiff-muscle syndrome include "pain, muscle stiffness and aching discomfort," according to the Cleveland Clinic.
"Over time, leg muscles become stiff and more muscles throughout your body become stiff including the arms and even the face," the Cleveland Clinic said. "As stiffness increases, some people developed a hunched posture. In severe cases, this stiffness can make it hard to walk or move."
Muscle spasms caused by SPS "are often very painful and usually worsen existing stiffness," the National Organization for Rare Disorders said. These spasms, according to NORD, can last for hours.
People with the disorder are also more likely to have depression or anxiety symptoms, according to Yale Medicine.
Is there a cure for stiff-person syndrome?
There is no cure for stiff-person syndrome, according to Yale Medicine, but it can be treated.
"When doctors treat patients with this condition, they focus on relieving symptoms with medications such as sedatives, muscle relaxants, and steroids," Yale Medicine said.
A study funded by NINDS showed an intravenous immunoglobulin treatment in people with SPS can reduce stiffness and lower sensitivity to noise, touch and stress.
Other treatment options include "physical therapy, massage, water therapy, heat therapy (and) acupuncture," according to the Cleveland Clinic.
How is Celine Dion being treated?
Dion did not reveal the specifics of her treatment but said she has "a great team of doctors working alongside her."
"I have to admit it's been a struggle," Dion said. "All I know is singing. It's what I've done all my life, and it's what I love to do the most."
It's unclear when Dion will return to the stage.
"I'm doing everything I can to recuperate," she said.
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Updated: 15-Nov-2001 1993
[ '45-'49 | '50-'59 | '60-'69 | '70-'79 | '80-'89 | '90-'99 | '00- ]
[ 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 ]
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec
2-3 Nov
The Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Field Marshal Sir Richard Vincent, pays an official visit to Bulgaria, meeting with President Zhelyu Zhelev.
The President of the Slovak Republic, Michael Kovac, pays an official visit to NATO Headquarters.
High resolution photos of the visit to NATO by Michal Kovac, President of the Slovak Republic
15-17 Nov
NATOs Verification and Coordinating Committee conducts a seminar at NATO Headquarters with NACC Partner Countries on cooperation in the verification and implementation of conventional arms control provisions, including the CFE Treaty.
NATO Handbook: Chapter 13 - Key to the Principal NATO Committees and to Institutions of Cooperation, Partnership and Dialogue - Verification Coordinating Committee (VCC)
NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner addresses the CSCE Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Rome.


Clear Quartz is known as the "master healer" and will amplify energy and thought, as well as the effect of other crystals. It absorbs, stores, releases and regulates energy. Clear Quartz draws off negative energy of all kinds. It balances and revitalizes the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual planes. Cleanses and enhances the organs and subtle bodies and acts as a deep soul cleanser, connecting the physical dimension with the mind. Clear Quartz enhances psychic abilities. It aids concentration and unlocks memory. Stimulates the immune system and brings the body into balance.
You can use Clear Quartz to charge all your other crystals. It's is like an electromagnetic battery that gives them a boost just as sun and the moon.


The glooms of the gigantic forest, spreading back to unexplored and unimagined depth, added to the sublimity of the scene.
In the second place it was a storehouse of unimagined treasures.
In like manner, deep-sea sounding may lead to great, as yet unimagined, results.
But this adoration was a secret, guessed at home, perhaps, but unimagined at school.
The lawn stretched before her like water of an unimagined blackness.
It is this nearness of unimagined help that makes the tragedy of desert deaths.
The surprise of disappointment is balanced—there is the surprise of unimagined excellence.
But, with the good hand of God upon him, he escaped the then unimagined peril.
Then his heart fainted with rapture, for he knew the unimagined had become history.
Couldn't she somehow, some yet unimagined how, turn it back to simplicity?


The perfect opportunity for a fairly rudimental and basic Northern European society to bring itself enlightenment and civilisation appeared in AD46, in the shape of the Roman Army and might of the Roman Empire.
In the following four hundred years after the invasion of Britain, the romans built forts, strongholds, villas, towns, and cities. They built viaducts and bridges, and possibly the finest asset the country could have, the roman roads.


