text:
#2138: Allen Quist
Michele Bachmann is crazy, but compared to her mentor, Allen Quist, she can at least occasionally come across as deceptively reasonable (they're close: Allen Quist's wife Julie was for instance Bachmann's district director while Bachmann was in Congress). Quist is a soybean farmer, former state representative, and twice gubernatorial candidate who served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1983 to 1989; he ran for Congess in 2013 and won the primaries, but lost the general election. Most notable for his anti-abortion line, Quist believes that abortion should be a first degree homicide and has even written a book, The Abortion Revolution and the Sanctity of Life, about the topic, which does not even try to engage with the moral philosophical literature on the issue.
During the 1990s, Quist and Bachmann worked together to demolish Minnesota's state curriculum standards through the group Maple River Education Coalition (MREC) (later EdWatch), considering the curriculum standards to be a gateway to a totalitarian society built on moral relativism due to its reliance on science and truth. In particular, MREC opposed the Profile of Learning, an attempt to bring the state into compliance with federal curriculum standards, which according to Quist was a step toward a United Nations takeover of Minnesota. Moreover, "sustainability" is just a euphemism for a future dystopia in which humans would be confined to public-transit-oriented urban cores (yes, "mass transit" is a conspiracy against freedom) and if the standards were implemented, Minnesota schools would become breeding grounds for "homosexual indoctrination." Aaron Miller is apparently another one of Quist's acolytes, especially with regard to their shared views on science and education.
Indeed, Quist has been consistently paranoid about the UN, especially Agenda 21, for decades, and has emerged as one of the leading Agenda 21 conspiracy theorists on the prairie, making several tours of Minnesota's Tea Party circuit to warn about the terrors of Agenda 21. Part of the agenda, according to Quist – an especially effective talking point among his audiences – is international gun control, which Obama apparently was continuously on the verge of signing during his whole tenure as president. One of the UN's major strategies for compliance to the gun ban effort is, as Quist sees it, apparently spreading "the myth of global warming".
To get a sense of EdWatch's approach to eduction, it is worth looking at Quist's current efforts as editor of CurriculumModules.org (CMod), a children's "education" and "learning" website targeted at homeschoolers, which "challenges the worldwide views of established education" and instead offers religiously motivated pseudoscience, anti-science, denialism and myths. Since Quist is a hardline young-earth creationist, one of CMod's lessons suggests for instance not only that dinosaurs lived alongside humans in the past but continued to do so well into medieval times. As CMod sees it, history books and science books have falsely determined that dinosaurs became extinct 66 million years ago. Their counterevidence? "[T]he only reasonable explanation for the Stegosaurus carved in the stone on the wall of the Cambodian temple is that the artist had either seen a stegosaurus or had seen other art works of a stegosaurus. Either way, people and stegosaurs were living at the same time." There is little reason to think that the stegosaurus depiction in question, which in any case does not depict a stegosaurus (but rather a rhino or a boar) unless severe pareidolia is applied, is not a fabrication. Elsewhere, Quist provides what he takes to be scientific evidence for the existence of dragons, and suggests that the Book of Job should be taught as a science lesson: "Today we know beyond a reasonable doubt – Job 41 is a picture-perfect description of SuperCroc," which is silly on amazingly many levels. Quist once also told a reporter that he believed women were "genetically predisposed" to be subservient to men. Not that Quist knows what genesare.
As a politician, Quist was notable also for his unhealthy obsession with sex (he spent a total of 30 hours during a single 1988 session talking about it), and in particular sex he ostensibly doesn't like. He campaigned hard against legalizing same-sex marriage, led efforts to prevent extending human rights protections to gays and lesbians, and famously sponsored a (failed) bill that would require AIDS testing for all marriage license applicants. He managed to draw some criticism for suggesting that supporting a gay counseling center at Minnesota State University would be similar to supporting one for the Ku Klux Klan, saying that "its presence suggests university approval for the homosexual lifestyle and the practice of sodomy … You wouldn't have a center for the Ku Klux Klan," and that "both would be breeding grounds for evil –AIDS, in this case."
No fan of the ACA, Quist called it "the most insidious, evil piece of legislation I have ever seen in my life … [that seems to happen rather often in Quist's case]. Every one of us has to be totally committed to killing this travesty … I have to kill this bill," and argued that "Obama, Pelosi, [Tim] Walz: They're not liberals, they're radicals. They are destroying our country."
Diagnosis: Wild-eyed conspiracy theorist, denialist and bigot. His influence, however, is greater than you might initially think, as he seems to have been training a small army of deranged extremists for the better part of three decades.
#2137: Janet Quinn
Janet Quinn is an "Associate Professor, Adjunct," (a bit unclear what that means) at the University of Colorado School of Nursing, and a true crackpot. Though she does have a PhD in Nursing Research and Theory Development from NYU, her thesis was on therapeutic touch (TT) (Quinn is a former student of Dolores Krieger) and an excellent example of what is accurately known as tooth fairy science: Quinn ostensibly showed that therapeutic touch need not use physical contact in order to produce results similar to the version that used actual touch. Of course, that result is not very surprising since TT has no (non-placebo) health benefits either way – TT is perhaps most famous for being falsified (e.g.) in an elementary school science project (Rosa et al., published in the Journal of the American Medical Association) – but that was not how Quinn or subsequent TT fans interpreted the findings (the dissertation, we emphasize, did not try to show that TT had any effect, just that actual touch made no difference).
According to her website, Quinn has additional training in "Transpersonal Psychology [no less], Holotropic Breathwork™ (certified) [being certified in a trademarked technique is not something that should bolster confidence], Hakomi Body-Centered Psychotherapy (individuals and couples), Spiritual Direction (certified) [again, nothing to be proud of]". She has also been a "practitioner
of Centering Prayer and Meditation for 20 years" and "[t]eaching, researching and practicing Holistic/Integrative Nursing for over 30 years." But she is also affiliated with the University of Colorado, some might point out, and indeed she is. Despite the fact that TT is bullshit and Quinn's other qualifications are steeped in pseudoscienc, her classes and teaching materials are expensive and popular. Ironically, that the perceived benefits of TT are merely reflecting the fact that patients respond positively to extended, caring, interpersonal contact with their nurse was actually demonstrated in a 1989 study by Quinn herself, though she didn't manage to realize that this was the conclusion.
According to Quinn, TT involves "centering" within your head in order to assess which areas of the energy field feel "out of balance" with the rest of the field; then you clear and mobilize the energy field before, finally, "directing" energy to facilitate healing. Quinn admits, though, that "we don't have empirical data to demonstrate the existence of a personal energy field," but "it's a working hypothesis. In science, you're allowed to do that." Well, no; not after it has been shown, as conclusively as tests come, that the technique doesn't work; it would be a legitimate to entertain such a hypothesis if the technique worked and we hadn't figured out why it did. Quinn, of course, is not talking about "science" when she says "In science". (Of course, one may also point out that her "working hypothesis" is a collection of vague metaphors, a half-baked attempt at poetry, and not a working hypothesis at all)
Quinn has also been involved in NCCAM-funded (i.e. taxpayer money) research on Distant Healing Efforts for AIDS by Nurses and 'Healers'with Elisabeth Targ (daughter of Russell Targ). Targ herself explained the difficulty of doing such research given skepticism in the mainstream medical community; as she put it, she must guard against showing a negative result, because the mainstream will take those negative results and attempt to discredit what she is trying to show. We'll just leave that admission up there as it is.
Diagnosis: Pseudoscientific nonsense from a New Age crackpot. Her ideas, though, have actually – and despite being New Age mumbo-jumbo with (demonstrably) no health benefits – had a lot of influence on nursing practices and cost taxpayers substantial amounts of money for useless tooth-fairy research. A waste of money, and a waste of a life. Sad.
#2136: Greg Quinlan
Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) is an organization devoted to promoting conversion therapy (also for children) and the (more or less mythical) ex-gay movement, the central ideological commitment being that homosexuality is not a product of biological determination – instead, being gay is "a political identity". PFOX, which is supported by the Family Research Council, maintains that it champions and protects the rights of ex-gays, though ostensibly apart from their president there are virtually no actual ex-gays in the organization but plenty of anti-gay activists. The current president, Greg Quinlan, however, is, at least according to PFOX, a former homosexual who came out at the age of 23 – he "departed from homosexuality" in 1993, and went on to found the Pro-Family Network, a family values™ (primarily anti-gay marriage) organization.
In 2007, when the D.C. Board of Education approved new health and physical education guidelines, PFOX came out in opposition to "grade-specific sex education and information about HIV/AIDS" because such information "would undermine abstinence-only messages," a claim that nicely illustrates that this is all about a religious notion of purity, not health, welfare or happiness (given that abstinence programs demonstrably aren't conducive to the latter aims). Indeed, according to Quinlan, sex health ed classes are arenas for gays to recruit kids into the gay movement – the HIV/AIDS scare in the 80s and 90s was a tool for promoting their agenda, apparently.
In 2014 PFOX became the target of national ridicule for putting up a billboard next to highway I-95 in Richmond with the text "Identical twins: One gay. One not. We believe twin research studies show nobody is born gay [not quite]" in between photos of two men, seemingly identical twins. However, both images on were stock photos of a single man who identifies himself as "openly gay and happy my entire life," and not too impressed with PFOX's billboard. Quinlan was unfazed by the criticism. Though they have petitioned serious organizations for attention, PFOX is currently mostly relegated to sharing the stage with things like birthers, Sandy Hook truthers, Liberty Counsel, Michele Bachmann and similar kinds of lunatic fringe dredge. Nevertheless, their pamphlet Preventing Bullying at Your School, which says that kids become gay because people call them gay and that later in life gay people bully those who "decide to pursue alternatives to homosexuality", actually ended up being distributed at some high schools in 2012.
