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Iran English language newspaper headlines on Wednesday, 17-09-2014
Iran Daily
European firms vie for Iranian gas project
Several European states have entered into negotiations with Iran to invest in a pipeline construction project to import gas from the energy-rich country, a senior energy official announced on Tuesday.
Rouhani: Anti-ISIL coalition mere 'farce
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani cast doubt on the sincerity of the so-called coalition to fight terrorism, saying it is a 'farce' that the countries which have supported and financed militant groups now seek to fight terrorism.
Protesters: Breakaway east no longer part of Ukraine
An opposition leader fighting against Ukrainian forces on Tuesday dismissed Kiev giving the separatist east limited self-rule, saying Ukraine's eastern Donbass region was no longer part of the ex-Soviet country.
Iran urges greater EU role in nuclear talks
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on the European Union to play a more active role to conclude a final deal over Tehran's nuclear energy program.
Iraqi MPs reject picks for interior, defense ministers
The Iraqi parliament rejected the prime minister's nominees for defense and interior ministers, leaving the two crucial posts unfilled as a US-led coalition prepares to intensify airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group that controls vast parts of the country.
Turkmen president for all-out ties with Iran
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has called for expansion of all-out ties with Iran.
Norway warned of negative impacts of expelling Iranian students
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a meeting with Norwegian Ambassador to Iran Odyssey Norheim cautioned Oslo about the negative consequences of expelling Iranian university students from Norway.
US base in northern Iraq no threat to Iran
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari downplayed enemies' war rhetoric against Tehran, and said the US military base in northern Iraq is not considered a threat to Iran.
Iran Daily, Iran top newspaper headlines, Quoted	September 17, 2014
Iran daily: Nuclear talks resume in New York
Iran, sextet to resume N. talks in New York on Friday

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Client loyalty is the Holy Grail for lawyers. Not only do loyal clients continue to feed your coffers, they also bring you new clients by way of referral. You want them. You need them. But getting and keeping them is challenging in this era of ever-changing communications channels — the control of which is mostly in the hands of consumers.
The satisfied — continues to stick with a brand because they are satisfied with the brand's performance over time. The brand is familiar and dependable, and delivers consistently good performance. The satisfied feel comfortable with the brand and see no reason to change.
The committed — this group has a more involved relationship with the brand and is more likely to have an emotional attachment. They tell others about the brand, becoming a de facto brand ambassador.
The goal of your law firm should be to develop a committed group of clients who have an emotional bond with your firm, tell others about it, and frankly feel like they couldn't imagine being without you.
Dependability— always delivers to expectations and can be trusted.
Social media— has interesting and engaging content online.
Heavy emotional connection— connects with the client emotionally and has a purpose the client believes in.
The above graphic shows that the strongest links to the committed loyalty group are dependability, being better than competitors, and having a high emotional connection with the client. These are the areas your law firm should focus on in order to create and nurture this group, moving beyond "dependable" to "better" in both messaging and execution.
Client loyalty has many levels, and to develop and leverage this within your client base means you need to deliver beyond the basics and craft a marketing program for your law firm that builds your brand on the base of these loyalty drivers.


If you've ever been in financial trouble and dealt with the seemingly endless collection calls, you may have wondered when the incessant phone calls would stop.
Collecting unpaid debts DO have an expiration date as far as how long the court can be used to force you to pay the debt.
The time period starts on the account's last date of activity and varies by state.
Debt collectors have a limited amount of time in which to sue to collect a debt.
This doesn't mean you no longer owe and collectors can continue to pursue collecting the debt, but they cannot sue or threaten to sue on a time-barred debt.
With fifty different legal stands on the issue, along with the various interpretations of those laws by different judges, the status of your past-due debt may be difficult to comprehend. In addition, there may be even subtle differences in the law that governs credit card debt as opposed to a written contract.
• Written loan contracts include terms and conditions agreed to by borrower and lender.
• Revolving loans are open-ended and allow the borrower to repay and borrow a limited amount; they include rent-to-own and credit cards.
• Promissory agreements are in writing and include a set payment amount for a specific period of time at a predetermined interest rate.
• Oral contracts were once called 'gentlemen agreements.' The contract is a verbal agreement to pay back money with nothing in writing.
Admitting the old debt is yours could also restart the statute of limitations and extend the time the debt collector can file a lawsuit to collect the old debt. If you make a small payment, make a charge using the account, enter a payment agreement or promise to pay on the debt, you could restart the clock on the debt.
It's important to note that when debt is sold and resold the account documentation is often skimpy. So if you question the validity of the debt as yours, dispute the claim by sending a certified letter.
If you determine that the debt is yours, before you agree to pay an old debt, first make sure the statute of limitations hasn't expired.
If you are certain the statute of limitations has expired, you can use that fact as justification that you do not have to pay the debt.
About The Author: Noreen Ruth writes for ASAP 's credit news blog and several popular finance websites. She is interested in educating consumers about using credit responsibly and about legislative action that will affect their ability to borrow the money they need. She has contributed hundreds of articles to various online sites that provide content to educate consumers on credit cards, debt relief services, loans and other finance related topics.


FRISCO – Hunt Realty Investments Inc. purchased the Headquarters Ranch—the largest contiguous land assemblage in the city—from the Estate of Bert Fields, Jr.
The 2,544-acre site is located on the northern edge of Frisco with significant frontage along the Dallas North Tollway, Preston Rd., and US 380.
Hunt Realty will master develop a large, mixed-use planned development alongside the Karahan Companies.
Anticipated development uses will include commercial, office, retail, single-family and multifamily residential, and education.
Development is expected to begin in 2019.


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Assistant Professor-Tenure System
Academic/Faculty, Biological/Biomedical Sciences
The College of Human Medicine of Michigan State University (MSU) seeks a scientist at the rank of assistant professor to join their Parkinson's disease (PD) research group. The PD research group currently focuses on mechanisms of neurodegeneration, including neuroinflammation and alpha-synuclein biology, with established programs utilizing cell and animal models of PD and levodopa-induced dyskinesias, gene therapy, repurposing drugs and epigenetic contributors to degeneration. The PD research group is housed within the Department of Translational Science & Molecular Medicine (TSMM) which also hosts an Alzheimer's disease, dementia and traumatic brain injury research group. Candidates should have a strong record of publications and a record of extramural funding commensurate with their career experience to date. The successful candidate will be expected to participate in mentoring and instruction of students in MSU graduate training programs and work with existing faculty to broaden and enhance the vision for PD research at MSU. MSU offers an extremely competitive salary, benefits and start-up package.
Required Degree
The position requires a PhD or equivalent with a record of scholarship and extramural funding in Parkinson's disease research commensurate with experience. Dedication to mentoring students/fellows should be evident. The scope of the candidate's research program should demonstrate a strong commitment to translational efforts bridging basic science discoveries with clinical application. An established track record of participating in multidisciplinary team-based collaborations is essential. Expertise in research related to Parkinson's disease and related movement disorders.
Expertise in electrochemistry, optogenetics and/or electrophysiology in monoaminergic systems is highly desired. Experience with calcium imaging, calcium signaling or interests/expertise in adaptive immunity is also of interest. Knowledge of and/or a track record of work in other neurodegenerative disease including but not limited to Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, Huntington's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are also desirable.
Required Application Materials
CV, Cover Letter, Contact Information for 3 Reference
Review of Applications Begins On
Summary of Health Risks
Work with animals or unfixed animal tissue
http://translationalscience.msu.edu/
Department Statement
MSU Statement
Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery and forges enduring partnerships to solve the most pressing global challenges while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
About Michigan State University
Spartans work every day to advance the common good in uncommon ways.Together, we tackle some of the world?s toughest problems to find solutions that make life better?from alternative energy to better food safety to breakthrough medical and environmental applications achieved through rare isotope research.We teach. We explore and we discover. We collaborate and lead. We innovate, inspire, and empower. We achieve our potential and create circumstances that help our students and others achieve theirs.We're good at it, and we've been at it for more than 150 years.The nation?s pioneer land-grant university, MSU began as a bold experiment that democratized higher education and helped bring science and innovation into everyday life. The revolutionary concept became a model for the nation.Today, MSU is one of the top research universities in the world?on one of the biggest, greenest campuses in the nation. Home to nationally ranked and recognized academic, residential college, and service-learning programs, we?re a diverse community of dedicated students and scholars, athletes and artists, scientists and leaders.In ways both practical and profound, we work to create a stronger, more sustainable, and more hopeful future for all.
Assistant Professor-Tenure System East Lansing, Michigan
Michigan State University 2 Days Ago
Associate Professor-Tenure System East Lansing, Michigan


