At the conclusion of the antepenultimate round of the Isle of Man Masters, English numero uno, Michael Adams added himself to the leading pack. On the seventh board, Adams defeated GM Abhijeet Gupta with the white pieces. For Gupta, this was his second loss in a row which had helped his opponent reach the top spot. In the previous round, it was Hikaru Nakamura who had beaten Gupta to join into the shared lead.
In the seventh round, Adams was in his element, executing a positional squeeze over his Indian opponent. With the black pieces, Gupta had essayed the hot favourite defence of the tournament, the French. While the opening went decently well for Gupta, he missed a serious opportunity on his 20th turn. Had he found 20…h5, he would have ended up forcing an endgame where he would have had an extra exchange. Instead, a few moves later in the middle game, he allowed Adams to liquidate into a better endgame.
On his 34th turn, Gupta gave up a pawn to exchange knights and weaken white's pawn structure. But this did little to help black's cause since, in the ensuing endgame, one of black's pieces – either the bishop or the king – had to commit itself to the protection of the weak pawn on h6. Adams made the most of his mobility first by grabbing space on the queenside and eventually forcing a zugzwang (a situation in which the obligation to make a move in one's turn is a serious, often decisive, disadvantage) to deliver the knock-out punch on move 54.
Viswanathan Anand, who had climbed up to the joint second spot in the previous round, finished with a draw against his young countryman, SP Sethuraman in round 7. But his draw did not affect his tournament position as none of the players in the first or the second place – except Adams, of course – managed to win their game. In fact, all of the top six games of the round ended peacefully.
In the game, Anand had the black pieces. Sethuraman opened with the non-committal 1.Nf3 and the game soon drifted into the lines of the Symmetrical English Opening. After the initial moves, Anand's pieces seemed a bit passive but the game was still in known territory. Anand came up with a new move on his 13th to avoid an exchange of queens while he broke in the centre but about six moves later, queens were traded anyway. This was followed by another long series of exchanges that left players in an equal minor piece endgame. The players didn't take too long to sign peace after this.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's game against Arkadij Naiditsch on the top board was another quick draw. But unlike the Sethuraman-Anand game, this one exploded out of the opening. The game opened with the Ruy Lopez and Maxime, who had the white pieces, spent almost no time in the opening.
On his 17th turn, the French grandmaster found an interesting central pawn break that complicated matters for both sides. Naiditsch spent about 40 minutes at this point and eventually gave up a piece for two pawns on the 18th move. The situation was quite interesting since although white had an extra piece, he was struggling to get his dark squared bishop into the game. In the end, the players decided to repeat the position and call it a day after 25 moves.
"I had seen Arkadij's reply but I thought I might find something there with a piece up. But ultimately I couldn't and I just had to force a draw," Vachier-Lagrave said after the game.
Meanwhile, IM R Praggnanandhaa won one of the most exciting games of the round against compatriot, IM Ravi Teja. Commenting on the game, IM Sagar Shah went so far as to say that the little genius' tactical play brought to mind the style of Mikhail Tal, a former world champion known for his magical tactical prowess.
Praggnanandhaa had the white pieces in a Caro-Kann Defence game. Teja went pawn grabbing quite early in the game, on move 11. Showing great attacking sense, Praggnanandhaa lashed out with some very accurate attacking moves to get his opponent on the backfoot. A highlight of the game was Praggnanandhaa's rook sacrifice.
Teja, however, declined the material offered but, a few moves later, was forced to sacrifice his own queen. After this, it was only a matter of technique for Praggananandhaa. Finding a few more accurate moves, he forced resignation by move 32.
After the dust of the battles had settled, the leader count stood at a whopping seven. All of the seven players – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Wang Hao, Arkadij Naiditsch, Michael Adams and Jeffery Xiong – have scored 5½/7. Anand, along with 11 others is close behind on 5/7. With so many players tied at the top, it seems like the tournament will end with a crowd on the top spot.


Discussion in 'Early Years' started by puzzles, Dec 16, 2005.
I am having terrible difficulty finding sequencing pictures for my topic of traditional stories. I have found one for gingerbread man but that's it. ABC teach has them apparantly but you have to pay to be a member. Can't find them on Enchanted learning. Can anyone help?


Now that we are firmly into spring, it is a good time to nourish and repair your hair after a winter of dry, moisture-starved air.
There are so many great products on the market to restore your dried-out winter locks. From deep conditioning hair masks, to leave-ins, to simple rinse out conditioners, there is an abundance of healthy options for you to consider.
Ahead we have pulled together just a few of our favorite products to rejuvenate your hair...just in time for the warm weather! Check them out!
This luxurious silicone-free nourishing treatment will rejuvenate even the most dry and damaged hair. The product includes a rich blend of ingredients including coconut oil (to condition damaged hair), babassu oil (to add shine, smooth, hydrate and protect hair from sun exposure), meadowfoam seed oil (to seal in moisture), vitamin e (to add moisture to dry split ends) and rosemary oil (to add shine and moisture). Just plan one night or weekend for application since for full benefits it must be left on at least an hour! Although it is rich, this product is actually good for all hair types.
A simple and versatile formula that will add shine, detangle, smooth and reduce frizz on all hair textures and types, from straight to curly hair and fine to super thick hair. Moisturizes dry, over-processed or frizzy hair and volumizes fine hair. Will repair, restore and prevent breakage and split-ends. It also helps to improve color retention and is safe for chemically-treated or colored hair.
Increase moisture with this leave-in conditioner and lightweight detangling spray. It blends natural oils, fragrant herbs and flower essences to condition, plus adds honey to increase body and manageability. Note, this product can also be used on dry hair to revive or restyle.
This quick absorbing silicone-free formula uses plant and flower oils to deliver beautifully smooth and shiny hair. Includes rahua, sacha inchi, and morete oils that were harvested in the Amazon and penetrate deeply into each hair strand to heal and strengthen, banish flyaways, heal split ends, prevent frizz and promote shine. Formulated for everyday use. Product contains certain organic ingredients.
Here is to a beautiful spring!


Equinix HK1 is one of the most network-dense data centers in Hong Kong. It is the home of a thriving financial services (FinTech) ecosystem and offers business continuity trading rooms to protect and monitor trading operations for financial firms.
The Global Switch datcenter is massive 45,000sqm and is strategically located near the TKO cable landing station and the HKEX financial exchange datacenter.
MEGA Plus is iAdvantage's latest Tier 4 ready data centre, it is built on a plot of land in Tseung Kwan O ("TKO") that has been specially set aside by the Hong Kong SAR government for high-tier data centre development.
The AT&T HK data center is located in the eastern part of the Hong Kong Island, the Hong Kong Internet Data Center is located in Siu Sai Wan, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's proximity to mainland China and free and open flow of information serves as a gateway for companies to set up infrastructure to serve the Chinese market.
The new data centers currently are clustered around industrial zones, which can be renovated factory buildings or industrial estates. A popular area for new data centers is the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate.
Hong Kong is a major logistics hub for many industries including financial, trading, and telecommunication.
Major cloud companies are also building data centers in Hong Kong. Both Amazon Web Services and Google have recently announced new data center builds.


Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) today announced the commercial availability of its wirelessly connected Trilogy family of portable ventilators in North America. Now connecting to Philips cloud-based Care Orchestrator patient management application, Bluetooth-enabled Trilogy devices turn medical-grade data into actionable information, delivering it directly to mobile devices or desktops of care providers multiple times per day. This solution enables care teams to monitor patients remotely and proactively, allowing for fast and informed clinical decisions including early intervention, which can help avoid unnecessary readmissions and lower cost of care.
As part of Philips' ongoing co-development efforts, connected Trilogy debuted with a limited release in late 2016 with select medical equipment providers. These partners have been managing ventilation patients and providing feedback to help further enhance the connected Trilogy solution.
Philips Trilogy is a proven portable ventilation solution that has helped hundreds of thousands of pediatric and adult patients by effectively transitioning them from the hospital to the home. The announcement of its connectivity follows a recent study using Trilogy with AVAPS-AE, which found that a multi-faceted approach to COPD treatment using non-invasive ventilation could significantly decrease hospital and payer costs as well as hospitalization rates for patients with severe COPD1. When paired with Philips Care Orchestrator, Trilogy connects patients, homecare providers, physicians and payers within a single cloud-based platform, helping health systems to simplify day-to-day operations while leveraging informatics to deliver personalized connected care.
The medical-grade connectivity of Philips Trilogy ventilators is powered by Philips HealthSuite and Qualcomm Life's 2net Platform2. Since 2016, Philips and Qualcomm have had a strategic technology collaboration to advance connected health across the health continuum.
For additional information on Philips' solutions for sleep and respiratory care, follow @PhilipsResp or visit www.respironics.com.


