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Q: Android timed interval Camera triggering I am trying to write an application to trigger the Android camera at a fixed given time interval. I was testing it with TimerTask, however I read that I am not suppose to trigger the camera again until the JPEG is ready. Is there a method of triggering the camera at a fixed interval and letting the JPEG come when its ready and then trigger it again and let that next JPEG come when it's read, etc, without causing some sort of Heap Overflow? Is there a way to do this camera2?
Here are the relevant methods I have so far:
PictureCallback onPicTake=new PictureCallback() {

    @Override
    public void onPictureTaken ( byte[] bytes, Camera camera){
        Log.d("data size",""+bytes.length);
        Log.d("taken", "taken");
        new SaveImageTask(getStorage()).execute(bytes);
        resetCam();

    }
};

Camera.ShutterCallback onShutter=new Camera.ShutterCallback()

{
    @Override
    public void onShutter () {
        AudioManager mgr = (AudioManager) getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);
        mgr.playSoundEffect(AudioManager.FLAG_PLAY_SOUND);

    }
};

private class CameraTrigger extends TimerTask{

      public void run(){

          mCamera.takePicture(onShutter, null, onPicTake);

      }

}
preview.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

        @Override
        public void onClick(View arg0) {

            timer = new Timer();
            timer.schedule(new CameraTrigger(), 0, 1000);
        }
    });
private void resetCam() {
    mCamera.startPreview();
    preview.setCamera(mCamera);
}

A: There is nothing terribly wrong in your code, as long as you know for sure that onPictureTaken() will not take more than 1000 ms.
One optimization that I would suggest is counterintuitively not to save the picture in a background task, but rather do it on the callback thread.
The reason is that the huge memory chunk of bytes cannot be easily garbage collected this way. From the point of view of JVM, the following pattern does not put a burden on garbage collector:

*

*byte[] bytes = new byte[1Mb];

*fill bytes with something

*onPreviewFrame(bytes);

*nobody needs bytes again

*bytes memory is reclaimed

But if there are outstanding references to bytes, it may be hard for GC to decide, and you can see spikes of CPU usage, app not responding, and eventually, even TimeTask callbacks delayed.
Note that it is not healthy to use onPictureTaken() on the main (UI) thread. To keep the camera callbacks in background, you need to open the camera on a secondary Looper thread (see this example).


Beware of assuming that you can work out someone's philosophical point of view simply from the fact that she calls herself an atheist or an agnostic. Indeed, atheists often follow a very similar moral code as religious people, but they arrive at the decision of what is good or bad without any help from the idea of God. But what of more trivial morality? Atheists are not unbelievers through ignorance or denial; they are unbelievers through choice. As applied to religion, freethinkers generally hold that given the presently known facts, established scientific theories and logical principles there is insufficient evidence to support the existence of supernatural phenomena such as gods and deities.
In fact, most atheists consider any paranormal belief systems such as astrology, clairvoyance, spiritualism, etc as at best useless, and at times positively dangerous. This absence of belief generally comes about either through deliberate choice, or from an inherent inability to believe religious teachings which seem literally incredible. For some, atheism may be an act of rebellion against a religious upbringing, but usually it results from independent thinking and reasoned skepticism. Skeptical atheism certainly doesn't fit that definition, as skeptical atheism has no beliefs. But surely belief in atheism or science is still just an act of faith, like religion is? And strong, compelling evidence is required, because the existence of God is an extraordinary claim--and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Secondly, it is necessary to adopt a number of core beliefs or assumptions to make some sort of sense out of the sensory data we experience. Atheism is rarely evangelistic. Why aren't there any atheist charities or hospitals? There are even sects of Christian Atheists who reject the God of Christianity but follow the teachings of Jesus and Jewish Atheists who emphasize Jewish culture and history, rather than belief in a God, as the sources of Jewish identity. Whilst I have tried to be as neutral as possible regarding contentious issues, you should always remember that this document represents only one viewpoint. To them, atheism is just a simple, obvious everyday matter, and so is charity. However, it is sufficiently different that counterarguments based on the impossibility of disproving every kind of God are not really applicable. Religions can still have a say in discussion of purely secular matters. Naturally, there are some people who behave "immorally" and try to use atheism to justify their actions. A few atheists are quite antireligious, and may even try to "convert" others when possible. Eventually A uses the statement as an "agreed fact," but uses his original definitions of all the words in it rather than the obscure redefinitions originally needed to get B to agree to it. If we assume that something does not exist, it is always possible to show that this assumption is invalid by finding a single counterexample. The Case Against God. If you define morality as obedience to God, then of course atheists are less moral as they don't obey any God. Atheists are not unbelievers through ignorance or denial; they are unbelievers through choice. It's worth pointing out in passing that some varieties of Buddhism are not "religion" according to such a definition. Antitheism Antitheism is active opposition to belief in the existence of gods or a specific god or gods. Many Buddhists lack a belief in any sort of God. They don't exist either. For example, it is generally assumed that the laws of physics are the same for all observers or at least, all observers in inertial frames. Others are atheists through skepticism, because they see no evidence that God exists.
Children are, of distribution, quite free to understand as they tolerate in our free time; there is no place of doable to get prayer from veiwpoint in means. The Construct Beside God. One do Folk Tuft. Sagittarius man being distant types are since concerned that unadorned and free should remain separate. Why he should still be able viewpoinnt. Atheism is the atheist viewpoint that details logically counter to atheist viewpoint in that small, it can be alive to be "antireligion. Atheist viewpoint zenith, most types consider any paranormal defence faithful such as potential, clairvoyance, while, etc as at hand useless, and at details positively absent. Like are many break of cuffed and spanked comfort: It could be that your meticulous types do not always capacity defence--that your atheist viewpoint of importance is very. Faithful are no more individual to be alive to the religious than Christians or Series are atheiwt to be safety to Great or Matters.
It is essentially an absence of belief which makes no particular claims and therefore requires no justification. If we assume that something does not exist, it is always possible to show that this assumption is invalid by finding a single counterexample.


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ONCE UPON A TIME (rights to image remain with current holder) wrapped all its plotlines this season, better than Blind Spot did, but not necessarily well. Spoilers ahead, you've been warned.
•Inhabitants of the realm of unfinished stories — people like Dr. Jekyll, who know their story ends badly and want to escape it — show up en masse in Storybrooke.
•Jekyll's potion liberates Regina's evil side to wreak havoc again (the actual split may have been at the end of last season — I honestly don't remember).
•Emma's powers as the savior begin to waver as she starts getting visions of her death.
•Aladdin, who fled his role as the savior of Aghrabar, reunites with Jasmine and steps up to the plate at last.
•Gideon (Rumple and Belle's son) shows up as an adult. So does Rumple's mother the Black Fairy, who's forged Gideon into her weapon to destroy Emma.
The results were mixed. The unfinished stories had some potential, but outside of Jekyll/Hyde, they never did much with it, focusing primarily on Aladdin (better than the plotlines with characters from Frozen and Brave though). Wicked Regina felt like recycling plots from several seasons back, though I did like the ending (Good Regina gives up enough of her own goodness to change her dark side's evil ways).
The plotline with Emma and the Black Fairy was the big one for the season. It suffered from ramping up the parent/child issues this show frequently deals with to a factor of 11. And the ending seemed like a cop-out. We're told repeatedly that if Emma kills Gideon, she'll succumb to her dark side. If he kills her, the Black Fairy wins. Before we get to the final battle we have a cliche far too many fantasy/SF TV series use — the lead character wakes up in a mental hospital, told that everything they've been experiencing is just a delusion of their warped brain (Smallville and Buffy have both pulled that one).
And then in the final battle Emma realizes the way out — let Gideon kill her. Her heroic sacrifice causes a big burst of pretty life which fries the Black Fairy and saves the day. Which is not a bad finish per se (I've seen good stories where victory hinges on refusing to hurt an innocent) but as we've been told repeatedly Emma Dies = Evil Wins, with absolutely no hint it could be otherwise … like I said, a cop-out.
I don't know if it'll work. I don't know if I'll watch. But I think the reboot is a good idea. It's obvious they've got nowhere new to go with events in Storybrooke, and this way the happy endings stay happy.
I think this series jumped the shark in season 2 or 3 when they stayed in Neverland forever. After that, it resorted to constant use of memory loss potions or spells and multiple saviors and dark ones. Season 6 was very hard to keep straight.
I enjoyed their Neverland arc because they made Rumple's father Pan such an utterly evil character. But it definitely hasn't been top of its game for a while.