Our environmental team has achieved a notable reputation throughout California by combining our broad knowledge of local and statewide regulations and compliance strategies with our expertise in innovative and sustainable solutions. Applying our value-based, ground-breaking and creative environmental approaches is customary to every project we work on. By serving as your advocate every step of the way, PCE will help to ensure that appropriate responses to challenges will be made in order to complete every project on time, and on budget.
PCE has vast experience preparing documents that are in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as associated special studies subject to review and approval by agencies such as Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and has extensive experience working with both agencies' procedures. We employ innovative field methods to streamline investigations and reduce analytical costs, while also providing effective regulatory interaction with appropriate agencies.
Issues related to biological services are becoming increasingly important. The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), as well as other agencies, requires assessments of impacts to wildlife habitat, endangered species and vegetation for many construction and development projects. PCE prepares biological assessments, impact analyses, endangered species and biological surveys, and wetland delineations in compliance with the requirements of the Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
PCE conducts biological assessments in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We also prepare baseline surveys including wildlife, habitat, botanical and fishery biological assessments for construction and property acquisition.
PCE conducts specific surveys and/or development mitigation plans for federal and state-listed threatened or endangered species. Our specialists also perform surveys to identify and delineate wetlands and waters of the United States.
PCE prepares detailed wetland delineations at a level sufficient for verification by regulatory agencies. We also assist with environmental impact consultation (CEQA/NEPA) and in preparing permit applications and agency permits, including: Clean Water Act Section 404: Nationwide and Individual Wetlands Permits (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers); Clean Water Act Section 401: Water Quality Certifications (Regional Water Quality Control Board); and Streambed Alteration Agreements (California Fish and Game Code Sections 1601 and 1602).
PCE can conduct pre-construction surveys and provide construction monitoring for a variety of projects involving listed or special status species and sensitive habitats. We can also prepare mitigation and monitoring plans for evaluating the success of mitigations to sensitive habitats and special-status plant and animal species.


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Was Edmonton really Richler's sort of city?
By Mike D. Wagner On Dec 30, 2022
By Rob Drinkwater
Culture, The Latest
Ten years after his death, Mordecai Richler's name remains mud in Edmonton for comments he made about the city in a 1985 essay for the New York Times on Wayne Gretzky, but questions remain about whether the legendary author was slaying the Alberta capital or actually celebrating it .
The essay, called "King of the New Canada," was published in a special sports supplement in the Sept. 29, 1985 edition of the paper and it didn't paint an endearing image. Richler said the city was a place you would only go if you were visiting relatives or if you had an interest in a nearby oil well. Downtown was a place where "grim religious zealots loom on street corners" and "intrepid streetwalkers in miniskirts rap on the windows of cars that have stopped for the traffic lights."
He said Edmonton lacked a first-class restaurant, and claimed that if Canada were a house, Edmonton would be its "boiler room."
"On first glance, or even on third, it seems not much a city as a jumble of a used building lot, where the spare office towers and box-shaped apartment buildings and cinder block motels discarded in the construction of real cities have been abandoned to waste away in the cruel prairie winter," Richler wrote in the essay.
Gretzky, meanwhile, was described as "a curiously bland 24-year-old in a gray flannel suit."
Publisher and author Mel Hurtig, who still lived in Edmonton at the time, accused Richler of making a living knocking Canada, while others claimed Richler was sore his musical adaptation of "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" had flopped when it premiered in Edmonton that year before
The Edmonton Sun even published Richler's home telephone number and invited readers to call him up.
"He had an enormous passion for Montreal but he had less passion and understanding for the rest of Canada," says Charlie Foran, the author of a 2010 biography, "Mordecai: The Life and Times."
"It was his job, he felt as a social commentator to criticize what was improvable."
Foran says prior to writing the Gretzky article, Richler spent about two months in the city preparing for the ill-fated musical 'Duddy' and the time did not pass well. For starters, there were problems dealing with the show. Foran says Richler also wasn't someone who thrived when he was away from his wife, Florence.
Expectations for the show were high, Foran says, and it even featured the music of the famous songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. But it got terrible reviews and never made it anywhere near Broadway. Most of the Canadian tour dates were canceled and it eventually closed to half-empty houses at Ottawa's National Arts Centre.
"This was supposed to be the big hit that kept everybody in second homes," says Foran, about what might have fueled Richler's resentment for Edmonton.
In contrast, Foran says Richler didn't say anything disparaging about Cincinnati when he visited that city to write a profile of baseball player Pete Rose. Foran says the difference was that Richler had a good time and enjoyed eating steaks for breakfast at Rose's home.
"Cincinnati isn't really a pretty city," Foran notes. "It's no better than Edmonton."
Even though Richler's criticisms were made more than 25 years ago, they keep resurfacing. They were brought up when Richler died of cancer at age 70 in 2001, and they're still trotted out by local reporters who need a quick example of how outsiders view our architecture.
But there were other, possibly complimentary, things Richler said about Edmonton in his essay. He sympathetically noted the city suffered greatly during the depression, and that after the boom that followed the discovery of oil near the city in 1947, it suffered again when the National Energy Program required the province to supply oil to eastern Canada below market price.
Richler said the policy effectively forced the West to subsidize inefficient industries in Ontario and Quebec. He also noted that for many years, Edmonton's hockey progeny was forced to go east to play in the NHL, but with the Oilers and the long wait for an NHL franchise over, Edmonton was exacting a type of revenge.
The author characterized Edmonton as an underdog, forced to compete against an established, arrogant elite that made all the rules — the same sort of elite Richler's characters struggled against in his novels. Those characters were frequently from the working-class Montreal neighborhood where Richler grew up, and it's interesting to compare his quotes about Edmonton with his description of Rue St. Urbain in "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz."
"One street would have seemed as squalid as the next. On each corner, a cigar store, a grocery and a fruit man. Outside staircases everywhere."
St Urbain wasn't the sort of place that had a first-class restaurant, either.
Richler denied the Gretzky piece was vicious in an interview he gave to his son, Daniel Richler, on TV Ontario in 1990, but he also said he couldn't pretend Edmonton was Paris, Rome or London. He said he thought the piece was "flattering" to the people of Edmonton and was started by calls for the New York Times to issue a retraction. He said the paper was more amused by the fuss than concerned.
Ever the agitator, Richler couldn't resist further jabs during the interview, and accused Edmonton of being "insecure" and suggested the negative reaction to his story came from "Rotarians of a kind."
"You would think because I wrote this piece for The New York Times that thousands of Americans and British canceled their travel plans to Edmonton," Richler mocked.
"It's not a handsome city. What can I do about it?"
To Edmontonians, Richler's complaints about the city were taken as whining from a hoity-toity easterner. But Richler was hardly hoity-toity. Noah Richler, in an essay last year for The Walrus magazine about the movie shoot for his father's book "Barney's Version," noted his dad's favorite haunts were seamy bars that were full of interesting characters.
And back in July when municipal leaders in Montreal announced a dilapidated gazebo in Mount Royal Park would be named in Richler's honor, Noah Richler said the structure was known by locals as the place where they smoked their first cigarettes or drank their first beer — two vices his father enjoyed.
Florence Richler, meanwhile, said graffiti on the gazebo would have appealed to her husband. And she said the modest structure was fitting, given that his roots weren't in the city's tony neighborhoods.
"Were the graffiti to be left, I think that somehow would have delighted Mordecai because … it would be critical and that was his nature," she told reporters following a ceremony at Montreal City Hall.
"He wasn't born in Westmount or Outremont, so this is quite appropriate."
Foran, however, is skeptical Richler may have been subtly praising Edmonton in 1985. Being a critic was just such a part of who Richler was, he says.
Then again, Foran says, something cheering on an underdog.
"What he hated more than anything else was phonies and he certainly didn't find that in Edmonton," Foran says.
Mel Hurtig, who fought public battles Richler on Canadian nationalism and issues of public policy, doubts the theory holds any water at all. He says even if Richler was trying to paint Edmonton as being downtrodden by Ontario and Quebec elites, his characterization was so ignorant of politics and so erroneous as to be completely irrelevant.
Hurtig admits Richler's remarks about Edmonton's architecture may have held a ray of truth, noting that for years the city was designed by "Social Credit civil servants." But he says the rest of his criticisms were bunk.
"I don't know where the hell he ate his meals, but as long as I can remember there have been first-class restaurants in Edmonton," says Hurtig, who now lives in Vancouver. "Mordecai Richler was a wonderful novelist and also a colossal jerk."
Gig City has tried to figure out where Richler ate, slept and drank while he was here. Foran says he doesn't know which hotel Richler stayed in, but assumes it was close to Citadel Theater where "Duddy" was being staged. He says Richler tended to drink in the bar of the hotel where he was staying, so he says if you find the hotel, you've found the bar.
Some of Citadel Theatre's current board members were around in those days, but when they were attending Thursday night's performance of "Death of a Salesman" and were asked about where Richler stayed, they responded that they couldn't remember.
And what would Richler think of Edmonton if he were still alive today? Our new art gallery certainly isn't boxy, and the same goes for City Hall which was built after his visit. But as for the plans for the new provincial museum, well, some things never change.
Perhaps there's a bar he'd like. The luxury hotel bars might have too many phonies for Richler's taste, and it's tough to imagine him rolling up to Wunderbar or the Empress Ale House on a fixie bike. But the Dockside Pub in the Quality Inn on 100 Ave. in the heart of downtown is a place a curmudgeon like Richler would probably revel in.
Noah Richler, in his piece for The Walrus, quoted a line from his father's famous trilogy of children's books when discussing bars his father drank in. In "Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case," the father is asked why he tolerates a character called Perfectly Loathsome Leo Louse.
"Because Leo's an original," was the answer. The Dockside attracts an odd variety of clientele. The Quality Inn has guests ranging from rig workers to corporate folks too frugal to stay at the Westin, and a few of them invariably drift in and mingle with the regulars. If Richler had been there this past Wednesday night, he would have been invited to join a conversation between an aboriginal from Fort Chipewyan and an African-American from Louisiana about race and its relationship to crime.
Or he might have talked sports with the man in the black suit and fedora.
The smartly-dressed middle-aged woman might have made a pass at him, too.
Like this city, it's a bar that's full of originals.
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Tom Sutherland, Edmonton architect, killed in Fernie snowboarding accident
Arch Insanity: Historical past buff runs contest to crown Edmonton's favourite…
Edmonton reveals plan to revitalize downtown
Edmonton is caught in a stagnant climate sample. Prepare for extra poor air high…