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HomeNewsWoman Who Died In Huma Abedin's Home Worked For George Soros
Woman Who Died In Huma Abedin's Home Worked For George Soros
July 13, 2018 Sean Adl-Tabatabai News, US 8
Police have identified the dead body of the woman found in Huma Abedin's home as 48-year-old Lara Prychodko – a former George Soros associate.
Lara Prychodko's body was discovered on Tuesday evening in the trash compactor of Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abein and her husband, convicted pedophile Anthony Weiner.
After being identified by police, it has emerged that Lara Nadia Anike Prychodko is the wife of David Schlachet, a Big Pharma executive and long-time George Soros aide.
Schlachet is a powerhouse in the Big Tech & Pharmaceuticals industries and is currently a Director of Teldor Cables & Systems Ltd, the Chairman of The Board at Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd, Chairman of Taya Investment Co. Ltd, a Director at EZchip Technologies Ltd, Director of EZchip Semiconductor Ltd, director at Syneron Medical Ltd, and an External Director at BioCancell Ltd.
Schlachet is also involved with numerous other high-profile, Soros-backed projects.
Dailymail.co.uk reports: How Prychodko got into the chute remains unclear and people inside the building are at a loss over what may have happened.
'It's an unfortunate situation, there's nothing else you can really say,' one of the building's doormen told DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the NYPD told DailyMail.com the woman's cause of death will be announced by the medical examiner.
No report was released on Wednesday, with a spokesman explaining the state of Prychodko's body could be a factor into how long it takes to determine her cause of death.
Security footage also shows her walking into the apartment building shortly before she was found inside the machine,PIX11 reported.
Weiner and Abedin have owned an apartment at the address for 16 years, which was listed for rent at $11,900 a month on the same day he pleaded guilty to sexting a 15-year-old girl.
Abedin also filed for divorce that same day.
The listing, posted on May 19, 2017, was taken down just days later, though it is unclear as to whether the estranged couple found a renter, or if the property was taken off the market for other reasons.
Their modern apartment, located on the 14th and 15th floors, has a view that overlooks Union Square Park and extends out over the midtown skyline.
There are 670 units in the apartment block, divided into four blocks: Gramercy, Village, Park, and University.
There is a communal pool, gym and grassy rooftop for residents to enjoy.
Neighbors at the luxury apartment block told NBC when police arrived on Tuesday evening, they believed it was related to Weiner's conviction.
The former congressman is eligible to begin his three years supervised release in August 2019.
MP Who Exposed Pedophile Ring Faces Lengthy Prison Sentence
Texas Mother Sentenced To 40 Years Jail For Pimping Out Her 2 Yr Old Daughter
Trump Has Given Pentagon 30 Days To Develop Plan To Defeat ISIS
George Galloway interviewed on being assaulted
Mexican Police Shoot US Teen Near Border
U.S. Military 'Accidentally' Kill 90 Iraqis In Massive Airstrike
Iranian Government Has 'Hard Evidence' Of CIA Meddling In Protests
FEMA Insider Warns 'Worst Natural Disaster In History' Coming
Thousands Protest In London Against Turkish War On Kurds
Flynn Judge Orders Deported Illegals To Return To U.S.
BBC Predicted Grenfell Tower Disaster In 1993 Drama
Putin To Russians Abroad: 'Come Home Immediately'
Doctors Baffled As Rare Polio-Like Illness Spreads Across US
Marijuana Cooking Italian Grandmother Becomes YouTube Sensation Overnight
President Assad: The US, UK & France Are Responsible For The Bloodshed In Syria
TDS Sufferer Michael Moore Admits Trump Will Win Election
Video – The Story of Your Enslavement

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Marketing to other businesses is an entirely different kettle of fish as compared with marketing to a commercial audience. While many of the strategies will be similar, there will be subtle nuances in the way that you approach this, which will make your strategy better suited to the audience you have in mind.
In this post, we will take a look at some of the best ways to approach B2B marketing via the print medium.
One print avenue for B2B marketing is to go through trade magazines. These will be magazines that are aimed at your industry and that many companies within your industry will be subscribed too. These may have an advertising section where you can place an ad, but the best option is to try and get coverage in a story. This will help you to raise your profile and expose your brand to a larger audience.
Trade magazines don't want to give you free coverage, but they do want to share relevant stories for their readership. So, if your business does something genuinely newsworthy, then they'll be happy to cover that as news. Find an angle, make a change, tell your story, and then write a press release to get the word out.
Sending out flyers or leaflets is a great way to reach big businesses. Phone and you will often be ignored. Send an email and it will likely end up in spam. But grab the address of a business from their website and send them old-fashioned post and it will arrive. Not only that, but they will then need to look at it even if it is just to throw it out.
This is your moment to make sure your marketing really stands out. If you have something genuinely good to sell and a great brand, then you can grab attention just long enough to make your pitch and hopefully convert a sale as a result.
To do this effectively, getting expert help can be a good idea. Speak with an agency and they will help not only to print the materials, but also to design the campaign.
Of course, another option is to drop leaflets and flyers through letterboxes, or to give them away at tradeshows and conferences. Whatever the case, if you have a great flyer, then there are lots of ways to get these into people's hands!
Business cards are another highly useful tool when it comes to marketing at tradeshows and conferences. These really help to lubricate social interactions when it comes to making the most of their network-building promise.
Networking is one of the most important strategies for growing as a business. Knowing the right person can mean getting an introduction to the CEO of a potentially huge business. Don't miss the opportunity to turn those casual interactions into leads: carry a business card!
A very old-fashioned form of marketing that still works very well is simply to hang posters and notices. You can do this on walls or at certain venues. If you have a business that offers something specific, then think about the kinds of places your clients might visit and how you can reach them with a well-placed advertisement.
These are only a few of the methods you can use to attract B2B clients using print. Others include sending out direct mail newsletters, using printed materials in your own waiting room, sending printed ads along with services and products and much more. Don't forget this crucial piece of your marketing puzzle – start doing more print marketing!


After studying abroad in Paris and falling in love, aristocratic Tiyaa has returned home to the Sultanate of Daagaran in Niger, and is waiting and pining for her love. Concerned, her friend takes her to consult a zimma (wise man) and she is advised that in order to heal she must find a wedding ring when the new moon comes. The women that Tiyaa meets in the days leading up to the new moon share with her their stories of love, marriage, and divorce. What unfolds is a simple yet touching tale of love, female empowerment, and healing.


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Sixers/NBA
Report: Jahlil Okafor involved in street fight
by Philly.com
UPDATE: The Sixers released a statement regarding the situation.
"We are aware of the report and we are currently working to gather additional information. Until that time, we will have no further comment."
TMZ has a video they say is of Sixers rookie Jahlil Okafor punching a man outside of a bar in Boston who had shouted "76ers suck:"
Okafor says he was being heckled from the moment he left the club and felt threatened because people swarmed him on the street.
He says he was with a teammate — who he wouldn't name — and says someone got physical with the teammate … so Jahlil did what he felt he needed to do to protect himself and his friend.


I should say "Fresh-from-the-garden" Parsnips! Parsnips are at their sweet peak when left in the ground over the winter - mulch properly in the fall and your parsnips will survive even a harsh winter like we had here in Michigan. It's the same with carrots - click HERE to view my post about mulching carrots.
Pot Pies come in different forms - they can have regular pie crust on the top & the bottom or crust just on the top or biscuits on the top instead of crust or sometimes even mashed potatoes on the top like in Shepherds Pie. In my recipe the top is homemade Parmesan Biscuits!!
Prepare the ingredients as listed above. In a large stock pot sauté the onions in a little olive oil for about five minutes & then add 5 cups of the chicken broth. Now add the already prepared parsnips, carrots, potatoes & chicken cubes - bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer and continue cooking until the chicken & veggies are just cooked (about 15 minutes but test to make sure)(make your biscuit dough now while the pie filling is cooking). Add the peas, basil & pepper. In a separate bowl - whisk the flour into the remaining cup of chicken broth. Now slowly pour this "flour liquid" into the stock pot & stir (see top right picture) - continue simmering until thickened - it should literally only take a couple of minutes (or less). Remove from the heat & pour into a large deep casserole dish.
Combine the flour, Parmesan cheese, baking powder & salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut the butter into this flour mixture with a pastry cutter. Stir in the milk & form the dough into a cylinder with your hands (you might need a little extra flour if the dough is too sticky). Take that cylinder & cut into puck sized rounds (you should be able to cut 8 to 10 slices). Place these biscuits on top of the hot pie filling (see picture above) & place the casserole dish into a preheated 425 degree oven. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the biscuits are baked to your desired golden brown color.
Scoop out one biscuit with some filling & ENJOY!
"Garden Delights Online Plant Nursery" is a wonderful website full of the best quality plants. They have trees, shrubs, grasses, wildflowers, ferns, mosses - even driftwood!! - This is a must visit site!
I've never made a pot pie. I would love to try this out. Thanks for sharing with Countdown in Style!
Wow this looks amazing. I totally pinned your mulching carrots post. I think I'm going to need that one day! Wow I've never made a homemade pot pie. Sounds like a great idea. Thank you for sharing this with us at Countdown in Style!
This looks so tasty. I never thought to add parsnips before. I've got to try it!


Take a spin on the newest, hottest, bestselling Suzuki models. We'll have a variety of models available to test drive: Boulevard M109 B.O.S.S., GSX-S1000, GSX-1300R, Van Van 200, V-Strom and others.
Come check them all out, and meet our team!
Riders must provide appropriate riding gear and be 18 years of age with valid motorcycle endorsement to test drive. Suzuki has the right to refuse anyone a test ride for any reason.


Interior Design ~ Laundry Basket Ideas Baby Gift Pinterest For Master Bedrooms Shower On Pinterestbaby Laundry Basket Ideas. Baby Shower Laundry Basket Ideas Boy. Laundry Basket Ideas On Pinterestbaby Laundry Basket Gift Ideas. Laundry Basket Ideas For Master Bedrooms.


