text:
Ed. Note: Be sure to check out our periodically published new feature, You Can't Make This Stuff Up at the end of the regular post.
By now you've at least heard of the kerfuffle created by the remarks of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and it's entirely possible that you're both offended and pretty well annoyed by the whole mess. I've decided to weigh in only because the key issue seems to have been missed and it's a really big issue. It's a life and death issue.
To recap, Omar dispatched tweets and comments that triggered an explosion. They were:
Feb.10 – Responding to a tweet about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel, she tweeted, "It's all about the Benjamins baby."
Feb 11 – Responding to a question about who's paying these Benjamins, she tweeted, "AIPAC!" referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Feb 11 – Following criticism from Democratic leadership, she tweeted a sort-of apology, saying in part, "My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole. We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity. This is why I unequivocally apologize."
Feb 28 – Speaking as a panel member at a DC venue she said, "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA (National Rifle Association), of fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policies?"
In a recently discovered 2012 tweet she wrote, "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel."
That's a lot to digest, so let's boil it down to the essentials. Omar is saying,
Wealthy Jews are buying influence.
AIPAC is using "Benjamins" to control Congress and the President.
American Jews have "allegiance" to a foreign country, Israel, implying they are disloyal to America.
Jews have some semi-occult ability to hypnotize others and cause them to do the bidding of Jews.
Let's start with the easiest to dispel. AIPAC doesn't make political contributions to candidates or politicians. Now on to the real damage.
The stereotype of Jews being wealthy and using their wealth to control others and thus do harm to those others has been around a long time. The same is true of the lunacy that says that Jews can "hypnotize the world" and get their way. Neither would be a big deal if it were just a few psychotics screaming such things in a rubber room. Sadly, devastatingly, it doesn't stop there and it never has.
These hateful tropes have been believed by the uninformed, the gullible and the hateful and powerful for centuries, perhaps millennia. They have been used to justify some of the the most vile and hateful acts, including the Spanish Inquisition, pogroms across Europe and Russia, the Holocaust and tens of thousands of small scale violent events all over the world. Think: Tree of Life Synagogue.
That is to say, words matter. They have impact on people and that drives people's actions. When the words are hateful – especially when they qualify as a Big Lie, as Omar's do – they incite people to violence. She helped to continue the hateful lies and to support the haters' justification of their hate and their violence. That's the real issue.
In her weenie apology she managed to demand to be listened to as a qualification of her "unequivocal" apology. It's a bit like apologizing by saying, "I apologize if what I said was offensive." Kinda misses the mark of apologizing for actually being offensive.
Much of the political tap dance of both Democrats and Republicans has been an astonishing circus sideshow of posturing for political advantage. I especially love the justifications claimed by the 23 Republicans who voted against the resolution condemning hate. One stands out as the winner of the Totally Daft Award. See #3 below.
Legitimate criticism of Israel is welcome. Opposing the government or the policies is in bounds and justifiable. Spreading hate is not.
This whole thing is simpler than the political theater of the absurd would allow you to see and it's way beyond finding Omar's words offensive or reacting to her poorly crafted jiu jitsu apology. We need to focus on the key issue, which is the spreading of hate and the potential incitement to violence done by Rep. Omar's words. It's a really big issue. It's a life and death issue.
For more on the impact of words, see this post.
You Can't Make This Stuff Up
A short compendium of current events that are too dumb even for fiction
Veteran conservative broadcaster and columnist Jane Chastain recently wrote a column titled "AOC WAS A GIRL SCOUT . . . JUST SAY NO TO THE COOKIES."
Finnish investigative journalist Jessikka Aro has been courageously reporting on Russian propaganda and its troll factories for years. She was informed she was to receive the International Women of Courage Award in Washington, D.C. Then the Trump State Department learned that Aro had been critical of the President, so her award was cancelled.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said that he voted against the House resolution condemning bigotry and hate because its wording, ". . . suggests America's House of Representatives cares about virtually everyone except Christians and Caucasians."
Sourced from Daily Kos and The Washington Post. You can look it up.
Click to join me on March 23 for this fascinating and informative event.
Ed. Note: I don't want money (DON'T donate) or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. So,
3 Responses	campaign contributions, discrimination, hatred, Ilhan Omar, integrity, NRA, Race, religion, tolerance Permalink
We're Perfectly Positioned
Her husband was killed by a street shooter. Later, one of her sons was shot and killed. Relating this to the small audience brought her to tears – again. The mother's pain she bears will never go away.
When she was able to function again she started a support group for mothers who have lost family members to street violence. There are currently about 75 members of "Sisterhood." There could be 750,000 members because we shoot someone's son or daughter or husband or daddy over 100 times per day, every day.
Some of the violence is due to random drive-by shootings; some is done by warring gangs; some is done by angry young people or disgruntled workers. All of it is due to something way beyond wrong.
Another presenter spoke to the audience about his family of origin. Seven kids, Mom and an abusive step-father who hit with chairs, a vacuum cleaner, whatever was handy. The presenter grew up thinking that's just the way things were – until the night his little sister went into the bathroom to avoid their step-father's violence and quietly hung herself with the cord of a hair dryer. That's what random violence can do to people. The presenter now works with at risk kids, people who grew up as he did, assuming that violence was just the way people deal with their anger. Most of it isn't done by an electrical cord. Most is by gun.
As always, the grassroots efforts are driven by people who have lived the pain and they're doing wonderful, critically needed work to help others, holding hands and hugging to soothe the sufferers and to counsel people away from violence before they commit it and that's good. It's one piece of the horrific puzzle and it isn't enough.
The cover picture of this puzzle of over 30,000 gun killings per year shows:
The lack of proper education of our kids for a successful life
Lack of employment opportunities where they are most needed
Our refusal to enact meaningful, national gun safety legislation
Our cultural idealizing and reverence for tough, macho guys (think: Charlton Heston's "cold, dead hands" speech)
Our slavish belief in the Second Amendment as a holy thing and meaning something other than what was intended by the Founders
A political system that rewards the biggest donors instead of We the People
Our limp-wristed way of dealing with mental health
The ease with which we are distracted by the next bright, shiny object
You can likely add to this list. The point is that there are many contributing factors to our gun violence problem and no one thing is going to cure our addiction to pointless death. Still, some useful things are obvious.
Guns are the perfect tool to kill lots of people quickly. Knives kill, but imagine the killer at Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School last year with knives instead of guns. He could have killed some kids, but there's no way he could have killed 17 of them with knives or an axe or any other hand weapon. Getting guns out of the hands of those who should never have one will be a major step toward solving our problem. Refusing to do that enables our truly angry, hate-filled people to carry out their horrible plans.
Three years ago the FBI arrested two men who were planning a race war, expecting to bomb Black churches and Jewish synagogues. Last week they arrested a white nationalist who proclaimed, "I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth," and he was prepared to attack using his armory of assault weapons if President Trump is impeached. He planned to pump himself up with steroids and opioids so he would be ready to unleash continuing carnage. The authorities managed to stop these two nut cases.
But we'll never run out of angry men who want to do violence and stopping all of them is unlikely to happen. The question we must answer is whether we are willing to do what is necessary to stop them before they start. If we continue to make it easy to assemble an arsenal of weapons of war, if we continue to make it easy for nearly anyone with a few bucks in their pocket to buy a handgun and some ammunition, we will continue to kill the likes of the little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, high school kids at Columbine and Douglass, movie goers in Aurora, CO, factory workers in Aurora, IL, people at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando, concert attendees in Las Vegas and thousands on the streets.
By February 17 there were already 43 mass shootings in the US this year. There were 5 last weekend alone. That can feel dreadful and even horrifying but might not be motivating because most it happens at a distance. That's just how it was for that mom until her husband and son were killed. It's up close and real personal for her now. That's the way it always is for victims and their loved ones.
We're perfectly positioned to get exactly the horrific results we're getting right now. The only way to get different, better results is to do something about it.
3 Responses	angry, arsenal, cold dead hands, Congress, Conservatism, disgruntled, Founders, gun violence, guns, hate, hatred, Heston, integrity, leadership, money in politics, murders, NRA, right wing, second amendment, shootings, suffering, white supremacists, will of the people Permalink
Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the Republic of China during the Second World War and was our ally in fighting the Japanese. In the Chinese civil war following WWII Mao Zedong's army won and Chiang and his army retreated from mainland China to the island of Formosa, now called Taiwan. Throughout the period we remained an ally of Chiang and saw Mao as our enemy, both because the enemy of our friend is our enemy, and because Mao's Chinese were godless Communists bent on world domination like their Soviet neighbors.
When Stalin died in 1953 Nikita Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. We didn't like him or the Soviet Union and they were a far greater threat than was China because of their military might and their belligerence. Indeed, Khrushchev was famous for criticizing our capitalism, saying that the Soviet Union would sell us the rope used to hang us. He also said, "We will bury you."
We saw the Chinese and the Soviets as godless Commies and nobody railed more or louder against them than our Republicans. They fashioned themselves as the ones with the heavy starch in their spines, the true defenders of our nation and the foremost opponents of Communism. Republican Richard Nixon made his reputation railing against Communists. But then some odd things happened.
Nixon the Commie hater was in the midst of making the Watergate affair as bad as it could be and off he went to Communist China to sip ceremonial drinks with the very people he had spent decades vilifying. The primo anti-Communist began the process of normalizing relations with Communist China. It was amazing irony.
Ronald Reagan spent decades waving the red, white and blue and vilifying the hammer and sickle and when it was his turn to fight the Cold War he did it by increasing our military spending 43% in peacetime, including development of the B-1 bomber. That forced the Soviet Union to increase their military spending to keep up with us. At last they couldn't do it any longer and, effectively, we spent them into bankruptcy.
At the same time Reagan established a relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, even as he implored Gorbachev to, "Tear down this wall." Reagan bankrupted the Soviets, made friends with their leader and won the Cold War without firing a shot. No irony here. Then it came back.
It was left to Republican George H.W. Bush to put the final nail in the Soviet coffin. But a Soviet KGB agent named Vladimir Putin wasn't at all happy about what had happened and vowed to return Russia to its former self-imagined greatness.
Fast forward to 2015 and Putin's Russia had figured out how to infiltrate American culture to bend America his way. The U.S. intelligence agencies are unanimous and clear about Russian hacking, propaganda, cyber-infiltrating, as well as human infiltration into our elections, our government and our society.
We're learning of Russian infiltration of the Second Amendment thumping NRA and what is likely to be found to be tens of millions of Russian dollars filtered through the NRA to get Trump elected.
What the Russians have done is very bad and very threatening. What we have done is far worse.
Under this Republican president we have done nothing to stop the Russians. Trump has refrained from everything he might have done to restrain Russia and has lauded praise on Putin whenever he could. And even those aren't the worst things that have happened.
Our Republican Congress has done nothing to get to the root of the Russian invasion and, indeed, they've done everything they could to block congressional investigations into it. This Republican Congress has done absolutely nothing to prevent yet more Russian meddling. They have put no checks on this president and his Russia enabling, nor any requirements for action to stop the hijacking of our democracy.
Get that these are Republicans, the self-described stalwart defenders and protectors of our nation. They're the chest-puffed strong ones and they're allowing Khrushchev's threats to come true.
The irony is stunning. The cowardice in the face of a clear and present danger is appalling.
Ed. Note: I don't want money (DON'T donate) or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. That's the reason for these posts. To accomplish that goal requires reaching many people, so:
Pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT'S A FREEBIE!). No subscriber information is ever shared with anyone, anywhere, any time.
0 Responses	China, cyber, democracy, freedom, infiltration, integrity, NRA, patriotism, Putin, Republican, Russia, second amendment, Soviet, Trump Permalink
Cold, Dead Hands
Every Fourth of July I stick a flag on a pole and insert it into the back of my convertible. I commonly remove it on the 5th and this year it sat in the back of the car until this morning, when I picked it up to put it away. That's when my neighbor called out something about showing it proudly.
He said that he had been in Denver for the Fourth and asked his son there why he didn't display a flag on his house that day. His son said that waving a flag in that part of the country meant just one thing: supporting the far-right wingnut agenda, which he did not want to do. Hence, no flag.
Perhaps he isn't alone in refusing to display a flag. Many of us are ashamed now about things being done in our name: things like kidnapping children and abandoning habeas corpus; things like slapping our friends in the face while embracing tyrannical world leaders; things like pardoning public lands arsonists in order to suck up to "the base."
The problem with abandoning the red, white and blue because of the extreme wrongdoing of some is to abandon our country and cede it to the crazies.
And yes, I mean crazies. I DO NOT mean those who have other notions about how to achieve what nearly all of us believe in. This is about refusing to give our country to those who would wipe their dirty boots on those things we hold dear as Americans. So, here's what I have for the crazies.
Perhaps you remember Charleton Heston's defiance at an NRA convention 18 years ago. He declared that they (apparently government – he specifically named Al Gore) could have his gun when they could pry it from his cold, dead hands. While there isn't much that I had i n common with Heston, I'll borrow his phrasing:
You can have my flag when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands. And you better know that even then you'll have to get past my kids.
I will not allow you to take the flag, ruin my country and claim it exclusively yours. My flag is on display at the front of my house every day. Deal with it.
2 Responses	American flag, cold, dead hands, flag, freedom, Heston, NRA, patriotism, political stupidity, responsibiliy, right wing, will of the people Permalink
Keeping Score On Just One Week
Kim Jong-un, the murderous dictator of North Korea, has played Donald Trump like he's a marionette. Kim freed 3 American prisoners for whom he had no further use. He already had the nuclear bomb technology he wanted, so it was a freebie to promise no further nuclear testing, and he smiled for the cameras, promising talks with South Korea. All of that came at absolutely no cost to North Korea. What Kim got was exactly what he wanted: high level talks with America so he would be seen as an equal on the world stage. Kim has no further need for Trump, so the summit may never happen and the talks with South Korea are already threatened. Score: Kim Jong-un 1, America 0.
