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Tag Archives: Peter Dutton
Picture: Claudia BaxterSource:News Corp Australia
In May 2019, newly-elected Prime Minister Scott Morrison removed responsibility for the Immigration portfolio from Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, and gave it to David Coleman. The portfolio, renamed Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, remains under the umbrella of Home Affairs, and Dutton is the senior Minister.
In the matter of the family from Biloela, currently incarcerated on Christmas Island waiting for the court to decide their fate this week, Minister Coleman has had little or nothing to say even though he is directly responsible. All commentary has been handled by Dutton, despite Coleman having the same ministerial powers, and the same legal right to exercise the ministerial discretion that would allow the family to stay.
(A quick recap if you've been out of touch lately. Minister Dutton attempted to secretly deport Priya, Nadesalingam and their Australian-born children Kopika and Tharunicaa under cover of darkness last week. An urgent injunction forced their plane, en route to Sri Lanka, to land in Darwin, from where they were transferred to Christmas Island.)
Ministerial discretion is a legal option that allows a minister to grant visas even if the court has declared the applicants are not refugees. It also permits the minister to intervene in the matter of, for example, European au pairs arriving in Australia on a Sunday afternoon with the wrong visa, ensuring the au pairs are released from immigration detention and sped on their way to employers with the clout to get Dutton out on a weekend.
Minister Coleman is well aware of the dangers that await the family in Sri Lanka, as this tweet from four months ago confirms:
David Coleman knows how dangerous Sri Lanka is @DavidColeman – time to grow a pair. #HomeToBiloela #BringThemHome pic.twitter.com/GD6VK2jelm
— 💧💧Jasmine MacDonald (@JasmineQuilter) September 3, 2019
It appears that Coleman has been gagged by Dutton, preventing him from publicly commenting on the current situation despite the fact that calls to Dutton's office regarding the family are being diverted to Coleman's office.
Coleman is also copping considerable ridicule on social media, with people referring to him as "OfDutton" and suggesting that he is "Under his eye." It does seem as if Coleman is being forced to handle the brunt of public displeasure, while being temporary stripped of all ministerial authority and capacity to respond or act.
No doubt if this entire situation goes pear-shaped, Coleman will be held responsible for that as well, leaving Dutton with plausible deniability.
A report in The Guardian suggests tension between Coleman and Dutton, with the former "committed" to ensuring the family are permitted to stay in their community, as opposed to his senior minister's hardline approach that will see them refouled to Sri Lanka:
Multiple sources have indicated to the Guardian that the immigration minister, David Coleman, is inclined – one source said "committed" – towards allowing the family to stay, but that he has been consistently overruled by the senior minister in the department, the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, who is adamant the family has extinguished its appeal avenues and must, by law, leave the country.
An annual employment census has ranked Home Affairs as the worst agency for staff engagement across the Australian public service. Thousands of public servants have expressed their wish to work elsewhere.
Almost 40% of those surveyed have applied for other jobs.
36% want to leave the department in the next six months.
Harassment, bullying, poor communication and substandard leadership are cited as some of the causes of employee discontent. It could well be that Coleman is a high profile victim of just such behaviour from his master.
It seems that the Home Affairs department is in something of a turmoil, which begs the question, how can this mega department satisfactorily carry out its multitude of duties, including overseeing every Australian intelligence agency and the AFP, when struggling with internal chaos and discord between its two Ministers?
That Home Affairs is such a toxic workplace should be a cause for serious concern and urgent action.
Peter Dutton has questions to answer. But don't hold your breath. He's a protected species and likely more powerful than the Prime Minister himself.
Tags: asylum seekers, Biloela Family, Bullying, David Coleman, Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, Sri Lanka
Categories Politics, Society
Press Freedom & the AFP Raids.
This piece was first published at Independent Australia.
In April 2018, Sun-Herald journalist Annika Smethurst reported that The Australian Signals Directorate(whose somewhat disturbing motto is, Reveal their secrets. Protect our own)was seeking expanded powers to spy on Australian citizens without their knowledge.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton dismissed Smethurst's report as nonsense, while in an apparent contradiction of his Minister's assessment department head, Mike Pezzullo, immediately referred the "nonsensical" report to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.
On June 4, 2019, some fourteen months after Pezzullo referred the matter to police, the AFP conducted a raid on Smethurst's home, armed with warrants to seize her phone and computer. The raid is described as "brutish" by news.com.aupolitical editor, Malcolm Farr, who also demands that whoever ordered it should be held to account.
Whoever ordered this brutish intrusion should be held to account.
@newscomauHQ https://t.co/L3lIAeFGqW
— Malcolm Farr (@farrm51) June 4, 2019
Interestingly, the raid was on the journalist's home, and not the offices of the Sun-Herald. Perhaps raiding the offices of the media company that worked so hard to re-elect the LNP government is a bridge too far at this time?
The AFP confirmed the raid in the following statement:
"The Australian Federal Police (AFP) can confirm it has executed a search warrant at a residence in the ACT suburb of Kingston today.
"The matter relates to an investigation into the alleged unauthorised disclosure of national security information that was referred to the AFP.
"Police will allege the unauthorised disclosure of these specific documents undermines Australia's national security.
That the AFP took fourteen months to act on a matter of national security after a complaint from the head of the Home Affairs department, ought to give us pause for speculation as to its motivations.
That the raid took place only a couple of weeks after the Morrison government gained re-election, having apparently been staved off for fourteen months despite the enormity of the threat to national security, should also give us pause for thought.
While the outrage subsequently expressed by many journalists at this sequence of events is entirely valid, the irony of such outrage ought not to be lost on those outside the profession who have watched with deepening alarm as the LNP government, with the full co-operation of the Labor opposition, has rushed increasingly draconian surveillance legislation through the parliament, largely unremarked upon by many in the fourth estate. Indeed, escalating government surveillance of citizens has frequently been justified by Smethurst's employer, News Corp Australia,under the over-arching banner of "national security."
Where, one wonders, have these outraged journalists been during the passage of this recent legislation, particularly the foreign interference bill passed in June 2108with amendments by Labor that do little to protect journalists from imprisonment, and nothing at all to protect whistle-blowers?
What, one wonders, did journalists imagine the government was going to do with the 2018 legislation? Apply it to everyone other than themselves?
That so many journalists are outraged and shocked by the Smethurst raid confirms what many of us have long suspected – they are too close to power, believe themselves to be untouchable, and are disinclined to give much consideration to the ways in which extreme and unnecessary legislation can affect those not of their profession, including the whistle blowers they depend on as their sources.
In March 2018 the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed astonishment at the Turnbull government's "anti-democratic slide," citing "mounting evidence of regressive measures" being pursued by the government. As an example, the then proposed laws to keep government information secret, and punish whistle-blowers, is highlighted. Those proposed laws, with their threats to journalism and its sources, were actualised in June 2018. As noted on Twitter, no media outlet bothered to cover the UN report.
#WithoutTwitter I wouldn't know the UN released a report last week noting Australia's 'astonishing' anti-democratic slide under the Turnbull Govt. I wouldn't know this because no mainstream media has reported it – which kinda proves the UN's point 🤔 #auspol
— 💧🌏 Denise Shrivell (@deniseshrivell) March 5, 2018
Does the industry deserve our sympathy when laws they've largely ignored are turned against them?
Let's not forget as well that several media outlets, including Fairfax, actively collaborated with the LNP government to dox a Centrelink clientwho dared to publicly criticise that department. The woman involved did not threaten our national security. She simply went public about her treatment at the hands of a government agency. Media outlets showed no compunction in publishing personal information released to them by then Human Services Minister, Alan Tudge. Echoing Malcolm Farr's reaction to the Smethurst raid, this doxxing was a brutish intervention for which neither Tudge nor the compliant media was ever held to account.
Does the industry deserve our sympathy when the government finally turns its weapons on them?
News Corp Australia, widely regarded as the propaganda arm of the LNP,yesterday issued a thundering statement defending the public's "right to know," an attitude that is conspicuously absent from the great majority of News Corps output, unless it concerns the public's right to know about hapless individuals who fall foul of that organisation, women they don't like, and welfare recipients. For the Murdoch press to take a stand against governmental surveillance is a notable occurrence.
"The Australian public's right to know information about government laws that could impact their lives is of fundamental importance in our society.
"This raid demonstrates a dangerous act of intimidation towards those committed to telling uncomfortable truths. The raid was outrageous and heavy handed.
"News Corp Australia has expressed the most serious concerns about the willingness of governments to undermine the Australian public's right to know about important decisions Governments are making that can and will impact ordinary Australian citizens.
"What's gone on this morning sends clear and dangerous signals to journalists and newsrooms across Australia. This will chill public interest reporting."
It cannot and should not be denied that the AFP raid on a journalist's home following a complaint made by the head of Home Affairs is a deeply concerning turn of events. That News Corps Australia is the victim of the intervention is proof that contrary to popular belief, irony is not dead. Having worked so hard to ensure the Morrison government's victory on May 18, 2019, it must be rather galling to find oneself the subject of an AFP onslaught. However, the AFP was considerate in focusing its primary attention on the journalist's home, and not the organisation's offices.