Standard AS/NZS 2208:1996 Safety glazing materials in building.
3 year from date of Purchased, Product Warranty for Spigots/Accessories/Powder Coated Post.
12 month from date of Purchased, Product Warranty Toughened Glass Panels/Gates.
owner of the property where the fence/gate and associated products is installed.
2. Powder Coated Aluminium products are well maintained with a simple wash down as per our Care & Mainte-nance document.
3. Warranty for Powder Coated products may not be valid if it is installed within 1500 meters of marine environment.
6. The Warranty will become void if a panel or associated product has been found to be modified or tampered with.
by tradespeople such as Tiler, Landscapers etc.
damage stainless steel and powder coated materials.
Glass Panels/Gates upon pick up or delivery of goods and are to be satisfied that the goods are free from visible de-fects such as chips or cracks. No claims will be accepted after goods have been received/delivered.
be accepted for storing of Glass.
13. Take care when mowing lawns or anything that may cause an object to projectile causing glass to chip or crack.
14. This warranty does not cover installation of the product.
To make a claim, please contact Safeguard Fencing as per details above.


The majority of applications for recognition are filed by foreign general care nurses. Further professions we selected for a detailed overview are doctors, office clerks, electronics technicians and motor vehicle mechatronics technicians. The range of countries of origin is enormous. Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked first with 1.518 applications processed.
The general care nurses, who are in high demand now, mostly come from the European countries. The majority of applications processed was submitted by those trained in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Serbia. Among the non-European countries, the most applications were filed by applicants from the Philippines.
A significant share of applicants wishing to work as general care nurses receive only partial equivalence and, thus, need to complete an adjustment qualification program in order to obtain full equivalence. While the success rate of applications filed from the European Union (except Croatia and Poland) stands at over 70 %, the applications from candidate countries Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia are granted full equivalence in less than 50% of the cases.
Countries with at least 20 applications processed.
The majority of applications for recognition are filed by foreign doctors wishing to have their license recognised to practise medicine. The range of countries of origin is enormous. Syria, a non-European country, ranked first with 1.008 applications processed. Romania ranked second, followed by Egypt. About 250 applications processed in 2017 were filed by those trained each in Austria, Serbia and Ukraine.
The recognition rate of those trained in Europe equals 100 %. In case of the non-European countries of training, the success rate is a bit lower. For example, ca. 45 % of the applicants from Syria and Azerbaijan are not granted full equivalence. Nearly the same amount of applicants form Egypt, Saudi-Arabia and Iran are granted partial equivalence.
Among the crafts, the profession of electronics technician is the most frequent profession for recognition. The applications are mostly submitted by applicants trained in the EU candidate countries Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Among the EU countries the majority of applications are filed from Poland.
Among the most important countries of training, only Serbia has a success rate of over 80%. The success rate of applications from Bosnia and Herzegovina stands at 73%, followed by Poland and Turkey with a success rate of accordingly over 30 % and 50 %. The succes rate of electronics technicians who were trained in Syria is very low.
Among the non-regulated professions, the profession of office clerks is the most frequent profession for recognition. The applications are mostly submitted by applicants trained in Syria, followed by Poland, Kasakhstan and the Russian Federation.
Among the most important countries of training, Romania has the highest success rate of over 86%. The succes rate of applications from the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Poland stands below 70%. The lowest success rate in 2017 had the applicants who were trained in Italy and Syria.
The majority of applications for recognition as a motor vehicle mechatronics technician are filed from applicants who were trained in Poland, followed by Syria and Romania.
Motor vehicle mechatronics technician recieve rarely full equivalence. The highest success rate have the applicants trained in Romania and it stands at 45 %. Even only third applicant from neighbouring country Poland gets full equivalence. Very high is the rate of partial equivalence among the syrian applicants.


The Hong Kong International Printing & Packaging Fair organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council is a 4 day event held annually at the Asia World Expo.
A cost effective solution to upgrade the organiser's overall decorative setting at the 2017 show was required. The areas included the registration counter, open forum, print awards and digital printing awards areas, along with a separate seminar space to seat 100 people.
When we think of printing and packaging, one of the most obvious places to look is the supermarket, as such the design played on this notion. Using bold colours to differentiate each zone, our intention was to replicate a surreal supermarket environment under the theme of "Supermarket Therapy".
Due to the low budget, vinyl graphics and reusable exhibition structures were our main construction materials. Supermarket trolleys, related visual merchandising and propping were quick solutions to meet the tight 3 day onsite setup.
Starting at the registration counter, bold yellow and purple graphics were applied on the back wall to draw the visitors' attention. For the actual counter a mixture of different colour plastic boxes real and unreal (vinyl graphics), along with a shopping trolley composed the initial scene.
Inside the exhibition hall the organiser's space covered an area of 1180sq ft. the print awards space was dressed as an orange colored meat and cheese section. A mini open forum was allocated in blue color. Green represented the digital printing awards zone. A separate semi enclosed area housed the seminar space. Again, bold yellow and purple colors are generously applied. The design met the low budget and in the process created a unique spatial design experience for its visitors.


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River Thames Wins Theiss River Prize 2010
Perth, 12 October 2010. The River Thamse was selected as the winner of the world's largest environmental prize in 2010. It was presented to the Environment Agency at the Riversymposium in Perth. The Danube had won the prestigous prize in 2007.
The Environment Agency has collected the world's largest environmental prize after Britain's most iconic river was crowned the beauty queen of the planet's waterways.
The River Thames was selected out of hundreds of rivers across every continent as the winner of International Theiss River Prize, which celebrates outstanding achievement in river management and restoration.
London's renowned waterway was up against the world-famous Yellow River, in China, Hattah Lakes, Australia, and the Smirnykh Rivers Partnership, in Japan in the competition's finals.
The Thames scooped the prize thanks to its dramatic recovery from a biologically dead river in the 1950's to today's thriving waterway; teeming with fish, and with returning salmon, otter and sea trout populations.
The chemical quality of the rivers within the Thames catchment classed as 'Very Good' or 'Good', has improved from 53% in 1990 to 80% in 2008 while the estuary supports viable shellfisheries and is a nursery ground for commercial sole and bass stocks. The numbers of fish are increasing, with 125 different species recorded, including internationally important smelt and shad.
Since April 2005, 393 habitat enhancement projects have been completed and nearly 70 km of river has been restored or enhanced.
Alastair Driver, the Environment Agency's National Conservation Manager, said: "In the last 150 years the Thames has been to hell and back, and it has taken thousands of people many decades to restore it to this point. Tighter regulation of polluting industries and our work with farmers, businesses and water companies to reduce pollution and improve water quality, have all helped to make the Thames a living river once again.
"But the recovery is fragile, and under increasing pressure from a growing population, ageing infrastructure and climate change. Through innovative projects such as the Thames Tideway tunnels and the London Rivers Action Plan, we and all of the people and organisations we work with are proving that we are tackling these challenges head on to ensure that the Thames remains an iconic river for many centuries to come."
The Environment Agency has pledged that the $350,000 AUD (Australian Dollars) prize money will go to the Thames Rivers Restoration Trust. Part of the prize fund will be used by the Trust to establish a twinning project to help restore a river in the developing world.
The award was presented October 12, at the International Riversymposium in Perth, Australia.
About the entry
The Environment Agency submission for the international river prize focused on five innovative projects put in place to further improve the quality of the Thames and its tributaries:
Working with farmers – which has helped to reduce pollution from nutrients and pesticides.
The Jubilee River Flood Alleviation Scheme - which has created a new 11 km stretch of naturalistic river and habitats, whilst delivering flood protection to 5,500 homes.
The London Rivers Action Plan - which is helping restore London's urban rivers, with 58 new river restoration projects in progress since its launch in 2009.
The London Tideway Tunnels - a £3.6bn scheme tackling the 39 million tonnes of storm sewer overflows that enter the tidal Thames annually.
Thames Estuary 2100 - a 100-year adaptable plan to ensure the future sustainable management of tidal flood risk in the Thames estuary, and protecting over 1.25million people and £200bn in property value.
The London Tideway Improvements - three Thames Water schemes to tackle the 39 million tonnes of storm sewer overflows that enter the tidal Thames in an average year. These are the £675m Sewage Works Upgrades, the £635m Lee Tunnel, and the proposed Thames Tunnel (estimated cost £3.6bn).


lithium batteries are slightly worse than lead-acid batteries because of their safety. Therefore, various safety precautions must be taken during use, such as preventing external batteries or accidents from causing damage to lithium batteries, as this may cause fire or explosion; Temperature applicability is also very good, so in other aspects of compatibility, lithium batteries are no less inferior to lead-acid batteries.
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Europa - Democratie - Esperanto (in Esperanto: Eŭropo – Demokratio – Esperanto) is een Europese politieke partij die meedoet aan de Europese verkiezingen. Het hoofdkwartier bevindt zich in de Franse hoofdstad Parijs.

De partij probeert zich sterk te maken voor de taal Esperanto binnen de EU. Haar uiteindelijke doel is dat de EU het Esperanto als officiële taal aanneemt.