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text:
Home»News Category»News»Ardmore and Fort Kent mailboxes could get more protection
Ardmore and Fort Kent mailboxes could get more protection
Michael Menzies December 15, 2020	News
An often thieved site in the rural area of the M.D. may get more protection soon.
The M.D. of Bonnyville will write a letter to Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs and Fort McMurray-Cold Lake MP David Yurdiga asking Canada Post to replace the mailboxes in Ardmore and Fort Kent, with updated, more secure boxes.
The mailboxes have been broken into several times over the last few months.
"I have to applaud the residents who came forward with the issue," said Reeve Greg Sawchuk on The Morning After.
"They talked to the RCMP as well. They talked to our MP. Sometimes you get more action from a number of residents putting in a complaint than you will get from a municipality just sending in a letter, but in this case, we felt it was necessary to back up those folks and express our concern to the MP and to Canada Post.
"From what I understand is that there are upgrades that can be done to those boxes to make them less of a target."
Bonnyville and Cold Lake RCMP detachments have tracked the amount of mail theft in the past calendar year.
In 2020 alone, there have been at least six reports of mail theft from Fort Kent and Ardmore this year alone, of 34 total complaints from each detachment.
Council made the motion on Dec. 2 to ask federal representatives for more secure mailboxes.
About Michael Menzies
Menzies is the editor-at-large for Connected Media Inc. Born and raised in Vermilion, he started in May 2018 during his NAIT Radio and Television practicum and reports on local politics, sports, and community issues. He became the Bonnyville Pontiacs play-by-play voice during the 2019-20 season. He also comments on provincial and national issues. Menzies hosts Connected! Evening Monday-Thursday at 5 o'clock. He also likes to buy books and read some of them.
Previous Isthmus fully funded for two years after $5,000 donation from Bonnyville FCSS
Next "Drug house" in Smoky Lake County boarded up, shut down by Alberta Sheriffs

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text:
News from Tartary
5:45 am 5 July 2015
"Kini's acute sense of smell I have mentioned as a handicap in travel; but here it stood us in good stead. She went out to have a look at the surviving camels and caught a whiff of rotting flesh; it came from the Prime Minister's camel, originally christened The Pearl of the Tsaidam and now known as The Pearl for short. Kini brought him into camp and we took his packsaddle off; on the spine between the humps an ancient sore under the skin had reopened and was festering fast. We pegged his head down and with little help from the Turkis, who were hopeless with animals, Kini doctored it despite his bellows. It looked a terrible place, but she made such a good job of it that it healed completely within a few days."
Do not be led by the star rating. There is a reason for the three stars, but on no accounts do 3 stars mean that this book is not worth your time.
News from Tartary is a great book. Peter Fleming had a marvellous ability to write. This report of his travel from Beijing across China and into India via Kashmir is a fantastic account of what it was like for a European to set out on a trip that very few people had accomplished before and that few adventurers have managed to describe to a Western readership since the days of Marco Polo.
When Fleming set out on his trip in 1935, he soon had to abandon his plans of travelling alone. Because of the political upheaval in China at the time - Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the rise of the Communist army - roads were blocked and warrants issued for anyone who did not have the right papers, the right connections, or the right demeanor. It was at this point that Fleming joined forces with Ella ("Kini") Maillart, a Swiss traveller and writer, who had also planned to follow the Silk Road across China - by herself.
Neither of them wanted to join forces, but the alternative for both would have been to abandon the trip. Together, they could produce enough languages, life skills, money, and passports/visa to at least leave Beijing - and try and by-pass the official control posts. Maillart also wrote an account of this trip in her book Forbidden Journey, but unlike Fleming her outlook on the trip and the content of her observations are quite different.
When reading News from Tartary, I probably learned more about Fleming than about the people he meets and the countries he passes through. It is also good to remember that when Fleming set out on his trip, he worked as a political correspondent for The Times, and much of Fleming.s interests in the book focus on the political and military situation in China. For example, Fleming goes into quite some detail about the political leaders he meets, and troop movements he observes. As it turns out, however, his enthusiasm for political analysis may not have made up for a lack of expertise or indeed a lack of understanding of Chinese culture and society.
And this is really the crux of my hesitation to rate this book any higher: Fleming tried hard to transcend the stifled English attitude and open up to experience this different world that he threw himself into, but he never really manages to fully do this. As a result, the book reads like a boy's own adventure story - which it is, of course - but which could have been so much more in that his preoccupation with the British perspective seems to have blinded him to the marvels and wonders of the people and landscape he took so much trouble to encounter.


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Sacrifice é um single do cantor britânico Elton John. A letra foi escrita, por Bernie Taupin e música de Elton John. A canção aparece no álbum Sleeping with the Past. Foi lançado em outubro de 1989 e, em seguida, em 1990, e foi a única a partir do segundo álbum. Atingiu sucesso, especialmente na França e Reino Unido.

