Whether for the purposes of school or entertainment, and even to keep tabs with mom and dad, kids are being given smartphones at younger ages than ever before.
When kids and teens aren't with friends, they're on their phones, especially on social media.
But how does digital technology change the way we think, focus, concentrate, and interact with the larger world around us?
Children's minds are far more malleable and open to suggestion than adults. This is why digital media and technology should be treated with caution and moderation — even in young people's teenage years.
Here's a look at how you can raise well-balanced children in the digital age.
Constant or near constant use of digital technology decreases attention span in adults, as well as children.
Whether at school or at work, thorough attention to detail aids in our perception, memory, creative thought, problem solving. and much more.
The same can't be said of people who constantly bury their heads in their smartphones; you've probably noticed how people are rarely without their smartphone while at bus stops, the grocery store, or a coffee shop.
A variety of factors play into why people immerse themselves in technology. But when people are waiting — doctors' visits, movies, work meetings — their lives often feel like they're on hold.
One way for them to feel connected with the world is with their mobile devices — and you're probably no different.
Cut down on your own screen time to set an example for your children. If you set limitations on your own screen usage, perhaps your children will not be as inclined to mirror your behavior.
While screens are part of our daily lives and a large part of our culture, you can limit the time your child spends on the computer or watching TV.
Make a screen-time schedule and stick with it. If your rules aren't enforced, then they aren't rules to begin with.
Dedicate at least one evening a week to a family game night, reading time, or other non-screen activities.
Sometimes the spoken word can tell stories even better than the TV.
While this is sometimes a difficult sell if your children are accustomed to a lot of screen time, there are some tricks you can employ to promote books and story/reading night.
First, read. Find a book you like and read it. Your children will naturally be curious if it's something you enjoy.
Set a time limit and let your children pick their own books. Everyone enjoys reading if it's something they find interesting.
Don't let your kids keep time with digital clocks, either; instead, use analog clocks so they have no reason to pick up a phone or mobile device to become distracted.
Lastly, talk with your children about what they've read.
Not only does this provide a positive interaction between you and your children, but it also helps them reason and comprehend the material.
Children learn so much about life when they interact with the world around them.
That's why it's important they get outside at least once a day, and if you can offer an all-day outdoor excursion once a week, that's even better.
Studies have found that outdoor play builds confidence in children, while also promoting creativity and imagination.
More centers of the brain are activated when children play outside than when they play video or computer games, and outdoor play promotes exercise and a healthy lifestyle.
"How To Raise Well-Balanced Children In Our Tech-Centered World" by Alex Clark-McGlenn was originally published on Collective Evolution.


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Le Marais-la-Chapelle este o comună în departamentul Calvados, Franța. În 2009 avea o populație de 85 de locuitori.

Note

Vezi și
 Lista comunelor din Calvados

Comune din Calvados

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Home/OnePlus 10 Ultra
OnePlus 10 Ultra
OnePlus is preparing to launch the Nord CE, which has finally got 5G in the name. In 2020, the company…
Smart Tech will launch Realme C33 in the market very soon. The smartphone company is launching a new device in…
Smart Tech launches the Vivo Y02. The company is working on a new smartphone in its Y series. The new…
Infinix will launch a new smartphone Hot 20. The smartphone is from the Hot series and is the best smartphone…
Samsung launched a new phone, the Galaxy A04. The company is introducing a new device to its smartphone series. The…
OnePlus has launched a new smartphone with 12GB RAM. Chinese company OnePlus has unveiled a new series of smartphones, the…
The Chinese company has unveiled the Realme 9 series. Realme is working on two new smartphones in the all-new 9…
Vivo has launched the Y35 smartphone in the market recently. The company is working on a new phone in the…
Infinix has finally unveiled the Hot 12, called the Pro. The company has launched a new smartphone in its hot…
Samsung is preparing to release the Galaxy A33. Powered by low-cost smartphones, the Samsung 5G is a much easier device…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Traditional Inn overlooking the Giant's Causeway, with beautiful views of the Donegal Hills and Scottish Isles. Friendly atmosphere, bistro and a la carte dining. Perfect location for exploring the Causeway Coast and Glens of Antrim. One mile from Bushfoot Golf Club and only four miles from Royal Portrush. Fishing and walking in Bushmills.


Guy Mettan is a journalist, politician and executive director of the Swiss Press Club, of which he is a founding member.
A native of Valais, Guy Mettan studied political science at the University of Geneva. He founded the academic magazine "Courants", of which he was the editor-in-chief. After graduating, he worked for a certain number of newspapers, such as Temps Stratégique, Bilan, Nouveau Quotidien and the Tribune de Genève, of which he was Director and Editor-in-Chief.
In parallel to his journalistic activities, Guy Mettan was initiated to politics in 1999, becoming City Councilor of the City of Geneva under the PDC banner. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Geneva.
This journalist and politician is active in a wide range of fields, including Vice-President of the Swiss-West African Chamber of Commerce in 2001 and President of the Geneva Red Cross in 2006.
Guy Mettan will be present at our conference to discuss the current challenges of the written press and its likely changes in the short and long term. His extensive experience in journalism and politics will enable him to approach this subject with experience and retreat.


Treat yourself to a cup of this relaxing Herbal Tea and get relief from seasonal flu, cold and cough. Enliven your body and mind with the soothing benefits of Qarshi Johar Joshanda Herbal Tea.
Qarshi Johar Joshanda is simple and effective yet it imparts freshness, calmness and delightful aroma with warmth in every sip.


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VOD case study: Rogers On Demand (Canada)
Some have predicted VOD sales in Canada to double each of the next few years, climbing from an estimated CDN$85 million in 2004 to $450 million in 2007. Part of what's driving that explosion is what David Purdy, VP and GM of television services for Rogers Cable, calls 'the holy grail of video on demand:' main network, episodic programming. So it was good news for Purdy when Rogers signed Survivor: Cook Islands to an exclusive on-demand license in the North in September.
By Brendan Christie
Some have predicted VOD sales in Canada to double each of the next few years, climbing from an estimated CDN$85 million in 2004 to $450 million in 2007. Part of what's driving that explosion is what David Purdy, VP and GM of television services for Rogers Cable, calls 'the holy grail of video on demand:' main network, episodic programming. So it was good news for Purdy when Rogers signed Survivor: Cook Islands to an exclusive on-demand license in the North in September.
The Rogers' service kicked off in 2002 with a trial that saw ROD in 1,000 homes. Today, VOD is accessible in nearly a million digital homes, and Purdy says about 200,000 households will be added every year going forward.
Purdy believes content has been the main driver behind that growth. While he suggests there may have been an initial belief the customer base was finite, the more content added to the system, the higher the buy rate has been. He notes that as each Hollywood studio has come around and accepted the platform, there has been a corresponding 10% to 20% lift in weekly buys for movie content.
Interestingly, however, he says it is not feature content that will drive the platform in the long-term. 'We're anxiously looking for not just the obvious content,' he says, 'but also for what we call the more niche, or long-tail content as it has been characterized. I think we are at a point now where instructional video on demand content makes a ton of sense.'
In fact, it wasn't movies but the World Cup that moved the service lately. While the event is mammoth internationally, it's generally been a yawn in Canada – except this year. Last June, ROD offered Cup coverage free to subscribers and realized close to a million downloads – basically, one download per subscriber. The content was divided into games (disavowing another notion that consumers only wanted live sports events), and behind-the-scenes content. Purdy says the World Cup has spurred a 20% to 30% rise in VOD transactions since.
Between 10% and 15% of those orders were also in a language other than English. Says Purdy, 'I think what it did for us is highlight how multicultural our base was. [After the Cup], we saw a corresponding lift on our Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin and Cantonese on-demand content. I don't think many of these people had been to the VOD site yet, probably thinking that there was nothing there for them.'
Purdy believes on-demand has a huge upside that has yet to be realized: 'Right now, I would say about 20% of the digital base is actively using video on demand. That means eight out of every 10 customers are still finding the platform. The trick will be to migrate them over.' Purdy puts the solution down to more content and marketing: explain the service better, and then hook people once they're on it.
ROD also took the step of launching a second VOD net for kids during the day in order to take advantage of lulls in the digital asset usage. Treehouse On Demand is offered free to Rogers digital customers and the traffic doesn't interfere with ROD's 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. peak. For future improvements, look for Rogers to revamp its interface to include recommendation tools and user-friendly navigation. 'I think we'll also see better guide products in the next 24 months,' he predicts, 'and I think you'll see a blending of digital set-top box and Internet technology, so that some of the things people are able to do on the Web right now with search recommendations and personalization will be ported over to the set-top box experience.'


