text:
Steve Kincaid looked back with nostalgia to the days when he was growing up. Everything was a lot simpler then. You knew who your friends were. He thought it was a sad commentary of life when dealings were more honest in a ghetto than in the real world.
No, he thought, that wasn't completely true. His Montagnards were trustworthy. The Kurdish tribesmen he had ridden with seemed very much like them. Could he draw a conclusion from that? Mankind would classify both of those peoples as primitive. When you got right down to it, so were the people in the ghetto. All were uneducated by western standards. All were uncivilized by any standards.
Was there some correlation there? Kincaid didn't know. He did know that he felt more at ease in the company of those primitives than with "civilized" people.
He was beginning to gain insights on the psychology of modern man. Man had been on earth for more than a million years it was said by some. No one claimed he had been civilized for more than three thousand of those years. To Kincaid, that seemed a short time in comparison to the length of his existence. Kincaid was sure that, though the minds of most men had adjusted to modern civilization, man's instincts had been much slower to change. The instincts still lived in caves no matter where the rest of him lived.
He felt comfortable with that conclusion. It helped to explain the behavior of the people he had dealt with in life and it was a valuable aid in his everyday dealings with people.
Which brought him to the matter at hand. No matter how distasteful, he was going to have to deal with "civilized" people. Outside of his immediate circle, whom could he trust? There was only one man. No matter how he shuffled the deck, the cards never indicated that Whalen had anything to do with setting him up. He may have had differences with him from time to time, but everything had been up front. Even when the B-29s had been called in to raid his village, Whalen had warned him in time to get everyone out. That was in his favor.
On his return from Iran, Kincaid had delivered Mohammed Parsee/Warren Stevenson and Ali Saranesh to Washington DC. Parsee/Stevenson carried a message for General Whalen. The message was verbal and to the point. Kincaid made the little CIA agent promise to deliver it word for word. Then he and the rest of his party had flown the C-130 to a nearly deserted desert air base in Southern California. There he paid off all the people that had been recruited for the operation. Then he and Sabrina managed to disappear for three weeks.
Lou Gorski and General Trinh Won had had no problems with the drug ring during his absence. The truce was in effect. We don't bother you, you don't bother us. So it was mostly three weeks of honeymoon and rest for Kincaid and Sabrina. It took all that time for them to unwind and start to know each other. The cut on her head didn't quite heal in that time, but the bruises went away. His hand healed nicely but some of the scars on his mind would always be there.
Whalen sent him several messages which he ignored. At the end of three weeks, Kincaid agreed to meet him in a Vietnamese restaurant in Santa Ana.
Whalen was ushered by the owner to a little office in the back. Kincaid was seated behind a small desk. He waved to a chair in front of the desk. The office wasn't large enough for any more furniture than that.
There was an overwhelming odor of the putrefied fish sauce that was a staple of the Vietnamese diet.
Whalen closed the door firmly behind him. Luckily, it opened out. There wouldn't have been room enough for it to swing the other way. He eyed the wooden chair suspiciously.
"It"ll hold you," Kincaid said.
The General lowered his two hundred plus pounds gingerly onto the seat. He tested the chair by shifting his weight from side to side and appeared satisfied. A large calendar with a picture of a naked woman was pinned up on one wall. The woman was blonde all over. "She doesn't look oriental," Whalen remarked, staring at the calendar.
Kincaid glanced that way. "I don't think she is," he said. "But," he added, "you never can tell."
Whalen looked around at the other walls of the office. A lot of memos with names and phone numbers were held up by thumb tacks. It looked like a crude filing system. His eyes returned to the picture on the calendar. The blonde was lying on a bed with pink covers. She was holding a phone to her ear as she flirted with the camera.
"Is this your office?"
"Nope," Kincaid replied. He was going to leave it at that but when Whalen seemed reluctant to continue he added, "I use it sometimes."
"We got the guy who set you up," Whalen suddenly blurted out.
There was a clatter when a tray dropped outside the door. Other than that, very little noise filtered in from the kitchen or the restaurant.
"Oh yeah?" Kincaid said somewhat doubtfully. "Who was it?"
"A file clerk at the CIA. We traced it back to him. He substituted Edward Camacho's records for Warren Stevenson's when the President requested them. It was to make you think it was a friend of yours being held by the Iranians. The CIA put a lie detector on him and he couldn't pass. He admitted everything. The CIA is still questioning him and he's still talking. This is what we've got so far: He worked for the Russians but not the FSB. His boss was a shady character named Rudmetkyn. You ever hear of him?"
Kincaid shook his head, no.
"Not many people have. He's some kind of an international gangster working out of Moscow. His name turns up from time to time. It always has to do with something crooked."
"Rudmetkyn, huh." Things began to fall into place. "Has he ever been into drugs?"
"I thought you might ask about that so I looked into it. No one could say yes or no, but they didn't know why not. He's been into everything else."
Kincaid folded his hands on the desk with both thumbs sticking up. He stared down at them for a while. "No," he finally said, "there's something missing."
Whalen nodded. "I know. The clerk is small potatoes. Someone recommended you to the president in the first place to get the ball rolling. Believe me, I took it as far as I could. No one could remember who brought your name up first. I don't think there is any way to find out short of telling the President that we suspect one of his top advisors is a spy. I'm just not prepared to do that. Are you?"
"No," Kincaid said quickly. There was always the chance that there was no connection. But then why would that clerk...?"
"The funny thing is," Kincaid said, "if they set me up, it was to stop us hitting the drug trade. But as soon as the government acknowledged my Rhade veterans, we quit hitting the drug trade. The druggies came out winners in that."
"That seems to be the case, but...?"
"Why not let me keep making the drug rings pay to let them alone? I could turn the drug money over to the government. They could make a lot of money off of that."
"Not only is that dangerous, it is totally illegal."
"So was what I did in Iran."
Whalen was flustered for a moment. "Well you can't do it here. If the newspapers ever heard that the government was sponsoring a vigilante, there would be hell to pay."
Kincaid was silent.
"Speaking of that, have you been reading the papers?" Whalen asked.
"I saw a headline or two," Kincaid half-lied. He had read further than that more than once.
"The President didn't want to disavow you. But under the circumstances, he had to do it. Of course, no one believes him. That's just as well."
"How did my name get out? I thought the President wanted everything kept secret."
"That Iranian merchant you brought back. What was his name?"
"Ali Saranesh."
"Oh yes. Better you had left him there, but I suppose you did what you had to do. He has been an embarrassment. He sold his story to the Washington Post. He has made a killing on this. Now your name is plastered in every paper in the country. No pictures though. We saw to that. And his description of you has no relation to fact, so we're okay there."
"Okay for what?"
"To continue using you. I hope you're not thinking of quitting. The President is delighted with the job you did. He wants to meet you, privately of course. He has something else he wants you to do right away. What do you say? He needs your help. What do you say?"
"Of course," Kincaid said. What else could he say?


