When this article was written in October 1997, Demetrios Vassiliou was Director of Outreach, Training, and Technical Assistance at the Minot State University Center for Persons with Disabilities. Mary Mercer was the Project Manager for the Community Staff Training Program. She is now the Community Staff Training Project Director.
North Dakota has a landmass of 70,665 square miles and a population of approximately 625,000 with a population density of nine persons per square mile. Distances between cities are vast. Community centered facilities providing services to persons with developmental disabilities are scattered throughout the state. This training program is a model that uniquely meets the needs of rural states. Using a circuit rider approach, technical assistance is provided to the designated regional trainers who work with provider staff dispersed throughout the state. The training program, with its career ladder options, is available and accessible to every community-based agency and every employee providing services to individuals with developmental disabilities in North Dakota.
Historically, individuals with mental retardation/developmental disabilities have been separated from the main stream of community life. They were often restricted in their personal freedoms and segregated in institutions without adequate treatment, education, habilitation, or medical care. At the turn of the century in North Dakota, institutions were built to protect individuals with disabilities and to alleviate the burden for their families. Although those institutions were built with the best intent, they gradually became the only service option available for individuals with mental retardation. By 1966, the population at Grafton State School and its San Haven satellite had reached an all-time high of 1400 residents. By the late 70s, North Dakota had institutionalized more persons per capita and spent less on institutional services than any other state in the nation.
In 1980, the North Dakota Association of Retarded Citizens filed a suit against state officials enumerating deficiencies in services to the state's citizens with mental retardation. In the years that have followed, hundreds of residents have moved from the Grafton State School and San Haven State Hospital to community programs located all over the state. It is this transfer of residents from the large institutional settings to smaller facilities in the local communities that has dramaticallyincreased the need for qualified and specialized direct service staff to provide programming in the areas of domestic, vocational, recreational, behavior management, and other skills.
In June 1982, the Department of Human Services began actively to pursue the development of a statewide training system for direct service staff working in community facilities serving individuals with mental retardation/developmental disabilities. One of the first activities undertaken in developing the Community Staff Training Program was to identify a competency-based training program consisting of self-contained instructional modules that would address the skills and knowledge necessary for direct service staff. After reviewing several training programs, the Kellogg Model Curriculum based on the Value-Based Skill Training Curriculum for Community-Based Mental Retardation Programs developed at the Meyer Children's Rehabilitation Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center was selected as the most appropriate vehicle for training.
The training program was initially federally funded for a period of 18 months. When the federal funding ended, the Department of Human Services continued its funding and contracted with Minot State University to implement it.
While similar training programs have come and gone, the North Dakota Community Staff Training Program continues to grow, adapt, and adjust to the ever-changing demands and needs of people with disabilities and those who serve them. Critical to the programâs success has been the collaborative relationships among the Department of Human Services, Minot State University, and community provider agencies.
Each of the three entities involved has well-defined objectives and responsibilities regarding the implementation of the training program. The Department of Human Services contracts with Minot State University and provides funding for the administration of the program. A person from the Department of Human Services is appointed to act as a liaison with Minot State University and community providers. The liaison attends the quarterly DD regional trainersâ meetings and provides feedback to the participants. The Department of Human Services reimburses the community agencies for the salaries of their trainer(s) and pays for printing expenses of curriculum materials and staff time spent in training activities (50 hours per year).
The North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities (NDCPD), a University Affiliated Program (UAP) at Minot State University (MSU), the second partner in the training endeavor, occupies a unique position in the state of North Dakota. It works very closely with allied disciplines within the university, as well as with other state agencies and organizations providing services and promoting the interests of people with disabilities. MSU with its UAP and its very strong Special Education programs provides training to trainers and on-site technical assistance. It performs needs assessments, conducts research, and develops training curricula, training videotapes, and other training materials. It maintains the centralized record-keeping system, issues degrees and certificates, and disseminates training materials to agencies and individuals serving individuals with developmental disabilities.
North Dakota community-based agencies make up the third entity in the statewide training program partnership. They hire regional trainers who are responsible for the staff development in each location. Salaries for these trainers are included in the funding provided to them by the Department of Human Services. These state-certified regional trainers are linked to the University and have helped the system remain accountable to changing agency needs. They keep training records and assist MSU staff in surveys and assessments and provide feedback for curriculum development and revision. In addition, they serve on management teams and participate in committees within the local agency.
Staff trainers are responsible for preparing, providing, and/or conducting instructional inservice programs and other training activities for personnel within the agency they serve. Trainers utilize other experts within or out of the agency to train their staff and they schedule training according to the needs of individual staff. The curriculum is designed to allow for the use of a variety of training options, techniques, and methods (i.e., self-instruction, group instruction, and on-the-job training). The option to test-out is made available to staff with previous training/expertise in specific areas.
Individuals selected for the trainer's position must possess a bachelorâs degree or advanced degree in a related field, preferably special education, psychology, social work, or nursing. Teaching and work experience in the area of developmental disabilities are among the criteria considered for selection.
Trainers meet on a quarterly basis to discuss issues and problems related to the statewide training program. In addition, to the routine agenda items related to program mechanics, "Train the Trainer" sessions, workshops, and informational presentations are conducted. This is a good opportunity for the trainers to get acquainted, exchange views and information, and share ideas, questions and concerns regarding training practices.
This network of trainers provides input in curriculum development and revisions that reflect the ever-changing needs of community providers. Since the inception of the training program in July of 1983, the initial Kellogg Curriculum has been expanded and modified resulting in a very comprehensive training program consisting of 37 training modules covering a range of training competencies. Direct input by agency representatives ensures commitment to the future of the statewide training program.
Community Service Providers are to provide in-service training to full-time direct service staff, prior to the staff membersâ assuming direct responsibility for the individuals they serve. Although not required, the agency is encouraged to consider this requirement in whole or in part for direct service staff who are part-time or relief.
Position-Based Competency is required of all positions in agencies serving individuals with mental retardation/developmental disabilities. The executive director in cooperation with the staff trainer, must develop job descriptions for each position, stating the competencies necessary for an individual to fulfill the responsibilities of the position.
This is issued to staff members who successfully meet the competencies established for the certificate by the Department of Human Services. It requires successful completion of nine core modules, five elective modules, and a course of supervised field experiences. The agency selects electives from the curriculum based on a staff memberâs specific job responsibilities.
Staff members of agency organizations who have already acquired the certificate of completion have the option to pursue the advanced certification program. It consists of ten additional modules dealing with a variety of training issues including aging, communication, leisure, behavior management, traumatic brain injury, and basic health. Staff members who successfully complete the advanced certification requirements are issued an additional certificate.
: MSU will award this degree upon satisfactory completion of the designated 27 semester hours of developmental disabilities coursework and 38 semester hours of general education coursework. The A.A. degree coursework is available only to personnel employed in approved residential and day programs serving persons with mental retardation/developmental disabilities.
Those who desire to pursue this degree after completion of the Associate of Arts degree in Developmental Disabilities must confirm with MSU their intent to attend the university and earn it.
: Individuals may earn this degree at MSU after successful completion of a graduate course of study in the Severely Multi-Handicapped.
Following is a listing of the developmental disabilities modules/ coursework. Core modules are identified by one asterisk (*) and elective modules are identified by two asterisks (**) in the list which follows. Staff must complete practica that correspond to the core and elective modules submitted for their certification. All modules listed under the Sp.Ed. three-digit headings are the module content requirements for the Minot State University Associate of Arts degree coursework in Developmental Disabilities.