I'm already in PT and allowed to bend my leg with weight on it (I can put as much weight on my leg as I want). When I was first allowed to bend my knee (2 weeks post op), it was very stiff and uncomfortable to bend. A lot of my early PT appointments were working almost entirely on bending.
I'd be very surprised if the doctor took you off the crutches and out of the brace immediately, especially since you haven't been able to put much weight on the leg or bend it. You'll likely be very wobbly and will want support of some kind.
If you haven't already been doing quad contractions, it's a good time to start. This will start getting the quads working again, and can be done with the leg straight.
The actual fulkerson procedure (surgery) is pretty well standardized, but every surgeon seems to have their own post-op protocol. I seem to recall a few people on the board who were never given crutches post-op, so it really does vary widely.
I had Fulkerson TTTs on both of my knees about 3 years ago. While they eventually did not work for me because my surgeon moved my tibial tubercle over too far, I can share with you some of my post op protocol.
From what I remember, I was weight bearing as tolerated right after surgery. I was in an immobilizer, and that had to be on anytime that I was up walking. My OS allowed me to get off crutches as soon as I felt comfortable, so in the end I only depended on crutches 100% for about nine days. After that, it was more for protection when I went out in public/crowded areas. I was allowed to do home PT right away, which only consisted of straight leg raises, quad sets, etc. After being 6 weeks post op, done with crutches and out of the brace, I was allowed to start aggressive PT at the clinic. I was sometimes sore afterwards, but wasn't allowed to be in pain while doing some of my exercises. My OS didn't want to risk messing thing up, so he told my PT that everything should be pain free. For the soreness, I usually just soaked in a warm bath, or took Advil.
Hope this helped a little bit. I wish you the best of luck in your recovery!!
I was supposed to have my Fulkerson's this week, but it got delayed because of cartilage issues.
My OS says no weight bearing for the 1st 6 weeks. He used to do weight bearing as tolerated, but apparently there was a study that showed a greater chance of breaking the bone if too much weight was put on the break.


Front Row: Kae M. Bullock (GlaxoSmithKline), Cornelia J. Forster (Novartis), Shaei Y. Huang (Merck), David W. Hoard (Eli Lilly and Company), Nelo R. Rivera (Merck), Keith A. Eagen (Schering-Plough) and Molly E. Hoke, (2009 TAOC Chair).
Back Row: Pete Delgado (Alcon Laboratories), Michael J. Palmer (Pfizer UK), Maria Angelica Linton (Pfizer), Thomas A. Chappie (Pfizer), William D. Miller (Eli Lilly and Company), Jeffrey C. Kern (Wyeth) and Daniel M. Green (Wyeth).
Missing from photo: Charles P. Vandenbossche (Sepracor), Chris Welch, 2010 Chair (Merck) and Judy Cohen, 2011 Chair (Cordis).
Proctor & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Inc.


Articles | Practice What You Preach, Financial Planners!
PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH, FINANCIAL PLANNERS!
A client can easily check the disciplinary or regulatory history of their insurance brokers, financial planners, or agents by looking at their registration online or calling the company they belong with. Planners can also look into how they manage their own personal assets and investments.
Financial planners, are you practicing what you preach? This article will outline some of the measures that can help you promote professional integrity in the industry.
Keep your credit history as clean as possible. The extent to which financial advisors must reveal details about themselves to the public depends on how they are enlisted. It is much easier for registered investment advisors (RIAs) to disclose personal finances than securities licensed personnel. The latter is required to submit a current credit report to every new broker or dealer they attempt to register. Any questionable report will prohibit an individual from being enlisted. During the hiring process, all brokers/dealer check an individual's credit since they are normally authorized to pull a credit report at their discretion.
There is also the securities license renewal application, which registered representatives must complete every two years. The said application asks about bankruptcy or outstanding judgments from creditors. The audit form also asks for any material change in the representatives' financial status since the previous year's audit. If the representative plans to leave their current broker/dealer, the personnel must keep their credit in good order for whatever reason.
Eat your own food. How can financial planners convince their customers to buy their product if they do not use it themselves? Before marketing any product, a financial planner should try at least some of the products they recommend to their clients. That way, they can better advertise the products to the clients, and directly relate to them unlike those who do not use their own product. Same thing applies to mortgage brokers and insurance agents.
But that is not always the case. One size does not fit all. Planners have various personal circumstances, risk/reward scenarios, and financial objectives. This may require a different product or strategy than those they suggest to a client. Nevertheless, the planner can have a sound, diversified portfolio fitting his own risk tolerance and time frame, and can also integrate some of their products.
Publicize your portfolio. To show clients how you manage your own money, make your personal investment portfolios public up to certain degree. Give an up-to-date list of own holdings, either in printed form or on the company's websites. For a proper reference, provide personal risk tolerance and time horizon. Those who are transparent with their financials can publicly show faith in their own investment choices, as well as communicate directly with their clients especially when the portfolios' values increase and decrease together. Being a successful financial planner starts with you. Control spending, avoid taking too much risk, and update estate plans. Financial disasters are inevitable, even financial professionals experience it. But planners with such dilemma can still maintain a good professional image by resolving it, protecting their assets, and recovering the losses as soon as possible.
Practice what you preach, financial planners. This will keep the trust of your clients for a longer time. Guaranteed.


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& Investments
Dave Boelman and Jason Shaw, both Certified Public Accountants with over 20 years of experience, are the owners at Boelman Shaw. Jason is experienced in retirement income planning for current and future retirees. Dave's work centers on tax planning and preparation for individuals and businesses.
Boelman Shaw specializes in tax and financial planning. We believe that the combined approach is key to maximizing executive investment opportunities for our clients, allowing them both to generate more income and to keep more of it after taxes.
Dave Boelman, CPA
Dave grew up in Aplington, Iowa, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree from the University of Northern Iowa in Accounting. He began his career with Mosebach Griffith in Cedar Rapids, and he later moved to Ernst & Young in Des Moines, where he first worked with Jason. Dave has spent his entire career working with start-up companies, small and family-owned businesses, farms, and individuals. Together, Dave and Jason work on building and maintaining tax-efficient investment portfolios and financial plans for the firm's clients. Away from the office, Dave enjoys watching sporting events and attending comedy acts.
Jason Shaw, CPA / PFS
Jason grew up in Ankeny, Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with majors in Accounting and Finance and a minor in Economics. He began his career with Ernst & Young in Des Moines, and then moved to a small wealth management firm in Waukee. In 2006, Dave and Jason reunited to start the financial services firm Boelman Shaw & Company.
Most of his time at work is focused in the financial planning and investment practice of Boelman Shaw where he develops tax-efficient retirement income strategies for retirees or investment accumulation plans for those still working toward retirement.
Outside of work, Jason loves spending time with his wife and two high school-aged boys. The family enjoys traveling to beaches, the mountains, or to Arizona to watch the Royals in Spring Training. He also spends time exploring the many bike trails in central Iowa, supporting his two boys in their various sports activities, and watching baseball, football, or soccer.
Cory Millmier, CPA
Cory grew up in Donnellson, Iowa and earned his degrees in Accounting and Finance from Iowa State University. He began his career at Ernst & Young in Des Moines and subsequently spent five years as an Auditor at Athene in West Des Moines.
Personal finance and investing were strong interests of Cory's during college and early in his career. Cory found the investment philosophy at Boelman Shaw to be consistent with his and joined the firm as an Associate Financial Planner in 2019. He supports Jason in providing value to current and prospective financial planning clients. In his free time, Cory enjoys golfing, biking, and spending time with his wife, Ally, and Goldendoodle, Mulligan.
Matt grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. He served in the Army as an Airborne Infantryman from 2002 to 2008. He subsequently began his career with Edward Jones where he opened an office on the East Side of Des Moines. He joined Boelman Shaw in 2021 where his focus is on financial planning and investments. He provides tax-efficient retirement income strategies for retirees or investment accumulation plans for those working toward retirement.
Outside of work, Matt loves spending time with his wife and 3 boys ranging from middle school to 4 years old. The family enjoys camping in the summers all around Iowa as well as watching the boys play many sports like baseball, hockey, and swimming. He also spends time golfing and getting his little fishing boat out on the water.
Mary Brown
Mary has been with Boelman Shaw and the predecessor company for 31 years. Mary received a Paralegal Associates of Science degree from DMACC in 1983. She interned and worked for legal firms that evoked her interest in Individual Income Tax; that interest has expanded to an emphasis in Payroll Tax. Though originally from Osceola, Iowa, Mary is a long-time resident of Des Moines. Mary enjoys group fitness, biking, nature, all things food and family. Mary has enjoyed various volunteer activities and hopes to enjoy more in the future.
Kaytee Stearns
Kaytee joined Boelman Shaw seasonally in 2012 and moved to full time in 2019. She has had multiple roles in her time here and is currently the Office Manager. She is from Windsor Heights, where she graduated from Dowling High School. She attended Iowa State and earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in Performing Arts. She is an avid reader when not watching musicals or cheering on her favorite sports teams.
Gerly Lopez
Gerly grew up in Des Moines, however, she was born in Peten, Guatemala. She earned an Associates degree in Accounting, along with various other accounting certifications from Des Moines Area Community College. She began her journey into accounting in 2006 as a Tax Preparer. She joined Boelman Shaw in June 2020 in Administration and Bookkeeping. When she is not at work, she enjoys furthering her education, and plans to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from Grand View University. She also enjoys spending time with her two children Amber and Noah.
Marc Salmon
Marc grew up in Urbandale, Iowa, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree from the University of Northern Iowa in Accounting. He began his career with CliftonLarsonAllen in Minneapolis, and later earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota in Finance. He has worked in both public accounting and commercial finance, helping businesses and individuals achieve their financial goals in a tax-efficient manner. Marc is the past president of the Iowa Commercial Real Estate Association. Away from the office, Marc enjoys watching his children's sporting events, and sneaking in the occasional workout or round of golf.
Connie Moehlman
Connie grew up in Iowa Falls, IA. She served three years in the Army as an interrogator. After leaving the military, she attended the University of Texas-Arlington and earned her Bachelor's degree while working full time at a public accounting firm. Upon graduation, she returned to Iowa, where she held various accounting related jobs. For the past fourteen years, she has been working for a public accounting firm doing taxes and accounting. Connie started with Boelman & Shaw in September of 2021. When not at work, Connie likes to exercise, garden, and travel, and has been on the football "Chain Gang" for 12 years.
Mike Gettler
Mike grew up in Temecula, CA. He served five years in the Marine Corps before earning a Bachelor's degree in History at the University of Iowa. He started with Boelman Shaw in 2021 and lives in Des Moines with his fiancé. When not at work Mike likes to cook and root for his Minnesota Vikings.
Cara Anderson
Cara grew up in Ames, IA and has lived in Ankeny for the last 18 years. She started at Edward Jones working as Matt's administrator in 2011 before making the move with him to Boelman Shaw as the Client Services Manager in 2021. She loves getting to know clients and helping them reach their financial goals. Outside of work, Cara loves to spend time in nature, whether that be kayaking, bird watching, or being a disc golf caddy for her husband.
Ready to Learn More About Boelman Shaw?
Boelman Shaw aims to help clients take greater control of their finances. Offering expertise in both tax and financial planning, we can maximize tax-effective investment opportunities for our clients, allowing them to generate more income and keep more of it after taxes. We strive to provide valuable information that will give our clients the information to establish a successful financial future. Tax and accounting services provided through Boelman Shaw & Company, LLC. Advisory services provided through BSC Capital Partners, LLC, a state of Iowa registered investment advisor.
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Copyright © 2022 Boelman Shaw Tax and Financial Planning. All rights reserved.


