The time has come to summarize the features added in RichEdit 8, which shipped with Windows 8 and Office 2013. Since so much was added, I wrote a number of blog posts over the last twelve months about the larger RichEdit 8 features. The present post lists those features and then describes some smaller features included in RichEdit 8. Two large features, the Text Object Model Version 2 (TOM 2) and the Windows RT TOM don't have separate posts since they're described in detail in MSDN. In spite of these other posts, this post is bigger than usual. Features added in previous versions of RichEdit are described in RichEdit Versions 1.0 through 3.0, RichEdit versions, and RichEdit Versions Update to 7.0.
Office 2013 has undergone a substantial shift to a relatively new display facility, Direct2D, and a new text facility, DirectWrite. These are the display facilities that are used on Windows Phone 8, the new Windows RT slates, and optionally on Windows 7 & 8. For further info, see this post.
This post describes a couple of performance improvements: 1) a more efficient display tree, and 2) a faster rich-text formatting mechanism.
This post describes how RichEdit 8 was enhanced to access the Windows 8 spell-checking and autocorrection components directly.
This post describes an implementation of Microsoft UI Automation (UIA) that exposes most objects in a RichEdit instance. This is done via the UIA Text Pattern and includes basic character and paragraph formatting, images, OLE objects, math zones, tables, hyperlinks, and the text inside or associated with these objects.
This post describes how RichEdit 8 uses the Windows Imaging Component (see also) to provide image support for jpg's, png's and gif's.
Over the years, the basic edit control has grown in size to accommodate greatly increased functionality. So now, even a plain-text, single-line control is pretty large. Clients can benefit from "flyweight RichEdit controls" which are stored in RichEdit stories (ITextStory, part of TOM 2) and share the properties of the parent ITextServices. RichEdit uses scratch stories internally for math build up/down, to convert MathML into the internal math representation, and to copy rich text when the text in the original copy selection gets changed. And there's the main flyweight story that's used by default. So all clients benefit from flyweight controls even those that don't use the controls explicitly via the ITextStory interface. For more info, see this post.
Emoji characters posed special challenges due in part to the Unicode unification of 107 Emoji characters with existing characters in the BMP and in part to the 11 keycap Emoji for #, 0, …, 9, which use the U+20E3 keycap combining mark. The original plan was to use the Segoe UI Symbol font for all Emoji, but this font choice is ambiguous for the unified Emoji. RichEdit 8 uses Segoe UI Symbol for all Emoji except the double exclamation mark (U+203C: ‼), which uses the current font if it has this character.
If an ambiguous Emoji character is followed by one of the BMP "Emoji" variation selectors U+FE0E and U+FE0F, RichEdit treats it as an Emoji character. U+FE0E specifies that the character should be rendered using a standard Emoji-capable font, e.g., Segoe UI Symbol, whereas U+FE0F implies that special Emoji rendering should be used. This special rendering is specified, in principle, in a higher-order protocol, but RichEdit 8 doesn't have such a protocol. For more info, see this post.
Variation selector sequences posed challenges in both the user interface and in font selection. Such sequences consist of a base character, either in the BMP or a surrogate pair, followed by a variation selector, which can also be in the BMP (U+FE00..U+FE0F), or a surrogate pair (U+E0100..U+E01EF). The keyboard arrow, Delete and Backspace keys need to treat a VS sequence as a single character. Font binding is tricky, since currently only special fonts have support for VS sequences. Initially we tried font binding the U+E0100..U+E01EF variation selectors to a Japanese font, since the only usage at the time is in Japan. But this was changed to use the font of the base character, since it's likely that China will define some VS sequences as well. It's important that the variation selector is in the same character format run as its base character. See also the Emoji entry above which mentions how VS sequences can help denote how to render emoji characters.
The Text Object Model (TOM) Version 2 adds the interfaces ITextDocument2, ITextSelection2, ITextRange2, ITextFont2, ITextPara2, ITextStoryRanges2, ITextStrings, ITextStory, and ITextRow. The complete TOM model is defined by tom.idl, which includes tom1.idl. The interfaces are all documented in MSDN.
This post describes the ITextRow table interface which allows you to insert tables, examine tables and to perform table manipulations, such as inserting, deleting and resizing table columns. Along with the ITextRange Move methods, the ITextRow methods give complete control over RichEdit's nested table facility.
The Windows RT Text Object Model gives the Windows RT RichEditBox a TOM-like object model. The Windows RT TOM is a subset of the full TOM2 interfaces. It has the following interfaces, all in the Windows.UI.Text namespace: ITextDocument, ITextSelection, ITextRange, ITextCharacterFormatting, ITextParagraphFormatting, and ITextConstantsStatics. The first five of these interfaces delegate to the TOM2 ITextDocument2, ITextSelection2, ITextRange2, ITextFont2, and ITextPara2, respectively. The large TOM2 enum of values is broken into a set of enums each oriented towards a particular feature. The Windows.UI.Text.idl file defines the interfaces and enumerations.
For the new immersive environment on tablets and on the Windows Phone 8, not only are GDI and Uniscribe absent, so are the functions handled by the venerable user.dll. That program library includes the Windows functions SendMessage, MessageBox, CreateWindow, etc. A version of RichEdit 8 has been created for the immersive environment. All instances are windowless and use D2D/DWrite for measuring and rendering. The client can still send RichEdit messages via the ITextServices::TxSendMessage() method. The advantage of dropping the traditional user.dll is the relative simplicity of the model. But doing so omits significant functionality, at least in the initial version. At the same time, the touch functionality is dramatically improved on Windows 8 and in the immersive environment. The immersive version of RichEdit 8 is used by the Windows Store OneNote.
The Windows Phone 8 RichEdit is based on the standard RichEdit 8 code base, rather than on the earlier WinCE version. A combination of makefile and conditional compilation instructions control various differences.
The default preferred font table was modified to correspond to the fonts on the phone. Related to this is the need to have a table of fonts to use when a file specifies a font on the phone, but not on the desktop. There's also a last minute font fallback for East Asian scripts. Many changes from the phone teams have been back ported into the main RichEdit code base.
For Windows RT, a special font callback interface, IProvideFontInfo, is defined that is used to replace RichEdit's built-in font binding with Windows RT's font binding. A major reason for this replacement is to support Windows RT composite fonts. The IProvideFontInfo interface is obtained by calling ITextHost::QueryInterface for an IProvideFontInfo. It includes the GetRunFontFaceId() method, which returns a font ID given the current font, the font weight, stretch and style, the lcid, a pointer to input characters and character count to be used with the returned font, the current font ID, and an out parameter runCount that gives the character count that the returned font covers. Two known problems exist with this feature: 1) it doesn't stamp the characters with a CharRep, and 2) the Windows RT font binder doesn't understand mathematical text. The CharRep is important for BiDi and for font fallback. Hopefully these problems will be addressed in a future release. IProvideFontInfo should not be used in math zones, since font binding in math zones is quite tricky.
RichEdit font binding uses a character repertoire (CharRep) facility. Character repertoires are often the same as Unicode scripts, but they include other sets such as symbols and emoji. In previous versions of RichEdit, the character-repertoire flags and indices along with the functions that manipulated them were scattered around in several files. Furthermore the variables used had no more space for new character repertoires, such as emoji. Accordingly we needed to generalize the facility.
To this end, we collected the character flags functionality and associated defines into the CCharFlags class, which hides many details from calling code. We used it to add support for 15 new character repertoires bringing RichEdit up to date with the scripts that Windows 8 supports. The scripts added are: Symbol, Emoji, Glagolitic, Lisu, Vai, N'ko, Osmanya, PhagsPa, Gothic, Deseret, Tifinagh, Old Italic, Old Turkic, Bopomofo, and Cyrillic Ext B. More character repertoires can be added easily and, in fact, a number have been added in Windows 8.1.
If you specify the charset in creating a font, GDI will ensure that you get a font that handles that charset. Admittedly charsets cover only a subset of the world's languages (no Indic, Syriac, etc.), but they do cover many important languages, notably Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK). It's really desirable to choose a font for Chinese characters that suits the user: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or Japanese. Another trick is if a character is an end-user-defined character (EUDC) in the Unicode Private Use Area, GDI will ensure that you see a glyph by searching through possible EUDC fonts. These characters are not defined in the Unicode Standard, so you can't use them reliably for text interchange. But they are popular in CJK locales and a given machine may have fonts with the glyphs that the user wants.