MSU organizes at least six workshops and a number of state and international conferences to meet additional training needs of direct and other developmental disability personnel as well as primary and secondary consumers. All workshops provide the opportunity to participants to enroll for Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Some workshops may offer undergraduate and graduate credit.
MSU's Department of Developmental Disabilities maintains a central audio-visual media library equipped with a variety of videocassettes appropriate for training. Staff trainers may request to borrow and use them in their training activities.
The Community Staff Training Program maintains a computerized database of training activities for every staff member participating in the training program. Staff trainers keep their own computerized data system as well.
Staff turnover appears to be a chronic problem for agencies/organizations serving individuals with developmental disabilities. Surveys of administrators of institutional and community facilities indicate that the recruitment and retention of direct service staff members are considered to be major concerns (Vassiliou, D., & Askvig, B.,1991). A high turnover rate significantly affects the availability of training staff and the costs of training for agencies and the state-funding source. North Dakota is clearly part of this national problem.
Vassiliou and Ferrara (1997) reported a 54% turnover rate in their study of staff (N=610) employed by twenty North Dakota agencies providing services to people with disabilities. There was, however, a considerable variability across categories and positions. Among administrative staff, the turnover rate was 10%. There was a great discrepancy between the rates for full-time (31%) and part-time direct service staff (88%). Part-time employees constitute 46% of the total workforce.
Wages were found to be significant predictor of staff turnover for all employee groups. There was a significant (p<.01) relationship between certification training and length of employment. The average length of employment for certified staff was 69 months versus 25 months for non-certified staff. The number of resignations varied throughout the year. The smallest number of employees (70) resigned in December and the largest number (120) resigned in June. This could be attributed to the large number of students who are part-time employees who leave when classes are over.
Student employees are a temporary work force and will leave regardless of wages, unless they choose the DD services as a profession.
A second group of employees are those for whom DD service work is a job of last resort. These individuals are not particularly interested in the work and they leave when another position becomes available.
The third group of employees enjoys the work, likes their co-workers and the people with whom they work, but are forced out of DD services because of a mediocre salary.Ê Working at the community facility simply becomes a luxury they can no longer afford.
Agencies need to be cognizant of these employee differences.Ê Studentsâ turnover is predictable and agencies must weigh the benefits versus longevity. Turnover rate among less interested employees is healthy.Ê Better screening procedures may reduce the turnover associated with this group. On the other hand, losing dedicated and interested employees is detrimental to the agency and the consumer. Administrators must provide salaries and benefits that are high enough to allow them to continue their employment with the community facilities.
Fourteen years have past since the initiation of the North Dakota Community Staff Training Program. Since 1983, the training program has experienced a steady growth, maturing and evolving to keep pace with the expansion and training needs of the stateâs community-based programs and services. Using a career ladder approach, over 18,000 staff from agencies across the state has received training. Exactly 3,160 individuals have completed certification requirements since the programâs inception. Approximately 100 individuals have successfully completed the Associate of Arts degree in Developmental Disabilities. Some trainees continued their studies and graduated with a bachelors and a masters degree in Special Education/Developmental Disabilities.
Why did you choose to pursue the Associate of Arts degree in Developmental Disabilities?
The opportunity was so convenient that I felt I could not pass it up.
Having the classes offered right at my place of employment was really a big incentive.
The price per credit was so low it was irresistible.
It was a wonderful opportunity to get a degree. Many businesses do not offer this. I thought it would increase my chances to advance my career in this agency.
The training helped me as a case manager. It provided very good practical information. It updated my previous coursework and made my knowledge more current and accurate.
It made me more qualified in the field.
I did not have to drive a long distance.
It was a validation of my 12 years of experience in the field of Developmental Disabilities.
It increased my knowledge and improved my job performance.
How did the degree help you in your profession?It allowed me to keep my job.
The training applied directly to the daily requirements of my job.
It gave me skills to assist the population I serve and confidence to pursue a higher degree.
The education has been very valuable.
I've been assigned more job responsibilities.
It provided me with a good foundation and I have been given several promotions since I completed the Associate of Arts degree.
It opened the door to three different jobs in three different cities in the state.
The training program made me better prepared to work in programs providing services to people with disabilities than training I have received in the state where I now work. I wish they had the same program in this state.
I got hooked on increasing my educational base. I eventually completed an endorsement in regular education, and earned a Masters Degree.
The career ladder approach encourages staff members to learn more about their jobs.
As staff members achieved higher levels of training, I witnessed a growth in self-esteem. They began setting goals for themselves and believed that they could learn and grow.
Marilyn Jensen is the Chief Executive Officer of Knife River Group Homes, Inc. in Hazen, North Dakota. This is an eight bed congregate care home for elderly people with developmental disabilities. When Marilyn began working as a direct care worker for Knife River Group Homes, in 1985, she was realizing a long forgotten dream of working with people with disabilities. After completing her certification in Developmental Disabilities, her family encouraged her to continue studying and complete the composite tests for college credit. She attended classes on weekends, summers, and evenings for the general education credits required and Marilyn became one of approximately 100 individuals who have successfully completed the Associate of Arts degree in DD. Over the next few years she continued to take classes here and there as they fit into her family and work schedule. In May of 1996, Marilyn graduated from MSU with a Bachelor in Social Work. Marilynâs own words: 'For the first time in my life, I feel like I am somebody, and I know it would not have happened if it had not been for the statewide training program offered by Minot State University. It was so accommodating'.
Dora Cowell began her work with children with developmental disabilities as a co-owner of a daycare in a small rural community in southwestern North Dakota.
As a substitute direct service worker for a local developmental disabilities provider, she became involved in the statewide training program. 'The training offered by Able Inc., an agency providing services to people with disabilities, allowed me to work at my own pace and gave me a variety of basic information that provided a solid beginning in the area of Special Education.' Dora ultimately devoted a year to pursuing her Bachelors Degree in Special Education and now teaches Special Education. She is enrolled in a graduate program at MSU seeking a Masters Degree in Learning Disabilities.
In the past 15 years North Dakota has experienced rapid and dramatic changes in the way it treats its citizens with mental retardation/ developmental disabilities. Since 1982, hundreds of individuals with mental retardation, who were residing in the state institutions, moved to communities throughout the state. Group homes, indiidualized apartments, employment opportunities, and rehabilitation services have been established to meet the increasing needs of these individuals. Early in this process, Minot State University was invited by the Department of Human Services to develop and implement a statewide community staff-training program.
A 'train the trainer to train the staff' approach has been used on a statewide basis, to train the staff of community facilities providing services to individuals with lifelong disabilities. The training program is a model that uniquely meets the needs of rural states. Using a ãcircuit riderä approach, technical assistance is provided to the designated regional trainers, who work with provider staff dispersed throughout the state. The training program, with its career options, is available and accessible to every agency and every employee providing services to individuals with developmental disabilities in North Dakota.
The success and the longevity of the training program has greatly depended on the collaboration and synergy that has gradually developed between the Department of Human Services, Community Facilities, and Minot State University. Utilizing the combined expertise, roles and responsibilities, trust, teamwork, and collaboration developed through the years, the collaborative endeavor continues to grow, by assimilating and accommodating the ever changing training needs of staff members and the consumers they serve.
Mitchell, D. & Braddock D. (1994). Compensation and turnover of direct-care-staff in developmental disabilities residential facilities in the United States II: Turnover. Mental Retardation, 32, 34-42.
Vassiliou, D., & Askvig, B. (1991). Factors related to staff longevity and turnover in a facility serving persons with DD. North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities, Minot State University.
Vassiliou, D., and Mercer, M. (1994). Career ladder approach to training for community facilities personnel in North Dakota. New Directions: The Newsletter of the National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals in Education and Related Services, Center for Advanced Study in Education, City University of New York, Vol. 15, No. 1.
Vassiliou, D., and Ferrara, J. (1997). Factors related to staff longevity and turnover in facilities serving North Dakota Citizens with Developmental Disabilities. North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities, Minot State University.