Those, of course, are just examples. Quinlan himself is, as you'd expect, a fundie, who in 2012 endorsed Lou Engle's call to create a prayer movement – take a moment to think about it with this transcript as a prop – to confront the "homosexual and abortion tornadoes" that are "coming to destroy America". Quinlan also participated at Engle's Awakening conference, where he complained that New Jersey's anti-bullying law is being used to bully Christian students and that the law, like most things he disagrees with, is actually fascism. In general, according to Quinlan, "homofascism" is threatening liberty through "anti-heterosexual legislation." He has also linked homosexuality to pedophilia and called same-sex marriage "a ban on heterosexual rights." To bolster his "argument" he touts the false claim that childhood molestation causes homosexuality and claims that marriage equality is "the heart of where Satan's attacking", which admittedly isn't much of an argument but still as good as his arguments get.
As for gays themselves, Quinlan argues that gays and lesbians are experiencing "sexual cannibalism" and promote suicide among LGBT youth in order to succeed in "making martyrs out of the kids that we're recruiting to behave as homosexuals." You see, gays are all around, even where you don't obviously see them, and so are their conspiracies. For instance, (then-)Justice Anthony Kennedy and Justice Elena Kagan are secretly gay – as well as "black-robed Nazis" who seek to "accommodate their own personal predilections, including their own sexuality" – and so is (then-)president Obama; Obama is "a down low president," as Quinlan perceives things. His evidence? "Rumors". No, seriously.
Meanwhile, the near-mythical ex-gays are being persecuted everywhere; indeed, the way ex-homosexuals are being treated today is just like what the Nazis did to the Jews, claims Quinlan (with Douglas McIntyre of Homosexuals Anonymous and allegedly ex-transgender Grace Harley), before likening the impact of the gay rights movement, which he described as demonic, to the wreckage of a tornado hitting a town; "we have lost our country," lamented Quinlan. And to add, well, injury to injury, Satan, too, is working to drag ex-gays back into a homosexual lifestyle, as indicated by the track-record of previously declared ex-gays. It's quite sad, actually.
There is a decent Greg Quinlan resource here.
Diagnosis: Angry, delusional, fundie conspiracy theorist. Yeah, nothing new. But Quinlan actually wields some influence in certain circles, and must be considered moderately dangerous.
#2135: Hal Puthoff
Harold Puthoff is an engineer and parapsychologist and one of the true legends of pseudoscience. In the 1970s and 1980s Puthoff directed a CIA/DIA-funded program at SRI International tasked with investigating paranormal abilities, collaborating with Russell Targ in a study of the purported psychic abilities of Uri Geller, Ingo Swann, Pat Price, Joseph McMoneagle and others, as part of the Stargate Project. Both Puthoff and Targ became convinced that Geller and Swann had genuine psychic powers, which doesn't exactly speak too well of their methods or critical thinking abilities. Some of their "research" was summed up in the book Mind at Large: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Symposia on the Nature of Extrasensory Perception(Puthoff, Targ and Charles Tart.
When psychologists attempted to replicate Targ and Puthoff's remote viewing experiments (they seem to have invented the term by the way, which is really just a fancy name for "clairvoyance" or "telepathy"), they were unsurprisingly unable to do so. Accordingly, they investigated the procedure of the original experiments to see whether they could explain the discrepancy, and thus discovered that the notes given to the judges in Targ and Puthoff's experiments contained clues as to which order they were carried out, such as referring to yesterday's two targets, or they had the date of the session written at the top of the page. They concluded that these clues were the reason for the experiment's high hit rate (this was not the only problem with the "research"). One may wonder why Puthoff and Targ put the clues in there, but you probably shouldn't. In fact, the investigators (Marks and Kammann) were initially able only to investigate the few actual transcripts Targ and Puthoff had actually published; to find out whether the unpublished transcripts contained cues, Marks and Kammann wrote to Targ and Puthoff requesting copies, which Targ and Puthoff refused to supply – which is pretty unusual in scientific contexts. Marks and Kammann were nevertheless able to obtain copies from the judge who used them, and guess what? The transcripts of course contained a wealth of cues. In other words, if Targ and Puthoff weren't frauds, they must have been extraordinarily delusional, possibly even by pseudoscientist standards. Subsequent tests of their hypotheses were negative; moreover, students have easily been able to obtain Targ and Puthoff's desired results based on the clues left in the transcripts alone. Though bunk, Puthoff and Targ's experiments are still harvesting press coverage from the credulous (or spineless).
In 1985, Puthoff founded the for-profit company EarthTech International and a purportedly scientific research organization, Institute for Advanced Studies, where he is Director. Puthoff and EarthTech were granted a US Patent in 1998 after five years delay, due to controversy over their claim that information could be transmitted over a distance using a modulated potential with no electric or magnetic field components. The case is still used for educational purposes in patent law to illustrate that even for a valid patent "even a competent examiner may fail to distinguish innovation from pseudoscience."
In particular, Puthoff is famous for his promotion of zero-point energy (ZPE); indeed, he is probably the main promoter of the idea. And it is pseudoscience, of course. Puthoff's work on ZPE lacked transparency and scientific backing, and as such bore a striking resemblance to his psi work.
It is worth mentioning that already in the 1960s, while a devout top-level scientologist, Puthoff wrote, in a scientology publication, that he had achieved "remote viewing" abilities during his ascension through scientology ranks, and that scientology had given him "a feeling of absolute fearlessness." (He later severed all connections with scientology.)
Diagnosis: Though it is hard to believe, Puthoff seems to be a true believer, which makes his systematic and striking failures to make his experiments methodologically sound all the more interesting. Probably harmless by now, but his legacy continues to sillify the Internet.
Hat-tip: Skepdic
#2134: Kevin Purfield
Kevin Purfield is an insane conspiracy nut whose main claim to fame is being arrested, apparently for harassing the families of the victims of the Aurora shootings to tell them that their loved ones didn't really die and that it was all part of a grand conspiracy. The reason he concludes it was a conspiracy is that it is all conspiracies. Purfield also has a youtube channel where he delves into them: 9/11 was a hoax, there are military bases on the moon and what have you. He has earlier been apprehended for trespassing at a shopping center while talking about teleportation and "security bases on the moon."
Apparently Purfield has also been harassing the families of the Newtown shootings, calling them up to tell them that there was no shooting. This is, of course, a theme that has become so pervasive among fringe lunatics that it has even drawn the attention of mainstream media.
Diagnosis: Ok, so we are talking about diagnosed mental illness here, and we tend to avoid calling those out. But mental illness doesn't quite absolve you from agency and responsibility. Probably ultimately harmless, but he was certainly not perceived that way (justifiedly so) by the families he harassed.
Hat-tip: Dispatches from the Culture Wars
#2133: Fred Pulver
Tachyons are theoretical particles or waves that travel faster than the speed of light, a recurring theme in popular science, and thus far without empirical support for their existence. New Age religions are religions, however, and have never cared for empirical support. So, according to Fred Pulver, not only is it the case that the "Tachyon Field supplies the energy needs of all living organisms until balance is achieved, then it eases until called upon again. As it is needed, and a depletion occurs, it rushes in until balance is achieved once again;" Pulver has also harnessed its energy. It's like ormus. Just in case you run out of tachyon balance, you can buy one of his many takionic products (beads, belts, water). The products are of course called "takionic" since "tachyon", being a common word, cannot be trademarked; "takionic" can.
He claims to have empirical evidence, though: "Motors have been built which draw upon the Tachyon Field for energy. They exhibit strange behavior, such as increasing in speed the longer they run, even though they are connected to no visible power source." Well, it's not empiricalempirical: no one has actually seenthe aforementioned motors. But how can you doubt someone who offers to restore your takionic balance for something as mundane as money? Moreover, "[t]akionic products, with their aligned atomic polarities, enhance the body's natural ability to draw from the Tachyon Field for its energy needs. Athletes have discovered that Takionic products allow them to perform faster and longer, and shorten recovery time. As conduits for input from the Tachyon Field, Takionic products are proving themselves in the sports performance arena." He probably just forgot to name said athletes due to sheer excitement over the results.
Oh, but there is more: Did you know that "[t]achyon theory is holistic"? Bet you didn't. It is holistic "because it accepts the notion of two interdependent universes which are actually indivisible: the visible, sub-light speed universe and an invisible, faster-than-light one. Tachyon theory also substantiates omnipresence, a purely metaphysical concept. God is omnipresent (simultaneously existing everywhere). Omnipresent existence can only occur at faster-than-light speeds, since slower-than-light travel takes time to cross space. Therefore, omnipresence can only be an attribute of a Tachyon Universe where time and space are uniform." This is not quite what "holistic" means, but we have at this point left the realm of coherence and sense behind a long time ago anyways, so why not? He can even explain the powers of healers: "Healers have learned to access the Tachyon Field's resources for its healing powers more successfully than the average person has." (Ok, so "explain" may be a bit too strong.) At least he's got testimonials (some rather confused examples here), including an enthusiastic endorsement from Gary Null, no less.
He's not the only one to tap the marketing potential of tachyons, though. There is at least also e.g. the, Advanced Tachyon Technologies (ATT) of Santa Rosa. They've got chakra balancing kits.
Apparently Pulver is also an expert on sanpaku, the idea that it is a symptom (or proof, or whatever) of physical and spiritual imbalance if the white of the eye can be seen between the pupil and the lower lid when the subject looks forward. The condition can ostensibly be cured by a macrobiotic diet. Apparently both JFK and Robert Kennedy were sanpaku, as was Marilyn Monroe. I suppose we'll have to confirm with Barry Martin.
"Do we all have to conform to the scientific method before we promote anything? Such rigidity seems counterproductive and illogical to me," says Pulver when the scientific basis of his claims are questioned. Meanwhile, just to have it both ways, his website states that "[h]undreds of tests conducted on students and adults revealed that this unique headband improved their mathematical test scores by as much as 20-30%. The headband delays mental fatigue and heightens focus and concentration." The tests are, of course, as unavailable for double-checking as the motors and athletes he claims to have observed.