DWrite doesn't offer such automatic font fallback. Accordingly to handle font fallback better on the DWrite code path, we pass down the current CharRep. This gives access to a default font that is likely to have the character glyphs when the current font does not. Code to handle EUDC for DWrite is included as well.
Windows 8 generalized its font attributes to have style, weight, and stretch. Actually GDI's LOGFONT has always had font weight, but it hasn't always been consistent about grouping font files that differ only by weight into a font family. For example, Windows 8 considers Arial Black to be the heaviest weight member of the Arial family rather than an independent font. The only change needed to handle font weight was to expose it in the RTF format with the fweightN control word. Font style includes upright, italic, and oblique. GDI has always had upright and italic, and used oblique when italic is requested and no corresponding italic font is available. To handle explicit requests for oblique, we added the RTF control word oblique and an attribute CEM_OBLIQUE. Font stretch didn't have a representation in RichEdit's character formatting or in RTF, so we added the RTF control word fstretchN.
In RichEdit 7 and earlier versions, the default preferred font table is created at run time using a set of calls. The table is indexed by the charrep. In RichEdit 8, most entries are given in a convenient, explicit table. This change facilitated updating the entries to the Windows 8 preferences and creating a modified table for use on Windows Phone 8. There are two kinds of entry: user-interface (UI) and document. Plain-text instances use the UI entries and rich-text instances use the document entries unless the client has sent an EM_SETLANGOPTIONS message with the IMF_UIFONTS option.
RichEdit's character formatting includes an LCID, which is being deprecated in favor of the BCP-47 language tags. In particular, Windows RT uses BCP-47 language tags as does the Windows RT Windows.UI.Text.ITextCharacterFormat LanguageTag property. We didn't want to add a new method to ITextFont2, so we implemented the functionality in classic TOM by adding the flag tomLanguageTag for the ITextRange2::GetText2() and SetText2() methods. The approach uses the OS LCIDToLocaleName and LocaleNameToLCID functions. We also implemented a facility for converting BCP-47 strings that LocaleNameToLCID doesn't recognize into LCIDs for internal consumption. This facility doesn't handle arbitrary BCP-47 tags, but it handles those used by Windows 8 that don't have LCIDs (see following feature).
We wish for better Math support, which will make Word / Power Point viable for technical papers / presentations.
Please, push the decision to include math support in Windows RichEdit of the next version of Windows. All of us are waiting for that.
Hi! Can you tell us the dll and class name of the module?
We want to use this new engine inside a winforms RichTextBox.
I have to use windowless rich edit control. There is problem to draw vertical rtf text. I try rotate it by using command SendMessage(EM_SETPAGEROTATE, EPR_90, 0); But after that I can't describe rectangle of view rtf. I try to write sample using MFC.
In this case I have correct image, but if I use rich->SendMessage(EM_SETPAGEROTATE, EPR_90, 0) I have indescribable image.
Does anyone khow solution of my problem?
Hi, could you please help me? I currently have some Windowless RichEdit code which uses the new Direct2D implementation. However I cannot get Horizontal Scrolling to work. When I send the WM_SCROLL message(s) via TxSendMessage nothing happens. Note, Vertical scrolling works, and also Horizontal Scrolling works fine when I use a regular hDc surface.
To wrap using a reqular hDc surface normally you would call EM_SETTARGETDEVICE, passing in the width for the text wrap to wrap to.
Now when using a Direct2d Surface this appears to not be taking as the text simply raps to the client coords.
I've seen the TxGetHorzExtent member in the ITextHost2 interface but this member does not appear to be getting called.
Are there any additional steps to setting up a Direct2d surface or any other calls or flags I need to set in order to get wrapping and horizontal scrolling working together.
I ran our tests for WM_HSCROLL on a windowless Direct2D control and all the tests passed. There is a condition that has to pass before horizontal scrolling can happen: the widest line must have a width greater than the client RECT width. Perhaps that's not the case in your windowless scenarios. In particular if you have wrapping enabled, probably all the lines fit inside the client RECT, so horizontal scrolling is suppressed. This condition is not restricted to Direct2D mode; it also applies to GDI mode, so there may be something else going on.
Thanks for doing that. I have come to the conclusion that there is most likely a problem with the RichEdit Direct2d implementation, though I would love to be proved wrong.
My conclusions, after another day of trial and error.
Horizontal scrolling works only when word wrapping is turned off. Either by omitting the TXT_WORDWRAP flag or turning it off via EN_SETTARGETDEVICE.
The HScroll bar gets set up correctly via TxSetScrollRange as normal, so that's ok.
When using the a gdi surface the EN_SETTARGETDEVICE value is honored, so that's also ok.
However with Direct2d the wrapping appears to be controlled by the lprcBounds passed into TxDrawD2.
It does not matter what I set EN_SETTARGETDEVICE too it's simply being ignored.
This to me is the problem. lprcBounds should refer the client bounds, not the wrapping bounds.
So when I set lprcBounds to the client bounds (as it should be) the wrapping is incorrectly drawn on the client bounds rather than on the EN_SETTARGETDEVICE bounds. However scrolling works in this case, though it just scrolls into blank space since the wrapping is the wrong place.
I haven't checked this out, but it looks as though it might work. If so, we ought to document it 🙂 In any event, it's worth having a "wrap to ruler" mode in D2D mode as in WordPad. (WordPad uses the GDI mode).
Brilliant, yes that's got it.
My Direct2D implementation is coming along nicely now. What is required to get metafile Images and Ole Objects to render in Direct2D. I think I can overcome the pasting of metafiles by specifically requesting the CF_DIB format and supplying the missing header info (as per your other posts), but this would still leave rtf files already containing static metafiles images.
In both cases Images and Ole Objects, the space is allocated. It just renders a white area.
Metafiles consist of GDI commands. To render them correctly without GDI, D2D would have to have a GDI emulator and no one has written such a thing. So really the only way to render metafiles is to use GDI. Something similar is a D2D command list (see ID2D1CommandList in MSDN).
Unfortunately Ole objects suffer from a similar fate. Some Ole functionality has been transferred to the D2D/DWrite world, but basically you need to be on the desktop, not immersive. In the purely immersive world, there's no GDI, no User, and very little Ole functionality. You do have images, so at least they work. Although I believe that the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) hasn't been moved to the Windows Phone platform yet.
I was hoping that maybe Static metafiles might have worked, aka the kind that MSPaint puts on the clipboard. I guess there is probably no way to tell the difference between one that contains a bitmap vs gdi commands. I can live without metafiles.
Would creating a Direct2D surface using the D3D11_RESOURCE_MISC_GDI_COMPATIBLE flag not work then? So calling ID2D1GdiInteropRenderTarget::GetDC/ReleaseDC could be used with TxGetDC in desktop space.
My code is in the desktop space. What extra steps are needed for ole objects (Excel) to render please? I noticed that OneNote does Ole nicely ;).
I think I only have a couple of user calls left (mainly Caret and Cursor calls) and no Gdi calls (provided I can get direct 2d working). I could properly get rid of the Caret calls. I've kept them as I think they may still be useful for Accessibility. I've not had a proper look at the new richedit IAcc interfaces yet.
It's possible to use both GDI and D2D on the desktop. It's only in purely immersive platforms that GDI is missing. Similarly Ole can be used with D2D on the desktop. We didn't enable that combination in RichEdit though because RichEdit has to run on all platforms (Windows, Office, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android).
Dwayne Robinson, one of the DirectWrite gurus, points out that the ID2D1GdiMetafile and associated interfaces can be used to render GDI metafiles in the DirectD2D world. It doesn't look trivial, but it's worth investigating. ID2D1GdiMetafile is documented in MSDN. In particular, ID2D1DeviceContext::DrawGdiMetafile exists in Windows 8 and Windows 7 update to draw metafiles from a file stream.
Is there anyone who can explain how to enable the usage of DirectWrite/Direct2d within a Windowless RichEdit Control? The documentation/examples are pretty scarce. I see in the comments above that Neal was working on such a thing, but he didn't go into how he didn't go into the setup work. My attempts so far don't seem to be doing anything. I believe I should be able to tell if DirectWrite/Direct2d is in use by seeing what modules load up in my application but so their dll's do not show up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Check out ITextServices::TxDrawD2D() (msdn.microsoft.com/…/hh768719(v=vs.85).aspx) and ITextHost::TxGetPropertyBits() with flags like TXTBIT_D2DDWRITE. When a control is instantiated, this callback is called to find out the kind of instance you want, e.g., D2D/DWrite vs GDI/Uniscribe, etc.
Re Maxim's question on vertical text, there seems to be a bug in the handler for EM_SETPAGEROTATE; it doesn't enable Chinese characters to stay unrotated relative to the Unicode code charts. The TXTBIT_VERTICAL option does the right thing. I didn't notice this problem since our test app reitp2.exe uses TXTBIT_VERTICAL. Guess I should blog about vertical text in RichEdit.


