text:
Maker General
Advice you don't agree with?
Thread starter Bernkastelwitch
The Faceless Friend
RCXDan said:
There is this too. Sometimes replayability is just that you liked the game enough you want to do it again.
This is pretty much the main reason I bother to replay games. In fact, totally randomised worlds tend to be a major turn off for me. I like handcrafted areas, and don't care if they're the same over and over again.
Reactions: Piyan Glupak and RCXDan
Synrec
Telling people not to use RPG Maker.
Reactions: TheMeowingFox, Magenta-Fantasies, HexMozart88 and 8 others
Benny Jackdaw
Ratty!
"There's nothing new under the sun/Cliches are great when done right."
While this advice isn't so much horrible, it is often times used to justify some of the most overused and worn-out cliches, and oftentimes feels like it's used as a justification for writing the same stories and characters over and over. I've been writing this book lately, and part of the fun of writing the book has been coming up with all these different races, locations, story elements that combine my favorite kind of characters with a message I want to tell (anti-bullying). Sure, it's going to fall onto cliches quite a bit, but that advice shouldn't be an excuse not to try anything new. You can STILL have cliches qnd try something new at the same time, so don't be afraid to try something new. Also...
"Visuals don't mayter. They're skin deep."
I don't agree with this at all. My favorite characters are the ones that have visual appeal as well as good writing. Good visual appeal allows a character to just pop off the screen, and it makes them more fun and enjoyable to watch. Even in a book, I can still visualize the character. I've seen the generic anime Swordsman pull off some super powered sword combo a hundred times. It doesn't entertain me anymore. But if something unique and something I haven't seen before were to do it like, say, a samurai wombat pulling off a similar combo against an evil bunny monster or something outside the box like that, THAT entertains me.
Reactions: TheMeowingFox and Magenta-Fantasies
Willibab
The Lord of Whackery
Answers depends on the question being asked. If you ask for general advice then you will get it. And a general concern is standing out, of which i think its good advice to suggest having your own art or doing something special with the rtp.
Reactions: Magenta-Fantasies
PoptartPresident
It's kind of rare to be said, but it's anyone saying, "Don't use the generic assets for your game."
Guys, making artwork is really HARD for a LOT of people. Especially since RPG Maker is pretty pixel-perfect with everything, I don't blame someone for not really knowing how to work with sprites and models. People always forget how hard it is to make artwork because on the internet, you'll pretty much always see the sea of beautiful pieces made by really high-followings on something like google images, or most social media websites. It seems so widespread, but it really is an uncommon skill to come across in the real world.
The engine happens to give you a lot of assets! All the assets provided fit the engine's size sprite-works perfectly, and they're all mostly vague enough to where you call them different objects/names in your game. (One asset in a game could be called a magic crystal while in another it's a save point, etc...)
Use the tools given to you by the engine! Don't be ashamed for not knowing how to draw. Sprites and artwork in a game are nothing without actual gameplay.
Reactions: Ninjakillzu, Skymin, Bernkastelwitch and 5 others
@PoptartPresident 100% agree! Besides, the default assets aren't ugly by any means, I genuinely like them. Really, the only things in the default assets I'm not a fan of are the sound effects.
Reactions: PoptartPresident
ericv00
PoptartPresident said:
Guys, making artwork is really HARD for a LOT of people.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
ericv00 said:
Sometimes it's not worth doing at all. If someone knows they're not capable of creating assets on their own, it's wiser for them, and a better use of their time, to use things readily available (default assets, buying from various asset stores, etc), or to pay someone else to make these things for them.
Reactions: Skymin, Synrec, RCXDan and 3 others
I get it. The way it is worded just didn't sit well with me. Disagreeing with the advice because doing it is "HARD" is not the best reasoning. The advice is still valid, whether or not one decides to take it.
And it IS hard to create your own assets (well, in the quantity needed for a full game). I spent a full week on just the tiles I need for the walls of ruins, but egad! do they look better than the default ones. And I am positive other people will appreciate the work, too. It's not easy; It may not even be worth it; but it does elevate the project.
Reactions: TheoAllen and PoptartPresident
GodCiunas
The Idea Guy
Bernkastelwitch said:
What are some common advice you see in the RPG Maker communities or game development communities that even if they sound nice, are ones you usually don't agree with and why?
Replacing the entire RTP to me is bad advice. Honestly alot of successful games have very similar graphics, with only minor tweaks. This also makes beginning devs get overwhelmed trying to find or create an entire custom game. Add some flare sure but replace everything? That is alot to do even with a full team.
Finish a game quickly. Honestly big gaming companies spend years before releasing even a demo. with teams of 20 to 30 plus. Rushing usually produces bad grammar, terrible plot line, and rushed maps. Literally saw a few games that just had terrible spelling, a guy get shot with an invisible arrow that left the player laughing at it like a joke and he disintegrated literally way he was supposed to have died
Reactions: Skymin, Bernkastelwitch and The Stranger
Magenta-Fantasies
Telling people not to make their dream game. If someone really wants to attempt something, let them. Many here are hobbyists with next to no intentions of becoming full time game devs or getting rich.
Does it really matter if they never finish? Not really. Does it matter if the end result isn't as good as they imagined it would be? Again, not really. However, if they enjoyed the experience then they haven't come away empty handed.
I think encouraging folk to work on things they have no interest in, though it might sound like sage advice, might make them throw in the towel even sooner than they would have if they had just stuck with their dream game. Because who wants to waste weeks or months (most likely of your spare time) doing something you don't care about?
I agree with this, with a caveat.
Currently, I'm working on two games, an "experiment game" and a "dream game." I'm using the "experiment game" to test game mechanics, map design, pacing, etc. so I can see what works and what will not work in my "dream game." While I am not doing any programming for my "dream game" at the moment (and won't until at least 2022), I am creating assets for it like character portraits, tilesets, and logos, as well as writing the script. Unsurprisingly, I find the latter work on the "dream game" much more fulfilling and enjoyable. I don't really care about or have any emotional investment in the "experiment game." I'm creating it purely to test game features, see what people enjoy playing and improve my knowledge of RPG Maker.
Here is the caveat: it may not be that enjoyable, but it's incredibly useful to create an "experiment game." When the time comes, it also will save me a lot of headaches with my "dream game." I will already know how to implement most if not all of the features I want, and I will know that they work so I can plan my assets and script around them.
Reactions: Piyan Glupak and The Stranger
Yeah, I certainly could've worded it better. Not the best with that stuff lol
I've seen some people who use photoshop edit assets which is also a perfectly valid way to still use tools given to ya.
Reactions: The Stranger
A fair amount of what I'm doing is editing the existing tiles, I'm just going a bit further than a quick hue adjustment or tweak. I basically draw overtop of the existing tiles until there is almost none of it left. Though there are a few that I only tweaked a little and they seem to work just fine that way. Personally, I'm a stickler for having my work be as original as possible, so I do intend to scrub every remaining bit of the original tilesets before I'm done. ...within reason. But that is just me and what I want out of MY project.
There is a lot of personality you can add to the look of your game by just doing little edits, like drawing in little flowers or fruits on the trees or little additions to the grass. Adding moss to the rocks. Duplicating rocks and adding a few more to the tile. Duplicating leaves and adding more to that tile. And you don't have to commit to the changes. You can just save the edited tileset as a separate file. At the very least, I encourage people to try it out... though I haven't used GIMP in many years, so I don't know how intuitive it is to use anymore. (I wouldn't expect a non-artist to purchase Photoshop or something equivalent. It's a bit excessive for someone who doesn't even know if they will want to use edits they make. I use PaintTool SAI, mostly.)
...sigh. Sometimes I wonder if I should offer my services in some way to teach people, like starting a youtube channel (specifically for generating art assets).
48Tentacles
Entertainment and Escapism Consigliere
BK-tdm said:
On the "make the game you want to play" topic, thats what im doing because my focus point for people to see is not actually my game, but my art, the custom spriteworks, busts, facesets and animations, thats what i want to showcase, my main project so far has been for my personal enjoyment maybe this applies to plugin devs too?
That is what the Factorio devs did according with their blog, and they are doing great nowadays. So that is a good starting point for any dev.
The main difference is that we all deal with a common game engine in this forum, that is RPG Maker of X version. Strong similarities on gameplay can be found, and that is one main criticism to this from everyone, but I've seen (and played!) wonders made with this engine.
So go for it.
Reactions: BK-tdm and The Stranger
TheoAllen said:
Most of the advice comes with a context behind it. People who don't agree usually because they come from a different perspective. And people who are giving the advice do not usually give the context why they should do it. Knowing that I don't think I don't have much advice to disagree with.
But for something that I personally do not do is to replace RTP with something else. I know where those people came from but it is too much for me to do it, especially the reason why I choose RPG Maker over other engines was because it comes with a default ready-to-use asset. If I have to replace everything, I might as well just learn other engines.
And one more thing, rather than advice, it is more like a convention. If you see a plugin structure, you see the entire thing is encapsulated by (() => {})(). Two years ago, I made a thread complaining about the practice. The answer I get never satisfied me.
To put it simply for non-tech people, the practice allows you to avoid a potential plugin conflict because someone else uses the same name (which really has an abysmal chance, except you're building a website with a massive JS library). However, the drawback is you can not apply a separate patch to the plugin (to fix or alter the behavior by adding a separate plugin. You have to explicitly edit the said plugin. This is, for me, extremely inconvenient.
I figured it was something like that on my own. One day I thought "ya know, my names are literal and a bit longy, there's no way there would be a conflict. "
Anyhow, I'm also not a fan of the no RTP thing and I also think it borderlines on being a misconception. I downloaded 4 tile assests because they fit my vision, but most of the RTP also fits into my vision. It should be what you vision your RPG world to look like and if RTP doesn't fit, then don't use it, and if it does, then use it.
Reactions: Tamina, Piyan Glupak, Bernkastelwitch and 3 others
Ninjakillzu
Sword_of_Dusk said:
Oof. I played Fallout 4, but New Vegas is still top dog for me. I don't give a damn about the graphics. The gameplay was more fun to me.
And honestly, there's very few times where graphics have turned me off.
Not to mention that you can get 4k texture packs and ENBs for New Vegas. Now you can have best of both worlds; great gameplay and great graphics.
"Looks are superficial."
I really hate this kind of advice. "You're not supposed to like a character for how they look. You're SUPPOSED to like a character for what they do or their back story or how powerful they are and blah blah blah." But more often than not, it just comes off as an excuse to not make your character look interesting or cool. I mean, there is no reason you can't give a cool looking character an interesting back story or personality. You could give a cyborg anteater or something crazy and out there a well written story if you wanted. You can have an actually diverse cast of characters each with their own relatable traits. Your characters don't always need to have the same boring template to them.
This doesn't just extend to my usual rants. A lot of times in RPGs, in the rare case you DO get something unique and different, they are almost always the worst character in the game. It's really bad in Monster collectors. I swear, the ultra beasts from Pokemon are meant to be offensive. You have all these weird, ugly stick figure characters that are completely overpowered, but then you have this giant, menacing tank looking monster with a huge mouth, several arms and some legitimate size presence, and he is absolute competitive garbage.
I get it! Looks don't make the character, but are you seriously trying to avoid making your character look good just to live up to some stupid philosophy? And yeah, I also get that looked are subjective, but way too often does media Pander to one specific taste, like how RPGs Pander to an audience that ONLY wants visually human characters (skinny white humans to be exact) and nothing else, so people who want other characters get nothing, or how Pokemon seems to love adding overpowered stick figure after overpowered stick figure to their game while purposely making big menacing designs absolute garbage competitively. And that's not even a problem exclusive to Pokemon, but it seems to be common in Monster collectors in general where the strongest monsters are always really skinny and unimpressive.
And I'm sorry, but I care about looks. A character that looks interesting is one I'm going to be drawn to. It's the one I'm going to have the most fun playing as. Even if it's not the most relatable character, often times I don't mind that, especially when I can relate to so few characters in media. Making a character that does good deeds and has a tragic backstory is easy: getting me to care about a character is not. It's why I find myself relating more to an undead misanthropic rat who goes through an arc where he learns to have more compassion and let go of his grudges than a typical human monster hunter. Character that I like visually as well as a character that has an understandable story is the kind of character that I'm going to like the most, more than a character that I'm only supposed to relate to because they're the same species as me.
And I'm being honest, part of the fun of Designing a character for me is designing their looks. I am writing a book right now, and sometimes I get the feeling that I'm not making my characters diverse enough because the most prominent characters have an anatomical theme. I try to balance that out with characters that don't follow that theme but I often feel like I'm not going far enough. One thing that helps, however, is that all the characters are a different creature, which helps them more easily stand out. I could focus on one particular animal or creature that I like, but I don't find that fun. I generally prefer character casts that have multiple different species among them, and that's a big reason I'm writing a book in the first place is because I want to see more of that and I'm not confident enough in my skills with anything else. I'm barely even confident enough in my writing skills and I am constantly going through periods of self-doubt.
Edit: I already mentioned this before, but this is more in-depth. To be fair, looks are not the only or even biggest reason I like non-human characters so much, but they're one.
Reactions: TheMeowingFox
Aesica
Hmm, let's see what doozies I've come across since I started using RM:
Don't use elements. Elements are a great extra layer of complexity for your battles, but you should be somewhat transparent with them so they feel like part of a meaningful, tactical decision-making process in battles rather than just being a tacked-on guessing game.
Don't use RTP/default assets. While yeah, high-quality custom graphics or a cuter art style is preferable, RTP is fine too, especially if you aren't an art pro and have a microscopic budget. I'm pretty sure other RM devs care more about whether not a game uses RTP than standard players. A game made with default assets is better than no game made at all due to you burning out just making all the assets, right? It's worth trying to edit them a bit though, even if it's just minor stuff like darker wooden roofs/bookcases, recolored trees/flowers, etc.
Don't add puzzles. This is really just a veiled opinion rather than advice, but I hear it a lot. Some of us (including me) love puzzles. Why would I want to leave out something I enjoy? Just...maybe don't have the really difficult ones barring main story progression.
Enemies should be killable in 1-2 rounds. If you're going for a lazily-done battle system chocked full of random encounters or unavoidable regenerating visual encounters, sure. But if the battle system is a main selling feature of your game and the player has more control over battle engagement, it's okay to add a bit more depth to the turn length.
Enemies should start hard. Well this is actually something I see done moreso than having it offered as advice, but like...no, don't. Let the player get used to things with easier stuff. There's a reason nearly every FF/DQ game has one-shottable goblins and slimes as the first enemies you fight.
Reactions: Magenta-Fantasies, C64_Mat, RCXDan and 4 others
KawaiiKid
"Graphics don't matter if there is good gameplay and story."
While I'd agree with this to an extent, you are losing a HUGE audience if your game doesn't have cohesive graphics. They don't need to be the best in the world, but they all need to fit together. I'm sorry, but not many of us want to play your default tileset, default sound effect, default battle system game. Even if it had a top notch story, if my eyes aren't pleased with what they see, I'm not going to play the game.
Reactions: Magenta-Fantasies, C64_Mat and ericv00
bgillisp
Oddly enough, sales disagree with you. I know a dev that does a lot of default everything and still makes enough in sales to not need another job.
Reactions: The Stranger, Piyan Glupak, C64_Mat and 1 other person