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Home » Latest News in Nigeria » Politics » Nigerians'll choose between lifeless candidate and job provider in 2019 – Atiku
Nigerians'll choose between lifeless candidate and job provider in 2019 – Atiku
9:26 AM CuteNaija 0 Latest News in Nigeria, Politics
The Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate in the February 14, 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar, has said his emergence has brought confusion to the camp of his All Progressives Congress counterpart, President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said this was the reason why the Buhari's camp felt that he (the former Vice-President) won the PDP ticket as a result of money politics.
Atiku said with his emergence as the PDP standard bearer in the 2019 presidential election, Nigerians would choose between him "a job provider" and Buhari whom he described as a "lifeless candidate."
But the APC described the former Vice-President as "a desperate, corrupt and an unreliable politician" who it alleged had entrenched the anti-democratic practice of offering cash in exchange for votes.
However, a statement by Atiku's media office in Abuja on Monday, said that the Buhari camp must have known that the era of favouritism had come to end in the country.
The statement said, "We are not surprised that there is confusion in the President's camp. We expected that they would be thrown into a catatonic state knowing that Atiku Abubabakr's emergence automatically means the coming to an end of their ignominious reign.
"That much was admitted by the President's former running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, when he praised the emergence of Atiku as an 'eagle' and 'a cosmopolitan wazobia' politician.
"Obviously, Pastor Tunde Bakare has foreseen that the era of 97 per cent versus five per cent has come to an end with the emergence of the pan-Nigerian Atiku Abubakar."
Atiku, in the statement, said that the wife of the President had even condemned the primaries of the ruling party, wondering if anyone could have known the APC more than her.
The statement said, "We ask, how can the Buhari Campaign Organisation disparage the PDP primary that produced Atiku, when even the President's own wife, Aisha Buhari, has condemned the APC's primary?
"Not only did Mrs Buhari condemn the APC's primaries, she described them as 'unfair' and lacking in integrity. Who can know President Buhari better than his wife?"
In the statement, Atiku said there were other 11 aspirants that contested against him, adding that all of them had accepted his victory.
Buhari, who he said was the sole candidate of his party, was already being challenged by other five aggrieved interested aspirants.
He said, "11 aspirants contested against Atiku, during the presidential primary of the PDP. Every single one of them accepted his victory.
"President Buhari was the only candidate cleared by the APC to contest its primary. Yet, a coalition of five aspirants is challenging his victory. That alone tells Nigerians his emergence is fraudulent."
Atiku, who debunked the allegation of corruption against him, said as the most investigated politician in Nigeria, the President would have arrested him because of his (Buhari's) vindictive nature.
He stated, "Nigerians know that Atiku Abubakar is the most investigated politician in Nigeria and any smear by the Buhari administration remains just that.
"With the vindictiveness of President Buhari, he would have arrested Atiku if he had been found wanting.
"However, to set the record straight, we want to remind Nigerians that the PDP's primaries were genuine, free and fair. Atiku Abubakar got 1,532 votes in a contest televised live to millions of Nigerians. The APC's primary, on the other hand, was a study in dictatorship and corruption. The sole candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, scored almost 15 million votes. How could that occur without rigging or manufacturing of faceless voters?
"No wonder Transparency International rated Nigeria as more corrupt today under Buhari, than just three years ago when the PDP was in power.
"The scandals are too numerous, including the $25bn NNPC contracts awarded without due process, the several padded budgets, the $41m Ikoyi Apartment scandal, the recall, reinstatement and double promotion of an alleged pension thief and Buhari financier, Abdulrasheed Maina, the N200m grass cutting scandal, and many others too numerous to mention."
The former Vice-President said that in 2019, Nigerians would choose between what he called a lifeless candidate and a job provider.
He said, "The choice before Nigerians in 2019 is a simple one. Nigerians have a choice of electing a lively candidate with a record of providing 50,000 jobs to Nigerians in his private capacity versus the lifelessness (apologies to President Donald Trump) of a candidate under whom Nigeria lost 11 million jobs and became the world headquarters for extreme poverty.
"Nigerians have a choice of a man who will provide an efficient and business-friendly solution to the herdsmen crisis and a man whose government said 'giving land for cattle ranching is better than death.'
"It is very obvious that faced with such a choice, Nigerians would definitely vote for the man who will Get Nigeria Working Again, hence we are not surprised by this desperate statement from the Buhari administration that is so shameless that they made a man implicated in framing a man of God on spurious charges as their spokesman.
"If he can lie against a man of God, should Nigerians believe anything he says about the PDP and its candidate? "
APC says Atiku is corrupt, unreliable
But the APC in a statement signed by the acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Yekini Nabena, in Abuja, on Monday said the APC only congratulated Atiku on his victory in keeping with its belief in participatory democracy.
However, the ruling party said the PDP candidate had a series of corruption allegations which he had yet to effectively debunk.
The APC spokesperson said Nigerians would be confronted with a choice of whether to vote for a candidate who was deficient in terms of integrity and one whose integrity had remained his greatest selling point.
The statement partly read, "In assessing candidates to be voted for during elections, Nigerians will normally consider the candidate's background and past. The pertinent question to ask about Atiku is what his scorecard in public office was?
"Regrettably, Atiku's scorecard is abysmally low and he has proved to be an untrustworthy and unreliable character.
"A case in point is Atiku's revealing altercation with his former boss President Olusegun Obasanjo which exposed the level of corruption Atiku was enmeshed in."
The APC also alleged that Atiku's name had been on the global watch list of the United States of America and that he could not travel to the US in order to avoid arrest and prosecution over a money-laundering and corruption case in that country.
Nabena said, "Atiku is known as a super rich Nigerian who entrenched the undemocratic practice of buying votes of delegates. During the APC National Convention in 2014, he spent several millions of dollars to buy delegates' votes and emerged third, after Buhari and Rabiu Kwankwaso.
"On Sunday, he reportedly bought over virtually all the PDP delegates and was declared winner of the PDP presidential primaries. With these huge expenses expended to secure the PDP ticket, how will Atiku recoup his 'investment' if not from the public treasury should he win the Presidency?"