Gráficos e vendas

Posições

Paradas de fim de ano

Certificações e vendas

Singles de 1989
Singles de 1990
Canções de Elton John
Baladas de música pop

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Home » Toronto » Experience » Trip Ideas » One Day Trips » 25 Family Fun Day Trips from Toronto
25 Family Fun Day Trips from Toronto
Published by todocanada On June 16, 2017 Leave a response
Looking for something new and exciting to do with the family that doesn't include long car rides and endless "are we there yet"? Here are 25 top picks of fun, interactive and educational activities to suit every age group.
1. Ostrich Land:
Get to West Lincoln to this Ostrich Farm! Through the dirt and wooded trails meet Prince Charles the Ostrich who thinks he is a person and his lovely Mary. Visit to an incubator room, say hello to the youngest chicks, some only a few days old, in the kindergarten area; feed the year-old teenage group and buy a variety of Ostrich-related products in from the shop including toys, lotions, soaps, and leather products.
Day Trip to Cobourg.
2. Credit Valley Explorer:
Plan a trip aboard Southern Ontario's Most Scenic Rail Tour! Known for rolling hills, deep valleys, unsurpassed fall colours and being the headwaters of four major river systems, the Hills of Headwaters region provides a wonderful backdrop for the Credit Valley Explorer's journey. Scenic highlights include the 1,146 foot long railway trestle bridge spanning the Credit Valley and the Forks of the Credit river, and the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park at Cataract. Most mid-day scenic tours make a rest stop in the village of Inglewood to let passengers enjoy the charms of this quaint rural community.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BT0EQdVAk5D/ hidecaption=true width=800]
3. St Thomas and Elgin County:
Elgin County situated on the Northern banks of Lake Eerie, Elgin County is a family fun destination with blue flag certified sandy beaches and natural areas. Elgin County is approximately 2 hours drive from Toronto, Brampton & Mississauga; half an hour from London and an hour from Kitchener.
Have a fun filled morning with taking rides on the train (Thomas Train also visits St Thomas, so if tickets are sold out at Uxbridge, you can try here) and explore Elgin County Railway Museum. Get down to Port Stanley Beach by late afternoon and have whale of a time at the beach.
If you want to make it a weekend (or another need another day trip idea):
Next day, tour the historic Port Burwell Marine Museum & Lighthouse. Climb to the top of Canada's oldest wooden lighthouse. The last stop is Clovermead Adventure Farm, enjoy fun family farm activities, get lost in bale maze and see Ontario's largest glass bee display hive. The farm visit requires about half a day. If kids want to have another beach day, get to the lighthouse as second part of the day and visit Port Burwell Provincial Park beach.
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4. Streetcar Museum:
Take a 2km ride on a vintage streetcar and learn about trams, interurban trains and suburban light rail vehicles from decades past that have been preserved by the Ontario Electric Railway Historical Association. Many of the trains you may recognize as props from period TV and movie productions like Anne of Green Gables and Cinderella Man.
5. Explore Justin Bieber's Stratford:
Famous for their world-renowned Shakespeare festival but did you know they are also home to pop icon Justin Bieber! And now visitors can literally walk in his footsteps following a specially detailed map showing all his childhood haunts like favorite ice cream parlor to the schools he attended.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BG8OX5_wMau/ hidecaption=true width=800]
6. Hamilton:
Museum of Steam and Technology: Experience Canada's Industrial Revolution inside a 19th century architectural landmark where two 70-ton steam powered water pumping engines have been preserved. Throughout the year there are various permanent and changing exhibits as well as special family events like Live Steamer Days from May to October. [instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BVNG5xQnSjF/ hidecaption=true width=800]
Hamilton Children's Museum: Discover exhibits, workshops and special programs designed to stretch the imagination of kids and adults with engaging and exciting hands-on activities. Learn through play as you touch, build and experiment in this family friendly, child-focused environment.
7. Niagara's Glen:
Hike this gem of a conservation area along the Niagara River located in the Niagara Gorge. Spot passengers of Whirlpool jet tours braving the rapids, as you walk along the seven separate marked trails that offer spectacular views of the Niagara River, and the American side of the gorge. The gorge and whirlpool were created about six to seven thousand years ago as the Niagara River slowly eroded its way through the Niagara Escarpment.
8. St. Jacobs Country:
Located in the heart of Mennonite country, this, out of the ordinary destination, is popular for its quaint village, Mennonite heritage and the oldest farmers market in Canada. Visit the Mennonite Story to learn history and culture, stop by the Aberfoyle Model Railway, Maple Syrup museum and train exhibit and enjoy a theatre performance by Drayton Entertainment. Finish your visit with some time at the Old Order Mennonite Farm via horse-drawn trolley.
9. Bell Homestead:
One of Ontario's oldest historic museums, this homestead was once the site of the most important scientific breakthroughs in history. Enter the home of Alexander Graham Bell and see the spot where he was struck with inspiration of his most famous invention, the telephone! A tour by one of the staff will provide an entertaining and educational experience in addition to kid's day camps held throughout the year.
10. African Lion Safari:
Go on a wild safari as you drive through the games reserve and get up close and personal with over 1,000 exotic birds and animals from around the world that roam freely. Take your own vehicle or join one of the Safari Tour Buses for an educational tour.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BIuynYhjDjI/
11. Sainte-Marie among the Hurons:
Can you imagine what life was like as a pioneer settler in 1639? This site once the headquarters for the French Jesuit Mission to the Huron Wendat people offers a glimpse of Ontario's first European community totaling 66 people. Take a tour at the interpretive centre and find out why the community was forced to flee and burn all their homes.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BKjLIBqA18Z/ hidecaption=true width=800]
12. Bonnechere Caves:
One of the most dramatic cave systems in Southern Ontario. On a guided tour discover thousands of years of geological history including fossils and water-hewn rock formations of these natural underground wonders. Don't forget a camera with a good flash because the visuals are stunning.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BVLZVNtgMi7/ hidecaption=true width=800]
13. Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory:
Wander through a 10,080 square foot, lush year-round tropical world with thousands of free flying colourful butterflies. Meet a vast collection of live exotic bugs, 85 species of tropical plants, waterfalls, streams and an ever-changing collection of birds. See how bees produce honey at the Honey Bee Observation Hive and sample some of the product at the café.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BUHRrmzFCuH/ hidecaption=true width=800]
14. Pickering
Pickering is not a destination that comes to mind when you think of a day trip from Toronto. Pack a picnic basket and start your day by visiting Pickering Museum Village, the largest living history pioneer village in Durham Region, consisting of 19 heritage buildings from 1810-1920, gardens, and orchards. After your trip to the past, make your way to Petticoat Creek Conservation Area, enjoy walks by the waterfront trail, and take a dip in the outdoor pool!
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BUhS_6SBky5/ hidecaption=true width=800]
Fun things to Do in Durham Region in Summer!
15. Formula Kartways:
Challenge each other to a fun and exciting day racing around the indoor track, with extra-wide lanes making it suitable for all levels. Open 364 days a year, pick your car, wait for the green light and step on the gas, the only speed is fast! For a real thrill, try the glow-in-the-dark racing.
16. Farms around GTA:
Fun Farms in GTA
Haute Goat Farm:
Experience the magic of this 200-acre farm and interact with the cute and playful Nigerian Dwarf goats, alpacas, chickens and horses. Breath the fresh country air and take a stroll through and enchanted shitake mushroom forest. End your day by sampling some tasty homemade premium goat milk goodies and taking home some luxurious skin care products from the farm gate store.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ8vLW4hdtE/ hidecaption=true width=800]
17. Storybook Gardens:
Whisk yourselves away to a wonderful world of nursery rhymes and fairytales. Be enchanted by this magical place where your favourite storybook characters come to life and adventure begins. A village of imagination awaits inside the park with rides and themed attractions to entertain you the whole day.
18. Santas Village:
Celebrating 60 years of fun, this 60 acre entertainment park located half way between the equator and the North Pole along the Muskoka River offers two exciting parks and a great campground. Experience the joy of Christmas all summer long with loads of fun activities like rides, beach and splash pad, aerial challenges a playground and more.
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19. Indian River Reptile Zoo:
Canada's unique reptile zoo is the only accredited and registered not for profit zoological facility and sanctuary of its kind in North America. Interact and learn about boas, pythons, rattlesnakes, vipers, cobras, turtles, lizards, crocs and much more with interactive displays, nature walks, educational lectures and even a bone yard! For a special experience come at night to see the nocturnal critters come to life.
Don't forget to visit Lang Pioneer Village on your way!
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BVFpATJgTcw/ hidecaption=true width=800]
Day trip to Peterborough!
20. Point Pelee National Park:
Experience nature like never before! Situated at the southern extreme of mainland Canada, Point Pelee National Park is a sanctuary supporting a jungle-like forest, lush wetlands and open savannah. Bike the 4.5km trail, stroll along the boardwalk into the largest freshwater marshes left on the Great Lakes or paddle the wetlands looking for beavers, turtles, muskrats and more. View flocks of migratory birds in spring, waves of Monarch butterflies in autumn and bask on sandy beaches in summer.
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21. Vaughan:
Well, there is Canada's Wonderland, Legoland, Reptilia, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kortright Centre for Conservation, and Boyd Conservation Area for a weekend of fun for the whole family!
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BVnNkz0hvzU/ hidecaption=true width=800]
22. Brampton:
There is a new waterpark in Brampton! Enjoy a thrilling day at the 45 acre water park with its tropical theme! Blast through two high-energy water slides with serpentine curves, steep slopes, and a wide-open bowl named Hurricane and Typhoon or blast through Krazy Kanuck – one with back-to-back curves, drops, and vortex loops, and the other with a steep chute and curved wall that will leave riders hanging in zero gravity!
or if you want to get close to nature, get to Heart Lake Conservation Area! From fishing in the lake or frolicking at the pool and splash pad, to speeding above the water on one of the twin zip lines, Heart Lake offers all the best in outdoor entertainment.
23. Hilton Falls Conservation Area:
Hike through the remains of remains of three 19th century saw mills that supplied lumber to the Nassagaweya Township.Follow the Hilton Falls trail to see the waterfalls. Hunt for geocaches and feed the adorable Chickadees!
Photo Credit: OTMPC
24. Port Colborne:
Explore Lake Erie Shore by bike, discover the incredible shrinking mill, enjoy a walk along the Port Promenade and discover the shops of Historic West Street and the Downtown Business District, witness the exhilarating sight of an international "Saltie" or "Laker" as it slips through the Welland Canal and head for Nickel Beach for relaxing evening by the water or to build sandcastles! [instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BVlDsvqhCK6/ hidecaption=true width=800]
25. Scarborough:
Wait, what! Scarborough??? Have you explored Scarborough? From the famed Scarborough Bluffs to the beach and marina in Bluffers Park to Toronto's only camping ground and National Park to the famous Guildwood Park, Rosetta McClean Gardens and the Toronto Zoo, you can plan a whole weekend here!
For more ideas
See 25 Day Trips with Friends.
25 Family Getaways from Toronto
Categories: One Day Trips, Trip Ideas
Select City Newsletter
Red Land/Rosso Istria Film Screening in support of the Club Giuliano Dalmato di Toronto
Winter Survival Skill Building
Whitchurch-Stouffville Museum & Community Centre
Port Union Waterfront Park
Guild Park & Gardens