When I saw the ad of this tool on Facebook I fell in love with it. With such tool you can trace or copy (replicate) any 4 sides polygon, any contour and any angle. That's handy and I had to make my own ! (think self-sufficient and DIY).
One by one I made the counterbored slots at the router table using a 1/4" and a 1/2" straight bit according to the bolts and the aluminum track flat nuts I used.
For more photos and all construction details, please watch this page of my blog.
Realy looks fantastic and practical. I see lot of practical use here as you posted on those photos.
This is a nice shop-made tool.
Great job on it. Very well done.
As it was about $3 even a tightwad,like I am, could not afford to make one. Although yours will outlast mine purchased one.
In my favorite for the future !!
Nice job Serge, I have one of the $3 plastic ones and they are handy.
thats very cool and nicely done Serge and I'm sure it costs much less and its made of wood !!! KUDOS !!!
I have to say Serge, I like yours 100 times better than the store bought one.
It has grace, style, strength, and the dignity of being made by a true craftsman.
PS: I wasn't going to buy one of these, but now after having seen yours, I intend to make one out of some scrap I will have from a big project I'm currently working on.
And lastly, to all my Lumberjock friends.
Do yourself a favor and sign up to Serge's blog if you haven't already. He is one of the better content contributors out there.
Great tool to have around .
Really fine version, nice and simple to make and use.
As always you find ways.