Diagnosis: Seems to be a true believer, which is pretty incredible.
#2132: Ana Puig
Ana Puig is a Tea Party Operative who was appointed legislative liaison for the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue as part of Governor Tom Corbett's attempt to turn "Pennsylvania's state government into a favor mill for campaign supporters." Puig, previously co-chair of and registered lobbyist for a local group called the Kitchen Table Patriots, had earlier argued that Obama was a Communist in the mold of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, citing her own experience (as a native of Brazil) to argue for a "direct correlation between what's happening in the United States and what has happened in Brazil and Latin America – the implementation of 21st Century Marxism. In other words, a camouflaged statement for Communism." She went on to claim that "21st Century Marxism" – which seems to mean whatever she disagrees with for whatever reason – would be implemented after "a liberal or progressive candidate [like Obama] is introduced to the masses as the messiah that is going to fix all problems imposed to them by evil capitalists."
Apart from her red scare delusions Puig has been caught defending a Nazi memorabilia enthusiast in her organization as "a historian" and "an extremely smart person," featured a blog promoting birther conspiracy theories and identified then-president Obama as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood on her group's website. Not the least, she has spent a lot of warning of the creeping threat of Sharia law in the United States, which, of course, would be inconsistent with a communist takeover, but consistency is, as we all know, a liberal conspiracy. And of course, Puig and her group are climate change deniers, dismissing climate change as "fraud science backed by the mercenary alarmists in the scientific community and the U.N."
Diagnosis: So predictable, yet so stupid. Ana Puig is, of course, your standard green-ink conspiracy theorist, but for Gov. Corbett what mattered was apparently her ideological commitments and campaign contributions. The really scary thought is that, as long as ideological stance is what matters, it would actually have been difficult for him to find anyone more competent at this point. (Puig herself is, for the record, gone now).
Hat-tip: ThinkProgress
Posted by G.D. at 4:09 AM 2 comments:
#2131: Cindy Pugh
More state legislators. Cindy Pugh is former a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives representing District 33B in the western Twin Cities metropolitan area. Pugh is not a fan of marriage equality. Indeed, Pugh thinks that what LGBT activists are after is not really marriage equality – that's a smokescreen – but "OUR First Amendment RIGHTS", our religious freedom and freedom of speech (random capitalization in the original; Pugh is a fan of random capitalization). Because if she disagrees with someone, then those persons must be dishonest, therefore conspiracy.
Apparently, Pugh has previously associated with Bradlee Dean, and Pugh's group, the Southwest Metro Tea Party (co-founded with Michele Bachmann), has sponsored Bradlee Dean & Jake "McMillian" MacAulay movie nights, anti-Agenda 21 presentations (more here and here) and John Birch Society nights. She was, however, not the only Minnesota legislator who sought information and guidance from WallBuilders and their ProFamily Legislators' Conference; we note Abigail Whelan for future reference.
In 2018, Pugh received some attention after she, together with two other wingnuts, claimed to have learned of a "plot to 'mobilize Muslims to infiltrate our Republican caucuses'."
Diagnosis: Deranged, lunatic conspiracy theorist. At least temporarily neutralized after losing her 2018 reelection bid, but there's always a danger that she'll pop up again, so its worth keeping track of her antics.
#2130: Scott Pruitt
A.k.a. King of the swamp
Ok, we'll be (relatively) brief. Scott Pruitt, an Oklahoma lawyer, was Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from February 2017 to July 2018, at which point he was under at least 14 separate federal investigations by the Government Accountability Office, the EPA inspector general, the White House Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, and two House committees over his spending habits, conflicts of interests, extreme secrecy, and management practices. Almost a model representative of the Swamp, Pruitt's main contributions while in office was to successfully partially dismantle his own agency and managing to take baldfaced corruption and misuse of government funds to cover personal expenses to almost unprecedented levels; randomly selected examples here, here and here (ok, that last one was only semi-randomly selected)). His main qualifications for his position, apart from being a Trump sycophant and zealous but deranged wingnut denialist, was his history of filing numerous lawsuits against the EPA over the better part of a decade, all of which had failed.
For our purposes, Pruitt's main qualification for an entry here is his climate change denialism. In March 2017, Pruitt, who has no scientific background whatsoever, stated that he "would not agree that" carbon dioxide is "a primary contributor to the global warming that we see" since "measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there's tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact." This is false, and also contradicts the EPA's public stance, as stated on the website – though right after Pruitt's announcement, the EPA also announced that the website "would be undergoing changes to better represent the new direction the agency is taking," including "the removal of several agency websites containing detailed climate data and scientific information," in particular those that contradicted Pruitt's statement (some details of the changes are described here). A few days later, Pruitt fired a number of scientists from the agency's 18-member Board of Scientific Counselors to replace them with industry representatives, and later in 2017, he purged the EPA advisory panels and forbade any scientist who receives a grant from the EPA from then serving on them. By December 2017 over 200 scientists had left the EPA, to be replaced with industry representatives more attuned to Pruitt's own views. In March 2018, Pruitt proposed to restrict the EPA from considering research that relies on confidential information, such as medical data, apparently because of "scientific transparency". It is safe to say that the motivation was not transparency. Pruitt and other agency heads also delayed the public release of the Climate Change Report within the National Climate Assessment, for obvious reasons.
His understanding of science, evidence assessment and critical thinking is brilliantly illustrated by his June 2017 suggestion, at a board meeting of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (a climate change denialist organization), that he would arrange public debates on the human role in climate change modelled after a "red team blue team" exercise, since scientific questions are best settled by rhetorical skills and charisma in brief political discussions. The reason for the format is of course a deliberate balance fallacy: to make it look like a debate between two equally respectable sides, as if there is no scientific consensus on the issue and that pseudoscientific denialism is on equal footing with regard to the evidence.
During his tenure, Pruitt was also part of Ralph Drollinger's weekly Bible study meetings for members of Congress and Trump's Cabinet, which warned (among other things) that America is in the process of shifting from Christianity to the "false religion of Radical Environmentalism." According to Drollinger, it is unbiblical to believe that mankind's actions could destroy the Earth (also, "[t]o allow fish to govern the construction of dams, endangered species to govern power plants, flies to govern hospitals, or kangaroo rats, homes, is to miss the clear proclamation of God in Genesis").
Of course, Pruitt's poor grasp of science – and associated dismissal of it – is not restricted to climate science. Pruitt is also a creationist, saying that evolution "is a philosophical and not scientific matter" and claiming that "[t]here aren't sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution." Of course, Pruitt wouldn't be able to distinguish a scientific fact from a deranged delusion if his life (or at least money) depended on it. He has also lamented that "minority religions" are pushing Christianity aside in the US (he had the backing of the religious right to the end, true to the religious right's complete, systematic and proud lack of concern for ethical issues), advocated for Constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and abortion, and claimed that when courts make decisions he disagrees with we are talking about a tyranny executed a "judicial monarchy."
He resigned in July 2018, but his resignation hardly improved things.
Diagnosis: One of the most spineless, morally corrupt, deranged and dangerous people to walk the face of the Earth.
#2129: Matt Pruitt
That there is a "Bigfoot Field Researchers' Organization" isn't really that surprising (director: one Matt Moneymaker, no less). That they don't find anything isn't particularly surprising either. In fact, it is even unclear whether "loon" is a fitting epithet for all of their members. Matt Pruitt, for instance, is a name we encountered through reports from his 2012 venture to find the Boggy Creek Monster, a Bigfoot relative, in Arkansas. Pruitt's adventure involved a 31-squatcher strong expedition that was thwarted by a park ranger when it turned out that Pruitt had forgotten to apply for a park pass. Pruitt was given a $524 ticket. But then, the squatchers had paid him between $300 and $500 apiece for the privilege of having Pruitt lead them, so you should probably not feel sorry for him.
Apparently he also runs a blog, and is a frequent interviewee for various cryptozoology outlets. He is also a "member of the North American Wood Ape Conservancy (NAWAC)."
Diagnosis: Very possibly not a loon at all. He still deserves a mention, though.
Hat-tip: Skeptophilia
#2128: Alan Pressman
We initially encountered Alan Pressman as a member of the board of directors of Purity Products (Jahn Levin's group), a manufacturer and online pusher of homeopathic remedies and, in particular, dietary supplements and vitamin supplements (pseudovitamins, mostly) with a mission "to help you experience dynamic, vibrant health," which sounds like an interesting health goal (would you really like your health to be "dynamic"?). We don't know if he's still affiliated with that group, but the association should give you an idea about where he is coming from. Pressman (a "DC, CNS, DAC, BN" – ah, alphabet soup) is a chiropractor and author of numerous books on nutrition, who currently runs the radio show Healthline, which is – to put it diplomatically – not a place to get your health information (unless your goal is to make your health "dynamic", that is), as well as InVite Health (a telling name), a "unique health and wellness brand that combines innovative products, nutritional education, and a luxury retail store experience". At least that last bit suggests that he isn't even trying to hide what kind of venture we're talking about. (Yes, InVite is a standard online supplement pusher.) Pressman himself has also served as Chairman of the Department of Clinical Nutrition and Professor of Nutrition Research at New York Chiropractic College, as well as Associate Professor of Bio-Nutrition at the University of Bridgeport, a naturopathic college.
According to the website, InVite's products are developed by "healthcare experts who understand both the science behind vitamins and supplements," but looking at their list of nutritionists and consultants, you'll find precisely what you'd expect: a number of naturopaths, people affiliated with the Bridgeport institution. and holistic health coaches. The "science behind vitamins and supplements" is, of course, pretty clear; the InVite people don't mean thatscience, though.