Many in the media might take this opportunity to quietly contemplate much of the public's reaction to this assault on journalistic freedom. We have laughed. We have mocked. We have said, with one voice, it serves you right. Why did you think you'd be exempt, we've asked. We've said, you've consistently let us down in our expectation that you will do your job of speaking truth to power, and now we don't care if power comes after you.
In a country in which the media is doing its job, citizens will defend the fourth estate. In Australia, citizens do not generally tend to view the media as our allies. That our first reaction is to guffaw at the AFP raid on a News Corp journalist says everything about the parlous state of relations between much of our media and its consumers. There are a very few notable exceptions. Not enough, sadly, to rescue the reputation of the profession as a whole and ensure our support in its hour of need.
Tags: AFP, Annika Smethurst, Australian Signals Directorate, LNP Government, Mike Pezzullo, News Corp Australia, Peter Dutton, Press Freedom, Social media, Whistleblowers
Categories Media, Politics
Russian whistleblower denied asylum in Australia
In 2006, British contractor Nick Stride was hired to work on the refurbishment of a palace under construction for Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, on his estate outside Moscow. The project included the construction of a luxurious greenhouse known as the "Wintergarden," and the cost of the refurbishment is thought to be in excess of $140 million.
Shuvalov is widely regarded as one of the more "liberal" of President Putin's close associates, a "counterpoint" to the hardliners dominant in the Kremlin. He is credited with strengthening business relations between the US and Russia, improving the problematic reputation of Russia's international commerce, and is thought to enjoy a good relationship with Putin.
Using the pseudonym "Lucas," Stride blew the whistle on Shuvalov's complex web of financial manipulations, including dubious transactions and avoidance of customs tax on materials imported to refurbish the estate and construct the greenhouse. "Lucas" provided relevant documents to journalist and author, Michael Weiss, including copies of invoices. The labyrinthine details of Shuvalov's financial arrangements for the refurbishment of his estate can be seen here in a marvellously complex account written by Weiss for Foreign Policy, an account for which Stride was the source.
In 2010, Nick Stride and his family were threatened with "severe consequences" should they ever attempt to leave Russia, because of his extensive knowledge of Shuvalov's business dealings. Fearing for their lives, the family escaped Russia and fled to Britain. However, believing they were still far too vulnerable to Russian retribution, Stride brought his family to Australia, where they requested political asylum.
A Refugee Review Tribunal Assessor found the danger they feared to be real, yet despite this assessment, their plea for asylum was rejected in 2012. Successive immigration ministers have refused to intervene to prevent the family's deportation. Stride and his children will be deported to Britain, while his wife and their mother, Ludmila Kovateva, will be sent by Immigration Minister David Coleman to Russia. Ludmila faces almost certain execution in her home country, as retaliation by Shuvalov for her husband's exposure of his financial affairs to US media.
On Thursday 17 January, Michael Weiss posted several tweets, appealing for Australian legal assistance for the Stride family, and revealing Nick, with his permission, as his source, "Lucas."
[THREAD] So this is a very unusual but extremely important thread for me, brought on by urgent appeals for help by someone in immediate danger and who has asked for my help. I hope you'll give it attention:
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) January 16, 2019
And here is a write-up of his current immigration problems: https://t.co/oYDIb5mA6f pic.twitter.com/McqTnYWkIH
Are there any attorneys in Australia willing to take on this case? Nick has emailed me asking for any help I can provide him. Please email me at macspaunday [at] https://t.co/EvJwmjklAU if so. Thanks.
Also Using Twitter to bring the Stride family's perilous situation to public global notice is financier and economist Bill Browder, perhaps best known for his successful lobbying of the US government to pass into law the Magnitsky Act, legislation that authorises the US government to sanction human rights offenders, freezing their assets and denying them entry to the country. Browder is also the author of "Red Notice,"an account of Browder's own experience of falling foul of Putin, his deportation from Russia and his relationship with Magnitsky who was both his lawyer and his friend.
There's a very ugly situation brewing in Australia. A whistleblower who exposed Russian deputy prime minister Shuvalov's unimaginable wealth is about about to be deported from Australia and his Russian wife will be sent back to Russia to her potential death. Getting more info now https://t.co/rQm8jspgMo
— Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) January 16, 2019
The only coverage of the Stride family's situation by Australian media this writer has been able to find appears to be this piece in the West Australian dated March, 2018. That isn't to say coverage doesn't exist and any links will be appreciated. This is a story of immense interest, given the current global political situation, and it's inexplicable why the mainstream media aren't all over it.
The people going into bat for the Stride family against the intransigent Australian Immigration Minister know of what they speak. Weiss is an authority on Russia, and specifically, its propaganda. Browder conducted a highly successful financial career in Russia before being deported. He has also testified to the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US Presidential election. Their concern for Nick Stride, Ludmila Kovateva and their children is palpable. And yet, the Australian Immigration Minister, undoubtedly supported by Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, continue to refuse asylum to this family.
And why are the mainstream media apparently uninterested in the family's fate?
Since this article was first published this background piece on the Stride family was run by the ABC
This article was first published at Independent Australia.
Tags: asylum seekers, Bill Browder, DIBP, Foreign Policy, Michael Weiss, Minister David Coleman, Nick Stride, Peter Dutton
Turnbull, the self-made man. Seriously?
I am an ambitious person, but I am not ambitious in the sense that I want jobs only for the sake of them… I am here to do things I think are worthwhile. I am always careful that the political positions I take are consistent with good policy. I would not want to be prime minister of Australia at any price.
A couple of days ago in The Weekend Australian, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton made an appeal for Australians to "guard against compassion" in the matter of refugees and asylum seekers held in offshore detention. I've written about this in some depth here at Independent Australia.
Yesterday, we heard from various members of the LNP that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is a shining example of the virtues of coming from tough beginnings, working hard and making a lot of money. This was in response to an advertisement authorised by the ALP, questioning how much the Prime Minister will personally gain from tax cuts his party introduced that benefit the so-called "big end of town." According to the ABC report:
The ads state the Prime Minister has "millions invested in funds which hold shares in dozens of big businesses which would benefit from the tax cut".
Labor also released analysis of Mr Turnbull's financial interests register, showing he indirectly owns shares in 32 companies worth over $50 million.
"Who exactly is he looking after?" the ads asks.
Predictably the LNP, supported by friendly media, have worked as hard as Turnbull to confect outrage at the "personal nature" of the ALP ad. This reaction is enormously funny for several reasons,not least that just last week Turnbull personally attacked Labor's Tanya Plibersek, and yes, irony is dead, buried and cremated:
Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has been labelled a snob, after attacking Labor's Tanya Plibersek as a phony battler living in a millionaire household. @Riley7News #7News pic.twitter.com/Rxxk3jWzEF
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) June 19, 2018
Turnbull then appealed for the public compassion Peter Dutton says we must not feel for refugees, claiming that the ALP was opposed to him and Lucy "having a quid."
"They want to attack me having a quid," he told reporters in Canberra.
"They want to attack me and Lucy for working hard, investing, having a go, making money, paying plenty of tax, giving back to the community."
The rags to riches Turnbull fairly tale is just that. Here's a couple of facts:
By the time Turnbull was in Year 10 and a long-term boarder at Sydney Grammar, his father Bruce was doing well enough to purchase a luxurious three-bedroom apartment in Point Piper, not far from Malcolm's current dwelling.
Aged 28, with a couple of Sydney property deals already under his belt and his marriage into the wealthy Hughes family, Turnbull was left some $2 million according to reports, by his father.
There were undoubtedly a few tough years when Malcolm was small, but Bruce navigated them past those hardships well before Malcolm finished school. The reality is, Turnbull had the kind of good fortune most of us can only dream of, and he is the beneficiary of inherited wealth.
The ALP ad asks the question, how does a multi-millionaire Prime Minister justify introducing tax cuts that benefit him personally, as well as benefiting his multi-millionaire peers at the expense of ordinary Australians? This is not a "personal" question. It is a question any one of us is perfectly entitled to ask.
Let's not forget as well, that in the 2016 election campaign Turnbull donated $1.75 million to the struggling LNP, who went on to win government by a margin of one seat in the House of Representatives. That donation could well have made the difference between winning and losing, we will likely never know. However, the question that has never been adequately addressed by the media is, is it good for our democracy that a wealthy Prime Minister can pay for his party to survive, and to retain his job?
A Prime Minister who used his personal wealth to keep his party afloat so that he could keep his job cannot at the same time claim his financial affairs are private. When a man has so much wealth he can buy himself the PM's job, that is not a personal matter. It is entirely political. When that man, now in government, passes legislation that benefits him personally, that is also not a private matter. It is entirely political.
It is beyond me how any journalist can argue otherwise.
Opponents point out that there are wealthy men and women in the ALP ranks. This entirely misses the point. There's nothing inherently wrong with having money. As far as I'm aware, the ALP are not promoting tax cuts that benefit themselves and their wealthy peers, while cutting penalty rates for ordinary workers, and defunding vital services to subsides those tax cuts. We don't know the details yet, but they have to be paid for somehow. The Guardian's Greg Jericho addresses this fundamental question here.
As far as I am aware, ALP policy is a better deal for all (other than refugees, and that's another story) not exorbitant privilege for the 1%.
Oh, and it appears that Turnbull did indeed have a price. It was $1.75 million.
Tags: ABC, ALP, Independent Australia, LNP, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Dutton
Turnbull's postal opinion poll: a vicious, bullying farce.