Rob Bricken used Twitter today to announce that as of the end of July he will no longer be employed at Gizmodo's io9.
This announcement was preceded a week ago by Jill Pantozzi announcing that she would become the Deputy Editor of Gizmodo's io9, and therefore be in charge of the site, as of next month. Since Bricken was/is currently in charge of the site, that announcement also implied, but did not directly state, that Bricken was out.
Someone on Twitter, a week ago, asked if that news meant that Bricken had taken the buyout. He tweeted, today, to respond that he did indeed take the buyout.
Article will of course be updated with more io9 staff reactions when they occur.


text:
Tag: Blooolight
Awash In "Blooolight"
On April 29, 2021 By Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)In comics2 Comments
Curious items don't come much more curious than this one — an undated, uncredited, eight-page mini that offers a refreshingly feminist, and decidedly succinct, take on popular sci-fi/fantasy tropes without saying a word. Unless you count "psttt —" as a word, that is.
Still, never doubt that there is a cartoonist behind this self-published exercise in kaleidoscopic anonymity — and a damn good one, at that. The name Maya Durham may be far from a household one for the time being, but if Blooolight is a portent of things to come, it's one we'll all be familiar in due course, even if it continues to be conspicuous by its absence on the covers of future publications. After all, visionary talent has a way of making itself known one way or another.
That's the hope, at any rate, which provides me with a clumsy segue opportunity of sorts — this comic, you see, offers the kind of uncharacteristically hopeful and optimistic take on virtual realities that's fallen out of fashion in recent years/decades (hell, I'd be lying if I said I bought into the whole "technotopia" idea myself), but is expressed herein with such unforced emotional openness that one can't help but kinda wish for Durham's view on things to be the correct one. After all, the idea of a magical kingdom that will happily welcome both you and your cat waiting on the other side of your computer screen is vastly preferable to finding some doughy, basement-dwelling incel plotting the next mass shooting, is it not? Ah, if only —
We live in cynical times, obviously, but in fairness this comic might find itself open to charges of naievete even if we didn't — however, the celebratory tone and texture of Durham's vibrant watercolor-infused splash images (every page in this comic is a single panel — and hey, every single panel is a page, too) puts paid to that notion rather quickly, burying trepidation, dystopianism, and even irony under a cascading phantasmagoria of rediscovered innocence. This is a fun little book that has no aspirations — or, worse, pretensions — toward being anything else.
It's also, as the images attached to this review clearly show, flat-out gorgeous. Granted, it wouldn't work conceptually if it were anything other than that, but how many times have we seen artists with one path to efficacy somehow get off track? "You had one job" sounds easy enough on paper, but when it comes to sequential visual storytelling, staying true to a singular vision from start to finish is no simple task, and that applies to books and 'zines of any length. This a hermetic, perfectly-realized work that sets a clear artistic goal and sees it through without so much as a hiccup or glitch.
Do I like Durham's comic, then? Spoiler alert — of course I do. But it's probably more accurate to say that I'm downright enamored with it — and hey, that's an all too rare occurrence for this grizzled veteran of the critics' trenches. Give it a shot yourself and you'll be adding a little bit of joy to your life. Who couldn't do with some more of that?
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Blooolight is available for $5.00 from Austin English's Domino Books distro at http://dominobooks.org/blooo.html
Also, this review — and all others around these parts — is "brought to you" by my Patreon site, where I serve up exclusive thrice-weekly rants and ramblings on the worlds of comics, films, television, literature, and politics for as little as a dollar a month. Subscribing is the best way to support my continuing work, so I'd be very appreciative if you'd take a moment to check it out by directing your kind attention to https://www.patreon.com/fourcolorapocalypse

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Profile of Brian K. Kobilka and Robert J. Lefkowitz, 2012 Nobel laureates in chemistry.
Mutagenesis and modeling of the GABAB receptor extracellular domain support a venus flytrap mechanism for ligand binding.
Structural mechanism of ligand activation in human GABA(B) receptor.
Emerging paradigms in GPCR allostery: implications for drug discovery.
Structural requirements of N-glycosylation of proteins. Studies with proline peptides as conformational probes.
Glycosylation of G-protein-coupled receptors for hormones central to normal reproductive functioning: its occurrence and role.
Role of post-translational modifications on structure, function and pharmacology of class C G protein-coupled receptors.
G-protein-coupled receptors, cholesterol and palmitoylation: facts about fats.
Differential G-protein-coupled receptor phosphorylation provides evidence for a signaling bar code.
Emerging Functional Divergence of β-Arrestin Isoforms in GPCR Function.


Dave Schmidt "The Logistics of the RV are Done!"
[millionday] Every year in the U.S., an average of more than 100,000 people are shot, according to The Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence. Every day in the U.S., an average of 289 people are shot.
Eighty-six of them die: 30 are murdered, 53 kill themselves, two die accidentally, and one is shot in a police intervention, the Brady Campaign reports.
[millionday] Board of Trustees of the Sadrist movement's / Iraq Press /, that the Commission has conducted negotiations and contacts several weeks ago with the leaders of each of the list are united and a list of al-Mutlaq and the Kurdistan Alliance and the national list to discuss how to form the next government.
[millionday] The source said Alzve on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday, "The Islamic Supreme Council did not agree on any of the five candidates who cast them Sadrists for the position of head the next government and he wanted to be prime minister of the Supreme Council exclusively," noting that "a dispute between the two sides the effect of that. "
[millionday] He added that "the Commission deems to negotiate with Osama Najafi united bloc leader, Saleh al-Mutlaq, the leader of the Arab List and Iyad Allawi, leader of the national list and Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Alliance to discuss the mechanism of the formation and distribution of the sovereign to come."
PART 2: But wait, I come over and just check under the Christmas tree ("Just like you say, just go to the CBI site") ... So I see no gift... So I am only left to believe, it didn't happen. But IT ACTUALLY did, you just hid the BIKE from everyone, even me, because you control where you can put the bike! Just like they did the RI... They control the Bank Screens and who sees what... Do YOU NOW UNDERSTAND!
"This reset is nothing to fear. Human beings are incredible creatures who have a long-term track record of growth. We rise. We progress."
He said that the article measured the 'efficiency of locomotion' of various species- essentially how many calories different animals spend getting from Point A to Point B.
Announced the Electoral Commission for elections in Iraq on Wednesday evening , they will announce the final results of the parliamentary elections within a month from now .
Minute #1 is now done ......... Elections went well........ No killings ........ No explosions........ 98+% turn out ........... Citizens very Proud.
They KNOW this time their votes actually count and will be ......... Counted.
Citizens are not as stupid as M painted them to be.
Now.................With Minute #1 done ........... Minute #2 starts.
Told You it would take 2 weeks to learn the winning coalition. Iraq is on holiday until Sunday plus tomorrow is Labor day and Friday is Holy day. Saturday ......... Sober for Sunday.
As I told You about 1st ........ Media explosion......... 6th and about the 14th/15th of May with the GOI/Budget as I called it .......... Minute #3.
Dave Schmidt: April 30th Update, The Logistics of the RV are Done!
We'll discuss this on the radio program at 9PM EDT and take callers questions and comments.
To Play Video Link- Click on "Read More"
Rejected Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hassan fled Danaii do overtaking on Najaf shrine reference, stressing that Iran stands by the Iraqi people for a change.
BlueyesinLevis: This was seen by observers of the Iraqi Iranian ambassador's remarks confirm that the era of president of a coalition of state law, Nuri al-Maliki over.
Tlar wrote: -Iran had to side with the people and was just looking for an excuse to slam Maliki and the SOL. They see the writing on the wall. Maliki's SOL is being killed in the elections. So in order to have some kind of relationship with the new incoming gover ment they have to slam their boy for the last 4 years, Maliki and his SOL.
Welcome to Wednesday Afternoon Roundtable With Millionday!
snowflake59] I find it strange that we have all this hurry up.
[Smokey Mtn. Dinar] snowflake59 You know Iraq....they believe in Hurry Up and Wait! In fact, I think they invented it!
[millionday] Baghdad: closed polling stations throughout Iraq electronically by six o'clock in the evening on Wednesday, with the staff of the Electoral Commission began to pull tapes of electronic information and the process of counting the primary.
[millionday] The reporter said, "Tomorrow's Press," All the polling stations in Iraq shut down automatically once the solutions at six o'clock in the evening, pointing out that electronic devices are programmed to shut at this hour.
Also, a lot of the international banks understand that these shenanigans are not the right things to do, affecting international trading and banking, and they know which side to line up with.
The IT and banking folks understand they have to do this properly and legally...everybody in this entire process is looking forward to Iraq coming into its own and the RI of their currency.
1. TODAY, THE 30TH OF APRIL, IS ALSO THE 1ST DAY OF "RAJAB' ON THE ISLAMIC CALENDAR.........HUMMM.... WHAT MONTH IS THIS???
What is really incredible is this is the same list that Iraq as a whole needs to work on to improve the banking sector throughout the country.
In the US the leaders of the country gather together to pass laws - supposedly for the benefit of the citizens of the country - these lawmakers are a foxy bunch - at present doing their best to push through a law which will devalue the currency of the country hidden within another law, so the nation will not notice!
Nice isn't it; that these same people have exchanged and sorted out their own house, got it all in perfect order and placement and well protected; having diversified their currencies and hedged their bets. Now they wish to turn the screw on the unsuspecting nation.
Dinarland is filled with so much speculation about the RI which Maliki has supposedly announced. There are many looking for this, especially in the M.E., after close analysis with contacts in Iraq, Jordan and Dubai the answer to that is there hasn't been one, and we haven't seen it as of yet!
[millionday] here we go -- The vibrant posters promise jobs, prosperity and security coming from Iraq's first parliamentary elections since U.S. troops withdrew from the country, but so far, voters have only dim hopes as sectarian bloodshed rages unstopped.
Eleven years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraqis live in a deeply divided country sinking back into a cycle of violence that claimed more than 8,800 lives last year alone.


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Silverburn owners in talks over selling shopping centre for £140m
Silverburn, based in Pollok, Glasgow, was originally bought by Hammerson for around £300m in 2009.
Silverburn: Could be sold for £140m. STV News
By Henry Saker-Clark.
Retail property giant Hammerson is in talks over the sale of the Silverburn shopping centre near Glasgow for around £140m.
Shares in the company moved higher on Monday after it confirmed talks over the disposal of the site, which is a 50-50 joint venture Hammerson holds with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).
However, the owner of Birmingham's Bullring has been weighed down by dwindling valuations for retail properties in recent years.
It told investors in August that its short-term priority is to sell non-core parts of its real estate portfolio.
The group said any sale would help to strengthen its balance and enable it to "recycle capital for investment".
Hammerson sold its remaining retail parks operation, which included sites in Middlesbrough and Falkirk, to Canadian investor Brookfield for £330m as part of its disposal programme.
In a statement, Hammerson said: "There can be no certainty that a transaction will take place, but the company confirms the pricing under discussion is £140m, which would represent a class 2 transaction.
"The company will provide a further update in due course, if appropriate."
It comes after Hammerson revealed last month that the number of shoppers heading to its sites has improved to between 15% and 20% below pre-Covid levels.
Shares in Hammerson were 3.1% higher at 31.42p after the markets opened on Monday morning.