De partij begon als Europe – Démocratie – Espéranto bij de Europese verkiezingen in 2004 in Frankrijk. De Duitse tak Europa – Demokratie – Esperanto wist er niet in te slagen om de 4000 nodige handtekeningen op te halen, wegens een late start.

Zij zal ernaar streven voor de verkiezingen in 2009 in alle 25 EU-lidstaten afdelingen te hebben.

Franse verkiezingsresultaten
De EDE was verkiesbaar in 7 van de 8 grote Franse stemdistricten en behaalde op 13 juni 2004 in totaal 0,15% van de stemmen.

Externe link
EDE officiële website

Europese politieke partij
Esperanto

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


BS, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1978.
MD, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1982.
Internship and residency, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, San Diego, California, 1983–1985.
Fellowship, Invasive Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1986–1989.
Fellowship, Interventional Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1989–1990.
Internal medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine: 1985.
Cardiovascular disease, American Board of Internal Medicine: 1989.
Interventional cardiology, American Board of Internal Medicine: 2002.
Nuclear cardiology, American Board of Internal Medicine: 2006.
DIRECTIONS: Dr. Harms' practice is on the 2nd floor of Central Washington Hospital. Use the elevator near the gift shop.


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Living on the skyline
Posted on September 14, 2014 by BrownhillsBob
A brilliantly dramatic photo of the final days of Waine House, taken by a resident of Humphries House, and supplied anonymously.
Hey you lot – I owe you all, and the wonderful people at Distinctly Black Country an apology – for far too long I have neglected to share the excellent work been done by locals and professional historians alike into recording the remarkable histories of high-rise and system built housing across the Black Country.
I originally placed an appeal here for help with this remarkable an unique project way back in 2013, over a year ago. Since then, folk have been beavering away recording lost histories, good an bad, from as far apart as Brownhills, Brierley Hill and Smethwick.
This is why I adore Distinctly Black Country and hold them is such high esteem – few stuffy historians would think the 60s housing boom and the urbanism it gave rise to worthy of serious study – but these people do. And because they do, their approach is gentle, fun and informal – which always gives rise to the best history.
Waine and Bailey Houses under construction in Brownhills in the 1960s, captured through the flames of a grassfire on Clayhanger Tip. A stunning image supplied by Marion Jones.
Local wildlife champion Chaz Mason – wild man of the marsh – has been working hard on this project. The man is a star. Please blog again, Chaz, you are sorely missed. But thanks for your hard work on High Rise Histories and Block Capital. It's exemplary.
The reason I'm pushing this now is that some recordings have now gone live with other materials relating to the project, and I really think readers should check them out.
A truly remarkable local legend – Chaz Mason, ex-Clayhanger Marsh blogger and local historian. A true gentleman and champion of our area. Image from the Distinctly Black Country Facebook page.
In the meantime, If you have any memories of high rise or maisonette living in Brownhills, please do comment here. It's a sadly ignored bit of our collective culture, and I'm so glad it's being addressed at last.
One of the things I'm really loving is that Distinctly Black Country are encouraging others to do some brilliant and thought provoking work. The superlative Up the Oss Road blog has a stunning post on the end-times of the Smethwick West estate, a truly grim place which I knew well. Do check it out.
Smetwick West. Grim, but it had a heart. Image from Up The Oss Road.
Please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.
Online stories plot the rise and fall of tower blocks
Released: Friday 12 September, 2014
A history project focussing on the Black Country's high-rise council flats has started to tell the stories of the people who lived in them or worked on them.
With their first-hand accounts now available to listen to for free, local people have shared their experiences in their own words through a selection of oral history recordings.
The recordings are part of an archive relating to the Black Country's tower blocks and they can be heard here.
They have been produced by Block Capital, a Heritage Lottery-funded project which is investigating the history of 1960s high-rise in the region. Block Capital is hosted by the distinctly black country network, a heritage group based at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Councillor Elias Mattu, Wolverhampton City Council's Cabinet Member for Leisure and Communities, said: 'This is a fascinating piece of social history which charts the rise and fall of tower blocks across the Black Country and will be of interest to anyone who wants to find out how their community has developed over the years.'
These grim flats were built somewhat inexplicably in the middle of nowhere, just of Deakin Avenue up on the A5. When they were built, little was here, and the only practical walking route to town was the desolate 'Black Path' – not a pleasant walk at night. I took this picture in the summer of 2007, shortly before they were demolished.
All the oral history recordings have all been produced by volunteers and they will be added to during 2014, creating a record of dozens of face-to-face interviews with tenants, former tenants, council employees and others.
The interviews collected so far cover experience of living in tower blocks from the 1960s to the present day, and they have preserved for posterity what it was like to move into the towers when they were first built.
Kevin Aston, one of the interviewees, moved into the new Bolton Court flats in Tipton as a child. He said: 'I was so chuffed about it that I went to school the one day, and I think I brought three of my school teachers home to show them the flats – much to my mum's surprise.'
They also record the deterioration and eventual demolition of some of the 276 blocks, which some say started in the 1970s or 1980s. They include Lion Farm in Oldbury, which were captured by the renowned photographer Rob Clayton prior to demolition and recorded at the project site.
While there are plenty who are happy to have seen them go, others say the notorious reputation of some tower blocks was not deserved. All these different points of view can be heard via the distinctly black country website.
The maisonettes at Anchor Bridge were the last to go.
The website hosts a wide range of archive material for web users to browse, but project leaders are still on the lookout for other people who would be willing to be interviewed about their experience.
Paul Quigley, Project Researcher, said: 'Many of the tower blocks have been pulled down, but it's important that we don't lose first hand experiences of what it's been like to live in them – through good times and bad.'
Anyone interested in contributing to the project should visit the website here or discuss the project with Chaz Mason on 01902 552040.
This entry was posted in Brownhills stuff, Clayhanger stuff, Environment, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local Blogs, Local History, Local media, News, planning, Reader enquiries, Shared memories, Social Media, Spotted whilst browsing the web, Walsall community, Walsall Council and tagged Brownhills, Brownhills local history, Chaz Mason, Cheap tat, Clayhanger, Clayhanger Marsh Log, Derelict, flats, high rise, Lichfield, local blogs, Local History, planning, Redevelopment, Slum, Social History, social housing, Staffordshire, Things to do, tower lock, Walsall, Walsall Council, Wildlife. Bookmark the permalink.
12 Responses to Living on the skyline
Andy Dennis says:
Bob, I have to take issue with you about the maisonettes at Watling Street / Deakin Avenue. I agree they seemed pretty grim, but it was not such an odd place to build. There was a lot of new residential development in the area in the 1950s and early 1960s; for example Anglesey Road and tributaries, Howdles Lane and so on. The flats themselves effectively replaced Fox's Row, the terraced houses next to the Anglesey Arms.
The new houses were for sale on the open market, but local folks were used to renting. At the time there were plans for dualling the Watling Street, awaiting completion of the M6 between Gailey (Junction 12) and the M1, which had been in the government's transport plans since at least 1948. There were also emerging plans to demolish large numbers of unfit houses, such as Fox's Row, the north side of Watling Street between Howdles Lane and Castle Street, and other old properties in Howdles Lane and further along Watling Street beyond the chapel.
At the time the north side of the Watling Street had what we would call a convenience store (once run by Deakin), a belting chip shop, butcher, pub (Queens Head), club (Doody's) and (my favourite at the time) Mrs Dean's sweet shop. Some of these at least would be replaced. It was also on the main bus route between Burntwood and Brownhills / Walsall. Nearby was Watling Street JMI. So it was actually a very sensible place to build new housing for rent.
The style of housing was, of course, all the rage in 1950s Europe as countries recovered from desperate housing shortages following the depression and the war. The father of high rise living was Le Corbusier, but his designs were altogether more grand, ambitious and technologically far superior to what was actually built. Too ambitious for a country like Britain where the planning system relies so heavily on the private sector and the whims of market. As usual it went off half-cock. Today we wouldn't dream of providing such an environment for people to live in, but back then it seemed the most cost-effective way of solving a dreadful problem of overall housing shortage and terrible, over-crowded, unsanitary housing that had improved very little in a hundred years.
BrownhillsBob says:
Hi Andy
An interesting, and enlightening perspective, thanks.
Points taken, but I do think this is an awfully rose-tinted view.
Mobility wasn't as great then. And I still don't think it was a great place to build so isolated from the main town, with better sites closer in.
But it would be dull indeed if we all thought the same.
66usual says:
Reblogged this on Community Chap.
stymaster says:
Only yesterday I was walking through the Croft House/Brookes House area in Chuckery, and it seemed fairly pleasant: I don't understand why so many of the high-rise blocks went bad so often.
Because of appalling design. Apart from the technical flaws – damp, condensation, hard to heat, unreliable lifts etc. they were actually often isolating and foreboding paces.
Much of what happened, as Andy points out, had seeds in good, modenist design – but like the centre of Brum, it was done on the cheap. I think the link to the Lion Farm site shows it quite well.
We're at a stage now like we are with a lot of historical architecture; only the best of it has survived. Time is a filter.
True. Only the other day I was talking with my better half about back-to-back housing. A mutual friend had commented that the NT ones in Hurst St were "far too posh"- the absloute worst had long gone, and there's a danger of romanticising the past. The friend lived around Price St as a child.
All sorts of shady deals were done on the construction of the Brum tower blocks, of course.
There's all sorts of interesting social factors too: Nottingham's Victoria Centre flats had a reputation as a no-go zone at one time (they have immensely long corridors, lots of dark corners, and allowed free access), but better security made them much, much better, and I've anecdotally heard that some of the tower blocks that have been turned over entirely to elderly housing have, with better security and maintenance, become very popular: a micro-community if you will, which shows that the design of them isn't the only factor: good managment can compensate for technical flaws.
ohsimone says:
The design was a major factor, especially in the later blocks. I find it bizarre/fascinating that elections were fought and won on who could build the most council housing back in the day; I reckon that explains the increase in height over the years, but also the increasing cost-cutting – Ronan Point, for instance, was 22 storeys high, but built with a system recommended for 6 to 8 storeys. If only council housing had been pursued along Bevan's original per-acreage, he said wistfully…
Have you read Alice Coleman's Utopia On Trial? It's very detailed but focuses the failings entirely on the design. IMO it's a much broader picture than that – allocation policies, council budgets tied to national economic situation etc., all contributed.
Interesting points re the back-to-backs too – have done some preliminary research prior to starting a PhD on such housing in C19 Wolverhampton and can cheerfully say the NT back to backs look very little like back to backs of 200 years ago.
Also: superlative?! Bless you.
Rose-tinted? Come off it!
I think, though, you may have come round to what I was saying. The fact was that at that time we did not have professionals who combined the architectural engineering of those days with the urban design skills that are used today to respond to the same issues to do with residential environments.
When the big tower blocks were built back in the 1950s and 1960s the population they could accommodate was, in many cases, less than the old terraces they replaced. What they replaced was truly dreadful and a long way below today's lowest standards.
As I said, the maisonettes were grim, but they were a solution to a problem. And the shops and the club were indeed replaced (mostly).
Today there is a shortage of affordable housing. It is nation-wide. The solution the government attempts to provide is London-centric and actually makes the problem worse in the rest of the country. Back then the problem was even worse and the solution beset by short cuts and corruption on a scale that could not be contemplated now. Let's be clear, I don't accuse the builders of those maisonettes of any ill-doing, but it is a matter of record that a few people got very rich by taking part in the annual race to see which government could break the record for annual house building.
Fair made me smile, that did. Since I didn't really expound my thoughts in this area specifically, it's a bit difficult to see how I'm coming round to yours…
I know why they were en-mode – I know also, as you intimate – that these were a cheap solution that the state paid top price for, and not just financially. I understand, as I always have, that urban design and social architecture were unknown waters back then. I comprehend how we got where we are.