It's rather difficult to empathise with the marriage equality No crowd's insistence that they are being "bullied" by the Yes side, given that the postal opinion poll on the issue is, in itself, one of the most outstanding examples of government and social bullying that we've seen in quite some time.
The 🏳🌈 bullying is quite extraordinary. If you don't want to be bullied, Vote No. https://t.co/akP36S3deq
— Lyle Shelton (@LyleShelton) September 17, 2017
Subjecting groups to the judgement of their fellow citizens on the basis of their sexuality is bullying, of the most insidious and damaging kind. Sexuality is an integral part of who we are. It ought not to be the business of anyone other than ourselves, and those we choose to share it with. And yet here we are, bullied into participating in a bullying opinion poll on our bullied fellow citizens.
(Well done, Prime Minister Turnbull. We all know you chose this persecutory path this because you're scared dickless of your right-wing. We also know that bullies are always cowards.)
The opinion poll is a survey (and I use the word loosely, given it wouldn't pass muster as an actual survey anywhere except perhaps North Korea) of what some Australians think of the sexuality of other Australians. It is inherently privileged: gay people do not and never will have the right to participate in a government-initiated opinion poll on the sexuality of straight people and their right to marry. (The very fact this comment sounds ludicrous is solid evidence of entitlement and privilege). It is a survey with a non binding outcome if the answer is yes, and a binding outcome if the answer is no.
I understand that the national result of the opinion poll will be broken down on a federal electoral basis, thereby enabling politicians to claim they will vote in parliament according to their constituents' wishes and not their own. Yet again they've worked out a way of getting themselves off the hook. Eluding responsibility is the one skill this government seems to possess in abundance.
Although the postal poll is to say the least haphazard (piles of envelopes left in the rain at apartment blocks; sent to people who've left the address ten years before; stolen forms auctioned online and so on) the results will be a permanent record of opinion in each federal electorate without any safeguards in place to ensure everyone in that electorate had the opportunity to comment. It really is an absolute farce, confected by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and embraced by Turnbull as a way to save his sorry arse from a right-wing kicking. If this isn't bullying, I don't know what is.
The No crowd, on the other hand, seem incapable of distinguishing between disagreement, and bullying or silencing. It's a conservative trait to believe anyone with an opinion that differs from yours is your enemy. According to the right-wing, if you aren't agreed with you are "silenced." To this end, the No crowd continues to appear on every available media platform on a daily basis, protesting their "silencing." Not one of them can see the irony in this.
Here, yet again, we see entitlement and privilege in action. The No crowd is working from the premise that they must be agreed with, simply because of who they are and what they believe. It's become perhaps an over-used concept since the advent of Donald Trump, however, the notion that anyone who doesn't believe what you believe is wrong and wickedly trying to silence you is teetering towards narcissistic. It's also bullying.
So far throughout this debacle, the right has shown itself to be relentlessly seeking victimhood. However, for mine, Shelton's appearance at the National Press Club last week conclusively undermined his accusations of silencing, both for him personally, and for his followers.
Let's face it: we should be so lucky…
Tags: Lyle Shelton, Malcolm Turnbull, marriage equality, Peter Dutton
From the heartland of privilege: the week in politics
Statues of Lachlan Macquarie and Captain James Cook were graffitied by protesters last week, in an action the most cowardly prime minister in Australian history described as "cowardly." Angry criticism erupted from the most unexpected of quarters, confirming that the privileged mind governs both the left and the right when it comes to challenging the myths of white heroes. Apparently vandalism is fine, indeed it isn't even vandalism if the political class approves of your choice of subjects such as say, Saddam Hussein and Hitler, but stay away from white icons even if they are terrorists.
For mine, spraying some symbols of genocide and ongoing oppression with paint counts as nothing in comparison with the murderous acts perpetrated against your people, but the middle-class commentariat were outraged by the lack of niceness evidenced, niceness being one of that demographic's primary instruments of control through the exercise of the power of shame.
Their reaction seems a tad hysterical, after all they can white wash their statues just as they've attempted to white wash the history behind them. For example, this statement from Macquarie is never seen on or around statues raised in his honour:
There is no need to rewrite history. pic.twitter.com/thRjGj5yrj
— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) August 26, 2017
How about putting that on a plaque then?
And on the matter of being nice to the commentariat if you want their support, we have this from Caroline Overington on the problem of marriage equality advocates acting mean towards those who would have voted yes if marriage equality advocates hadn't been mean to them and made them vote no. Because marriage equality is all about how people such as Caroline Overington feel, innit, and if you don't get that you cannot expect her support.
Here we have a further example of the dominant privileged mindset. The privileged can dictate the terms of your protest, and if you are not nice in how you go about it, they won't help you. Indeed, they will forget all about your cause, and shame you for your bad manners. It's not what you say that counts for these people. It's all in the way that you say it.
As you read this post, one hundred asylum seekers are being effectively thrown out into the streets as the Turnbull government's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton implements a new "final departure Bridging E Visa" designed to force those in Australia for medical treatment to back Manus Island and Nauru, or back to the countries from which they fled.
Families, including children born here, are not yet included, though it appears to be only a matter of time before they too will have their income support withdrawn, and be given three weeks to leave government-supported accommodation.
Meet some of the 37 babies facing homelessness and hunger as Dutton & Turnbull try to starve families to go back to Nauru. pic.twitter.com/T7OQmp4ms6
— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) August 27, 2017
The ALP has protested loudly against this fresh torment of asylum seekers, however, opposition leader Bill Shorten continues to insist that none will be settled here, and he spitefully ignores New Zealand offers to take a quota for resettlement. Shorten refers to un-named "third countries" as a solution (as long as they aren't New Zealand) and to the doomed plan to resettle refugees in Trump's America.
It is blindingly obvious that the US project is going nowhere, since we learned that Prime Minister Turnbull promised President Trump he didn't have to take anyone, he just had to act as if he might. So why does Shorten continue to behave as if the option has any validity?
The PNG government has in the last couple of days informed the Turnbull government that it will not permit the closure of Manus Island detention centre at the end of October, and Dutton's planned abandonment of refugees housed there to the island community.
The reality is, there is nowhere for the asylum seekers to go, and both parties carry equal responsibility for this disgusting state of affairs. They should be brought here, allowed to stay here, and New Zealand's generous offer should be accepted.
In the three examples I've selected out of the many possibilities on offer this last week, there are common motifs. They are of lies, misinformation, suppression, oppression, persecution, and the revolting self-regard of white privilege.
Yes, this is Australia, no matter how often somebody attempts to claim that we are "better than this." Clearly, we are not.
Tags: Caroline Overington, Lachlan Macquarie, Malcolm Turnbull, marriage equality, Peter Dutton, refugees
Dutton stigmatises CEOs as no better than women. Wow.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton inexplicably stepped out of his portfolio last week to make commentary on CEOs with an opinion on marriage equality that does not coincide with his own.
Dutton singled out Qantas CEO Alan Joyce for particular attention, presumably because Mr Joyce is gay.
In a final flourish, Dutton advised CEOs to "stick with their knitting" and in so doing revealed the putrid depths of his masculinist contempt not only for gay men and marriage equality advocates, but also for women.
Knitting is largely (though not entirely) a female occupation. It has long been the practice of hegemonic masculinity to "feminise" and therefore devalue gay men through the conflation of homosexuality with effeminacy.
Heterosexual masculinists such as Dutton work to denigrate homosexuals and their CEO supporters as undesirably "female" by suggesting that their expertise is not in the world of business, opinion and commentary, but rather in a confined domestic environment where they are powerless, voiceless, and, knitting.
The denigration works only if Dutton (and heterosexual masculinists of both genders who agree with his point of view) believes women are inferior, and uses the recommendation to "stick to your knitting" as a profoundly unpleasant, homophobic and sexist insult.
The Minister is actually saying: you have no place and no power in the world of "real" men like me, because if you are a man who supports marriage equality you are inevitably effeminate.
Dutton devalues the male CEOs by attributing to them the "feminine" activity of knitting, and simultaneously devalues women. Our real place is not, in his opinion, in the public space advocating marriage equality, but in a domestic life removed from concerns best left to masculinist politicians.
In Dutton's view, gay men and male supporters lack masculinity, evidenced by their subversive refusal to unquestioningly support the hegemonic masculinity Dutton represents.
Indeed, Dutton's masculinity is, like the Australian Christian Lobby's Lyle Shelton, defined by his heterosexuality. I recall Shelton's plaintive tweet that if we allow marriage equality, no one will know he is straight.
Feminising gay men and supporters, stigmatising them as no better and no more relevant in the world than women, is an abject attempt to differentiate the heterosexual masculinist from his greatest perceived threat: a man who loves another man and in so doing becomes, oh dear god no, feminised.
In the world of heterosexual masculinists opposites attract, therefore, if you're a man who loves a man, you must be a woman.
That this is employed as an insult by Dutton should give us significant pause.
Knitting is generally regarded as a harmless occupation, however, Dutton should note that knitters are not necessarily quite so bland. Madame Defarge, for example, knits contentedly on through the Revolution as the despised ruling heads of France fall one by one into the basket under the guillotine, their names stitched into her patterns.
Dutton has managed, in one short phrase, to cast a thoroughly offensive slur upon gay men and all women. Actually, there aren't many human beings Dutton likes. This nasty piece of work does not belong in our government. Let's hope his electorate see it that way.
Tags: Hegemonic masculinity, Lyle Shelton, marriage equality, Peter Dutton