Have you ever tried those thorn resistant tubes? In an oversized tire?
They take 10 to 20 lbs or so to fill up the tire.
I had a sidewall blowout in a 20x3 tire. I bought one of those thorn resistant tubes at Walmart and was able to ride (pull the trailer) half-loaded about 20 miles with just the tube holding it together, no boot.
But, for ordinary thinwall tubes (Latex?), I also doubt the tube/tubeless makes much difference when actually riding, although, when mounting, one often over-pressures tubeless tires to seat the bead, and that pop during seating the bead may cause a substantial dynamic force beyond ordinary riding.
Earlier in this thread was the question whether riding tubeless at lower pressures would make one more likely to bump on rocks. Perhaps, but then the dents would be obvious, and a little slight bumping is usually my sign to stop and fix a flat. With the tire taking a fair amount of deceleration, hopefully the rims are designed to a tolerance that they brake with a slight rock bump.


SHANGHAI (REUTERS) - Chinese stocks rose strongly for a second day on Friday, buoyed by a barrage of government support measures, but worries persist about the long-term impact that four weeks of stock market turmoil may have on the world's second-largest economy.
Over the past two weeks Chinese authorities have cut interest rates, suspended initial public offerings, relaxed margin lending and collateral rules and enlisted brokerages to buy stocks, backed by cash from the central bank.
Some analysts predict further moves to come from the central bank, which often makes policy announcements over the weekend, such as another rate cut or relaxation of the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves.
The frantic efforts to stem the market slide finally began to gain traction on Thursday, when shares rose around 6 per cent after the securities regulator banned shareholders with large stakes in listed firms from selling.
The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose another 6 per cent on Friday, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 5.4 per cent.
At the depths of their slump earlier this week Chinese shares had fallen more than 30 per cent from their mid-June peak, and for some global investors China's market turmoil had become a greater concern than the crisis in Greece.
Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a research note they expected the ripple effect to eventually hit the real economy and corporate earnings.
"We expect this will likely hurt consumption down the road,"the note said. "More critical is a potential distortion to credit flows due to the impairment to financial institutions' balance sheets."
While Beijing's efforts appear to have put a floor under the stock market for now - on Friday morning China's main indexes were just below the levels they opened at on Monday - it was still far from functioning normally.
Roughly half of China's listed companies were suspended from trading as they tried to sit out the market turmoil, and many of those still trading are propped up by state-directed buying.
On Friday Shanghai Securities News reported that insurers had brought 11.2 billion yuan (S$2.43 billion) of equity since the rout began.
The plunge in China's previously booming stock markets, which had more than doubled in the year to mid-June, has created a major headache for President Xi Jinping and China's top leaders, who are already grappling with slowing growth.
Many investors say China's unprecedented attempts to arrest the slide have undermined its commitment to give markets a "decisive" role in pricing assets.
"They can probably stabilise the market, but it will be a political decision, as they will have to compel government, state agencies, banks, pension funds, insurance companies to buy," said Ashok Shah, investment director at London & Capital. "Essentially the political decision is: to transfer the potential losses from private investors ... to the state in some manner."


text:
Dirk Daniël Willem Johannes Kastelein (Aalsmeer, 7 september 1916 – Loosdrecht, 9 mei 1993) was een Nederlands politicus van de CHU en later het CDA.

Hij werd geboren als zoon van Johannes Kastelein; destijds burgemeester van Aalsmeer. Zelf was hij gemeentesecretaris van Steenwijkerwold voor hij in juni 1956 burgemeester van Weesperkarspel werd. Op 1 augustus 1966 werd die gemeente opgeheven en anderhalve maand daarvoor volgde zijn benoeming tot burgemeester van Zierikzee. Van december 1970 tot zijn pensionering in 1981 was Kastelein de burgemeester van Loosdrecht. Daar overleed hij in 1993 op 76-jarige leeftijd.

In Driemond (tot 1 augustus 1966 behorende bij de gemeente Weesperkarspel) werd in de laatste maand voor de annexatie door Amsterdam in juli 1966 de Gaaspstraat, die deze naam droeg sinds 29 november 1957, als eerbetoon naar hem hernoemd in "Burgemeester Kasteleinstraat". Dit omdat de straatnaam toch gewijzigd zou moeten worden omdat er al een Gaaspstraat in Amsterdam bestond en de gemeente Weesperkarspel dit besluit daarom nog zelf kon nemen.

Burgemeester van Weesperkarspel
Burgemeester van Zierikzee
Burgemeester van Loosdrecht
CHU-politicus
CDA-politicus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
What's on White Sox's new video boards? Fantasy stats and sponsor 'takeovers'
Danny Ecker
Work continues on the new center-field video board at U.S. Cellular Field, while the new left- and right-field video boards are in.
The experience of going to a Chicago White Sox game is about to drastically change, and it has nothing to do with what's happening on the field.
The three massive video boards going up this offseason at U.S. Cellular Field are not just a much-needed upgrade from the antiquated dot matrix boards the publicly owned stadium has sported for more than a decade.
They're also going to allow the South Siders to showcase sponsors, stats and video, and to interact with fans in real time like never before.
"There are so many different ways we can move things around," Sox marketing chief Brooks Boyer said at the team's annual SoxFest convention over the weekend. "You'll see a greater commitment to statistics and advanced statistics; you'll see more fantasy (stats)—and not necessarily just baseball."
Putting its new 10-millimeter-pixel resolution boards (among the clearest of all Major League Baseball stadiums) to work will be vital for a team that has struggled to sell tickets in recent seasons. It will be up to the Sox's game-day entertainment team to get creative in how they'll use the boards to engage fans and improve the experience of catching a game at the Cell.
Boyer said the marketing staff has been evaluating options in recent weeks. And the potential for both revenue opportunities and fan interaction is high.
Video replays alone will be a massive change, as the Sox plan to show them in full on the 6,500-square-foot center-field board—more than four times the size of the old center-field video screen, which was installed in 2003. Upgraded video boards in left and right field will also go far beyond the box scores they've been resigned to for the past decade, incorporating video content themselves.
Graphics that can update in real time will also be a new amenity for the Sox's in-stadium entertainment team. "We're going to be able to do a lot of things in real time—real-time polling and social (interaction) where people can tweet to the board," Boyer said.
That capability will be important for the team to meet the demands of more fans turning to mobile devices for game-related content during games.
But perhaps the biggest difference will be what the Sox are able to do for sponsors.
Illinois Sports Facilities Authority
A rendering of the new video boards at U.S. Cellular Field.
Gone are the days of static signage around the center-field video board that showcased one brand of a corporate partner all season long, such as MillerCoors touting Miller Lite.
With the new boards, the team's corporate partners will be able to customize their ads based on the time of the season, giving them the ability to push multiple brands.
"That makes the assets and experience more valuable for the brands," said Barrett Davie, president of Chicago-based sports marketing consulting firm InStadium. "The more impressions you can drive and the more domination you can create, it's more likely that you're going to make that connection" between fans and brands.
The three video boards also do something unimaginable with the old ones: work together.
That will give the Sox the ability to sell "takeover" ads during games, with one brand populating all three boards at once in what amounts to a massive advertisement spanning most of the outfield.
"We've shown (sponsors) what a complete takeover looks like, with a logo in center and (signage on the right and left LED boards—it's dominant," said Boyer, citing an example of the yellow Stanley Hand Tools ad that has adorned the left center-field billboard in recent years. When showcased across all three video boards, "the park turns yellow," he said.
Chicago taxpayers are to thank for the improvement. The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the city-state agency that owns and operates U.S. Cellular Field, is footing the $7.3 million price tag for all three video boards.
It is obligated to do so under a clause in the team's management agreement, which says ISFA must replace any "obsolete component" of the stadium with "modern replacements" if at least 75 percent of Major League Baseball's 30 stadiums have it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Here's how South Korean beauty brands are charming India
Tracing the trends that the category is creating here
Priyanka Nair
ETBrandEquity
Picture source: ThinkStock (Representative image)
If you ask experts to name a country obsessed with beauty and skincare products, South Korea will top the list. According to various studies, women in South Korea spend twice as much of their income on beauty and makeup as their closest counterparts in America.
Interestingly, as per various industry reports, South Korea is the eighth largest cosmetics market in the world, representing nearly 3.0% of the global market. In 2016, the market size was estimated to be approximately USD 7.1 billion; and has grown at an annual growth rate of 8.2% for the last five years.
From snail slime to synthetic snake venom, the South Asian country is known for using weird combinations in the name of beauty. The world was introduced to BB, CC creams and now cushion technology, by some of the leading Korean brands. With these innovations, big companies are aggressively tapping new markets, and India is the latest.
Innisfree is the first Korean cosmetic brand that entered India with 100% FDI. "India was the first priority after opening in most of the South East Asian countries, for AmorePacific (Innisfree's parent company). Customers here are slowly shifting to natural products which are chemical free, and hence, we think it is the right time to be here," said Doyoul Lee, managing director of Innisfree India.
Currently, Innisfree has five stores in Delhi NCR and Mumbai. Lee mentioned that they will open two more stores in Mumbai this year, and will expand to Bangalore, Kolkata and other cities in coming years.
While most of the demand for Innisfree is coming from the metros, like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai, the north eastern states are also driving sales of the brand here. "North East regions have big followers of Korean culture, K Pop music and Korean dramas. They even follow the 10-step Korean beauty ritual," informed Mini Sood Banerjee, marketing manager of Innisfree India.
As far as marketing is concerned, Banerjee points out an interesting trend, "Our average customer spends around 15-20 minutes online in a day for general surfing. Hence, ads on Facebook, Instagram and Nykaa (the brand's official e-commerce partner) are of high priority for us."
So here's the interesting part, Nykaa has attracted many international brands to enter the country, and from the K-Beauty portfolio (as the category is called), the other brand that's making noise is The Face Shop.
According to Nihir Parikh, chief business officer, Nykaa, both these brands, have grown to be within the top 10 brands for the e-commerce platform and contribute to 8% of their overall sales.
He further said, "The launch of these brands has resulted in a 15% increase in skin care sales on Nykaa." Parikh also told us, Nykaa is planning to launch another five Korean beauty, skincare and makeup products before the end of this year.
As far marketing these products, digital is the only platform that Nykaa is currently betting big on. Recently, The Face Shop team invited the Nykaa team to Korea to visit their laboratory and speak with their experts to create content that will give its users a better understanding of their products, ingredients and innovations.
When we asked Diane Lee, The Face Shop's brand manager for the overseas market, her thoughts on India as a market; she observes that the lifestyle and beauty patterns are changing to more dynamic ways in India. Interestingly, the brand believes that the Indian beauty market, unlike the K beauty market, is moving from makeup to skin care base.
According to Lee, the K-Beauty has got a lot of popularity because of YouTubers, bloggers, Instagram influencers from across the globe.
"We are present in more than 30 countries worldwide but in the other markets, beauty is a very saturated business. India is still new yet the potential is so big that one of our key biz strategically positioning for 2017 is focusing here. Our next big strategy is to come up with innovative products just for this market," said Lee.
While we do see an interest in these brands, is there room for more?
Brand Consultant, Harish Bijoor, is of the opinion that, Korea is an advanced beauty market. "Products from Korea are really looking at the value-added segment right at the top. Quite apart from the basics, Korean products are bringing their learning from the mother market, as well as from the markets of China into India. The idea is to look the niche upper-end of the market as well. Hence, I do believe there will be space for all. Natural products will rub shoulders with the chemical. Both have a space and most certainly a role," he concludes.
South Korean beauty brands
Nihir Parikh
Mini Sood Banerjee
K Beauty Products
Harish Bijoor
Doyoul Lee
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From Blue Squirrel, Inc. comes WebWhacker 2000, an Internet software utility for organizing, storing, retrieving and printing information from favorite Web sites. It is a good tool for educators looking to capture and store Internet pages for fast and convenient offline viewing and archiving. Users can utilize robust features that can be performed easily within a familiar interface modeled after Microsoft Windows Explorer.
Site Tree Previewing allows you to preview a site's organizational tree, including adjacent levels. Once WebWhacker has grabbed the site's HTML, users can select the levels they want to download. If a user elects to store Web site content onto their computer's hard drive or onto removable storage, they can use the Site Tree Postviewing feature. Link Checking generates reports on all broken links after it has obtained a site's HTML.
Additional features of WebWhacker 2000 include a simple interface, the ability to view content as it is being downloaded, a function allowing you to pause and resume a download in progress, and compatibility with all leading Internet browsers. New, upgrade and trial versions of the program can be downloaded and purchased online from the company Web site. Blue Squirrel, Salt Lake City, UT, (801) 523-1063, www.bluesquirrel.com.