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Shawn Levy Picks Up Sci-Fi Road Trip Romance 'Monster Problems'
Source: Heat Vision
Take a little bit of Zombieland, a pinch of Mad Max and the romance of a John Hughes film, and you have Monster Problems a spec script by Brian Duffield (who wrote the Black Listed script for Jane Got a Gun, a western with Natalie Portman attached). It's Heat Vision reporting Paramount is negotiating to pick up the script with director Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps production banner looking to produce. While specific plot points are being kept under wraps, the aforementioned description with romance on the road in a post-apocalyptic world is what we have to work with, and that's enough to tickle my fancy now. Read on!
It's like that there are monsters let roaming the world, perhaps not unlike in Gareth Edward's Monsters (which has a sequel getting off the ground), and there's a small group trying to survive and navigate the world, maybe trying to find a rumored safe house. Much like Zombieland, two different groups meet-up and two of them fall for each other, thus complicating their survival. It's a familiar story, but it's the world in which it exists that will really sell the project, and if Paramount is picking it up for a mid-six figure deal, it has to be pretty original, and hopefully has some heart to go with the sci-fi.
Levy likely won't end up directing since he's already got a lot on his plate. He's working on The Internship with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson this year, and still has projects like The 39 Clues and Frankenstein to direct at some point. He's also attached to produce a bunch of projects including Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day with Steve Carell. I've been looking forward to more of Levy's work since he changed his fluffy family style up a bit for the more gritty, edgy Real Steel. And with The Internship being an R-rated comedy, I hope he keeps his material a little more mature, even in his more family oriented material. This new project sounds like an interesting genre smash, so I hope to hear more about it soon.
Find more posts: Development, Movie News
Just curious, is the art in the article attached to the movie in any way, or do you just choose a random shot. It's very confusing. The "Elysium" article was posted with an image of a space station, but you don't say if it's from the film or not.
Greedo on Jun 18, 2012
Sounds more like a "I am Legend" type movie but instead of a dog being a companion it's a chick... I'll stick to the "Walking Dead" tv series, thanks...
BinaryChaos on Jun 18, 2012
let's just hope it's not like a boy and his dog, which start with a boy and his dog, then it's a boy and a girl and end with the boy his dog and some leftovers.
Dan Hibiki on Jun 18, 2012
Cate Blanchat in Lord Of Rings say "History became Legend, Legend became Myth" I say "Myth became Legend, Legend became Dreams, Dreams became Reality" Holleywood is Ultimate Real Fiction Paradox Ever Miracleworker
Ehsan Davodi on Jun 18, 2012
Hollywood creates entertainment Ehsan, don't confuse entertainment for miracles. Only Michael Jackson could do miracles.
Carpola on Jun 18, 2012
True Fan of MJ either sir, But you saw life of Helen Keller in Arthur Pen Adaption, I see it when I was 10, shake me and shock me and I have faith in its Title... Dude
world's worst movie: "Monsters"
ZWR on Jun 18, 2012
Sir you think if monsters was worst movie ever, company give helmet of difficult remake of GODZILLA to garet Edwards ?


One of the more difficult decisions when working in this galaxy rich portion of the sky is what to observe, or in my case, which items to include in the newsletter. For Coma Berenecies, limiting myself to the Herschel 400 objects would be too many. So I arbitrarily selected the Messier, Best of the NGC, and Herschel 400 objects on page 13 of SkyAtlas 2000.0 (with one exception). Even this amounts to a lot of objects, so I'll keep the introduction short (my apologies Paul, this will probably make the map tough to create).
NGC 4147 (12h10.1 +18 33 ) We'll start of with a globular cluster, which at 140X was seen as a little bright, pretty small, and irregularly round. There is a good brightening toward the middle, almost forming a nucleus. Using averted vision and waiting for moments of good seeing make 3 or 4 stars pop out along the periphery, with an overall very slight granular texture. There is a star on the NE side which is best kept out of the field.
NGC 4192 (12h13.9 +14 55) This galaxy is M-98, which I saw as big, somewhat bright, very elongated NW/SE, with a slightly brighter middle and an occasional nucleus. To the N of the nucleus is a star. Try using averted vision on this object, to me it does seem to extend it somewhat.
NGC 4254 (12h18.9 +14 26) M-99 is a galaxy right next to a magnitude 7 star which does interfere slightly. The galaxy is round, pretty big, fairly bright, and somewhat brighter in the middle. Some mottling is seen in the halo using averted vision, even a counter-clockwise spiral structure is suspected. There is an involved star to SE, and many stars are seen in the field.
NGC 4321 (12h23.0 +15 50) The last Messier Galaxy for a while, M-100 is pretty big, somewhat faint, gradually brighter in the middle, and contains a pretty bright, non-stellar nucleus. There may be a very slight elongation, if there is any it is WNW/ESE. Averted vision makes it grow slightly, but other than this, there is no additional detail seen.
NGC 4350 (12h24.0 +16 42) This galaxy was seen as somewhat faint, pretty small, and slightly elongated 1.5:1 NE/SW. There is a brighter middle with a non-stellar nucleus. To the WSW is galaxy 4340, with these two galaxies almost forming twins.
NGC 4419 (12h27.0 +15 03) At 100X, I saw this galaxy as a little faint, somewhat large, and very elongated 5:1 WNW/ESE. The middle is suddenly brighter with a solid stellar nucleus. The central bulge is slight and the halo thins down very nicely to points. There is a faint star just to the S and a somewhat bright star to the WNW which do not interfere.
NGC 4450 (12h28.6 +17 06) This is a very nice galaxy and fun to observe. I saw it as pretty bright, somewhat large, elongated 3:1 with direct vision and about 5:1 with averted vision, NNW/SSE. There is a pretty bright middle with a non-stellar nucleus, the middle bulges making a nice lenticular shape. With averted vision, the halo thins down to nice points. Nice star to the WSW and a bright star to NE which is best kept out of the field.
NGC 4459 (12h29.1 +13 59) Here we have a pretty bright galaxy, somewhat small, and round in shape. It slowly brightens up to a somewhat brighter middle with an occasional stellar nucleus which I could hold about 25% of the time. There are 2 nice stars nearby, one to the SE, another a little further out to the WSW.
NGC 4473 (12h29.9 +13 26) and NGC 4477 (12h30.1 +13 39) These galaxies, form a nice pair with 4477 being somewhat bright, somewhat large, and contains a somewhat brighter middle and a stellar nucleus. I suspected an elongation E/W 2:1 with some mottling in the outer halo. 4473 is somewhat bright, somewhat small (a little smaller than 4477), and elongated 2:1 ENE/WSW. A somewhat brighter elongated middle is seen with an occasional sub-stellar nucleus. Look closely to the SE of 4477 and see if you can see galaxy 4479.
NGC 4501 (12h32.1 +14 26) Back to some Messier objects, I saw M-88 as pretty bright, somewhat large, with a gradually brighter middle and a slightly brighter stellar nucleus. It is very elongated NW/SE. On the SE a faint star is involved in the halo. The NE side darkens more suddenly than the SW side, perhaps this is a dark lane. This is a nice galaxy in a nice star field.
NGC 4548 (12h35.5 +14 30) Our last Messier object of the month, M-91 was seen as a little bright, somewhat large, and containing a slightly brighter middle. Using averted vision, I was able to suspect a nucleus and a slight elongation suspected ENE/WSW. Over all, the galaxy brightness is very even.
NGC 4689 (12h47.9 +13 46) Our final galaxy has bright field stars nearby which necessitates using high power, I used 140X. The galaxy is very faint, slightly brighter in the middle, with no nucleus seen and with the elongation uncertain. There are 2 star to the N. I consider this to be one of the more difficult Herschel 400 objects. If I remember correctly, I was observing with Brian Workman on this night, and he found it easier in his 6 inch scope than I did in my 10 in scope.
Mel-111 (12h25.0 +26 00, for those with setting circles embedded in their eyes :-) After looking at all these faint fuzzy galaxies, kick back for a while, put your scope and binoculars aside and take a look at the Coma Star Cluster. At 1X, I saw this cluster a very large, very loose, pretty bright, and somewhat condensed. I counted about 20 stars in a triangular shape pointing N. To me this cluster is one of the most beautiful naked eye sights in the night sky.