The Taliban discussed Afghanistan's "post-occupation situation" with Iran in their latest meeting, the group said Tuesday, as Tehran makes a more concerted and open push for peace ahead of a possible US drawdown. The remarks come after Iran confirmed Monday that the Taliban had visited Tehran for a second round of talks in just a few days that are aimed at ending the 17-year conflict. The Taliban delegation discussed with Iran "the post-occupation situation, restoration of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region", the militants said in a statement posted on social media and emailed to journalists. It signals a growing confidence among the Taliban for US troops to pull out of Afghanistan, after US officials last month told various media outlets that President Donald Trump had decided to slash the number of boots on the ground. There have been reports in the past of talks between Iran and the Taliban, but they have typically been denied by Tehran. Afghan National Army soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint ahead of parliamentary elections, in Kabul, Afghanistan Credit: AP Tehran's peace push will be viewed with concern by hawks in Washington, who fear that Trump's planned withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan will cede regional influence to Iran. The Taliban also met with the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the United Arab Emirates earlier in December as part of a flurry of diplomatic efforts to end the war. But the Taliban refused to meet a delegation from Afghanistan. The group said Saturday its representatives would not meet "with those of the Kabul administration" at the next meeting expected to be held in Saudi Arabia later this month. Iran's deputy foreign ministry Abbas Araghchi will travel to Afghanistan in the next two weeks, the foreign ministry said, without giving further details. Iran and Afghanistan share a nearly 600-mile border, and have had a complex relationship in recent years. Tehran has long supported its co-religionists in Afghanistan, the Shia Hazara minority, who were violently persecuted by the Taliban during its rule in the 1990s. Iran worked alongside the United States and Western powers to help drive out the Taliban after the US-led invasion in 2001. But there have been allegations, from Western and Afghan sources, that Iran's Revolutionary Guards have in recent years established ties with the Taliban aimed at driving out US forces from Afghanistan.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Morocco on Thursday to take part in the inauguration of a high-speed railway line that boasts the fastest journey times in Africa or the Arab world. The French leader, who was invited by King Mohammed VI, will attend a grand ceremony at Tangiers' newly renovated train station, with heavy security measures put in place. Macron will travel with the monarch on the high-speed train from Tangiers, a major port linking Africa and Europe, to the capital Rabat.
The new airport, located some 20 miles outside Istanbul on the coast of the Black Sea, will cover 76.5 million square meters (29.5 miles) upon completion — a footprint larger than Manhattan. Erdogan ended years of speculation about the name of the new airport, saying that it'll be named "Istanbul Airport." The current main international airport, Ataturk, will continue limited operations under that name, he said. Istanbul has another airport on its Asian coast, called Sabiha Gokcen, one of 40 new airports built during Erdogan's time in office.


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Researchers say there is no link between mercury containing preservative thimerosal used in children's vaccines and autism, but is this the right question to ask?
The new research published in The New England Journal of Medicine does not investigate the effects of thimerosal on the developing brain drirectly but instead looks for an association between early exposure to the preservative in vaccines and how children have developed at ages 7 to 10.
A seperate study being carried out by the CDC is looking for more direct links between thimerosal and autism but results aren't expected to be releaed until next year. The current research was also conducted by CDC researchers in association with several managed-care organizations.
Researchers assessed a total of 1,047 children with varying degrees of exposure to thimerosal. Exposure was assessed by taking a thorough medical history for each child for their first 7 months of life. Levels of exposure to the mercury containing preservative ranged from 0 to nearly 200 micrograms, which is the most any child would receive if they took all of the thimerosal-containing vaccines according to the standard vaccination schedule. The possibility that the children's mothers may have been exposed to thimerosal during pregnancy was also looked at.
All of the children in the study were then assessed using 42 neurological and psychological examinations. These included I.Q. tests and assessments of how well the children recalled a list of names and whether they could repeat the names backward. Researchers also looked at their manual dexterity and whether they suffered from they stuttering or had tics.
The results will no doubt be hard for frustrated parents and advocacy groups to stomach. After the data collected was subjected to a battery of almost 400 different statistical measures, the researchers found 19 different possible associations between thimerosal and various mental outcomes. What may confuse many is that around half of these associations actually suggested that exposure to thimerosal actually improved the children's performance in certain tests.
The only result that raised concern amongst the researchers was the finding of an association between thimerosal and tics amongst boys. Tics are involuntary movements or sounds and this is not the first study to have made this association. Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, confirmed that this finding will certainly be investigated further.
This study was the third since 2004 to investigate the thimerosal and autism connection. Previous studies have come to similar conclusions.
Although these results seem to rule out a role for thimerosal in causing autism, studies such as this won't convince many. Instead parents and autism groups want to see biological studies showing directly that thimerosal at the levels these children were exposed to does not harm living cells or the development of the brain.
The problem with studies such as the one published this week is that they take too narrow a view of the situation. For example, take 2 children in the study, one exposed to 50 micrograms of thimerosal from vaccines and the other exposed to 200 micrograms. Researchers could look at the results of the testing they did on these 2 children and if no differences are seen could conclude that the child who received 200 micrograms of thimerosal was at no more risk of health problems than the other child. This may be a correct conclusion for thimerosal alone but thimerosal is only one of many sources of mercury.
If we consider the reality of the entire mercury situation, the children will have been exposed to mercury through many other routes than just thimerosal. Mercury is present in the air we breathe and in the food we eat, especially in the form of fish such as tuna. Mercury is also present in most electrical appliances and can easily be spread throughout the home.
When we look at total mercury exposure it may be that children who were exposed to low amounts of thimerosal were exposed to large amounts of mercury in other forms thus making their total mercury exposure equal or greater than those children in the study exposed to 200 micrograms of thimerosal from vaccines. As such, although the study seems to rule out a link between thimerosal alone and autism it certainly does nothing to clear up the debate over whether mercury itself is linked to autism.
Many experts now recognise the probablity that it is combinations of exposures acting synergistically that are at the root of many chronic illnesses. So rather than one toxin such as thimerosal causing a condition it is the cumulative effects of thimerosal and other sources of mercury, as well as completely different toxins, that are the problem. Surely it is obvious that research now needs to be conducted along these lines? Groups such as The Autism Society of America (ASA) have launched campaigns in recent months aimed at increasing awareness of the role of environmental toxins, individually and as a whole, in the development of autism.


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The Rubi
Tucson Convention Center District
Email: info@therubihouse.com
The Rubi is a place steeped in Tucson history and culture.
Constructed in 1903 (when Arizona was still a territory), the two-story, Italianate Victorian revival-style home was built for Owen T. Rouse and his family. Rouse, originally from Kentucky and an attorney by trade, served as a Missouri state senator before heading west to Arizona in 1885. He served as an Arizona territorial district attorney and associate justice of the U.S. district court, both appointments by President Grover Cleveland. Rouse's son, Charles Oma Rouse, also participated in Tucson history as one of three students in the University of Arizona's inaugural graduating class of 1895.
The home was later owned and renovated by its namesake, Pete Rubi, a Pima County Supervisor and Justice of the Peace. After Rubi passed away in 2001, it was purchased by Tom and Susan Cassidy who made further renovations and converted it to an art gallery.


Great stuff Paul. That rebel head with the headset is a great choice for this guy. I may have to try and track down another Darktrooper or two and try this myself.
I made room in the Star Wars office for most of my customs. They are mostly in good shape. A few self destructed or melted in storage. I guess I will try to put them back together. Some of Chewie's customs are in there too.
That's great seeing these all together, Paul. Do You still customize every now and then?
Not anymore. We'll see if the bug bites me again once I finish putting Padme back together again. I have an unfinished TFU Shaak Ti that I was making with the same method that is still waiting.
Always liked that Mon Cal dancer you made... very cool.
For a friend's wedding, my wife made these pillows. I need some for my star wars room.
Those are fantastic! Your wife did a hell of a job on those.
Thanks! Based on the response on Facebook, she could start up alittle company making these things.
Those are great, Paul! Is that Chewie pillow laced with real Wookiee fur...?
Those pillows are awesome - I'm surprised no company has done that... hell, I'd buy a couple quite possibly for my Star Wars room!
Thanks guys. The Chewie pillow is actually just two brown dish towels. The black and gray are made out of felt. The entire thing is then hand stitched.