text:
Two business leaders were sentenced to prison for having dumped rubble in the Calanques of Marseille
The two men, who deny the facts, had been caught red-handed by automatic cameras while polluting the places concerned. They face eighteen months in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros.
Credit: marako85/iStock
The facts took place between January 17 and March 29, 2018 in the heart of the Calanques de Marseille . Two business leaders in the construction industry were tried on Monday, November 7 for having dumped rubble in a Natura 2000 site whose land belongs to the Israelite Consistory of Marseille, four years ago.
On the images captured by the automatic cameras of the place, we can see sixteen rotations of trucks belonging to them dumping rubble. Many waste like boulders, concrete blocks, tiles, plastic or even glass wool had been found a few months earlier, in December 2017, on an area of 2000 square meters and to a height of eight meters, by the National Park of creeks .
But in court, the two business leaders denied the facts, arguing that a verbal agreement with the Consistory had been made to drop off equipment and park their trucks in exchange for cleaning the land. Thus, they would only have moved the waste and rubble that was already there.
"We took this land for a waste dump"
Example of litter on a beach, here in Tarutao, Thailand. Credit: Utopia_88/iStock
A speech that did not convince the prosecutor Michel Sastre who denounces this ' scourge that distorts our region » : « This speech saddens me. Here you have the archetype of rogue bosses who think they are saving money with impunity and who come to present themselves as defenders of the environment ».
These sixteen deposits of rubble by trucks represented a significant saving for the two contractors, recalls the prosecutor. The rental and evacuation by dump trucks being paid for in the waste collection centre, the two defendants made a saving of 24,000 euros.
However, as an inspector from the environment of the Calanques National Park, after the fires, nature repairs itself, but with these waste dumps no repair is possible ", she regrets. ' We took this land for a dump ", said Céleste Savignac, lawyer for the Israelite Consistory, who is also claiming 4,500 euros in damages which correspond to an estimate for cleaning up the land. 2,000 euros in non-pecuniary damage were also claimed.
The court required eighteen months in prison, twelve of which were suspended, and a fine of 15,000 euros. Judgment will be rendered on November 21.
Source : 20 Minutes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The most versatile sailing dinghy on the market, you will not find another dinghy in this class as stable as the mark IV Wayfarer cruiser.
The Wayfarer cruiser is a high quality, hand-built in Derby(UK), G.R.P. dinghy suitable for all the family. At just under 16 foot, this spacious dinghy can comfortably accommodate up to 6 adults and space for enjoying great family cruisers.
Its excellent handling characteristics ensure that beginners quickly gain confidence and can relax and have fun sooner. More experienced sailors can enjoy club racing or the challenges of the racing circuit.
The solid G.R.P. construction, of the Mark IV, provides good stiffness, long-term durability and very stylish lines. G.R.P. is easy to take care of which enables the Wayfarer to be maintained at a very high standard for many years.
The Cruising Wayfarer is ideal for pottering around with the ease of a furling jib and a reef-able mainsail, it is big enough for spending a night under the stars and it can be fitted with oars, anchors or even an outboard engine to suit your cruising needs. Our boats are built to order so you can choose from a range of options to suit your intended use.
The Wayfarer available with either asymmetric or symmetric spinnakers originally intended for sailing schools. The asymmetric is now available for all, providing a new dimension to this classic class (not suitable for racing).
Over 50 years of proven history.
It has been sailed from the UK to Scandinavia.
Stability is the best in its field.
Takes up to 6 people.
Optionally removable rear locker will take an outboard motor.
Ideal for use with an outboard motor. Can be rowed if all else fails.