The new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem opened this week to great fanfare and violent, deadly protests in Gaza. Every president before Trump recognized the self-defeating nature of placing our embassy in Jerusalem and refrained from making that move because it was sure to be an incitement to violence and an impediment to lasting peace. Trump hasn't the sense or mental sophistication to see beyond just making a deal – any deal – regardless of the cost to others. He bears responsibility for those deaths in Gaza. Score: Everyone 0.
It isn't proven yet, but there is a most suspicious intersection of Trump saving 70,000 jobs for telecom company ZTE in China and the new Chinese infusion of half a billion dollars into Trump's private resort project in Indonesia. Note that the Chinese government uses ZTE's cheap cell phones to spy on America. Trump just gave them a green flag and an open lane to do just that. This looks a lot like emoluments and bribery while selling out America. Score: China 2, Trump 1, America 0.
All of these issues are substantive and they weaken American security and influence around the world.
As of the time of this writing on Friday, at least 9 students and one teacher have been killed and about 10 others were wounded by a student with 3 firearms at Santa Fe High School in the Houston, TX area.
Brace yourself now, as Wayne LaPierre and Dana Loesch of the NRA crank up their lunacy and once again invoke good guys with guns and insist on teachers being armed so we can have shootouts in school hallways.
There will be much wringing of hands and thoughts and prayers will be offered by spineless leaders all across the country. See the attached picture taken at the March For Our Lives demonstration in Chicago for a proper response to our jellyfish politicians.
Do you think Friday's event will trigger a thought among our legislators that easy access to firearms might not be a good idea? Any chance politicians will be willing to invest in mental health services or require trigger locks and universal background checks, the very things that 92% of us want?
We – through our politicians – continue to allow our children to be killed every week, so I don't have any confidence that this latest mass murder will result in legislative actions to deter future shootings of our kids. Score: NRA 2, politicians 1, American kids 0.
Do not send your thoughts and prayers to the Santa Fe, TX victims and their loved ones. Instead,
DEMAND THAT YOUR STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATORS PUT ON THEIR BIG BOY AND BIG GIRL PANTS AND ENACT SENSIBLE GUN SAFETY LAWS.
Use these links: www.Senate.Gov www.House.Gov
I'll say it again:
A vote for an NRA backed candidate is a vote for dead children.
Remember that when you vote on November 6.
And remember, too, that all of this, the international betrayals, the murders of our kids and a resulting score for America of 0 happened in just one week. This level of craziness plays out every week in the ongoing drama that is the Trump administration and our pay-to-play, spineless Congress that lets it all happen.
Ed. note: I don't want your money (DON'T donate) or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. That's the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people, so:
0 Responses	China, guns, Jerusalem, Kim Jong Un, Korea, LaPierre, Loesch, NRA, political stupidity, Santa Fe High School, school shooting, Trump, universal background checks, ZTE Permalink
If You Ever Were a Kid
There is something peculiar about we human beings, in that we often don't really "get it" unless we relate events to ourselves. For example, when we see the devastation of a hurricane in Houston, we don't fully understand and have to see the suffering up close and personal to begin to imagine what it would be like for ourselves if we were in those circumstances. That's what it takes for us to "get it."
March For Our Lives – Chicago
So it is with March For Our Lives, as most of us have not been directly touched by gun violence. The Parkland community, all the people of New Town and Aurora and San Bernardino and Orlando and Las Vegas do get it because they've lived it. Here's how you can start to get it:
If you have a child or a grandchild,
if you know someone who is a school kid, or
if you ever were a kid,
Click me for the Sun-Times story
then imagine someone with an AR-15 showing up and firing over 100 bullets in 6 minutes 20 seconds and killing and maiming dozens of kids you know. Just imagine the hallway in your high school that seemed so ordinary; then suddenly someone shows up and sprays bullets from his assault rifle into your friends and maybe into you and you're lying in the blood.
Are you starting to get it yet?
Left column has names of kids killed this year. The reverse side is entirely filled with the names of the rest of the kids killed this year.
At the Chicago March For Our Lives, all the presenters were students. Here is what they want you to know.
"We call BS" – Emma Gonzalez – Click and watch the video
They are sick deep into their souls from the murders of their friends and family members. Their pain is etched into their faces and they suffer every day.
In case you're white, they want you to understand that black and brown skin is not bullet proof and that they feel the agony of danger and loss just like you would.
They want you to know that they will out-live you and they will vote in huge numbers. Further, they will not stop until they get the safety they want for themselves, for their little brothers and sisters and for their children to come.
Some say enough is enough, but that isn't right because there is no "enough" bullet-riddled children. There is only the reality of the suffering and dying that has no purpose. There are the suicides that are made so easy by the presence of a gun. There is the insanity that we tolerate only because it hasn't come close enough to ourselves to feel it.
But it probably came close enough to your heart in Parkland, FL. And at Sandy Hook Elementary School when you found out those little 6 year old bodies had multiple bullets ripped through them. And at Columbine.
You probably "get it" because you were a kid once. You remember the classes and the hallways and you knew who the brooding, angry kid was. Maybe you can imagine that kid coming to school to wreak his vengeance for his imagined wrongs – maybe wrought on you just because you happened to be in the hallway between classes.
For our legislators: Don't even think about offering thoughts and prayers or weasel-words. Get on the right side of history or start updating your résumé, because these people are going to send you home.
By the way, in the 17th school shooting in the first 80 days of this year – that's one every 4 days – a kid shot two students at Great Mills High School in Maryland five days ago. One of them was a 16 year old girl the shooter knew. She died on Thursday. She could have been your daughter. She could have been you.
Now you "get it." It's time for sweeping change.
All photos from March For Our Lives – Chicago, March 24, 2018.
Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we're on a path to continually fail to make things better. It's my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That's the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.
YOUR ACTION STEPS: Offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT'S A FREEBIE!) and engage. Thanks!
0 Responses	campaign contributions, corporate influence, freedom, guns, money in politics, NRA, patriotism, responsibiliy, right wing, second amendment, suffering, vote, will of the people Permalink
The Hypothetical States of America
Reading time – 1:47 . . .
Many thanks to contributing author M.S.A. for this particularly appropriate post in anticipation of the March For Our Lives event on, Saturday, March 24. Click a pic, find a march near you, sign up and GO MARCH FOR OUR KIDS!
In The Hypothetical States of America there exists a law that allows most people to own and use explosives. They can own explosives that are capable of destroying property and killing people in an area of no more than a one hundred foot radius. Larger explosives are illegal. You must be at least eighteen years of age and pass a background check to possess explosives. Mental health professionals must report you to the state and federal governments if it is deemed that you may be a danger to yourself and/or others, in which case you cannot own an explosive.
After this law was passed there was an uptick in deaths and destruction of property due to the use of explosives. The people of The Hypothetical States of America (HSA) were concerned. "Our people and buildings must be safe," they said. Over the subsequent years a ten foot reinforced concrete wall was built around all K-12 schools and colleges as well as houses of worship, stadiums and all state and federal government buildings. The cost was in the trillions of dollars. But at least the people of the HSA felt safe.
Until . . .
Explosives owners were furious. The National Explosives Owners of America (NEOA) was furious. There was so much of the Hypothetical States that was now inaccessible to explosives that owners were being denied their constitutional right to use explosives. The NEOA recommended to its members that they purchase a catapult. This would allow owners to once again exercise their right to use explosives wherever they wanted. The largest catapults were capable of lobbing an explosive eighty feet in the air. So the President of The Hypothetical States mandated a federal program to top all ten foot reinforced concrete walls with a ninety foot chain link fence at a cost of trillions of dollars. Once it was completed the people of the HSA again felt safe.
Explosions start happening in shopping malls, grocery stores and at neighborhood town hall meetings where "the explosives problem" was being debated. Americans once again felt frightened. But there's nothing that can be done.
Just so this story is clearly understood, it was written several days after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre. It is an allegory of both the gun problem in the U. S. and the NRA. There is no Hypothetical States of America and there is no National Explosives Owners of America as far as I know. I hope this story strikes you as being just as ridiculous as our inability to fix our gun problem.
We really do have a problem, so click on either of the pictures to get to the March For Our Lives website. There are over 800 marches worldwide, so enter your zip code, find a march nearby and GO MARCH FOR OUR KIDS NEXT SATURDAY!
Because you care.
0 Responses	corporate cash, corporate influence, guns, integrity, money in politics, NRA, patriotism, responsibiliy, second amendment, will of the people Permalink
The Bullet-Head Zone
CPAC Conference, 2018
In the wake of the slaughter of 17 students and teachers and the wounding of 14 others in Parkland, FL, Wayne LaPierre, the executive director of the NRA, gave a speech to the attendees of the CPAC conference. This is the association that used to be the home for conservatives, but now is primarily composed of hair-on-fire righties.
In his speech he equated gun ownership with God, claimed that having guns is the most important of our rights and reasserted the official NRA certainty that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, so let's arm kindergarten teachers and have shoot-outs in the hallways.
Nearly every "fact" that LaPierre stated is untrue.
His wholly unsupported accusations and opinions are based on a false and intentionally misleading interpretation of the Second Amendment. It was and is promulgated by the NRA in order to spike gun sales for the firearms industry. More on that in a future post.
LaPierre's job is to stoke righty fervor, so he gave a red meat speech to a hall of red meat eaters. That explains his tone.
These red meat eaters don't represent American values, as 94% of Americans want universal background checks – that means for all transfers of ownership of all firearms. That includes when grandpa gives his old hunting rifle to his grandson.
Nearly all Americans, including the overwhelming majority of NRA members, want gun ownership prohibited for all convicted violent felons, mentally disturbed people, those on the terror watch list, domestic violence perps and the like. 74% of Americans want assault weapons and high capacity magazines banned. And nobody outside the NRA thinks a gun battle in the school hallway is a good idea.
Go ahead and watch LaPierre and listen to his fascism-worthy speech. Again, it's his job to stoke gun fervor with high volume and he's good at that. Just get that he and those like him are not just allowing, but are indirectly inviting more kids to get killed in our schools, more movie and concert attendees to be mowed down and more church, synagogue and mosque goers to be murdered.
I'll say it again: A vote for an NRA backed candidate is a vote for dead children.
VOTE in your primary and in the general election on November 8. First check to see which candidates have taken money from the NRA (here's a link to all NRA money recipients) and vote against these people. *
This is another chapter in the "Big Money controls Congress and you don't count" story of the destruction of our democracy. You can shut down that story. And you can save our kids.
* This is actually tougher than it sounds. Have a look at this and note the distribution of NRA funds: only $1 million of the $59 million the NRA spent to warp our politics and our democracy in the 2016 election was for direct contributions. For example, the recipient list shows they gave Marco Rubio $9,900, but their total spend for him on TV ads and SuperPAC contributions was in the millions of dollars. So, when Cameron Kasky asked Rubio to promise to never take another dollar from the NRA, Rubio weaseled. Rubio is a great talker. Too bad we can't trust him.
1 Response	campaign contributions, Conservatism, corporate cash, corporate influence, corporate personhood, corporatocracy, guns, lies, money in politics, NRA, patriotism, right wing, RNC, second amendment, suffering, Tea Party, vote, will of the people Permalink
Make This Go Viral
There are few things that cause a more visceral and instantaneous reaction to protect than something that threatens our children. There are existential forces at work and you don't need anyone to explain it to you. Somehow, though, there are some Americans who just don't get it. They are those who line their pockets and enhance their careers using money from the NRA.
Click me and watch
Have a look at what exquisitely clear, eloquent 17 year old Cameron Kasky has to say about that. You might want to hug your kids while you watch this short video because he's speaking for them. Go on – link through and then come back.
From "The Onion" – click me
Have a look at what The Onion has to say about this. They post a current picture with this caption after every mass murder and we've already had seven intentional school shootings this year – that's one per week. Kids being shot dead. Perhaps we should change the words of Emma Lazarus' poem from "yearning to breathe free" to "yearning just to keep breathing at all."
Thanks and apologies to the author – can't read your name.
Here's the cycle —>
Does it look familiar? We kill over 33,000 Americans every year with guns – that's nearly 4 of us killed every hour – and, no, that's not about Islamic extremists and no, neither an unconstitutional religious ban nor a stupid wall will protect us from this.
It's time for you and I to see this for what it is and to do something about it.
From the brilliant mind of friend Dan Wallace:
That's the brutal truth.
And there's something we can do about it.
Link this post on your FaceBook page, your Twitter account and your Instagram page. Send a link to this post to at least 10 people you know to make this go viral. That's something you can do to protect our kids.
There are children in the schools in your town who don't want to have to dodge bullets or fear for their lives when they hear the fire alarm and go into the hallway, who don't want have to hide, terrified in a locked school room, who don't want their teacher to be ripped apart by AR-15 bullets while saving them and their friends and YOU CAN HELP TO PROTECT THESE CHILDREN.
Say it with me:
Pass this along to everyone you know. Make it go viral so that the NRA money candidates get fired.
SAVE OUR KIDS!
Here's a link to this post on YouTube.
Here's a link to a wonderfully clear statement of the facts.
See this in case you think there's nothing we can do.
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Laredo, Texas - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Laredo port of entry seized more than five tons of marijuana on Wednesday in two separate cases. The total estimated street value for the narcotics seized is well over $10 million.
More than 10,600 pounds of marijuana are found in a tractor trailer.
The larger of the two seizures occurred at World Trade Bridge when CBP officers processed a 1997 International tractor hauling a 1997 Trailmobile trailer driven by a 36-year-old Mexican national from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico carrying a commercial shipment of auto parts. CBP officers referred the manifested shipment of 20 cartons of auto parts for an X-ray scan that resulted in an anomaly detected within the trailer. A closer inspection of the trailer led CBP officers to the discovery of 362 bundles of marijuana co-mingled with the shipment. The bulk load of marijuana weighed a total of 10,661 pounds and is valued at $10.6 million.
The other marijuana seizure occurred the same day at the Gateway to the Americas Bridge. A 1978 Ford F-150 pick-up truck driven by a 19-year-old Mexican national from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico arrived for inspection. A search of the interior of the vehicle by CBP officers resulted in the discovery of 16 bundles of marijuana weighing 110 pounds that are valued at $110,000.
Both of these matters cases have been referred to U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents for further investigation.
CBP officers seized the narcotics and the three conveyances involved in these smuggling attempts.
"More than five tons of marijuana in a day's work is what makes CBP officers so invaluable. Their consistent vigilance in both cargo and passenger processing areas is what these seizures represent," said Gene Garza, CBP port director, Laredo.