text:
// Copyright 2013 tsuru authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.

/*
Package action implements atomic pipeline execution of actions. A pipeline is a
set of actions that must be executed atomically: either all occur, or nothing
occur.

The pipeline executor has two possible phases: forward and backward. Whenever a
caller invoke the Execute method, the pipeline starts the forward phase. If any
action fail, then the executor enter in the backward phase and rolls back all
completed actions in that pipeline.

Each action contains two functions, matching the two executor phases: Forward
and Backward.

A pipeline is composed of a list of actions. For each action execution, the
executor will provide two possible contexts, based on the current phase of the
executor:

  * in forward phase, the Forward function will receive a FWContext, that
  contains a list of parameters passed to executor in the Execute() call and
  the the result of the previous action (which will be nil for the first action
  in the pipeline);

  * in backward phase, the Backward function will receive a BWContext, that
  also contains the list of parameters given to the executor, but instead of
  the previous result, it receives the result of the forward phase of the
  current action.

Besides the Context, the Backward function will also receive the result of the
Forward call.

For more details, check the documentation of the Execute method in the Pipeline
type.
*/
package action

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Fifty Year Old Woman Tortured to Death in Chinese Concentration Camp
NEW YORK, November 7, 2001 (Falun Dafa Information Center) – Sources inside China reveal that fifty-year-old Ms. Ren Tingling died in a concentration camp in Shandong province, China, this past March. Sources say the concentration camp had been set up specifically to engage in physical and psychological torture to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith. Shandong Province is the deadliest region in China for maltreatment of Falun Gong practitioners, as a total of 56 practitioners have now been confirmed to have died in police custody there since China began its persecution of Falun Gong in July, 1999.
Ms. Ren Tingling had gone to Beijing to make an appeal to the Chinese government regarding the mistreatment of Falun Gong, but was arrested and held in the Dong Cuin Detention Center in the city of Haiyang. Witnesses say Ms. Ren had been tortured so badly in the detention center that she could no longer stand up.
On March 16th of this year, the director of Haiyang City's notorious "610 Office," Shao Wenbing, gave orders that more than 160 steadfast Falun Gong practitioners be sent to the "115 Base" concentration camp to be brainwashed and "reformed," a process that typically involves prolonged torture resulting in either death or forced renunciation of one's beliefs. Ms. Ren was among those practitioners, but due to the mistreatment in the detention center, she was physically very weak.
At about daybreak on the day that she died, Falun Gong practitioners held in the same cell discovered that Ms. Ren was in agony and was shivering violently. The guard refused to allow her fellow practitioners to take care of her and forced them to go to the brainwashing session. Ms. Ren died that very morning. The police claim her death was due to cerebral hemorrhage.
The Haiyang City "610 Office," set up specifically to persecute Falun Gong, had given orders this past February to carry out a mass arrest of Falun Gong practitioners. The office and its agents have used all means to try to make them change their minds and give up their beliefs. In one psychological tactic, family members are called in to kneel and beg practitioners to give up their practice. Police in this area have also extorted thousands of dollars from practitioners and their families to ruin them financially. Witnesses say the Haiyang police often hang practitioners up off the ground by the wrists using handcuffs and then beat them brutally and burn their faces with cigarettes. Female practitioners also report being subjected to various forms of sexual abuse.
Every day, practitioners in detention must withstand such cruel tactics designed to break their will. Many refuse to give in because they firmly believe that holding to the universal virtues of Falun Gong, "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance," is not a crime.
The deaths of 306 Falun Dafa practitioners due to torture while in police custody have been confirmed since the persecution began in July 1999, although government sources inside China disclose that the actual number exceeds 1,000. On November 4, 2001, Falun Gong practitioners in cities around the world held press conferences in front of Chinese Embassies and consulates to condemn Jiang Zemin's regime and the "610 Office" led by Luo Gan for their escalating persecution against Falun Gong.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Planes, boats and bicycles--sv & rv Odin: Sheldon's "Fun with Vexillology"
While we wait for the rain to stop, this post is for my nerds some boating etiquette.
Life on a boat is steeped in maritime tradition. Flags are one example. There are International Code of Signals, national flags, ensign, burgees and signals to name a few. For example, clearing customs in a foreign country is a little different on a private boat than a private airplane. Upon arrival, you raise the "Q" or yellow quarantine flag (sailboat with one mast: on the starboard spreader/outboard halyard) to signify "the vessel is healthy and request clearance into port". After you have cleared customs, it is customary to lower the "Q" flag and raise the "courtesy flag" of the foreign nation (no other flag should be flown on this same halyard). Great, but there are 28 different countries in the Caribbean x $20/flag = $560 (The Captain may have been a little upset when I told him we paid $20 for the Bahamian flag!) SO, I decided to try sewing a few of the flags using Don Casey's book, "Canvaswork & Sail Repair". Step one is to confirm the CURRENT flag of each country we plan to visit. (I bought a used "Flags of the World" book before we left, but it was published in 2002 and has yet to tell us "what country are they from?") So I started googling flags. I even found a website where you could print a "outline picture for kids to color." (http://www.mapsofworld.com/flags/) SCORE!
Here's where things got sticky. Our boat came with a few flags, and I had purchased the Bahamian courtesy flag. Google Bahamas. Initial research indicated this flag is from 1993?! After a rant of a sailing forum, I did further research and discovered a "courtesy flag" is actually a maritime flag or civil ensign that doesn't necessarily match the national flag flown ashore. Sigh. The good news is that ensigns tend to be a simplified version of the national flag, usually without the "charge".
More good news is that many of the Caribbean islands are territories of the Britain (Cayman, Turks & Caicos, BVI, Anguilla & Montserrat), France (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin, & Saint Barthelemy) or the Netherlands (Curacao, Aruba, Sint Maarten & Caribbean Netherlands), (US territories are Puerto Rico and USVI) and it is appropriate to fly the mother-country flags in their place. That leaves 13 more flags, if you weren't counting. And no, we probably won't visit ALL of them.
"Keep clear of me; I am maneuvering with difficulty." We've needed that, but I'm sure other boaters wouldn't know what it means.
"Man overboard". This one makes me giggle. It shouldn't. Man overboard on a short-handed boat is a sailor's worst nightmare. But nowhere in our training, did our instructor mention "raising the flag." I can just picture it. "I'll be right back honey. I have to go find the flag."
"Protest" is supposed to be used in racing, but again, it makes us chuckle. Gonna need one. In fact, maybe just a small one for the cockpit.
See, now you'll remember that one!