But let's just list some of those consultants for future reference, shall we? (Many of the names are followed by mysterious acronyms and information about certifications/association with organizations that receive sometimes less than 10 results on Google). They include:
- Amanda Williams, who holds a doctorate in medicine from Xavier University in Aruba. That institution is described here. But rest assured: Williams "has successfully completed training as an instructor in Diabetes Self-Management through Stanford University" and "continues to obtain medical education credits through the American Academy of Anti-Aging". It's actually interesting that they offer this information on their website for everyone to see.
- Claudia Guy, an ND.
- Wilfredo Hernandez, who has a degree from the University of Bridgeport, and a FirstLine Therapy® Certification from Metagenics – detox nonsense.
- Kayanne McDermott, another ND and Bridgeport graduate.
- Claire Arcidiacono, yet another ND, Bridgeport graduate, and an InVite Director of Nutrition. Dangerous.
- Allie Might, an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach who is "passionate about cleansing and detoxification", which is, needless to say, not a particularly laudatory or attractive character trait.
- Archana Gogna, a part-time instructor (focusing on "inflammation and which foods and supplements have the ability to naturally combat it," which should be a one-word, two-letter class) at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, an almost legendarily insane black hole of quackery.
- Kristina Smyth, who has "a Health Coach Certification from The Institute of Integrative Nutrition," which is not something to be proud of. Neither is "member of National Association of Nutrition Practitioners" (any crackpot can be), whereas "member of American Association of Drugless Practitioners" (no drugs, plenty of supplements – the difference being that the latter are not FDA regulated) is downright frightening.
- Nur Abulhasan, who "holds certifications in Integrative Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy and has been actively serving as a Holistic Health Coach,"
- Asha Mattai, "an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach" who "graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition".
Diagnosis: They should be ashamed of themselves. They really should. They aren't. Dangerous.
#2127: Michele Presnell
Michele Presnell represents the 118thdistrict in the North Carolina General Assembly (yes, them again). Presnell is against Muslim prayers because "I do not condone terrorism." Some background: Presnell co-sponsored of North Carolina's proposed (since dropped), unconstitutional 2013 resolution to establish Christianity a state religion, and made the claim about Muslim prayers in response to a constituent asking her, in an attempt to probe her capacity for empathy with those who do not share her religious views, whether she would "be comfortable with a public prayer to Allah before a legislative meeting in Raleigh." In an attempt to explain her answer (and defend the resolution), Presnell said – sadly but entirely predictably – that "we just need to start taking a stand on our religious freedom or it will be whisked away from us." "Religious freedom" means religious freedom for herand freedom for anyone else to share her religious views whether they want to or not.
Diagnosis: Fundie nincompoop. Delusional and dangerous.
#2126: Burt Prelutsky
"Columnist for the WND" is not a badge of honor, but Burt Prelutsky is one and has none. As a fundie wingnut with a persecution complex, Prelutsky is very concerned about the marginalization and persecution of Christians in the US. As evidence for such (widespread) persecution and marginalization, Prelutsky cites for instance the, well, claim that when conservative politicans are criticized for their political views it is really intended an attack on their religion. Which, for course, is merely a restatement of the hypothesis. A tendency to take a restatement of one's (ridiculous) hypothesis to be evidence for the hypothesis can help explain quite a bit of Prelutsky's thinking on these issues. Prelutsky is for instance very concerned with the War on Christmas, which he blames on "my fellow Jews" who are trying to "pull off their own version of the Spanish Inquisition, forcing Christians to either deny their faith and convert to agnosticism or suffer the consequences." When it comes to "pushing the multicultural, anti-Christian agenda, you find Jewish judges, Jewish journalists and the largely Jewish funded ACLU at the forefront," writes Prelutsky: "anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in society; it's been replaced by a rampant anti-Christianity," a claim splendidly undermined by his own column. (He went on to attack Jewish Americans for not showing enough support for the Republican Party and not being grateful that America is "a Christian nation".)
Part of the problem, as Prelutsky sees it, may also be that Christians in the US are too nice and timid. That's why Prelutsky had to remind them that it is wrong for Christians to care for undocumented immigrants, pointing out that such actions as treasonous, and leading to the sad state of affair that Christians are currently helping Latinos "overrun America by destroying our schools, undermining our economy and over-taxing our social services" and "encouraging one specific group, Hispanics, to invade this nation" in order to "fill their respective pews." Most blame, however, should be placed on "homicidal" progressives like then-President Obama and congressional Democrats, of course, who are actively seeking to "destroy America".
No fan of Obama (a "friend and close associate" of Satan because he threatened to close the Guantanamo camp), Prelutsky has also complained that Obama shared "the instincts of Stalin, Hitler, Franco, Mao, Castro and Mussolini, but, fortunately, he lacks their power to kill dissidents or even have them exiled to Siberian gulags." Because anyone who disagrees with Prelutsky on politics is Hitler. And if you disagree with him you want to murder him – an idea that tells you nothing about those who disagree with him but may suggest something rather disconcerting about how Prelutsky would have wanted to treat his political opponents if he had the opportunity. A further illustration: Prelutsky wants us to "bomb Mecca off the face of the earth, not concerning ourselves in the least with collateral damage, letting the Muslims [or "swamp creatures", as he calls them] know once and for all that our God is far more powerful and, yes, vengeful than their own puny deity." We should apparently do so because Muslims are "savages".
In the internal WND competition to come up with the silliest attempt to compare Obama to an evil person, Prelutsky went with John Hinckley, arguing that the president "is every bit as delusional" as the guy who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in a stream-of-consciousness rant that would be incoherent even by WND's (lack of) standards. Here is his take on whether Obama is the Antichrist.
Prelutsky has also weighed in on issues connected to race with his usual combination of insightfulness and sharp wit. Here he compares Mandela and MLK in a way that is impossible to sum up; it is, however, at least telling that his criticism of MLK is based on the premise that "the relations between blacks and whites in America not only haven't improved since the late '60s, they have become far worse," which, given segregation laws and lynchings, might tell you something about what Prelutsky thinks is the proper way of treating black people. He certainly has a thing for stereotypes. (Apparently he thinks they are humorous.)
Vehemently anti-science, Prelutsky is both (apparently) a creationist and (definitely) a global warming denialist. Science, as Prelutsky sees it, is a liberal conspiracy: "Liberals are always given to landing on the side of what they insist is science, whether the topic is Darwin's theory of evolution versus intelligent design or man's ability to control the weather. That's because they believe that scientists are, like themselves, much smarter than other people," says Prelutsky. As examples of the folly of science, Prelutsky then goes on to highlight the Piltdown Man, which scientists revealed was a hoax, and Pluto, "which for a long time, was regarded as one of the planets in our solar system. Then, without warning, Pluto woke up one morning to find it had been demoted to the status of a plutoid." And, not least, the Brontosaurus, where "anthropologists mistakenly mixed up a few bones. What it was actually was something called an Apatosaurus." It is not entirely clear what Prelutsky thinks his examples are supposed to illustrate, apart from the fact that science is a self-correcting enterprise, given that it is scientists, and not delusional wingnut bloggers, who discovers that corrections are needed and then go on to make them; it seems, though, that a guiding idea is the delusion that because scientists adjust their theories in the face of new evidence and better models, Prelutsky is correct when he rejects science for religious and political purposes. Apparently, this illustrates something about Obama, gay people (Prelutsky has problems with gay people) and leftwing professors.
Diagnosis: Ok, so he is ultimately a relatively minor figure, but he is awfully silly so we couldn't help but describe him at some length here. Though ostensibly a "humorist" the way in which he is funny – he sort of is, if you can disregard the hate, rage, evil and stupid – is not the way he intends.
#2125: Bobby Powell


text:
North Dallas Boys Junior Varsity Cross Country
Multiple Teams · Oct 21 North Dallas cross country season ends
Junior Natalie Chaparro finished second in the Junior Varsity division Thursday in the District 12-5A meet at Norbuck Park. Chaparro, who is not eligible to run varsity this season, finished in 24:43. The North Dallas varsity girls finished fifth and the varsity boys finished seventh in the team competition. "All the times improved every
Multiple Teams · Oct 20 North Dallas football and volleyball teams in action Thursday
Thursday will be a busy day for several North Dallas teams. The cross country team will be competing in the District 12-5A meet at Norbuck Park. The varsity girls run at 9:30 a.m., followed by the varsity boys at 10:30 and JV girls at 11:30 and JV boys at 12:30. "Everybody better bring their A
Multiple Teams · Oct 12 North Dallas cross country teams preparing for district meet
The regular cross country meets are now over, and it's a final week of preparation for the District 12-5A meet on Thursday, Oct. 20, at Norbuck Park. "We took the first two days off this week, and we start Wednesday," North Dallas coach Troy Power said of his teams' preparation. "Looking forward to it." Practice
Multiple Teams · Oct 3 North Dallas times improve at Seagoville meet
The North Dallas cross country team competed at the Seagoville Cross Country meet on Saturday. "They did pretty good considering they are coming off injuries," said North Dallas coach Troy Power. Jose Gutierrez was the boys' top finisher in 19:20, finally breaking the 20-minute mark that has eluded him the past few weeks. On the girls
Multiple Teams · Sep 25 North Dallas runners show steady improvement
North Dallas High junior Jose Gutierrez came so close. He missed the mark by 13 seconds. When told that he finished Saturday's run in 20:13, Gutierrez expressed disappointment. His goal was to finish under 20 minutes. "It's hard," he said of the goal, "but I have to keep trying." Gutierrez, the top boys finisher,
Multiple Teams · Sep 22 North Dallas runners keeping eye on competition
The District 12-5A cross country meet is still several weeks away, but North Dallas coach Troy Power is keeping his eye on the competition. At Saturday's meet behind Kincaide Stadium, the Bulldogs finished third among the district teams competing in the Garey Horner Invitational meet, hosted by Molina. "We did pretty good, but still
Multiple Teams · Sep 15 ND student profile: Cross country's Abigail Aldape
One of the leaders on this year's girls cross country team is senior Abigail Aldape. Abigail has missed the past two meets but hopes to return this week as the boys and girls compete at the Gary Horner/Molina meet on Saturday at Jesse Owens Complex. Abigail took a few minutes to answer a few
Multiple Teams · Sep 13 Cross country takes toll on North Dallas team
The first three weeks of the cross country season has had its ups and downs for the North Dallas cross country teams. After competing Saturday at the Gerald Richey UTA meet at Lynn Creek Park, Coach Troy Power said the teams "did OK" but its the injuries that has him worried. "Injuries happen," Power
Multiple Teams · Sep 5 3 North Dallas runners win medals at cross country meet
Three North Dallas High runners received medals at the DCA Cross Country meet Saturday at the Jesse Owens Complex in Dallas. Junior Natalie Chaparro, competing in the junior varsity division, finished third with a time of 17:01 in the 2-mile run. In the varsity division, Kathy Nguyen finished 10th in the 3-mile run in 27:47, followed by Fatima Rincon in 11th place in 27:48. Other
Multiple Teams · Sep 2 North Dallas cross country team pushes ahead
The North Dallas High boys and girls cross country teams will compete in the DCA Cross Country Meet on Saturday, Sept. 3, next to Kincade Stadium at the Jesse Owens Complex in southern Dallas. The meet begins about 8:30 a.m.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
News > YouTube joins India's EdTech space, set to compete with Byju's, Unacademy
YouTube joins India's EdTech space, set to compete with Byju's, Unacademy
India's EdTech space now has a new entrant, who is set to compete with the likes of unicorns in the form of Byju's, Unacademy, and many other platforms. The world's biggest video-sharing platform, YouTube, is set to take a huge leap forward in delivering educational content online. This comes at a time when EdTech platforms such as Byju's and Unacademy are facing a barrage of losses amid layoffs and shutting down of offices.