Josie McNeilly Open Garden | Bonsai Society of Australia Inc.
Josie McNeilly is opening her garden on the weekend of the 16-17th February from 9.30am to 4pm both days. All members and friends are invited, so come along and relax enjoying what Josie has achieved in her own little haven.
Spend as much or as little time as you wish. Meet up with other plant loving friends and enjoy a cuppa. Knowing Josie you are sure to find yourself going home with a few cuttings.
Josie and David's address is 4 Baker Street Carlingford (park in Dunmore Ave as they are right on the corner).


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"From Darkness" at nimbus theatre
Everything I know about art I learned from playing the game Masterpiece as a kid (Private Auction! anyone?) and from the Baroque Art History class I took at the University of Salzburg (a pretty amazing experience because we took field trips to Vienna and Rome to see the art we were studying). So I don't know much, but I am fascinated by art and art history. But I've never thought much about art forgery, which adds a whole new level of fascination. This topic is the inspiration for nimbus theatre's new play From Darkness, written (along with the ensemble) and directed by co-Artistic Director Josh Cragun. Specifically, how does someone with the skill of an art master decide to practice art forgery instead of creating original work? From Darkness sets fictional art forger Stanley Mansfield among real artists in NYC's post-WWII abstract art scene and attempts to answer this question, as well as explore ideas of what makes art valuable. It's a fascinating, thought-provoking play, and as is often the case when I see a play at nimbus, it made me want to find out more about the topic.
Caravaggio's The Denial of St. Peter
We follow two groups of characters in two different time periods in NYC - a group of artists and art collectors in the '30s, '40s, and '50s, and art curators at the Met in the current day. Both stories center around the above piece of art - The Denial of St. Peter by Caravaggio (one of my favorite artists from the Baroque Art History class). A new curator at the Met discovers something off about the painting, leading her to research its history. At the same time, we're watching Stanley Mansfield's life and career as an artist unfold. He's a figurative painter at a time when abstract painting is all the rage. He watches his friends (including Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner) succeed while he struggles to find his place. Through a series of circumstances, his career begins to take a different path. At the end of the play the two stories come together, and we're left wondering just who the bad guy is, if there is one.
Nicholas Nelson as the forger Stanley Mansfield
Everyone in the eight-person ensemble plays multiple characters, except for Nicholas Nelson who plays forger Stanley Mansfield, and makes his transition believable and sympathetic. Highlights in the ensemble include Art Peden as the older Stanley, Zach Morgan as his stern father and the tempestuous Pollack, and Heidi Berg as the strict art curator and gallery owner Betty Parsons. The clever set is constructed of rotating panels, opening up to form different locations, revealing reproductions (by Ursula K. Bowden) of different paintings, from Caravaggio to Pollack. The rotating panels make for some awkward scene transitions, which are nicely covered by period music and images of paintings, buildings, or old New York displayed on either side of the stage. And I recognized a few of my favorite Masterpiece paintings in the images projected before the show and during intermission. (Set design by Brian Hesser, video design by Caitlin Hammel.)
As a new play, From Darkness feels a bit long and could be tightened up a bit, but the multiple characters and timelines are nicely woven together and the ideas explored compelling, relevant, and definitely worth exploring. Who decides what art is worthwhile, and which artists are worthy of acclaim? If a viewer gets as much enjoyment from a reproduction of a painting as the original, isn't that worth something too? Fashion designers don't physically construct the garments they design (except on Project Runway); someone else makes them according to the designer's specifications. That's not so very different from Mansfield constructing a painting following Caravaggio's design. In the current age of the internet, reproductions and replications of all forms of art abound. As long as the original creator is given credit, and we all know what's going on, isn't that a good thing, to spread art to as many people as possible? I don't know, but these are some of the things this play made me think about.
As Caravaggio excelled in the technique of extreme light and dark known as chiaroscuro, "from darkness, light," nimbus theatre excels at creating original work around an interesting topic, bringing to life on their stage relevant ideas and questions about various facets of life and history. From Darkness continues through June 14 (discount tickets available on Goldstar).
Labels: Art Peden, Brian Hesser, Caitlin Hammel, Cynthia Hornbeck, Ethan Bjelland, From Darkness, Heidi Berg, Josh Cragun, Mitchell Frazier, Nicholas Nelson, nimbus theatre, Tara Lucchino, Ursula K Bowden, Zach Morgan
"Twelfth Night" by Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blo...
Summer 2015 Twin Cities Theater Preview
"The Language Archive" at Park Square Theatre
"Utopiacopia" by Frosty Bob and J's Summer Camp at...
"The Half Life" by Live Action Set at the Southern...
"War with the Newts" by Sandbox Theatre at Park Sq...
"Hamlet" by Theatre Unbound at the JSB Tek Box at ...
"One Arm" by New Epic Theater at the Lab Theater
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Minnesota Fringe Festival: Five-Fifths of Dirty Da...
"River Road Boogie" at History Theatre
"For the Loyal" at Illusion Theater
"Next to Normal" at Yellow Tree Theatre