text:
Home/Forums/General/Debian 8 (Jessie)
waspinator - Sun, 2015/03/29 - 00:16
With Debian 8 at RC2 and a full release coming in the next month presumbly, what's the roadmap for turnkey regarding rebasing? Are we waiting for 14.0 or will it come with 13.1?
Or another idea/question. Turnkey isn't going to have a Snappy or CoreOS version is it?
TBH we're thinking of skipping v13.1
Jeremy Davis - Wed, 2015/04/01 - 15:05
Ideally v13.1 would have been out 6mths+ ago and we'd have just released v13.2 and a v14.0 beta...
But unfortunately that's not the reality we live in... :(
So considering the work that is involved in a full library update/refresh and release and the fact that Jessie has just been slated for a stable release 25/04 (i.e. in just over 3 weeks) we are considering skipping straight to a Jessie based v14.0 (so no v13.1 at all). It's not really how we wanted to do it; but from here on in the plan is to start the releases rolling out a little more often...
I'd be interested in your thoughts and input.
As for a Snappy or CoreOS version of TurnKey; we are considering something different to what we have done to date (perhaps somewhat inspired by them) but we have absolutely nothing concrete. It's all pure speculation at this point... If it was something you were particularly interested in then I'm sure that there would be a way that you could bend the TKLDev appliance build code to build on top of one of those rather than our current minimalist Debian base.
If you wanted to have a crack at something like that I can't offer much in the way of time or support but I'd be happy to do what I can and provide feedback at least...
LAMP-Stack
fmike - Mon, 2015/04/13 - 18:16
I love turnkeylinux.
And because we need a LAMP Stack in may/june for a new project there is the question:
What do you think, when will come the new LAMP-Stack based on Debian8-Jessie ?
I don't want to give a firm date
Jeremy Davis - Tue, 2015/04/14 - 02:36
I don't want to give a firm date because there are so many variables. I'd love to give some indication, but I'd hate to disappoint and at this point it's all pure speculation. Bottom line is that like Debian; we work to a "release when ready" schedule so we won't go live with it until it's done.
At this point we haven't even updated the infrastructure to build Jessie; but hopefully that happens really soon. Once we have the infrastructure updated we'll release a v14.0 Core RC soon after (which we would expect to be basically ready-to-release as it will essentially be Debian Jessie stable)
Having said all that I'd really hope that we can have a release by end of May; mid-June at the latest... But please don't take that as any sort of promise...
v14.0 TKLdev
John Carver - Tue, 2015/04/21 - 22:06
I hoping a new version of TKLdev will accompany the release of v14.0 Core. I've been trying to keep my development environment up-to-date, but sometimes I wonder if I'm missing something.
Information is free, knowledge is acquired, but wisdom is earned.
Possibly...
But not sure...
I have suggested it to Alon but he's not sure if he'll get that far (he is going to build the v14.0 Core). If he doesn't then we'll be using the v13.0 TKLDev to build all the v14.0 appliances ourselves.
We can try to make sure all the pieces are public so everyone else can start hacking Jessie based appliances while we're updating the library. Probably the fundamental piece will be the bootstrap. So long as you have the Jessie bootstrap then you should be able to build all the appliances from a v13.0 TKLDev anyway. The exceptions will be any missing TKL packages (e.g. Fab as required for TKLDev). Although all the source is available so those could be installed from source anyway...


Stairsafe is such a simple system comprising of just two main components – the ladder frame & platform – that it is extremely easy to use and very flexible suiting most stairwell types.
Stairsafe provides a safe, practical and cost effective solution to health and safety issues when working within stairwells. Gone is the need for operatives to balance on a ladder and a 9" wide scaffold board or pay for a stairwell scaffold erecting.
Note: Picture to the right shows Stairsafe on display staircase with optional guardrail and braces fitted.
A safe working platform can be formed from only two components and can be erected by one person in less than two minutes.Open frame and long trapdoor deck allow stair access to be maintained. Lightweight aluminium/ plywood platform weighs only 14kg and it is therefore easy to carry up stairs.
Leaving a company and individual open to prosecution under the Work at Height Regulations!


text:
The Armstrong case - UCI's response
Published 27 October 2012 | Authored by: Andrew Nixon
We outlined the USADA's decision in the last edition of The Sport Lawyer and commented that the issue remained whether UCI would accept USADA's report or challenge their jurisdiction. UCI's statement this week makes it clear that the governing body accepts USADA's findings and it has endorsed the sanctions imposed by stripping Armstrong of his Tour de France titles and banning him from cycling for life. It is open to Armstrong himself to appeal against UCI's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport; however, given that he has already abandoned challenging USADA's decision, such a course of action seems unlikely.
In terms of the true fall out from this case, the UCI ruling may be the tip of the iceberg. Both Nike and Oakley, two of Armstrong's commercial sponsors, have activated termination clauses in their contracts with the athlete. Other claims also appear to be on the horizon which could amount to $15 million. SCA Promotions, a Texas based insurance firm who underwrote the US Postal Team's performance bonus programme during Armstrong's career, are pursuing Armstrong for $11 million. As Armstrong is no longer the "official winner" of any Tour, insurers are seeking to clawback a $7.5million payout in 2004, together with past bonuses, legal fees and interest.
There is also the prospect of a claim for recovery of prize money paid out to Armstrong which may force him to account for an accumulated £2.4 million earned from the Tour over his career. Some of that was shared with his cycling team, many of whom have also been implicated in USADA's report. The race director has also requested that no official tour winner be declared for the seven races, maintaining that they cannot be sure that any rider during that period was clean.
UCI's statement is a logical step in the wake of USADA's report and Armstrong's refusal to challenge the findings. The governing body's reputation has not gone untarnished as the case has exposed an era (under the UCI's governance) in which doping was allegedly widespread. To have appealed the USADA ruling in light of such compelling and wide ranging witness evidence would therefore have been the wrong decision. The UCI can now at least claim to be taking positive action in cleaning up the sport and punishing those who cheat.
The prize money, bonuses, lawsuit settlements and sponsorship monies are now all under scrutiny and may well result in Armstrong paying most of the money back. UCI's wish that Armstrong should be "forgotten" from cycling may not occur for quite some time while such issues remain undetermined.
Andrew Nixon is a Senior Associate and Ashley Wootton is a Solicitor in the Sports Group.
Tags: Anti-Doping | Cycling | International Cycling Union (UCI) | UCI
Andrew Nixon
Andrew Nixon is a Partner in the Sport Group at Sheridans. Referred to in this year's Legal 500 as a "very bright and talented sports lawyer" Andrew's practice focuses principally on regulatory, governance, disciplinary, arbitration and dispute resolution within the sport sector. Andrew's clients include governing bodies, sports clubs, sports agencies and individual athletes.
@andrewnixon100


An uninsured motorist policy provides you with insurance coverage in the event that you are hit by a driver who (1) cannot be identified (a hit-and-run) or (2) was not carrying insurance coverage (which is illegal, but happens sometimes). An underinsured motorist policy provides you with insurance coverage in the event that you are hit by a person who causes you so much harm, that the wrongdoer's insurance coverage can't fully compensate you.
The amount of your coverage depends upon how large a policy you purchased ahead of time. Generally, your uninsured motorist coverage is equal to your underinsured motorist coverage. For example, you might purchase a policy that provides $100,000 of both uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Thus, if you are hit by an unidentified or uninsured motorist, you can claim up to $100,000 against your own insurance company. If you are hit by a person with a $30,000 auto liability policy, but your damages are greater than that, your policy will provide up to $70,000 in extra coverage (because $30,000 plus $70,000 equals $100,000).
Of course, just because your insurance company is supposed to treat you fairly, doesn't mean it will. Very often we file lawsuits on behalf of our clients, against their own insurance companies, because they are refusing to pay a fair amount of money under their own uninsured or underinsured motorist policies. From our experience, an insurance company doesn't like paying money any time -- even to the people it is supposed to protect.
If you have been in an automobile collision and have questions about whether you are entitled to compensation under your own insurance policy, you should contact the Northern Virginia personal injury attorneys at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C.