text:
Search Department of Environment and Science
Navigating the SoE
You are viewing an archived copy of the 2017 report.
View the current 2020 report.
Why historic heritage is important
Heritage places are central to our community's character and identity—allowing us to trace our history and feel connected to the important stories about our progress.
Protecting, conserving and promoting heritage places and their stories plays an important role in creating community identity, sustaining local economies and contributing to Queensland's cultural heritage tourism industry.
National, state and local heritage
The National Heritage List is Australia's list of natural, historic and Indigenous places of outstanding significance to the nation.
The Queensland Heritage Register is a comprehensive and representative state-wide record of Queensland's most significant historic heritage places. This diverse heritage includes buildings and structures, cemeteries, archaeological sites, gardens and landscapes.
Local heritage comprises places from the past that communities respect, want to keep, and pass on to future generations. Identifying places in a local heritage register or local planning scheme helps protect heritage places that are important to local communities.
Historic shipwrecks
Ships played a vital role in the development of the colony and State of Queensland, bringing immigrants from the rest of the world and exporting goods that made Queensland wealthy. The many wrecks found in Queensland waters reflect the diverse stories of adventure, industry, disaster and ingenuity that stem from our maritime heritage. Many wrecks continue to serve the economy as recreational diving locations.
The Open House initiative connects Queenslanders and visitors with our rich history and diverse built environment.
Each Open House event unlocks a region's significant buildings, allowing the community to explore and gain a greater appreciation of some of our iconic heritage places.
Heritage buildings feature in each of the Open House events held in Queensland—and are among the most popular places to visit on the itinerary.
Queensland heritage places
Since 2012, 93 Queensland Heritage Places have been entered in the Queensland Heritage Register and 5 places removed, in line with provisions introduced in 2011.
Local heritage places and areas
Most local governments identify and protect local heritage places and areas through a planning scheme.
Historic shipwrecks, aircraft wrecks and relics
Since 2012, 990 existing Queensland shipwreck entries were updated and 39 new Queensland shipwrecks entries, 52 new aircraft entries and 12 new relic entries were added to the Australian National Shipwreck Database.
Queensland open house events
Since 2010, Open House events have been staged in 6 Queensland cities: beginning with Brisbane and expanding to Maryborough, Toowoomba, the Gold Coast, Bundaberg and, in 2017, the Sunshine Coast. The global Open House movement highlights history and architecture and offers a range of satellite events for the public in each city.
Queensland places in the National Heritage List
Since 2012, one Queensland place has been entered in the National Heritage List — the Dig Tree and Fort Wills Site (part of The Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage Place), south west Queensland. There are 12 Queensland places on the National Heritage List.
Queensland heritage places destroyed
No State Heritage Places were destroyed between 2012 and 2015, however 5 places destroyed prior to 2012 have been removed from the Queensland Heritage Register.
In 2016-2017, no State Heritage Places were destroyed.
Queensland Heritage Register
The Queensland Heritage Register is a list of Queensland's significant heritage places. The Department of Environment and Science manages the details about places on the Queensland Heritage Register, but the Queensland Heritage Council makes decisions about which places are entered in or removed from it, and when substantial changes are made to those entry documents.
Underwater Cultural Heritage Program
Popular and vulnerable historic shipwrecks are periodically inspected by government agencies to ensure they have not deteriorated quickly due to environmental or human impacts. Site monitoring and compliance checks also ensure site restrictions are enforced. Inspection results are recorded in internal database and site conditions and information updated on the Australian National Shipwreck Database.
Australian national shipwreck database
Open House Events Queensland
At each event throughout the state, volunteers collect visitor numbers for each featured building, including heritage places. After the event, Open House Event managers collate the statistics and supply a report on the outcomes to the department.
Brisbane Open House
Maryborough Open House
Toowoomba Open House
Gold Coast Open House
Sunshine Coast Open House
Digitally-mapped terrestrial and maritime heritage sites
Innovation in digital scanning and mapping and the use of drones contributes to the conservation, management and interpretation of heritage sites.
CyArk 500 Challenge


text:
China's Inclusiveness Promotes Asia Pacific Integration: Experts
Global Post (off Xinhua News Agency)
Chinese President Xi Jinping promoted to build an open economy, speed up regional integration, and enhance interconnectivity at the just-concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Manila, the Philippines.
What Xi called up at the APEC meeting aroused interest among scholars in Singapore, and they believed that China's inclusiveness promotes the Asia-Pacific integration.
Irene Chan, associate research fellow with S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of Nanyang Technological University, said the reiteration of China's commitment to do its part in promoting economic integration within Asia-Pacific by making efforts domestically and externally in President Xi's speech gave her deep impression.
"Xi's suggestions are important follow-up to the APEC Connectivity Blueprint that was signed at the 22nd APEC Summit in Beijing in 2014, particularly the suggestion on persevering in the implementation of the development agenda." said Chan.
IDSS / Online
Chinese President Xi Jinping promoted to build an open economy, speed up regional integration, and enhance interconnectivity at the just-concluded Asia-Pacific Economic C ...


The end of the First World War may appear as a somewhat premature point at which to begin an outline history of European decolonization. Indeed, the territorial zenith of modern colonialism was attained only in 1919 with the completion of the Treaty of Versailles, bringing new areas (such as Palestine) within the ambit of European rule.l Even more telling is the fact that it was only during the Great War and in its immediate aftermath that westernizing processes began to impinge upon the broad front of non-European societies, and so created the conditions for mass nationalist responses. With this in mind, it might be argued that while the inter-war years were of clear relevance to certain later decolonizations (with one obvious example being the emergence of Gandhian populism in India during the early 1920s), in the main their continuities lay backwards to the age of classical European expansion, not forwards to the era of imperial dissolution. Nonetheless, the sense that processes of decolonization, even in their broadest connotations, only take shape after 1939 is dictated by a falsely based preoccupation with the outward form of political nationalisms among colonial populations. The latter, indeed, were the exception rather than the rule before the Second World War.


text:
Q: Recursively reset spinner to top item after handling an option I have a spinner that is used to select commands sent to a BLE peripheral. I'm trying to work around the annoying prohibition on selecting the same spinner item twice in a row. I've created a 'dummy' command at the top of the list (It's just labeled "Command...") and it's a NOP--just breaks out of the command-processing switch in the onItemSelected() handler.
Immediately after the switch, I test to see if the selected item is this dummy, and if not, I call setSelection(0) to reset the spinner to "Command...". Note that this is essentially a recursive call since it will invoke the onItemSelected() handler.
This seems to work, with one big problem: something is getting badly hosed in the app. It seems it must be due to problems with the parameters in the nested onItemSelected() call.
The call signature is onItemSelected( AdapterView<?> adapterView, View view, int i, long l ). The only parameter I care about is i, and it is apparently getting set OK, but where do the values for the other parameters come from in this recursive call? Presumably they should be the same as those in the first call, but is there a way to assure this?
Failing that, it is possible to call onItemSelected() directly, rather than use setSelection()? Actually now that I think about it, this probably wouldn't do what I want, which is to reset the spinner to displaying item 0 ("Command...").
Sort of grasping at straws here, but re-reading the Spinners documentation makes me wonder if implementing the OnItemSelectedListener interface directly in my Activity, rather than in an Anonymous Inner Class, might fix the behavior.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
You are at:Home»News»Airports»Mass cocaine haul worth US$70.6m found on jet at TAG Farnborough
Mass cocaine haul worth US$70.6m found on jet at TAG Farnborough
By Helen Norman on	 5th February 2018 Airports
An attempt to smuggle an estimated £50m (US$70.6m) worth of cocaine into the UK has been prevented by Border Force officers at TAG Farnborough Airport in the UK.
The 15 suitcases of cocaine were found aboard a private jet arriving from Bogota, South America, alongside five passengers. The weight of the drugs is estimated to total 550kg (1,212 lb), with a full forensic analysis due to take place.
Mike Stepney, deputy chief operating officer, Border Force, said, "Working with law enforcement colleagues like the National Crime Agency (NCA) we are determined to prevent drug trafficking and bring those responsible to justice.