text:
Digital Technology Helps Drive Fourth Industrial Revolution, JD Digits CEO says ahead of WEF 2019
PR Newswire Asia
BEIJING, Jan. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital technology is becoming an indispensable part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Globalization 4.0 era by helping traditional industries improve efficiency and lower costs, said Chen Shengqiang, CEO of China's JD Digits, ahead of the World Economic Forum 2019 in Davos, Switzerland.
Chen will present his views on the theme of this year's gathering, "Globalization 4.0: Shaping a New Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution", during a panel discussion alongside other industry leaders in Davos on Tuesday afternoon.
By applying its cutting-edge technologies in big data, AI, IoT and blockchain across a variety of sectors such as finance, agriculture, and urban design in both China and around the globe, JD Digits is helping to reshape traditional industries and enhance the lives of people all over the world.
"As we enter into the Globalization 4.0 era, digital technology is having a significant impact on corporate investment patterns all over the world, and international value creation is tied to the technological vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution," said Chen. "The data-driven economy continues to transform global value chains and helps bring more players from different regions around the world into the globalization wave."
"Represented by the advances in digital technology, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing companies' internal operation models and generating a data-driven global economy," Chen continued. "As the world continues to work together to build a common society, digital technology also helps to break self-centeredness and build a wider community based upon mutual reliance and shared values."
Globalization is a crucial part of JD Digits' strategy. The company works closely with local financial institutions and universities in Hong Kong, runs a joint venture in Thailand with the country's leading retailer the Central Group, and provides key FinTech services to several other Southeast Asian countries. It also operates a world-leading AI lab in Silicon Valley.
As the world faces new challenges brought by the transition to Globalization 4.0, Chen said that JD Digits, as a global company which places technological innovation at its core, believes that the following steps should be taken to successfully overcome these issues:
Firstly, technology should be utilized to reduce the cost of industrial chains, improve productivity and create greater added-value to boost industry development. Secondly, remaining open and connected will enable the continued expansion of industrial digitalization and deepen the development of the digital economy. Thirdly, focusing on building global partnerships based on achieving mutual benefits and common values and establishing a new business value chain that sets the goal of maximizing the value of the whole industry instead of just the company will bring greater rewards.
About JD Digits
JD Digits was formerly known as JD Finance until it was comprehensively upgraded and rebranded in November 2018. Its operational purpose is to connect the finance industry and real economy by using digital technology, boosting the influence of the Internet, enhancing digital and smart industry development, fostering the development of the real economy and creating greater social value.
With its cutting-edge technologies and expertise in big data, AI, IoT and blockchain, JD Digits has been involved in many fields, including finance, urban computing, agriculture, campus services and digital marketing. In the future, JD Digits will enter more real economy sectors and will more deeply explore current business patterns and developing trends.
View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digital-technology-helps-drive-fourth-industrial-revolution-jd-digits-ceo-says-ahead-of-wef-2019-300781373.html


text:
Chanel Bringing Show to Dallas
Published Nov 20, 2013 at 7:02 AM
Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld is bringing his "Metiers d'Art" show to Dallas next month.
The collection showcasing the work of artisans, such as embroiders, will be held Dec. 10 at Fair Park, the city's historic exhibition venue.
Before the show, a film written and directed by Lagerfeld about the couture house's creator, Coco Chanel, will premiere. "The Return" stars Geraldine Chaplin and Rupert Everett. The film also will be shown on Chanel's website when it premieres in Dallas.
Since 2002, Lagerfeld has developed a "Metiers d'Art" collection to show each year in December. The show has previously been held in places such as Tokyo, London, Shanghai and Edinburgh.


Women's Institutes have another idea about links on websites...they are already linking with other women throughout the world via email and post. Links with sister organisations in the U.K. or Australia are common as are individual links between members.
You can locate a federation near you here.


text:
Q: Correctly apply CSS for responsive text I am trying to reduce the size of some titles of my commerce in responsive version. I have tried a bit of css but nothing has worked.
At the moment, I have the following for the main slider text:
@media only screen and (max-width: 600px) {.zphero-banner-style-11 .zpheading, .zshero-banner-style-11 .zpheading {font-size: 22px;;}}

This is my web
enter image description here
Where am I going wrong?