text:
Q: I need to extract all words prior to 4th Space in a line Good Day
I need to extract all words prior to 5th Space in a line.
Sample Data
Article Number Crt.DI No. Date
6ZZ 999 123 S 000000093 19.01.2021
Article description Replace DI No. Date
I have written a expression to extract what is in between Date and Article and the result is this
(?<=Date)(.|\n)*(?=Article)

6RU 999 123 S 000000093 19.01.2021
however I need to retrieve all those characters before the 4 space
6ZZ 999 123 S
This is a material number and this can be 13 or 14 characters before the 4th space.
Appreciate your support.
Sample Data
Article Number Crt.DI No. Date
6RU 999 123 S 000000093 19.01.2021
Article description Replace DI No. Date
(Please Note : There is new lines in between, these are three consecutive lines and each line is followed by an enter key)
Regards,
Manjesh

A: You can use a capture group, and use \s to match a whitespace character or a newline.
The capture group approach can be more flexible in case you want to match more than one whitespace chars or newlines after Date and a quantifier in a lookbehind assertion is not supported.
\bDate\s+(\S+(?:\s+\S+){3})[\s\S]*?\bArticle\b

See a regex demo.
Or using lookarounds to get a match only.
(?<=\bDate\s)\S+(?:\s+\S+){3}(?=[\s\S]*?\bArticle\b)

The pattern matches:

*

*(?<=\bDate\s) Positive lookbehind to assert Date to the left followed by a whitespace char that can also match a newline

*\S+ Match 1 or more non whitespace chars

*(?:\s+\S+){3}

*(?= Positive lookahead to assert that what at the right is

*

*[\s\S]*? Match any character including newlines

*\bArticle\b Match the word Article

*)  Close the lookahead

See another regex demo.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The first time you open Windows Media Player, you confront the usual Microsoft interrogation about your privacy tolerance. If it's pretty much OK with you for Microsoft to do what it wants with (anonymous) details of your Media Player habits, click Recommended and get on with your life.
Figure 18-1. When you click a label at left, the main portion of the window changes to show you your music collection, using the actual album-cover artwork as icons. It's very visual, but not especially efficient with screen space. Fortunately, you also have a more compact List view available—choose Details from the View Options pop-up menu ( ) next to the search box.
In any case, eventually, you wind up at the main Media Player screen (Figure 18-1).
Down the left side of the window is a navigation tree—a list of the music, videos, pictures, recorded TV shows, and playlists in your collection. The flippy triangles next to the major headings make it easy to collapse sections of the list. Under the Library headings, you can click Artist, Album, Genre, or whatever, to see your entire music library sorted by that criterion (Figure 18-1).


text:
Carl Oscar Westergren est un lutteur suédois né le  à Malmö et mort le  dans la même ville, spécialisé en lutte gréco-romaine.