"Creating a Family Business Plan" course by Eric Flamholtz has now been published by LinkedIn. The course will help family business owners develop a family business plan. A family business plan is not a strategic plan for the family business. It is a precursor to a strategic plan for the business that is done by the family alone. It deals with the mission, vision, and values of the family business from the perspective of the family, and helps families avoid the pitfalls of family business issues.


text:
1. Installaing the camera on the PI
2. Enable the Camera on the PI
3. Testing the PI Camera
4. Using the PI Camera as a USB Device
5. The Python PI Camera Library
6. Basics of computational photography and computer vision with sci-image

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
package com.oskopek.studyguide.constraint;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonGetter;
import com.oskopek.studyguide.constraint.event.StringMessageEvent;
import com.oskopek.studyguide.model.CourseEnrollment;
import com.oskopek.studyguide.model.constraints.CourseGroup;
import com.oskopek.studyguide.model.courses.Course;
import com.oskopek.studyguide.model.courses.Credits;
import org.apache.commons.lang.builder.EqualsBuilder;
import org.apache.commons.lang.builder.HashCodeBuilder;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.stream.Stream;

/**
 * Checks if the {@link com.oskopek.studyguide.model.courses.Credits} sum of fulfilled
 * {@link com.oskopek.studyguide.model.courses.Course}s in a given
 * {@link com.oskopek.studyguide.model.constraints.CourseGroup} is at least N.
 */
public class CourseGroupCreditsSumConstraint extends CourseGroupConstraint {

    private final String message = "constraint.courseGroupCreditsSumInvalid";
    private Credits totalNeeded;

    /**
     * Private default constructor, needed by CDI.
     */
    protected CourseGroupCreditsSumConstraint() {
        // needed for CDI
    }

    /**
     * Default constructor.
     *
     * @param courseGroup the referenced course group
     * @param totalNeeded the minimum credit that the student needs to achieve in this course group
     */
    public CourseGroupCreditsSumConstraint(CourseGroup courseGroup, Credits totalNeeded) {
        super(courseGroup);
        this.totalNeeded = totalNeeded;
    }

    @Override
    public void validate() {
        List<Course> groupCourses = getCourseGroup().courseListProperty().get();
        Stream<Course> fulfilledGroupCourses = semesterPlan.allCourseEnrollments().filter(CourseEnrollment::isFulfilled)
                .map(CourseEnrollment::getCourse).filter(groupCourses::contains);
        Credits fulfilledSum = Credits
                .valueOf(fulfilledGroupCourses.map(c -> c.getCredits().getCreditValue()).reduce(0, Integer::sum));
        if (fulfilledSum.compareTo(totalNeeded) < 0) {
            fireBrokenEvent(generateMessage(fulfilledSum, totalNeeded));
        } else {
            fireFixedEvent(this);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        return new HashCodeBuilder(17, 37).appendSuper(super.hashCode()).append(getTotalNeeded()).toHashCode();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object o) {
        if (this == o) {
            return true;
        }
        if (!(o instanceof CourseGroupCreditsSumConstraint)) {
            return false;
        }
        CourseGroupCreditsSumConstraint that = (CourseGroupCreditsSumConstraint) o;
        return new EqualsBuilder().appendSuper(super.equals(o)).append(getTotalNeeded(), that.getTotalNeeded())
                .isEquals();
    }

    /**
     * Generates a message from the given parameters (localized). Used for populating the message of
     * {@link StringMessageEvent}s (usually upon breaking a constraint).
     *
     * @param got the credit amount the student achieved
     * @param needed the credit amount the student needed to pass this constraint
     * @return the String to use as a message, localized
     */
    private String generateMessage(Credits got, Credits needed) {
        return String.format(messages.getString(message), needed.getCreditValue(), got.getCreditValue());
    }

    /**
     * Get the credit sum to pass this constraint.
     *
     * @return the total needed credit sum
     */
    @JsonGetter
    private Credits getTotalNeeded() {
        return totalNeeded;
    }

    /**
     * Set the credit sum to pass this constraint.
     *
     * @param totalNeeded the total needed credit sum
     */
    public void setTotalNeeded(Credits totalNeeded) {
        this.totalNeeded = totalNeeded;
    }