text:
@echo off
::------------------------------------------------
:: Install a MSTest unit test type extension
:: which defines a new test class attribute
:: and how to execute its test methods and
:: interpret results.
::
:: NOTE: Only VS needs this and the registration done; the xcopyable mstest uses
:: TestTools.xml virtualized registry file updated which we already have done in sd
::------------------------------------------------

setlocal

:: All the files we need to copy or register are realtive to this script folder
set extdir=%~dp0

:: Get 32 or 64-bit OS
set win64=0
if not "%ProgramFiles(x86)%" == "" set win64=1
if %win64% == 1 (
    set vs14Key=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0
) else (
    set vs14Key=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0
)

:: Get the VS installaton path from the Registry
for /f "tokens=2*" %%i in ('reg.exe query %vs14Key% /v InstallDir') do set vsinstalldir=%%j

:: Display some info
echo.
echo =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
echo Please ensure that you are running with adminstrator privileges
echo to copy into the Visual Studio installation folder add keys to the Registry.
echo Any access denied messages probably means you are not.
echo =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
echo.
echo 64-bit OS: %win64%
echo Visual Studio 14.0 regkey:   %vs14Key%
echo Visual Studio 14.0 IDE dir:  %vsinstalldir%

::
:: Copy the SSM test type extension assembly to the VS private assemblies folder
::

set extdll=TestLooper.dll
set extpdb=TestLooper.pdb
set vsprivate=%vsinstalldir%PrivateAssemblies
set vspublic=%vsinstalldir%PublicAssemblies
echo Copying to VS PrivateAssemblies: %vsprivate%\%extdll%
copy /Y %extdir%%extdll% "%vsprivate%\%extdll%"
copy /Y %extdir%%extpdb% "%vsprivate%\%extpdb%"
echo Copying to VS PublicAssemblies: %vspublic%\%extdll%
copy /Y %extdir%%extdll% "%vspublic%\%extdll%"
copy /Y %extdir%%extpdb% "%vspublic%\%extpdb%"

::
:: Register the extension with mstest as a known test type
:: (SSM has two currently, both are in the same assembly)
::

echo Registering the unit test types extensions for use in VS' MSTest

:: Keys Only for 64-bit
if %win64% == 1 (
    set vs14ExtKey64=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\EnterpriseTools\QualityTools\TestTypes\{13cdc9d9-ddb5-4fa4-a97d-d965ccfc6d4b}\TestTypeExtensions
    set vs14_configExtKey64=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0_Config\EnterpriseTools\QualityTools\TestTypes\{13cdc9d9-ddb5-4fa4-a97d-d965ccfc6d4b}\TestTypeExtensions
)

:: Keys for both 32 and 64-bit
set vs14ExtKey=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\EnterpriseTools\QualityTools\TestTypes\{13cdc9d9-ddb5-4fa4-a97d-d965ccfc6d4b}\TestTypeExtensions
set vs14_configExtKey=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0_Config\EnterpriseTools\QualityTools\TestTypes\{13cdc9d9-ddb5-4fa4-a97d-d965ccfc6d4b}\TestTypeExtensions

:: Register the TestLooper
set regAttrName=TestLooperAttribute
set regProvider="TestLooper.TestLooperAttribute, TestLooper"
if  %win64% == 1 (
    reg add %vs14ExtKey64%\%regAttrName%        /f /v AttributeProvider /d %regProvider%
    reg add %vs14_ConfigExtKey64%\%regAttrName% /f /v AttributeProvider /d %regProvider%
)
reg add %vs14ExtKey%\%regAttrName%        /f /v AttributeProvider /d %regProvider%
reg add %vs14_ConfigExtKey%\%regAttrName% /f /v AttributeProvider /d %regProvider%

:: Register the TestLooper
set regAttrName=TestLooperAttribute
set regProvider="TestLooper.TestLooperAttribute, TestLooper"
if win64 == 1 (
    reg add %vs14ExtKey64%\%regAttrName%        /f /v AttributeProvider /d %regProvider%
    reg add %vs14_ConfigExtKey64%\%regAttrName% /f /v AttributeProvider /d %regProvider%
)
reg add %vs14ExtKey%\%regAttrName%        /f /v AttributeProvider /d %regProvider%
reg add %vs14_ConfigExtKey%\%regAttrName% /f /v AttributeProvider /d %regProvider%

:eof
endlocal
exit /b %errorlevel%

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Guennadi Alekseievitch Miasnikov (en ), né le  à Sosnovka dans le Kraï de Perm et mort à Moscou en 1989, est un directeur artistique  soviétique. Membre du PCUS depuis 1972.

Biographie
Guennadi Miasnikov nait au village Sosnovka dans le Kraï de Perm, mais passe son enfance à Lysva. Diplômé de l'école professionnelle des beaux-arts de Perm en 1938 et de l'Institut national de la cinématographie (VGIK) en 1943. Il enseigne ensuite à VGIK, puis y occupe une chaire de professeur à partir de 1976.

Il est nominé, avec Mikhaïl Bogdanov, pour l'Oscar des meilleurs décors pour son travail dans Guerre et Paix de Serge Bondartchouk aux Oscars de 1969, mais le trophée est finalement remporté par l'équipe artistique d'Oliver !. Sa carrière cinématographique a duré plus de quarante ans. Il a travaillé sur deux films primés au festival de Cannes, Hommes en guerre de Sergueï Vassiliev (prix de la mise en scène en 1955), et Les Cosaques de Vassili Pronine (Palme d'or en 1961).

Mort à Moscou, Guennadi Miasnikov est enterré au cimetière Vostriakovo.

Filmographie
G. Miasnikov participe à la réalisation de 29 films entre 1946 et 1987, parmi lesquels :
 1946 : La Fleur de pierre () de Alexandre Ptouchko
 1950 : Les Audacieux () de Konstantin Youdine
 1951 :  () de Sergueï Ioutkevitch
 1955 : Hommes en guerre () de Sergueï Vassiliev
 1957 : Le Communiste () de Youli Raizman
 1958 : Le Voyage des trois mers () de Vassili Pronine et Khwaja Ahmad Abbas
 1961 : Les Cosaques () de Vassili Pronine
 1967 : Guerre et Paix () de Serge Bondartchouk
 1977 : La Femme commune () de Youli Raizman.

Nominations et récompenses

 1969 : British Academy Film Award des meilleurs décors aux  British Academy Film Awards pour Guerre et Paix de Serge Bondartchouk
 1969 : Nomination à l'Oscar des meilleurs décors pour Guerre et Paix de Serge Bondartchouk aux  Oscars.

Notes et références

Liens externes

Directeur artistique
Lauréat d'un BAFTA Award
Étudiant de l'Institut national de la cinématographie
Membre du Parti communiste de l'Union soviétique
Naissance en septembre 1919
Naissance en RSFS de Russie
Décès à Moscou
Décès en janvier 1989
Personnalité inhumée au cimetière Vostriakovo
Décès à 69 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Delta Lambda Phi
Social Fraternity for Gay, Bisexual, and Progressive Men
Centaur All-Stars
Social Change Model
Delta Force Leadership Academy
Delphi Foundation
Fraternity Office
Zero Tolerance for Hazing
Brotherhood Services
February 2014 Centaur All-Star: Brother Arcangelo Cella!
Please join us in congratulating Brother Arcangelo Cella of the Alpha Chi Chapter for receiving the Centaur All-Star Award for February 2014! Arcangelo currently serves as the President of LAAMB (Local Alumni Association of the Massachusetts Bay).
Br. Cella was nominated by LAAMB Vice President Grant Oberg, who had the following words to share:
LAAMB would not exist today without Angelo. As soon as an idea was hatched, Angelo took a leadership role. He helped write the organization's bylaws and volunteered for the difficult task of being the organization's first president. He came into the role with a vision, but still took feedback and let his e-board experiment with new, creative ideas.
It was important to Angelo that LAAMB be a visible presence. We try to support gay-owned facilities in our city. We work hard to be visible and be a resource to the chapter that we care so deeply about. Angelo has worked hard to make sure we walk the fine line between being available to the chapter and not micromanaging or trying to control them.
Angelo is an active student leader at Boston University School of Law. He has worked with the school's advocacy organizations to hold symposiums on how the law affects queer people. He partnered with brother Sam Brinton to hold a forum on the need for legislation to ban conversion therapy.
Members of Delta Lambda Phi may read more about Arcangelo on Confluence.
Br. Cella and other 2013-2014 Centaur All-Star Award recipients will receive several wonderful benefits for their contribution of leading and promoting positive change in their respective communities. Recipients will have their registration fee waived at Convention 2014 in Tampa. All-Stars will also be specifically recognized amongst their fellow Brothers at the Convention banquet and will qualify for the 2014 Centaur All-Star of the Year Award presented at Convention 2014!
© 2016 Delta Lambda Phi Social Fraternity. Delta Lambda Phi and DLP are trademarks of Delta Lambda Phi Social Fraternity.
Brotherhood software tools generously provided by Atlassian.
Websites proudly powered by WordPress.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to ensure exclusive CPU availability for a running process? At first, the question seems to be a little bit silly/confusing as the OS does the job of managing process execution.
However, I want to measure how much some processes are CPU/IO-bound and I feel like my OS is interfering on my experiments with, for instance, scheduled OS processes.
Take as an example the following situation:
I ran the process A twice and got the following output from the tool "time" (time columns in seconds):
+---+-------+---------+-----------+---------+
|Run|Process|User Time|System Time|Wall time|
+---+-------+---------+-----------+---------+
|1  |A      |196.3    |5.12       |148.86   |
|2  |A      |190.79   |4.93       |475.46   |
+---+-------+---------+-----------+---------+

As we can see, although the user and sys time are similar, the elapsed time of both drastically changes (diff. of ~5 min). Feels like something in my environment caused some sort of contention.
I want to stop every possible background process/services to avoid any kind of noise during my experiments but I consider myself a novice/intermediate unix-user and I don't know how to guarantee this.
I'm using Linux 4.4.0-45-generic with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit.
I really appreciate the assistance. If you guys need any missing information, I will promptly edit my post.
CPU Info
$ grep proc /proc/cpuinfo | wc -l
8
$ lscpu
Architecture:          x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                8
On-line CPU(s) list:   0-7
Thread(s) per core:    2
Core(s) per socket:    4
Socket(s):             1
NUMA node(s):          1
Vendor ID:             GenuineIntel
CPU family:            6
Model:                 60
Stepping:              3
CPU MHz:               4002.609
BogoMIPS:              7183.60
Virtualization:        VT-x
L1d cache:             32K
L1i cache:             32K
L2 cache:              256K
L3 cache:              8192K
NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0-7

A: You have a kernel option configuration where a CPU won't be used by the OS, it is called isolcpus.

isolcpus — Isolate CPUs from the kernel scheduler.
Synopsis isolcpus= cpu_number [, cpu_number ,...]
Description Remove the specified CPUs, as defined by the cpu_number
  values, from the general kernel SMP balancing and scheduler
  algroithms. The only way to move a process onto or off an "isolated"
  CPU is via the CPU affinity syscalls. cpu_number begins at 0, so the
  maximum value is 1 less than the number of CPUs on the system.