Palmarès

Jeux olympiques
  Médaille d'or dans la catégorie des plus de  en 1932 à Los Angeles
  Médaille d'or dans la catégorie des moins de  en 1924 à Paris
  Médaille d'or dans la catégorie des moins de  en 1920 à Anvers

Championnats du monde
  Médaille d'or dans la catégorie des moins de  en 1922 à Stockholm

Championnats d'Europe
  Médaille d'or dans la catégorie des plus de  en 1931 à Prague
  Médaille d'or dans la catégorie des moins de  en 1930 à Stockholm
  Médaille d'or dans la catégorie des moins de  en 1925 à Milan
  Médaille de bronze dans la catégorie des plus de  en 1933 à Helsinki

Notes et références

Liens externes
 Profil sur l'International Wrestling Database

Naissance en octobre 1895
Naissance à Malmö
Lutteur suédois
Champion olympique suédois
Champion olympique de lutte
Champion du monde de lutte
Champion d'Europe de lutte
Lutteur aux Jeux olympiques de 1920
Lutteur aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924
Lutteur aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 1928
Lutteur aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 1932
Décès en août 1958
Décès à Malmö
Décès à 62 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Product prices and availability are accurate as of 2019-04-18 22:31:00 UTC and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on http://www.amazon.com/ at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
We are proud to offer the excellent Z ZTDM Welding Helmet Pro Solar Auto Darkening Mask Hood,Adjustable Shade Range 4/9-13,Weld/Grinding Welder Protective Gear Arc Mig Tig,CE EN379 ANSI Z87.1 New Version.
With so many available today, it is wise to have a brand you can trust. The Z ZTDM Welding Helmet Pro Solar Auto Darkening Mask Hood,Adjustable Shade Range 4/9-13,Weld/Grinding Welder Protective Gear Arc Mig Tig,CE EN379 ANSI Z87.1 New Version is certainly that and will be a superb buy.
For this price, the Z ZTDM Welding Helmet Pro Solar Auto Darkening Mask Hood,Adjustable Shade Range 4/9-13,Weld/Grinding Welder Protective Gear Arc Mig Tig,CE EN379 ANSI Z87.1 New Version is highly respected and is a regular choice with many people. Z ZTDM have added some great touches and this equals good value for money.
The Solar Powered Auto Darkening Arc Tig Mig Welding Helmet protects your eyes and face from spark, spatter and harmful radiation. It features a high quality auto-darkening lens, giving you full view of your welding area so you can dive into that project without worrying about any blind spots. Solar powered cells provide years of life under normal welding conditions. Adjustable headband allows you to adjust the fit to your own personal wearing preferences for maximum comfort. Designed to meet most demanding requirements, this welding helmet is just perfect for all welding applications.


Super location in great building located adjacent to Twin Lakes. Below market rents. Present occupancy professional use. 1 minute from I-480, 10 minutes to airport. Owner pays heat & electric in this unit. Easy to show!! Call listers.


The Mad Hatters slot game is certainly a highly playable slot game this is in fact one of the most played of all of Microgaming's bonus game awarding slots and as you will soon find out it may just become one of your personal favourites once we have enlighten you on just what this slot has to offer you.
Certified Payout Percentage – There are plenty of very high paying slot games found in all online casinos using the Microgaming software and this Mad Hatters slot is one such game, it has been designed to payout a long term payout percentage of a very generous 96.08%.
Stake Levels – You need to be aware that this slot is a 30 payline slot however you are in full control of the stakes and paylines you can play it for, you can adjust not only the paylines and the coin value settings but you can also increase the number of coins per active per payline on each spin of its five video reels you play.
Jackpot Payout – If you manage to get all five of the Wild reel symbols forming on just one single activate payline then you are going to be in the money for the jackpot payout is worth a massive 20,000 coin and that is for each single coin wagered on the winning payline.
Standard Reel Symbols – The standard reel symbols on this slot in order from the highest paying ones to the lowest paying ones are as follows: Character symbols, Tea Pot, Cakes, Tea and Cup Cake.
Scatter and Bonus Symbols – There is a Bonus symbols and a Scatter symbol in play on the reels of this slot the Bonus symbol is the Cuckoo Clock symbol and the Scatter symbol is the Rabbit in a Hat reel symbol.
Wild Symbols – The Wild symbol is obviously the Wild symbol and this has the word Wild written upon it so you cannot ever miss it spinning in.
Free Spins – If you get three, four or five of the Rabbit in a Hat Scatter symbols spinning in anywhere on the screen during just one base game spin then you will be rewarded with 10, 25 and 50 free spins respectively. But before you set the free spins into play you must first pick one of the three Mad Hatter Character symbols off the screen, and the one you pick will then be an additional Wild symbol for the duration of your free spins bonus game round.
Bonus Game – If you get three or more of the Cuckoo Clock reel symbols spinning into view then you are tasked with having to pick off one or more of them and once you have selected them by clicking on the symbols then a cash payout will be awarded to you instantly.


With the rise of touchscreen technology, it seems like handwriting is on the decline - both in everyday use and in educational settings.
According to one recent report, some British kids are even struggling to hold pens and pencils properly.
"Children are not coming into school with the hand strength and dexterity they had 10 years ago," paediatric occupational therapist Sally Payne from the Heart of England foundation NHS Trust told The Guardian.
"Children coming into school are being given a pencil but are increasingly not be able to hold it because they don't have the fundamental movement skills."
It's true that handwriting employs our hand muscles differently from the swiping and tapping motions we use to navigate the online world of today.
But when it comes to scrawling words on the page, the idea of 'correct' pencil grasp is actually way older than the iPhone - and science shows that there appears to be more than one way to correctly hold a pen.
In 1996, a handwriting research review concluded from several studies published in the 80s that "variations in handwriting grip" don't seem to be affecting how clearly or fast kids are able to write, although it recommended further testing of this idea.
A 2012 study of 120 fourth-graders revealed that amongst four basic 'mature' pencil grasp types, none came out on top as the obviously better choice.
"This finding adds to the mounting body of evidence that alternative grasps may be acceptable for fast and legible handwriting," the team concluded.
So, even if your kid is not doing a perfect 'dynamic tripod', it's not necessarily a cause for worry, and so far studies don't appear to show that touchscreens have anything to do with the development of these skills.
That said, motor dysgraphia - trouble writing due to lack of fine motor skills - is a real issue, and definitely something that parents would want to address with the help of an occupational therapist.
When people talk about the decline of handwriting, it appears that most of that is actually directed at the dying art of writing in cursive - joining up all your letters with neat swirls and loops.
But researchers and teachers don't even agree on the usefulness of learning cursive in particular, with some arguing it's great for the brain, while others claim it's outdated and unhelpful.
"One problem is that handwriting is very individual in how it develops in each child," paediatric occupational therapist Mellissa Prunty from Brunel University London told The Guardian.
"Without research, the risk is that we make too many assumptions about why a child isn't able to write at the expected age and don't intervene when there is a technology-related cause."


text:
Q: Argument "n-1" of subroutine call gives a syntax error I want to program a Tower of Hanoi solver in ABAP.
Here's my current code:
FORM SOLVE USING s1 TYPE c
             s2 TYPE c
             s3 TYPE c
             n  TYPE i.

  IF n = 1.

    "move disc from tower X to tower Y"
    WRITE:/ text-001, text-002, s1, text-003, text-002, s3.

  ELSE.

    PERFORM solve USING s1 s3 s2 n-1. "Here's my problem, n-1 doesn't work"

    PERFORM solve USING s1 s2 s3 1.

    PERFORM solve USING s2 s1 s3 n-1.

  ENDIF.

ENDFORM.

My problem:
If I chose an USING parameter like n-1, SAP recognizes it as a (not existing) structure and throws an error to me.
Is there a way to accomplish this anyway?
Thanks a lot.

A: You need add space between operator. So you need to type as n - 1. On the other hand old version ABAP not support in-line operand as function/perform parameter. If you get error, firstly assign result to new variable then pass it as parameter.

A: Here's my solution. It works pretty well. Thank your all for your useful tips.
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*& Report  ZS_SANDBOX_TOH
*&
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*&
*& Datum: 19.09.2018
*& Beschreibung: Lösungsprogramm für das Türme von Hanoi - Problem
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*

REPORT ZS_SANDBOX_TOH.

PARAMETERS: p_discs TYPE i.

CLASS myclass DEFINITION.

  PUBLIC SECTION.

    CLASS-METHODS solve IMPORTING s1 TYPE c
                                  s2 TYPE c
                                  s3 TYPE c
                                  n1 TYPE i.

ENDCLASS.

CLASS myclass IMPLEMENTATION.

METHOD solve.

  IF n1 = 1.

    WRITE:/ 'Lege Scheibe von Turm ', s1, ' auf Turm ', s3.

  ELSE.

    solve( s1 = s1
           s2 = s3
           s3 = s2
           n1 = n1 - 1 ).

    solve( s1 = s1
           s2 = s2
           s3 = s3
           n1 = 1 ).

    solve( s1 = s2
           s2 = s1
           s3 = s3
           n1 = n1 - 1 ).

  ENDIF.

ENDMETHOD.

ENDCLASS.

START-OF-SELECTION.