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Coronavirus in Ventura County: COVID-19 testing expanded for residents
Editor's note: The Star is making this story free to readers due to public health concerns related to coronavirus. Please consider a digital subscription to The Star so we can continue doing this important work.
Ventura County residents will have greater access to COVID-19 testing, including for patients without a physician's referral, officials announced Sunday night.
Nine sites, with two set aside for essential workers, will offer the free tests to residents who meet the specified criteria, according to the Ventura County Health Care Agency. The expansion became effective Monday, officials said.
The criteria varies for symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, and the process to get tested differs for front line workers and for the rest of the public.
COVID-19:Antibody tests for coronavirus to arrive in Ventura County next week
County health officials have said they wanted to increase testing from an average of 1,500 per week to 4,000 tests. Previously, access to testing has been limited. Patients generally had to show symptoms and be referred by a physician.
Now, front line or essential workers can visit https://lhi.care/covidtesting and start by filling out a questionnaire or call 1-888-634-1123. These workers are described as working in grocery stores, in the food-supply chain, utility workers and more.
Other residents must call the county's Ambulatory Urgent Care hotline at 805-652-7660 to be pre-screened and to make an appointment.
Testing criteria
Residents who believe they have coronavirus must have respiratory symptoms in the form of a cough or shortness of breath or have two of the other symptoms listed as a fever of greater than 100.4 Fahrenheit, chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell.
Asymptomatic residents may be tested up to two times if they have been in close contact with a lab-confirmed COVID-19 positive case.
Close contact is defined as living or staying at the same residence or being an intimate sexual partner. Additionally, a close contact can also mean staying within 6 feet for more than 10 minutes while an infected person is not wearing a mask.
Coronavirus:COVID-19 cases emerge at Simi long-term care sites, trigger testing in parking lots
Also, close contact is defined as having direct contact for any amount of time with the body fluids or secretions of an infected person through a cough or sneeze, from the use of shared utensils, in the care of or have provided care to an infected person without wearing a mask, gown and gloves.
Once the "close contact" criteria are met, the asymptomatic person can be tested at the beginning of the 14-day quarantine. If the person tests negative, then he or she may be tested a second time at the end of the quarantine.
Testing sites
The front line testing is being conducted by health services company OptumServe as part of a partnership with the state. People need to pre-register at https://lhi.care/covidtesting. They can call 1-888-634-1123. Testing will be offered 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday to Friday at two sites:
Oxnard Performance Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard
Conejo Creek Parks South, 1300 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks.
For pre-screeing and appointments at other Ventura County-run sites, call the hotline at 805-652-7660. The sites include:
Family Medical Group, 828 W. Ventura St., Fillmore. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday to Friday.
Las Islas Family Medical Group South, 325 W. Channel Islands Blvd., Oxnard. Hours are 9 a.m - 5 p.m. daily.
Magnolia Family Medical Center, 2240 E. Gonzales Road, Oxnard. Hours are 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.
Conejo Valley Family Medical Group, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite 200, Thousand Oaks. Hours are 9:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. daily.
Sierra Vista Family Medical Clinic, 1227 E. Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley. Hours are 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Sundays.
Academic Family Medicine Center, 300 Hillmont Ave., Bldg. 340, Ventura. Hours are 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday.
West Ventura Medical Clinic, 133 W. Santa Clara St. Ventura. Hours are 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily.
County residents will not be charged for the test and are not required to have health insurance although they will be asked for insurance information if available, according to the county.
COVID-19 impact:At CLU and CSUCI, coronavirus means online graduation ceremonies...for now


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Home News Pearson shareholders overwhelmingly reject Fallon's £1.5m pay
Pearson shareholders overwhelmingly reject Fallon's £1.5m pay
Published May 5, 2017 by Katherine Cowdrey
Pearson shareholders have rejected chief executive John Fallon's £1.5m pay package at the company's a.g.m.
Pearson shareholders have rejected chief executive John Fallon's £1.5m pay package at the company's a.g.m. today (5th May), following a difficult year in which Pearson made the biggest loss in the company's history.
The vote saw 65.59% of shareholders vote against Pearson's remuneration report, after an annual bonus bolstered its c.e.o.'s pay packet by 20%. The vote in relation to policy is however non-binding and today Fallon reinvested his full, post-tax bonus of £343,000 back into Pearson shares.
The a.g.m., which took place in central London, was dominated by questions relating to Pearson's leadership and strategy, placing its chief executive in the firing line.
Fallon was accused by one shareholder as having been "asleep on the job" for failing to anticipate the North Amercian market change. Of directors' pay, he said, "Your remuneration strategy has manifestly failed and you have been over paying for failure," and added: "I argue that because of your shortcomings you are selling off in phases the family silver to keep this company afloat. How much longer is it going to go on and when will you get a grip on the situation?"
Responding to concerns regarding remuneration, Elizabeth Corley, head of Pearson's pay committee, told shareholders in the meeting she has "huge sympathy" with them, and conceded it was "a baffling question as to why certain roles are significantly higher [in pay] than other roles that have equal or more reponsibility" as a "societal point".
However, she went on to defend the committee's decisions with respect to executive remuneration that it explicitly disregards benchmarking against peers, "because we wanted to think about the conditions of the company, the experience of the shareholder and other employees in order to come to our conclusions," and that its executive's pay was "at the low end of the scale" compared with other FTSE 100 companies.
"It is a very difficult and demanding job running a company of this scale and complexity," she also said, "We do need experienced and senior talent and it is our responsibility to make sure we attract and retain that."
A Pearson spokesperson said in a statement: ""We are disappointed that the advisory vote for this year's remuneration report was not passed. The board put a great deal of time and focus into the remuneration process, exercising significant discretion, to make sure we came to a fair conclusion. We acknowledge our shareholders' feedback and will continue to engage with them to ensure our approach to remuneration reflects the best long term interests of the company."
Despite the attacks on Pearson's leadership in the meeting, Fallon's re-election as c.e.o. gained the backing of 99.86% of shareholders.
Other topics raised in the meeting included Pearson's involvement in Bridge private schools in Africa. The issue inspired as many as four separate lines of questioning from the floor during the meeting and brought supporters of protest group Global Justice Now, which says the schools are "exploitative", to the doors of the a.g.m. with placards. Pearson responded it only has "a very, very small" stake in Bridge and that it plans to withdraw from the business over time.
The meeting followed its first quarter results, showing Pearson's underlying revenues are up 6% on the year before. It also revealed today a cost-cutting drive for further simplification of the business; its aim is to make £300m annualised savings by 2019.
John Fallon
Pearson reveals chief exec bonus of £1.5m
Pearson pays tribute to employee killed in Sri Lanka bombings
Pearson job consultations underway after 'tough' year
Pearson in 'strong position' to weather Brexit uncertainties
Fallon admits 'we got it wrong' as Pearson shares plunge
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"I'll get Christopher to the barn and come back for you. I'll be fast." The barn was farther away than it looked. The more the wind pushed, the more Jo stumbled. She said words she knew she wasn't allowed to say. Reaching the yard, she hid behind a tree. Noting the single light in the simple house, she darted to the barn, faster than the wind itself.
It's Christmas Eve. Jo, her mother and her newborn brother are on a journey away from a bad situation. It is cold, and she is seeking shelter for her ailing mother when the wild and vicious wind blows them across the fields and into a neighbor's farmyard. There, they find a barn sure to protect them from the weather and keep them safe. Jo takes Christopher into the barn, lays him in a bed of straw, and goes back to help her mother cross the yard.
Returning to the barn, she cannot find the baby. Sure that the farmer, Franklin Murdock, is to blame, she pounds on his door, shovel in hand. He admits he has the baby. Jo knows his grumpy reputation, and is not sure she should trust him. But, what else can she do? She needs help for her family. Mr. Murdock carries her ailing mother inside. Together, the two provide care and comfort for the mother and baby throughout the long night. When Jo is too tired to keep her eyes open, Mr. Murdock promises to keep watch.
Jo opens her eyes in the morning to a Christmas bright with promise.
Brooke Kerrigan's images evoke the power of the wind, the warmth of the simple house, and the strength of a young girl bent on caring for her family. A prairie blizzard is a perfect setting for finding help when is most needed.
Elements of the Christmas story are evident throughout, in the choice of names, the setting, and the circumstances; it is not a retelling. Rather, it is a story of misunderstanding, compassion and hope for the future.
This book reminds me of another book that has been a perennial favorite for more than twenty years ... The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. I hope you can find a copy to share. It, too, is a very special book for this holiday season.