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BEAGLEBOARD & BEAGLEBONE
Beaglebone, low cost, noiseless, ARM micro computer controller for prototyping robots and interactive machines with open source software support
HOME | BOATS | EVENTS | HISTORY | INDEX | ROBOTICS | LINKS
The Beagleboard micro computer
BEAGLEBOARD COMPUTER
The boards are low-cost, fan-less single-board computers based on low-power Texas Instruments processors featuring the ARM Cortex-A series core with all of the expandability of today's desktop machines, but without the bulk, expense, or noise.
The BeagleBoard is a low-power open-source hardware single-board computer produced by Texas Instruments in association with Digi-Key and Newark element14. The BeagleBoard was also designed with open source software development in mind, and as a way of demonstrating the Texas Instrument's OMAP3530 system-on-a-chip. The board was developed by a small team of engineers as an educational board that could be used in colleges around the world to teach open source hardware and open source software capabilities. It is also sold to the public under the Creative Commons share-alike license.
The BeagleBoard measures approximately 75 by 75 mm and has all the functionality of a basic computer. The OMAP3530 includes an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU (which can run Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, RISC OS, or Symbian; Android is also being ported), a TMS320C64x+ DSP for accelerated video and audio decoding, and an Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX530 GPU to provide accelerated 2D and 3D rendering that supports OpenGL ES 2.0. Video out is provided through separate S-Video and HDMI connections. A single SD/MMC card slot supporting SDIO, a USB On-The-Go port, an RS-232 serial connection, a JTAG connection, and two stereo 3.5 mm jacks for audio in/out are provided.
Built-in storage and memory are provided through a PoP chip that includes 256 MB of NAND flash memory and 256 MB of RAM (128 MB on earlier models).
The board uses up to 2 W of power and can be powered from the USB connector, or a separate 5 V power supply. Because of the low power consumption, no additional cooling or heat sinks are required.
REV. C4 SPECIFICATIONS
Package on Package POP CPU/Memory chip.
Processor TI OMAP3530 Processor - 720 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 core
'HD capable' TMS320C64x+ core (520 MHz up to 720p @30 fps)
Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX 2D/3D graphics processor supporting dual independent displays
256 MB LPDDR RAM
256 MB NAND Flash memory
Peripheral connections
DVI-D (HDMI connector chosen for size - maximum resolution is 1280×1024)
USB OTG (mini AB)
1 USB port
SD/MMC card slot
Stereo in and out jacks
RS-232 port
JTAG connector
Power socket (5 V barrel connector type)
Boot code stored in ROM
Boot from NAND memory, SD/MMC, USB, or serial
Alternative boot source button.
Has been demonstrated using Android, Angstrom Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Arch Linux ARM and Maemo Linux distributions, FreeBSD, the Windows CE operating system, Symbian, QNX and a version of RISC OS 5 made available by RISC OS Open.
BEAGLEBOARD xM
A modified version of the BeagleBoard called the BeagleBoard-xM started shipping on August 27, 2010. The BeagleBoard-xM measures in at 82.55 by 82.55 mm and has a faster CPU core (clocked at 1 GHz compared to the 720 MHz of the BeagleBoard), more RAM (512 MB compared to 256 MB), onboard Ethernet jack, and 4 port USB hub. The BeagleBoard-xM lacks the onboard NAND and therefore requires the OS and other data to be stored on a microSD card. The addition of the Camera port to the -xM provides a simple way of importing video via Leopard Board cameras.
xM SPECIFICATIONS
Processor TI DM3730 Processor - 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 core
4 GB microSD card supplied with the BeagleBoard-xM and loaded with The Angstrom Distribution
DVI-D (HDMI connector chosen for size - maximum resolution is 1400x1050)
MicroSD/MMC card slot
Camera port
Expansion port
Boot code stored on the uSD card
Boot from uSD/MMC only
Has been demonstrated using Android, Angstrom Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Arch Linux ARM and Maemo Linux distributions, FreeBSD, the Windows CE operating system, and RISC OS.
BEAGLEBONE DESCRIPTION
The BeagleBone Black compact ARM board has a TI Sitara 1 GHz Cortex-A8 processor with 512 MB of RAM and 2 GB eMMC flash storage (with a microSD card slot for additional storage). It comes preloaded with the Angstrom Linux and can run Ubuntu and Android . Initial setup is as easy as plugging the BeagleBone Black into the USB port of a computer, where it is recognized as a flash drive, and an HTML tutorial can be accessed.
The board can be powered with the included USB cable or a 5V Power Supply. It has a 10/100 ethernet port and microHDMI port for video and audio. The 2 x 46 pin Expansion Connectors provide GPIO, SPI, I2C, Analog In, Serial ports, CAN, PWM and can be used with Capes to add functionality. To house your BeagleBone Black, consider our BeagleBone Black Case, available in Black and Orange.
The BeagleBone's active development community makes it an ideal starting point for engineering projects, and the open-source nature of the hardware enables easy development.
Announced in the end of October 2011, the BeagleBone is a barebone development board with a Sitara ARM Cortex-A8 processor running at 720 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, two 46-pin expansion connectors, on-chip Ethernet, a microSD slot, and a USB host port and multipurpose device port which includes low-level serial control and JTAG hardware debug connections, so no JTAG emulator is required. The BeagleBone is initially priced $89(US).
A number of BeagleBone "Capes" have recently been released. These capes are expansion boards which can be stacked onto the BeagleBone Board (up to four at one time). BeagleBone capes include but are not limited to:
LCD touchscreen capes (7" and 3.5")
DVI-D cape
Breakout cape
Breadboard cape
CAN bus cape
RS-232 cape
Battery cape
Launched in April 23, 2013 at a price of $45. Among other differences, it increases RAM to 512 MB, the processor clock to 1 GHz, and it adds HDMI and 2 GB of eMMC flash memory. The BeagleBone Black also ships with Linux Kernel 3.8, upgraded from the original BeagleBone's Linux Kernel 3.2, allowing the BeagleBone Black to take advantage of Direct Rendering Manager (DRM).
OPTIONAL EXPANSION BOARDS
* BeagleBoard Zippy - Feature expander daughter card for BeagleBoard
* BeagleBoard Zippy2 - Second-generation Zippy. (UART, EEPROM, 100BASE-T, SD-Slot, RTC, I²C (5 V))
* BeagleTouch Display - Touchscreen 4.3" OLED panel with touchscreen, and drivers for Angstrom Linux built by Liquidware.
* BeagleLCD2 Expansion Board - 4.3" wide aspect LCD panel + touchscreen with interface board. Developed by HY Research.
* BeagleJuice - Lithium-ion battery pack for portability developed and built by Liquidware.
* WLAN adapter - This additional expansion card enables wireless connectivity functionality for the BeagleBoard.
* BeadaFrame - 7" TFT LCD display kit includes touch panel and a plastic frame, by NAXING Electronics.
* 4DLCD CAPE - 4.3", 480x272 resolution LCD cape with resistive touch or non-touch and seven push buttons
CLONES - IGEPv2
The IGEPv2 board is a low-power, fanless single-board computer based on the OMAP 3 series (also known as Cortex-A8) of ARM-compatible processors. It is developed and produced by Spanish corporation ISEE and is the second IGEP platform in the series. The IGEPv2 is open hardware, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 unported license.
TI TEXAS INSTRUMENTS HISTORY - MICROPROCESSOR INVENTION
Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) is an American company that designs and makes semiconductors, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globally. Headquartered at Dallas, Texas, United States, TI is the third largest manufacturer of semiconductors worldwide after Intel and Samsung, the second largest supplier of chips for cellular handsets after Qualcomm, and the largest producer of digital signal processors (DSPs) and analog semiconductors, among a wide range of other semiconductor products, including calculators, microcontrollers and multi-core processors. Texas Instruments is among the Top 20 Semiconductor producing companies in the world.
Texas Instruments invented the hand-held calculator (a prototype called "Cal Tech") in 1967 and the single-chip microcomputer in 1971, and was assigned the first patent on a single-chip microprocessor (invented by Gary Boone) on September 4, 1973. This was disputed by Gilbert Hyatt, formerly of the Micro Computer Company, in August 1990 when he was awarded a patent superseding TI's. This was over-turned on June 19, 1996 in favor of TI. (Note: Intel is usually given credit with Texas Instruments for the almost-simultaneous invention of the microprocessor.)
Beaglebone black SPECIFICATIONS
Processor/Chipset
Sitara AM3359AZCZ100 1 GHz Cortex-A8
512MB x DDR3L 400 SDRAM
PowerVR SGX530
2 46-pin interfaces for capes
2 GB eMMC flash
1 miniUSB port
1 microHDMI port
1 5V DC jack
Onboard I/O Connectors
Debug serial header
2 46-pin expansion connectors
Boot switch
Angstrom (Linux-based, pre-installed)
Compatible with Linux, Android
210~460 mA @ 5 V
HMI, industrial workstations, All-in-ones
See BeagleBoard.org and the BeagleBone Black Wiki
MiniUSB to USB cable
BeagleBoard-xM
TI AM3359
TI AM3358/9
TI DM3730
TI OMAP3530
1 GHz ARM
720 MHz ARM
Unspecified PowerVR SGX,
TMS320C64x+ DSP
Unspecified PowerVR SGX
512 MB DDR3 (2GB on-board flash version available)
256 MB DDR2
256 KB L2 cache
USB 2.0 ports:
Video input
Video outputs
microHDMI,
cape add-ons
DVI-D,
3.5 mm stereo jack
Onboard storage
Onboard network
Low-level peripherals
4x UART, 8x PWM,
LCD, GPMC, MMC1, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, A/D Converter, 2xCAN Bus, 4 Timers
LCD, GPMC, MMC1, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, A/D Converter, 2xCAN Bus, 4 Timers, FTDI USB to Serial, JTAG via USB
McBSP, DSS,
I2C, UART, LCD, McSPI, PWM, JTAG, Camera Interface
I2C, UART, McSPI, PWM, JTAG
86.40 mm × 53.3 mm (3.402 in × 2.10 in)
39.68 g (1.400 oz)
Out-of-the-box in distributions like Fedora Core. Android (code named rowboat), Ubuntu, openSUSE and Ångström. The board also supports other OSes such as FreeBSD, QNX, and Windows Embedded.
BEAGLEBOARD FOUNDATION
The BeagleBoard.org Foundation is a US-based 501(c) non-profit corporation existing to provide education in and promotion of the design and use of open-source software and hardware in embedded computing.
BeagleBoard.org provides a forum for the owners and developers of open-source software and hardware to exchange ideas, knowledge and experience. On occasion, BeagleBoard.org provides for the promotion of communication with other individuals interested in open-source software and hardware.
BeagleBoard.org is the result of an effort by a collection of passionate individuals, including several employees of Texas Instruments, interested in creating powerful, open, and embedded devices.
Support for BeagleBoard.org boards comes from the very active development community through their website, the mailing list, and the IRC channel. Original production funding was provided by Digi-Key, a major international distributor, but distribution has now been opened up to dozens of distributors across the world.
On-going funding for board prototypes has been provided by CircuitCo, manufacturer of the boards. Texas Instruments generously allows Gerald Coley, hardware designer of all of the BeagleBoard.org boards, and Jason Kridner, community manager and software cat herder, to spend time to provide support and development of the BeagleBoard.org project as part of their duties at TI.
CircuitCo pays volume prices for the TI (and all other) components. BeagleBoard.org does not currently get any money on board sales.
CircuitCo Printed Circuit Board Solutions out of Richardson, TX is the primary manufacturer of BeagleBoard.org products, but all the designs are fully open source and components are available for anyone to manufacture compatible hardware. It would be good form to let BeagleBoard.org know of intention to produce compatible products.
With tremendous success and support by numerous Linux distributions, development has become more focused on enabling simplified physical computing on advanced GUI-enabled and/or networked-enabled devices with a super-simple out-of-box learning experience and support for development environments familiar to just about every developer, from Ubuntu, QNX, Windows Embedded, Android and web tools to bare metal and even Arduino/Wiring-style programming.
Jason Kridner
BeagleBoard.org co-founder
Email: jkridner@beagleboard.org
Email: tstratton@golinharris.com
BEAGLEBOARD FOUNDATION BOARD MEMBERS 2013
Gerald Coley - Texas Instruments - Hardware design and QA
Clint Cooley - CircuitCo - Sourcing and manufacturing
Jason Kridner - Texas Instruments - Community manager and usability
ARDUINO - ARM HOLDINGS - BEAGLEBOARD - MBED - PICAXE - RASPBERRY PI
http://beagleboard.org/project/AUV/
http://beagleboard.org/project/openrov/
http://beagleboard.org/project/Motion+Control/
http://beagleboard.org
http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/bb_bblk_000
http://www.logicsupply.com/categories/motherboards/arm
http://www.gotransat.com/tracking/
http://www.picaxe.com/What-is-PICAXE/
http://3drobotics.com/
http://wiring.org.co/
http://www.arduino.cc/
http://www.designboom.com/technology/arduino-factory-tour/
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
http://www.python.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/RaspberryPiTutorials
http://fishpi.org/contact.html
http://fishpi.org/forum/
http://rockblock.rock7mobile.com/
http://www.oceanbusiness.com/
https://code.google.com/p/raspy-juice/
http://www.yellowbrick-tracking.com/
http://fishpi.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Proof-Of-Concept_Vehicle
http://fishpi.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Prototype
http://fishpi.org/wiki/index.php?title=Hull_Design
http://www.modelsbydesign.co.uk/
http://international.findmespot.com/
http://www.amsat.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_material#Autoclave_moulding
http://www.enecomitalia.com/ENG/caravans.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RobotC
This website is Copyright © 2013 Bluebird Marine Systems Limited. The names Bluebird, Solar Navigator™,Blueplanet Ecostar BE3™, Utopia Tristar™ and the blue bird in flight logos are trademarks. All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged. The color blue is a protected element of the marks.
BLUEBIRD | BLUEFISH | FORMULA E BE3 | SOLARNAVIGATOR | UTOPIA