text:
Hollywood Wants To Enter The VR Content Business
Sitting in a plush, darkened studio lot theater this past week in Hollywood at yet another forum heralding the dawn of the VR ecosystem, I couldn't help noting how much interest is building in virtual reality and how many more parties are coming to the VR dancehall.
Eighteen months ago, I was part of a private forum of 50 invitees to the same studio, all there to make our pitch in the new VR landscape — and presumably help shed some light for the studio, too. Only then we were in a smaller sound stage, albeit one with a famous pedigree (Star Trek was shot there). There was a good group of potential VR content prospects, too — three different 3D audio technologies, many individual film producers, a few writers, even folks who work in far-flung fields like theme parks. Major VR players like Oculus and Magic Leap sent their strategists, but they didn't dominate the day.
Last week, the group was much larger and more diverse. Attendees included everyone from Amazon Studios to real estate professionals, reporters, and venture capitalists. Lunch lines were a lot longer, and many traditional media veterans showed up, too, from TV to music, all there to get a sense of what's cooking in this new space. Even a studio chief and studio owner wandered through, eyeballing demo booths with apparent curiosity.
The event's central theme was VR content — that corner of the virtual, augmented, and mixed reality world where media content meets platforms and audiences. And it seems to be building with an intensity and focus that is bigger and more forceful than ever. VR is clearly not a content business yet, but that hasn't deterred Hollywood.
Even at this stage, a few things seem clear:
LA is the center of the world for the new VR content ecosystem. While much of VR's tech and software are in the Bay Area, content comes from LA. More than ever, LA is ground zero for the new VR content ecosystem. Last year, it was small studios, writers, and filmmakers seeking to learn how to tell VR stories and gear up for VR. This year, Academy Award winning editors, writers, and major league producers are speaking to their plans to create immersive features for the new medium. Major studios are staffing up, too, creating divisions for "What's Next" and are setting up alongside LA upstarts like Jaunt VR. They want to avoid ceding too much territory to the upstarts as the new medium develops.
Some content producers seem likely to overshoot the runway. Content executives should think and dream big, and some of the content ideas reflect "tent pole" production strategies of major studios. Do virtual reality consumers truly need production values and budgets targeted at building studio franchises? Or will VR's first big breakout hit come from a completely different creator and angle? My sense is that success will reflect the unique, immersive capabilities of the new virtual reality medium rather than a repurposing of the next Star Wars sequel in VR. Expected next year, Steven Spielberg's picture Ready Player One might be a helpful watershed event that brings VR to a greater level of awareness and adoption. The story features a VR world, andHTC will be helping Warner Bros. promote the film with film-related VR content.
Major studio executives have VR on the radar, but they're taking a guarded approach. One spoke of goals to position VR as a "five to 10 year curve" at his studio, arguing that it's too early to tell what the business will truly look like for years. Others are looking as broadly as they can in the space, perhaps hoping to get arms around what it means for each of their different divisions — theme parks, television, motion pictures, even the mundane day-to-day operations of a studio lot. One major studio executive hinted to me that they want to be out in front of "enterprise" programming, too — a different take on programming that could include corporate training content.
The asset supply chain is not a sexy frontline topic for studios, but eventually studios need to position and prep their assets for the VR and 3D future. This is an investment consideration they will balance against revenue potential and long-term strategy. In 50 years, a studio's digital catalog will likely look extremely different from today. Whether films are delivered via a mixed reality platform or theaters will still exist, all of the majors will need to prepare for new delivery channels for their assets; VR and 3D objects are just two considerations. Any major studio is unquestionably looking at future investment for its assets.
It's not all about the film business. Underappreciated areas like location-based entertainment and 3D audio could be vital. We saw simulators on the lot that were major steps up from current simulation experiences in theme parks. Spatial audio is still key to any 360 video headset experience; without spatial audio to track along with the video, you end up with a poor consumer experience and perhaps nausea. These concerns could drive VR and "spatial" audio experiences forward in areas as disparate as theme parks, automobiles, and even humble audio speakers. We saw a couple of VR music networks too, hoping to be the YouTube or Facebook of the new medium for music fans.
It's still too early to talk business models. Put simply, this media business hasn't scaled yet, and while there are certainly many VR apps available for purchase, a true media and advertising business is likely years away, at least until advertisers see scale and metrics they can understand. I see one-off brand partnerships as more likely scenarios for VR content producers over the next year. Branded content is more likely to come to the mainstream than VR ad networks, at least for now. While Blippar has struggled mightily, I see the model there — the idea of augmented reality technology being of use to brands, consumer products, and retailers — as a likelier scenario than robust VR advertising networks for the near future.
Game makers still seem like the most sophisticated party at the dance. They start with several legs up, from content expertise, experience driving business models like in-app purchasing, developing on platforms like Unity, and having a broader, more strategic perspective than others. One comment from a game maker cut through most of the dialog at last week's event: There may come a day when mixed, augmented, and virtual reality platforms blend, and the distinctions between these worlds lessen.
That day may be years off. But in the interim, a lot of parties are circling in wait for the day VR content becomes a business.
First Look At Disney's Next VR Film A Kite's Tale
Early AR Concept Film 'Sight' Planning A Sequel


EDC believes that good corporate citizenship requires active contributions to the local community. In 2010, the company joined The Springboard Organization that aims to improve education in Egypt's rural areas. EDC currently supports two of the 200 schools that fall under the Springboard umbrella and plans to increase this number.
EDC actively contributes to the welfare and development of its 'adopted' schools with complete renovation projects for their premises. Going forward, EDC is committed to expanding its contributions to the community by increasing the number of schools it supports, under Springboard while at the same time, extending its support to a further range of charitable organizations.
EDC has also contributed to the governments' goal of training the youth and university graduates in order to build a better Egyptian learning society by conducting three day development programs for some university students in EDC's Training Center.


text:
Sort by: Featured Most recent
10 results total, viewing 1 - 10
Touro Grad School of Social Work honors Class of 2018
The Touro College Graduate School of Social Work honored the Class of 2018 last week with an awards celebration at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y. "Welcome to the profession!" said … more
Calling all parents:OHEL seeks foster homes
Three speakers sat on stools in front of a rapt audience of 25 men and women in the Ganz family home in Woodmere Saturday night, explaining the ups and downs, ins and outs of foster parenting. In the first step of a long process to recruit potential parents through OHEL for foster children, OHEL presented the fourth recruitment meeting in two years, noted Derek Saker, Director of Communications for OHEL Children's Home and Family Services. "We are always looking to increase the pool of foster parents," he said. more
By Malka Eisenberg | 2/7/13
Running, shooting and scoring for charities
Sports as the new fundraising By Michelle Bortnik Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770 Martin Bodek had been running the NYC Marathon for 13 years when he finally ran out of steam. … more
Wanted: a loving home
An increase in foster kids puts pressure on OHEL By Yaffi Spodek Issue of July 3, 2009 / 11 Tammuz 5769 OHEL Family and Children's Services has recently experienced a significant increase … more
Ohel Bais Ezra opens new Cedarhurst residence
Group home for adolescents is agency's fourth in the area By Michael Orbach Issue of Oct. 17, 2008 With the opening of its newest group home, located at 545 Arlington Avenue in Cedarhurst, … more
Strengthening our children
JCC and Ohel partner in program to help students By Yaffi Spodek Issue of Oct. 10, 2008 The JCC of the Greater Five Towns has joined with the Ohel Bais Ezra Lifetime Care Foundation to … more
Figuring out the family
Panel reveals what parents need to know By Michael Orbach Issue of Sept. 26, 2008 Over 70 people attended a panel at Congregation Beth Sholom Saturday night on what is probably one of the … more
Fostering Shmuel
Op-Ed By Sara and Azriel Ganz Issue of August 15, 2008 As long-time foster parents, we read last week's Jewish Star article, "Adopting Shmuel" (August 8, 2008) with great interest. While … more
Adopting Shmuel
A happy family shares the true story of a spontaneous decision By Michael Orbach Issue of August 8, 2008 Back in 2005, looking to make some extra money while I finished my great American … more
Putting faces to the names
Ohel's new advertising campaign adds a personal touch By Michael Orbach At first glance, it looks like any other ad campaign might, an advertisement for foster-care and adoption featuring … more