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Fathers of Modern Photography: The Brothers Langenheim
Written by Ellen Lawson in the Features category and the Fall 1987 issue Topics in this article: Alexander Beckers, American Stereoscopic Company, Anna Langenheim Voigtlander, Casper W. Briggs, daguerreotype, Frederick David Langenheim, Germans, hyalotype process, Isenring process, Johann Bernhard Schneider, John Whipple, Josef Petzval, Langenheim Brothers Studio, Louis Daguerre, Louisa Langenheim Schneider, Marcus Root, Mashler stereoscope, motion pictures, Niagara Falls, Niepce de Saint Victor, Niepce process, Peter Friedrich Voigtlander, Philadelphia, photography, Sophia Palmer Langenheim, stereography, stereopticon, talbotypes, William and Frederick Langenheim, William Henry Fox Talbot, William Lloyd
Features appear in each issue of Pennsylvania Heritage showcasing a variety of subjects from various periods and geographic locations in Pennsylvania.
Two brothers – German immigrants who left their native Brunswick and chanced upon one another in Philadelphia several years later – have been praised by scores of scholars and historians as the "Fathers of Modern Photography" for their technical contributions to the first twenty years of American photographic history. William and Frederick Langenheim achieved international fame as daguerreotypists and their works today are prized by the Library of Congress (which accepted transfers from the Smithsonian Institution as early as 1866), the Franklin Institute, the Eastman Kodak Museum, the Missouri Historical Society, as well as numerous European museums and collections. In this century, six of their daguerreotypes were showcased in the first photographic exhibit mounted by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1938. Between 1840 and 1874, when William died and Frederick retired, the brothers received more honors and awards from Philadelphia's Franklin Institute for exhibits than any other photographers.
William Langenheim was born in 1807 and Frederick two years later. At the age of twenty-seven, William left Germany for the United States in 1834. He fought in the Texan War for Independence and was imprisoned by the Mexicans for more than a year. He later acted as a commissary sergeant in the Second Seminole War. In 1840, he traveled to Philadelphia where, only by accident, he encountered Frederick, who was employed by the city's German language newspaper, Die Alte und Neue Welt.
Their two sisters in Europe, Louisa and Anna (also known as Nancy), proved instrumental in stimulating their fascination with the daguerreotype process shortly after its invention in 1839 by French inventor Louis Daguerre. Frederick probably brought from Europe a camera given to him by Johann Bernhard Schneider, Louisa's husband. Earlier, Schneider had been a student in Vienna with Peter Friedrich Voigtlander, married to Anna Langenheim.
The camera developed by Louis Daguerre had a simple lens which required a great deal of light for exposure of the plate. Josef Petzval of Vienna designed a double lens, permitting sixteen times more light than Daguerre's original 1839 camera. Voigtlander built cameras for Petzval with the lens, the first two of which he sent to Louis Daguerre; he shipped the third camera to Schneider who, in turn, passed it on to the Langenheim brothers in the United States. This camera was first introduced in Europe in May 1840, and Frederick and William Langenheim presumably had it in Philadelphia the following month.
By 1842, the Langenheims opened a business in the Philadelphia Exchange, and three years later established a studio conducted by Alexander Beckers in New York City. While Frederick managed the laboratory and technical aspects, his brother undertook the business details. In fact, patents were issued in Frederick's name and most surviving business correspondence was written by William.
Realizing the importance of advertising, the Langenheim venture was among the first commercial photography studios to place notices in contemporary newspapers and periodicals; an 1844 advertisement, for example, enthusiastically touted – with some exaggeration – their venture as "an old and far-famed establishment!" They encouraged portraits not only of families and friends but of the sick and deceased, offering to visit one's house to make the rather macabre portraits. They credited light, or the "Pencil of Nature," with drawing the picture.
In July 1845, Frederick Langenheim journeyed to Niagara Falls, New York, making several daguerreotypes of what later became one of the most photographed, if not familiar, landscapes in the nineteenth century American consciousness. He was the first photographer to recognize its appeal, perhaps because his interests in Germany included agricultural pursuits and a keen love of the land. While most early daguerreotypists remained in their studios making portraits, Frederick carved a niche in American photographic history by hauling his cumbersome gear to the outdoors to record natural wonders.
The Langenheims produced eight sets of daguerreotypes of Niagara Falls from five different perspectives. These panoramas were made with such short exposures – especially for the era – that the people and horses near the waterfall were captured in perfect detail. Surely the brothers sensed the significance of these views; they sent copies to Pres. James K. Polk, England's Queen Victoria, Louis Daguerre, the Duke of Brunswick and the kings of Prussia, Saxony and Wurttemberg. One set was retained by the Langenheims and later featured in the prestigious Museum of Modern Art's landmark exhibit of 1938.
Louis Daguerre thanked the brothers for "sending me the charming view of Niagara, which is due to the amiable attention of Messrs. Langenheim. Besides the merit of these proofs of execution they have also the merit to represent one of the wonders of the known world." Other accolades followed. On behalf of Queen Victoria, Lord Aberdeen wrote: "I have now the pleasure to acquaint you, that although it is general rule with her Majesty not to receive presents from any quarter, her Majesty has been graciously pleased to accept this view of the falls of Niagara and express her admiration at the great skill with which it has been taken." The kings sent letters of appreciation – as well as medals honoring the Langenheims' work. The May 7 and June 4, 1846, editions of The Philadelphia Public Ledger took notice of these depictions of Niagara Falls and urged individuals to visit the brothers' studio in the Philadelphia Exchange and examine the remarkable views. Less than two decades later, an astute Marcus Root, in his 1864 Camera and Pencil, the first published history of photography, credited Frederick and William Langenheim with popularizing daguerreotypes by sending complimentary copies of their work to important social and political personages and by inviting the curious public to visit their studio and showrooms.
In 1846. William married Sophia Palmer of Philadelphia and Frederick, who remained a bachelor the rest of his life, made a daguerreotype of the couple, probably on their wedding day. The image may, indeed, be one of the first wedding photographs in American history!
Within a few years, and after the births of three children, Sophia Langenheim, twenty years younger than her husband, died at the age of twenty-six. The daguerreotypes taken by her husband and brother-in-law constitute one of the oldest and earliest family portrait collections in the country. The eldest child, Frederick David, was the subject of daguerreotypes from infancy and the images chronicle his childhood and youth. A surviving daguerreotype, albeit faded, was taken of the three Langenheim children before the death of the youngest, Sophia, in 1854.
Always eagerly following the technological strides in the emerging photographic industry, William and Frederick Langenheim tried to introduce a new process, a precursor of modern photography, to America in 1849. This new development, the talbotype, relied on alternate coatings of salt and silver nitrate on good writing paper, instead of Louis Daguerre's original process of a silvered copper plate. William journeyed to England to negotiate the purchase of the American patent from William Henry Fox Talbot and paid one thousand pounds sterling, a considerable sum, for the rights. Shortly afterward, Talbot wrote his wife, "You know I had a patent in the U.S.A. for my invention of photographic pictures. I sold it yesterday for a large sum to an American gentleman who expects to make his fortune by this purchase. I hope he may as he seems a very amiable and intelligent person."
During that summer, the Langenheims produced several successful talbotypes, including views of the Philadelphia Exchange and a "Lighthouse under Construction." They speedily distributed handbills to fellow daguerreotypists, urging them to try the new process, and made sure an article explaining its usefulness appeared in the Daily National Intelligencer, published in Washington, D.C. Despite their excitement and enthusiastic marketing attempts, Frederick and William Langenheim failed with their promotion of the talbotype process, which resulted in their bankruptcy by the end of the year. Although several historians suggest that the early talbotypes were inferior to skilled daguerreotypes, it was possible that Americans simply preferred the solidity of the sturdy daguerreotype plate more than the talbotype paper as it may have reminded them of the durability of old minaitures. Other scholars suggest, however, that the brothers failed because they did not have adequate time to devote to the perfection and promotion of the talbotype process; zealots that they were, William and Frederick began working on another new development, the Niepce process.
The Niepce process, brainchild of Frenchman Niepce de Saint Victor, employed an albumen (egg white) solution to produce a photographic negative on glass. The Langenheims were the first in the United States to produce similar negatives, but furthered the development so that positives could be printed on glass plates, products they called hyalotypes. They also discovered that photographic transparencies could be transferred to ground or frosted glass, leading to the creation of magic lantern slides, a process for which they received a patent in 1850.
To popularize both talbotypes and hyalotypes, the Langenheims submitted samples of each for the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851. They were the only Americans to enter talbotypes and the only contestants to submit photographic positives on glass. They were awarded a medal and certificate for their hyalotypes, which the April 1851 edition of the London Art Journal described as "near an approach to perfection as we can imagine;' noting that the process was lengthy and complicated. Among the one hundred and twenty-six magic lantern slides exhibited by the brothers were landscapes and portraits printed in a warm sepia. They sought to recoup some of their debt to Talbot by selling him the rights to the hyalotype process.
Following their acclaimed exhibit in London, Frederick Langenheim gave the first recorded slide-lecture tour when he journeyed through South America with images submitted to the Crystal Palace extravaganza, including views of Niagara Falls, assorted American landscapes, "magical and comical pictures" and microscopic studies. It was the microprints that prompted Marcus Root in 1864 to write that the Langenheims' "microphotographs are far superior to any we have seen made by others on either side of the Atlantic."
At about the same time as the Crystal Palace Exhibit, Frederick and William Langenheim established the American Stereoscopic Company in Philadelphia, which offered a novel, three-dimensional perspective of diverse subjects. The brothers used daguerreotypes, talbotypes and hyalotypes to make these new stereopticon images. Their Langenheim Stereoscope Peep-Show permitted rapid rotation of the images and was a forerunner of the latter-day penny arcade machines popular through this century. The stereopticon industry was but another example of the brothers' sagacity in introducing products and processes popular in Europe, but not yet familiar in the United States. As early as 1854, Frederick explained, "Until now, all the stereoscopic glass pictures have been imported from France. As far as I am able to judge, the fault lies principally with our operating artists. They have not paid attention to the subject it richly deserves …. " The following year he recruited Philadelphia businessmen and investors to sponsor him in a railroad excursion from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls, during which he would make stereoscopic views of the landscape. Twenty businessmen advertised this innovative endeavor in the Philadelphia Public Ledger in December 1855. He has been duly credited with popularizing railroad scenery with this series, which included a view of the recently completed suspension bridge at Niagara Falls.
Between his tour of South America and the railroad expedition, Frederick found time to capture, on May 26, 1854, an eclipse of the sun. The first attempt in Italy in 1842 to record a solar eclipse was not very successful, although John Whipple of Harvard College photographed a partial eclipse in 1851. Frederick Langenheim, in addition to six American photographers, succeeded in using the daguerreotype process in recording the scientific event in 1854.
In 1856, the year they published their stereopticon railroad series, the Langenheim brothers also issued a set of twenty-four stereographic proofs on salted paper entitled Views at Home and Abroad (which the Smithsonian Institution transferred to the Library of Congress for safekeeping ten years later). By 1858, however, daguerreotypes had lost their popularity, replaced by the ambrotype, followed by the ferrotype ("tintype") and, finally, by the familiar and commercially successful paper photographs. Unlike previous years, not one daguerreotype was entered in the Franklin Institution's annual exhibition for 1859. It appears that the brothers began concentrating on their stereopticon business, producing magic lantern slides for the next decade. They employed artists to draw comical and magical slides, and released a catalogue marketing their available slides. Over the years, the Langenheims encouraged others, even competitors, to make improvements in the field; Frederick is listed as a witness, in 1856, to a new stereoscope case made by William Lloyd. And Alexander Beckers, once an employee, in 1859 produced a special case capable of housing three hundred stereographs mounted on rotating blades.
The Langenheim brothers continued exerting considerable influence on the American photography market until William's death at the age of sixty-seven in 1874. Upon William's demise, Frederick retired and sold the stereopticon and magic lantern slide enterprises to Casper W. Briggs. Perhaps it was fitting that the business as conducted by Frederick and William Langenheim did not continue beyond the exciting – if not explosive – early years of photography. Not only did these German immigrants witness the formative years of American photography, but they actively participated in its growth and development, enabling the products of their labors to be shared with their contemporaries, as well as subsequent generations of scholars, historians and admirers. They were, in essence, pioneers and photographers.
That the brothers' first cooperative effort in the United States was working for the Philadelphia newspaper, Die Alte und Neue Welt, or The Old and New World, seems prophetic today. Their role in photographic history served to introduce Old World scientific advances – such as talbotypes and the Niepce process – to the New World, thus preserving for posterity the unique nineteenth century perspective of the grand and, at times, bewildering landscape of their adopted country. As intellectually curious German natives and as astute Philadelphia businessmen, they bridged the two worlds to provide a unique graphic document of the art and science they helped to shape.
Buckland, Gail and Cecil Beaton. The Magic Image: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975.
Darrah, William Culp. The World of Stereographs. Gettysburg: Darrah, 1977.
Finkel, Kenneth. Nineteenth-century Photography in Philadelphia: 250 Historic Prints from the Library Company of Philadelphia. New York: Dover Publications, 1980.
Gernsheim, Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. L.J.M. Daguerre: The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype. New York: Dover Publications, 1968.
Gilbert, George. Collecting Photographica: The Images and Equipment of the First Hundred Years of Photography. New York: Hawthorne Books, 1976.
Heyert, Elizabeth. The Glasshouse Years: Victorian Portrait Photography, 1839-1870. Montclair, N.J.: Allanheld E. Schram, 1979.
Macdonald, Gus. Camera: A Victorian Eyewitness; A History of Photography: 1826-1913. New York: Viking Press, 1980.
Newhall, Beaumont. The Daguerreotype in America. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1968.
Rinhart, Floyd and Marion Rinhart. American Daguerreian. New York: C. N. Potter, 1967.
Taft, Robert. Photography and the American Scene: A Social History, 1839-1889. New York: Dover Publications, 1964.
Ellen NicKenzie Lawson, a direct descendant of William Langenheim, earned her doctorate in American History from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, in 1977, and received her master of arts in teaching from Wesleyan University, Connecticut. She was awarded her bachelor of arts degree in 1966 from Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. Her articles have appeared in scholarly journals, including Journal of Civil War History, Journal of Negro Education and Dictionary of American Military Biography. She has written three books, The Three Sarahs: Documents of Antebellum Black College Women, Across the Stage – An Extra Clap and Cookies, Whales and Turtle Tales. The author, residing in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, is currently a freelance writer.
On the Cover:
A daguerreotype of an unknown woman by Philadelphia photographers Frederick and William Langenheim, known as the "Fathers of Modern Photography" for their many contributions to the field. (Courtesy Ellen NicKenzie Lawson)