CALL METHOD myclass=>solve( s1 = 'A'
                            s2 = 'B'
                            s3 = 'C'
                            n1 = p_discs ).


text:
Chinese for cognitive development
Back in 1996 when I was at the International Christian University in Tokyo, I researched the effect of Japanese language on Japanese people's unique perception of colour and music, which rendered superb manipulation of packaging, design and pop music. Although my research didn't come to a conclusive answer, it did reveal a certain relationship between the uniqueness of the Japanese language (with both the kana, the Japanese alphabets, and the kanji, the Chinese characters), its sounds and intonation, and the neurological development of the people who use it.
Now, when we look at Chinese children born overseas who are learning Chinese, we naturally wonder how this bilingualism might affect their cognitive development. Two of the fundamental differences between Chinese and English are its writing system and its sound system. Let's look at the dialect of Putonghua/Mandarin.
Sounds in Putonghua (Mandarin)
There are 401 frequently used Putonghua sounds. These consist of 20 monograms, 219 digrams and 162 trigrams. We won't get into technical details here, but producing these sounds involves specific movements (positions and duration) of the tongue, the throat and the jaw. While there are 4 major intonations (more, if we count the light-tone "輕聲", er-sound "兒化聲", etc), the 4th tone takes up 40% of the total usage. This is obviously very different from the English spoken language. Will this alone make a great difference in a child's cognitive development?
Recent Studies on babies interacting with Putonghua
In 2009, extensive experiments were conducted for a study with normal and hearing-impaired children. Another 2010 UK study compared native English-speaking babies of 10-12 months old who
interacted with a real human speaking to them in Chinese Putonghua, or
watched videos of the same person speaking to them in Putonghua, or
had no exposure in Chinese as a second language.
These studies showed that exposure to Putonghua can have great impact to the neurological development of babies. Live interaction with a real person during babyhood can help a young child learn Chinese as a second language successfully even after the "window of opportunity" closes, whereas children who are merely exposed to video/audio of Chinese retain very little at a later stage. Furthermore, exposure to sounds affects the cognitive sequencing abilities of a child (any task that requires perception, learning, or memorization of events where order or timing is important) all the way past their teenage years. These studies also confirmed that the effect of linguistic experience extends beyond speech related processing and tasks.
In light of these studies, when we teach our children Chinese, we know that they will benefit far beyond learning their own culture, history, roots…. We empower them with a neurological and cognitive development that will help them leap much further in the future.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Awdlem History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
Early Origins of the Awdlem family
The surname Awdlem was first found in Cheshire at Audlem, a parish, in the union and hundred of Nantwich. Conjecturally, the surname is descended from the original tenant of Audlem, Hugh Traylebrw, who was granted the lordship of Audlem in 1066. His family were from Trelly in the canton of Montmartin-sur-Mer in Normandy. Either Hugh and his lands were 'wasted' along with many other Lordships in Cheshire by Duke William in 1069 or he may have merely been attainted. Twenty years later the tenant of the lands of Audlem or Aldelyme was Richard de Vernon who was recorded in the Domesday Book census of 1086. Richard was a powerful Earl, Audlem was not his chief holding, and it is most likely Hugh was then his under-tenant. "The Tralebews, ancestors of the family of Aldelym or Audlem, are said to have possessed the manor from the Conquest; it subsequently passed by marriage and purchase, in moieties or parts, to various owners." [1]
Important Dates for the Awdlem family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Awdlem research. Another 105 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1510, 1600 and 1535 are included under the topic Early Awdlem History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Awdlem Spelling Variations
It is only in the last few hundred years that the English language has been standardized. For that reason, Anglo-Norman surnames like Awdlem are characterized by many spelling variations. Scribes and monks in the Middle Ages spelled names they sounded, so it is common to find several variations that refer to a single person. As the English language changed and incorporated elements of other European languages such as Norman French and Latin, even literate people regularly changed the spelling of their names. The variations of the name Awdlem include Audlem, Audlam, Aldelym, Aldelyme, Aldlem, Aldim, Audland and many more.
Early Notables of the Awdlem family (pre 1700)
More information is included under the topic Early Awdlem Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Migration of the Awdlem family
Faced with the chaos present in England at that time, many English families looked towards the open frontiers of the New World with its opportunities to escape oppression and starvation. People migrated to North America, as well as Australia and Ireland in droves, paying exorbitant rates for passages in cramped, unsafe ships. Many of the settlers did not make the long passage alive, but those who did see the shores of North America were welcomed with great opportunity. Many of the families that came from England went on to make essential contributions to the emerging nations of Canada and the United States. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America carried the name Awdlem, or a variant listed above: Emma Adlem, aged 70, who arrived at Ellis Island from Red Banks, NJ, in 1924; and Emmag. Adlem, aged 62, who arrived at Ellis Island from Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1923..
Awdlem (English)


Retain24s subsidiariesPresend has previously delivered the gift card system to Olav Thon Group's Swedish shopping centres Nordby and Töcksfors. This partnership has now been extended to include all the shopping centres belonging to the Olav Thon Group in Sweden.
The Olav Thon group wanted a gift card concept that would work in all the stores across all of their shopping centres, and also in their hotels. They were looking for a dynamic and reliable system that would satisfy their requirements. The solution was to use Presend's simple, flexible and progressive system they had previous experience with.
"We look forward to working closely with the Olav Thon Group in developing their gift card brands. Gift cards are powerful tools for driving traffic when executed correctly, and Olav Thon group has great ambitions for the Swedish market." says Jon Sederqvist Østmoe, CEO at PRESEND Nordic.
Olav Thon Group operates in several sectors, primarily real estate development and hotel management. In 2013, the Group achieved a turnover of 8.3 billion NOK and employs 3,200 FTEs. The Group is owned by Olav Thon Stiftelsen. The publically listed company Olav Thon Eiendomsselskap ASA is part of the Group's real estate operations. For more information, seewww.olavthon.no and www.olt.no.
Presend Nordic AB offers smart, secure and flexible Visa/MasterCard prepaid solutions.
Use Presends solution for gift cards, dividends, claims, bonuses, discounts, promotions or other purpose of your choice. Presends cards can be redeemed at any merchant that accepts Visa/MasterCard payments, or restricted to locations of your choice. You choose where and how your card can be used.
Presend Nordic AB is a subsidiary of Retain24 Sverige AB, the leading gift card processor in the Nordic region.


Knitting classes for beginners through experts! Open classes allow anyone to sign up and drop in, without a comittment to attend for an extened period of time.
Kids classes allow students to work a projecs od their choicew with guidance froman instructor.
The shop also offers specialty yarns, knitting supplies and patterns.


This session of RSAK Classic II will play regular season games on Tuesday nights with games potentially starting at 6:20, 7:10, 8:00, and 9:00. Classic II is ideal for beginners, but is the same as Classic I in all rules. Teams will sign up for RSAK Classic on a night of their choosing in the league of their choosing, BUT, upon review, a few select teams may be moved up or down at the discretion of the league management. NOTE: We reserve the right to move your team up or down a division or league to ensure fair play and a fun atmosphere for all kickballers. In rare situations due to rain-outs or scheduling difficulties your team may have games scheduled on a different night, but the majority of your games will be scheduled on the night requested. We do our best to make up all rain outs but make no guarantees.
*Note 2: Classic+ Players are not permitted to play Classic 2 on Tuesday nights. If a Classic+ player chooses to play Classic 2 they must do so on Monday night.
Check out this Kickball league 'RSAK Classic II Spring 2019 Tuesday' with Welcome to Red Stick Area Kickball!


text:
Anil Kapoor Net Worth
What is Anil Kapoor's net worth? $12 million
How did Anil Kapoor earn his money and wealth?
Anil Kapoor is a Bollywood actor and producer who also started working on international projects in the last few years starting from 2008 when he played an important role in the Oscar Best Picture Slumdog Millionaire. He is one of the few Indian actors whose career spans over three decades now. Even after working in the film industry for so long, he is still relevant and known for his passion. Anil Kapoor made his debut with a small role in "Hamare Tumhare (1979)" film. His first Hindi film as a lead actor was "Vamsa Vruksham (1980)". The beginning of his Bollywood blockbuster film journey started in the year 1984 with the film "Pallavi Anu Pallavi."
Anil Kapoor was born in a family with a film background in Mumbai city. His father Surinder Kapoor and elder brother Boney Kapoor are both established as the acclaimed directors of the Hindi film industry. His younger brother, Sanjay Kapoor is also an actor and has starred in various film projects. He is married to Sunita Kapoor and has three children – Sonam Kapoor, Harshavardhan Kapoor, and Rhea Kapoor. Sonam is an established actress in Bollywood now. Rhea has entered Bollywood recently as a film producer, and Harshvardhan recently made his Bollywood debut. Anil completed his education in Mumbai and started his career as an actor in 1980s. He was recognized for his acting in the film "Woh 7 Din". Soon after that, he became a superstar by making the time a Golden era for Indian cinema. He delivered one super hit films after another, back to back and was heralded as the best of his time. He acted in various other commercially successful films thereafter. Some films established him as one of the most bankable actors in the industry. His remarkable and brilliant acting skills were showcased in films such as "Lamhe," "Taal," "Welcome," and "Biwi No. 1". He received a National Award for Best Actor for his remarkable performance in the patriotic film "Pukar (2000)".
With his versatile acting skills, he took the Indian cinema on the international platform in the true sense by working in Hollywood projects. His performance in "Slumdog Millionaire" made him an overnight global celebrity. He also received the honour of Academy Awards for it. Another successful Hollywood project was him appearing in "Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol" with the Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise.
The annual income for 2018 is estimated to be around Rs. 10 crores. Anil Kapoor has been in the show business for about three decades now making some big bucks. He is also known to spend it on a number of expensive, premium items. He owns a range of luxury cars and several houses and other properties. His style clearly reflects his lifestyle. He lives in a luxury bungalow in the Ville Parle of Mumbai. It is one of the most expensive and posh locations in the city. He owns dozens of properties in the Mumbai city along with some properties abroad in places like London and USA. He is a hardcore follower of car races and has been present in several car racing events in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
Apart from being an actor and a producer, another major source of Anil Kapoor's income is brand endorsements. He is engaged in the endorsement of several leading brands including the automobile giant, Renault.
What are the highest grossing movies of Anil Kapoor?
Race 3 – ₹ 3,05,15,80,000
Welcome Back – ₹ 1,68,76,70,000
DilDhadakne Do – ₹ 1,44,79,87,500
Welcome – ₹ 1,19,49,75,000
Cover Photo Courtesy: Hollywoodreporter.com
Net Worth Team Cinemaholic
Luke Perry Net Worth
Net Worth Team Cinemaholic 2
Melissa Mccarthy Net Worth
Saoirse Ronan Net Worth
Martin Freeman Net Worth


That's right! It's finally time…finally time for the Solanaceae prologue!
黎 NOTICE TO ALL NEW READERS: You need no knowledge of any prior Solanaceae related content to enjoy this comic– after all, it's a prologue! Meaning we're finally starting from the very beginning.
If anything, you're starting your journey with our horny boys at the perfect place.
Still just as sassy and smirky, lol! Can't wait!


text:
Q: how to print the heading from my appendix on the first page of an inserted pdf file I have an appendix in my document but it only consists of a large pdf file. When I do it in the following way, I get my title from the Appendix at the end of the previous page or on a new page, but not on the first page of the real appendix.
\bibliographystyle{apacite}
\bibliography{mybib}

\cleardoublepage

\begin{appendices}
    \chapter{Appendix A}
    \label{ApA}
    \includepdf[pages={1}]{EPVDP.pdf}
    \includepdf[pages={2-}]{EPVDP.pdf}
\end{appendices}

The thing is: I want to crop the first page of the pdf, in order to fit the title and the chapter title right above the 'first page'. Is this possible?