"This was a significant find made possible by the vigilance of dedicated Border Force officers. They have prevented a substantial quantity of drugs from ending up on our streets and causing untold misery and damage to our communities.
"After meeting the flight and questioning those on board, officers became suspicious and searched the aircraft and their luggage. When opened, each case was found to contain between 34 to 37 tape wrapped packages weighing approximately one kilo each. One of these was pierced and a white powder exposed which tested positive for cocaine."
Border Force arrested the five passengers on suspicion of importing class A drugs. It is believed to be one of the largest seizures of its kind in the UK.
Business Airport International reached out to TAG Farnborough for comment, who said, "This is a matter for the authorities. We do not comment on individual aircraft and passengers."
The investigation has now been passed on to the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Previous ArticleWhat is happening to business jet sales?
Next Article Aviation college takes off at Biggin Hill
Helen Norman
Helen has worked for UKi Media & Events for nearly a decade. She joined the company as assistant editor on Passenger Terminal World and since progressed to become editor of five publications, covering everything from aviation, logistics and e-commerce to meteorology. She has a love for travel and property and has redeveloped three houses in three years. When she's not editing magazines, she's running around after her two boys and their partner in crime, Pete the pug.
RUAG sells business aviation sites in Geneva and Lugano
Jet Linx voluntarily grounds entire fleet for safety summit


ProDotA 2s first season in the books! Taking a small look back at some of the epic games, upsets and overall success of PD2s first season of it's world league.
Potm Bottom crowned the king of PD2! After a lengthy season starting off with round robin, into play-off mode and finally the grand finale, Potm Bottom has defied all odds and come out on top!
Best of 5 between the two best! The best of five finals today between the winner of the loser bracket finals (yet to be decided) and of course Potm Bottom, the dark horse of the tournament!
mTw crowned winner of the non-pro play-offs! After a long road for mTw they've once again attained victory after beating paiN Gaming 3-0 in their best of five series, pro play-offs slated to start later today!
Non-Pro Play-offs under way, new trailer released! A quick update of the current standings within the play-offs of ProDotA 2's non-pro division along with an exciting new trailer released!
ProDotA2s play-off brackets are complete! We've come a long way since the beginning of ProDotA 2, seeing plenty of amazing games in each region whether it be Asian, European or American. But as far as we still have one leg of the race to go to finally prove once and for all who deserves the title of best in ProDotA 2s world league.
Asian teams duking out for a spot in ProDotA 2s After some confusion in the second round of the Asian Pro-Bracket for PD2, the admins enforce a tie-breaker rule to ensure the best teams make it on to the world stage.
ProDotA 2s first season in the books!
Potm Bottom crowned the king of PD2!
Best of 5 between the two best!
Prodotas 2 Pro Play-off Schedule!
mTw crowned winner of the non-pro play-offs!
Non-Pro Play-offs under way, new trailer released!
ProDotA2s play-off brackets are complete!
Interview with DotA legend Jonathan "Loda" Berg!


text:
Sienna Miller to star in belly dancing indie film
Sienna Miller is headed to New Mexico to shoot an independent film. According to the AP, the film, Just Like a Woman, will be shot in and around Santa Fe, Lamy, Zia and Nambe pueblos and Jemez Springs.
The film which also stars Golshifteh Farahani and is directed by Rachid Bouchareb, tells the story of a housewife and her belly dancing instructor who head to Las Vegas to enter a competition.
2011 Comic Con Independent Film Festival Winners


Ø Removed certification by "Capacity" from certification requirements. Operators must be certified by "Type" (e.g., Mobile, Tower, Gantry), but Capacity certifications (e.g., "Under 21 tons", "21-75 tons," "Over 75 tons") are now optional.
Ø Added requirements for ongoing comprehensive training of operators, both formal and practical instruction.
Ø Clarified and permanently extend the employer duty to evaluate potential operators for their ability to safely operate equipment covered by the Final Rule.
Ø Required documentation of that employer evaluation.
Again, please visit www.signs.org/cranes for the latest information. One of the benefits of your NSA and ISA membership is direct access to the government affairs experts at ISA, feel free to contact Kenny Peskin, Director of Industry Programs with specific questions at Kenneth.Peskin@signs.org or 703.778.8096.
In order to be successful in achieving crane operator certification, NSA strongly recommends that you read this article thoroughly to increase your odds in passing the exams. Prepare in advance - study and practice whenever possible!


Security dealers and integrators rely upon recurring monthly revenue (RMR) to grow their business. The obvious path to growth is to acquire more customers, but an equally valid approach is to upsell your base by increasing the number of monitored endpoints. This approach has led some to expand their residential security portfolios to include smart home applications. The opportunity is to bring this smart home model to non-residential customers by offering smart building applications. You spend a good deal of time and effort to acquire the customers you have, so it makes good sense to help them maximize the benefits received from the services you provide.
Let's look at a typical customer: a high school, for example; it probably has an access control system, motion detectors, glass break, door contacts and maybe some panic buttons. And if you offer fire alarm systems, you can include pull stations, plus smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. This sounds like a great customer already, but now you can take it a step further, moving outside of the typical security mindset by expanding your portfolio to include environmental monitoring.
Offering environmental monitoring gives security dealers and integrators the ability to seek different buying centers within an organization. For example, the facilities manager may be interested in water detection, while the IT director may be concerned about the computer room. The end result is a broader relationship with your existing customers by helping them gain additional value from their system investment. Similarly, offering such services can help you attract new customers where environmental monitoring becomes a point of differentiation between you and your competitors that solely focus on security monitoring.
Water detection: Water damage from a leaking water heater, an over-flowing sink or a failed sump pump can quickly result in high repair costs for your customers. Compared against the potential thousands of dollars or more of damage, investing in water detectors can be an effective way to help your customers avoid such problems.
Pre-freeze warnings: Similar to leaking water, a burst pipe can result in a quick accumulation of a large volume of standing water. A threshold alarming temperature detector is a great tool to make sure your customer knows when pre-freeze conditions exist so they can act before the problem occurs.
Protecting computer rooms: This application is particularly beneficial for offices, bank branches, schools or government buildings. For such customers, even if the smallest of computer rooms gets too hot or has water collect where it shouldn't, tens of thousands of dollars' worth of electronic equipment is at risk. Plus your customers rely upon their computer rooms to perform mission-critical functions. If the computer room goes down, they go down. Here too a threshold alarming temperature detector or water detector can alert your customer with sufficient notice to respond before the problem becomes catastrophic.
Monitoring storage areas: A storage facility or a storage area within your customer's building may need to stay within a specific temperature range and your customer probably wants to make sure the area stays dry. Again, the cost of environmental detectors compared to the losses at stake is a small price to pay to ensure what they are storing is protected.
Maintaining refrigerators or freezers: Refrigerators and freezers must stay within specific ranges to make sure the items inside are safe. Threshold alarming temperature detectors can alert your customers as soon as a refrigerator or freezer starts to drift from the designated set point. This is a much better approach than not knowing whether what's inside has been properly stored.
Temperature logging: Per local health department and Centers for Disease Control guidelines, certain applications require temperatures be recorded at regular intervals to ensure food, pharmaceuticals or vaccines are properly stored and fit for use. For security dealers and integrators looking to jump into environmental monitoring, undertaking the development work necessary to enable your system to log temperature readings can open your business to new customers and new services. Convenience stores, restaurants, pharmacies and related businesses must keep temperature logs and today many of them do so manually. Helping them automate this process can reduce labor costs and ensure logging accuracy.
In addition to the potential RMR increase, there is another benefit. Remember the building automation providers mentioned earlier? As the Internet of things (IoT) becomes more of a reality, it also dictates customer expectations and begins to blur lines between security and building automation providers. Security providers who don't have the capability to offer services beyond just intrusion and fire alarms run the risk of not being able to meet their customers' changing environment. In this light, environmental monitoring is not just a nice to have, but a required capability to remain competitive in an IoT world.
For new construction, installing a wired security system is straightforward. But once that building is complete, it may not be practical to add wired environmental monitoring endpoints. Line power, if needed, may not be available at the installation point and completing a home run wire back to the panel could be cost prohibitive. (See the accompanying call out box for more on this topic). Wireless solutions are tailor-made for retrofits and additions on existing buildings. Being battery powered, access to an outlet is not an issue and with wireless signaling there is no cost to run wire.
Asking customers about their environmental monitoring needs may uncover smart building opportunities that you had not considered before, while also helping those customers realize the additional value you can bring beyond security applications alone. It also helps position your business against building automation providers venturing into your security space. By taking the time to understand your customers' needs, and coupling those needs with your capabilities and the right environmental monitoring solutions, you can grow your business with environmental monitoring RMR.
Want even more endpoints? Consider wireless security applications.
Getting comfortable with wireless systems can open up your business to additional revenue streams you may not have previously considered by focusing on wired alone. For some customers, such as a school or hospital interested in providing duress pendants to staff, 100% wired systems may not be an option. Another example is retrofits for historic structures or cultural facilities where the last thing the customer wants is an installer cutting holes in walls or exposing wires that compromise the visual appeal, or fabric, of the building. Further, wireless can be a great option for expansive sites, such as warehouses or large campuses where running wire is cost prohibitive. In such situations, alarms from both wired and wireless endpoints can be received by a single security panel making for an easy integration.
Success for these situations hinges on making sure you use the right wireless solution for the job at hand. Look at the complexity of the customer's site. If it's a single family residence, there are plenty of perfectly viable wireless solutions available from trusted, brand name providers. But if it's more than a single family home, or even a high end residential customer, you will most likely want to look at higher-performing, commercial-grade wireless systems compatible with the security panels you typically deploy. For more information, talk to your panel provider, security distributor or contact the wireless providers you're interested in directly.
Scott Fincher and Michael Um are senior product managers at Inovonics, responsible for the company's environmental and security product lines, respectively. They are also members of the SIA RISE program, a networking group that fosters the careers of young professionals in the security industry. The group is available to all young professionals under 40 or individuals who have been in the security industry for less than two years whose companies are members of SIA. Learn more about RISE and how you can get involved.