Fourth in the 'Tales that Tell the Truth' series comes The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross!
Stunningly illustrated by Catalina Echeverri, author and illustrator of several bestselling children's books, including Monty's Christmas, as well as the first three storybooks from the 'Tales that Tell the Truth' series: The Christmas Promise, The One O'Clock Miracle and The Storm that Stopped.
Written by Carl Laferton, author of Christmas Uncut and Original Jesus.
This beautifully produced and biblically faithful book makes a perfect gift.
There is a free word search and colouring sheet to download for Sunday school too. Also check out our full size images to use in presentations if reading to a large audience.


text:
UI receives third sex assault report in recent weeks
joleary@press-citizen.com
A resident in a University of Iowa dorm reported being sexually assaulted over the weekend, according to UI Police.
In a campus-wide notification, the UI said a victim had reported being assaulted Friday night by an acquaintance at an east-side residence hall.
The notification was issued Monday in accordance with the Clery Act, which requires universities participating in federal financial aid programs to disclose information about crimes on or near campus in a timely fashion.
This was the third such timely warning issued by the UI for a sex assault in August. Earlier this month, a victim reported being sexually assaulted while walking near campus and being pulled by a perpetrator into a construction area. And last week, a student reported being inappropriately touched in an east-side residence hall by an acquaintance.
A student or employee who violates the UI's sexual misconduct policies faces sanctions up to and including expulsion or termination.


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Better Airline Customer Satisfaction with Weather Intelligence
Air travel has become so routine in our modern world that it can be easy to forget you're hurtling 500 miles an hour in a metal tube 42,000 feet above the surface of the earth.
Millions of people do this every single day, but we've managed to make one of humanity's greatest technological achievements into something that is often unpleasant. Passengers rush to the airport in the early hours of the morning, wait in long lines to check bags, and take shoes and belts and jewelry off for a pat-down…only to sit around concourses with pre-packaged food for hours after weather-related flight delays.
Perhaps that's why so many airlines get a bad reputation for customer service — even though you're often dealing with circumstances out of everyone's control, like the weather, airport traffic, or mechanical issues.
When it comes to customer satisfaction and NPS scores, airlines are often playing catch up. But it doesn't have to be that way when it comes to the weather. Here's how weather intelligence can actually help airlines improve customer happiness and drive more repeat business.
Measuring Airline Customer Satisfaction with NPS
A common way companies measure customer satisfaction is through a metric called NPS, or net promoter score. An NPS score indicates how loyal a customer is to a given airline — measured through a single-question survey asking, "How likely are you to recommend [AIRLINE] to a friend or colleague?
Respondents give a rating of 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely) and the final percentage is calculated by subtracting detractors (the percentage of people who rated from 0-6) from promoters (the percentage of people who rated 9-10). This gives an NPS score from anywhere from -100 to 100.
The average airline scores a 39, which is on par with most of the travel industry (hotels often score 36, and travel websites have a measly 18) but much lower than many retail or technology brands (Starbucks, for example, scored 77, while suburban favorite Costco scored 79.)
Airlines have a long way to go to improve their customer satisfaction scores — despite investing more than $1.3 billion per month in engaging customers. While airlines have wowed passengers with the highest satisfaction scores in recent years, it's still not enough to build a customer base that will choose your commercial airline no matter the price or timing.
Building a Better Airline Customer Experience
While there's plenty that airlines can control, like in-flight entertainment deals, meal offerings, and fees and policies, there's one aspect that dramatically impacts the customer experience that you can't control: the weather.
Snow, ice, turbulence, thunderstorms, high winds, and more can delay takeoffs and wreak havoc with scheduling. Not only do weather-related delays play a huge role in customer satisfaction, a flight delay of just one hour can cost airlines up to $4,500.
Take JetBlue, for example. Like most major airlines, one of the biggest challenges JetBlue faces is how to operate safely and efficiently, especially in difficult weather conditions. The team uses Tomorrow.io to track specific weather insights that impact business operations and safety. In addition, automated alerts and team protocols go live before such weather approaches.
How JetBlue Uses Weather Intelligence
The crew at Boston Logan International Airport is no stranger to snowy winter weather. When snowstorms are in the forecast, no airline wants to mess around with dangerous conditions, which is why one February morning, every airline canceled regularly scheduled takeoffs until 11 AM — except for JetBlue.
That's because Tomorrow.io pinpointed the exact timing of the snowfall ending at 8 AM instead, giving them time to jump into action, running operations seamlessly and keeping their customers happy.
"I've personally witnessed Tomorrow.io pick up ground-level weather systems that no one else could observe. Since I've put the Tomorrow.io tool in the hands of our managers, I get non-stop requests from leaders who want access, from ops managers, de-icing leaders, to ground operations duty managers. This tool was designed with an understanding of the decision-making pressure airport leaders face every day. JetBlue is looking forward to expanding our use of Tomorrow.io's solution." Ian Deason, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience, JetBlue
JetBlue estimates Tomorrow.io is saving the operations team as much as $50,000 per month per hub, especially during months with volatile weather. More importantly, though, JetBlue is able to proactively communicate with customers, rebook flights with plenty of lead time and notice, and ensure that weather-related delays are handled so customers feel confident that JetBlue will take care of their needs — and get them where they need to go.
It's no surprise, then, that JetBlue's NPS score in 2021 is a whopping 68, nearly double the average score of other airlines.
Improve Your NPS with Tomorrow.io
Take control of the number one detractor to customer satisfaction for the airline industry: the weather. Reduce delays with 24/7 hyperlocal minute-by-minute operational impact insights based on historical, real-time, and forecasted weather. With Tomorrow.io, see exactly when, where, and how the weather is going to impact your airline in one simple dashboard, from deicing scheduling to lightning delays to snow accumulation.
You can also get email or text alerts sent out to your entire team when weather parameters exceed safety requirements, making it fast and simple to get your whole operational team on the same page and working quickly to adapt to the weather. Even more importantly, you can proactively and quickly communicate any delays with customers, to minimize complaints and stay ahead. With weather intelligence, you can quickly improve your NPS score and see happier and more satisfied customers.
See what Tomorrow can do for your airline >
Always in search of adventure, Kayla hails from Hopkinton, MA, the start of the Boston Marathon. You can find her at the summit of a mountain or digging in to a big bowl of pasta. Like what she has to say? Say hello on her website: http://www.kaylalewkowicz.com.
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Our Rainwater Harvesting Installers in Aberdeen Airport were rated (based on 14 reviews of 38 installers).
Here you can find a list of installers supplying Rainwater Harvesting and Rainwater storage systems in Aberdeen Airport and the surrounding area. You can contact them using the 'Email Now' system and ask them for information or a quotation at your leisure. For the installers with logo's you can also click the line and view their detailed profile.
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Q: Writing a more concise OR condition with Python I have a set of paths I'd like to check before append it to a list.
Is there a functional way to write this such that the conditional statement is less redundant?
if not path.endswith(".json") or not path.endswith(".toc") or not path.endswith("_index") or not path.endswith(...) or ...:
    some_list.append(path)

A: Python's str.endswith supports a tuple of different endings:
if not path.endswith(".json") or path.endswith((".toc", "_index", ...)):

A: You could use any() to iterate over a list of possible options
accepted = [".toc", "_index"]
if not path.endswith(".json") or any(path.endswith(x) for x in accepted):

A: Maybe something like this:
file_exts = ['.json', '.toc', '_index']

if not any(path.endswith(ext) for ext in file_exts)):
    some_list.append(path)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Autumn falls onto Castleton Campus
October 15, 2019 4:51 pm by Amber Stewart Views: 83
The changing of the seasons from summer to fall is one of the most beautiful times of the year.
The bright green leaves morphing into every shade of red and orange casts a spell like no other over New England and Castleton University.
There are multiple holidays and activities connected to fall and the coming months that bring joy and a sense of a new beginning to the students and staff on campus.
Sophomore Olivia Roberts is ready for the seasons to change.
"I like fall because of all the scenery and spending time outside because the weather is perfect, not too hot or too cold," she said.
Sophomore Blair Stone is also a fall fan.
"You can apple pick and watch football," Stone said. "I like the leaves, sweater weather, walks, raking leaves into a pile and jumping into them, riding my horse, and knowing that Thanksgiving is coming soon."
But the change is not as welcome for others because as summer quickly flees, some passions become scarce in their lives.
Sophomore Zac Haskins said he is not excited for fall this year because it impacts both a passion – and his transportation.
"I'm not looking forward to putting my car in the garage for the winter," he said.
And while autumn has some pretty amazing visual perks, this time of the year is also known for being super busy and stressful.
Professor and academic advisor Becky Eno said she believes the season is gorgeous, but with her hectic schedule it's easy to miss.
"It's beautiful in Vermont," she said. "On the other hand, it's a really busy time so I often feel like I don't have time to appreciate how beautiful it is."
And while some love the activities and visuals autumn offers, people can also view the changes in a negative way. Seasonal depression is very real for many, along with the added stress of midterms, work, and sports.
"I think fall is also a complicated season in the way it affects people. For many people, I think it is a season of transition," Eno said. "People start getting more depressed. I think it is a time of great anxiety of people, at least in our culture."
Northern Virginia Extends A Warm Welcome To Canadian Visitors


Bam !, transporting coffee to your workspace in your own home. It's hot, you are still sleepy, your hands slips-SPLASH! Your precious Arabica blend that you simply got being an anniversary gift in the office has become a swimming pool in your carpet. You sigh, you curse, you receive mad at yourself. How do i cover this stain, you question. Here's a concept: rug runners.
What is the purpose of an area rug runner? Rugs, when they have numerous functions, mostly are decorative an area rug serves your likes and requires in whatever space putting it. Hallways and staircases don't really generally have that much personality to start with. Why don't you perk up the ground and provide the coatrack something to face proud alongside? That umbrella holder is lonely, so lonely. Cheer up just a little with a little vibrant color from the shag made of woll rug runner. In addition, rug runners are longer, slimmer, and excellent for hallways and staircases in your house. On stairs, they offer traction and therefore reduce the risk of tumbling lower. Similarly, inside a hallway, rug runners prevent you from sliding on the wet floor. Plus, rug runners provide you with a cozier, more intimate feeling to individuals narrow spaces.
Consider another things an area rug runner could provide for you. Noisy, squeaky steps are silenced with this rug cushioning. Hallway spills find the rug, which may be easily cleaned, instead of the carpet, which needs certainly one of individuals rug cleaning coupons and a few guy inside a van with foamy bubbles colored quietly to leave. They safeguard against dirt and soil tracked in to the house. Plus they feel so great underneath your ft. Imagine returning home for an exquisite pattern which soft made of woll feeling among your toes. Or sisal, if prefer. Or perhaps a bamboo rug runner! The options keep going.