Still can't see the logic of Deakin Avenue. Yes, there were some amenities close by. But pretty much all single unit living back then was close to the town. Oddly, these weren't. I still find that curious. I have heard the logic expounded by old hands that these were considered the Botany Bay of social housing by Brownhills UDC for a while.
While that's fanciful, I often wonder if there wasn't an element of truth to it.
There's huge interest to me in the social theory, as well as the technical viewpoints that gave us system building. I understand the genesis, and am fascinated by Brutalism – and the good stuff like, Trellick Tower, and why the bad stuff failed so heavily. But I feel, as I always have, that part of the problem was a darker social engineering, that if not spoken, or documented, was present in the view of the working class who these places were intended to house.
I love to hear your views on this stuff. I always learn something.
Pingback: Living on the skyline | Gaia Gazette
Interesting comments throughout this article….. as usual.
Social Engineering isn't my specialist subject by a long stretch, but I did always wonder what the thought process was when the decision was made to build where they did. Not sure it was an obvious place to locate young families (mothers with pushchairs) the elderly or the infirm? so who where they built for? Young professionals of the time? Upwardly mobile people may have not chosen to live there if they could afford somewhere else, it always seemed a bleak looking place on a wet rainy day. I do wonder what the thought process was………………….
When they built these flats ,maisonettes in the 1960s people had come out of bad houses, one cold water tap, no bathrooms just a zinc bath, out side loos, a black leaded grate, when people move in to these new homes it must have been like a palace with central heating hot and cold water, bathrooms, you mention the black path across Holland park, and as you say Bob today you would not like to walk across the black path at night but in the sixties you never gave it a thought that something bad was going to happen, i have walk too and from school on a Winters day the only thing you worried about one of your school mates trying to push you in the brook that use to run aside the black path.
But as been said as the years past they did look terrible but i known some people like living in the Maisonettes on Deakin Avenue and some did not want to move out.
Planning in the 60s was bad everything was planned to go skywards, they thought that was the way put as many people into a building with out taken too much land.
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If you have been told that regaining possession of Property in the Czech Republic is no longer possible or too late – you may have been given wrong information.
Even more so, you may know of people who were told "officially" that they have no way of regaining that which was theirs many years ago – please note that they too may have been misled.
Our searches, remarkably, have not come to a halt with the arrival of 25 May 2001. Somehow Law in the emerging Eastern Europe is not as clearly defined as elsewhere, and they have decided that there should be a stay of execution for Inheritance cases. Despite a lot of searching we have failed to establish where these rules come from. So, we continue to seek individuals whose families lost their homes in the Czech Republic in and after 1940. Some of them STILL have a chance to get them back. People whose family forebears are still recorded in the Czech Land Registry can continue to claim the former homes back. Only for those whose property was stolen, AND the Land Registry altered to insert the name of another entity (such as the Nazi Treuhand, or a Czech Government National Administrator – or whoever else – these are what are termed "Restitution cases" – and for these the axe has fallen. The Czech State now perpetuates the thefts.
A Political campaign has been stared. The Czech Government is at one and the same time attempting to become one of the new Members of the European Union in the first wave of the European Enlargement, while clearly and brazenly enforcing Restitution Laws which run directly contra to the European Human Rights Legislation.
Some time ago we were approached by a Prague Property Company. They had found someone's name still on the Property Register in the Czech Republic. This person could reclaim his Real Estate if they only knew where he was. They asked us to find him. The only details we had was a a very common name and a vague address from 1947. After some searching we found the person concerned (or rather the son, as the father had died in the meantime).
The Company was originally a regular Real Estate Company. Today it also specialises in cases of Restitution and Inheritance claims. It has made it its business to seek out one-time owners of what is now Czech Republic State Property and offers to ensure that the property reverts to its original owners – or to their heirs.
In some cases clients approach us. The Property Company calls these "introduced cases". Here the Property Company has no knowledge initially of the details of the property sought, or of the likelihood of success of a claim. The Property Company needs to establish that particular requirements exist, which any claim must meet.
Because the Property Company needs to spend time on evaluating such "introduced cases", it asks that these "introduced clients" pay for the investigative stage. This payment depends on how easy or difficult it is to gather all the information for a comprehensive legal evaluation of the case. The amount charged for this initial investigation is offset fully where the Claim is possible, and a Contract is signed by which the Property Company handles the claim on behalf of the client.
This is true for Restitutional claims, not for Inheritance claims. Cases brought by "Introduced clients" need to be evaluated. It is true that it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to retrieve the property if there was no claim raised before 1996, especially when the claimant or his family is not Jewish, and not a Czech national and citizen. There is the Czech Law number 212/2000, (details below) but even the approval of this law does not mean that all cases can be solved easily.
Each case is different – that is why our Lawyers need to evaluate them.
The Claimant, once their claim is recognised, can of course decide what they want to do with the property – for example whether to use it for themselves, sublet it, re-develop it or just sell it. Clearly the Property Company is hoping to continue to deal with such transactions at that time and is able to assist in obtaining planning permissions, development loans and all other matters which are normally associated with the day-to-day work of a Real Estate Service.
The situation with Restitutional Claims is much more complicated.
Here one needs to retrieve Property "acquired" or otherwise "transferred" by the State Authorities in the past.
The chance to re-possess these varies. Likelihood of success of Restitutional Claims can only be gauged theoretically before they are actually tried before a Czech Repuiblic State Official, or the Courts.
Therefore it is not possible to restitute shares, movables or insurance as there is no legal basis for it and the restitution acts relate only to the real estates.
The Act No. 212/2000 Coll. concerns restitutional claims and relates only to the movable property and agricultural property.
Persons born in Czechoslovakia and have CZ birth certificates, are entitled to investigate whether they have the Czech citizenship acknowledged today. There is a certain procedure to determoine this. In respect of the restitution claims, Czech citizen must make the claim for the property and the citizenship of the original owners is not relevant for the restitution claims. So even if it was a Czech citizen owning the property in the past, it is not relevant for the entitlement of its successors nowadays.
In December 1998 the Czech Government established a "Commission for Mitigating Some of the Injustice Caused to Holocaust Victims". This Commission which is consisting of representatives of various Ministries and Governmental institutions on one side and the representatives of our Federation on the other is trying to find solutions in all commodities of the so called Holocaust Era Assets. The Commission's team of historians and archivists has already published a report on Nazi looted gold and precious metals, reports on real estate and looted art are being prepared. At the same time the Commission is trying to find solutions which would enable various claimants from the Czech Republic and also from all around the world to recover ownership of their lost properties.
In cases of individual restitution the Commission has stated that the legislation which was valid until August 1996 enabled a number of claimants the return of their or theirs family possession. The Commission is fully aware of the fact that the approach of various courts was not always favorable and in many cases very formalistic. However, the Federation can not interfere into independent justice and into the verdicts of individual courts. The only solution is to continue the suite to the highest juridical authorities in the country or at international level. The Czech Constitutional court has issued already several verdicts which were meeting general justice.
Though the Commission found the restitution legislation appropriate, it focused on two groups of claimants who's claims could not be at all raised – the former owners of agriculture land and properties and the claimants without the Czech citizenship. For the first group the Commission has prepared a law which enables to raise respective claims. This law has been approved by the Czech Parliament in June 2000 and was published in the Collection of Laws under the No. 212/2000. The Act No. 212/2000 Coll. is a restitutional claim and relates only to the movable property and agricultural property. Claimants who have Czech citizenship can approach the respective current owner and the owner is not ready to return the property the court. In complicated cases we recommend to hire a Czech Law firm.
The law enables also the return of artworks confiscated during the Holocaust if they are currently owned by a Czech state institution, e.g. Gallery or Museum. This claim has to be addressed directly to this institution. The claimant is not obliged to have Czech citizenship.
An INTERNET site with works of art seized by the Nazis during the Second World War has been set up by the Czech Ministry of Culture.
(In the "acquired from" field you will not find the original owner, but apparently the Nazi owner.
To see the whole list, place an asterisk (*) in the artist and work fields and leave the rest blank).
The project follows the introduction of a law allowing direct descendants of those who lost art treasures – including non-Czech citizens – to reclaim them.
You have in front of you a list of people whose property was confiscated by the occupation authorities in the territory of the so-called Protectorate. It is copy of what was retrieved from both Gestapo and the Central Association for Private Insurance in the Protectorate documents, which were sent to insurance companies during the period 1940-1944.
For the second group of claimants, those without Czech citizenship, an extralegislative solution has been prepared. Namely, the Government transferred 300 mil. CZK into a Foundation established by our Federation with the participation of the Government.
This Foundation will reserve approx. One third of this sum for the purposes of this group. It will assemble all claims which would have met the conditions required by the expired Czech legislation and were not compensated before (e.g. based on bilateral agreements concluded by Czechoslovakia and other countries as compensation for property nationalization in). Unlike the legislation the condition of Czech citizenship will not be required by the Foundation's regulations. After evaluating the quantity and quality of claims the Foundation will grant every claimant a financial sum, however not as a compensation but rather as a symbolic gesture. The procedure is in the process and the first payments can be expected in the first half of 2001.
At first we have to clarify that our Federation is not able to lead any cases of property restitution. We were "only" involved in political solutions, i.e. the respective changes in the Czech legislation. Every case has to be then handled individually, if possible by a Czech lawyer or law firm.
Nevertheless the FJC has its representative in the Government Commission for the problematic of mildening some of the property injustice caused to Holocaust victims which goal is to address property restitution questions facing victims of Holocaust. The Commission was set up in the end of December 1998.
However, there is an information we can give you right away – the condition of the Czech permanent residence of the claimant was indeed cancelled by the Constitutional court. However, there is another condition which remains in the law and that is the claimant's citizenship of the Czech Republic. There are cases of former Czechoslovak citizens who escaped the Nazis and never lost the Czechoslovak citizenship although they have been residing abroad. Crucial for the case is, however, that according to the restitution legislation the term for claims has expired in 1996. Therefore all claims cannot be filed upon the restitution law but upon some other law e.g. as heritage. Obviously there is never a guarantee of success, but we will always do our best detective work on your behalf.
The claims for other real estate expired on 31 August 1996, and no new claims can be made, although any claims made up till that date will continue to be processed. Claimants prior to August 1996 had to have Czech citizenship. For those who were excluded from claiming because of this requirement, a Foundation is being established by the Federation of Jewish Communities with government participation. The government will transfer money into the Foundation, out of which a financial sum will be given to individual claimants, "not as compensation, but rather as a symbolic gesture". This procedure is currently being established and the first payments can be expected in the first half of 2001.
5. An interesting article by James Pitkin has appeared in THE PRAGUE POST (http://www.praguepost.cz/) of January 10-16 2001 issue. It discusses efforts made by the Czech Authorities Seeking the owners of Art currently in the possession of Czech Institutions.
1. Unfortunately there is no form of retribution for the losses of family members during the Holocaust.
2. movable property We have now new information that according the negotiations in Germany there is a suggestion to compensate Holocaust survivors for lost family property (accounts, gold, valuables, company equipment, furniture etc.).
However the money was mostly confiscated by the Nazis and the claims are accordingly dealt with by German authorities.