}


Тhеrе are a numbеr of орtіоns for those who wish to wоrk, lіvе, or have lеgаl stаtus in the Canada. Тhе орtіоns rаngе from аррlуіng for a Canada work visa or еmрlоуmеnt аuthоrіzаtіоn to fіlіng for rеsіdеnсу and сіtіzеnshір, hоwеvеr, it is important to rесоgnіzе the dіffеrеnсе between tеmроrаrу wоrk реrmіts and реrmаnеnt lеgаl stаtusеs.
Оnе of the соmmоn lеgаl stаtusеs аmоung уоungеr undосumеntеd іmmіgrаnts are wоrk реrmіts, or wоrk аuthоrіzаtіоns, obtained through DАСА (Dеfеrrеd Асtіоn for Сhіldhооd Аrrіvаls). Аlthоugh a wоrk реrmіt grаnts lеgаl stаtus within the Canada for a specified tіmе and under certain сіrсumstаnсеs, they do not grаnt реrmаnеnt lеgаl stаtus.
Whаt Іs a Canada work visa?
Work visas, fоrmаllу known as еmрlоуmеnt аuthоrіzаtіоn dосumеnts (ЕАDs), are іssuеd to fоrеіgnеrs who do not have rеsіdеnсу rіghts and who do ΝОТ wish to реrmаnеntlу lіvе in the UЅА, but only to wоrk for a certain аmоunt of tіmе. Wоrk реrmіts can last any where from a few mоnths to a whole уеаr, and rеnеwаls are possible dереndіng on many fасtоrs.
Fоr ехаmрlе, somebody еntеrіng the соuntrу on a fіаnсé vіsа may аррlу for a shоrt wоrk реrmіt to tіdе them over until they mаrrу and сhаngе their lеgаl stаtus. Тhоsе on rеlіgіоus wоrkеr vіsаs may only rеquіrе shоrt wоrk реrmіts if they wish to wоrk for рау besides the rеlіgіоus wоrk they came to dо.
Аn ЕАD is not еmрlоуеr-sресіfіс, and it аllоws you to wоrk lеgаllу for any Canada еmрlоуеr anywhere in the соuntrу. Ѕоmе саtеgоrіеs of реорlе who rеquіrе a Canada work visa to wоrk lаwfullу іnсludе sроusеs of ехсhаngе sсhоlаrs and іnvеstоrs, studеnts who are doing орtіоnаl trаіnіng, and L-1 іntеrnаl соmраnу trаnsfеrs.
А Реrmаnеnt Rеsіdеnt (РR), is someone who has gone through the nаturаlіzаtіоn рrосеss and become a lаwful реrmаnеnt rеsіdеnt of the Canada. РRs are іssuеd Аlіеn Rеgіstrаtіоn Саrds which аllоws them to lіvе and wоrk lеgаllу in the Canada. Тhе Аlіеn Rеgіstrаtіоn Саrd is рорulаrlу known as a grееn саrd (еvеn though it has gone through many соlоrs through its hіstоrу).
Іn аddіtіоn to grаntіng the right to lіvе and wоrk in the Canada, a реrsоn with a grееn саrd is able to реtіtіоn for their sроusе and сhіldrеn to јоіn thеm. Ноwеvеr, it also comes with rеsроnsіbіlіtіеs, such as lіvіng in the соuntу реrmаnеntlу and not sреndіng more than 6 mоnths at a tіmе outside of the соuntrу – this might рrоmрt the lоss of the grееn саrd and its рrіvіlеgеs.
Ноw Саn І Gеt А Реrmаnеnt Residence visa?
І often get аskеd "hоw can an іllеgаl іmmіgrаnt get a grееn саrd?" or "hоw can an іllеgаl іmmіgrаnt become lеgаl?". Ноwеvеr соmmоn, аnswеrіng these quеstіоns are not sіmрlе.
Тhеrе are many wауs to асquіrе lеgаl stаtus – through mаrrіаgе being just one of thеm. Тhе еlіgіbіltу rеquіrеmеnts and рареrwоrk аssосіаtеd with the іmmіgrаtіоn fіlіngs are соmрlех and can vаrу on a саsе by саsе bаsіs. Аn іmmіgrаtіоn соnsultаtіоn with an ехреrіеnсеd and trustеd іmmіgrаtіоn lаwуеr is hіghlу rесоmmеndеd to fіnd out which саtеgоrу might be bеst suіtеd to every іmmіgrаnt's particular nееds.