This configuration I am about to describe how to setup, can have far more uses than for testing.
Meru for instance, uses this technology in their Linux-based AP controllers, to keep the network traffic from interfering with the inner workings of the OS, namely I/O operations.
I also use it in a very busy web frontend, for quite the same reasons: I have found out from life experience that I lost control too regularly for my taste of that server ;  had to reboot it forcefully until I separated the front end daemon on it´s own dedicated CPUs.
As you have 8 CPUs, that you can check with the output of the command:
$ grep -c proc /proc/cpuinfo
8

or
$ lscpu | grep '^CPU.s'
CPU(s):                8

Add in Debian/Ubuntu in the file /etc/default/grub to the option GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="isolcpus=7"

(it is 7, because it starts in 0, and you have 8 cores)
Then run,
sudo update-grub

This is telling the kernel to not use one of your cores.
Reboot the system.
Then start your process.
Immediately after starting it, you can change for the 8th CPU (7 because 0 is the 1st), and be quite sure you are the only one using that CPU.
For that, use the command:
taskset -cp 7 PID_number

taskset - retrieve or set a processes's CPU affinity
SYNOPSIS
   taskset [options] [mask | list ] [pid | command [arg]...]

DESCRIPTION
taskset  is  used to set or retrieve the CPU affinity of a running pro
         cess given its PID or to launch a new COMMAND with a given  CPU  affinity.   CPU affinity is a scheduler property that "bonds" a process to a
         given set of CPUs on the system.  The Linux scheduler  will  honor  the
         given  CPU  affinity  and  the  process will not run on any other CPUs.
         Note that the Linux scheduler also supports natural CPU  affinity:  the
         scheduler attempts to keep processes on the same CPU as long as practical for performance reasons.  Therefore, forcing a specific CPU  affinity is useful only in certain applications.

For reading more about it, see: isolcpus, numactl and taskset
Also using ps -eF you should see in the PSR column the processor being used.
I have a server with CPU 2 and 3 isolated, and indeed, it can be seen with ps -e the only process in userland as intended, is pound.
# ps -eo psr,command | tr -s " " | grep "^ [2|3]"
 2 [cpuhp/2]
 2 [watchdog/2]
 2 [migration/2]
 2 [ksoftirqd/2]
 2 [kworker/2:0]
 2 [kworker/2:0H]
 3 [cpuhp/3]
 3 [watchdog/3]
 3 [migration/3]
 3 [ksoftirqd/3]
 3 [kworker/3:0]
 3 [kworker/3:0H]
 2 [kworker/2:1]
 3 [kworker/3:1]
 3 [kworker/3:1H]
 3 /usr/sbin/pound

If you compare it with the non-isolated CPUs, they are running many more things (the window below slides):
# ps -eo psr,command | tr -s " " | grep "^ [0|1]"
 0 init [2]
 0 [kthreadd]
 0 [ksoftirqd/0]
 0 [kworker/0:0H]
 0 [rcu_sched]
 0 [rcu_bh]
 0 [migration/0]
 0 [lru-add-drain]
 0 [watchdog/0]
 0 [cpuhp/0]
 1 [cpuhp/1]
 1 [watchdog/1]
 1 [migration/1]
 1 [ksoftirqd/1]
 1 [kworker/1:0]
 1 [kworker/1:0H]
 1 [kdevtmpfs]
 0 [netns]
 0 [khungtaskd]
 0 [oom_reaper]
 1 [writeback]
 0 [kcompactd0]
 0 [ksmd]
 1 [khugepaged]
 0 [crypto]
 1 [kintegrityd]
 0 [bioset]
 1 [kblockd]
 1 [devfreq_wq]
 0 [watchdogd]
 0 [kswapd0]
 0 [vmstat]
 1 [kthrotld]
 0 [kworker/0:1]
 0 [deferwq]
 0 [scsi_eh_0]
 0 [scsi_tmf_0]
 1 [vmw_pvscsi_wq_0]
 0 [bioset]
 1 [jbd2/sda1-8]
 1 [ext4-rsv-conver]
 0 [kworker/0:1H]
 1 [kworker/1:1H]
 1 [bioset]
 0 [bioset]
 1 [bioset]
 1 [bioset]
 1 [bioset]
 1 [bioset]
 1 [bioset]
 1 [bioset]
 0 [jbd2/sda3-8]
 1 [ext4-rsv-conver]
 1 /usr/sbin/rsyslogd
 0 /usr/sbin/irqbalance --pid=/var/run/irqbalance.pid
 1 /usr/sbin/cron
 0 /usr/sbin/sshd
 1 /usr/sbin/snmpd -Lf /dev/null -u snmp -g snmp -I -smux -p /var/run/snmpd.pid
 1 /sbin/getty 38400 tty1
 1 /lib/systemd/systemd-udevd --daemon
 0 /usr/sbin/xinetd -pidfile /run/xinetd.pid -stayalive
 1 [kworker/1:2]
 0 [kworker/u128:1]
 0 [kworker/0:2]
 0 [bioset]
 1 [xfsalloc]
 1 [xfs_mru_cache]
 1 [jfsIO]
 1 [jfsCommit]
 0 [jfsCommit]
 0 [jfsCommit]
 0 [jfsCommit]
 0 [jfsSync]
 1 [bioset]
 0 /usr/bin/monit -c /etc/monit/monitrc
 1 /usr/sbin/pound
 0 sshd: rui [priv]
 0 sshd: rui@pts/0,pts/1
 1 -bash
 1 -bash
 1 -bash
 1 [kworker/u128:0]
 1 -bash
 0 sudo su
 1 su
 1 bash
 0 bash
 0 logger -t cmdline root[/home/rui]
 1 ps -eo psr,command
 0 tr -s
 0 grep ^ [0|1]
 0 /usr/bin/vmtoolsd

A: as mentioned by @Aaron D. Marasco using cset from cpuset package is also possible. (isolcpus is not really deprecated.) One advantage of cset is no reboot between configs and the scheduler load balancer remains active if multiple cores are used.
reserve processor 5 and 11 for our tasks
cset shield --cpu 5,11 --kthread on # cpu 5 and 11, move kernel processes if possible

check what is running on our cpuset
cset shield -s -v

execute a task on the cpuset
cset shield -e bash

attach a process
cset shield --shield --pid 22010

detach a process
cset shield --unshield --pid 22010

to restore everything
cset shield --reset

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
In The News: Cleaner Water, Cleaner Air, Cleaner Future
Happy Tuesday, ecoSPEARS readers! It's that time of the week where we review otherwise not-so-highlighted news from the environmental world of the previous week. This week's blurb is going to cover three articles detailing issues at the Duwamish River in Washington State, smog emission levels in the US, and finally another article on PCB contamination at Elmira High School in Elmira, NY. The third issue you may remember from one of our blurbs last month in which we mentioned Walter Hang, President of Toxics Targeting, presenting to Elmira residents on PCB contamination at the school grounds and urged residents to ask for NYDEC's cooperation in reevaluating contamination levels at the school.
Now, let's get into the news.
The Duwamish Waterway which runs through Seattle's industrial district has been the focus of environmentalists for decades, as should any body of water along which manufacturing centers are built. More recently, however, the aerospace titan commonly known as Boeing has come under fire for allegedly failing to cease discharging PCBs into the Duwamish River. Washington's Department of Ecology claims that discharge from Boeing's facility along the waterway has exceeded state-regulated PCB levels for the past five years. Two agencies, including Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, have issued a 60-day notice of intent to sue Boeing citing violations to the Clean Water Act.
Boeing's MDC facility along the Duwamish Waterway in Seattle, WA
"Boeing has implemented numerous projects in recent years at the MDC (Military Delivery Center) site over the past decade," the article says, including projects to remove contaminated materials such as caulk. Holly Braithwaite, a spokeswoman for Boeing, challenged allegations by saying that, "most of the samples of stormwater at the MDC have been nondetect or had very low levels of PCBs," as a result of these activities and projects.
The Duwamish River is a designated Superfund site with an estimated cleanup cost of no less than $300 million. Braithwaite says Boeing has submitted a proposal to Ecology to address allegations of high-level PCB discharge into the waterway and eagerly anticipates the department's reply.
Our second article comes to us from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) addressing EPA's release of a statement identifying areas across the United States which have been found to meet or exceed national standards for ground-based ozone, more often referred to as "smog." The EPA "identified 51 areas in 22 states and two tribal areas" that don't meet national health standards on smog levels.
These national safety standards for air quality in the US were outlined in the 2015 Clean Air Act. While some recent critics of the EPA say the statement is "long-overdue" or "remains incomplete," EPA has outlined most of the US in the statement's findings, saying that air quality levels in eight remaining counties of the San Antonio, TX area will be measured and documented by or before mid-July.
Lastly, we return to Elmira, NY where city residents are now pressuring the state's Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) to reevaluate contamination levels of PCBs and other potential toxins at the town's high school campus. Much of the concern comes after Walter Hang, President of Toxics Targeting, presented findings on levels of contamination at the school which are believed to be higher and more dangerous to human health than originally thought.
The DEC counter-argued at a town meeting with residents that the contamination raising concern is at the sub-surface level and therefore poses less danger to human health.
Town meeting between NYDEC and residents of Elmira, NY addressing contamination at EHS.
DEC representatives also showed residents a map showcasing work done in 2017 where some 640 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated soil was removed from areas around EHS's athletic grounds. Another short-term response action (STRA) by DEC done last year addressed and removed over 9,000 square feet of shallow soil with elevated PCB levels from an area near the school's track field. NYDEC stands firm that, "future activities will return and complete the remediation" of other areas of concern at EHS, including PCB-contaminated soils at the Northeast portion of the school grounds.
In spite of this, many Elmira residents remain skeptical of the progress made thus far. Pollution has been present at the school grounds since the 1970s. "I live across the street," one resident said, "this has been going on for a while and nothing's been done about it."
And that's all for this week! Remember to check back into our blog every Tuesday as we cover environmental news highlights from the previous week that may not get much screen time on mainstream outlets and media. See you next time!
For more information about the organizations mentioned in this post, please click the following links:
Puget Soundkeeper
Environmental Defense Fund
Toxics Targeting
NYDEC