1. Simplify the design and reduce the number of parts because for each part, there is an opportunity for a defective part and an assembly error. The probability of a perfect product goes down exponentially as the number of parts increases. As the number of parts goes up, the total cost of fabricating and assembling the product goes up. Automation becomes more difficult and more expensive when more parts are handled and processed. Costs related to purchasing, stocking, and servicing also go down as the number of parts are reduced. Inventory and work-in-process levels will go down with fewer parts. As the product structure and required operations are simplified, fewer fabrication and assembly steps are required, manufacturing processes can be integrated and leadtimes further reduced. The designer should go through the assembly part by part and evaluate whether the part can be eliminated, combined with another part, or the function can be performed in another way.
2. Standardize and use common parts and materials to facilitate design activities, to minimize the amount of inventory in the system, and to standardize handling and assembly operations. Common parts will result in lower inventories, reduced costs and higher quality.
good thing, share with everyone.
Use near net shapes for molded and forged parts to minimize machining and processing effort.
4. Design within process capabilities and avoid unneeded surface finish requirements. Know the production process capabilities of equipment and establish controlled processes. Avoid unnecessarily tight tolerances that are beyond the natural capability of the manufacturing processes. Otherwise, this will require that parts be inspected or screened for acceptability. Determine when new production process capabilities are needed early to allow sufficient time to determine optimal process parameters and establish a controlled process. Also, avoid tight tolerances on multiple, connected parts. Tolerances on connected parts will "stack-up" making maintenance of overall product tolerance difficult. Design in the center of a component's parameter range to improve reliability and limit the range of variance around the parameter objective. Surface finish requirements likewise may be established based on standard practices and may be applied to interior surfaces resulting in additional costs where these requirements may not be needed.
5. Mistake-proof product design and assembly (poka-yoke) so that the assembly process is unambiguous. Components should be designed so that they can only be assembled in one way; they cannot be reversed. Notches, asymmetrical holes and stops can be used to mistake-proof the assembly process. Design verifiability into the product and its components. For mechanical products, verifiability can be achieved with simple go/no-go tools in the form of notches or natural stopping points. Products should be designed to avoid or simplify adjustments. Electronic products can be designed to contain self-test and/or diagnostic capabilities. Of course, the additional cost of building in diagnostics must be weighed against the advantages.
Parts must be designed to consistently orient themselves when fed into a process.
Product design must avoid parts which can become tangled, wedged or disoriented. Avoid holes and tabs and designed "closed" parts. This type of design will allow the use of automation in parts handling and assembly such as vibratory bowls, tubes, magazines, etc.
Part design should incorporate symmetry around both axes of insertion wherever possible. Where parts cannot be symmetrical, the asymmetry should be emphasized to assure correct insertion or easily identifiable feature should be provided.
With hidden features that require a particular orientation, provide an external feature or guide surface to correctly orient the part.
Guide surfaces should be provided to facilitate insertion.
Parts should be designed with surfaces so that they can be easily grasped, placed and fixtured. Ideally this means flat, parallel surfaces that would allow a part to picked-up by a person or a gripper with a pick and place robot and then easily fixtured.
Minimize thin, flat parts that are more difficult to pick up. Avoid very small parts that are difficult to pick-up or require a tool such as a tweezers to pick-up. This will increase handling and orientation time.
Avoid parts with sharp edges, burrs or points. These parts can injure workers or customers, they require more careful handling, they can damage product finishes, and they may be more susceptible to damage themselves if the sharp edge is an intended feature.
Avoid parts that can be easily damaged or broken.
Avoid parts that are sticky or slippery (thin oily plates, oily parts, adhesive backed parts, small plastic parts with smooth surfaces, etc.).
Avoid heavy parts that will increase worker fatigue, increase risk of worker injury, and slow the assembly process.
Design the work station area to minimize the distance to access and move a part.
When purchasing components, consider acquiring materials already oriented in magazines, bands, tape, or strips.
7. Minimize flexible parts and interconnections. Avoid flexible and flimsy parts such as belts, gaskets, tubing, cables and wire harnesses. Their flexibility makes material handling and assembly more difficult and these parts are more susceptible to damage. Use plug-in boards and backplanes to minimize wire harnesses. Where harnesses are used, consider foolproofing electrical connectors by using unique connectors to avoid connectors being mis-connected. Interconnections such as wire harnesses, hydraulic lines, piping, etc. are expensive to fabricate, assemble and service. Partition the product to minimize interconnections between modules and co-locate related modules to minimize routing of interconnections.
8. Design for ease of assembly by utilizing simple patterns of movement and minimizing the axes of assembly. Complex orientation and assembly movements in various directions should be avoided. Part features should be provided such as chamfers and tapers. The product's design should enable assembly to begin with a base component with a large relative mass and a low center of gravity upon which other parts are added. Assembly should proceed vertically with other parts added on top and positioned with the aid of gravity. This will minimize the need to re-orient the assembly and reduce the need for temporary fastening and more complex fixturing. A product that is easy to assemble manually will be easily assembled with automation. Assembly that is automated will be more uniform, more reliable, and of a higher quality.
9. Design for efficient joining and fastening. Threaded fasteners (screws, bolts, nuts and washers) are time-consuming to assemble and difficult to automate. Where they must be used, standardize to minimize variety and use fasteners such as self threading screws and captured washers. Consider the use of integral attachment methods (snap-fit). Evaluate other bonding techniques with adhesives. Match fastening techniques to materials, product functional requirements, and disassembly/servicing requirements.
10. Design modular products to facilitate assembly with building block components and subassemblies. This modular or building block design should minimize the number of part or assembly variants early in the manufacturing process while allowing for greater product variation late in the process during final assembly. This approach minimizes the total number of items to be manufactured, thereby reducing inventory and improving quality. Modules can be manufactured and tested before final assembly. The short final assembly leadtime can result in a wide variety of products being made to a customer's order in a short period of time without having to stock a significant level of inventory. Production of standard modules can be leveled and repetitive schedules established.
11. Design for automated production. Automated production involves less flexibility than manual production. The product must be designed in a way that can be more handled with automation. There are two automation approaches: flexible robotic assembly and high speed automated assembly. Considerations with flexible robotic assembly are: design parts to utilize standard gripper and avoid gripper / tool change, use self-locating parts, use simple parts presentation devices, and avoid the need to secure or clamp parts. Considerations with high speed automated assembly are: use a minimum of parts or standard parts for minimum of feeding bowls, etc., use closed parts (no projections, holes or slots) to avoid tangling, consider the potential for multi-axis assembly to speed the assembly cycle time, and use pre-oriented parts.
12. Design printed circuit boards for assembly. With printed circuit boards (PCB's), guidelines include: minimizing component variety, standardizing component packaging, using auto-insertable or placeable components, using a common component orientation and component placement to minimize soldering "shadows", selecting component and trace width that is within the process capability, using appropriate pad and trace configuration and spacing to assure good solder joints and avoid bridging, using standard board and panel sizes, using tooling holes, establishing minimum borders, and avoiding or minimizing adjustments.


Tagged Action, Adam Baldwin, Adventure, Bill Pullman, Bill Smitrovich, Brent Spiner, German, Harvey Fierstein, James Duval, James Rebhorn, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Kiersten Warren, Leland Orser, Lisa Jakub, Mae Whitman, Margaret Colin, Mary McDonnell, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Robert Pine, Roland Emmerich, Ross Bagley, Sci-Fi, Vivica A. Fox, Will Smith. Bookmark the permalink.


Ethic's "New Standard " series is encouraging the scooter industry to follow them in this step forward in the way scooters are designed. For years we've stuck to the same axle size as the original Razor scooter and standard size skateboard bearings in our wheels, bending & snapping our axles and blowing out bearings. Ethic's "New Standard" improves upon this by use of 12mm axle bolts, paired with much bigger bearings and wheels to match. Bigger axles and bearings only means less problems and we're all for the change.


text:
Kick Off the 2016-17 Ski Season With Fresh Gear and Lift Tickets From Liftopia
Grand Prize in the Gear Locker Giveaway Includes $4,500 in Lift Tickets, Gear and Charitable Donations to U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association and Protect Our Winters
September 06, 2016 10:37 ET | Source: Liftopia Liftopia
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Sep 6, 2016) - As summer comes to an end, skiers and snowboarders across North America are getting pumped for the upcoming 2016-2017 ski season. To fuel the excitement, Liftopia -- the largest online and mobile marketplace for lift tickets and other mountain activities -- is partnering with the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Olympic Team, Protect Our Winters, Evo, Jones Snowboards, Wagner Skis, and Discrete Headwear on an epic giveaway: $4,000 in lift tickets and gear, plus charitable donations totaling $500 to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) and Protect Our Winters (POW).
"We're excited to be partnering with and supporting USSA and POW, two major organizations whose mission statements focus on growing snow sports and making them more sustainable, accessible and successful," said Evan Reece, Co-Founder and CEO of Liftopia. "Skiers and snowboarders who participate in the Gear Locker Giveaway will not only get the chance to score awesome prizes from some of our favorite apparel and gear brands, but will also be part of our efforts in giving back to the ski industry that we all love."
Now through October 2, 2016, visit http://gearlocker.liftopia.com to enter the Gear Locker Giveaway. Participants who enter can increase their chances of winning by sharing with friends.
Charitable donations to USAA will be used to support year-round athlete training, development, competition and education needs, and to POW will be used towards on-going opportunities to fight climate change.
For more than a decade, Liftopia has built the largest audience of skiers and snowboarders on the web with the Liftopia.com ski lift ticket marketplace. More than 250 ski areas in North America are working with Liftopia this upcoming season, including Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Grand Targhee Resort, Solitude Mountain Resort, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, Copper Mountain, Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, Mont Tremblant, Sun Peaks Resort, Fernie Alpine Resort, Whiteface - Lake Placid, Valle Nevado, Engadin St. Moritz, Crans-Montana, Gstaad, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort, Saas-Fee, Nakiska Ski Resort, Lake Louise Ski Resort, Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort, Mountain Creek, Stratton Mountain, Homewood Mountain Resort, Gunstock Mountain Resort, Boreal Mountain Resort, Mt. Norquay, Ragged Mountain Resort, Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort, Mont Blanc Ski Resort, Soda Springs Resort, Lee Canyon, Shanty Creek Resorts, Titus Mountain Family Ski Center, Mission Ridge Winter Park, Mt. Timothy Ski Area, Rabbit Hill Snow Resort, Hunt Hollow Ski Club, Kiroro Resort, Four Lakes Alpine Snowsports, Castle Mountain Resort, Eagle Point, Sundance Mountain Resort, Liberty Mountain Snowflex, Engelberg-Titlis, Holiday Mountain (Manitoba), Belleayre Mountain Ski Area, Ski Snow Valley, Oak Mountain Ski Center, Blue Knob All Seasons Resort, Jungfrau Lift Company, Caberfae Peaks Ski & Golf Resort, Ski Portillo, Smugglers' Notch Resort, Hyland Hills, Brundage Mountain Resort, Spirit Mountain, Lutsen Mountains, Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, Elk Ridge Ski and Outdoor Recreation, Wild Mountain Ski & Snowboard Area, Arctic Valley Ski Area, Ski Anthony Lakes, Ski Apache, and Snowy Range Ski Area.
For more details on Liftopia's lift tickets and packages, visit www.liftopia.com.
About Liftopia
Liftopia operates the largest online and mobile marketplace and resort technology platform serving the ski and mountain activity industry. Skiers and riders can purchase lift tickets, equipment rentals, meal vouchers and more from more than 250 ski areas in North America on Liftopia.com and via the Liftopia mobile app, with savings of up to 85% off walk-up window rates when purchased in advance. Founded in 2005, Liftopia is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading institutional and angel investors. Visit the Liftopia blog or follow the company on Facebook and Twitter.
Liftopia
Gear Locker Giveaway