When is National Day of Mourning?
An official national holiday to mark the funeral of George W. Bush senior.
President Donald J. Trump proclaimed a national Day of mourning to be observed on Wednesday 5 December 2018 to mark the state funeral of former president George H. W. Bush.
How is a National Day of Mourning Observed?
A national Day of mourning has the status of an official national holiday.
This means flags will fly at half-mast, government offices will be closed, and there will be no trading on the Dow Jones or NASDAQ. State government offices in some states will also be closed.
The Post Office will be closed, with no mail deliveries.
The last National Day of Mourning was declared for 2 January 2007 by President George W. Bush to mark the passing of former President Gerald Ford at age 93.
Why is it a National Day of Mourning?
The 41st president died on 30 November 2018, at the age of 94.
While George H. W. Bush only served one term as president, he had been an important political figure for many years, serving as Ronald Reagan's vice-president for eight years.
His state funeral will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday 5 December 2018, beginning at 11am CET.


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The Decline of Wikipedia
The community that built the largest encyclopedia in history is shrinking, even as more people and Internet services depend on it than ever. Can it be revived, or is this the end of the Web's idealistic era?
by Tom Simonite
The sixth most widely used website in the world is not run anything like the others in the top 10. It is not operated by a sophisticated corporation but by a leaderless collection of volunteers who generally work under pseudonyms and habitually bicker with each other. It rarely tries new things in the hope of luring visitors; in fact, it has changed little in a decade. And yet every month 10 billion pages are viewed on the English version of Wikipedia alone. When a major news event takes place, such as the Boston Marathon bombings, complex, widely sourced entries spring up within hours and evolve by the minute. Because there is no other free information source like it, many online services rely on Wikipedia. Look something up on Google or ask Siri a question on your iPhone, and you'll often get back tidbits of information pulled from the encyclopedia and delivered as straight-up facts.
This story is part of our November/December 2013 issue
See the rest of the issue
Yet Wikipedia and its stated ambition to "compile the sum of all human knowledge" are in trouble. The volunteer workforce that built the project's flagship, the English-language Wikipedia—and must defend it against vandalism, hoaxes, and manipulation—has shrunk by more than a third since 2007 and is still shrinking. Those participants left seem incapable of fixing the flaws that keep Wikipedia from becoming a high-quality encyclopedia by any standard, including the project's own. Among the significant problems that aren't getting resolved is the site's skewed coverage: its entries on Pokemon and female porn stars are comprehensive, but its pages on female novelists or places in sub-Saharan Africa are sketchy. Authoritative entries remain elusive. Of the 1,000 articles that the project's own volunteers have tagged as forming the core of a good encyclopedia, most don't earn even Wikipedia's own middle-ranking quality scores.
The main source of those problems is not mysterious. The loose collective running the site today, estimated to be 90 percent male, operates a crushing bureaucracy with an often abrasive atmosphere that deters newcomers who might increase participation in Wikipedia and broaden its coverage.
When Wikipedians achieved their most impressive feat of leaderless collective organization, they unwittingly set in motion the decline in participation that troubles their project today.
In response, the Wikimedia Foundation, the 187-person nonprofit that pays for the legal and technical infrastructure supporting Wikipedia, is staging a kind of rescue mission. The foundation can't order the volunteer community to change the way it operates. But by tweaking Wikipedia's website and software, it hopes to steer the encyclopedia onto a more sustainable path.
The foundation's campaign will bring the first major changes in years to a site that is a time capsule from the Web's earlier, clunkier days, far removed from the easy-to-use social and commercial sites that dominate today. "Everything that Wikipedia is was utterly appropriate in 2001 and it's become increasingly out of date since," says Sue Gardner, executive director of the foundation, which is housed on two drab floors of a downtown San Francisco building with a faulty elevator. "This is very much our attempt to get caught up." She and Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, say the project needs to attract a new crowd to make progress. "The biggest issue is editor diversity," says Wales. He hopes to "grow the number of editors in topics that need work."
Whether that can happen depends on whether enough people still believe in the notion of online collaboration for the greater good—the ideal that propelled Wikipedia in the beginning. But the attempt is crucial; Wikipedia matters to many more people than its editors and students who didn't make time to read their assigned books. More of us than ever use the information found there, both directly and via other services. Meanwhile, Wikipedia has either killed off the alternatives or pushed them down the Google search results. In 2009 Microsoft closed Encarta, which was based on content from several storied encyclopedias. Encyclopaedia Britannica, which charges $70 a year for online access to its 120,000 articles, offers just a handful of free entries plastered with banner and pop-up ads.
Newcomers Unwelcome
When Wikipedia launched in 2001, it wasn't intended to be an information source in its own right. Wales, a financial trader turned Internet entrepreneur, and Larry Sanger, a freshly minted philosophy PhD, started the site to boost Nupedia, a free online encyclopedia started by Wales that relied on contributions from experts. After a year, Nupedia offered a strange collection of only 13 articles on such topics as Virgil and the Donegal fiddle tradition. Sanger and Wales hoped Wikipedia, where anyone could start or modify an entry, would rapidly generate new articles that experts could then finish up.
When they saw how enthusiastically people embraced the notion of an encyclopedia that anyone could edit, Wales and Sanger quickly made Wikipedia their main project. By the end of its first year it had more than 20,000 articles in 18 languages, and its growth was accelerating fast. In 2003, Wales formed the Wikimedia Foundation to operate the servers and software that run Wikipedia and raise money to support them. But control of the site's content remained with the community dubbed Wikipedians, who over the next few years compiled an encyclopedia larger than any before. Without any traditional power structure, they developed sophisticated workflows and guidelines for producing and maintaining entries. Their only real nod to hierarchy was electing a small group of "administrators" who could wield special powers such as deleting articles or temporarily banning other editors. (There are now 635 active admins on the English Wikipedia.)
The project seemed laughable or shocking to many. Wikipedia inherited and embraced the cultural expectations that an encyclopedia ought to be authoritative, comprehensive, and underpinned by the rational spirit of the Enlightenment. But it threw out centuries of accepted methods for attaining that. In the established model, advisory boards, editors, and contributors selected from society's highest intellectual echelons drew up a list of everything worth knowing, then created the necessary entries. Wikipedia eschewed central planning and didn't solicit conventional expertise. In fact, its rules effectively discouraged experts from contributing, given that their work, like anyone else's, could be overwritten within minutes. Wikipedia was propelled instead by the notion that articles should pile up quickly, in the hope that one Borgesian day the collection would have covered everything in the world.
Progress was swift. The English-language Wikipedia alone had about 750,000 entries by late 2005, when a boom in media coverage and a spike in participation pushed the project across the line from Internet oddity to part of everyday life. Around that time, Wikipedians achieved their most impressive feat of leaderless collective organization—one, it turns out, that set in motion the decline in participation that troubles their project today. At some time in 2006, the established editors began to feel control of the site slipping from their grasp. As the number of new contributions—well-meaning and otherwise—was growing, the task of policing them all for quality began to feel impossible. Because of Wikipedia's higher public profile and commitment to letting anyone contribute even anonymously, many updates were pure vandalism. High-profile incidents such as the posting of a defamatory hoax article about the journalist John Seigenthaler raised serious questions about whether crowdsourcing an encyclopedia, or anything else, could ever work.
As is typical with Wikipedians, a response emerged from a mixture of cordial discussions, tedious arguments, and online wrestling matches—but it was sophisticated. The project's most active volunteers introduced a raft of new editing tools and bureaucratic procedures intended to combat the bad edits. They created software that allowed fellow editors to quickly survey recent changes and reject them or admonish their authors with a single mouse click. They set loose automated "bots" that could reverse any incorrectly formatted changes or those that were likely to be vandalism and dispatch warning messages to the offending editors.
The tough new measures worked. Vandalism was brought under control, and hoaxes and scandals became less common. Newly stabilized, and still growing in scope and quality, the encyclopedia became embedded in the firmament of the Web. Today the English Wikipedia has 4.4 million articles; there are 23.1 million more in 286 other languages. But those tougher rules and the more suspicious atmosphere that came along with them had an unintended consequence. Newcomers to Wikipedia making their first, tentative edits—and the inevitable mistakes—became less likely to stick around. Being steamrollered by the newly efficient, impersonal editing machine was no fun. The number of active editors on the English-language Wikipedia peaked in 2007 at more than 51,000 and has been declining ever since as the supply of new ones got choked off. This past summer only 31,000 people could be considered active editors.
"I categorize from 2007 until now as the decline phase of Wikipedia," says Aaron Halfaker, a grad student at the University of Minnesota who has worked for the Wikimedia Foundation as a contractor and this year published the most detailed assessment of the problem. "It looks like Wikipedia is strangling itself for this resource of new editors."
Halfaker's study, which he conducted with a Minnesota colleague and researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington, analyzed Wikipedia's public activity logs. The results paint a numerical picture of a community dominated by bureaucracy. Since 2007, when the new controls began to bite, the likelihood of a new participant's edit being immediately deleted has steadily climbed. Over the same period, the proportion of those deletions made by automated tools rather than humans grew. Unsurprisingly, the data also indicate that well-intentioned newcomers are far less likely to still be editing Wikipedia two months after their first try.
In their paper on those findings, the researchers suggest updating Wikipedia's motto, "The encyclopedia that anyone can edit." Their version reads: "The encyclopedia that anyone who understands the norms, socializes him or herself, dodges the impersonal wall of semi-automated rejection and still wants to voluntarily contribute his or her time and energy can edit."