Coi Nguon Museum is one of the largest private collections in Vietnam and definitely worth a visit if you are interested in the history, culture and nature of Phu Quoc Island. Bảo Tàng Cội Nguồn or Coi Nguon Museum is located on 149 Trần Hưng Đạo, not too far from Dương Đông to the South.
Coi Nguon Museum is open for visitors from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Upstairs you can inspect ancient pottery and beautiful porcelain work, old coins and banknotes, more shrines and a reconstructed hut of the early dwellers on Phu Quoc Island that offers an insight into their daily life. Over 2,500 UNESCO-inspected items of pottery are on exhibition as well, some of them dating back to the 15th century.
Like in many museums in Vietnam, numerous artifacts in Coi Nguon Museum are not protected by glass windows or other barriers. Please don't touch the exhibits.
Folk art from the ancient times to the present shows how the people worked and what their daily life involved. Especially the ceramic paintings are exceptionally informative and beautiful as well.
One niche is reserved for pictures from the Phu Quoc Prison, not as sobering as a visit to the prison itself, but makes you think about the 4,000 people who lost their lives there.
Various shrines offer an insight into the beliefs of the islanders and their cultural and spiritual life. A section features native costumes in a rainbow of enchanting colors.
The outside section includes the sea bird sanctuary, home of several threatened sea eagles, as well as a section dedicated to the Phu Quoc Ridgeback dogs.
Coi Nguon Museum includes a souvenir shop as well, a restaurant and a resort with pool and temple. You can learn more about the Museum on Phu Quoc Island on the official website.
Go all the way upstairs and find your way to the rooftop. The view on the premises, as well as Long Beach and a part of Duong Dong is pretty nice.


SAN ANTONIO - A mother who lost her young daughter in a crash is turning pain into action.
Emily Zaltsman, 13, died after a driver rear-ended the car that she was in last year. Police said the man behind the wheel was texting.
Now, Emily's mother, Karin, is helping to spread the word about a free app that gives incentives for safe driving. The free Texas-based app is called Safe 2 Save and was created by a woman named Marci Corry.
Corry was inspired to create the app after hearing about a 19-year-old man who died because someone was texting and driving.
App users can also upload a picture of a loved one that displays when you open the app to remind you that distracted driving is not worth it.
"This is the largest preventable (cause of) death among high school students and college students, and my age, in the 30s," Corry said.
According to Corry, the Safe 2 Save app has over 60,000 users. The app is equipped with features that allow families and co-workers to compete with each other to see who can drive the safest. There are rewards for that, too.
"We can send a gift card to the winner of that contest," Corry said.
Corry hopes it's enough motivation to put an end to distracted-driving deaths.
While using the app, you can still use Bluetooth, listen to music, and safely use GPS apps like Wayze and Google Maps.
For 1,000 free points, enter the coupon code LIFESAVER.