A: Your css path currently looks like this.
@media only screen and (max-width: 600px) {
    .zphero-banner-style-11 .zpheading, .zshero-banner-style-11 .zpheading {
        font-size: 22px;;
    }
}

Without the associated HTML its hard to say but my initial guess is the classes that are already applied on it have greater importance than your new media query. I would try this adding !important and if it doesnt work make your selector more specific.
@media (max-width: 600px) {
    .zphero-banner-style-11 .zpheading, .zshero-banner-style-11 .zpheading {
        font-size: 22px !important;
    }
}

fun things to note about selector importance:
100 points for IDs
10 points for classes and pseudo-classes
1 point for tag selectors and pseudo-elements
Note: If the element has inline styling that automatically wins (1000 points)

Among two selector styles browser will always choose the one with more weight. Order of your stylesheets only matters when priorities are even - that's why it is not easy to override Bootstrap.
currently your media query css selectors have a value of 20 points because there are 2 class names pointing to the change
CSS declarations marked as important override any other declarations within the same cascade layer and origin. Although technically, !important has nothing to do with specificity, it interacts directly with specificity and the cascade. It reverses the cascade order of stylesheets. Not the best practice but it works well often

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Neither NATO nor Putin: How the U.S. Left is Getting Ukraine Wrong
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, sectors on the Left are either repeating imperialist propaganda by calling for sanctions or minimizing Russia's actions under the guise of anti-imperialism. To be anti-imperialist means to organize the international working class against U.S. imperialism and oppressive regimes everywhere.
Adnan Ahmed and James Dennis Hoff
Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced and thousands have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine last Thursday. While many on the Left have condemned this invasion, as they rightly should, they have sometimes done so in ways that wind up supporting U.S. imperialism. Meanwhile, a smaller section of the Left is openly ignoring or downplaying the crimes of the Putin regime, seeing the war as just an inevitable or even necessary response to NATO aggression. But Putin's war on Ukraine will do nothing to weaken NATO's expansion or limit the growth of far-right tendencies in the country. On the contrary, it is only further empowering the Right and NATO, all while upending the lives of millions of working people in Ukraine and Russia.
Pro-Imperialist "Progressives"
In the United States, many so-called progressives, including Senator Bernie Sanders, darling of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), are throwing their support behind Ukraine's reactionary government and clamoring for sanctions against Russia. At Left Voice we have been exposing Sanders' imperialist tendencies for many years, but his statements on Ukraine should be the nail in the coffin for any anti-imperialist socialists who supported him in the past. In a video posted to Youtube, Bernie Sanders called for "severe sanctions on Vladimir Putin and his government," emphatically repeating the word "severe" for emphasis.
At the same time, prominent self-described socialists in Congress (many endorsed by DSA), such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of "The Squad," are also lining up behind the policies of U.S. and NATO imperialism. On the eve of the invasion, AOC tweeted her full support for U.S. sanctions, stating unequivocally, "The U.S. is right to impose targeted sanctions on Putin & his oligarchs." This is par for the course for AOC, who also failed to condemn U.S. aggression against Venezuela in 2019 and military aid to Israel last year. By supporting such sanctions against Russia, AOC and other members of The Squad are actively supporting U.S. imperialism, while also hurting the Russian working class — including the many people who are risking their lives to protest the war. In fact, some reports estimate that more than 6,000 Russians have been arrested for anti-war activities since the war began.
The Enemy of My Enemy Isn't Necessarily a Friend
On the other side are those who correctly begin with a criticism of NATO and U.S. imperialism, but then tragically go on to simply ignore, downplay, or apologize for Russia's invasion of Ukraine or the crimes of Putin's autocratic regime. In the lead up to the war, for instance, the DSA's International Committee issued a statement calling for an end to NATO expansionism, but completely ignored Russia's buildup of forces on the Ukrainian border, the history of Russian aggression against Ukraine, Georgia, and Chechnya, or Russia's support of reactionary governments in Syria, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Of course, it is essential to call out the indisputable and oversized role that the U.S. and its NATO allies played in the lead up to the war. But to ignore the facts of Russia's exploitation of its neighbors or Putin's ambitions to re-establish a sphere of influence comparable to Imperial Russia is to abandon any kind of solidarity with the hundreds of millions of workers who will be hurt by such policies.
The DSA has since issued a public statement which openly condemns the invasion, but the autocratic nature of Putin's regime or his brutal crackdown on LGBTQ and anti-war activists and protesters still receives no mention. Worse, its calls for "immediate diplomacy and de-escalation," rather than the immediate withdrawal of U.S. and Russian troops from Europe and an immediate end to Western military aid to Ukraine, sows illusions that Russia and NATO can somehow come to an agreement that is actually in the interests of working people the world over.
Then there are those people on the Left who see the world as divided into ill-defined "camps" and who regularly view Russia and China as allies in the struggle against U.S imperialism. These voices have not just downplayed the role that Russian interests and Putin's government have played in the conflict; they've entirely ignored that role. They claim that Russia had no choice but to invade Ukraine. They repeat Russian claims that the Ukranian government is run by Nazis and that the Russian invasion was at the behest of the peoples of Donbas. They insist that the annexation of Crimea was based on a legitimate democratic referendum, and that the conflict is exclusively the result of U.S. and NATO aggression.
The Black Agenda Report, for instance, has repeatedly apologized for Russian interventions abroad, including the disastrous role it played in the Syrian Civil War, and has gone so far as to argue that the Russian deployment of 150,000 troops in Ukraine should not be called an invasion. Repeating Russian talking points, it claims that these troops are not there for Russia's interests, but are part of a "a special military operation in order to protect the people in these territories [Donetsk and Luhansk]." Positions like this are often put forward as part of a broader strategy in support of a form of "multipolarity" that welcomes the emergence of alternative powers around the world in response to U.S. imperialism. But the emergence of other global powers, particularly exploitative capitalist powers such as China, is not in the interests of working people and will do nothing to limit imperial conflict. The tragedy of such thinking is that it ties working people to the interests of capitalist states, trading one form of oppression for another.
This tendency among a sector of the U.S. Left to set aside or downplay criticism of any state or leader that happens to be on the receiving end of imperialist aggression is not a minor oversight, however, but a fundamental failure to recognize the importance of internationalism to any socialist project. Socialism, after all, is not a struggle between different states, but between irreconcilable classes. It is for workers' control of society and production, and as such has nothing to do with support for such states as Russia or China, which continue to oppress their own populations. By focusing almost exclusively on the chess game of geopolitics and looking only at conflicts between states, such a worldview divides the working class into different competing groups, undermining international solidarity and the possibility of a collective struggle of working people everywhere.
Such campist tendencies have a long and sordid history that begins at least as far back as the Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union. Attempting to reconcile ongoing support for the USSR with Stalin's purges and the later crushing of revolutionary workers movements in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, many Leftists — including members of the Communist Party USA — wound up defending these actions. They argued that public criticism of Stalin's regime, or any attempts to overthrow Stalin, even when initiated by revolutionary workers, only gave ammunition to its imperialist enemies in the West. This logic was applied not only to the degenerated workers' state of the Soviet Union, but was extended and continues to be extended to all kinds of unsavory governments and authoritarian regimes on the receiving end of Western imperialist aggression, including China, Iran, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela.
In the case of China, for example, many on the Left today continue to deny or apologize for the state's persecution of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province. And they continue to portray China's economic growth as a sign of it being a workers' state, while ignoring the poverty and exploitation of Chinese workers or the fact that the membership of Communist Party of China includes capitalists and billionaires. Such a worldview makes it impossible to organize with or support true working-class opposition to the Chinese government. Another example is in the case of Syria, where apologists for Assad falsely denied that his government had used chemical weapons against its own people.
Anti-imperialism in its true sense means supporting and mobilizing the global working class against capitalist exploitation and imperialism. The threat of Western imperialism is very real, and the meddling of these forces to influence foreign affairs to their advantage cannot be denied. But if our goal is the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of workers' states, as it should be, then being apologists for repressive anti-U.S. regimes will not get us there. The anti-imperialist Left has to organize the international working class to take action not only against U.S. imperialism, but also against autocracy, capitalism, fascism, and imperialist tendencies everywhere. Without such solidarity, there is little chance of ever breaking the cycle of exploitation, poverty, economic crisis, and endless war that defines our age. In the current moment, this means building a global movement of the international working class to demand an end to the conflict, the exit of all Russian troops from the country (including the Donbas region), an end to U.S. sanctions and military support for Ukraine, an end to the rearmament of Europe, NATO's exit from Eastern Europe, the removal of all U.S. forces from the region, and an independent policy in Ukraine to confront Russian occupation and imperialist domination.
Adnan Ahmed
Adnan Ahmed is a community psychiatrist in Minneapolis.
James Dennis Hoff is a writer, educator, labor activist, and member of the Left Voice editorial board. He teaches at The City University of New York.
'This is only the beginning of the struggle': Interview with a Healthcare Worker about the Strikes in France
Last Thursday, two million workers across France went on strike to protest the Macron government's attempt to raise the retirement age. Left Voice spoke to Feargal McGovern, a worker at a hospital in Grenoble, France, and a member of the new organization Révolution Permanente.
150 Young People in Berlin Break from Reformism
A conference last Saturday discussed a "revolutionary break" from Germany's Left Party, Die Linke.
Nathaniel Flakin
A Revolutionary Break from Die Linke in Germany
Germany's Left Party is in a profound crisis. This weekend, over 100 young people are gathering in Berlin for a conference. Their goal is to break from Die Linke and begin building a revolutionary organization.
Tom Krüger
Revolutionary Alternatives in France: Building A New Socialist Organization to Overcome the Failure of the NPA
On the weekend of December 16-18, 2022, the Congress for the founding of a new revolutionary organization, promoted by the organization Révolution Permanente, part of the Trotskyist Fraction and of the International Network La Izquierda Diario, was held in France. We publish here the intervention of Daniela Cobet, leader of Révolution Permanente, during the first day of the session.
Daniela Cobet