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Paramount+ will replace CBS All Access on March 4th
Audi and BMW shut down car subscription programs
Discord nearly tripled its user base in one year
'Fortnite' and Twitch played a large part.
Jon Fingas/Engadget
If it wasn't already evident that Discord is becoming a staple of playing (and watching) games, it is now. The chat platform is marking its third birthday this week with word that its user base has nearly tripled in the space of a year, jumping from 45 million in May 2017 to 135 million today. About 19 million people use it every day, and as many as 8.2 million people have used it at the same time. That kind of growth rate would be impressive for most any messaging service, although it's not entirely surprising -- it happens to be in the middle of a perfect storm of circumstances.
There's a surge in games with strong team dynamics, for one thing. Fortnite is the most prominent example (it has the largest Discord server of any kind with over 180,000 users), but many of Discord's most popular verified servers are for games where team communication is essential, such as PUBG, Rainbow Six: Siege and Vainglory. Combine that with Discord's recent deal with eSports teams and the company is effectively the default choice for anyone who wants team voice chat and a place to discuss games in between matches.
And then there's the rise of livestreaming on services like Twitch, YouTube and Mixer. Discord has tight integration with some of these platforms, and it's extremely common for streamers to have their own Discord communities. Arguably, Twitch's recent support for Rooms (sub-chats inside a given channel) is a direct response to Discord's growing influence.
This isn't to say that the past year has been uniformly positive for Discord. The racist violence in Charlottesville highlighted the use of Discord by neo-Nazis and other "alt-right" hate groups, pushing Discord to crack down on users and servers that previously went untouched. While the company is no doubt happy to have grown as quickly as it has, it was also somewhat unprepared for the impact it could have beyond the gaming world.
In this article: chat, discord, fortnite, gaming, gear, internet, messaging, services, twitch, voicechat


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Flashback: The Quest for Identity
Adventure Multi-genre adventure
Rating: 8.73 (1658 votes)
Flashback is a fun action adventure game that will please joystick experts and adventure gamers alike. Playing the role of Conrad B. Hart, a confused young man whose memory was wiped by the alien Morphs who caught him eavesdropping on their plan to conquer Earth. Your goal, of course, is to escape the from the grasp of the mutants and save earth from untimely destruction.
As with its spiritual predecessor Out of This World, Flashback features life-like animations, well-crafted cinematic cutscenes, and tons of atmosphere. But despite better graphics and longer levels, Flashback isn't quite as fun as Out of This World in several ways. For starters, the puzzles are somewhat repetitive, as most of them focus on getting Conrad from one point to another by pressing a button or throwing switches. Although there are objects you can pick up and store in your inventory, most of their uses are so obvious that adventure gamers won't even consider them puzzles at all. Furthermore, the game inherits Out of This World's save-only-at-save-point feature, but it is more frustrating this time around because most levels are much larger and more difficult. This means that if you die, you might have to spend hours retracing your steps, all the time hoping that you'd get to a new save point before the health meter goes to zero. Although this "realism" may appeal to some gamers, most of us who are not joystick gods will find it very irritating.
Fortunately, Flashback's excellent storyline and great level design makes its weaknesses seem trivial, and makes the game worthwhile to persevere through. Every new level introduces new challenges, dangers, and objects to manipulate and use. It's more derivative than innovative, but it's still one of the best action adventures you'll ever play. Thumbs up!
Designer: Paul Cuisset
Developer: Delphine Software
Publisher: Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI)
Software Copyright: Delphine Software
Theme: Science Fiction
Related Links: Adventure Collective review
If you like this game, try: Fade to Black, Golden Eagle, Impossible Mission 2


text:
Q: How to combine two UIImages into a single Image in Swift? I've been trying to merge two images where one is on top and the other at the bottom. This code below doesn't seem to work. The x coordinator is correct but the y doesn't seem right and it crops the top image when I alter it. What am I doing wrong?
func combine(bottomImage: Data, topImage: Data) -> UIImage {
    let bottomImage = UIImage(data: topImage)
    let topImage = UIImage(data: bottomImage)
    let size = CGSize(width: bottomImage!.size.width, height: bottomImage!.size.height + topImage!.size.height)
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(size)
    let areaSizeb = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: bottomImage!.size.width, height: bottomImage!.size.height)
    let areaSize = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: topImage!.size.width, height: topImage!.size.height)
    bottomImage!.draw(in: areaSizeb)
    topImage!.draw(in: areaSize)
    let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return newImage
}

A: You are drawing both images into the same rect. You also should not use force-unwrapping. That causes your app to crash if anything goes wrong.
There are also various other small mistakes.
Change your function like this:
// Return an Optional so we can return nil if something goes wrong
func combine(bottomImage: Data, topImage: Data) -> UIImage? {

    // Use a guard statement to make sure
    // the data can be converted to images
    guard
      let bottomImage = UIImage(data: bottomImage),
      let topImage = UIImage(data: topImage) else {
        return nil
    }
    // Use a width wide enough for the widest image
    let width = max(bottomImage.size.width, topImage.size.width)

    // Make the height tall enough to stack the images on top of each other.
    let size = CGSize(width: width, height: bottomImage.size.height + topImage.size.height)
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(size)
    let bottomRect = CGRect(
      x: 0,
      y: 0,
      width: bottomImage.size.width,
      height: bottomImage.size.height)

    // Position the bottom image under the top image.
    let topRect = CGRect(
      x: 0,
      y: bottomImage.size.height,
      width: topImage.size.width,
      height: topImage.size.height)

    bottomImage.draw(in: bottomRect)

    topImage!.draw(in: topRect)

    let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return newImage
}

(And you should really be using a UIGraphicsImageRenderer rather than than calling UIGraphicsBeginImageContext()/ UIGraphicsEndImageContext().)
Edit:
Note that if the 2 images are different widths the above code will leave a "dead space" on the right of the narrower image. You could also make the code center the narrower image, or scale it up to be the same width. (If you do scale it up I suggest scaling it up in both dimensions to preserve the original aspect ratio. Otherwise it will look stretched and unnatural.)


For an on the go spirit of a metropolitan lifestyle, a hat is delivered with a dual look in two colors. Designed in soft cashmere, it is the perfect ally against the coldest winter days. A perfect example of expert knitwear craftsmanship.


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EFL chairman fears more clubs will follow Bury out of league
EFL chairman fears more clubs willl follow Bury out of league
Rick Parry pictured during his time at Liverpool
EFL chairman Rick Parry fears Bury may not be the last club to lose their membership over financial difficulties.
The Shakers were expelled from the league in August after failing to provide financial guarantees to the EFL, with a late takeover bid also collapsing.
League Two club Macclesfield are in a perilous state, having been charged in November with misconduct by the EFL over failing to pay players' wages. The Silkmen also face further disciplinary action after the club failed to fulfil their fixture against Crewe last weekend.
Parry admits it is unlikely the Shakers will be an isolated case.
"I definitely can't say (Bury) will be the last, there may be more fall-out to come," he said.
"We have seen the problems with Macclesfield which are fairly extreme and they are not the only one. Maybe we are going to have to go through more pain before it gets better."
Parry did not feel the issue was that there were too many clubs in the EFL structure.
"I don't think we have got too many clubs, there are many full-time clubs thriving below the EFL," he said.
"There are a few bad owners and maybe there are still a few to weed out."
The problems faced by Bury will be addressed as part of an independent review of EFL governance by Jonathan Taylor QC, a barrister specialising in sports law.
One solution may be the introduction of clearer, tighter salary cap rules.
Parry admits the decision in rugby union to dock Saracens 35 points for salary cap breaches suggests such sanctions are legally enforceable and that it is an area which could be explored.
"The Saracens decision says it must be lawful because it is something they have enforced," he said.
"We always felt it was something that couldn't be explored. I've heard clubs recently say maybe what we have is too complex and maybe we should concentrate on the issue we are all concerned about which is wage costs and focus on something similar.
"But to say that's the majority view or something that is likely to happen is way off the mark. It's part of the debate.
"We do have quite different rules in Championship compared with salary cost management protocols lower down. That works, but some clubs think we should have more of an alignment and one set of rules."