On his blog "Constitutionally Speaking", South African law professor Pierre de Vos has just published an excellent piece on the role and work of the Constitutional Court of South Africa: Justice Kate O'Regan's Helen Suzman Memorial Lecture, held in Johannesburg on 22 November 2011. "A Forum for reason: Reflections on the role and work of the Constitutional Court" is strongly suggested reading for anyone interested in comparative constitutionalism and the role of courts in constitutional democracies.
Kate O'Regan, who was appointed to the bench in 1994 by Nelson Mandela and retired in 2009, provides not only an introduction into the constitutional role of the Constitutional Court and an assessment of its work in the first 17 years of its existence. Her lecture is also a pointed contribution to an ongoing debate in South Africa's public sphere, fueled in recent months by critical comments by ruling party politicians blaming the courts for interfering with the power of the executive and legislature to make what is referred to as "policy".
"the issues that have come before the court in its first 17 years have been some of the most difficult considered by courts anywhere. They have ranged from issues that have attracted much public comment, such as the constitutionality of the death penalty, gay marriage and some high profile criminal matters, to grappling with issues relating to the interpretation and protection of social and economic rights, where there is no tried and tested path, to the questions of constitutional structure and relationship that involve interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution other than the Bill of Rights."
Kate O'Regan stresses "the importance of judicial modesty and restraint". As a dedicated comparatist, attentively taking note of jurisprudential developments in, e.g., India and Germany, and moving on in the comparative traditions of the Johannesburg Court even after retirement, she must be well aware of the "judicial activist approach" advanced by fellow justices around the globe, most prominently by Aharon Barak, the former president of the Supreme Court of Israel. According to Barak, judges in modern democracies have a major role to play in establishing and protecting democracy. South Africa is still a democracy in progress, "a society deeply scarred by its history", as Kate O'Regan puts it.
"The deep inequalities that persist are visible reminders of the effects of apartheid and colonialism. Until these scars are healed, the vision of our Constitution will not have been achieved. There is a great burden on government, in particular, to address this historic legacy."
Is there also a need for judicial activism? Kate O'Regan urges the courts in South Africa to avoid judicial incursions into the sphere of legislative and executive power, and to avoid what the influential Indian commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta has termed the "jurisprudence of exasperation": the tendency to reach decisions or make statements that are an expression of judges easperation with the state of affairs in the country, rather than being based on carefully scrutinized legal argument.
"Courts need to be modest about the judicial role in addressing the legacy of our history. They must recognise that their responsibility is primarily to ensure that government works within the threefold framework of legality, rationality and compliance with the bill of rights. Outside of this framework, it is not for courts to impede the functioning of government. There are reasons for this: the first is that the legislature, and indirectly, the executive are democratically elected arms of government, whose office is determined by popular vote. In South Africa, where democracy has only recently been achieved, the vote is precious and the principle of democracy dear. Courts must, and do, acknowledge this."
Kate O'Regan's reflections on the Court's hearings and the judges' "full collegial engagement on each judgement" remind me of her presentation at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin last december, at the Rechtskulturen workshop Who Controls Judicial Control? Examining Courts in a Legalized World. Back then, we heard a number of judicial reflections on the internal wheelings and dealings, debates and drafting procedures, in Johannesburg, Jerusalem and Karlsruhe. Among the participants from around the globe was also Pierre de Vos, the pioneering blogging constitutionalist. Pierre has just sparked off a controversial discussion on Bernhard Schlink's "The Reader", prompting a host of reflections on South Africa's past and present. But that is another story, and maybe another post.
SUGGESTED CITATION Kemmerer, Alexandra: Taking Integrity Seriously: Justice Kate O'Regan on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, VerfBlog, 2011/11/24, https://verfassungsblog.de/integrity-justice-kate-oregan-constitutional-court-south-africa-2/.
Interessant. Und doch: Schade, der Blog ist jetzt fast wissenschaftlich – irgendwie fehlt auch die "politische Ader" von Max Steinbeiss… zB zur Berufung von Müller ins BVG.


text:
X-Terra Resources Completes Initial Payments Pursuant to the Exploration and Option Agreements for the Grog And Northwest Properties in New Brunswick
X-Terra Resources Inc.
ROUYN-NORANDA, QC, April 30, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - X-Terra Resources Inc. (TSXV: XTT) (FRANKFURT: XTR) is pleased to announce the completion of the initial payments pursuant to its previously-announced amended and restated exploration and option agreements (the "Agreements") with NBGold Inc. ("NBGold") for the acquisition of up to a 70% ownership interest in the Grog and Northwest properties located in the province of New Brunswick (the "Properties"). X-Terra Resources paid an amount of $50,000 to NBGold and issued an aggregate of 2,000,000 common shares and an aggregate 400,000 common share warrants (the "Warrants") to the shareholders of NBGold as initial payment in order to obtain the right to explore and option the Properties (see X-Terra Resources' press release dated February 4, 2019 for more information on the amended and restated exploration and option agreements and the transaction with NBGold). Each warrant entitles its holder to acquire one additional common share X-Terra Resources at a price of $0.15 until October 30, 2020.
X-Terra completed its due diligence over the properties in October 2018 which confirmed the potential of a large disseminated gold system at Grog Brook. Samples were collected over a length of 390 non-continuous metres where results up to 2.94 g/t Au were obtained. The best gold values were obtained over the Northwest property (comprising the former Dome, Bonanza and Rim properties) and include 1,205.06 g/t Au at the Rim sector of the Northwest property, 149.97 g/t Au at Bonanza and 47.88 g/t Au at the Dome sector of the Northwest property.
Additionally, X-Terra sampled the Rim vein at regular intervals at the surface over 19.9 metres to confirm if gold mineralization is continuous. The average of the nine (9) grab samples returned 125.44 g/t Au over the 19.9 metres (see X-Terra press release dated Dec. 5, 2018, for details).
Lastly, X-Terra also completed a till survey over Northwest and the results highlighted significant gold grain anomalies in the vicinity of the Dome and Bonanza veins, from which two dispersion trains are stemming toward the East-north-east and North-east, related to two distinct glacial events. These results are very encouraging given that gold grain counts in dispersion trains are well contrasted with background, enabling dependable detection of mineralized veins.
Alex McKay, P. Geo of AMK Geoscience Ltd, registered in the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New-Brunswick, a consultant to X-Terra Resources, is the independent qualified person for the Grog Brook, Rim, Dome and Bonanza properties under National Instrument 43‑101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") responsible for the technical contents of this news release, and has approved the disclosure of the technical information contained herein.
About X-Terra Resources Inc.
X-Terra Resources is a resource company focused on acquiring and exploring precious metals and energy properties in Canada.
This news release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information may include, among others, statements regarding the future plans, costs, objectives or performance of X-Terra Resources, or the assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. In this news release, words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "estimate" and similar words and the negative form thereof are used to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at or by which, such future performance will be achieved. No assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information will transpire or occur, including the acquisition of an interest in the Properties pursuant to the Agreements, the development of the Properties, or if any of them do so, what benefits X-Terra Resources will derive. Forward-looking information is based on information available at the time and/or management's good-faith belief with respect to future events and are subject to known or unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond X-Terra Resources' control. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, those described under "Financial Instruments" and "Risk and Uncertainties in X‑Terra Resources' Annual Report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, a copy of which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. X-Terra Resources does not intend, nor does X-Terra Resources undertake any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information contained in this news release to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except if required by applicable laws.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the release.
Website: www.xterraresources.com
SOURCE X-Terra Resources Inc.
For further information: X-Terra Resources Inc., Mr. Michael Ferreira, President & Chief Executive Officer, 139 Québec Avenue, Suite 202, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, J9X 6M8, Telephone: 819-762-4101 | Fax: 819-762-0097, E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.xterraresources.com
X-Terra Resources commences drilling over its high priority...
X-Terra Resources Defines Gold Drilling Targets on the Grog and...
X-Terra Resources announces final closing of private placement...


Psalm 147, along with Psalm 148 which we read last week, is part of the great doxology (Psalms 146-150) at the end of the Book of Psalms. This doxology is held together in a number of ways. Each psalm begins and ends with Hallelujah. Moreover, a series of catchwords and motifs are repeated throughout the series. For example, the address to Zion in Ps 146:10 is picked up again in Ps 147:2, 12, with a further reference to Zion in 149:2 and the location of Psalm 150 in the sanctuary (v. 1).
Yahweh's kingship is reiterated throughout Psalms 146-150. The point is underlined in Ps 147.10 with the use of holy war language (cf. Ps 145:1; 146:3-4, 10). Yahweh's strength does not lie in horses, which were used in late Old Testament times with war chariots, or with infantry.
Psalm 147 begins with a statement of how good it is to sing praise to the Lord. He is indeed worthy of praise. The whole psalm then creates a catalogue of the praiseworthiness of the Lord. Verse 2 states that the Lord builds Jerusalem gathering its outcasts. This sounds as though it goes back to exile; a theme repeated in the Old Testament and Psalm readings over Advent and Christmas. Then we read a series of clauses in vv. 3-6 describing a mixture of divine qualities including healing, creating heavens, understanding, supporting the poor, defeating the wicked. Yahweh rebuilds Jerusalem and gathers its outcasts. In vv. 8-9 there are images of Yahweh as sustainer.