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text:
Posted inTheater
Be Unkind, Rewind
Time?s still playing tricks on Sondheim?s musical told in reverse.
by Bob Mondello September 13th, 2007 August 29th, 2020
Male, Pattern, Coldness: Franklin?s bad moves recede before our eyes.
Not a week goes by that I don't hum "Not a Day Goes By," and I suspect I'm not alone. That exquisite ballad—aching with longing and loss, soaring with feeling—is a near-perfect articulation of the havoc wreaked on relationships by time and by life's betrayals. So perfect, in fact, that it has always seemed cruel that Merrily We Roll Along, the backward-wending Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical it comes from, is less so.
Known chiefly for its back-to-front storytelling—cynical middle age characters get youth-enized scene by scene, growing ever more innocent and hopeful—Merrily boasts one of Sondheim's most tunefully accessible scores wedded to a decidedly sour "happy" ending—kids buoyant with dreams we've already watched being dashed.
Which has not kept this supremely showbizzy show from finding champions. With three (!) original cast albums so far, Merrily is forever being remounted, revised, rethought. Here in D.C., it was tackled by Catholic University just weeks after its disastrous Broadway run; then by Arena Stage a decade later in a version reworked by the authors; and then five years ago by the Kennedy Center's Sondheim Celebration in a reworking of that reworking.
Now, a quarter century after its premiere, the script is more or less set, and Eric Schaeffer—who has made Sondheim Signature Theatre's signature artist—is finally having a go at it. And a glamorous go at that, with a floating 13-piece orchestra and a white-on-white setting by James Kronzer that looks like something Busby Berkeley might have conjured for a stairway-to-the-stars number.
The setting makes intriguing sense of our presence at the event, just in case anyone has arrived feeling that the souring of dreams is a merely academic notion. To get to the auditorium, high above street level, the audience must ascend a curved grand staircase; on arrival, they find that staircase more or less duplicated in reverse on the set, swirling down to the left—counterclockwise, of course—to a gleaming white disk of a stage that looks not unlike the face of a clock. At its center is a grand piano backed by a towering white door and flanked by what look like glowing blocks of ice topped with cocktail glasses.
This turns out to be the palatial Hollywood manse of Franklin Shepard (Will Gartshore), a one-time Broadway composer who has abandoned his musical calling to become a hack movie producer. With only one friend left in the world—Mary Flynn (Tracy Lynn Olivera), an alcoholic critic he'll manage to alienate by scene's end—and surrounded by all the vapid party guests that money can buy, he is utterly miserable.
How did he get to this sorry state? Well, after Franklin's second wife, Gussie (Tory Ross), hurls iodine into the eyes of his latest mistress, the authors will start to make that clear, with the cast dancing away the years as the characters grow younger—and closer—by painful stages. We meet Franklin's theatrical collaborator Charley (Erik Liberman) on the day their friendship self-destructs and encounter Franklin's first wife, Beth (Bayla Whitten), at their divorce proceedings. Then the tale spins back, always to happier, more carefree, more promising times.
If clarity was ever the problem that kept Merrily from rolling along—and director Hal Prince certainly thought it was when he put the 1981 Broadway cast in sweatshirts with identifiers (talk-show host, best pal) emblazoned on their chests—that problem has by this point been effectively laid to rest. It can't have been easy to write exposition in reverse, but after years of revisions, Furth and Sondheim have pretty well crystallized relationships, moods, and motivations.
And Schaeffer, whose forte is finding the beating heart in musicals others have given up for dead, takes no chances on nuances getting lost amid the broader strokes. On the off chance that someone made it into the theater unaware of the show's conceit, the backward sweep through time is telegraphed during the turn-off-your-cellphones announcement. Characters are firmly pegged not just to types but to actual celebrities. Gussie, who's usually played as a generic brassy diva, is pretty specifically Liza Minnelli in Ross' wide-eyed portrayal. Olivera spouts Mary's quips in ways that will make them identifiable as Dorothy Parkerisms even to folks who don't know Merrily was adapted from a play by Parker's Algonquin Round Tablenmates George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
All of which is smart, though not quite as smart as casting Gartshore. The performer, downright charismatic as Franklin, is so achingly vulnerable that this usually problematic protagonist is hard to hate even as he's making the thoughtless, hurtful choices that land him where he was when we met him. Gartshore enters sad, stooped, and lonely, picking out a theme on the piano with such regret that you intuit how much he misses music long before the script explains that he's abandoned it. Then, as the evening moves back in time, his posture straightens, his eyes rekindle, and his voice lightens until it's as high and sweet as a choirboy's.
That's also true of Liberman's voice, which is a harsh bark during "Franklin Shepard Inc.," the tongue-twisting accusatory rant Charley delivers on live TV in his first scene. By Act 2, the bark has become a purr, but the man from whom it emanates has become a bit indistinct. I'm guessing this is because in most productions, Charley, wounded by his buddy's neglect, has what amounts to a nervous breakdown in that TV studio and consequently seems blameless at the evening's outset, but that here his rant seems a deliberate response to Franklin's latest betrayal. Because it registers as calculated, Charley, who is usually the easiest of the characters to identify with, becomes as troubling as any of the others.
And they are tough to warm up to. Olivera's Mary, tart of tongue and self-destructive, and Christopher Bloch's sad-sack producer are perhaps the warmest of them, with the structure more or less guaranteeing that audiences will recoil from the others—vindictive wives, sniping hangers-on—on first encounter.
Even the plaintive "Not a Day Goes By" is spat out by Beth outside a divorce court before it's sung with a wrenching bittersweetness at her wedding. The wistful "Good Thing Going" registers first as a crass full-frontal assault of a showstopper, before we hear it crooned softly at an audition. Robert Perdziola's costumes—outsize plaids and ferocious houndstooths in Act 1—get similarly toned down, even as the chilly blues and hot pinks in Chris Lee's lighting scheme are softening to a nostalgic glow. You get used to the notion that things that make you cringe will inevitably turn out to have cuddly antecedents, and eventually, that very fact makes you cringe.
All of which is by design, but somehow this conceit is not quite as enlightening in performance as it sounds in synopsis, even with everyone at Signature doing fiercely intelligent work, and even though that gorgeous score—put across by unamplified and pristine voices—sounds as lovely as it's ever likely to. I left the theater wondering afresh how a show can be so smart, so challenging, so easy to admire, and so hard to love. I also left freshly haunted by music I thought I knew cold; humming, of course…and I wasn't alone.