text:
When a media watchdog calls out a fact-checker
Steve Jordahl, Billy Davis
Media watchdog Media Research Center is fighting back after PolitiFact accused it of posting misleading information about hospitalizations from COVID-19.
A prominent media watchdog that documents left-wing propaganda is going after PolitiFact, and also its left-wing donations from billionaire megadonors, after enduring biased fact-checking for years.
Led by Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell, more than 40 conservative leaders have sent an open letter to the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) asking it to remove PolitiFact from its list of approved fact-checkers.
Florida-based Poynter Institute launched the IFCN in 2015 as a main source for fact-checking organizations to agree to and adhere to a set of standards and principles.
PolitiFact is operated by Poynter, too, but the fact-checking website has been criticized and mocked by conservatives for fact-checking obscure Facebook posts, for example, while Democrat politicians are rarely cornered by their own fact-challenged claims.
MRC spokesman Dan Gainor says his group has been on the receiving end of numerous claims of "false" information from PolitiFact including, most recently, for using a CDC graphic to show the low number of hospitalizations in many areas of the country. For its own graphic, the CDC used the counties that comprise the Coronavirus Disease 2019-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET), which shows fewer than 2,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. with COVID-19. That coverage area includes about 100 counties in 10 major U.S. states.
"Basically they were saying, You didn't include enough information," Gainor says of PolitiFact's August 5 fact-check, which can be read here. "But it's a graphic. Graphics, by definition, compress information."
Along with the graphic, MRC included links to web pages that gave the full context of the graph.
Gainor
According to the fact-check, MRC was claiming there were approximately 2,000 people hospitalized across the country, but that itself would be an odd claim to make, and an easy one to refute, since many hospitals across the country are crowded with patients.
PolitiFact, in fact, assumes in its fact-check that MRC was attempting to mislead the public rather than putting the numbers in context, which is a pretty standard tactic for the fact-checking website itself. PolitiFact then goes on to describe the number of hospitalized patients in Florida and Texas, which are incidentally "red" states that have witnessed relentless left-wing media coverage of their cases and scrutiny of their Republican leaders.
In the letter to Poynter, Bozell and the other groups listed numerous examples in which PolitiFact tip-toed around the truth when the target was a Democrat, such as White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
It is doubtful the letter will be well-received by Poynter, which is likely well-aware that MRC ripped Poynter in an August 9 article for accepting donations from George Soros's Open Society Foundation and from the Omidyar Network, named for far-left billionaire Pierre Omidyar.
National media chooses stranded Americans over Biden
Thousands of American citizens remain stranded far from the Kabul airport, where an August 31 deadline is counting down for the U.S. to depart the country for good, and at the moment their best ally appears to be the American media, which is looking at the calendar and doing the math.


text:
Quirky Fanfics > The King and I > The King and I Chapter 39: Secret Revealed
The King and I Chapter 39: Secret Revealed
Posted on 10 April 2022 10 April 2022
"This mouth speaks only in jest," you replied cheekily, giving him a playful smile.
He smirked and pulled your mouth down to his, savoring a deep passionate kiss for the first time since having you back with him in Karasuno.
"I wish to feel your body intertwined with mine," he said in a low voice as he bit into your bottom lip and tugged on it."
"I must remind you to rest," you replied authoritatively.
"If I can prove my stability through bathing first, will you allow me the pleasures of your body?" he asked, doing a small crunch to sit up.
"I supposed that would suffice?" you replied, watching as he got up.
You lay on your back, resting with arms behind your head as he gingerly got off the bed and walked to his personal washroom.
He had given express orders not to be disturbed, so all the staff had left, leaving only you two alone in the room.
"What if I were to undress and await him with nothing on?" you thought daringly, sitting up and looking around before getting off the bed and removing your garments.
It felt so free to lie among the silk sheets with nothing on and with the anticipation of having King Kageyama ontop of you-at any given moment- your cock started to pulsate and swell, slowly lifting off your thigh.
Lazily, you reached underneath your shaft and massaged your balls, stroking them and cupping them as you awaited your King's return.
You rolled your head to the side to look out the open window, watching the pink and orange tinged clouds float past as the sun made its way to the earth.
It was so peaceful, laying there by yourself, that you forget everything and became lost to moment.
Suddenly, a small noise to your right made you roll your head the other way and there you saw Hinata standing there, eyes wide, brain computing what he saw laying before him.
It was far too late for evasive maneuvers, but reflexively you grabbed for the covers to hide yourself… hoping that somehow it was going to erase the image of your naked self from his eyes.
"Hinata!" you gasped as he stepped back in shock.
You sat up and reached a hand out as if to stop him from going.
"Y-Y/N?! I…"
"Please. Say nothing of this," you begged him.
"You need not say anything. What are you doing here? Why did you not knock??" you asked, trying to change subjects… anything to change the tide of the current situation.
"I have just been cleared of bedrest," he spluttered out, "I heard the King had been injured and so I came to see him and I did knock but then when no one answered I…"
"Hinata, you must leave, before King Kageyama returns," you said suddenly, "if he should see you here…"
"T-The King… he knows about… you…" Hinata replied, the puzzle in his mind suddenly all coming together.
You nodded grimly.
"Yes. He knows. He and you are the only two who know," you replied, "now please leave, you must—."
But the door to the en-suite was opening and King Kageyama walked out with just a drying garment wrapped around his hip bones.
He took one look at you, naked in the bed but with sheets over you, and then at Hinata and immediately grabbed for one of his weapons, strung up on the wall nearby, raising it above his head.
"Tobio!" you yelled, jumping up out of the bed, nakedness on display as you jumped between the two men with your hands up and out to the sides at chest height, one hand towards Hinata and one towards Kageyama.
"I WILL KILL HIM!" Kageyama shouted as he stalked directly towards you with Hinata behind you.
"Please! No!" you begged, turning to face your man, placing both hands to his chest to hold him at bay.
He stopped, but glared at the cowering orangette behind you.
"His presence displeases me!" King Kageyama seethed, "firstly he abandons my side before a war and then enters my chambers without an invitation!"
"Please," you begged again, pushing your palms into his chest when it felt like he was going to push past you to permanently remove his assistant.
"M-My King," Hinata said in a terrified voice, dropping to his knees.
"Silence!" King Kageyama yelled.
"Let him speak," you said sternly to Kageyama and he looked at you, then lowered his weapon.
"It is as you say," Hinata said in agreement with the King, "I have not been a good assistant and then have unwittingly stumbled upon a… situation."
"Insolence!" The King yelled, getting riled very quickly.
You patted his chest to calm him down so that Hinata could continue.
"I will not speak a word of this," Hinata promised, "this stays with myself till my dying day, and even then I will not speak a word of it in the afterlife."
King Kageyama still wasn't very happy but had no choice but to accept Hinata's statement, grunting that he had atleast heard the orangette.
"Y/N and I will marry," King Kageyama then said firmly and Hinata's head shot up to look his King in the eye.
"But you cannot," Hinata said.
"Silence! I will not hear your reply," Kageyama replied angrily, holding his weapon up again.
"It is unlawful for a man to marry another man," Hinata stated plainly, "you cannot bear offspring to further the future of the kingdom."
"I am the King!" King Kageyama snapped, "my word is final!"
"My King, a rule was passed by the King before you that any decree would need to be accepted by the majority of the public before being passed," Hinata said.
"I abolish that rule!" King Kageyama yelled, angered that he wasn't getting his way.
"Unfortunately, you cannot," Hinata replied, "and although this may mean certain death. I cannot allow this."
Your heart sank.
You liked Hinata, and you thought you had his support, but it was looking like he was going to be against you in the end.
"I will end you right now," King Kageyama growled with hostility, pushing forwards into you to move closer to Hinata so he could decapitate him.
"You will not do such a thing!" you said to him, still defending Hinata's life even though you weren't seeing eye to eye with the assistant, "Hinata! Leave, and keep your promise of silence!" you called to the orangette behind you, who followed your instruction and got up, fleeing the scene.
"You let him live!" King Kageyama snapped at you.
"Do not speak to me that way," you replied, pushing him firmly in his chest to show how much you disliked being on the receiving end of his temper.
<<< The King and I Chapter 38: Returned by a Wounded King.
The King and I Chapter 40: The Decree >>>