text:
Ontario recognizes privacy tort of intrusion upon seclusion
The Ontario Court of Appeal formally recognized today the existence of a tort for an intrusion upon seclusion. In the widely watched case of Jones v Tsige 2012 ONCA 32, the Court reviewed the prior case law from around the country, the US and the Commonwealth. After doing so, it concluded that Ontario has already accepted the existence of a tort claim for appropriation of personality and that it was appropriate for the Court to confirm the existence of a right of action for intrusion upon seclusion. "Recognition of such a cause of action would amount to an incremental step that is consistent with the role of this court to develop the common law in a manner consistent with the changing needs of society."
The Court gave lucid and compelling reasons for recognizing the cause action. According to the Court:
The case law, while certainly far from conclusive, supports the existence of such a cause of action. Privacy has long been recognized as an important underlying and animating value of various traditional causes of action to protect personal and territorial privacy. Charter jurisprudence recognizes privacy as a fundamental value in our law and specifically identifies, as worthy of protection, a right to informational privacy that is distinct from personal and territorial privacy. The right to informational privacy closely tracks the same interest that would be protected by a cause of action for intrusion upon seclusion. Many legal scholars and writers who have considered the issue support recognition of a right of action for breach of privacy: see e.g. P. Winfield, "Privacy" (1931), 47 L.Q.R. 23; D. Gibson, "Common Law Protection of Privacy: What to do Until the Legislators Arrive" in Lewis Klar (ed.), Studies in Canadian Tort Law (Toronto: Butterworths, 1977) 343; Robyn M. Ryan Bell, "Tort of Invasion of Privacy – Has its Time Finally Come?" in Todd Archibald & Michael Cochrane, Annual Review of Civil Litigation (Toronto: Thomson Carswell, 2005) 225; Peter Burns, "The Law and Privacy: the Canadian Experience" (1976), 54 Can. Bar Rev. 1; John D.R. Craig, "Invasion of Privacy and Charter Values: The Common Law Tort Awakens" (1997), 52 McGill L.J. 355.
For over one hundred years, technological change has motivated the legal protection of the individual's right to privacy. In modern times, the pace of technological change has accelerated exponentially. Legal scholars such as Peter Burns have written of "the pressing need to preserve 'privacy' which is being threatened by science and technology to the point of surrender": "The Law and Privacy: the Canadian Experience" at p. 1. See also Alan Westin, Privacy and Freedom (New York: Atheneum, 1967). The internet and digital technology have brought an enormous change in the way we communicate and in our capacity to capture, store and retrieve information. As the facts of this case indicate, routinely kept electronic data bases render our most personal financial information vulnerable. Sensitive information as to our health is similarly available, as are records of the books we have borrowed or bought, the movies we have rented or downloaded, where we have shopped, where we have travelled, and the nature of our communications by cell phone, e-mail or text message.
It is within the capacity of the common law to evolve to respond to the problem posed by the routine collection and aggregation of highly personal information that is readily accessible in electronic form. Technological change poses a novel threat to a right of privacy that has been protected for hundreds of years by the common law under various guises and that, since 1982 and the Charter, has been recognized as a right that is integral to our social and political order.
Finally, and most importantly, we are presented in this case with facts that cry out for a remedy. While Tsige is apologetic and contrite, her actions were deliberate, prolonged and shocking. Any person in Jones' position would be profoundly disturbed by the significant intrusion into her highly personal information. The discipline administered by Tsige's employer was governed by the principles of employment law and the interests of the employer and did not respond directly to the wrong that had been done to Jones. In my view, the law of this province would be sadly deficient if we were required to send Jones away without a legal remedy.
The Court accepted that the essential elements of the tort of intrusion upon seclusion were as described the Restatement (Second) of Torts (2010):
One who intentionally intrudes, physically or otherwise, upon the seclusion of another or his private affairs or concerns, is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy, if the invasion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.
According to the Court, the key features of the cause of action are:
first, that the defendant's conduct must be intentional, which would include reckless;
second that the defendant must have invaded, without lawful justification, the plaintiff's private affairs or concerns; and
third, that a reasonable person would regard the invasion as highly offensive causing distress, humiliation or anguish.
However, proof of harm to a recognized economic interest is not an element of the cause of action.
The Court stressed the limitations of the cause of action as follows:
These elements make it clear that recognizing this cause of action will not open the floodgates. A claim for intrusion upon seclusion will arise only for deliberate and significant invasions of personal privacy. Claims from individuals who are sensitive or unusually concerned about their privacy are excluded: it is only intrusions into matters such as one's financial or health records, sexual practices and orientation, employment, diary or private correspondence that, viewed objectively on the reasonable person standard, can be described as highly offensive.
Finally, claims for the protection of privacy may give rise to competing claims. Foremost are claims for the protection of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. As we are not confronted with such a competing claim here, I need not consider the issue in detail. Suffice it to say, no right to privacy can be absolute and many claims for the protection of privacy will have to be reconciled with, and even yield to, such competing claims. A useful analogy may be found in the Supreme Court of Canada's elaboration of the common law of defamation in Grant v. Torstar where the court held, at para. 65, that "[w]hen proper weight is given to the constitutional value of free expression on matters of public interest, the balance tips in favour of broadening the defences available to those who communicate facts it is in the public's interest to know."
The Court noted that in the US the general right to privacy embraces four distinct torts. These are: intrusion upon the plaintiff's seclusion or solitude, or into his private affairs; public disclosure of embarrassing private facts about the plaintiff; publicity which places the plaintiff in a false light in the public eye; and appropriation, for the defendant's advantage, of the plaintiff's name or likeness. It also noted that each of these torts has its own considerations and rules, and that confusion may result from a failure to maintain appropriate analytic distinctions between the categories. Accordingly, while the Court did not rule out the possibility that all of the other torts existed, it limited it reasons only to the tort of intrusion upon seclusion.
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Tags: barry sookman intrusion of seclusion invasion of privacy Jopnes v Tsige Ontario Privacy tort