Android One is Google's initiative to help smartphone makers deliver inexpensive Android phones that provide a high quality user experience. Google provides the software and helps device makers choose hardware that's known to work well, and the end result are phones that sell for around $100 and up and which feature software support and updates delivered by Google.
But if you've got one of the first Android One phones and would rather have experimental features than official support, you can unlock the bootloader, install a custom recovery, and replace the software that came with your phone with a custom ROM.
It's now possible to install CyanogenMod on an Android One smartphone.
CyanogenMod is a custom version of Android based on Android Open Source Project code. It's known for offering users more customization options than you get from Google. You can also sign up for an optional CyanogenMod account if you want to use the company's new remote lock and wipe features, among other things.
Developer varun.chitre15 has ported CyanogenMod 11 to run on Android One devices and reports that sensors, graphics, touchscreen, cameras, sensors, and phone call functions are working.
As of October 7th, 2014 there are still a few important things that are not working, including WiFi and aGPS. Mobile data is also only partially working.
The first Android One phones are powered by MediaTek processors and offered by Micromax, Spice, and Karbonn in India.
I respect the work of the CM team and of all others that are porting CM to devices, but if i had A1 smartphone, i would stick to the original A1.
On my previous smartphones, CM was my choice between custom or stock rom. If G. is providing a clean, stable and up2date rom (even is not that customisable), imho stick with it. For the brave ones, there is CM!
I would guess that most users who are interested in flashing CM are either just into experimenting, or are motivated by privacy / security concerns (which are if anything more significant in the developing world these phones are being marketed to).
My phone is lenovo s650, it has same mediatek 6582 soc on it. Can someone share the android one rom, i want flash with it.


text:
ALSO OF NOTE — Short takes on faculty and staff accomplishments for Oct. 4
The University's many websites are usually bursting with news about faculty and staff. Each issue, we'll publish an aggregation of that content so you can see what your colleagues are doing.
Donna Naples, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been elected a 2018 Fellow of the American Physical Society: "For advances in the techniques of flux and cross-section determinations in the current and upcoming generation of accelerator-based neutrino experiments and fundamental contributions to neutrino event generators." The number of APS Fellows elected each year is limited to no more than one half of 1 percent of the membership.
Alison Langmead, who has a dual appointment in the Deitrich School's Department of History of Art & Architecture and the new School for Computing and Information, was awarded $223,000 from the Getty Foundation to do Digital Humanities workshops. It is the first gift the University has received from Getty. This is a first-of-its-kind series of workshops in the digital humanities, following projects from an initial two-week conference through a year of monthly virtual meetings, and a final two-week conference in summer of 2020. She also was awarded a grant from the Mellon Foundation for Pitt's first Sawyer Seminar.
University of Pittsburgh professors Samuel Dickerson and Renee Clark received an NSF grant to help students in the Swanson School of Engineering start to think about thinking. The two-year, $200,000 award will support a project to improve learning and development by promoting the frequent use of reflection and "metacognition" among students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Read more here.
The Pittsburgh chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) selected John Oyler, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, as recipient of the 2017 Michael A. Gross Meritorious Service Award. The award, named after Michael A. Gross who provided nearly 70 years of continuous service to the ASCE Pittsburgh Section, recognizes a lifetime of work and commitment to the civil engineering profession.
Ambitious master plan for Oakland campus about more than just buildings
Board of Trustees approves new CFO and hears annual report from Gallagher
Budget Policies Committee approves guidelines for Pitt budgeting units
Dietrich School Advising Center 'meeting the students where they are'
Don't be left out in the dark; get your free lightbulbs
Establishing a faculty union faces many hurdles
Get ready for a season of music from Pitt's ensembles
Grad students, Pitt administration make their cases for and against unionization to PLRB
Higher education headlines for Sept. 20-Oct. 4
Homecoming marks 50th anniversary of Black Action Society
Homewood Community Engagement Center to open Oct 18
International Week to celebrate UCIS 50th anniversary
IP policy issues continue to stir debate at Faculty Assembly
Jinx Walton reports to Computer Usage Committee on possible software and technology changes
LIBRARY INSIDER: Is this journal predatory? Check indexing and metrics
Mural project honors history and helps reintegrate juvenile probationers
New platform helps investors find Pitt innovators
Pitt requests 6.5 percent increase from the state for 2019-20
Pitt seeking 10 percent participation in Make My Trip Count commuting survey
Pitt, UPMC moving ahead with major construction work
Provost Cudd speaks out on her visions for Pitt
Publishing Clearinghouse for Oct. 4: Check here for new books, journals and book talks on campus
Science 2018 brings in experts from across the U.S.
SENATE MATTERS: Intellectual property policy still a work in progress
TEACHING AT PITT: Conducting mid-semester teaching surveys


Cao, Peng; Lu, Li; Lai, M. O.
Cao, P., Lu, L. & Lai, M. O. (2001). Grain growth and kinetics for nanocrystalline magnesium alloy produced by mechanical alloying. Materials Research Bulletin, 36(5-6), 981- 988.
A study on the kinetics of grain growth of an Mg-12.1 wt%Cu alloy produced by mechanical alloying was carried out. The grain sizes of as-mechanically alloyed powder and of cold-compacted annealed powder were determined from the broadening of X-ray lines. The grain size deceases initially due to recrystallization and then increases gradually, and finally ceases to reach an ultimate value regardless of annealing time. From isothermal anneals, the grain growth kinetics can be described by Dn − D0n = ct, where n (n = 5 to 8) is a constant essentially dependent on the annealing temperature. The activation energy for grain growth Q has been determined to be 118 kJ/mol, which is longer by 26 kJ/mol than that for pure magnesium. Second-phase intermetallic particle Mg2Cu produced during ball-milling influences not only on activation energy but also on exponent of the kinetic equation.


What's in a name? For companies like twitter, a lot of potential profits and some OED support. These are the reasons we're not jittering or twitching, which were both potential candidates for the company's name. You can follow the trajectory of how twitter's title came to be here.


The 3rd graders at Verne W. Critz enjoyed a morning of Fall Harvest Day activities. The students were grouped together with students from each of the classes and had a chance to move from room to room where they participated in many fun learning activities. Some of the rooms included M&M graphing, fall poetry, fairy tale Readers Theater, apple and pumpkin weighing and measuring, pumpkin art, and making applesauce. As in the past, we and many parent volunteers who helped to make the day a huge success.


The Techna 2016 Symposium – Getting to Zero: Engineering Safety Into Healthcare Technology and Practice brought together a diverse group of healthcare experts to examine errors that put patients at risk and discuss ways of engineering safety into medical equipment and hospital everyday practices.
Dr. David Jaffray, Executive Vice President, Technology and Innovation at UHN and Director of the Techna Institute started the day with some opening remarks emphasizing the importance of building a safe medical system for patients and healthcare providers.
Our Keynote Speaker Dr. Terry Fairbanks, an ER physician and director of National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, spoke about the crucial role human factors testing plays in any healthcare setting.
David Gilmore of Elekta, Shawn O'Connell of Braun Medical, Brian Lasiuk of GE Healthcare, and David Ferguson of Baxter Healthcare joined in our industry panel to discuss various ways of engineering safety into healthcare technology.
Throughout the day, we enjoyed sessions on Trust and the Culture of Error moderated by Peter Rossos, and Safety at the Front Lines: Decision Making and Behaviour moderated by Emily Musing.
Moreover, we were privileged to hear from patients themselves, who shared their stories on how medical errors affected their lives.
At the end of the symposium, we were treated to a debate moderated by Patricia Trbovich, where David Urbach and Chris Hayes discussed the utility of checklists in the OR.
Finally, we had a chance to hear from the Reaction Panel, moderated by Patricia Trbovich, where Bob Bell, Deputy Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and past president of UHN, Sharon Rogers, Senior Director of Patient Relations at UHN, and Dr. Fayez A. Quereshy, a surgical oncologist and minimally invasive surgeon, made insightful comments about the use of checklists in the OR.
Techna 2016 was a great success. It offered a glimpse into how our collaboration and ongoing dedication to patient safety, paired with innovative medical technology, will allow us to get to zero – hopefully, in the nearest future.