Eating Raw & Loving It!
Many people feel strongly that our twenty-first century Australian diet is harmful. They blame the incidence of obesity, allergies and chronic degenerative disease on our consumption of highly refined and processed foodstuffs, and recommend a return to a more wholesome natural diet of principally raw foods.
A raw food diet is not necessarily 100% uncooked food; nutritionists who advocate a raw food diet often recommend that about a third of intake should be uncooked with the remainder being subject to some heating. Healthy ways of heating food include grilling, drying and smoking. The range of foods that can be consumed on a raw food diet is quite wide: fresh vegetables and fruit, legumes, fruit and vegetable juices, grains, nuts, seeds, some dairy products and fish feature in most raw food recipes.
Eating raw food may provide a number of nutritional benefits that are not available from cooked food. Raw plant foods, vegetables and fruits contain nutrients in the form of vitamins, phyto-chemicals and minerals. Heating food may compromise its nutritional value by destroying vitamins, spoiling the structure of proteins, and converting minerals from an organic state to an unusable inorganic state that the body struggles to assimilate.
There are high levels of enzymes in uncooked foods. One of the roles of enzymes is to support the body's digestive processes. When raw foods are consumed the body does not have to expend energy on producing enzymes to assist digestion; because heat may destroy enzymes in food, the digestive process may be hindered and the body's energy depleted.
Omega 3 fats and other unsaturated fats and oils in nuts, seeds, deep sea fish and green vegetables have ant-inflammatory properties that protect the heart and blood vessels. Cooking these foods changes the structure of unsaturated fats and oils, creating free radicals that damage the body's cells; this damage is believed to be responsible for premature ageing and has also been linked to diseases including arthritis, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
Some nutritionists believe that much of the highly refined and processed foods available on supermarket shelves are unsuitable for human consumption. Advocates of raw food believe that this low-tech way of eating is a far more wholesome way to nourish ourselves. When people start to eat a predominantly raw diet, many say that they soon notice an increase in energy levels and an improvement in mental sharpness. In the longer term they may find that their resistance to illness improves and their body weight naturally becomes more stable. To find out more about this powerful, natural, healthy way of living, keep reading about and eating raw food .
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The American Tinnitus Association and U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimate that nearly 50 million Americans experience tinnitus to some degree, with roughly 20 million struggling with chronic, burdensome tinnitus.
Tinnitus is the perception of sound in your ears or head when no external noise is actually present. At some point in your life you may have experienced a sound in your ears, for example, after a concert. Whether your symptoms fade away or linger for months, you are experiencing tinnitus.
The specific sound each person hears varies from person to person, including pitch and loudness. This sound is often described as ringing, hissing, humming, buzzing, static, whooshing, roaring, pulsing, or ocean waves, among a variety of other sounds.
While tinnitus may be mild or a non-issue for some, it can be a severe, disabling condition for others. Tinnitus can significantly impact the life of the person living with it. Tinnitus can cause depression, anxiety, mood swings, irritability, and pain. Many people with tinnitus find it hard to sleep or concentrate, and some report that the condition disrupts their ability to work and socialize.
Most of the time, tinnitus is subjective, which means other people cannot hear the sound experienced by the person with tinnitus. Subjective tinnitus often results from hearing loss or noise exposure, which damages the hair cells of the inner ear.
Incredibly rare is objective tinnitus, which means other people can also perceive the sound heard by the person suffering from tinnitus. Objective tinnitus results from noise generated by structures near the ear.
Although anyone can experience tinnitus, several factors can increase your risk for developing the condition. These include age, smoking, cardiovascular problems, and gender (with men more likely to experience tinnitus). People frequently exposed to loud noise, including factory workers, construction workers, soldiers, and musicians, have a particularly high risk of developing tinnitus.
Some people never determine the cause of their tinnitus. Nevertheless, audiologists can often help provide patients relief (decrease the severity of tinnitus) by exploring different treatment options.
Although there is no "cure" for tinnitus, treatment can provide relief and greatly enhance quality of life. In order to alleviate your tinnitus, you will need to work with an audiologist that specializes in tinnitus to determine the cause of your condition. Then, your audiologist can create a personalized treatment program to accommodate your needs and preferences.
To learn more about how we can help provide tinnitus relief, call Heartland Hearing Center and schedule a consultation with one of our Doctors of Audiology.


Building and maintaing a skin care routine that works for you and your body is an important part of every day life, just one missed step and skin can become lacklustre or dry. But what happens when you add some of the harshest physical and mental conditions to the mix? We asked two time Olympic Gold medalist Alex Gregory about his go-to gym bag essentials from everyday training to fighting the most extreme conditions.
After years out on the water rowing and getting baked by the sun, I really noticed the problems it caused my skin. I sometimes catch myself in the mirror (whilst rushing past to save one of my children from utter despair because she can't find her favourite sock or another one has decided the TV screen is a punchbag!), and realise the attention my skin now needs.
After noticing the wind damage on my hands, neck and face, I decided to look into using Green People skincare as I heard how fantastic it was for your skin. I have now been using their products for a couple of years and I would not leave the house without a tube of Green People Scent Free SPF30 Sun Lotion in my bag. Its smooth texture feels almost chalky on application unlike any I've tried before and so it really can be worn without any off putting greasy residues left behind.
As you can imagine, I love the outdoors and getting down to earth with nature, so finding a deodorant that was natural and organic was perfect for me, Green People's Mint & Prebiotics Deodorant I use daily. It's fresh, cooling and keeps me smelling good!
The Energising Shower Gel is a sure fire way to get the day off to a good start - if I need a morning pick-me-up after a late night, this is my go to. I also can't recommend the Exfoliating Face Scrub enough, it is the perfect go to after a busy weekend with the kids in the garden or after a tough training session.
As you can imagine, my hands have been through it all. A picture of my hands went viral recently after I took part in an Arctic rowing expedition. Stepping onto land after a long period on icy cold, dangerous seas, I found my hands looked horrendously swollen, blistered and, quite frankly, disgusting. I've always used the Mum & Baby Rescue Balm to soften, smooth and repair damaged skin, and this time was no exception. Quickly my hands were back to normal again from using this magic stuff, it worked a treat!
Do you have any questions about caring for skin in extreme conditions? Let us know in the comments below.


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Reggie Noble knows his strain of weed. Next month, Redman is set to drop his Muddy Waters 2 mixtape and, today, his own personal remix to Usher's "Good Kisser" hits the 'Net. On the remix, he names his favorite strains of weed, disses anybody who isn't his weed dealer and more. Watch Red sit in front of his favorite breakfast plate and color the world green.


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ABOUT CERV
The Firm & CERV Commitment
Attorney: Chris Cervellera
Start-ups & Company / Entity Formations
Business Law: Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs
Contract Law & Commercial Agreements
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Individuals & Professionals
CERV LAW, PLLC: Business Law Firm in St. Petersburg - Serving Tampa Bay & Florida
Small Size. BIG Impact.
There are an estimated 2.5 million small businesses in Florida, accounting for nearly 99% of all the businesses in the state1. When you think about it like that, small businesses are quite a BIG deal in the Sunshine State. Attorney Christopher Cervellera of CERV LAW, PLLC is committed to serving the business law and advisory needs of small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Through combining his legal skills and knowledge with his experience as a longtime small businesses owner and executive, Chris can assist clients in identifying issues, overcoming challenges, leveraging opportunities, and achieving their short-term and long-term goals. Chris can be your trusted business law advisor that you can count on to answer questions and to give honest and trusted advice.
Business Law & Commercial Law Practice Areas
Attorney Christopher Cervellera of CERV LAW, PLLC can assist your small business in a number Business & Commercial Law practice areas, including:
Virtual / Outside General Counsel Services;
Commercial Contracts & Agreements (Review, Drafting & Enforcement);
Employment Law;
Intellectual Property and Trade Secret Registration, Licensing, & Protection;
Technology, Privacy Law, and Cybersecurity Law;
Navigating Regulatory and Administrative Law Issues;
Succession and Transition Planning; and
Purchases and Transactions;
Dispute Resolution.
Specialized Business Law Industry & Sector Experience
Attorney Christopher Cervellera of CERV LAW, PLLC is capable of helping businesses across a wide spectrum of industries and sectors. However, there are a few "sweet spots" or niche areas where Chris has significant industry and professional experience. Some of these areas include:
Advertising, Marketing, and Creative Firms & Professionals;
Information Technology (IT) Businesses;
Web-based and E-commerce Businesses; and
Law and Accounting Firms.
1: "2018 Small Business Profile," U.S. Small Business Administration: Office of Advocacy
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Beverly Keeps Reading
Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret (Book 1) (Paperback)
By Trudi Trueit
(Save: $2.00 20%)
Usually Ships in 1-5 Days. Please note that sometimes a book is available on our website, but not currently on the store shelves
This is book number 1 in the Explorer Academy series.
#2: Explorer Academy: The Falcon's Feather (Book 2) (Paperback): $9.99
#3: Explorer Academy: The Double Helix (Book 3) (Paperback): $9.99
#4: Explorer Academy: The Star Dunes (Book 4) (Paperback): $9.99
#5: Explorer Academy: The Tiger's Nest (Hardcover): $16.99
TRUDI TRUEIT has written more than 100 books for young readers, both fiction and nonfiction. Her love of writing began in fourth grade when she wrote, directed, and starred in her first play. She went on to be a TV news reporter and weather forecaster, but she knew her calling was in writing. Trueit is a gifted storyteller for middle-grade audiences, and her fiction novels include The Sister Solution, Stealing Popular, and the Secrets of a Lab Rat series. Her expertise in kids nonfiction encompasses books on history, weather, wildlife, and Earth science.
SCOTT PLUMBE is an award-winning illustrator, designer and fine artist whose work appears in books and magazines, games, interpretive centres, private collections, and more. His illustrations have been featured in magazines such as Communication Arts (US), Applied Arts (CA), Creative Review (UK) and 3x3 (US).
"This series opener from a new imprint of National Geographic is a fully packed high-tech adventure that offers both cool, educational facts about the planet and a diverse cast of fun characters." —Kirkus
"This exciting series opener introduces young readers to the joys of science and nature." —Publisher's Weekly
"Sure to appeal to kids who love code cracking and mysteries with cutting-edge technology." —Booklist
"A fun, exciting, and action-packed ride that kids will love." —J.J. Abrams, director and screenwriter of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," "Lost," "Alias"
"Inspires the next generation of curious kids to go out into our world and discover something unexpected." —James Cameron, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and acclaimed film-maker
"Explorer Academy is sure to awaken readers' inner adventurer and curiosity about the world around them. But you don't have to take my word for it, check out Cruz, Emmett, Sailor, and Lani's adventures for yourself!" —LeVar Burton, host of "Reading Rainbow" and "LeVar Burton Reads"
"Absolutely Brilliant! Explorer Academy is a fabulous feast for the mind and heart -- a thrilling, inspiring journey with compelling characters, wonderous places, and the highest possible stakes. Just as there's only one planet Earth, there's only one series like this. Don't wait another instant to enjoy this phenomenal adventure!" —T.A. Barron, author of the Merlin Saga
"In the midst of fast-paced action, Explorer Academy captures the power of learning through exploration. The excitement of hands-on discovery is modeled in Cruz's adventures, which encourages kids to take on the mind-set of explorers." —Daniel Raven-Ellison, National Geographic Explorer and Guerilla Geographer
Publisher: Under the Stars
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2019
Series: Explorer Academy
Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure
Juvenile Fiction / Thrillers & Suspense
Juvenile Fiction / School & Education
Hardcover (September 4th, 2018): $16.99
Library Binding (September 4th, 2018): $34.97
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It is never something that you expect, but it is one of the possibilities when you own a car. A dent appears in the side of your door or bonnet and its quite noticeable and you want to get it repaired. Our Newport car dent repair mobile service will take care of that ugly damage and have your car looking like new in no time at all.
Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) is a specialised method used to remove dents from your pride and joy. Our Newport dent repair technicians are very experienced in this method and it shows in the 'after' pictures. Our technicians do not use some of the more questionable repair methods for dents, such as dry ice or suckers. They have completed intensive training in the PDR method.
Our technicians know how to massage and manipulate the metal from behind the dented panel. The true skill of our dent repair technicians lies in removing the dent without any damage to the paint, such as cracking or peeling. Our technicians are experts in removing these dents – even small ones that can spoil the look of your car. Once finished, you will not be able to tell where the dent was in the first place.
Dents and other damage can really affect the value of your car. Since it is quite an investment to begin with, having those dents and dings repaired is very beneficial. However, it is important that you use a professionalNewportcar dent repair mobile service. Our technicians have over 17 years of experience between them and have performed Thousands of dent repairs inSouth Wales. With our professional service, you can rest assured that the repair will be carried out correctly – the first time. That is what sets our work apart from some of our competitors.
When you take your car to a traditional bodyshop, you may have to leave it there for a couple of days or more. The body shop may tell you that you need to repaint the part. Besides the expensive cost of paint, you would also have to pay for labour. It is easy to see how the final cost can rise into the hundreds of pounds.
Our car dent repair Newport services can save you as much as 50 per cent or more over the cost of a traditional bodyshop. In addition, we come to your home or work. All we need is a spot to park our mobile workshop and a power access point. Our repairs are usually done in about an hour and you will have your beautiful car once again.
We would like to answer any questions you may have about the PDR process or any of our other services. Phone us today to receive a free quote and see just how much you can save with our Newport dent repair service.