text:
10 Free Stories by George Saunders, Author of Tenth of December, "The Best Book You'll Read This Year"
in e-books, Literature | March 18th, 2013 11 Comments
For writers and serious readers, George Saunders is anything but a newcomer. Saunders published his first short story with The New Yorker back in 1992, and his new stories have regularly debuted in the magazine's Fiction section ever since. Over the years, he has gained the reputation of being a "writer's writer," with authors like Tobias Wolff saying about Saunders: "He's been one of the luminous spots of our literature for the past 20 years." But despite his literary accomplishments, and despite winning the prestigious MacArthur award in 2006, George Saunders never quite became a household name until January 6 of this year. On that day, The New York Times published an article with the title, "George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You'll Read This Year," a pretty bold declaration given that 2013 still had 359 days to go. Since then, Saunders has found himself in the limelight talking about Tenth of December, his newly-published collection of short stories. You can watch him give a reading at Google above, or make appearances on the PBS News Hour and The Colbert Report.
If you're not familiar with Saunders' writing, then we have you covered. Below we've collected 10 stories by the author, all free to read online. Even better, the list features three stories from Tenth of December, including the story after which the book takes its name. All stories from the new collection have an asterisk next to the title.
The Semplica-Girl Diaries * – New Yorker, October 2012
Tenth of December * – New Yorker, October 2011
The Red Bow – Esquire, April 2009
Puppy * – New Yorker, May 2007
CommComm – New Yorker, August 2005
Bohemians – New Yorker, January 2004
Adams – New Yorker, August 2004
Jon – New Yorker, January 2003
Sea Oak – Barcelona Review, 2000
A Lack of Order in the Floating Object Room – Northwest Review, 1986
George Saunders Extols the Virtues of Kindness in 2013 Speech to Syracuse University Grads
Neil Gaiman's Free Short Stories
Free Philip K. Dick: Download 11 Great Science Fiction Stories
30 Free Essays & Stories by David Foster Wallace on the Web
375 Free eBooks: Download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook
by OC | Permalink | Comments (11) |
Michael Noll says:
This is a great opportunity to read ten stories by one of the best writers in the country. When I first read "Tenth of December," I had to finish through tears. It's that good.
I've since developed a writing exercise based on the story. You can check it out here: readtowritestories.com.
Also here is "CommComm" which apparently won the 2006 World Fantasy Award.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/08/01/050801fi_fiction
VirgaDweller says:
After reading a number of Saunders' stories in The New Yorker I put him at number one in my best current authors' list. I feel like I discovered him. I was so pleased to read online yesterday the terrific and deserved praise of him in the New York Times Book Review. I couldn't have said it better myself. The enthusiastic writer of the article, (sorry, I can't get off of this comment box to check his name) appreciates Saunders for the same reasons as I. Re this video, a delight to hear and watch him reading this excellent story.Thank you so much for this website, which i just came across this afternoon. Eager to explore more. I've never been much of a fan of SciFi, altho appreciate some quality speculative fiction, I hereby crown Saunders as king of the genre.
Gary Knesevitch says:
Am I a total idiot? I just don't get Saunders' appeal. Will someone please enlighten me?
Diego Lopes says:
I read Tenth of December this year, and I can say that it was, undoubtedly, the worst book I read in 2015. I feel he's a prankster, not a writer.
Tom barrett says:
The perspectives, detail and ease at which we read his narrative is unlike anything you'll ever experience with another writer. Brilliance beyond the best writers before him. Saunders is our readers' treasure.
Escape from Spiderhead – New Yorker, December 2010:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/20/escape-from-spiderhead
Shannon Ayres says:
Listened to "Tenth of December" on Audible. Not good! I don't get his appeal either. I don't know what he's talking about most of the time. And the stories run into each other (on audible), so I can't tell when one story ends and the next begins.
Mo Bock says:
Hi Shannon
Saunders is very hard to follow on audio, it's not a Saunders-friendly medium. Before you give up on him, read the hard copy. It's actually quite startling how bad some books you loved reading sound on audio. Obviously I'm a fan of his, but I urge you to try this, he's worth the effort [if you like the result]!
Bridie says:
He inspired me to get into short fiction after I've said for years it was not my thing, so I'm totally in love with his writing. It makes me happy. But anyone who feel like they don't "get him"; he's probably just not a writer for you. The connections are not there between every reader with every writer. No need to bang your head against a wall because of that. We all have different tastes. It would be a very boring world if we didn't.
Charles Chalmers says:
Also, you'd have to tell us what the Best Books you read were to give us a point of comparison. Of course then, you would be opening yourself, and your tastes to scrutiny…


ISLAMABAD: The government has admitted that total burden on national exchequer owing to Haj subsidy was Rs4.5 billion which was saved as a result of the government decision to charge full price from pilgrims.
Talking to The News, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Noorul Haq Qadri said the government has withdrawn Rs4.5 billion financial assistance which it was paying as subsidy for the pilgrims. Major chunk of Haj's inflated price is due to rupee devaluation and VAT imposed by the Saudi government, he said.
This year 184,000 Pakistanis will perform Haj rituals out of which 107,000 will go on government quota whereas the remaining will perform this religious ritual on private quota, informed the minister.
The previous government was paying Rs42,000 subsidy on each pilgrim which put an additional burden of Rs4.5 billion on national exchequer. Keeping the current financial situation of the country, the Federal Cabinet has decided to withdraw this subsidy, he said.
While briefing about the increase in Haj prices, the federal minister informed that each pilgrim has to pay Rs63,000 extra due to rupee devaluation. Similarly, Rs17,000 have been increased in the airfare and Rs45,000 have been increased as the Saudi government has increased the prices of accommodation, transportation and meals. The Saudi government has levied 5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) due to which each country has to pay additional 1200 Saudi Riyals per pilgrim, informed the minister.
"Pakistan's Haj expenditure are still the lowest in the region if you count it in US dollar as India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia are charging more in term of US dollars. My ministry had proposed that the subsidy should not be abolished but the Federal Cabinet decided against it", commented the minister.
When asked about the criticism on government for increasing the Haj prices, the federal minister said some political elements are politicising this issue otherwise many people are endorsing the government's decision.
The minister was asked whether the government will take up this issue with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman in his upcoming visit to Pakistan, he said the government will highlight this issue but it is unlikely that Saudi government will review the Haj prices.
"It will be difficult for the Saudi government to review the Haj prices for Pakistani nationals only. The other countries will demand for the same relaxation. Hence, it will be difficult for the Saudi government to review its Haj policy only for one country", commented Mr Qadri.
Last week, the federal government increased Haj prices up to 60 percent putting an additional burden of up to Rs156,000 on each pilgrim. This decision sparked a debate whether Islam allows a subsidised Haj or not. The political leaders of opposition parties criticised the government for abolishing subsidy and increasing Haj price.
Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail raised question on government's decision of increasing Haj price. According to him, the cost of Haj in 2018 was Rs283,050. The cost of Haj should not be more than Rs387,660 even after adding the rupee devaluation and Rs40,000 subsidy given by the PML-N government.
"The cost of Haj in 2018 was Rs283,050. In 2019 it's Rs436975. Even if you add Rs40,000 subsidy given by PML-N and add 20 percent devaluation, the cost should be Rs387,660. This is Rs4,9315 (or 17 percent) more. Hajis will pay Rs9 billion more this year! Corruption, incompetence or just Tabdeeli?" tweeted Miftah Ismail.