text:
Lawmaker: Funding state parks improvements now saves costs later
January 17, 2013 by Arizona Heritage Alliance
[Source: Donyelle Kesler, Cronkite News] – Delaying capital improvements needed after years of deep budget cuts to Arizona State Parks will only exacerbate the problems and increase future costs, a state lawmaker said Wednesday. "If you don't take care of your infrastructure, it's like not taking care of your house and if you let that little $2 item go and don't fix it, you end up with a $100 repair bill," said Rep. Karen Fann, R-Prescott.
Fann, whose district includes five state parks, said Arizona has been doing roughly the same thing with its parks for too long. "Not only are we behind the curve on fixing what should have been fixed years ago, but now we have additional problems on top of them," she said. Bryan Martyn, director of Arizona State Parks, is requesting $15.5 million in Gov. Jan Brewer's budget for capital improvements. Arizona State Parks hasn't received money from the state's general fund since 2009 and currently works off a $19.5 million budget. Officials say state parks have about $200 million in capital needs.
Fann, who pushed successfully last year to allow Arizona State Parks to keep all gate and concession fees, said that parks are vital to the state's economy. "It is responsible for over 3,000 direct jobs, it is responsible for over $2 million worth of revenue, and so state parks is really something we need to keep open," Fann said. "This isn't a feel-good item, this is about our economy. The feel-good and the beauty and all that stuff, that's just the icing on the cake."
Cuts to the Arizona State Parks budget led to agreements allowing some communities to take over operations and keep parks operating. Arizona State Parks Board Chairman Tracy Westerhausen said the $15.5 million would be an investment. "It serves the people who come from outside of Arizona to see our parks and enriches the lives of the people who are here already," she said. Westerhausen said the projects include improving water-treatment systems and electrification of campsites. "We're under a state mandate to provide clean water to people who come to our parks, and one of the things we can't do is improve our water structure in the parks," she said.
Matthew Benson, a spokesman for the governor, said Brewer has taken Martyn's request into account along with all of the proposals from other state agencies. "Of course state parks are a priority, but so is public safety, classroom education, road and transportation systems, Child Protective Services – all of these issues are important," Benson said.
Grady Gammage Jr., who as a senior research fellow for Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy co-wrote a 2009 report on ways to fund state parks said the facilities are assets to both the state's economy and residents.
"Part of reason people want to live in Arizona is because of the open space and natural resources of parks and it can have a lot to do with what makes the state attractive to businesses and people moving here," Gammage said. "If you don't support that, you risk a lot more than just damaging the parks, you risk damaging this economic engine that drives Arizona."
Categories Arizona State Budget, State Parks Tags Arizona State Parks, Bryan Martyn, Donyelle Kesler, Governor Jan Brewer, Grady Gammage, Karen Fann, Matthew Benson, Morrison Institute for Public Policy, Tracy Westerhausen Leave a comment
Accomplishments of the Arizona Heritage Alliance 2008-2009
March 10, 2011 by Arizona Heritage Alliance
For 2007-2008, the Arizona Heritage Alliance Board initiated a visionary project of a more protected and additive funding concept for both Arizona State Parks and the Arizona Game and Fish Department. We engaged a public dialogue, with the goal of a consensus among the parties. A Heritage Fund 2 Working Group was formed from this initial meeting and met several times.
This same working group designed a simple Pledge for our Arizona lawmakers in 2008. Our Legislators' Pledge on behalf of the Heritage Fund is an investment in safe playground equipment for our children; new parks and trails; the reintroduction of endangered species into Arizona; the restoration of historic buildings; and the conservation of wild and open spaces and critical habitat for wildlife.
Commencing in 2009, the Arizona Heritage Alliance Board in collaboration with the Arizona Preservation Foundation and Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter composed a sign-on letter to our Legislators to protect the Heritage Fund. We solicited over 175 organizations concerned with parks, trails, wildlife and habitat; tribes; cities/towns/counties; parks & rec departments; schools; businesses; and more.
We hosted the event, Papago's Past, Present & Future, at the Arizona Historic Preservation Conference in June 2009. We provided a lively presentation and enriching experience which included a discussion on the historic significance of Papago Park and the importance of the Heritage Fund to Arizona's wildlife, habitat and special places.
Also at the Arizona Historic Preservation Conference in 2009, we organized a panel discussion regarding the future of the Heritage Fund. The panel included: Anthony Verrkamp of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; Bonnie Bariola, Florence Preservation Foundation; Renee Bahl, Director of Arizona State Parks; and the Honorable Kyrsten Sinema, LD15 Arizona House of Representatives.
Categories Arizona Heritage Alliance Tags Arizona Game and Fish Department, Arizona Historic Preservation Conference, Arizona State Parks Leave a comment
The Fight to Keep State Parks Open
February 21, 2011 by Arizona Heritage Alliance
[Source: Shain Bergan, Tucson Weekly]
The slashing of Arizona State Parks' state-allocated funds means parks officials have started facing a harsh reality: They may be forced to close several parks, in addition to the three that are currently closed to the public because of lack of funding.Their general funding was cut from $20 million to zero, so the parks will now be working on a budget largely consisting of self-generated funds made up of mostly gate fees, says Jay Ziemann, assistant director of Arizona State Parks.
These self-generated funds equal about $10 million, falling well short of the $18.4 million needed to operate the parks currently open to the public.
Bellota Trail at Oracle State Park
Things looked grim about a year ago, as well, for Arizona State Parks. After a $10 million Legislative sweep of the parks' Heritage Fund, parks officials faced the probability that they would have to look at closing more than half of Arizona's 28 state parks.Communities, towns and counties, though, stepped forward, footing at least part of the bill to keep 16 of those parks open through temporary 1 to 3-year lease agreements.
For nine of those parks, third parties contributed enough to keep state park staff employed at the locations. For the others, the government staff has been replaced by employees and volunteers of the contributing parties, Ziemann says.
Now, only three state parks—-Lyman Lake State Park, Oracle State Park and San Rafael State Natural Area—-are currently closed to the public without lease agreements in the works. Despite the difficulties raised by the governor's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, parks officials are still trying to figure out ways to keep those parks open, Ziemann says.
Those efforts include talking to contacts at the State Capitol and trying to attract local communities to the table to negotiate temporary leases, Ziemann says.
Although Ziemann remains optimistic that agreements can be made to keep all the parks open, he concedes that temporary leases do not solve the larger issue of lacking revenue in the Arizona State Parks system.
"Right now, the goal is to get all these parks open to the public," he says. "But this is not a long-term solution."
So what is a long-term solution?
"We're still trying to figure that out."
Categories State Parks Tags Arizona Legislature, Arizona State Parks, blogislature, Heritage Fund, Jay Ziemann 2 Comments
Kelly Alvidrez: Arizona Sate Park Youth Ambassador
December 27, 2010 by Arizona Heritage Alliance
[Source: America's State Parks]
Kelly Alvidrez
I am one of the few, it seems, that was able to grow up in the outdoors. I went on my first camping trip at age 6 months and have been tramping through the woods ever since.
When I was a kid you could find me building an igloo in the back yard, rebuilding my tree fort in the summer or investigating the creek that ran through the woods.
Now, as an adult I still have a passion for camping, hiking, and tramping through the woods. I love being outside! I love climbing a peak even more! With sunshine on my face and a pack on my back I feel unstoppable.
I Am A State Park Ambassador Because:
Being an Ambassador for Arizona State Parks is a great opportunity for me to share my love of the outdoors, and knowledge of conservation.
If I am able to inspire just one youth to go out and experience the beauty and wildness of nature, mission accomplished. But with that in mind, it is just as important for me to teach environmental education and interpretation, so these same youth will also know how to respect nature.
Schools Attended:
University of California, Santa Cruz and Arizona State University
First State Park:
Not sure, I would have been pretty young and don't remember
Favorite State Park:
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, California or any park on the ocean
Park I Am Dying To Visit:
Red Rock State Park, Arizona
I've Visited State Parks In:
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Coolest Thing I've Seen In Parks:
The coolest thing I have seen lately would have to be in Catalina State Park. The way the sun was setting across from the Catalina Mountains gave this glow; it was magical!
Discovering new places, adventuring, road trips, going to the beach, and good coffee
Music Played At My Campfire:
What Not To Miss In My State's Parks:
The small creatures. There are so many big rocks and cliffs and mountains. Look for the small things
Who I Would Go On A Hike With If I Could:
John Steinbeck or Theodore Roosevelt
This Sums It All Up For Me:
"Smell the sea and feel the sky, Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic…" ~Van Morrison
Categories State Parks Tags Ambassadors, Arizona State Parks, Youth Leave a comment


With approximately five billion smartphone users worldwide, there are huge opportunities for mobile health to revolutionise healthcare & patient outcomes. This is reflected in forecasts by Mordor Intelligence stating the market will reach $62.84 billion by 2021.
If you're involved in developing a medical app then you should be considering the regulatory aspects before you start your project. Because if your app meets the definition of a medical device then it will need to go through CE Marking. To help you get started we've created this short presentation to provide you with a quick guide to medical app regulation.
This presentation aims to help healthcare, pharma and medical organisations to better understand the opportunities that mHealth and mobile apps can present them.
This infographic simplifies the differences between the various types of apps out there to help healthcare, pharma and medical organisations better understand if they need an app and if so, what type of app and how to best promote it.


text:
Trending First Look: Colossal Cupcakes Opens Cafe...
CLE Myths: Al Capone's Tunnel
Did the mob boss use an underground tunnel to get to Little Italy?
Ask Steven Pittman, front desk manager at the Tudor Arms Hotel (originally known as the Cleveland Club) and he'll tell you — Al Capone's influence is all over the place.
Shared with Pittman from a former employee who worked in the building from the 1930s to 1974, the rumor was that Capone, the head of the Chicago Mafia, invested in building a second swimming pool at the Cleveland Club. He also used a connecting underground tunnel that allowed him to travel the under 1 1/2 miles southwest undercover to Little Italy, headquarters of Cleveland's own Mayfield Road Mob, when the club opened in 1930.
"It's rumored, but it's not a proven fact," says Pittman, who gives tours of the long-since shuttered private pool and now-sealed underground tunnel.
According to The Plain Dealer, the Cleveland Club opened its doors in January 1930. Around the same time, Capone was under heavy surveillance. According to arrest records and local organized crime author Allan May, Capone was in and out of Miami and Philadelphia prisons and frequently on trial from 1929 to 1930 on a number of charges before serving his final prison sentence from May 1932 to January 1939 for tax evasion.
His only proven connection to Cleveland happened when he sent two of his men, Joseph Giunta and Pasquale Lolordo, to the first known national meeting of the Mafia at the Statler Arms in 1928. But, author Rick Porrello, whose grandfather and uncles were in the Mafia, says it's plausible Capone could have slipped by at other times.
"Whether it was a three-year window or a three-month window, there's nothing to prevent him from coming to Cleveland for pleasure, business or both," he says. "Certainly the business connections were there."
Status: Undecided
James Bigley II
Clothes come in all shapes, sizes, colors and materials; from wools and nylon to sequins and, with Aiden Meany spla… https://t.co/oOlAK2iEnk
Over the summer, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History added two new curators to the fold who are working to brin… https://t.co/NKgbeDvl29


text:
The Fast of Esther or "Ta'anit Esther" in Hebrew language is a Jewish fast that begins in the dawn and ends at the evening prior to Purim holiday. It is observed in remembrance to the three-day fast done by the Jews led by Queen Esther and Mordechai in the story of Purim.
0.1 When is Fast of Esther 2014
0.2 Fast of Esther Origin and Background
0.3 The Laws and Custom of Fast of Esther
1 Fast of Esther 2015
When is Fast of Esther 2014
The Fast of Esther is generally observed on the 13th day of the Hebrew month of Adar but if the 13th of Adar falls on a Saturday (Shabbat), the fast is observed on a Thursday which is the 11th day of Adar, in honor and respect of the Shabbat day.
Fast of Esther 2014 will be observed on the 11th day of Adar which is March 13, 2014 in the Gregorian calendar.
It falls on the dawn of Wednesday, March 12 and ends in the nightfall of Thursday, March 13.
Fast of Esther Origin and Background
The original Fast during the time of Esther was observed by the Jews on the 13th, 14th and 15th day of Nisan, straightway after Mordechai got an inside information about Haman's royal decree and his letter to annihilate and exterminate all the Jews in the empire on the 13th day of Nisan.
The Fast of Esther however, is observed on the 13th of Adar in commemoration of the Fast observed by Israel on the day of their preparation and deployment for battle against their adversaries. The fast was named after the Queen because she is the one who proposed to do it and let God be involved and be in the picture of this notable event.
The Laws and Custom of Fast of Esther
Eating and drinking is prohibited while wearing of shoes and washing is allowed.
The Fast of Esther is not a major fast so women in their pregnancy, nursing mothers and those who are physically weak are not mandatory to observe it.
It is also a customary to continue the fast until after the reading of the Book of Esther or the Megillah
The fast begins at dawn and ends after nightfall.
During the afternoon prayer which is Minchah, it is a custom to give three halves of coins which is the basis of local currency and is given to the poor.
The Fast of Esther will be observed on the 13th day of Adar; Hebrew Year 5775.
The Fast of Esther falls on the 04th of March in the Gregorian calendar which begins on the dawn of Tuesday, March 03 and ends on the nightfall of Wednesday, March 04.