Discussion in 'The Asylum' started by Batosai, May 7, 2013.
Since no1 else is making this thread i guess ill make it. If anyone else wants to claim it anyway then ill give it up.
Well I was going to get around to it but then you had to go and steal it, jerk!
JK.Nah it doesn't really matter.
"I'm going to kill you all"
I'm happy. Yes that I am.
Don't disturb me you plebeians.
My rank! I can't be seen without it!
"That was a mean neko."


Everyone loves Bernie for his no-bullsh*t tactics and compassionate heart; we now have one more reason to love him. Seeing Bernie run to catch a train is probably the most adorable thing I've ever seen. With a confident stride, there's no question that the rumors regarding his failing health are total crap. Feel The Bern!


Let's face it. We all feel it. We all have those moments when we are standing at a fork in the road, staring at a number of choices, all of which have pros and cons, and none of which stands out as the absolute right one.
We all have those moments when we have no idea what comes next, and we have to take a leap of faith.
This year, I have come to a number of those crossroads. Honestly, I think this is the year of wide, scary crossroads for me, and the year when I spend more time than ever closing my eyes, holding my nose, and jumping into dark, murky waters or some other strange abyss.
This week, I'm staring at another one. A difficult choice, a future-altering thing, a terrifying what-if. I'm still not sure which road is best, which path will lead me to the place I hope to someday be. And none of the roads is ideal. But regardless, I have to choose one. For this journey, I may need a machete to cut through the weeds, but somehow, I sense that the hardest choice might be the best. Or, well, that's how it tends to work out for me.
Still. I think I'm ready.
Yeah. I'm getting good at facing the unknown. And hey, if the road I choose is the wrong one, everything is not lost. I will still have an amazing story to tell.
So yeah. Cheer me on, would you? Tell me your amazing story?
Fortunately with all our choices today, there is no one path. Though a road map would be nice.
Author, blogger, wonder-wife, super-mother and goddess who loves to read, write, travel, drive in the rain with the top down, and play music at full volume while I sing along. ~Represented by Sarah Negovetich and Marisa Corvisiero at Corvisiero Literary Agency.


text:
Martin Dunn may refer to:

Martin Dunn (cricketer) (1883–1942), Australian cricketer
Martin Dunn (journalist) (born 1955), British journalist
Martin J. Dunn (1956–2020), American lawyer and politician

See also
Martin Dunne (disambiguation)


COURSE DESCRIPTION: Writers often have trouble leading readers from scene to scene smoothly when it requires a change in time or space, large and small.
This class will concentrate on learning how to make those transitions in ways that do not jar readers but keep them engaged and well-grounded in essays, poems or stories.
To help writers find various strategies for avoiding excess exposition and bumpy transitions which slow their readers down.
To work on having images in the scenes do the work of transitioning in time and place.
To learn to avoid unnecessary impositions by the writer that call the readers' attention away from scenes to a "hey, I'm writing this" message.
Participants will read from several published pieces (flash writing, poetry, and excerpts from longer prose) that succeed in their time and place transitions.
Assignment: The instructor will provide reading material both in posted documents and via online links for participants to access at no extra charge. We'll discuss the authors' strategies and how they work or do not work well via postings in our private Google Groups classroom. We'll be looking for what makes them smooth and keeps the reader engaged and grounded in the story/poem/essay as it moves along and what disrupts that. Participants will write a scene inspired by any of the posted writing for response from classmates and the instructor.
We'll "talk" via our private Google Group postings about words that help us make transitions in time without disrupting the reader's sense of the story. We'll practice with words that help us move our readers forward and back in time without intruding on the vivid quality of the writing.
Assignment: Participants will write two to four adjoining scenes from an exercise the instructor provides in which the time-order transition words are well employed. Then they'll write the same scenes in a different time order. 2500 word limit. Classmates and the instructor will respond to the scenes and their reader experience of moving in time.
Sometimes the best way of keeping readers grounded and well-situated in a piece of writing is by using "time-stamps." We'll explore several published samples (flash, poetry, and excerpts from longer fiction) that use this technique.
Assignment: The instructor will provide exercises from which participants can choose to rewrite portions of older work by introducing time stamps or begin new work that employs a technique for making time transitions. Up to 3500 words.
Even the smallest of relocations—room to room, indoors to out, patio to backyard, for instance—require that the writer keep the reader from becoming geographically confused. And how do we jump over even larger areas to keep our narratives followable? Whether this is down the block or to a new city or country, from ocean to mountains there are skillful ways of bringing the reader along.
Assignment: The instructor will post published and unpublished writings with and without effective transitions through limited and larger spaces. Participants will discuss how the authors succeed in moving readers seamlessly. She will post two exercises that encourage participants to become adept at moving their readers through scenes that take place inside and outside both large and small spaces.
How do we move through time and space when we are writing the lyric essay or book-length prose that requires we jump over white space without narrative help?
Assignment: The lyric memoir and lyric novels and essays are popular today. This week will feature samples from each of the genres, which participants will discuss. The instructor's writing exercise will encourage prose or poetry writing or a mixture inspired by the discussed samples.
Participants may take any of the pieces they have written and received responses to during the course and post rewrites of that work for more response about how smoothly time and space transitions are employed.
Notes: The instructor will post each of the six weeks' lessons with exercises and models at the opening of each week so students can work on generating that writing on their own time, at their own speed during the week. She will respond to posted work and questions within 48 hours so the writer can get started on revising. The class will use a private Google Group, to which the instructor will provide access and help learning the ropes. Please provide a Gmail address for the classroom use.
BUY NOW: Writing with Transitions, by Sheila Bender (6 weeks, starting 6/17/2019) Limit: 10 students. Early registration is recommended.


Supermodel and television personality Jang Yoon-ju will make her acting debut in the crime action film "Veteran" in August.
"Veteran" is directed by Ryoo Seung-wan and stars male actors Hwang Jung-min, Yoo Ah-in, Yu Hae-jin and Oh Dal-su in the lead roles.
Jang plays a supporting role as Miss Bong, the sole female agent in the regional investigation unit. Miss Bong is a "refreshingly honest," feisty and skillful agent, according to the film's makers.
Ryoo also praised Jang for working hard during filming.
Jang said, "It was a lot of pressure, but I trusted director Ryoo Seung-wan and my costars. Since Miss Bong' personality is quite similar to mine, I wanted to deliver a good performance." The supermodel said she hoped the film would show the energy she poured into her first acting role.
"Veteran" is a dark comedy thriller following an investigative team chasing corrupt and self-entitled wealthy heirs.
Jang has enjoyed success as a fashion supermodel and also has a side career as a musician. She has also featured in TV reality programs like "Infinite Challenge." Recently, she married a businessman in May.
"Veteran" is scheduled for release on Aug. 5.


Nader units are ideal for building drying with their high capacity and robust build quality requiring minimal maintenance and able to withstand the roughest of treatment.
With 28 years of experience in manufacturing the highest quality dehumidification products, Nader units are ideal for building drying with their high capacity and robust build quality requiring minimal maintenance and able to withstand the roughest of treatment.
Nader dehumidifiers are built to last.