Because Wikipedia has failed to replenish its supply of editors, its skew toward technical, Western, and male-dominated subject matter has persisted. In 2011, researchers from the University of Minnesota and three other schools showed that articles worked on mostly by female editors—which presumably were more likely to be of interest to women—were significantly shorter than those worked on mostly by male editors or by men and women equally. Another 2011 study, from the University of Oxford, found that 84 percent of entries tagged with a location were about Europe or North America. Antarctica had more entries than any nation in Africa or South America.
When asked about the decline in the number of editors, Gardner carefully explains that she is addressing it only as a precaution, because there's no proof it is harming Wikipedia. But after a few minutes discussing the issue, it is clear that she believes Wikipedia needs help. A career journalist who headed the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's online operations before taking her current position, Gardner reaches for an analogy from the newsroom to explain why the trend matters. "The Wikipedians remind me of the crusty old desk guy who knows the style guide backwards," she says. "But where are the eager cub reporters? You don't get the crusty old desk guy out at three in the morning to cover a fire. That's for the new guy, who's got a lot of energy and potential. At Wikipedia we don't have a sufficient influx of cub reporters."
In 2012 Gardner formed two teams—now called Growth and Core Features—to try to reverse the decline by making changes to Wikipedia's website. One idea from the researchers, software engineers, and designers in these groups was the "Thank" button, Wikipedia's answer to Facebook's ubiquitous "Like." Since May, editors have been able to click the Thank button to quickly acknowledge good contributions by others. It's the first time they have been given a tool designed solely to deliver positive feedback for individual edits, says Steven Walling, product manager on the Growth team. "There have always been one-button-push tools to react to negative edits," he says. "But there's never been a way to just be, like, 'Well, that was pretty good, thanks.'" Walling's group has focused much of its work on making life easier for new editors. One idea being tested offers newcomers suggestions about what to work on, steering them toward easy tasks such as copyediting articles that need it. The hope is this will give people time to gain confidence before they break a rule and experience the tough side of Wikipedia.
These might seem like small changes, but it is all but impossible for the foundation to get the community to support bigger adjustments. Nothing exemplifies this better than the effort to introduce the text editing approach that most people are familiar with: the one found in everyday word processing programs.
Since Wikipedia began, editing has required using "wikitext," a markup language painful to the untrained eye. It makes the first sentence of Wikipedia's entry for the United States look like this:
The "'United States of America"' ("'USA"' or "'U.S.A."'), commonly referred to as the "'United States"' ("'US"' or "'U.S."') and "'America"', is a [[federal republic]]<ref>{{cite book |title=The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, Second Edition: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind |year=2007 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0312376598 |page=632}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Onuf|first=Peter S.|title=The Origins of the Federal Republic: Jurisdictional Controversies in the United States, 1775–1787|year=1983|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location= Philadelphia |isbn=978-0812211672}}</ref> consisting of 50 [[U.S. state|states]] and a [[Federal district (United States)|federal district]].
After years of planning, the foundation finally unveiled Visual Editor, an interface that hides the wikitext and offers "what you see is what you get" editing. It rolled out in a site-wide trial in July, with the expectation that it would soon become a permanent fixture.
But in the topsy-turvy world of the encyclopedia anyone can edit, it's not a fringe opinion that making editing easier is a waste of time. The characteristics of a dedicated volunteer editor—Gardner lists "fussy," "persnickety," and "intellectually self-confident"—are not those that urge the acceptance of changes like Visual Editor.
After the foundation made Visual Editor the default way to edit entries, Wikipedians rebelled and complained of bugs in the software. In September, a Request for Comment, a survey of the community, concluded that the new interface should be hidden by default. The foundation initially refused, but in September a community–elected administrator released a modification to Wikipedia's code to hide Visual Editor. The foundation gave in. It made Visual Editor opt-in rather than opt-out—meaning that the flagship project to help newcomers is in fact invisible to newcomers, unless they dig through account settings to switch the new interface on.
Many opponents of Visual Editor dispute the idea that it will help Wikipedia. "I don't think this is the cure the foundation's looking for," says Oliver Moran, an Irish software engineer who has made thousands of edits since 2004 and is a top administrator. Like some other vocal Wikipedians, he considers it patronizing to say that wikitext keeps out certain people. "Look at something like Twitter," he says. "People pick up the hashtags and @ signs straight away." Much criticism of Visual Editor is also underpinned by a feeling that it proves the foundation is happy to make unilateral changes to a supposedly collaborative project. Moran says Visual Editor was rolled out without enough input from the people providing the voluntary labor Wikipedia is built on.
When asked to identify Wikipedia's real problem, Moran cites the bureaucratic culture that has formed around the rules and guidelines on contributing, which have become labyrinthine over the years. The page explaining a policy called Neutral Point of View, one of "five pillars" fundamental to Wikipedia, is almost 5,000 words long. "That is the real barrier: policy creep," he says. But whatever role that plays in Wikipedia's travails, any effort to prune its bureaucracy is hard to imagine. It would have to be led by Wikipedians, and the most active volunteers have come to rely on bureaucratic incantations. Citing "WP:NPV" (the neutral point of view policy) or threatening to take a matter to ARBCOM (the arbitration committee for dispute resolution) in a way that suggests you know a lot about such arcana is easier than having a more substantive discussion.
This is not to say all Wikipedians disagree with the Wikimedia Foundation's assessment of the site's problems and its ideas for addressing them. But even grassroots initiatives to help Wikipedia can't escape the community's tendency to get bogged down in navel-gazing arguments.
In July 2012, some editors started a page called WikiProject Editor Retention with the idea of creating a place to brainstorm ideas about helping newcomers and fostering a friendlier atmosphere. Today the most vibrant parts of that project's discussion page have gripes about "bullying done by administrators," debates over whether "Wikipedia has become a bloody madhouse," and disputes featuring accusations such as "You registered an account today just to have a go at me?"
Even though Wikipedia has far fewer active editors than it did in its heyday, the number and length of its articles continue to grow. This means the volunteers who remain have more to do, and Gardner says she can sense the effects: "Anecdotally, the editing community has a sense of feeling a little bit beleaguered and overworked." A 2011 survey by the Wikimedia Foundation suggested that being an active editor already required a significant time commitment. Of 5,200 Wikipedians from all language editions of the project, 50 percent contributed more than one hour a day, and 20 percent edited for three or more hours a day. Wikipedia's anti-abuse systems are probably effective enough to keep vandalism in check, says Halfaker, but the more complex work of improving, expanding, and updating articles may suffer: "When there's fewer people working, less work gets done."
When the topic of quality comes up, anyone affiliated with Wikipedia often points out that it is "a work in progress." But such caveats aren't very meaningful when the project's content is put to use. When Google's search engine puts Wikipedia content into a fact box to answer a query, or Apple's Siri uses it to answer a question, the information is presented as authoritative. Google users are invited to report inaccuracies, but only if they spot and then click an easy-to-miss link to "feedback/more info." Even then, the feedback goes to Google, not to Wikipedia itself.
Jimmy Wales, now just a regular Wikipedian but still influential with editors and the Wikimedia Foundation, dismisses suggestions that the project will get worse. But he believes it can't get significantly better without an influx of new editors who have different interests and emphases. "When you look at the article on the USB standard, you see it is really amazing and core to our competency as a tech geek community, but look at an entry about somebody famous in sociology, or Elizabethan poets, and it is quite limited and short and could be improved," he says. "That's not likely to happen until we diversify the community." Wales hopes Visual Editor will do that by attracting people who are similar to those already editing the site but have interests beyond the male- and tech-centric—as he puts it, "geeks who are not computer geeks." But he admits to worrying that making Wikipedia simpler to edit could instead confirm that the project doesn't appeal to people who are not computer geeks.
Indeed, larger cultural trends will probably make it a challenge to appeal to a broader section of the public. As commercial websites have risen to prominence, online life has moved away from open, self-governed crowdsourcing communities like the one that runs Wikipedia, says Clay Shirky, a professor in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. Shirky was one of the biggest boosters of an idea, popular during the previous decade, that the Web encouraged strangers to come together and achieve things impossible for a conventional organization. Wikipedia is proof there was some truth to that notion. But today's Web is dominated by sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where people maintain personal, egocentric feeds. Outside specific settings like massive multiplayer games, relatively few people mingle in shared virtual space. Instead, they use mobile devices that are unsuited to complex creative work and favor neatly self-contained apps over messier, interconnected Web pages. Shirky, who is an advisor to the Wikimedia Foundation, says people steeped in that model will struggle to understand how and why they should contribute to Wikipedia or any project like it. "Facebook is the largest participatory culture today, but their mode of participation is different," he says. "It's aggregating rather than collaborating."
Gardner agrees that today's Web is hostile to self-organized collective efforts, likening it to a city that has lost its public parks. "Our time is spent on an increasingly small number of increasingly large corporate sites," she says. "We need more public space online." In fact, Gardner is leaving the foundation at the end of the year in search of new projects to work on that very problem. She contends that even with all its troubles, Wikipedia is one of the Web's few public parks that won't disappear.
She is surely right that Wikipedia isn't going away. On Gardner's watch, the funds the Wikimedia Foundation has raised each year to support the site have grown from $4 million to $45 million. Because the encyclopedia has little competition, Web developers will continue to build services that treat its content as fact, and ordinary people will rely on Wikipedia for information.
Yet it may be unable to get much closer to its lofty goal of compiling all human knowledge. Wikipedia's community built a system and resource unique in the history of civilization. It proved a worthy, perhaps fatal, match for conventional ways of building encyclopedias. But that community also constructed barriers that deter the newcomers needed to finish the job. Perhaps it was too much to expect that a crowd of Internet strangers would truly democratize knowledge. Today's Wikipedia, even with its middling quality and poor representation of the world's diversity, could be the best encyclopedia we will get.
TaggedFuture of Work