text:
Q: Masonry gallery not stacking correctly I have looked up so many answers on StackOverflow, nothing seems to be helping. I have the following code, it seems to be stacking well without the masonry initialized (for the images on the current test), but fails with it. Reason I need masonry, is because the images won't always line up.
JSFiddle
HTML

CSS
.gallery .gallery-item {
  margin-bottom: 20px;
  float: left;

  -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
  -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  height: 400px;
}

.grid-sizer { width: 33.33%; }
.gallery .gallery-item img{
  max-width: 100%;
}
.gallery .image-full {
  width: 100%;
  background: red;
}
.gallery .image-half {
  width: 50%;
  background: blue;
}
.gallery .image-third {
  width: 33.33%;
  background: green;
}
.grid-item {
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}

JavaScript
var $gallery = $(".gallery");
$gallery.imagesLoaded(function() {
  $gallery.masonry({
      percentPosition: true,
      columnWidth: '.grid-sizer',
     itemSelector: '.gallery-item',
    });
});

A: You built a layout of 3 columns of 33.33% by setting .grid-sizer to 33.33%.
It's mean the 50% wide column fit in two columns and let space of 1 column of 33.33% beside, which is not enough for a second 50% wide column.
You should use a smaller multiplicator for .grid-size as :
.grid-sizer {
  width: 16.667%;
}

A: I think You Need This

.gal {

 -webkit-column-count: 3; /* Chrome, Safari, Opera */
    -moz-column-count: 3; /* Firefox */
    column-count: 3;

 }
 .gal img{ width: 100%; padding: 7px 0;}
@media (max-width: 500px) {

  .gal {

 -webkit-column-count: 1; /* Chrome, Safari, Opera */
    -moz-column-count: 1; /* Firefox */
    column-count: 1;

 }

 }

Pure Css Responsive Masonry Gallery

A: You need to add jquery for your initialization method for masonry. In addition you need to delete your external image loading resource.
https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js

https://jsfiddle.net/andrewgi/6m154y5z/


We have to cover a medium dimension auditorium , 12.000 sf (~1200 squared meters) , serving around 500 clients (at peek , mobile phones, notebook devices) . All walls are plasterboard, around 250 seats .
What would be an optimal number both in terms of coverage and concurrent access.
Forget about the R3xx series. These are not designed for scale.
R500/R510 are your minimum. Ideally R610 or R710.
For lecture halls/auditoriums we go with R710s.
For a similar size auditorium, we would use from 3 to 5 APs (we might disable some of 2.4GHz radios).
You should also consider the type of applications/ traffic that the clients will use: web browsing/ e-mail or also video etc..
I wouldn't worry about the coverage, but more about the capacity.
You could use Andrew von Nagy's capacity planning tool http://www.revolutionwifi.net/capacity-planner in order to estimate the number of APs needed.


text:
Amazon's Aurora Database Hits Prime Time
By Gladys Rama
Amazon Aurora, Amazon Web Services' bid to streamline the traditional relational database model, has left the preview stage.
First unveiled at last year's AWS re:Invent conference, the Aurora database engine is now ready for use in production environments, the company announced on Monday. Currently, it is available out of three AWS regions -- U.S. East (Northern Virginia), U.S. West (Oregon) and Europe (Ireland) -- but AWS says it plans to expand its availability to more regions "in the coming months."
Detailed pricing information for Aurora is available here. In summary, database instances come in five sizes, and users pay on a per-hour basis for any database instances they require, as well as up to 15 replicas. In the U.S. regions where Aurora is available, that means paying as little as $0.29 per hour for the "db.r3.large" instance and as much as $4.64 per hour for the "db.r3.8xlarge" instance.
Users also pay for the storage used by their Aurora database (in the U.S. regions, amounting to $0.10 per GB per month) and for every 1 million I/O requests (amounting to $0.20 per million).
AWS touts Aurora as "a MySQL-compatible, relational database engine that combines the speed and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases." The product promises to deliver 5x speed improvements over MySQL and at a tenth of the cost of traditional databases.
AWS evangelist Jeff Barr outlined a few of Aurora's features in a blog post Monday. They include:
Zero-downtime migrations from Amazon RDS for MySQL
The ability to view reports and take action on data using Amazon CloudWatch
The ability to create replicas within 10 to 20 minutes
More information about Aurora is available at this product page.
Gladys Rama is the senior site producer for Redmondmag.com, RCPmag.com and MCPmag.com.


5 Dec - 4 min - Uploaded by scooter Madonna Hollywood ''Aviddiva Remix''. scooter Loading Unsubscribe from. 16 Apr - 7 min - Uploaded by MadonnaSinglesHD Hollywood (Oakenfold Full Remix). 26 May - 6 min - Uploaded by MadonnaGreatestMusik Madonna Hollywood (The Micronauts Remix). MadonnaGreatestMusik.
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Jahlil Beats hottest mixtapes, albums and music, 4/4, Hate Me Now, Ain't No Mixtape Bih, Crack Music 7, Legend Era III, Hotels 2: The Master Suite, Genius, L. Various Artists,Jahlil Beatz,Djripridah,Roberto Sanchez,Queaks,Jose Fredo,Dre Dub. Rating: 5 Stars. Listens: Mixtape Cover. Making Beats Till I Die 4.
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25 Feb Call of Duty: Black Ops Guide All Intel Locations covered plus a complete single player game walkthrough are contained in our guide to Black. Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Cheats was announced today and we are happy to say we Our coder had the full Black Ops 2 hack coded and online just two hours. What the hell are aimbots.
Alice in Quantumland: An Allegory of Quantum Physics Robert Gilmore An imaginative allegory of quantum physics, written and illustrated (!) by a CERN. alice in quantumland an pdf - Le avventure di Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie, spesso contratto in Alice nel. Paese delle Meraviglie. (titolo originale Alice's.
With SILKYPIX JPEG Photography 8, you can release your creativity. Improve your JPEG photos taken with digital cameras, smart phones, and other devices. Depending on your environment may take some time to download. After pressing the [Download] button, please wait for a while until the process is complete.
What's up xda I thought I would make a list of emulators that work on kindle fire hd unrooted tested on my kindle so here goes 1 dreamcast. 4 May - 5 min - Uploaded by Justin Newton This will also work for most emulators, not just GBA. Just search for the console you want to.
18 Jul - 5 min - Uploaded by PresidentRae Temptations. 17 Jun - 4 min - Uploaded by Jayson Abrego Ali Woodson on lead singing Some Enchanted Evening at The Apollo from the hit album. 10 May - 2 min - Uploaded by Abdul Jalil The Temptations - Some Enchanted Evening .
1 Jul - 9 min - Uploaded by Trance Page It's been so long since I have touched you I can't remember how it feels To have your loving. 20 Jun - 6 min - Uploaded by Trancejustnow Listen p or higher / Escuchar en p o superior Dash Berlin - The New Daylight () 17 May - 4 min - Uploaded by Dash Berlin Dash Berlin - Till The Sky Falls Down (Dash Berlin 4AM Mix) http://www. mediterraneanwar.com.