text:
var forEach = Ember.ArrayPolyfills.forEach;

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


London is a city that is never still. The British capital is in continuous expansion lately, with a newcomer of an entire new neighborhood in one of the most aspiring areas in the city.
A Singapore owned business has purchased a total of 40 acres, around 16 hectares for a new residential development located a few kilometers from London City Airport along the Thames bank.
The neighborhood, Royal Wharf, will appear in the Docklands, an area known as one of the financial focal points of the city. The tallest skyscrapers can be found here, which contend with the City. The project foresees the development of 4000 new apartments, which shall provide a home for up to 20,000 people. The construction project is complex, with a multitude of essential services available for its future residents. The area is under redevelopment, and is set to become one of the most wealthy neighborhoods in the city, thanks to this project.
The up and coming complex is expected to become a sort of village of the twenty-first century. The lucky residents-to-be shall have an array of services at their disposal. Daily errands such as dropping by the bank, grocery shopping or even bringing your kids to school will become a breeze in this well serviced community. Considering the privileged location of the "Isle of Dogs", the new neighborhood shall occupy 12km along the river Thames bank, which will house stylish restaurants and bars, along with squares and tree-lined streets. The neighborhood will also be complete with schools of various levels, choices of which were carefully studied to please a high-end target.
Of course the services don't end here, public transport has also been a key aspect of the project. The financial district of Canary Wharf is already well connected, nonetheless the underground will undergo a facelift with a complete restyling of the entire structure. In addition, improvements in the connections toward the city center are also foreseen.
The first 811 prestigious London properties shall be ready in 2016, created from a revamped ex-Shell oil mill. Whilst the remaining luxury properties are set to be completed by 2019. The basic price for an apartment is 235 thousand sterling, around 280 thousand euro. The terraced houses on the other hand, will cost around 695 thousand sterling, the equivalent of 830 thousand euro.


The Ottawa Senators didn't find losing to the Nashville Predators all that hard to take Thursday night.
After all, they'd rallied from a three-goal deficit in the third period to at least salvage a point. And besides, their 6-5 overtime loss gave them something else to worry about, like trying to explain the wild finish to the contest.


text:
AMD Radeon 5700 GPU Prices Cut Ahead Of Release
AMD announced its Navi-based next-generation Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT graphics cards just last month. Many were quick to note that the prices didn't really make them the no-brainer challenger to NVIDIA's GPUs. However, merely days before their release on July 7th, AMD has decided to cut the prices of its brand new GPUs.
The company had previously listed the Radeon 5700 XT at $450 but it will now be sold for $400. The Radeon 5700 that was previously $380 is now going to cost $350. Customers who opt for the RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary Edition will get it for $450 instead of the previously announced $500.
It's unclear what this price cut means for customers who have already pre-ordered these cards. NVIDIA has responded to AMD's latest release with the "Super" versions of its GeForce RTX graphics cards. They offer slightly more performance than their predecessors so it remains to be seen just how much good this price cut does for AMD's latest challengers.
There's also the possibility that NVIDIA might cut the prices on the non-Super versions of these cards since it's not asking any additional money for the new Super versions in the first place. That would further complicate matters for AMD. It won't make sense to buy the regular NVIDIA RTX 2070 for $500 when customers can get the Super version of the same price.
Filed in Computers. Read more about AMD, Graphics Card and NVIDIA. Source: twitter
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Benchmarks Show How Far Behind Windows ARM Devices Are Compared To Apple's M1
This Frankenstein Device Contains Both An iPhone 12 And An Apple 1 Computer
Future MacBooks Could Come In A Matte Black Finish


text:
Plasma growth hormone-bin… - University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Plasma growth hormone-bin…
Plasma growth hormone-binding protein levels in Atlantic salmon Salmo salar during smoltification and seawater transfer
Ingibjörg Einarsdottir
Ningping Gong
Elisabeth Jönsson
Henrik Sundh
Linda Hasselberg Frank
T. O. Nilsen
S. O. Stefansson
Kristina Sundell
Björn Thrandur Björnsson
dx.doi.org/10.1111/jfb.12473
Ghbp, osmoregulation, radioimmunoassay, rainbow trout, salmonids, teleosts, PARR-SMOLT TRANSFORMATION, NECROSIS-FACTOR-ALPHA, STURGEON, ACIPENSER-SINENSIS, GH RECEPTOR, CARASSIUS-AURATUS, RAINBOW-TROUT, FACTOR SYSTEM, FISH, OSMOREGULATION, ENDOCRINE, Fisheries, Marine & Freshwater Biology
Specific growth hormone (GH)-binding protein (Ghbp) was purified from Atlantic salmon Salmo salar and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss plasma with immunoprecipitation and characterized in cross-linking studies using autoradiography and western blots. The size of the Ghbp was estimated to be c. 53 kDa. A radioimmunoassay was established to measure Ghbp in salmonids, using antibodies specific against the extracellular segment of the S. salar growth hormone receptor 1 (grh1; GenBank AY462105). Plasma Ghbp levels were measured in S. salar smolts in fresh water and after transfer to seawater (SW; experiments 1 and 2), and in post-smolts kept at different salinities (0, 12, 22 and 34) for 3 months (experiment 3). A transient increase in plasma Ghbp, which lasted for 1 month or less, was noted in smolts after transfer to SW. Concomitantly, plasma GH and gill Na+-K+-ATPase activity increased during smoltification (in experiment 2). No difference in plasma Ghbp was evident between post-smolts kept at different salinities, although the fish kept at salinity 34 had higher plasma GH than the group kept at salinity 22 and higher hepatic ghr1 expression than post-smolts kept at salinity 12. This suggests that plasma Ghbp regulation may respond to salinity changes in the short term. The lack of correlation between Ghbp, plasma GH and hepatic ghr1 expression in the long-term post-smolt experiment indicates that Ghbp levels may be regulated independently of other components of the endocrine GH system in salmonids.


As you age, the skin naturally ages with you. You might see wrinkles and fine lines starting to form on different parts of your face, and they only get more prominent with age. But these signs of aging don't have to stay with you thanks to Restylane®.
Neo Skin Center in Hudson, OH is proud to offer Restylane® treatments, which may be just what you've been looking for to make your fine lines and wrinkles disappear. Restylane® is only gaining in popularity, but what is it and how does it work? We warmly invite you to contact our office today to set up a consultation and learn more about this amazing injectable treatment.
Restylane® is a minimally-invasive injectable treatment that aims to reduce fine lines and wrinkles while providing you with natural-looking results. It evens out the skin so that it stays as youthful-looking for as long as possible. It does this by increasing the amount of volume in the treatment area.
Restylane® uses hyaluronic acid, a moisture-binding substance that is naturally found in your skin, to give the area more hydration and plumpness. During your appointment, the hyaluronic acid-based filler is skillfully injected into the preselected areas. The goal is to restore lost facial volume and minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Restylane® treatment sessions are performed in the comfort of our office in Hudson, OH. Immediate results are typically noticed right away, especially in problem areas, with the treatment area only continuing to improve in the days following the treatment.
Of course, as with any cosmetic procedure, the results vary depending on a variety of factors. During your consultation with our experts at Neo Skin Center, you can learn more about the type of results you can expect using this injectable treatment.
Restylane® may work for any healthy adult who wants to fill in lines and wrinkles and restore fullness in certain facial areas. If you've been looking for a non-surgical way to enhance your facial features, you owe it to yourself to learn more about this treatment.
Get in touch with our team at Neo Skin Center in Hudson, OH to see if Restylane® could work for you. Contact our office today to schedule a consultation. We look forward to speaking with you!