A: I think I found a solution, but it is only possible when your first page is not a full text page.
Saving the first page of the pdf as a figure and adding it in solves the problem.
\onecolumn

\begin{appendices}
    \chapter{Appendix A}
    \label{ApA}
    \begin{figure}[ht!]
        \centering
        \centerline{\epsfig{figure=firstpage.jpg,width=\textwidth,height=22cm}}
    \end{figure}
    \includepdf[pages={2-}]{EPVDP.pdf}
\end{appendices}


Recreational Therapy has become a popular component of treatment for many health fields, including mental health. The American Therapeutic Recreation Association defines it as "a treatment service designed to restore, remediate and rehabilitate a person's level of functioning and independence in life activities, to promote health and wellness as well as reduce or eliminate the activity limitations and restrictions to participation in life situations caused by an illness or disabling condition." (American Therapeutic Recreation Association, July 2009) Recreational Therapy services are provided in a variety of mental health treatment settings, including inpatient, outpatient, and residential care. Certified therapists have earned at least a bachelor's degree in the field and have passed national certification exam.


He has been working with video for the last 8 years acquiring both creative and technical expertise. Nigel previously has over 10 years experience in the software industry managing projects globally and understands the needs of businesses and how to deliver big company results.
Learn how to produce high quality video on a budget, what types of video are right for your company, equipment for your project, camera positioning and how to create a storyboard.
Learn how to produce great mobile video content using mobile devices. This introductory class will look at media capabilities on mobile as well as filming and editing techniques.
Learn how to film and edit a short video in our one-day bootcamp for your project or company.
In this practical, hands-on workshop participants will learn how to boost their marketing campaigns by producing cheap, effective video content on their smartphone.


In the wake of the 2008 banking crisis, Cathy O'Neil, a former Barnard College math professor turned hedge fund data scientist, realized that the algorithms she once believed would solve complex problems with pure logic were instead creating them at great speed and scale. Now O'Neil—who goes by mathbabe on her popular blog and 11,000-follower Twitter account—works at bringing to light the dark side of Big Data: mathematical models that operate without transparency, without regulation, and—worst of all—without recourse if they're wrong. She's the founder of the Lede Program for Data Journalism at Columbia University, and her bestselling book, Weapons of Math Destruction (Crown, 2016), was long-listed for the 2016 National Book Award.
We asked O'Neil about creating accountability for mathematical models that businesses use to make critical decisions.
Q. If an algorithm applies rules equally across the board, how can the results be biased?
Cathy O'Neil: Algorithms aren't inherently fair or trustworthy just because they're mathematical. "Garbage in, garbage out" still holds.
There are many examples: On Wall Street, the mortgage-backed security algorithms failed because they were simply a lie. A program designed to assess teacher performance based only on test results fails because it's just bad statistics; moreover, there's much more to learning than testing. A tailored advertising startup I worked for created a system that served ads for things users wanted, but for-profit colleges used that same infrastructure to identify and prey on low-income single mothers who could ill afford useless degrees. Models in the justice system that recommend sentences and predict recidivism tend to be based on terribly biased policing data, particularly arrest records, so their predictions are often racially skewed.
Q. Does bias have to be introduced deliberately for an algorithm to make skewed predictions?
O'Neil: No! Imagine that a company with a history of discriminating against women wants to get more women into the management pipeline and chooses to use a machine-learning algorithm to select potential hires more objectively. They train that algorithm with historical data about successful hires from the last 20 years, and they define successful hires as people they retained for 5 years and promoted at least twice.
They have great intentions. They aren't trying to be biased; they're trying to mitigate bias. But if they're training the algorithm with past data from a time when they treated their female hires in ways that made it impossible for them to meet that specific definition of success, the algorithm will learn to filter women out of the current application pool, which is exactly what they didn't want.
I'm not criticizing the concept of Big Data. I'm simply cautioning everyone to beware of oversized claims about and blind trust in mathematical models.
Q. What safety nets can business leaders set up to counter bias that might be harmful to their business?
O'Neil: They need to ask questions about, and support processes for, evaluating the algorithms they plan to deploy. As a start, they should demand evidence that an algorithm works as they want it to, and if that evidence isn't available, they shouldn't deploy it. Otherwise they're just automating their problems.
Once an algorithm is in place, organizations need to test whether their data models look fair in real life. For example, the company I mentioned earlier that wants to hire more women into its management pipeline could look at the proportion of women applying for a job before and after deploying the algorithm. If applications drop from 50% women to 25% women, that simple measurement is a sign something might be wrong and requires further checking.
Very few organizations build in processes to assess and improve their algorithms. One that does is Amazon: Every single step of its checkout experience is optimized, and if it suggests a product that I and people like me don't like, the algorithm notices and stops showing it. It's a productive feedback loop because Amazon pays attention to whether customers are actually taking the algorithm's suggestions.
Q. You repeatedly warn about the dangers of using machine learning to codify past mistakes, essentially, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." What is the greatest risk companies take when trusting their decision making to data models?
O'Neil: The greatest risk is to trust the data model itself not to expose you to risk, particularly legally actionable risk. Any time you're considering using an algorithm under regulated conditions, like hiring, promotion, or surveillance, you absolutely must audit it for legality. This seems completely obvious; if it's illegal to discriminate against people based on certain criteria, for example, you shouldn't use an algorithm that does so! And yet companies often use discriminatory algorithms because it doesn't occur to them to ask about it, or they don't know the right questions to ask, or the vendor or developer hasn't provided enough visibility into the algorithm for the question to be easily answered.
Q. What are the ramifications for businesses if they persist in believing that data is neutral?
O'Neil: As more evidence comes out that poorly designed algorithms cause problems, I think that people who use them are going to be held accountable for bad outcomes. The era of plausible deniability for the results of using Big Data—that ability to say they were generated without your knowledge—is coming to an end. Right now, algorithm-based decision making is a few miles ahead of lawyers and regulations, but I don't think that's going to last. Regulators are already taking steps toward auditing algorithms for illegal properties.
Whenever you use an automated system, it generates a history of its use. If you use an algorithm that's illegally biased, the evidence will be there in the form of an audit trail. This is a permanent record, and we need to think about our responsibility to ensure it's working well. D!


There will soon enough be an effort to memory-hole it, but the media coverage of the Russia investigation was abysmal and self-discrediting — obsessive and hysterical, often suggesting that the smoking gun was right around the corner, sometimes supporting its hoped-for result with erroneous, too-good-to-check reporting. Never has so little come of so many screaming chyrons. Every mini-scooplet was played up like major news, and if you went on air and said that collusion was unlikely and we should wait for the evidence, you were often treated like you were in the tank for Trump. The last two years have been a disgrace, and no one should forget it.