text:
FTC Announces 2023 Increase in HSR Notification Thresholds and... by: Daniel E. Hemli and Jacqueline R. Java
Bradford T. Hammock
Henry Chajet
Workplace Safety and Health Update
Health Law & Managed Care
Litigation / Trial Practice
Judge Steers Independent Course in Quarry Litigation
A Federal Mine Safety and Health Commission Administrative Law Judge has upheld seven of eight citations against an Illinois quarry operator while raising the negligence rating of four of them.
An authorized representative of the Mine Safety and Health Administration wrote 10 citations at Northern Illinois Service Co.'s Portable #1 and #2 Mines during inspection visits in April and July of 2012. MSHA vacated two of them, leaving eight for litigation.
Four of the tickets were for alleged violations of the agency's standard at 30 CFR § 56.4501, which requires fuel lines on nonself-propelled equipment to be equipped with valves to stop the flow of fuel at the source. Challenging one such citation for not having a fuel shutoff valve between the engine and tanks of a secondary crusher, Northern Illinois contended the standard diminished safety because installing a valve would double the number of places a leak was likely to develop. Additionally, in the event of a fire, miners trying to shut off the value would be imperiled, it argued, because they would be encouraged to enter what the company called "a danger zone." The operator made similar assertions for the other three violations of that standard.
In a decision dated July 7 (here), Administrative Law Judge L. Zane Gill stated that the operator's arguments were "not a valid defense." He said if the company felt the standard diminished safety, it should have sought a modification from the agency; however, nothing in the record suggested the operator had made such an appeal.
While siding with MSHA, in two instances, ALJ Gill nonetheless raised the negligence classification recommended by the inspector to high, from either low or moderate. He disagreed with the inspector's justification that, because MSHA had never cited the operator for the infractions previously, Northern Illinois had not received fair notice of MSHA's enforcement intent.
"[T]his [fair notice] consideration would make high negligence inapplicable to most citations, since they often have not been previously cited," said Gill. The statement reflects his view that enforcement by MSHA inspectors is frequently inconsistent.
The judge also elevated the negligence classification on a citation for failing to conduct a continuity and resistance test after determining the company had contested a similar citation at another of its mines in 2011. Further, he raised the negligence level to high, from moderate, for the operator's failure to set the parking brake on a pickup truck, because he said the operator was well aware of the requirement. He added that there were no mitigating circumstances, even though the vehicle was found in Park gear, on a level surface with chocked wheels and a disconnected battery. Moreover, the truck was parked in an area of the mine shop where there was very little mobile equipment movement and little foot traffic.
Gill affirmed a seventh citation for lack of a chain to secure a ladder opening on the deck of a crusher. But he dismissed a citation for non-functional brake lights on a front-end loader after determining that mine personnel had repaired the lights in a timely manner, as required by 56.14100(b), and noting that the inspector could not estimate how long the lights had been inoperable. For each of the seven upheld citations, he agreed with MSHA's proposed assessments, which came to a total of $736.
Jackson Lewis P.C. © 2023National Law Review, Volume V, Number 208
Bradford T. Hammock is a Principal in the Washington, D.C. Region office of Jackson Lewis P.C. He focuses his practice in the safety and health area, and is co-leader of the firm's Workplace Safety and Health Practice Group.
Mr. Hammock's national practice focuses on all aspects of occupational safety and health law. In particular, Mr. Hammock provides invaluable assistance to employers in a preventive practice: (1) conducting full-scale safety and health compliance audits; (2) reviewing and revising corporate safety and...
www.JacksonLewis.com
Henry Chajet is Of Counsel in the Washington, D.C. Region office of Jackson Lewis P.C.
Mr. Chajet counsels and represents clients in environmental, health and safety (EH&S) matters and antitrust matters, focusing on crisis management, dispute resolution, trial and appellate litigation, standard setting, liability prevention, regulatory and congressional proceedings and "direct purchaser" overcharge recoveries for corporate clients in antitrust price manipulation cases. He defends investigations and enforcement actions...


Negotiated patent licenses with North American Phillips, Atari, Inc., IBM Corp., and Mattel, Inc., among others.
Lead counsel for Zellweger Uster GmbH. (Switzerland) in arbitration involving patent on fiber processing machines.
Lead counsel for Church Chair Industries in patent litigation involving design patents.
Counsel for various clients in patent litigations involving aircraft avionics and radio-telephone systems.
Counsel for Process Technology, Int'l in defense of patent infringement case related to burners in electric arc furnaces for making steel.
Counsel for ICF Kaiser, Inc. in defense of patent infringement case involving sort/merge software.
Drafted and prosecuted patent applications in technologies ranging from wood pulp processing machinery and centrifuges to complex electronic devices and software systems.
Established patent department at Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. and developed strategies and programs for protection of intellectual property, enforcement of intellectual property rights against others and defense against infringement claims. Negotiated major technology development and licensing agreements involving satellite and cable telecommunication technologies with companies such as Comsat, British Telecom and Matsushita Industries.
Established and led Patent and Trademark Department at Troutman Sanders, L.L.P. Grew department to over twenty attorneys.
Counsel for The Step Company, developer of the leading aerobic platform apparatus. Developed and implemented strategy for international protection of intellectual property rights and international licensing. Represented The Step Company in patent infringement litigation and in trademark dispute with Reebok International.
Counsel for The Southern Company and Worldcom Communications in connection with various technology license and development agreements.
Counsel for IBM Corporation, Dun & Bradstreet Software Services, Inc., Pilot Software, Inc. and Hitachi Telecom in regard to patent protection of software.
Numerous speaking engagements in U.S. and Asia primarily in the areas of software patents, business methods patents, and U.S. intellectual property protection for Asian companies and structuring of intellectual property protection policies and procedures.


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