text:
Tag: hong kong
Cricket 19: GODII – Too Strong for Hong Kong… but don't chance Char!
414-9… which was actually somewhat of an archetypal England collapse having being 226-0 and 276-1. Dawid Malan (163) and Liam Livingstone (121) both hit maiden ODI tons when compiling a monster opening stand of 226. The stand was only ended when Char effected a run out with a direct hit from distance to terminate Livingstone's knock. Ben Stokes (25) and Moeen Ali (31) both came out with the right attitude but wickets were lost in the quest for quick runs. Stokes, the second wicket to fall, was also the victim of Char's golden arm. A counter-attacking cameo from Tom Curran (27 not out) lifted us past the big 4 double zero.
Credit to the Hong Kong bowlers who stuck to task and eventually reaped their rewards. Nori (3-92) and Acharya (3-74) went around the park but claimed some big scalps to savour. Poor Ahuja was less fortunate however, finishing with analysis of 10-0-94-0… ouch!
In reply, Hong Kong's top order all got starts (Karpe 16, Raval 10 and Hayer 17) but lacked intent. Middle order figures Char (34) who required 23 deliveries to get off the mark and Subramaniam (29) kicked on a little but like the top three, took far too long accumulating their runs. Tom Curran (5-19) then entered the fray to take Hong Kong down from 118-4 to 129 all out. The Eastern batsman just couldn't handle the Surrey man's full and slow deliveries and were either bowled or nicked behind as Jonny Bairstow feasted yet again. The wicketkeeper bagged four catches as well as a stumping… off Chris Woakes! Liam Dawson claimed 2-23 whilst fellow spinner Moeen Ali (10-2-25-0) cruelly went unrewarded for some high class bowling. The margin of victory… 285 runs!
We sit top of the tree alongside the Netherlands with four wins from four. Next up it's a trip to Namibia, a team with only one win to their name though batsman Lennox Larson is only four runs behind leading scorer Dawid Malan in the run charts.
Author sillypointcricketCategories Cricket, Cricket 19, ODI CricketPosted on July 27, 2019 Leave a comment
Ben Duckett and Nelson Mandela in the same Sentence!
The last time that England's cricketers were in Asia, batsman Ben Duckett was there. Despite scoring three fifties (ODIs/Tests) in Bangladesh, he had a torrid time of things in India then literally pissed off top brass the following winter in Oz. Whilst the senior team lap it up in Sri Lanka and the Lions travel to UAE, Duckett can be found playing in the Mzansi Super League in South Africa. It's the latest T20 league to pop up on the global calendar (Yeah that's right, Canada and Hong Kong had competitions before SA!).
Representing the wonderfully named Nelson Mandela Bay Giants, The stocky left-hander smashed 75 (5×4, 5×6) runs from just 45 deliveries. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come after some lean patches post that run-laden summer a couple of years ago. Next year he'll join Ben Slater and Joe Clarke in an exciting new batting line-up for Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. He's probably still quite some way off an England recall but the shoots of recovery have started sprouting.
Another left-handed batsman who'll be hoping to use the Mzansi league as a springboard back to international selection is Dawid Malan. The discarded Middlesex stalwart will lead Cape Town Blitz while domestic colleague Eoin Morgan will turn out for Tshwane Spartans. Morgan is a left-hander who doesn't need to work his way back into the England fold, he's already there!
Author sillypointcricketCategories Cricket, ODI Cricket, T20 Cricket, Test CricketPosted on November 18, 2018 November 18, 2018 2 Comments
Immortal Batsmen… for now at Least!
Here's a quick look at the pack in terms of England's preferred future batting options. All are very much on England's radar and some have staggering statistics.
Sam Hain (Warwickshire) List A batting average: 67.59 (39 innings)
Hong Kong born, Ozzie Bred but an England Lion, Warwickshire's Hain currently possesses an absurdly good average in the one-day format. Curiously though, Hain has underwhelmed in red-ball cricket over the past couple of seasons. This is despite an excellent conversion rate of 8:8 when it comes to converting half-centuries into three figures. This highlights how often he's been dismissed cheaply given that his career average is less than half his List A figure at 32.25. Hain's List A strike-rate is 88.22 but remember, that's against domestic attacks. At international level, there's no respite provided by facing mediocre bowlers. It may be that Hain has to up the tempo to keep up with the current crop of England's white-ball willow wielders. It may yet be that he flourishes in Test cricket.
Ollie Pope (Surrey) First Class batting average: 66.00 (19 innings)
Pope's career is in its infancy and he'll do well to maintain an average of World Cup winning proportions but it's a heck of a start. As things stand, the twenty-year-old has twice as many tons as he does fifties, 4:2. The real test will come when he plays Test cricket. If he suffers a Tom Westleyesque start, a beginning where one technical flaw is identified, domestic bowlers will then prey upon his wounds. How will it effect him and will he bounce back? With Alec Stewart to provide guidance, he has at least got a proven international player to help him develop.
Joe Clarke (Worcestershire) First Class batting average: 42.65 (92 innings)
Clarke's average is more mortal than Hain and Pope's but provides an insight into what is likely to happen to Hain and Pope's figures over time. Clarke's average of 42.65 is still more than respectable for a barely twentytwo-year-old spread over 92 innings. Like Hain, Clarke converts well, 12:13 at First Class level.
Hain, Clarke and Pope would seem like an impressive middle order at numbers three, four and five for England, not that anybody's writing Joe Root off just yet.
Aneurin Donald (Glamorgan) First Class batting average: 30.68 (71 innings)
When Welshman Aneurin Donald scored 234 off just 136 balls in a County Championship match aged just 19, there were high hopes that he would go onto represent England. There's only been one ton since however and his white-ball efforts have been diabolical with averages of just 14.65 (List A) and 22.52 (T20). Constantly been shunted up and down the order probably hasn't helped but its been Glamorgan Second XI cricket of late and not international matches. Like Hain, Pope and Clarke, Donald has the ability. Still only twenty-one-years of age, it's to be hoped that Donald can come back stronger and compete for a spot in England's middler order over the years to come.
Author sillypointcricketCategories Cricket, First Class Cricket, List A Cricket, ODI Cricket, T20 Cricket, Test CricketPosted on July 2, 2018 July 2, 2018 Leave a comment
Six to Watch: T20I Status – Women's Special
Following on from my men's and team articles and ahead of the Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier commencing next week, here's a look at some women players to lookout for now that all associate cricket nations have been granted T20I status as of today.
Louise Little (Ireland)
Fifteen-year-old Irish girl Louise Little's ODI bowling average currently stands at a whopping 358.00. This is a result of her mauling at the hands of a rampant and record-breaking New Zealand side earlier this year.
Little was actually five days shy of being fourteen when she made her international bow last year. It is to be hoped that the Dublin born medium-pacer will be better for the experience and soon come of age on the international stage. They'll be no immediate opportunity for Little to prosper having been omitted form Ireland's squad for the 2018 Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier. This may be the best thing for her and time is very much on her side. Hopefully the Dublin native can improve little by little!
Mariko Hill (Hong Kong)
Hong Kong's Mariko Hill was just seventeen when she won the Hong Kong Women Cricketer of the Year trophy way back in 2013. The right arm-medium bowler was effective with the cork and leather at the ASEAN Women's T20 Open Tournament in Bangkok earlier this year and Hong Kong will be seeking further fine contributions from Hill. Given her tender years, she's far from over the hill!
Pauke Siaka (Papua New Guinea)
Siaka will captain PNG when the Women's World T20 Qualifier commences in the Netherlands next weekend. Siaka previously led her nation at the 2017 ODI Cricket World Cup Qualifier where she claimed a team high eight wickets. PNG will be looking to their skipper for inspiration as well as contributions with both bat and ball.
Naruemol Chaiwai (Thailand)
Naruemol Chaiwai will turn 27 tomorrow and she'll surely intend to celebrate her birthday with some stellar performances in the Women's World T20 Qualifier having been named in Thailand's squad last month. Chaiwai was Thailand's leading run scorer at the 2018 Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup and will hope to transform that form the full T20 Internationals.
Rubina Chhetry (Nepal)
As seems to be standard on this list, Nepal's Rubina Chhetry is a right-hand-bat and right-arm-medium bowler. Only twnetyfour-years of age, Chhetry made some handy contributions with the ball including figures of 3-11 and 3-12 at the Women's World Twenty20 Qualifying Series Asia Region last year. Nepal will look to Chettry to continue claiming wickets to help them progress as their male counterparts have done in recent times.
Cher van Slobbe (Netherlands)
Hermes DVS Women all-rounder Van Slobbe has made some handy contributions with the bat for the Dutch against the likes of Dorset and Cornwall in the Women's One-Day Cup and will shortly win her maiden full international caps. She'll also expect to contribute with the ball as 2018 Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier hosts Netherlands look to make full use of home advantage. Van Slobbe and her Dutch teammates Believe they're Strong Enough to compete in a Woman's World. They'll hope that the opposition will be Moonstruck so as to Mask any mistakes from the home side and hopefully the home spectators will witness The Very Best of Cher!
Not all of the above will be at…
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/2018_ICC_Women%27s_World_Twenty20_Qualifier
… but there'll be a follow-up article sometime in the future to see how messrs Chaiwai, Chhetry, Hill. Little, Siaka and van Slobbe have fared.
Disclaimer: Apologies to Cher and her fans but I just couldn't resist putting DMA's version on here instead!
Author sillypointcricketCategories Associate Cricket, Cricket, ODI Cricket, Six to Watch, T20 Cricket, T20I Cricket, Women's CricketPosted on July 1, 2018 July 1, 2018 1 Comment
Century Seeking Siaka Seriously Stalling!
No that's not Papua New Guinea batsman Lega Siaka's mobile number. It's his last seven innings in ODI cricket! His contribution to Papua New Guinea's attempt to reach the 2019 ODI World Cup has been a pretty limp one. His most recent outing against Zimbabwe, caught in the field having accrued just 7 from all of 31 deliveries when batting at three with his team chasing 264, pretty much sums up where he's at at the moment.
This is an especially frustrating time for the island nation's great hope, one of the few associate cricket teams to actually field mostly if not entirely indigenous players. Siaka has an ODI ton against Hong Kong early in his career but now averages just 17.47 from 17 innings. Remove his 109 against Hong Kong from the equation and Siaka becomes fiftyless and would average 11.75. I'm always wary of chopping and changing a player's statistics, it's a little unfair but put that one extreme career best aside and Siaka has struggled big time. The Port Moresby native actually has three List A tons but an average of only 25.27. Again this highlights the extremes of his scoring pattern. It's either feast or famine but the feasts are rare, like at Christmas or on your birthday!
Siaka is twentyfive-years-old. He's not a kid, has represented Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash and turned out for the Australian Prime Minister's XI. Of course the problem for associate players such as Siaka is the quality and volume of cricket they're playing between tournaments. Siaka has represented Essendon in rookie cricket Down Under but compare that to the likes of Netherlands' Ryan ten Doeschate and Roelof van der Merwe, both of whom are regulars on the English county circuit or Afghanistan's young skipper Rashid Khan playing in the IPL and Big Bash and the experience aquired just doesn't compare. It may be that Siaka is more suited to the longer format, he averages 32.69 in First Class cricket but in truth, that's not the format to prosper in if you're an associate player. That of course opens a whole can of worms regarding developing Test cricket around the world but I've written plenty on that already!
Fingers and toes crossed that if Siaka is presented with another chance in the ICC World Cup Qualifier that he can reach double figures and then clock up at least a second ODI half-century.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/440990.html
Author sillypointcricketCategories Associate Cricket, Cricket, First Class Cricket, List A Cricket, ODI Cricket, Test CricketPosted on March 10, 2018 Leave a comment
Chapman Flappin'!
Welcome to international cricket Mark Chapman! Well, proper and regular international cricket against Test opposition anyway. It's all well and good scoring an ODI century against United Arab Emirates but having switched allegiance from the country of his birth, Hong Kong, to New Zealand and despite being in good touch at domestic level, the twenty-three-year-old left-hander has produced innings of 8, 1 & 0 in his three ODI outings for his adopted home so far. It's been a pretty inauspicious introduction to New Zealand colours in the fifty-over format.
Meanwhile his ex, Hong Kong, are at present attempting to qualify for the 2019 World Cup in England. They're one of ten nations currently competing in the ICC World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe. What they would give to have Chappers in their batting line-up when competing against mostly other associate nations.
You can keep track of how the Road to 2019 is progressing here:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/_/id/8038/season/2018/icc-world-cup-qualifiers/
Given New Zealand's small pool of depth, the country has a population of just shy of 4.7 million people and not all of them are cricketers (No really, not all of them are!), Chapman, who did at least make starts in the T20I matches, will likely get another opportunity but unlike against England in the past couple of weeks, he'd better seize the chance with both hands.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/438563.html
Author sillypointcricketCategories Associate Cricket, Cricket, ODI Cricket, T20I CricketPosted on March 10, 2018 June 3, 2018 Leave a comment
I've thrown my e-mail address into the ticket ballot for the 2019 One-Day Cricket World Cup that is scheduled to take place in England next summer. Quite what this means I'm not sure. Could I end up with tickets to see Papua New Guinea vs. Bangladesh in Cardiff? I should probably point out that I'm a Yorkshire based England fan! Here's the link to the ICC's ticket page:
https://www.icc-cricket.com/media-releases/595204
The tournament qualifiers are currently taking place in Zimbabwe with two teams from ten progressing to the World Cup. Can you call it a World Cup when there'll only be ten countries taking part? It's a bit of a lottery as to which matches count as ODIs and which ones count as List A only. It's pretty crucial stuff when a player registers a hundred or claims a five-for!
Many of the associate nations taking part at the qualifiers are missing key players because they've jumped ship and joined Test nations (Mark Chapman, Hong Kong to New Zealand) or because they're working on doing the same (Michael Rippon, Netherlands to New Zealand). They're also missing players because they can't afford to play and need to work, e.g.: Preston Mommsen (Scotland) and Jamie Atkinson (Hong Kong).
Cricket needs to spread and develop the game globally. It could be that Test cricket will be saved by the associate nations. As players abandon the longest format for the T20 dollars and Test cricket becomes less competitive then the likes of Kenya and Nepal may join Afghanistan and Ireland in dining at the main table. Having said that, Rashid Khan and Nepal's Sandeep Lamichane have already had a taste of the global T20 league so already even the second tier teams are potentially losing players from competing internationally to the domestic dollar competitions.
Back to the qualifiers, Scotland have already upset Afghanistan who were captained by nineteen-year-old Khan, whilst Zimbabwe posted nearly 400 in imposing defeat against Lamichane's Nepal. You can keep up to date with proceedings here:
Hopefully next year's World Cup will catch the fans' attention like last year's Champions Trophy did. Here's to some fine English weather come 2019!
Author sillypointcricketCategories Associate Cricket, Cricket, List A Cricket, ODI Cricket, T20 Cricket, Test CricketPosted on March 4, 2018 March 4, 2018 Leave a comment