text:
Anand beats Topalov in Candidates' opener
With the two of the three games ending in draws, Anand is likely to emerge as the sole winner on day one of the biggest event of the year and can now look up to remaining event with immense confidence after being written off by the pundits.
Moscow 11 March, 2016 23:58 IST
Viswanathan Anand got off to a winning start by defeating Topalov. - R. Ragu
Defying expectations, his position and odds, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand today won a nerve wracking contest against former challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the first round of Candidates to go into early lead here.
>Carlsen's challenger: Meet the Candidates
While luck might have played a pivotal role in Anand's conquest, Topalov went on missing some very refined tactics in the game that might probably be known as the clincher for the future generation.
Anand started off well in his pet Ruy Lopez and just when things were looking good for the Indian ace, Topalov came up with a superb pawn sacrifice that was in fact taboo. Anand went for pawn grabbing which was not correct according to computers but Topalov missed a super-tactic that involved a Bishop sacrifice in the middle game.
As it happened, Topalov could never come back in the game post the fiasco. The Bulgarian watched as Anand penetrated in the base rank with his rooks and completed the formalities in familiar fashion. The game lasted 49 moves.
In other games of the day, the all-American and all-Russian duel ended in draws without much ado. Hikaru Nakamura took his chances and appeared slightly better against compatriot Fabiano Caruana before the latter neutralised everything and got an easy draw.
Sergey Karjakin of Russia also failed to make an impact against Peter Svidler who seemed at ease in the complexities of a Slav defense as black.
In the other game of the day, Levon Aronian of Armenia got a taste of his own medicine against Anish Giri who employed a variation the Armenian favours himself. However, the position was still level while the combat continues here.
Result round 1: V Anand (Ind) beat Veselin Topalov (Bul); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita); Anish Giri (Ned) playing Levon Aronian (Arm).


Adekwu holds a Master's degree in Construction law from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland where he graduated in the upper percentage of his class. He holds an LL.B from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2003 and to the Bar of England and Wales in 2013. He worked in various leading law firms before setting up 24 Law Chambers.
With an unyielding focus on service and result delivery, Adekwu regularly acts as negotiator, arbitrator, litigator and adviser to clients. His astute understanding of issues enables him to quickly focus on real issues thereby ensuring cost and time -savings to clients.
Adekwu is trained in money laundering and fraud compliance by the United Nations and is currently studying for an MBA from the University of South Wales. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK and Nigerian branches), the International Bar Association and the Nigerian Bar Association. Adekwu sits on the board of several private companies. He speaks two of the three major Nigerian languages fluently.


Bangladeshi garment workers get only 2.96 percent, or just $0.54, of the $18.25 retail value of a polo shirt in the Western world, said the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), an Amsterdam-based rights group, yesterday.
The FWF's research showed many buyers were not willing to pay more after the minimum wage was increased in Bangladesh in 2013, said its expert Klaus Hohenegger.
Brands agree to increase prices when the fabric cost goes up or currency fluctuates, but start bargaining when the minimum wage goes up, making the argument that factories simply need to -- increase their efficiency.
"This must be seen within the context of Bangladesh where the prices of garments have been steadily going down year by year despite the rising cost of production," Hohenegger said at a workshop yesterday.
The FWF and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) organised the workshop styled "labour minute costing and price negotiation with buyers" at the capital's Lakeshore Hotel.
"Our view is that it is the buyer's responsibility to comply with the legal wage requirements," Hohenegger said, while calling for transparency in the 'Free on Board' (FOB) pricing.
FOB is the point at which the ownership of the goods is transferred to the buyer such that the seller is no longer responsible for damages.
Making the cost of labour transparent is important as it shows that it is entirely possible to increase wages without affecting the 'marketability' of the garments concerned since the cost of labour is just a fraction of the retail price, said FWF's Country Manager Koen Oosterom.
The total manufacturing cost of the $18.25 polo shirt in a factory in Bangladesh is $3.50. The manufacturers sell the item to the wholesalers at $3.85, which includes a 10 percent profit margin.
The manufacturers have to spend $1.75 on fabrics, $0.40 on accessories, $0.25 for embroidery and $0.10 for packaging.
The manufacturers' direct labour cost (salary) is $0.33, indirect labour cost (different allowances) is $0.21, management cost $0.17 and factory running cost $0.29.
The wholesalers and retailers also spend certain percentage of money for insurance, transportation and duty.
The FWF labour minute calculator shows how much the price of a garment item would need to go up in order to give factories the required financial room to ensure payment of at least the legal minimum wage, all other things being equal, Oosterom said.
The tool also makes it possible to calculate the labour cost per product based on a higher wage level, such as a living wage benchmark or a wage agreed through collective bargaining agreement.
Garment prices are highly sensitive, particularly in the fiercely competitive fast fashion sector, but a detailed examination shows that the labour element accounts for a relatively small share of the price that consumers pay.
Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, the second vice-president of the BKMEA, pointed out that in a margin-driven industry buyers are often unwilling to shoulder the higher costs of compliance with new legal wage requirements.