Voice precedes face, revealing the necessary disruption of alterity that subtends our subjectivity, our identity. We hear before we see. We know that we can always close our eyes, turn away, refuse to see. We have no such luxury with sound, which even in deafness worms its way through the medium of flesh and bone to our very core. The sounding shows itself as the clearing, wherein being dis-closes itself. We listen in the knowledge that the illusion of choice removes itself from under our feet. Voice dis-plays itself as the invisible.
The non-teleological outstrips and unhinges the strictures of tyrannical Logos. The wandering sidesteps the conditioned path, the re-course of history. Primal music dislocates the scale, plays the notes between the notes. Microtonality exposes the condition of the possibility of music as such. Orality, vocality never merely reflect nature but resound in and as nature. Voice becomes the condition for the possibility of the saying outside the strictures of textual Logos, the said.


text:
Q: How to draw route between multiple points in Google Maps? I have implemented google maps in my app and there are several points i need to mark on the map. I was able to mark them with markers but the problem i am facing is trying to draw the path between all those points.
I tried using polyline but it just draws a straight line between point A and point B.
I also tried google maps directionsAPI and it shows all the possible routes between A and B.
My question is how do i draw proper route between point A -> point B -> point C -> point D. I want the route to start at point A then go through B and C and end at point C. ( I do not want to see alternate routes)
Can anybody shed some light on how to do this?

A: You need to pass one or more (list of) | (pipe) separated lat longs (lat,longs) as waypoints to google's direction API. The overview polyline returned in response will contain a path from source to destination via all the way points you specified in your request.
copying from Google's doc
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?
origin=sydney,au&destination=perth,au
&waypoints=via:-37.81223%2C144.96254%7Cvia:-34.92788%2C138.60008
&key=YOUR_API_KEY

Read: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/directions/overview
Scroll to waypoints section, its pretty straight forward :)
Suggestion: If you are passing a list of | (pipe) separated lat longs ensure to properly encode comma (,) to %2C between lat and long values and ensure not to leave any space between them. Properly encode | as well.

A: Here's simple and clean requet you can use
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=28.430348957506485,76.98648305807664&destination=28.599890024415032,77.39881368551802&waypoints=28.532347609852128,77.19007345114302|28.58602324471669,77.33358236227583&key=Your_API_KEY

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Dabke wedding music from Syria is known in the West because of the breakout success of Omar Souleyman. And Souleyman was introduced to us by Mark Gergis, who released four albums of his work on the Sublime Frequencies label and produced his collaboration with Bjork in 2011. Now Gergis is branching out with his own imprint, Sham Palace, and he's branching out in dabke with this release (like the first Souleymans, they come from cassette recordings of wedding parties) of a variety of artists from southern Syria and northwestern Jordan. The style there features the shrill, droney double-reed bamboo flute called mejwiz; as in Souleyman's northeast Syrian variant the rhythms are fast and heavy with liberal use of synthesizers and drum machines. The result hypnotizes you by overwhelming your senses, much as Western electronic dance music aims to do. With the Syrian civil war now into its third year with no end in sight, Gergis is donating proceeds from this CD release to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, making this album an ideal way to learn about an emerging 21st century vernacular music while doing some good at the same time.


In this training course expert Michael Meskers will be covering all of the newest features of Excel 2010, giving you in depth explanations to create a better understanding of material. This training course will provide you with 100's of tips and techniques that are taught in "Plain English" allowing you to increase efficiency and productivity in your day-to-day Excel use.
Demo Clip from LearnKey Excel 2010 course, Mike explains shortcut keys.
As you can see, the production quality of LearnKey courses is excellent. This is something to consider as a well produced course will make your learning easier. Also, you are going to be watching these videos for many hours, you want to make sure it is a pleasurable experience.


Today I went through my filing boxes, organizing what needed to be organized, and discarding what was no longer needed. It was during this process that I happened upon a curious artifact… a curious artifact that has interesting implications in the history of Chainsaw Buffet. It would seem that the creative force that helped form the Buffet was at work years ago.
It might not be surprising that my find will dredge up other memories from my colleagues, and they, too, will discover that their fates were intertwined with the legendary Chainsaw Buffet well before we ever conceived of this great site. As Tenacious D was destined to become the greatest band ever, were we too destined for greatness?
Coincidence? Well, let me tell you my story. Then, you may decide.
The Baker. An ineffective superhero? Yes. But look more closely.
First, his resemblance to The Chef is uncanny. OK, well, that's because I drew them both. But it is uncanny that over the years, such a similar character design resurfaced seemingly at random. Once I drew the picture, I gradually forgot of The Baker's existence. Until now, that is.
Second, the character's name is "The Baker." Now, granted, our propensity for naming characters based on jobs in a restaurant is equal parts pseudo-anonymity and hilarity. However, The Baker is clearly the only name for a superhero whose main power is being a baker. Yet, there it is–a character named with the same naming convention the Buffet would later adopt.
Speaking of which, my memory is fuzzy on what The Baker's powers actually were. I'm not sure he had any. As I said, I believe the discussion that prompted this sketch was about ineffective superheroes.
Third… well, OK, I think those two items cover all the interesting coincidences–but they are coincidences you cannot deny! So, was the founding of the Buffet foreordained? I do not know. All I know, is that one day, many years ago, there emerged… THE BAKER.
Posted in: Self-Referential Crap, The Maitre d': A Legacy of Failure on March 3, 2008 by The Maitre d'.