A classic comedian, singer, musician and performer, Lil JJ James Charles Lewis, an American comedian, performer, singer and also a celebrity. Linda and fred have been Lil JJ's parents. He's the oldest of four sisters; 2 younger brothers plays soccer along with a video game enthusiast and the little one is just another comic and a younger sister who's a baseball player. He's the winner of the humor gift of BET. His career began in 2005 in 13 years old, just over 11 decades back. So far as we understand Lil JJ remains living and healthy nevertheless becoming younger than 50 what's fine with his wellness. Folks would really like to understand about any men sexuality whether he's homosexual or straight although Lil JJ isn't assumed to be homosexual till today.
His affairs hasn't yet been publicized yet. And he's not married.


text:
Q: Problem with nested Tables I have a function r, which removes the first instance of an element of a list
r[m_, el_] := Delete[m, First@First@Position[m, el]]

I also have nested tables and n is the number of nested tables, so in this example n=4
Table[
  Table[
    Table[
      Table[
        {i, j, k, l, Total@T - i - j - k - l},
        {i, r[r[r[T, l], k], j]}
      ], {j, r[r[T, l], k]}
    ], {k, r[T, l]}
  ], {l, T}
]

And I want n to be variable, so if n=2, the nested tables should be
Table[
  Table[
    {i, j, Total@T - i - j},
    {i, r[T, j]}
  ], {j, T}
]

The goal is to have a function that takes n and T as arguments and outputs this nested table.
Note that in each argument of each Table the range is almost an element of NestList[r[#,l]&,T,n], but it's not exactly that. Because l in this example is different in each iteration.
EDIT:
Imagine that to do a task you need to do n subtasks, and each subtask needs some time to be done. This is T. When finishing a subtask t_i you need some time to get to the start of another subtask and I want to find the order in which you need to do the tasks to make it the most efficient.

A: There may be better ways to do this, but here is how literally to build up your nested table for variable n :
r[m_, el_?NumericQ] := Delete[m, First@First@Position[m, el]]

Note the function r has to be fixed to only evaluate for numeric arguments.
Your original table for n=4:
T = {1, 2, 3, 2, 1}
a = Table[
  Table[Table[
    Table[{i, j, k, l, Total@T - i - j - k - l},
      {i, r[r[r[T, l], k], j]}], {j, r[r[T, l], k]}],
      {k, r[T, l]}], {l,T}];

first write as a single nested Table. Note the iterator ordering is outside to inside left to right:
Table[{i, j, k, l, Total@T - i - j - k - l}, {l, T}, {k, r[T, l]}, {j,
    r[r[T, l], k]}, {i, r[r[r[T, l], k], j]}] == a

True

then construct the lists for variable n:
n = 4
iters = Table[Unique[], {n}];
itlist = Transpose[{Reverse@iters, FoldList[r, T, Reverse@Rest@iters]}];
expr = Append[iters, Total@T - Total@iters];
Table[expr, Evaluate[Sequence @@ itlist]] == a

True

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Mental health bill would provide $100M in grants for alternatives to police responses
Deborah Weiner
News Anchor, I-Team Reporter
NECESSARY DEB. ACTUALLY, THIS IS A REVISED VERSION OF THE BILL THAT CONGRESS INTRODUCED LAST SESSION THE LEGISLATION INCLUDES INPUT FROMOM CMUNITY GROUPS AND ACTIV THE BILL PROVIDES 100 MILLION DOLLARS IN FEDERAL GRANTS OVER FIVE YEARS THROUGH THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES IN THE FINAL TWO YEARS LOCAL JURISDICTIONS WOULD CONTRIBUTE 25% THE GRANTS WILL GO TO CITIES AND LOCAL JURISDICTIONS IN ORDER TO CREATE ALTERNATIVES TO WHO RESPONDS TO CERTAIN CALLS EXAMPLES INCLUDE MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE DISORDERS AND HELOMESSNESS. ACCORDING TO MARYLAND SENATOR CHRIS VAN HOLLEN IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY SUSPECTEIV MENTAL ILLNESS WAS REPORTED AS A FACTOR IN 80% OF USE OF FCEOR INCIDENTS BACK IN 2019 AND TSHI RESPONSE CAN HAVE DEADLY OUTCOMES. OFFICERS HAVE HAD A DISABILITY PEOPLE WITH AN UNTREATED MENTAL ILLNESS ARE 16 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE KILLED DURING A POLICE ENCOUNTER THAN THE REST OF THE POPULATION. ONE ADDITION TO THE BILL IS MAKING SURE THAT GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS AND NEIGHBORHOODS CAN SECURE THESE FEDERAL FUNDS. IN MANY INSTANCES COMMUNITIESS. HAVE THE RESOURCES ONE OF THE THINGS THAT LACKS IS THE RESOURCES TO GET TO THE SCALE. THE GRANT CALLS FORHE T PEOPLE. I MEAN THE GRANTSOU WLD CALL FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE MOST AFFECTED TO BE AT THE TABLE TO DESIGN WHAT THE SYSTEM WOULD BE LIKE. SENATOR VAN HOLLEN NOTED BALTIMORE CITY'S MENTAL HEAHLT CRISIS HOTLINE, AND THAT HOTLINE DIVERTS NON-VIOLENT MENTAL HEALTH 911 CLSAL TO BEHAVIORAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS THIS THE SENARTO SAID ALLOWS POLICEO T RESPOND TO VIOLENT CRIME MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT ADDREEDSS IN THE GEORGE FYDLO JUSTICE AND POLICING ACT THAT'S AWAITING A SENATE VOTE THE BILL PASSED THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND CALIFORNIA CONGRESSWOMAN. KAREN BASS SAYS, SHE'S H
U.S. senators will re-introduce a bill next week in an effort to find alternatives to police responses, specifically, who should respond to mental health calls.It's a revised version of the bill that Congress introduced last session. The legislation includes input from community groups and activists on the changes they wanted to see.The bill would provide $100 million in federal grants over five years through the Department of Health and Human Services. In the final two years, local jurisdictions would put in a 25% contribution.The grants will go to cities and local jurisdictions in order to create alternatives to who responds to certain calls. Examples include mental health and substance disorders and homelessness.According to Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, suspected mental illness was reported as a factor in 30% of use-of-force incidents in Montgomery County in 2019."Half of individuals killed by law enforcement officers have had disability. People with an untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than the rest of the population," Van Hollen said.One addition to the bill would ensure grassroots organizations in neighborhoods can secure these federal funds."In many instances, communities have the resources. One of the things that lacks is the resources to get to the scale that is actually needed. And the grants would call for the people who are most affected to be at the table to design what the system would be like," said California U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, D-District 37.Van Hollen said Baltimore City's mental health crisis hotline, which diverts nonviolent mental health 911 calls to behavioral health professionals, will allow police to respond to violent crime.Mental health is not addressed in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which is awaiting a Senate vote after passing the House of Representatives. Bass said she's hopeful that the bill will pass the Senate chamber this month.
BALTIMORE —
U.S. senators will re-introduce a bill next week in an effort to find alternatives to police responses, specifically, who should respond to mental health calls.
It's a revised version of the bill that Congress introduced last session. The legislation includes input from community groups and activists on the changes they wanted to see.
The bill would provide $100 million in federal grants over five years through the Department of Health and Human Services. In the final two years, local jurisdictions would put in a 25% contribution.
The grants will go to cities and local jurisdictions in order to create alternatives to who responds to certain calls. Examples include mental health and substance disorders and homelessness.
According to Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, suspected mental illness was reported as a factor in 30% of use-of-force incidents in Montgomery County in 2019.
"Half of individuals killed by law enforcement officers have had disability. People with an untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than the rest of the population," Van Hollen said.
One addition to the bill would ensure grassroots organizations in neighborhoods can secure these federal funds.
"In many instances, communities have the resources. One of the things that lacks is the resources to get to the scale that is actually needed. And the grants would call for the people who are most affected to be at the table to design what the system would be like," said California U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, D-District 37.
Van Hollen said Baltimore City's mental health crisis hotline, which diverts nonviolent mental health 911 calls to behavioral health professionals, will allow police to respond to violent crime.
Mental health is not addressed in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which is awaiting a Senate vote after passing the House of Representatives. Bass said she's hopeful that the bill will pass the Senate chamber this month.
Editorial: Police reform in America
Maryland at forefront of police reform with sweeping legislative package
11 TV Hill: Baltimore leaders on impact of new police reform bills
11 TV Hill: Debate over police reform in Maryland continues
Get the WBAL-TV 11 News App


Perfect short stay. All within reach.
2 great nights at Caesars in Vegas !
The registration staff at the kiosk were very helpful and patient . The room was very clean and comfortable, thehousekeeping staff even gave us extra pillows without us, asking ! The check-in/ checkout was a breeze! The location was great ! We will really come back to this hotel ! Thank you for a wonderful stay !