Whew! Kind of a hard chapter to read this morning. I don't recommend that anyone prophesy falsely against the Lord. Yikes. And then there is this….."And then you will know that I am the Lord." I am increasingly aware that I need to understand the character of God more deeply. I know that I need to seek His face and not His hands more regularly. If we are in tune….communicating with God….we will KNOW that He is the Lord and the mighty work He is doing in our lives. Wow! How exciting!


Giving away one free ebook copy of this awesome book by M.T. Lee!!!! Just comment on this post with your name and email and you are eligible to win!!!!! Don't forget to follow my blog via GFC or Networked Blogs! Not required but it would be nice!!!! Winner will be announced November 30th 2011. Get you entry in now and read this fabulous story! Description: When a self-conscious young woman discovers the boy in drama class is actually the immortal who painted the world into being, she becomes the target of another painter who hates humanity. The Earth Painter is a Young Adult Supernatural Romance set in the small mill town of Chesnee, SC. It revolves around Holly Scruggs, who's family has just moved back to Chesnee after her dad lost his job along with pretty much everything they owned. Her image conscious parents correct her to the point of brokenness until she meets Theo. He is the artist responsible for all the beauty of the land and he thinks Holly is beautiful too. Together they will fight against Fritz, the water painter who hates humans and is hiding a secret under the high school.
"WARNING: Reading this book leads to compulsive reading.
YAY!!!! THE EARTH PAINTER LOOKS SOO GOOD! ( I love the cover)!
Thanks so much for the chance. I really want to read this. GFC and network blog follower.
sounds good! hope i win! good luck to all!
Jaycevers is the winner, #4 picked by random.org. Thank you everyone for entering!!! Congratulations Jaycevers, I will forward your email to the author so she can send you the ebook.


text:
Trade parasites feeding at the heart of the ASX
By Alan Kohler
In the Australian Securities Exchange's Sydney data room, which is about the size of a big lounge room, there are six "cuckoos". These are the banks of servers installed by high-frequency traders.
They sit against the wall opposite the ASX servers and each is connected directly into the host by a fat fibre optic pipe. Each cable is precisely the same length by agreement with the ASX so that none gets an advantage; if one server is closer to the input, its cable is looped around to lengthen it.
Think about that: one less metre of optic fibre carrying data at 299.8 million metres per second - that is, the speed of light - would give one share trader an unfair advantage over the rest. It suggests that something pretty quick is going on.
The question is whether it's fair to the rest of us; whether those six parasites with their suckers fastened directly into the heart of the ASX should be allowed to get away with it.
The ASX is no longer a regulator, just a business, so it says that if the practice is legal and it pays a fee – not to mention a handy rent in the data room – then it can't and won't stop them.
For global regulators, it's actually too late: high-frequency trading accounts for as much as 70 per cent of the volume on American stock exchanges, including the NYSE; the time to control it was 10 years ago.
What do the computers and their algorithms do? Well, as my relatively low-frequency brain can understand it, these machines constantly monitor order flow into the ASX servers, and the sophisticated programs can pick up patterns that indicate when a reasonably large order has been placed. What they then do, in effect, is "front-run" – that is, they buy ahead of the order and make a small spread selling into it.
In other words, by operating at the speed of light they can "feel" a buy order coming and can dart in front of them and ensure that the buyers pay a little bit more than they were going to, without noticing a thing.
These operators begin each day owning no shares and end each day in the same position, but they make a lot of money by doing thousands of trades every day: it's a high-volume, low-margin business.
It's not known how much money the HFT traders make, but whatever it is, they weren't making it 10-15 years ago, and stock market returns have not gone up in that time, so whatever they make has come out of someone else's pocket.
That someone, of course, is you. The buy orders that the HFT operators are front running come from the superannuation funds in which ordinary people have their money. Now when they place an order, they usually end up paying a cent more than they would have because they are buying from someone who didn't own any of the shares 10 microseconds ago and only bought them to make that quick cent.
HFT represents less than 10 per cent of the volume of the ASX, but in the United States it is much more, and there is no reason to think we won't follow the US.
Should something be done to stop it? I think so, but it's too late.
HFT firms like the privately owned and aptly named Getco (Global Electronic Trading Company), the world's largest HFT operator, produce a large amount of self-justifying research material based around the proposition that they help investors by providing extra liquidity in the market.
This, plus presumably the hiring of expensive lobbyists, has snowed legislators and regulators and let the practice flourish, to the point where the parasites are taking over the host and it's too late to stop them.
Stock exchanges the world over are now making a fortune from renting space in their data rooms to high-frequency computerised traders and would probably collapse without it (the ASX would not – yet.)
As a result, investors are abandoning the "lit" markets and using "dark pools" instead. This simply refers to off-market share trading away from the official stock exchanges provided by investment banks where big investors know they are not being picked off by high-frequency front runners. The problem with that is that these "dark pools" are not properly regulated or transparent.
The joke is that in many cases, the same investment banks are doing both the high-frequency trading and running the dark pools; they are causing the problem and solving it, each for a handsome profit.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-11/kohler-high-frequency-trade-parasites-at-heart-of-asx/3943052
Gold Miner Ampella Hoists For Sale Sign…Reluctantly
Comments: Ampella just released two announcements related to their budget for drilling/exploration and their intention to open the company for possible takeover bids (For more info, click here for drilling targets and here for the takeover). The unreasonable and ridiculous sell-down of AMX share price could have led the management to announce these statements, which could give a more realistic picture to the public about the value this company holds. What to do. When investors in general don't know how to appreciate the value of this company and drive it down to ridiculously low levels, then just let the takeover bids do the talking. Every now and then, I saw some sellers purposely drove down the share price, even when the price was trending upwards. Could it be that some brokers purposely drive down the share price so much until a takeover bid is imminent? I don't know. But it's good that the company is taking steps to address and stem the slide in share price. Do note that major shareholders and directors had been holding the shares tightly even when the price was sliding from above $3 to current $1 level. This says very much about the confidence that they have in AMX. Since these announcements, the share price had risen 15%, but for me, this is only the beginning. There will be exciting times ahead for AMX.
For previous posting, click here.
By David Winning
West Africa-focused gold explorer Ampella Mining certainly looks a reluctant seller after firing the gun on a sales process in the wake of several new bid approaches.
The Perth-based miner has mandated Macquarie Capital and Gresham Advisory Partners to run a formal process after receiving interest from "several global players in the gold sector" on top of separate requests for due diligence made late last year.
The bids look opportunistic: Ampella's shares have fallen from above A$3.30 at the end of 2010 to A$1.05 now, giving it a market value of 250 million Australian dollars (US$260 million). In contrast, the stock of ASX-listed peers that also have gold assets in Burkina Faso, such as Gryphon Minerals, aren't down as much.
Ampella Chairman Peter Mansell pointedly stressed Monday that with around A$55 million dollars in cash on its balance sheet it would have to be a knockout offer to secure a board recommendation.
Its cash pile means the company can fund all its exploration and development work at the Batie West project in Burkina Faso for the next 12-18 months. In short, no firesale.
"With our strong balance sheet, Ampella is now very well placed to continue down its current path and in the absence of a compelling alternative that is what we intend to do," Mr. Mansell said in a statement.
"Having said that, we have had approaches from serious global players in the gold sector and we concluded that we had a duty to all shareholders to properly test whether any one of those parties is prepared to make an offer to acquire Ampella on terms that would be attractive to our shareholders."
After strengthening balance sheets when gold prices surged to a record high above US$1,900 a troy ounce last year, mining companies are now setting out on the acquisition trail.
ASX-listed Norton Gold Fields, which owns the Paddington gold mine in Western Australia state, halted trading in its shares at the end of last week after receiving an unsolicited buyout approach.
Earlier this year, a person familiar with the matter told Deal Journal Australia said Newmont Mining has received several expressions of interest in its 51% interest in the undeveloped McPhillamys deposit in Australia's New South Wales state, which contains an estimated 3 million troy ounces of gold.
Ampella said its sales process is likely to take 2-3 months, and it wouldn't be updating the market on the status of discussions with interested parties until it had made a final decision.
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/dealjournalaustralia/2012/04/02/gold-miner-ampella-hoists-for-sale-sign-reluctantly/?mod=google_news_blog
Labels: Ampella Mining, ASX, Gold Mining
Gold Miner Ampella Hoists For Sale Sign…Reluctantl...