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Home > LL.M. Programme
The Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Maritime Law consists of post-graduate education in all areas of international maritime law, including law of the sea, shipping law, maritime security law and marine environmental law (please click here for the detailed programme structure). The programme is also designed to provide specialized training in the development and drafting of maritime legislation which incorporates and effectively implements an international instrument, especially IMO treaties, into domestic legislation. Intensive drafting exercises are carried out taking into account both the international nature of treaty rules as well as national maritime policies and objectives.
The Institute's resident faculty is responsible for the teaching of all subjects with the Institute's academic syllabi. The teaching of the resident faculty is complemented by the Distinguished Visiting Fellows Programme which aims to introduce students to the latest developments and offers networking opportunities which should serve students well when they return to their home countries. Distinguished visiting fellows come from leading universities, while others came from international institutions such as the IMO, the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Law Commission (ILC), the Comité Maritime International (CMI), and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS). Other visiting fellows include eminent practitioners, diplomats and leading personalities in the maritime industry.
As part of the programme, students also take part in field study visits that link theoretical knowledge to practical experience. Typical destinations include shipyards, port terminals, training simulator centres and commercial and war ships. Students also receive complimentary attendance at the international conferences organized annually at IMLI. At the end of programme, the Institute organizes a field trip to London where the newly graduated participants visit important maritime institutions, including IMO where they have the opportunity to meet again the IMO Secretary-General, senior IMO officials and geographical point representatives.
Inaugural Lecture for Academic Year 2019 / 2020
The LL.M. programme is an exciting inter–cultural journey as the Institute draws candidates from across the globe. IMLI promotes a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation between cultures, paving the way for future collaboration between graduates in combining efforts towards maritime law unification.
The programme is mainly addressed to lawyers, legal advisers, judges and legal draftsmen and women whose duties encompass maritime issues and who are seeking a specialisation in maritime law. The programme is also open to law graduates of any country who intend to pursue a legal career in the field of maritime law whether in the public or private sectors, whether in practice, administration or academia. In order to promote the integration of women in the maritime sector, fifty percent of the places in the programme are reserved for suitably qualified women candidates.
Candidates for the programme are usually officially nominated by their governments or national administrations. The Institute also considers applications from independent candidates. It is generally recognized that in a large number of developing States there are very few lawyers with specialized knowledge of maritime law. Consequently, the availability of well-trained maritime lawyers enables these States to review and update their maritime legislation in accordance with international rules and prescriptions.
Students are assessed on the basis of their performance throughout the year, the results of two written examinations, an individual 10,000-word supervised dissertation and a maritime legislation drafting project. Candidates who successfully complete the programme are awarded the degree of Master of Laws in International Maritime Law. The teaching in the programme as well as the preparation of assignments, dissertation and maritime legislation drafting project is in the English language.
The Institute will consider the applications of candidates who meet its academic requirements, which are:
a) a degree in law with a high standing from a recognized university;
b) proficiency in the English language (see the full proficiency of English language requirements below); and
c) computer competence (at least the ability to use Microsoft Office). Computer competence is essential as students are required to use computers to carry out research and to complete their assignments and academic projects. In addition, computer competence is important in the event the Institute holds examinations online.
Proficiency of English Language
All students must be fully proficient in the English language by the time they begin their studies. This means that they should be fully acquainted with the fundamentals of the English language, i.e. in reading, writing, listening, comprehension and speaking skills. Students who have not studied or made active use of the English language in recent years are STRONGLY advised to refresh their English knowledge PRIOR to their arrival in Malta. They should bear in mind that the study of international maritime law in the English language demands a sophisticated knowledge of the language. Production of evidence of English language proficiency is required. Therefore, as a pre-requisite for the admission, the Institute may require candidates to undertake one of the following tests:
Administered on demand at local British Council offices / British Embassies.
Further information on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) can be found at http://www.ielts.org. A pass above band 6 means the student can participate fully in the programme.
CAMBRIDGE CERTIFICATE OF PROFICIENCY
Further information on the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency may be obtained by contacting British Embassies/Consulates or the British Council, the Institute, or by visiting the following website: http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/proficiency. A pass level means that the student can participate fully in the programme.
Further information on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) may be obtained through American Embassies / Consulates or the U.S. Information Agency, or by visiting the following website http://www.toefl.org. A pass above 600 or above 227 CBT or above 87 IBT means that the student can participate fully in the programme.
If the test taken is not one of the above, the score, together with reference material on the system used, may be sent to the Institute for evaluation and advice. A certified copy of the test results should be sent to the Institute along with the application. Further, the Institute reserves the right to conduct online interviews with candidates applying to the programme to assess their level of English in order to ensure that they have the command necessary to undertake and successfully complete the programme.
COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES (CEFR)
Further information on the CEFR may be obtained by visiting the following website: https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/level-descriptions. A B2 level means that the student can participate fully in the programme.
Information on the programme fee can be found in the application package.
Candidates are required to have financing for their enrolment in the programme. Candidates are therefore strongly advised to explore all funding possibilities in their home countries, including seeking sponsorship from companies or organizations for which they work or applying for national or international fellowship programmes. The IMLI website provides a list of some of the entities which have offered financial support in the past.
Payments should be remitted to the Institute's bank account (transfer charges are to be borne by the applicant). Details are as follows:
Account Name: IMO International Maritime Law Institute
Address: University of Malta campus, Msida MSD 2080, Malta
Telephone #: (356) 2131 9343
Account #: 4001 3713 797
Bank Name: Bank of Valletta
Bank Branch Name: L-Ibrag Branch
Bank Address: Triq Tal-Ibrag, Tal-Ibrag, Is-Swieqi. SWQ 2030
IBAN: MT58 VALL 2201 3000 0000 4001 3713 797
SWIFT Code: VALLMTMT
Currency: EURO
Mr. Jim Harrison (UK, Former Group Legal Director, Lloyd's Register and IMLI Governor) lectures at IMLI on 22 April, 2019.
Although the Institute does not offer fellowships, it is willing to approach fellowship donors who sponsor the full studies of a limited number of deserving government-nominated candidates. For this reason, a government entity must nominate the candidate to the programme. Such candidates should normally be persons already serving in or intended to be appointed to a Government Ministry or Department concerned with legal, port or shipping affairs, or an organization in the country of the nominating Government involved in these matters.
By nominating the candidate to the programme, the nominating authority must submit a duly completed nomination form wherein it includes the request for financial support. Applications which are not accompanied by this nomination form, will not be considered by the Institute. In addition, candidates applying for a fellowship will need to complete the fellowship application form and submit proof of payment of the fellowship application fee.
By submitting an application and nominating a person for studies at the Institute, both the applicant and the nominating authority are confirming that they are aware of the national legislative and/or administrative requirements which have to be met by selected applicants, prior to travelling to the Institute and commencing their studies; that the aforesaid requirements are met for the duration of their studies; and that they will promptly take the actions required to comply with these requirements.
It should be noted that donors have their own selection criteria when considering candidates applying for a fellowship. Generally donors prefer young and talented candidates (under the age of 40) from developing countries – including Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries – who have a strong motivation to work for their government and who, upon completion of their studies, will make a vital contribution to the development of the national legal framework and maritime sector.
In line with the Institute's policy to ensure gender equality and equal access to education to female candidates, fifty percent of the places available are reserved for deserving women candidates.
Fellowship donors for the year 2019 included:
The Nippon Foundation of Japan
Lloyd's Register Foundation
ITF Seafarers' Trust
Government of Malaysia
Government of Malta
Government of Ghana
All applications for a fellowship must be processed through the Institute. Applicants and nominating authorities shall not approach donors directly with application packages.
Candidates who have been awarded a fellowship, will also be required to pay a refundable deposit of Euro 500 within the deadline stipulated by the Institute. Said deposit will be returned to the candidate on completion of studies at IMLI.
Whatever the source of funding for the programme fee, candidates are reminded that the programme fee does not cover travel expenses. Travel arrangements will have to be arranged and settled by the participants and/or their nominating authorities.
Whatever the source of funding for the programme fee, candidates are reminded that the programme fee does not cover health insurance. Candidates admitted to the programme are required to have a health insurance for the whole duration of their stay in Malta with cover for hospital care. Evidence of this insurance may be required by the relevant Embassy when the student applies for an entry visa. However, health insurance is mandatory when candidates admitted to the programme apply in Malta for a study residence permit. Should admitted candidates find difficulty in obtaining insurance which cover extends for the whole duration of their stay in Malta, the Institute can assist in obtaining locally the required health insurance when the admitted candidate arrives in Malta.
For further details, please contact:
Ms. Elda Kazara-Belja
Senior Lecturer/Admissions Officer
IMO International Maritime Law Institute
University of Malta campus
Msida MSD 2080
Tel.: +356 21 319343, 21 310816, ext. 107
E-mail: admissions@imli.org
Hon. Minister Carmelo Abela (Minister for Foreign Affairs) visits IMLI, 7 February, 2020
All candidates must complete the Application Form. This form must be accompanied by:
(a) copies of the University degrees held by the candidate officially authenticated by the University concerned;
(b) a copy of the certificate of proficiency in English;
(c) the Medical Report Form duly completed by a registered Government Medical Practitioner;
(d) a letter of intent written by the candidate stating the candidate's reasons for applying to the programme and his/her career objective. Candidates may use the Motivation Form included in the Application Package;
(e) two letters of reference covering the candidate's ability to undertake the programme. Referees should be persons who are not related to the candidate and who are familiar with the candidate's character and qualifications. Referees should use, where possible, the Reference Form provided in the Application Package;
(d) a non-refundable application and processing fee of €150;
Candidates who require financial assistance must complete the nominated candidate application package and must also submit the following documents:
(a) the Nomination Form duly completed, signed and stamped by the nominating authority;
(b) the fellowship application form duly completed and signed by the applicant and the nominating authority.
(c) a non-refundable fellowship application fee of €200. This fellowship application fee is in addition to the processing fee of €150 provided for in paragraph (d) above. The fellowship application fee covers all administration costs incurred in approaching potential sponsors and seeking fellowship funding for the candidates.
When all the criteria for admission, including clearance and confirmation of financing, have been met, the candidate and the nominating authority (where applicable) shall be notified in writing that the candidate has been selected for admission to the programme.
The Institute must receive from the candidate and his/her nominating authority (where applicable) a confirmation in writing as to whether the candidate is ready to join the programme, whereupon the candidate will be admitted to the programme.
Tel.: +356 21 319343, 310816, ext. 107
All applications should be type-written and sent to:
Downloadable Application Package for the 2023-2024 - LL.M. Programme :
Nominated Candidates
Self-financed Candidates
Dr. Ann Fenech (Malta, Managing Partner at Fenech & Fenech Advocates and President at Malta Maritime Law Association) lectures at IMLI, 19 October, 2017