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GovTech Biz
Urban Innovation Fund Closes First Fund with $22.5M, Seeks to Double Its Portfolio
The fund has already made 14 investments. It wants 25-30 total.
The Urban Innovation Fund has officially closed its first fund with $22.5 million in hand.
UIF has, in fact, been operating for a couple years and made 14 investments already. That means the firm's first fund is about halfway full — according to managing partner Julie Lein, she and her fellow managing partner Clara Brenner want to invest in 25-30 companies total.
Lein and Brenner also run the nonprofit startup accelerator Tumml, and UIF is similar in the kinds of companies it's interested in.
"We're still looking for startups that are changing the future of cities," Lein said.
More specifically, the pair have identified nine verticals they're interested in. They're not all government-focused — government and civic tech is one vertical, alongside arts and recreation, transportation, education and others.
In the government space, UIF has invested in Dropcountr, which provides data analytics for water utilities and their customers with the goal of saving water; Voatz, which recently completed the first test of blockchain-based mobile voting in a federal election in the U.S.; and Valor Water Analytics, which also served up data analytics solutions to water utilities with an eye on conservation. Valor is the fund's sole exit so far — Xylem acquired Valor in February.
The firm writes initial checks between $100,000 and $500,000 for pre-seed and seed-stage startups. That means the maximum amount for those early-stage investments would be $15 million, with at least $7.5 million left over for follow-on investment.
Brenner said she and Lein seek to provide more than just money to their portfolio companies. They pride themselves on providing expertise for companies that are in areas either highly regulated or highly politicized. Voatz, for example, falls into both categories.
"From day one, we sit down and talk with them about who do you need to talk to, what relationships do you need to deal with?" she said.
They bring their own experience to the table, but UIF also maintains a network of company executives, lobbyists and people who have worked in government to give advice and perspective to the portfolio. For example, the fund recently signed on Maury Blackman, who led the gov tech company Accela for more than 15 years, as a limited partner.
The majority of their funding, however, comes from large institutional investors like Prudential Financial. These backers, Lein said, are "impact-curious" — used to making a profit in more traditional ways, but interested in exploring work with more tangible social benefits.
The fund also emphasizes diversity in its investments. According to a press release, 71 percent of its portfolio companies have founders who are either women or people of color.
Going forward, Lein said the fund doesn't have any specific goals as to where it wants to invest. Some of its target verticals are better represented in the portfolio than others, but they're going to take whatever the best opportunities are when they come by.
"We're really opportunistic, we see a lot of opportunities across the verticals," Lein said.
Ben Miller is the associate editor of data and business for Government Technology. His reporting experience includes breaking news, business, community features and technical subjects. He holds a Bachelor's degree in journalism from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, and lives in Sacramento, Calif.
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COVID-19: Stories of Travel, Goals, Failure, and Progress
Third-Culture Thoughts
May 1, 2020 May 4, 2020 Flo Alcasas
It's hard to believe more than a month has passed since my last post.
Before writing, in March, about free learning resources and ways to earn money online while in lockdown, I was in the middle of series on Cebu and Siquijor.
But it feels strange to write travel guides when no one can go anywhere, so I'm going to pick that up later—when countries like the Philippines will need tourism to get back on their feet.
Today then, I feel compelled to share some personal COVID-19 stories—perhaps just to talk myself through what's been going on since the lockdown began.
A COVID-19 Travel Log
March 4: I return from a trip to Guam. Heading to immigration lines at the Manila airport, I pass through a heat-detection scan. Airports on both ends (in Guam and the Philippines) have signs up about COVID-19 and everyone wants to know if you've been to China in the past two weeks.
March 10: President Duterte closes all schools in Manila. My daughter is only nine days away from the end of her school year, and we are ten days away from our scheduled departure to the US.
These ten days are restless ones. The park and playground close; with a 6-year-old bouncing off the walls of our apartment, my partner and I are weighing up what to do.
I'm meant to ferry my daughter to her grandmother's countryside house in Maryland, where she's set to spend her summer break with her father. But is this the best time to travel? Then again, is this the best time to be in a two-bedroom Manila condo?
March 16: I receive a text message from the Dutch embassy: foreigners will have 72 hours to leave the country. I double check our intinerary: our flight is scheduled to leave in 71 hours.
By this time, my partner and I have decided: if it's meant to be, it's meant to be.
March 18: My partner was scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur, where he would begin a trip through India to Nepal. One leg at a time, this has all been canceled. My daughter and I, however, are still scheduled to fly out tomorrow.
We've found out that there are no taxis, ride services, or public transportation options available. (We're Team Bicycle and love it for getting around in our neighborhood, but boy does GrabTaxi come in handy when you need to get to the airport six miles away.)
March 19: Our flight is at 9PM, so we leave the house around 1:30 and start walking. My partner is with us. He's walking the bicycle so it can hold some of the bags, and help him get back before curfew later.
Now I need to pause, so I can say: Thank the good lord in heaven for this man. Only God knows where I would be without him.
The walk to the airport takes three-and-a-half hours, with our first obstacle being a checkpoint only thirty minutes in. We're stuck here for awhile because the scanner says I have a temperature.
My forehead jumps from 37.6 to 38.1 to 37.9 to 38.3, and president Duterte says they can't let me go until it's under 37.5.
Well, I feel completely normal but I have been walking in the hot sun. So I sit in the shade, put my feet up to counter any symptoms of heat exhaustion, and wait for the triumphant moment when the scan shows my temperature at 37.2.
Minus the anxiety, the wait is made quite pleasant by the officers who share their vivacious smiles and bounty of fresh fruit, cold water, and iced tea. But as comfortable as they made it, we couldn't be happier happy to wave a warm goodbye.
The temperature scan has gotten in my head, though: Will they have another at the airport? Will my body be even hotter by then, from the long walk? Could I have some kind of asympomatic fever? Wait, do I actually feel unwell? Oh man, maybe I do.
Arriving at the airport, we figure out where we're supposed to be: at the end of a line that extends along and nearly beyond the taxi dropoff lane. The next hours are spent waiting, feeling nervous, and waiting.
My partner stays with us, guiding me through deep breathing exercises to help me relax. I'm wondering, will they let me on the plane? What if they don't? What if they do but I'm caught with a fever in LA? What will they do with me, what will happen to my daughter?
March 23. Looking back, the panic was entirely unnecessary: I felt well throughout the entire trip and, oddly enough, did not encounter a single health checkpoint anywhere else on my way from Manila to Los Angeles to New York to Europe.
I've now been on five flights in as many days, making my way from the US to the Netherlands. My mom's house here has been deemed the best destination: I can quarantine here while she's at my sister's.
Returning to the Philippines is, of course, not an option. I've learned, in our correspondence between stopovers, that my partner will have to leave—and the only place he can go is his country of citizenship. So he's had his own series of flights, along with a new set of cancellations, and he's in Australia now.
On Goals & Progress
And here I am, spending my sixth week in the rural lowlands, still very unsure when going home will be on the horizon.
But I've got time, and I've been blessed with plenty of work too.
Outside of work hours, I've been trying to follow my own advice: pursue some study goals and develop new skills. The two I've found myself focusing on most are Mandarin Chinese and public speaking.
For my Chinese study, I'm using a number of apps, including Pleco, Duolingo, HSKOnline, HelloTalk, and Memrise.
At the dawn of 2020 I set a goal: to reach HSK level 3. Though I'm not sure if testing centers will be open by the end of the year, I'm studying for it anyway.
What I still need to do: get back into face-to-face language lessons and stop shying away from conversation in favor of reading and writing. (But the characters are so fascinating!)
Joining Pitch Club
Next up: facing my fear of public speaking. The company I've been working for, Yodo1, hosts a weekly Pitch Club to help those inside and out of the organization develop their speaking and presentation skills.
Normally, these meetings are held in Beijing. But now, with COVID-19, they're all online. Which is one of those coronavirus silver linings because it means I can finally join.
(So can you, by the way: PitchClub.live)
Yesterday, I did my first pitch. I was prepared but terribly nervous and, while I was happy I didn't screw up, I failed to convey emotion in my presentation. So I'm signing up to pitch again soon, to get more comfortable speaking in front of a crowd.
As usual when unable to go to a gym, I try to maintain a home workout routine. In the past month, that's translated to a 30-60 minutes pre-work workout, with a yoga mat, a six-pack of 1.5L water bottles (for lifting, that is), and an app.
Sometimes I follow a video on DoYogaWithMe or do a home martial arts training on YouTube. What I've been most consistent with, though, is a women's workout app: short, sweet, plus easy to start and build on. (Also on Android)
Another goal I set was to work up to a 10k run.
With a 4.5 and 7k under the belt, I was feeling good about my progress. But joint pain and dreary weather caused me to shy away from the outdoor exercise.
With the cold being a lot more than I'm used to after a decade in the tropics, and running never having been a steady habit, I'll need to ease in a little more slowly. I still hope to do that 10k circuit while I'm here and surrounded by such beautiful nature.
In closing, to those reading: if you have work but can't see your family, stay grateful and stay strong. If you have your family with you but you've lost your work, I know how stressful that is too, but you've got to trust it will be ok and enjoy every moment with them you can.
And if you have neither work nor family to support you, reach out. We're all here to bolster each other.
If nothing else, sharing your story helps.
Published by Flo Alcasas
Flo is constantly changing and can't keep up with these blurbs. She likes coffee again and still loves writing, traveling, and punching things.	View all posts by Flo Alcasas
experiences personal travel with kids
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What an adventure you had! 🙃
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