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Sweet Almond is the base oil of choice for most massage therapists. This is because it stays on the skin long enough to make massaging easier for both the masseur and the client.
Sweet Almond Oil is suitable for use with any essential oil that is ok to use on the skin. Additionally it may be included in blends with other more expensive carrier or vegetable oils to lessen the cost of using them.


In light of measles data for the year 2018 released today, World Health Organization urges European countries to target their interventions to those places and groups where immunization gaps persist.
The Vancouver Clinic, which operates medical offices and urgent care centers in the area, reported that shots administered jumped from 263 in January 2018 to 1,444 last month, a almost 450 percent increase.
In the United Kingdom, there were 953 measles cases a year ago.
Similar outbreaks have been occurring in Europe: In 2017, there were 25,863 cases of measles; previous year, that surged to more than 82,000. The risk of death due to measles is greater for infants and adults than for children and adolescents.
In many countries, anti-vaccine campaigners seek to dissuade parents from getting their children immunized, despite strong scientific evidence that vaccines are safe and effective. "This means that gaps at local level still offer an open door to the virus", the WHO's regional director for Europe, Zsuzsanna Jakab, said in a statement. "We can not achieve healthier populations globally, as promised in WHO's vision for the coming five years, if we do not work locally". "These diseases come back and they clobber us if we are not protected".
"The measles vaccine isn't ideal, but one dose is 93 percent effective at preventing illness", Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County's health officer, said in a statement.
Clark County, Washington - where the outbreak began on December 31 - reported Wednesday that is has identified 13 additional suspected cases, including four in unvaccinated people who had contact with contagious individuals.
Forty-three European countries interrupted transmission of endemic measles for at least 12 months as of the end of 2017. If people aren't vaccinated, the virus can spread easily. "Progress in achieving high national coverage is commendable".
MMR vaccine rates in two areas in the Pacific Northwest, which has been at the epicenter of a measles outbreak, are surging as people rush to protect themselves and their children from the virus.
Melnick added that while 78% of schoolchildren in Clark County are vaccinated, some schools have much lower rates. The Regional Office is working with these countries to implement a coordinated strategy to address targeted programme areas.


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SD senators applaud ethanol decision
South Dakota's two U.S. senators said they are pleased with the news that President Donald Trump's administration will initiate the process to make 15 percent ethanol-blended fuel -- commonly known as E15 -- available year-round.
U.S. Sen. John Thune, right, delivers remarks while U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, left, listens during a panel called "Check-in From Washington, D.C." during Dakotafest in 2016 in Mitchell.(Matt Gade/Republic)
By Daily Republic News
South Dakota's two U.S. senators said they are pleased with the news that President Donald Trump's administration will initiate the process to make 15 percent ethanol-blended fuel - commonly known as E15 - available year-round.
Republicans John Thune and Mike Rounds each said that the change would benefit South Dakota farmers and consumers. Previously, the blend was not allowed between June 1 and Sept. 15, prohibiting the sale of the fuel during the primary months for summer travel.
"After spending more than a decade advocating for higher blends of ethanol, I want to thank President Trump for upholding his commitment to America's farmers," Thune said in a statement. "Using homegrown resources like ethanol to keep America's economy moving forward is a common-sense, true win-win solution."
Both senators made note that they had lobbied the Environmental Protection Agency through both letters and in person visits that the rule should be changed. Thune said the issue has come up in multiple meetings he's had with the president.
"South Dakota is a leading state in corn ethanol production," Rounds said in a release. "As the market for ethanol increases, the market for corn will grow, resulting in more jobs and increased revenue for South Dakota's corn farmers. At a time when farmers are already struggling due to a decrease in farm income and trade uncertainty, providing year-round sales of E-15 is an opportunity to give our farmers a much-needed boost."
The South Dakota Corn Growers Association also praised the announcement, saying the president's plan is a "big win for farmers and rural America."
"Allowing higher blends of ethanol to be sold year-round also will provide consumers with more choices at the pump," said Troy Knecht, of Houghton, SDCGA president. "South Dakota farmers have advocated for year-round sales and we're grateful the end of this outdated regulation is near."
Related Topics: JOHN THUNEMIKE ROUNDS