text:
Pomigliano d'Arco, Italy
Rayong, Thailand
Walter de'Silva at Centro Stile Alfa Romeo
Giorgetto Giugiaro (2003)
Compact executive car
4-door saloon
5-door estate
Front-engine, front-wheel-drive / four-wheel-drive (estate)
1.6 L I4 16V (TS) petrol
2.0 L I4 16V (JTS) petrol
2.5 L V6 24V petrol
1.9 L I4 t/c diesel (JTD)
5-speed semi-auto (Selespeed)
4-speed automatic (Q-System)
4,441 mm (174.8 in) (Sportwagon Q4)
4,441 mm (174.8 in) (Crosswagon Q4)
1,765 mm (69.5 in) (Crosswagon Q4)
1,430 mm (56.3 in) (Sportwagon)
1,458 mm (57.4 in) (Sportwagon Q4)
1,230–1,530 kg (2,712–3,373 lb)
The Alfa Romeo 156 (Type 932) is a compact executive car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo from 1997 to 2007 (Q4 Crosswagon was produced to the end of 2007, the 156 saloon was discontinued late in 2005 in Europe). It was introduced at the 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show as the replacement for the Alfa Romeo 155. Cars were assembled at Fiat Group factory in Pomigliano d'Arco, Italy and General Motors facility in Rayong, Thailand (production in Thailand started March 2002 and lasted couple of years, cars were targeted for Asia Pacific markets). Between 1997 and 2005, 680,000 156s were produced, a huge success for the brand.
The 156 was available in both saloon and estate 'Sportwagon' bodystyles with seven engine configurations and it went through two facelifts, first in 2002 and second in 2003. The Sportwagon advertising campaign was made with actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The 156 saloon was discontinued late in 2005 in Europe, the four-wheel drive Q4 Crosswagon was produced to the end of 2007. The 156 was replaced with 159, which also spawned the Brera, the two door coupe that replaces the Alfa Romeo GTV along with its convertible sister the new Spider. The 156 won the 1998 European Car of the Year award.
Alfa Romeo 156 Crosswagon Q4 (2004) - front view
Alfa Romeo 156 Crosswagon Q4 (2004) - rear view
At the beginning the engine range encompassed four cylinder Twin Spark (1.6 L 120 PS (88 kW), 1.8 L 144 PS (106 kW) and 2.0 L 155 PS (114 kW)) 16 valve engines with variable valve timing, along with the straight-4 1.9 litre 8-valve 105 PS (77 kW) and straight-5 2.4 litre 10-valve 136 PS (100 kW) JTD common rail turbodiesel engines. Until January 2002, the range-topping engine was the venerable double overhead camshaft 2.5 litre 24-valve Alfa Romeo V6 engine rated at 190 PS (140 kW).
Initially the 156 range was available with different options (packs) like a sport pack that could include either Blitz clothing, Momo leather interior or Recaro seats, it also included 16-inch (410 mm) wheels, lowered suspension and leather steering wheel and gear knob. There was also available Lusso pack with Momo's mahogany steering wheel and gear knob and for Nordic countries special winter pack consisting of fog lights, headlight washers and heated seats.
Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon 2.0 JTD (2003)
Starting from 1999 five-speed Selespeed sequential transmission came as an option to 2.0 litre Twin Spark version and four-speed automatic Q-System to 2.5 litre V6 version, the Q-system can be used as normal automatic or shift manually with H-pattern, it has three automatic modes: city, sport and ice.
A significant addition to the 156 range was the Sportwagon estate in 2000, a first attempt at an estate car of this size for the company. Sportwagon was also available with Boge-Nivomat self-levelling hydropneumatic rear suspension. The Sportwagon was marketed as lifestyle estate without large carrying capacity. The Sportwagon bodystyle filled a gap in the market that Alfa Romeo had distanced themselves from since the 33 SportWagon of the 1980s.
In 2001 engines were upgraded, engines complied with Euro3 norm and outputed 120 PS (88 kW) (1.6 L), 140 PS (100 kW) (1.8 L), 150 PS (110 kW) (2.0 L) and 192 PS (141 kW) (2.5 L).
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4 JTD (2003)
The 156 was designed by Alfa Centro Stile under control of head designer Walter de'Silva. Its distinctive style included high curved flanks, retro styled front door handles, hidden rear door handles, and a dramatic deep grille, which necessitated a highly unusual off-centre licence plate holder. The car was one of the first saloons to feature hidden rear door handles and prominent front door handles to give it a coupé look. The design was influenced by three historical Alfa Romeo models: the 1900, the Giulietta and the Giulia. The 156 achieved a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.31.
The 1998 original interior builds on a benchmark set by Alfa Romeo in their previously released Alfa Romeo 166, with a deeply scalloped upper dashboard and simple centre console. All of the main controls and displays are angled towards the driver in typical Italian sports car style, although this can sometimes be awkward for passengers who will struggle to see the interior clock. Despite being a family car, the interior design lacks cup holders, which normally come standard in saloons. Typically, for a smaller executive car, there is ample room up front for the driver and passenger to sit comfortably, with very comfortable seats. However, rear seat passengers may find the design restrictive in overall room. The 156 is a car for four people, rather than five, although later models did add a full centre seatbelt in place of the lap belt in earlier models.
2002 saw an update to both the interior and exterior of the 156.
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4 JTD (2003) dashboard
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4 JTD (2003) seat
Platform and suspension
The 156 uses a platform derived from the Alfa Romeo 155, which in turn was derived from the Fiat Group's "Tipo" platform. However it is sufficiently different from the original "Tipo" one to be seen as a new platform. The 156 is a highly-developed front-wheel drive car; (the Cross/Sportwagon Q4 offered four-wheel drive in left-hand drive markets) with a double high wishbone front suspension and MacPherson strut system rear suspension, which consists of a telescopic vertical strut with coaxial spring and two transverse links of different lengths and a longitudinal strut. This structure means that the rear wheels have a tiny passive steering ability. Weight saving material (aluminium) has been used in several parts both front and rear suspension. The weight saving materials were also used in many other parts like magnesium framed front seats.
2002 facelift (first series)
2002 also saw the arrival of a facelifted interior with different matte-finish surfacing and chrome highlights. New version used the 147's dual-zone digital climate control, the interior climate could also be controlled via air quality sensor. A different choice of colours were available for the interior, with the option of a two-tone interior very much like that BMW were introducing at the time. A wider range of options including xenon lighting, tele-informatics (CONNECT and CONNECT NAV) and a Bose stereo system were available, the stereo system could now also be operated via buttons on the steering wheel. Also the Selespeed gearbox control system was updated, buttons at steering wheel were replaced by paddle shifters, like seen earlier on the Alfa Romeo 147. In the center console was added multifunctional display with trip computer, fault and service monitor. Also electronic stability control VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control) with an emergency brake assist device and slip control ASR (Anti Slip Regulation) came as standard. Also a MSR (Motor Schleppmoment Regelung) was added to the car, this device prevents wheel skidding by restoring torque to the engine for example when the gear is shifted down abruptly under conditions of low grip. Passive safety was also made better, all versions got window airbags as standard. The 2.0 L JTS 165 PS (121 kW) gasoline direct injection engine replaced the 2.0 litre Twin Spark engine, offering more low end torque and more power than the Twin Spark, diesel engines were also uprated. Only notable difference exterior-wise was body coloured mirrors and bumper strips which were earlier black.
2003 facelift (second series)
Late 2003 saw the launch of a facelifted 156, with new front and rear fascias designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. To the top of range was added new TI trim level (Turismo Internazionale) designating a sporty kit, this version was equipped with modified suspension, bigger wheels (215/45 17") and leather-trimmed interior. This mid-life facelift divided opinion with some preferring the prettier pre-facelift look with others singing the praises of the newer more aggressive demeanour of the latter models. The GTA models never received the exterior update. Diesel engines underwent a major re-working, new four valve per cylinder heads were added, second stage common rail injection with 1400 bar maximum injection pressure with up to five injections per cycle for lower noise, consumption and higher performance. They were rated at 140/150 PS (103/110 kW) for straight-4 1.9 litre 16-valve and 175 PS (129 kW) for straight-5 2.4 litre 20-valve.
Original version (black mirrors and bumper strips)
2002 facelift version (body colored mirrors and bumper strips)
New front in second series (2003) Sportwagon
Rear end in 2002 facelift version
New rear end in second series (2003)
2004 Q4 variants
156 Crosswagon Q4
In 2004, Q4 (short for Quadrifoglio 4) four-wheel drive versions arrived to some markets, which were known as the Crosswagon Q4 and Sportwagon Q4 (both using the 1.9 L 150 PS (110 kW) JTD diesel engine).
These cars were equipped with a Torsen C four-wheel drive system and raised ride heights (Crosswagon height: 1,497 mm (58.9 in), Sportwagon 1,458 mm (57.4 in)). The Crosswagon version was made to look more like all-terrain vehicle; door sill aluminium protection, front and rear bumpers were equipped with aluminium inserts. The Sportwagon Q4 was a normal looking version with just slightly higher ground clearance than the front wheel drive Sportwagon.
The Sportwagon Q4 was only available in LHD markets, with no RHD models being built or sold.
GTA version
In September 2001, the 156 GTA and Sportwagon GTA were launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The GTA was named after the Alfa Romeo GTA from the 1960s, the letters GTA meaning Gran Turismo Alleggerita (English: lightened Grand Tourer). Even though the name suggests a light car, the GTA isn't any lighter than base 156. It was actually 91 kilograms (201 lb) heavier than 2.5 litre V6 engined version. 2,973 berlinas and 1,678 SWs were built.
With its 3.2 litre engine its easy to get very varying fuel consumption figures, the EC urban fuel consumption is 15.6 miles per imperial gallon (18.1 L/100 km; 13.0 mpg-US) and combined 23.3 mpg-imp(12.1 L/100 km; 19.4 mpg-US), extra-urban consumption is 32.8 mpg-imp (8.6 L/100 km; 27.3 mpg-US).
The very first GTA was sold on-line auction from September 13 to 23, the duration of the Frankfurt Motor Show. Winning bid was 48,691.26 euros, which was donated to "Telethon" charity fund. Equipped with a 3.2 litre V6 with six-speed manual transmission or six-speed Selespeed (paddles in steering wheel, hydraulically operated clutchless manual gearbox), the GTA variants were aimed at the performance market. The GTA variants boasted 250 PS (180 kW), had a lowered and stiffened suspension, a distinctive body kit and leather interior. The suspension was specifically made for the GTA by Fiat Research Centre and Fiat Auto Design and Development Department. Steering was also made faster, only 1.7 turns from lock to lock compared to 2.1 in normal models. The GTA had also much bigger brakes (Brembo), at front 305 millimetres (12 in) discs and rear 276 millimetres (10.8 in). The front discs were later updated to 330 millimetres (13 in). The GTA subsequently stopped production in October 2005 citing the upcoming replacement to the 156, the Alfa Romeo 159.
Year production
Model year changes
2002 facelift
Crosswagon/Sportwagon Q4
The 156 offered various engines and power levels during its lifespan, four and six cylinder petrol engines and four and five cylinder diesel engines, all produced at Pratola Serra except the V6 engine, which was produced at Alfa Romeo's Arese plant. The 1.9 JTD diesel was world's first common rail diesel engine in a passenger car.
Alfa Romeo 156 GTA 3.2 V6 engine
Alfa Romeo 156 V6 24v engine
Disp.
Max. power output
0–100 km/h
Petrol engines
I4 TS
1,598 cc (97.5 cu in)
16 DOHC VVT
120 PS (88 kW; 118 hp) at 6,300 rpm
144 Nm (106 lbft) at 4,500 rpm
10.5 s
200 km/h (124 mph)
1,747 cc (106.6 cu in)
16 DOHC VVT VLIM
144 PS (106 kW; 142 hp) at 6,500 rpm
I4 2BS TS
1,970 cc (120 cu in)
I4 2BS DI
2.5 Q-System
24 DOHC
3.2 GTA
Note: 2.0 TS, 2.0 JTS and GTA Selespeed versions have same performance statistics as manual transmission.
8 SOHC
1.9 M-Jet
10 SOHC
Second facelift
Note (*): Crosswagon Q4 topspeed is 192 km/h (119 mph) and acceleration 0–100 km/h (62,5 mph) is 10.5 seconds, for Sportwagon Q4 numbers are 200 km/h (124 mph) and 10.2 seconds.
Special versions
Alfa Romeo 156 GTAm
The Alfa Romeo 156 GTAm was shown at Bologna Motor Show in December 2002. The car was built by Fiat Group's partner N.Technology. The GTA 3,179 cc (3.2 L; 194.0 cu in) engine was bored to 3,548 cc (3.5 L; 216.5 cu in) and power pushed to 300 PS (220 kW). The car had widened wheel arches, 19 inch tyres and was equipped with N.Technology limited slip differential. This car never reached production phase.
Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon GTA 3.5 Autodelta
At the 2004 Geneva Motor Show was unveiled Autodelta (Italian company) built 156 Sportwagon prototype equipped with a 3,548 cc (3.5 L; 216.5 cu in) V6 engine that develops 300 brake horsepower (220 kW) at 6800 rpm. The car was fitted with Bilstein adjustable shock absorbers and Eibach springs. The Brembo made front brakes had a diameter of 330 millimetres (13 in). The car was made lighter by using composite material to the bonnet.
Alfa Romeo 156 GTA 3.7 V6
Alfa Romeo 156 GTA Autodelta (2004)
London (United Kingdom) based aftermarket tuning company Autodelta made also two high performance versions based on 156 GTA, in GTA AM version Alfa Romeo V6 engine was bored to 3,750 cc (3.8 L; 228.8 cu in), which was capable to push 328 PS (241 kW) at 7300 rpm. With this power car can reach top speed of 280 kilometres per hour (175 mph). The other one GTA AM Super was "upgrade" to the first version, now fitted with Rotrex supercharger and pushing out 400 PS (290 kW).
In 1998, an international jury of 56 journalists (40 of whom voted for the 156) representing 21 countries awarded the Alfa 156 the European Car of the Yearaward; it was described as having a "very refined suspension layout so to offer an impeccable roadholding". The 2.5 V6 engine was awarded with the International Engine of the Year award in 2000. The 156 has won more than 35 awards, including:
Technical Innovation Award - Common Rail 1998 - (Autocar - Great Britain)
Best Compact Executive 1998 - (What Car? - Great Britain)
Best Compact Executive Car 1998 - (Auto Express - Great Britain)
Die Besten Autos 1998, Paul Pietsch Preis - Innovation prize for Common Rail, (Auto, Motor und Sport - Germany)
Auto 1 Europa 1998 - (Panel of engineers, drivers and journalists from the 11 European magazines headed by Auto Bild)
Auto Trophy 1998 - (Auto Zeitung - Germany)
Trophee Du Design 1998 - (Automobile Magazine - France)
European Award for Automotive Design in Belgium 1998
Car of the Year in Denmark, Spain, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal, France and Croatia 1998
Car of the Year in South Africa 1999 (South African Guild of Motoring Journalists)
Prix de l'Innovation Technique pour le Common Rail 1997 (France)
L'automobile più bella del mondo ("The most beautiful car in the world") in Italy 1997
Alfa Romeo 156, driven by N.Technology driver James Thompson, during the 2007 WTCC round at Curitiba
The Alfa Romeo 156 was as well vested in motorsport as its predecessor, the 155. It ran in the British Touring Car Championship as well as various European championships, most notably the WTCC and formerly the ETCC where it was especially successful. The 156 sports car program was run by Fiat Group's partner N.Technology S.p.A., originally founded as Nordauto Squadra Corse to compete in Italian Touring Car Championship. In 1994 name was changed to Nordauto Engineering and 2001 to N.Technology. In 1998 Alfa Romeo also offered for sale the 156 Group N version for the track. The 156 Group N had no carpets, seats or upholstery, but included additional track safety devices. The 156 has won the following titles:
David Pinkney driving an Alfa Romeo 156 at the Snetterton round of the 2007 British Touring Car Championship
Mattias Andersson driving an Alfa Romeo 156 at the Mantorp round of the 2009 Swedish Touring Car Championship
1998 Italian Super Touring Car Championship - Alfa Romeo 156 D2, Fabrizio Giovanardi
2000 European Super Touring Car Cup Winner - Alfa Romeo 156 D2, Fabrizio Giovanardi
2001 FIA European Touring Car Championship - Alfa Romeo 156 D2, Fabrizio Giovanardi
2002 FIA European Touring Car Championship - Alfa Romeo 156 GTA Super 2000, Fabrizio Giovanardi
2003 FIA European Touring Car Championship – Alfa Romeo 156 GTA Super 2000, Gabriele Tarquini
The Alfa Romeo straight-4 Twin Spark racing engine used in 156 in European Touring Car Championship
Specifications for touring car versions:
Alfa Romeo 156 D2
310 PS (228 kW; 306 hp) at 8200 rpm
Alfa Romeo 156 GTA Super 2000
Alfa Romeo 156 Super 2000
Coloni S1 Alfa Romeo 156
Alfa Romeo 156 Coloni S1
Italian race car constructor Coloni made a one-off racing car prototype for FIA Group-E Formula Libre called the Coloni S1 Alfa Romeo 156, or 156 Maxiturismo. The car is a carbon fibre silhouette racing car on a tubular frame, powered by a 3.0 litre Alfa Romeo V6 engine producing between 380 bhp (280 kW) and 500 bhp (370 kW). The car has a 6-speed Hewland-Coloni sequential gearbox and weighs around 900 kilograms (2,000 lb). It is capable of achieving over 310 kilometres per hour (190 mph).
Back to Alfa Romeo
Last updated on 18 April 2014 at 13:15.
Labels: 1990 2000 Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo 156 Historic Models Italian Car Sedan Wagon