text:
The Trump Administration Is Declaring War on Planned Parenthood With a Return to Reagan-Era Politics
Emma Roller
Filed to: abortionFiled to: abortion
title x
The Trump administration is expected to announce on Friday a new rule banning clinics that provide abortions from receiving federal funding, The New York Times reported. The rule would deal a significant blow to Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide both abortions and women's healthcare.
From the Times:
The policy would be a return to one instituted in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan that required abortion services to have a "physical separation" and "separate personnel" from other family planning activities. That policy is often described as a domestic gag rule because it barred caregivers at facilities that received family planning funds from providing any information to patients about an abortion or where to receive one.
There's already a long-standing prohibition in place against directly funding organizations that conduct abortion services with federal Title X family planning program money. But this new rule would cut off that funding to women's health providers who also perform abortions.
This change would disproportionately impact low-income and uninsured women, who depend on free and affordable women's health clinics. Last year, the Guttmacher Institute, which conducts research on reproductive health policy, put out a report outlining the importance of Title X funding for young and low-income women. It found that without Title X-supported services, rates of unintended and teen pregnancy would rise considerably.
Graphic: Guttmacher Institute
The result of this new rule won't be to cut down on abortions or make women healthier—we already know what happens when states cut off access to clinics like Planned Parenthood. A 2016 study from the National Institutes of Health found that, after Texas cut off state funding to Planned Parenthood in 2013, it led to "adverse changes in contraceptive provision, continuation, and Medicaid-paid deliveries."
Defunding Planned Parenthood has become a staple position for the GOP's conservative base, as GOP-controlled states across the country have been waging war against the women's health organization. Earlier this month, Iowa passed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country. The law, signed by Governor Kim Reynolds, bans off abortion after just six weeks—before many women even realize they're pregnant.
Right now, anti-abortion crusaders are winning their war to restrict women's ability to choose when and how they have children—and this White House is willing to help them.
Iowa Governor Signs the Country's Most Restrictive Abortion Bill Into Law
Salvadoran Women Imprisoned for Abortion Speak Out Against Their Country's Draconian Laws
Kellyanne Conway Advises Trump That Homeless Shelters, Dentists Could Replace Planned Parenthood
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Will "America First" hasten "China First"?
I have written a number of things in this tymshft blog over the years, but if I were to look over them again, I suspect that every one of them was written with an exclusively Western mindset.
Which is surprising when you think about it, because the most significant trend that people have been talking about for decades is the coming end of American dominance.
Over the last several hundred years, various countries and empires have taken turns as major world powers. For the people of today, it is inconceivable that Portugal was once one of those world powers. Now it's the holiday spot for people from England, who themselves once presided over an empire upon which the sun never set. After the United States pretty much bailed Britain out in the 1940s, there were two world powers – and by 1990, there was only one.
Meanwhile, futurists kept an eye on the billion-plus people in the so-called "uncivilized" part of the world. Here's part of what the American Conservative wrote in 2012:
[China's poverty] began to change very rapidly once Deng Xiaoping initiated his free-market reforms in 1978, first throughout the countryside and eventually in the smaller industrial enterprises of the coastal provinces. By 1985, The Economist ran a cover story praising China's 700,000,000 peasants for having doubled their agricultural production in just seven years, an achievement almost unprecedented in world history. Meanwhile, China's newly adopted one-child policy, despite its considerable unpopularity, had sharply reduced population growth rates in a country possessing relatively little arable land….
Even a century ago, near the nadir of China's later weakness and decay, some of America's foremost public intellectuals, such as Edward A. Ross and Lothrop Stoddard, boldly predicted the forthcoming restoration of the Chinese nation to global influence, the former with equanimity and the latter with serious concern.
While the American Conservative article goes on to argue that China's ascendancy does not necessarily mean the United States' decline, it argued that at the time (2012) we were clearly heading that way.
Our elites boast about the greatness of our constitutional democracy, the wondrous human rights we enjoy, the freedom and rule of law that have long made America a light unto the nations of the world and a spiritual draw for oppressed peoples everywhere, including China itself. But are these claims actually correct? They often stack up very strangely when they appear in the opinion pages of our major newspapers, coming just after the news reporting, whose facts tell a very different story.
Just last year, the Obama administration initiated a massive months-long bombing campaign against the duly recognized government of Libya on "humanitarian" grounds, then argued with a straight face that a military effort comprising hundreds of bombing sorties and over a billion dollars in combat costs did not actually constitute "warfare," and hence was completely exempt from the established provisions of the Congressional War Powers Act.
But as the 2012 author well knew, the Obama administration would not be in power forever. At worst, Obama would be re-elected in 2012, but would leave office by 2017.
What if a very different leader were to take his place? What if a new President were to appeal to those who were NOT elite? What if he were to (intentionally or unintentionally) heed the George Washington warning against entangling alliances, and were to reverse the traditional isolationism that dominated the United States for most of the years between 1789 and 1940 – when the "America First" movement fell due to Communist disapproval (after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union), followed by American disapproval the next year after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor?
What if, on Inauguration Day in 2017, a new President were to stand on the Capitol steps and, despite their loaded meaning, actually utter the words "America First"?
Twice?
Well, that could lead to unexpected consequences:
This year's Davos forum taking place from January 17, is supposed to be dominated by a haunting specter of hostility to globalization and the rise of protectionism around the world. It comes at a time, when the new U.S. president-elect is talking tough on trade, promising tariffs and increased government interference in the market. The forum will end on the day the new president is sworn in. It also, for the first time, features the Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi's pitch was fundamentally a focus on free trade rather than geopolitical confrontation, and a pitch for inclusive globalization. Protectionism, nativism and populism were identified as three threats that must be contended with by a more cooperative approach to global trade.
The speech itself comprised of a robust defense of the current world order.
The above was written by Sumantra Maitra at china.org.cn. And why not use china.org.cn as a reference? The Davos crowd, hit by the double whammy of Brexit and Trump, is all too willing to welcome anyone who champions the global interconnectedness of nations. And while there are some who argue that China remains a totalitarian state, with its population controls and its notorious "Great Firewall," China can simply tell its critics to look in the mirror.
As Maitra poses the argument, two new coalitions of nations are forming. One consists of the nationalists – the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, and possibly other European nations in the coming months – nations who value nationalism and protectionism. According to Maitra, the other coalition consists of nations such as China who remain committed to globalism. Maitra concludes:
One needs to understand, that as long as there are laws of demand and supply, trade will be paramount and the forces of economics will favor countries which are pro-trade. Countries, which will try to be protectionist, will ultimately suffer as the market will inevitably punish them due to the lack of competitive advantage. Smaller countries will automatically coalesce around the powers which are more open to trade, and that should be a point well-articulated in Davos.
And as those small countries coalesce around the larger countries, obviously the larger countries will take the lead.
And which country is the largest country of all? Hint – it isn't Switzerland.
When I shared this hypothesis with Tad Donaghe, a futurist whom I respect, I shared it in much shorter form. I was responding to this statement:
We will not accept Trump as the Leader of the free world.
I replied (while sharing the Maitra article):
Many have thought that the US would pass from world leadership regardless, and that China would ascend as the world leader. Perhaps this is happening, and both "America First" conservatives and "human rights" liberals are now on the sidelines.
His response:
We cannot allow that. There is no real freedom at all in China.
But csn "the West" truly prevent that from happening? And if so, how? None of the past Presidents – Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, or Obama – were able to free China's masses, and Trump doesn't look like he can do it either.
Continue the discussion here, or at Tad's Facebook post.
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Europe's Biggest Beachfront opened on Mykonos
Those looking to soak in the sun on the Greek island of Mykonos can do so in Europe's biggest beachfront pool.
The sprawling 22,600-square-foot saltwater pool is located inside SantAnna, trendy beach which was opened in 2017, where guests are invited to spend the day taking in the scenery of Paraga Beach and the Aegean Sea.
Created by the minds behind the Nice-n-Easy restaurant group, SantAnna offers visitors perks that include everything from two organic restaurants and three bars to a variety of designer boutiques and a spa.
There's also a gym, a salon, and some 28,000 square feet of beachside lounges and cabanas.
"Mykonos is known the world over as a vibrant summer destination amongst jetsetters and discerning travelers, but we found a need to cater to a more diverse and inclusive clientele," Dimitris Christoforidis of Nice-n-Easy said in a press release.
"We want to offer an equally lively atmosphere but in a more laid back, chic environment, not only for revelers, but for families, groups and single guests alike," he added.
That's why guests can reserve features like the space's "VIP Islands," which are private subterranean lounges where guests can relax and even enjoy spa services, while a line-up curated by broadcast journalist and DJ Arthur Chi'en will keep the party going all summer long.
When it comes to food, visitors can choose from a Mediterranean restaurant serving international and Greek wines, house-made elixirs, and seafood dishes like whole grilled fish, or a 45-seater sushi and raw bar.
The venue also pays homage to its natural surroundings and Greek origins, using stones found on the island throughout the design.
Entry is free, though you'll need to reserve a lounger or cabana if you're interested in having a place to sit.
Rentals for cabanas and loungers range from 20 to 500 euro depending on their location.
The venue will also host events during the summer, when there will be separate pricing, while VIP island rentals are 500 euro.
SantAnna operates on a seasonal basis from May to October.
Agrari Area, Mykonos
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A traditional recipe made in Eastern European villages. Each family has its own version, but all are made with roasted peppers, eggplant and fresh tomatoes. This versatile condiment may be used as a cooking sauce with poultry and vegetables, a spread for burgers and sandwiches, a sauce for pasta, or as an ingredient in stews and casseroles.
Peppers, Eggplant, Onion, Tomato Concentrate, Sunflower Oil, Garlic, Salt, Acetic Acid, Parsley.


The Mount Pleasant Inn is a family run business offering our guests traditional Welsh hospitality and a warm welcome. We are a 5-bedroom, fully en-suite, family-run B & B accommodation located 18 miles from Cardiff and at the gateway to the Brecon Beacons National Park. Ideal for walkers and cyclists, we are adjacent to the famous Taff Trail and 10 minutes from the Welsh International Climbing Centre, and the area is renowned for hang-gliding and paragliding.