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Slovakia August 2014: VW Up shoots into Top 10
* See the Top 230 All-models ranking by clicking on the title! *
Always a little bit of delay for Slovakia data, with August now available. 5,668 new cars found a buyer this month, with Skoda once again monopolising the podium with the Fabia (5.3%), Octavia (4.9%) and Rapid (4.8%) in the same order as year-to-date. It also means the Fabia is slowing distancing itself from the Octavia year-to-date at 2,743 sales vs. 2,685 after 8 months. Far from being a definitive advantage for the Full Year 2014 title, but with the new generation coming in soon, the Fabia has just taken a very serious option at the annual crown. Further down, the VW Golf is back to #4, followed by the Hyundai i30 and Suzuki SX4 while two additional Volkswagens find their way into the Slovak Top 10 this month: the Passat is up to #8 vs. #16 YTD and the Up lands at #10 vs. #63 YTD, selling as much in one month as during the rest of the year so far… Notice also the Dacia Logan MCV up to #16, Mazda3 up to #17 and the VW Golf Sportsvan up to #44.
Previous month: Slovakia July 2014: Skoda Fabia king of the roads
One year ago: Slovakia August 2013: VW Golf surprise leader!
Full August 2014 Top 230 All-models Ranking Table below.
Slovakia February 2015: Hyundai i20 hops up to #4
Hyundai i20 * See the Top 235 All-models ranking by clicking on the title *…
Slovakia August 2013: VW Golf surprise leader!
VW Golf * See the Top 25 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many…
Slovakia March 2016: Suzuki Vitara up to #4, first non-Skoda
Suzuki Vitara * See the Top 260 All-models by clicking to the title * The…
previous post: Slovakia July 2014: Skoda Fabia king of the roads
next post: Slovakia October 2014: Suzuki SX4 surprise best-seller


With handsome, well proportioned structure and strapping Egyptian style architectural character, and being the second dam constructed as part of the development of the Upper Nepean Water Supply Scheme, the Cordeaux Dam is one of the most important engineering works and items of public infrastructure in Australia. It also has the longest wall of all of NSW water supply dams.
Holding 93 640 megalitres, fifty seven metres high and holding water from a 91sqm catchment forming a lake of seven hundred and eighty hectares, this is one dam you sure want to visit.
For a little history: the dam was completed in 1926 and was the second of the Upper Nepean dams. The massive stone gateways at either end of the dam wall were inspired by the popularity of all things Egyptian following the discovery of King Tutankhamen's Tomb in 1922.
The completion of Cordeaux Dam was a significant step in the continuing process of proving a reliable water supply for Sydney and surrounding areas as part of the Upper Nepean Scheme and Cordeaux was a large dam with significant work of engineering in its day.
As you walk across the dam wall to the spillway you cannot help but notice the haunting trees in the background on the dam side and the breathtaking wilderness on the opposite side.
Before you arrive to the dam there are plenty of picnic spots surrounded by the amazing Monterey Pines and at the upper picnic area keep an eye out for the remnants of old garden layouts and a grotto between a large Monterey Pine and a large Eucalyptus.
There is plenty of room for the kids to run around and also enjoy the playground facilities. There are also bbq areas with plenty of picnic tables and toilets.
There is a memorial garden in the picnic grounds and a plaque on the valve house on the dam wall. Do look for remnants of an old road, drains and a tennis court and of course just sit back and enjoy the surrounding bushlands before you make your way to the impressive dam.
It is certainly worth the trip and of course the dam is also a spectacular sight on its own with the breathtaking wilderness surrounding it.
Why? It is one damtastic dam to see!


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Lectures, Awards and Events x
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
National Eye Institute (NEI)
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
Office of Research on Women's Health
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) x
National Institutes of Health (NIH) x
Fogarty International Center (FIC) x
Biomarkers Consortium - Neuroscience Symposium
Fogarty International Center's 50th Anniversary
Roth Fellowship for CAEBV-HV Research
Clayton-Dedonder Mentorship Fellows Program
The Dr. Franklin A. Neva Memorial Fund
Charles A. Sanders, M.D., Scientific Symposium
Norman P. Salzman Memorial Symposium and Awards in Basic and Clinical Virology
Amgen Scholars Program at NIH


text:
Fiction To Enjoy
Tell Me Your Secret
Author: Dorothy Koomson
The gripping new emotional thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ice Cream Girls, My Best Friend's Girl and The Brighton Mermaid.
Pieta has a secret
Ten years ago, Pieta survived a weekend with a sadistic serial killer. She never told anyone what happened and instead moved on with her life. But now, the man who kidnapped her is hunting down his past victims meaning she may have to tell her deepest secret to stay alive . . .
Jody has a secret
Fifteen years ago, policewoman Jody made a terrible mistake that resulted in a serial killer escaping justice. When she discovers journalist Pieta is one of his living victims, Jody realises she has a way to catch him - even if it means endangering Pieta's life. . .
Will telling their secrets save or sacrifice each other?
Online Orders processed from 8 December 2020 The perfect present for DOG MAN fans - starring some of your favourite characters from the series!Welcome to the Cat Kid Comic Club,...
Critical But, Stable (Signed edition)
No one ever tells you the cost of a perfect life ... The Msibis, the Manamelas and the Jiyas are high-flying married couples who belong to the Khula Society, a...
Home Body - Bookplate signed edition
From the Number One Sunday Times bestselling author of milk and honey and the sun and her flowers comes her greatly anticipated third collection of poetry.rupi kaur constantly embraces growth,...
Hunting Party
In a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather for New Year. The beautiful one The golden couple The volatile one The new parents The quiet...
Ladybird Learn to Read: The Classic Tales Collection - 10 books
Ladybird Tales Classic Collection 10 Books SetDick WhittingtonThis beautiful hardback Ladybird edition of Dick Whittington is a perfect first illustrated introduction to this classic fairy tale for young readers from...
Minecraft Annual 2021
The official Minecraft Annual 2021 is packed with activities, build ideas and survival challenges to try out in-game. Featuring all the latest news in the world of Minecraft, the official...
This autobiographical text is about more than sexual assault. It offers a glimpse into the banality of violence in South Africa's suburbs, the complexities of intimacy among family members and...
Plate (Signed Edition)
The recipes in this book can be used every day of the week for that one main course we cook daily, whether we're cooking for the family or entertaining our...


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from msrest.serialization import Model

class JobSpecification(Model):
    """Specifies details of the jobs to be created on a schedule.