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Lawsuit: ClassPass Built Fitness Empire on Thousands of 'Fake Listings'
ClassPass has listed thousands of "beauty and wellness" boutiques as partners without their knowing or despite their repeated complaints, according to an amended complaint to a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday.
This falsely inflated the total size of the fitness startup's network ahead of its October acquisition by Mindbody while leaving small businesses to deal with angry customers, injured reputations, and potentially dangerous situations, the complaint claims.
Without any agreement with the businesses, ClassPass systematically uploaded the information of thousands of boutiques, copied their website's wording almost "verbatim" or used generic language, often listed inaccurate appointment times, and took subscribers' money, only to leave unaware small businesses to clean up the mess, per the filing. At times, ClassPass attempted to come to a formal agreement with the boutique studios without informing them that they were already listed as partners—a process that one small business described as "gaslighting."
"ClassPass pays little or no regard to whether gyms, salons, and other entities desire to do business with it at all," the lawsuit states, adding elsewhere: "These fake partner listings are central to ClassPass's business model and have contributed to ClassPass's apparent success."
The purported size of its network is a primary reason so many customers and partners join the ClassPass platform, where monthly subscribers can reserve classes and services using credits, often at below-market prices.
But according to the lawsuit, well over a third of ClassPass' purported 20,000 "beauty and wellness" partners have never agreed to any sort of relationship with the startup. The number rises to over 50 percent in major metropolitan areas like New York City, Phoenix, and Denver, the suit says. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, it passes 90 percent.
Do you or have you worked for ClassPass? From a non-work device, contact the reporter at maxwell.strachan@vice.com or via Signal at 310-614-3752 for extra security.
ClassPass' decision to list these businesses regularly came at the expense of angry or unknowing small businesses which, "through no fault of their own, have faced upset customers who blame them for the confusion and not ClassPass, and have received negative reviews and ratings in important online forums," the lawsuit states. Businesses have said ClassPass has made it harder for massage parlors to screen for people "searching for sexual services" and for salons to adhere to strict COVID-19 protocols; listed "fake appointment times" at salons that promise to never double-book; and even tried to purchase a class for a ClassPass customer as a "personal assistant."
Many purported partners are listed on ClassPass alongside generic language stating that, for example, "Massage Spas are busy and wait times can be unpredictable. But getting pampered shouldn't be stressful." The company's mass partnership strategy has also made it and the small businesses both vulnerable to faux pas. For example, ClassPass listed a Jewish community center with a photo of a nude woman getting a massage.
The company's mass partnership strategy has made it and the small businesses both vulnerable to faux pas. (Source: lawsuit)
While the issues stemming from the "false listings" are numerous, the lawyer leading the case against ClassPass told Motherboard what ties them together is a lack of control.
"I've spoken to businesses in pretty much every single state," attorney Raphael Janove said. "A central theme that all businesses have is this idea of consent and agreements and knowing how your business is listed online. "
After the amended complaint was filed Tuesday, Janove noticed ClassPass changed at least some descriptions of its purported partners, instead saying they were part of "ClassPass Concierge, a beta program that allows you to request appointments at businesses that are not ClassPass partners," though some incorrect appointment times remained listed.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plaintiffs are claiming, among other things, false affiliation, false advertising, and unfair competition under federal and state law.
Many purported partners are listed on ClassPass alongside generic language. (Source: lawsuit)
ClassPass worked to aggressively expand its footprint in the beauty-and-wellness space after the pandemic ground the in-person fitness experience to a near-halt in 2020. After watching its revenue plunge 95 percent and laying off or furloughing half its staff, company leadership decided it needed to invest in a more pandemic-appropriate category.
"In 2021, we plan to hyper-scale the wellness and beauty options in our network," chief commercial officer Zach Apter said early this year.
Already, by January 2021, such classes comprised 55 percent of the platform's entire catalogue in New York, according to Modern Retail. Now, the fitness startup boasts thousands and thousands of such partnerships around the country. But the lawsuit states that ClassPass "falsely advertised the size of its network by creating thousands of ClassPass pages for businesses without their permission," which bolstered its public image. When the fitness scheduling platform Mindbody acquired ClassPass last month, its CEO listed ClassPass' "huge network of wellness businesses" as a primary reason.
Today, MindBody uses the size of the ClassPass network to "entice" other partners into doing the same, the lawsuit states. On its website, Mindbody states, "Join over 50,000 health and wellness partners around the world growing their businesses on ClassPass."
ClassPass co-founder Payal Kadakia has stated that the company added unknowing businesses to its network from early on. On the NPR podcast "How I Built This" last year, she said that the startup made "a volume bet essentially" that if it listed many partners on its platform, both studios and customers would be incentivized to sign up. That included "certain studios that we just put on the platform where we didn't have full agreements with yet," she added.
According to Kadakia, the clothing brand Lululemon also sent ClassPass a cease-and-desist letter after the startup offered Lululemon gift cards to anyone who signed up for the fitness platform despite having no agreement with the company.
"In sum, ClassPass's scheme of listing fake 'partners' extends back to its founding. It is not a unique, recent phenomenon. Nor is it limited to beauty and wellness industries, as it also extends to gyms and fitness studios," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit argues the ClassPass business model is inherently based on what is called a "two-sided network effect," which requires ClassPass to have an enormous number of both customers and partners in every single market it operates in or risk failure.
"Put simply, no number of vendors in New York will increase the appeal of the platform to a customer looking for service only in Missouri," the lawsuit states. "This limitation means that platforms like ClassPass must independently reach a critical mass of users on each side of the platform in every area they seek to operate."
The lawsuit presents the grievances of a slew of small businesses around the country who never wanted to be partnered with ClassPass but nonetheless ended up listed on the platform. Among them is Hairroin Salon in Los Angeles, California, which "explicitly and repeatedly" refused ClassPass' advances, only to realize, after a customer got her their nails done and then claimed "she paid through ClassPass" that the business had been listed on the platform.
"The appointment was booked online using an invalid credit card, as the charge was declined. The phone number and email address reserving the booking were contacts at ClassPass, but after leaving a voicemail and sending an email, Hairroin Salon did not receive a response," the lawsuit states. When the small business finally got through, they felt ClassPass was "gaslighting" them, as the company said it would close an "account" that Hairroin Salon had never agreed to in the first place.
Others didn't even get that lucky. Leeah Nails in Montclair, New Jersey, for example, tried multiple times to get ClassPass to remove its landing page on ClassPass, but the fitness platform "refused," only doing so after the owner filed a lawsuit.
ClassPass pitches itself to partners as a way for them to fill empty seats in classes, giving small businesses much-needed extra revenue without taking up inventory meant for direct, dedicated customers. The startup grew enormously offering their classes at such unsustainably low rates that customers got used to, numerous former partners told VICE last year. The small businesses thus faced a scenario where they felt they had to be on the platform, even if they didn't want to be.
Leeah Nails currently feels that pull. Per the lawsuit, the owner is worried "the false listing of hundreds of partners in the ClassPass Partner Network" will force it to rejoin the platform and swallow "the discounted rates or risk losing customers who wish to use ClassPass to book services because of the wide offerings of the ClassPass Partner Network."
To sneak around the unaffiliated partners, ClassPass workers sometimes pretend to be unaffiliated themselves in order to book classes on behalf of customers, the lawsuit alleges. The Facial Bar in Kansas City, Missouri did not know ClassPass had listed it as a partner "until a ClassPass representative, who only identified themself as a 'personal assistant,' attempted to book a reservation on the customer's behalf," the lawsuit states. Worried the "personal assistant" was a scammer, the company reached out to the customers, who said she had booked through ClassPass.
The owners of Salon Phoenix, in Hoboken, New Jersey, started to worry that ClassPass was ruining their "hard-earned reputation" after finding out the fitness platform had listed the company as a partner. The salon's own website states high up: "I NEVER DOUBLE BOOK CLIENTS." ClassPass published a version of that language to its Salon Phoenix landing page—"they never double book clients," ClassPass stated—before listing "fake appointment times" that "do not exist or availability when Salon Phoenix is already booked," according to the lawsuit.
Salon Goldyn in Denver, Colorado has dealt with "multiple frustrated and upset customers who either booked unavailable appointments through ClassPass or who booked the salon's services on the salon's website" and tried to pay with ClassPass credits, according to the lawsuit.
ClassPass allegedly copied a description from a salon's website that said they never double booked, added them as a partner, and then listed "fake appointment times." (Source: lawsuit)
But Salon Goldyn's concerns extend beyond that. The small business started to worry that ClassPass is putting its employees and customers at risk. It "absolutely does not want customers to show up early" in order to minimize COVID-19 exposure and refused to partner with ClassPass when asked, according to the lawsuit. When ClassPass added the business to the platform against the business' wishes, it also told customers "to arrive 15 minutes in advance."
Rapha Massage in Bridgeport, Connecticut, never wanted to partner with ClassPass. When it had done so with Groupon, a Groupon customer asked for "sexual services in the middle of a massage and made the therapist fear for her safety," according to the lawsuit. The business now "strictly" screens its customers to root out "those who are searching for sexual services," as well as other potential medical issues, the lawsuit. The massage parlor did not want to partner with ClassPass and have "unsolicited customers" arrive. Nevertheless, it ended up on the ClassPass platform.
Midvalley Massage in Millcreek, Utah, has struggled with a similar issue related to ClassPass. "It conducts a rigorous screening of all potential customers and obtains credit card information to ensure that customers are not sexual solicitors or internet scammers," the lawsuit states.
When Classpass asked Midvalley Massage to partner with the tech platform, the business repeatedly declined. ClassPass, according to the suit, added them anyway.
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University of Oklahoma The Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive, Department of Communication Norman, OK Videoreels: 1994, 5 commercials on 3 videoreels. The commercials were used during Karen McCarthy's 1994 campaign for U.S. Congress in District 5 of Missouri, Democratic Party.
"Karen McCarthy" in Women in Congress, 1917-2006. Prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration by the Office of History & Preservation, U. S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2006.


This page contains materials related to the NSF Language Vitality Workshop (May 19-20, 2016). The workshop was funded by a grant NSF-NEH DEL BCS # 1601738.
Data Collection Methods (Appendix A), from the Performing a Community-Based Assessmentdocuments by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.


In the past, science did not fully comprehend that the moon and stars had orbits, or established rules or ordinances. Yet thousands of years ago, the Bible showed these did. The Bible was right, science was wrong.
The Bible further told thousands of years ago that planets existed.
Throughout much of the world's history, people did not understand the hydrological process—how the rivers empty into the sea; the waters evaporate and are bound up in thick clouds, but the clouds are not ripped. Then, they are poured as rain upon the face of the earth again. The Bible told of this thousands of years ago.
One might ask, "How is it possible the Bible would know thousands of years ago about such things as the bands of Orion, or other astronomical information?" The answer remains the same—there is a God, and the Bible is the Word of God. He has also told us the future in His Word. As every single prophecy in the Bible regarding the past has been fulfilled, likewise, every single prophecy of the future will come to pass.
How could people all over the world see the dead bodies of two witnesses lying in the streets of Jerusalem? Could it be through television via satellite, as well as the Internet?


Waiting for the market to vindicate your thesis about under or overvaluation may be the hardest part of successful investing.
Timing is always the giant variable that is completely out of your control. You can be 100% right about the basic investment hypothesis, and then watch emotional, bubble-inflated markets defy logic for years at at a time.
Markets always, always reflect reality. Eventually. In the interim, you buy, accumulate, and wait.
The past few months have seen some unusual, maybe even unique, developments in the gold and silver futures markets, with gold becoming extremely bearish and silver almost ridiculously bullish.
Silver has been and remains the really interesting case. Speculators – who are almost never net-short – spent a few weeks in that state before briefly reverting to slightly net long. But last week they jumped back to net-short in a big way.
This has flummoxed industry analysts and led to some silver-to-the-moon predictions which, based on the rising volatility in the broader financial markets, are at least plausible.
To sum up, gold's technicals are improving and silver's are so positive that you have to wonder if there's a catch, though what that would be isn't obvious.