It is at this point that the lectionary reading begins. Verse 12 returns to speak of Jerusalem, this time calling on Jerusalem to rejoice. Verses 13-14 tell of Yahweh's benefit to Jerusalem only to then get back into general praise of Yahweh's activities in nature. It returns to the people of Jacob in vv. 19-20 with reference to them being the only ones to whom Yahweh declares his word. The theme of the word is strong in the last section as noted above. The psalm then returns to speak of Jacob with reference to the divine word again.
a. Following vv. 1-6 the prayer could then consider ways in which God has healed the broken-hearted and lifted the downtrodden. Thanks are given to God for his work with others. Prayer could then be offered for those who are still broken-hearted and seek God's healing.
c. Finally following vv. 12 to 20, the leader could consider the word of the Lord by which he grants us peace and by which he judges us. Prayer could be offered for the desire and ability to hear that word. Prayer could then be made for those who do not at present know the peace God promises.


text:
Jason Harris
Most Promising Actresses Of The Month – November 2017 Edition
Vote now for who you think should be the Most Promising Actress Of The Month for November 2017! If you feel that you or someone you know deserves to be a featured as one of the Most Promising Actresses Of The Month then let our talent coordinator know by emailing lex@starcentralmag.com and we'll get back to you as soon as we can! Please keep it in mind that any person who leaves negative, unpleasant and unnecessarily rude or derogatory comments will be removed and banned from this site permanently. This is not a page where you can post your rants – we will ONLY approve comments that are constructive to the nominees. Let's just keep this voting poll fair and fun!
1. Sara Sidwell (Australia)
Acting has been Sara's biggest passion since she was really young and is very eager to explore different roles, and show her full potential as an actress. She trained with Actors Ink in Adelaide, South Australia, and since then has moved to the Gold Coast, Queensland to train with New York Film Academy, with hopes to future train at NIDA and really expand herself in the Australian acting industry. Sara is about to start stunt training classes to increase her skills in the acting field, while also maintaining a healthy diet and exercise. She is strongly motivated and always willing to play a diverse range of roles and face challenges, as it is her dream and aspiration to work in this industry. Sara has had acting roles in several short films such as BLEAK, Girl of the Damned, Room Service, The Lengths, Volition, Choose, and For Joy. She has also been an extra in the feature film Are We Heroes and was seen earlier this year working on the feature Occupation. She has also been a character in the post-apocalyptic web series Dust, as well as been a part of a Bus Driver Training Video commissioned by the Queensland Government, and an extra in a music video by the band KHAN. Through these roles, Sara has had the opportunity to explore different characters, emotions and genres that have really proven her inclusive acting range and ability.
2. Jasynda Radanovic (Australia)
A girl with classic Hollywood looks and a voice that rings like bells – add in cute charisma in the mix and you get Jasynda Radanovic. Born in Sydney Australia, her body of work is as marvellous as it is miscellaneous, with skills in acting, singing, dancing and even puppetry, which has brought her career internationally to the USA and UK. With remarkable list of musical theatre productions across continents, starring as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan Musical Adventure and Shallow in Whistle Down the Wind, she was also a part of Walt Disney World's renowned Character Performers. To grasp her diverse skills, she been cast in commercials for companies such as HP, Barclays Bank, KissFm! and Microsoft, whilst gaining onset experience being extra/SA in huge Hollywood productions such as Florence Foster Jenkins, Bridget Jones Baby, the Mummy and has several short films under her belt. Believing in the motto perseverance will conquer, this is definitely one leading lady to keep an eye on.
3. Rebecca Makar (Australia)
Rebecca's love for all things acting began when she watched a behind-the-scenes special of High School Musical and, after noticing how much fun the actors were having, wanted to join in. She begged her parents to take her to acting classes where she quickly found her passion in creating quirky characters to perform to her fellow classmates. Now 23, Rebecca has flourished in her ability as an actor, relentlessly pursuing a raw and truthful performance in the characters she takes on. Having trained at the Victorian College of the Arts and TAFTA Studios, Rebecca has been able to use her talents as a leading lady in a number of short and feature films, web series' and commercials. Her upcoming projects include playing Zoe in Adult Supervision Production's 'Film 102′ and Dana in Shen Friebe's 'You've Been Served', both due to be released in 2017. She will also share the screen with Jason Clarke in Peter and Michael Spierig's thriller film 'Winchester', due for cinematic release in 2018. Rebecca is currently represented by The Factory Talent and has her sights set on the US in the very near future.
4. Isabel Dilena (Australia)
Isabel Dilena is an actress and model currently based in Melbourne, Australia. Her passion for theatre and film has taken her on great adventures, especially within her 5 years training at St Martin's Youth Arts Centre. Within these years, she trained in performance skills and styles such as voice, dance, Kabuki, Stanislavski, and Brecht. She is currently portraying the sweet Riley Cornwall on the web series 'Counter Play', airing online and on Channel C31. Isabel recently returned from New York, where she trained at the New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, undertaking their summer course. Whilst in New York she trained extensively in Voice, Movement, Stage Combat, Film & TV techniques, Performance History, Commercial techniques, and Improvisation.
5. Bianca Oakes (Australia)
Bianca has been acting, dancing & singing since she was four years old. She graduated from a Performing Arts High School Hunter School of the Performing Arts, where she studied drama and dance. After graduating she then studied a one year course at Sydney Theatre School in Screen And Theatre Acting. She is currently working very hard in the industry and is represented by acting agent Victoria Jackson Management. Bianca has extensive experience in TVC's, TV, Online Videos, Short films, Music videos, TV Presenting, Musicals and on Stage theatre. She is currently working on an American TV Series as a supporting role in "Deadly Women". She has worked for companies such as Commonwealth Bank, Wet n wild, Mount Franklin, Qantas, Wrigley's Chewing gum, & Telstra to name a few.
Vote for who you think should be the "Most Promising Actress Of The Month" in the poll below! The winner will appear on our website and will be featured in our magazine. The poll closes on the 30th of November, 2017 at 12 am AEST (Sydney, Australia time) and you are eligible to vote only once per day (after you've voted, 24 hours must pass after the time you voted, for you to be able to see the voting form and vote again the next day). Please note that voting is also restricted to just ONE vote per IP address. Vote NOW and make your voice heard!
THE VOTING POLL HAS NOW CLOSED
MUST READ: Top Ten sexiest and flirtiest Female Fragrances that will drive men wild!
MUST READ: 5 beauty necessities that every woman must have to get the supermodel look
Most Promising Actresses Of The Year For 2015
Most Promising Actresses Of The Month – May 2017 Edition
Most Promising Actresses Of The Year – 2014 Edition
Most Promising Actresses Of The Month – March 2016 Edition
Most Promising Actresses Of The MonthMost Promising Actresses Of The Month -November 2017 Edition
Nurmila says:
Go Bianca! You are amazing


"It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!" is something that I have (annoyingly) been singing during each day in this last week of Advent.
The menus for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are finalized, food shopping is officially done, the Little Christmas Angel has been flying about the house, baby Jesus(s) have been wrapped and the box is under the tree, we know which Masses we are going to, Christmas cards have been sent, the tree is completely decorated and the stockings are all hung by the chimney with care. Okay, well, the stockings are just hanging on for dear life at this point, but still, Christmas is almost here!
Every item off our "Christmas To-Do List" has almost been checked off.
Before having our son, I had this Christmas gift shopping down pat. As a self proclaimed "Type A person" I would plan, buy, wrap, ribbon and be ready to put the gifts under the tree before the first Advent candle was even lit. Now, things are much different, and I've been struggling to make sure that a gift is accounted for everyone.
Most of our family and friends have agreed to forgo exchanging tangible gifts and to instead spend quality time together. Despite the fact that our gift lift was quite small this year, it has still been difficult to finish Christmas shopping.
1. Give Us This Day: Daily Prayer For Today's Catholic.
"Give Us This Day is a monthly publication centered on the Word of God. Drawing inspiration from a multitude of voices, it provides a relevant and trustworthy understanding of Scripture." I was given a subscription to this monthly publication and it is one of the best gifts that I have ever received. Not only does the book come to me directly each month, but it is something that I can both start my day with and end my day with. The monthly books include profiles of holy people, readings and prayers for Mass, reflection on Scripture, morning and evening prayer, weekly insights and more.
2. Have a Mass celebrated for someone.
Having a Mass celebrated for someone can be done whether the person is Catholic or not. Contact a Catholic Church and request that a Mass is celebrated for your family member. Or, you could also have a Mass celebrated for that person's deceased family member or for another special intention. It is customary to make a monetary donation to the Church when requesting to have a Mass celebrated. Bonus points if you and that person attend the Mass together!
3. Donate in lieu of a gift.
This is one of my favorite ways to give someone a gift. Donations in lieu of a gift can be made for Christmas, Easter, birthdays, anniversaries or really, any time. Giving a gift of charity lasts much longer than the holiday or celebration. Make sure that the charity you are donating to is a nonprofit registered by the Internal Revenue Service and that your donation is truly tax-deductible. While you could contact the charity and ask them directly, websites like Charity Navigator allow you to research charities to see how they rank, if there are any testimonials about their work and you may even be able to see tax forms if they've been uploaded. These tax forms will show you how much of the donations are spent on the actual cause and how much is spent on other expenses like salary, general operating costs, etc… The best part about websites like Charity Navigator is that they are free and easy to use. You may be surprised at what you find out about your favorite charity or you may be pleased with the findings.
If none of the gifts mentioned above tickle your fancy (where did that saying come from?!) you could always head over to your grocery or drugstore and pick up gift cards. I think most of us will agree that gift cards are wonderful and can easily fit into a Christmas card, hence no wrapping! Win win!
As we finish these last days of Advent, I am reminding myself to not stress about the little things like last minute gifts. Wont you join me in trying to remain as stress free as possible and to think of the real Gift of Christmas?
"...the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold."
I have been mediating on St. Andrew's Novena. For me, thinking especially of that most sacred image in that precious moment in time has allowed Christ's coming to the world to ease any burdens and keep me focused on the true meaning of Christmas.
So, whether you purchase a subscription to 'Give us This Day' or are grabbing several gift cards for family and friends, I hope you have a very Merry almost Christmas!
What are some of your favorite gifts to receive or give? Please share with us on Facebook.