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ESG Improves Facilities and Reduces Costs at Lincoln Elementary School District #156
September 25, 2009 16:09 ET | Source: Energy Systems Group
CALUMET CITY, IL--(Marketwire - September 25, 2009) - Students of Lincoln Elementary District #156 now have a new and enhanced playground and will benefit from a number of building renovations. The renovations were completed by Energy Systems Group (ESG), a specialized energy service provider, and will provide the school district with over $52,400 in energy and operational savings annually.
The renovation of the east playground area included improvements to the drainage system, and a new, smooth, play surface which improves drainage and utilization by the district. In addition, the SMARTE fall protection pads installed around the play equipment result in the highest possible fall protection rating commercially available.
In addition to the new playground, Energy Systems Group has implemented a number of energy efficiency measures. Key facility upgrades provided by ESG's Chicago-based team include two new heat exchangers for roof top units, lighting occupancy sensors throughout the school district, window and door replacements in the elementary school wing, roof replacement and repair, and new flooring in three classrooms.
"The Lincoln School leadership is dedicated to providing our students with quality resources and facilities," said Dr. Darryl Taylor, school superintendent. "The renovations and new equipment installed will not only improve our students' learning environment, but will further position our school district towards becoming green and more energy efficient."
"We commend Lincoln Elementary District on this innovative collaboration to upgrade their buildings and playground, thereby enhancing their students' educational environment and comfort, while reducing their energy costs and carbon footprint," said Dan Legler, ESG account executive.
Energy Systems Group (ESG) is an award-winning energy services company that specializes in delivering sustainable energy solutions which allow building owners to maximize their energy efficiency and operational performance, while reducing their carbon footprint. Through its core business of performance contracting, Energy Systems Group provides customers with innovative energy efficiency, technology, and long-term financing solutions for modernization of their facilities and energy infrastructure. Renewable energy solutions and assets are adding a whole new dimension to the company's growth. To learn more about Energy Systems Group, visit www.energysystemsgroup.com.
Contact Information: Contact: Meram El Ramahi Marketing Communications Manager 812-492-3734
Energy Systems Group


text:
Why Shia LaBeouf's Latest Stunt Is a Work of Genius
Marathon screening of star's complete filmography — with livestream of LaBeouf watching — proves 'Transformers' star isn't crazy after all
By David Ehrlich
David Ehrlich
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Shia LaBeouf at the #ALLMYMOVIES event, in which the star livestreams himself watching all of his movies in reverse order at New York's Angelika Theater.
Employees at Manhattan's Angelika Film Center had been warned about what was going to happen, but they didn't know when it would start. And then, at noon on Tuesday afternoon, part-time actor and full-time agent of chaos Shia LaBeouf settled into an aisle seat in the theater's smallest auditorium and began to watch — in reverse chronological order — all of the 27 feature films in which he's appeared over the span of his career. The marathon event began with Dito Montiel's brand new, yet-to-be-released Man Down; it'll end 58 consecutive hours later when the credits roll on 1998's Breakfast with Einstein, around 10pm on Thursday night. What LaBeouf is attempting would be an act of extreme masochism for any performer, let alone someone who's starred in three different Transformers movies.
Once thought to be an innocuous goofball who parlayed a broad comic charm into a blockbuster-star career, the 29-year-old seemed to grow profoundly disoriented towards the end of 2014, as if he realized that fame was a minotaur's maze in which he'd lost his way. But this hasn't been your average episode of Behind the Music; LaBeouf's curiously counterintuitive attempts to escape from the public eye have been far more artful than any of the things he did to put himself in it. Everyone thought he was having a nervous breakdown. Now his meltdown increasingly seems more like a calculated plan to confront — and perhaps destroy — the modern concept of celebrity.
Unsurprisingly, LaBeouf's latest stunt was revealed to be a new piece of performance art called #ALLMYMOVIES, a new work from the actor's arts collective (his collaborators Luke Turner and Nastja Säde Rökkö could be seen scrambling through the foyer; they officially declined to comment for this piece). Complemented by an unblinking live-stream of the actor's face and brought to life by an open invitation for the public to drop by for as long as they want, the "installation" mixes equal parts Christian Marclay, Marina Abramovic, and David Blaine — an event fueled by the same electrical storm of fame that it ultimately exists to embarrass and dismantle.
Rolling Stone arrived just after 1pm on Wednesday and found all the fanfare that you'd expect at a movie screening on a rainy weekday afternoon. Two guards stood outside the door to the auditorium, and the piercing beeps from their security wands announced the arrival of each new attendee. Inside, twenty-odd twentysomethings were watching a melodramatic WWII drama (Fury) in reverent silence; someone sitting towards the front had a large camera pointing directly at his face.
Why Shia LaBeouf's Latest Stunt Is a Work of Genius, Page 1 of 3
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