    :param priority: The priority of jobs created under this schedule.
     Priority values can range from -1000 to 1000, with -1000 being the lowest
     priority and 1000 being the highest priority. The default value is 0. This
     priority is used as the default for all jobs under the job schedule. You
     can update a job's priority after it has been created using by using the
     update job API.
    :type priority: int
    :param display_name: The display name for jobs created under this
     schedule. The name need not be unique and can contain any Unicode
     characters up to a maximum length of 1024.
    :type display_name: str
    :param uses_task_dependencies: Whether tasks in the job can define
     dependencies on each other. The default is false.
    :type uses_task_dependencies: bool
    :param on_all_tasks_complete: The action the Batch service should take
     when all tasks in a job created under this schedule are in the completed
     state. Note that if a job contains no tasks, then all tasks are considered
     complete. This option is therefore most commonly used with a Job Manager
     task; if you want to use automatic job termination without a Job Manager,
     you should initially set onAllTasksComplete to noAction and update the job
     properties to set onAllTasksComplete to terminateJob once you have
     finished adding tasks. The default is noAction. Possible values include:
     'noAction', 'terminateJob'
    :type on_all_tasks_complete: str or ~azure.batch.models.OnAllTasksComplete
    :param on_task_failure: The action the Batch service should take when any
     task fails in a job created under this schedule. A task is considered to
     have failed if it have failed if has a failureInfo. A failureInfo is set
     if the task completes with a non-zero exit code after exhausting its retry
     count, or if there was an error starting the task, for example due to a
     resource file download error. The default is noAction. Possible values
     include: 'noAction', 'performExitOptionsJobAction'
    :type on_task_failure: str or ~azure.batch.models.OnTaskFailure
    :param constraints: The execution constraints for jobs created under this
     schedule.
    :type constraints: ~azure.batch.models.JobConstraints
    :param job_manager_task: The details of a Job Manager task to be launched
     when a job is started under this schedule. If the job does not specify a
     Job Manager task, the user must explicitly add tasks to the job using the
     Task API. If the job does specify a Job Manager task, the Batch service
     creates the Job Manager task when the job is created, and will try to
     schedule the Job Manager task before scheduling other tasks in the job.
    :type job_manager_task: ~azure.batch.models.JobManagerTask
    :param job_preparation_task: The Job Preparation task for jobs created
     under this schedule. If a job has a Job Preparation task, the Batch
     service will run the Job Preparation task on a compute node before
     starting any tasks of that job on that compute node.
    :type job_preparation_task: ~azure.batch.models.JobPreparationTask
    :param job_release_task: The Job Release task for jobs created under this
     schedule. The primary purpose of the Job Release task is to undo changes
     to compute nodes made by the Job Preparation task. Example activities
     include deleting local files, or shutting down services that were started
     as part of job preparation. A Job Release task cannot be specified without
     also specifying a Job Preparation task for the job. The Batch service runs
     the Job Release task on the compute nodes that have run the Job
     Preparation task.
    :type job_release_task: ~azure.batch.models.JobReleaseTask
    :param common_environment_settings: A list of common environment variable
     settings. These environment variables are set for all tasks in jobs
     created under this schedule (including the Job Manager, Job Preparation
     and Job Release tasks). Individual tasks can override an environment
     setting specified here by specifying the same setting name with a
     different value.
    :type common_environment_settings:
     list[~azure.batch.models.EnvironmentSetting]
    :param pool_info: The pool on which the Batch service runs the tasks of
     jobs created under this schedule.
    :type pool_info: ~azure.batch.models.PoolInformation
    :param metadata: A list of name-value pairs associated with each job
     created under this schedule as metadata. The Batch service does not assign
     any meaning to metadata; it is solely for the use of user code.
    :type metadata: list[~azure.batch.models.MetadataItem]
    """

    _validation = {
        'pool_info': {'required': True},
    }

    _attribute_map = {
        'priority': {'key': 'priority', 'type': 'int'},
        'display_name': {'key': 'displayName', 'type': 'str'},
        'uses_task_dependencies': {'key': 'usesTaskDependencies', 'type': 'bool'},
        'on_all_tasks_complete': {'key': 'onAllTasksComplete', 'type': 'OnAllTasksComplete'},
        'on_task_failure': {'key': 'onTaskFailure', 'type': 'OnTaskFailure'},
        'constraints': {'key': 'constraints', 'type': 'JobConstraints'},
        'job_manager_task': {'key': 'jobManagerTask', 'type': 'JobManagerTask'},
        'job_preparation_task': {'key': 'jobPreparationTask', 'type': 'JobPreparationTask'},
        'job_release_task': {'key': 'jobReleaseTask', 'type': 'JobReleaseTask'},
        'common_environment_settings': {'key': 'commonEnvironmentSettings', 'type': '[EnvironmentSetting]'},
        'pool_info': {'key': 'poolInfo', 'type': 'PoolInformation'},
        'metadata': {'key': 'metadata', 'type': '[MetadataItem]'},
    }

    def __init__(self, pool_info, priority=None, display_name=None, uses_task_dependencies=None, on_all_tasks_complete=None, on_task_failure=None, constraints=None, job_manager_task=None, job_preparation_task=None, job_release_task=None, common_environment_settings=None, metadata=None):
        self.priority = priority
        self.display_name = display_name
        self.uses_task_dependencies = uses_task_dependencies
        self.on_all_tasks_complete = on_all_tasks_complete
        self.on_task_failure = on_task_failure
        self.constraints = constraints
        self.job_manager_task = job_manager_task
        self.job_preparation_task = job_preparation_task
        self.job_release_task = job_release_task
        self.common_environment_settings = common_environment_settings
        self.pool_info = pool_info
        self.metadata = metadata

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Weekly Roundup: Covid-19 Trends, First-Party Data, Uncertainty Around iOS 14, and More.
How Covid-19 is accelerating the eCommerce operations for publishers? How long will the pandemic have an impact on the advertising markets of major countries? How Insider Inc. has created an opportunity to collect first-party data? Dive deep into the roundup to know in detail.
Latest Covid-19 Trends For Publishers
The Influx of Online Shopping
The Coronavirus has upended all the plans over the globe in the last six months. But there is one thing that has been in a pretty good spot – eCommerce. Between conforming to the social-distancing guidelines and shut-down storefronts, sales in some verticals are surprisingly way up than expected during the period.
As phased-in reopenings of schools and colleges have started in numerous countries, the National Retail Federation has conducted a survey to observe the spending by the households. According to the results, the back-to-school spending with school-aged children is expected to increase by 29%, whereas back-to-college spending is expected to rise by 24%.
Image Source – National Retail Federation
In the publishing industry, Meredith, the parent company of various top magazines including Time Inc. and Conde Nast has seen an uptick in the school gross sales by 380% Y-O-Y for July.
Another publisher, Popsugar, which has built a custom shoppable guide for back-to-school backpacking, has observed that the eCommerce product has outpaced the affiliate revenue targets set for its partners.
"We're seeing major growth. While apparel is normally the top product category for Popsugar's back to school season, school supplies have outpaced clothes so far."
-Lisa Sugar, Co-founder, Popsugar (Src)
A Look at The Advertising Market
Going forward, the US advertising market seems to be the largest across worldwide. eMarketer highlights US total media ad spending will total $224.79 billion in 2020. China has a slow recovery and entered the rankings at No. 2, followed by Japan at No. 3.
On the other hand, India that has been fastest-growing in the advertising markets will have to suffer from the repercussions of the Covid-19. Along with India, the ad spending growth in Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia will be slow in 2020 due to the challenging pandemic situation.
It's no surprise that ad spending has collapsed, but eMarketer's latest report states that India will reclaim its position by 2024. Not only this, but the country will also become the world's fastest-growing ad market by the end of 2021 with a growth of 30.5%.
eCommerce is an imperative factor in economic downfall, and publishers need to learn from these scenarios to sustain growth and recoup the growth. Now is the time to bet on eCommerce and make small changes in your strategies to grab the revenue opportunities. So, keep yourself updated with the trends, create the content that is relevant to your audience, and distribute them across your digital properties.
Alphabet's Flattened Ad Revenue
For the past few months, prominent digital media companies had reported a double-digit decline in ad revenue. The pullback of advertising spend has equally impacted the media behemoths Google and Facebook.
In a recent article, AdExchanger revealed that Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has witnessed a decline of 22% in Q2, 2020. In the last quarter, the revenue totaled $38.3 billion, a 2% Y-O-Y decline than the previous year.
Despite the fact of getting a significant hit by the Coronavirus, Google's robust advertising business has reportedly shown steady improvement throughout the last quarter. However, the network's advertising business has declined by 10% and totaled $21.3 billion.
Though Google cited a loss in ad dollars, the company has seen growth in the Google Cloud business and YouTube subscriptions as well as revenue generated by Google Play Store. According to Google's Spokesperson, all of these helped the company to balance the revenue decline.
"Our strength comes from our diverse categories."
-Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet (Src)
Insider's Audience-Data Tool
The impending death of cookies has led the publishers to launch their own ad targeting tools. Recently, Insider Inc. announced the launch of a new audience-data platform, SAGA. After testing for a few months with its 20 different clients, the publisher has finally launched the product for all of the partners.
"We are excited to offer SÁGA to our partners. Mobile, scalable, and global, SÁGA is a unique offering that sheds light on discrete audiences without relying on personally identifiable information."
-Insider Inc. (Src)
SAGA which is a suite of tools has three primary capabilities:
SAGA Audience that provides the first-party data to the marketers to help them connect with relevant audiences,
SAGA Inform that shapes the ad campaigns based on the content that resonates with the audience, and
SAGA Insights that provides valuable information and insights about consumer preferences to help marketers create a robust campaign.
One of the spokespeople from Insider Inc. shared that SAGA collects various data points such as the stories most-clicked by readers, frequency to return to a page, users' favorite authors, and more.
"Someone isn't just an IT decision-maker. They're also a parent, a pet owner and they're interested in health and fitness. Once you understand the whole persona, you're able to create campaigns that will really resonate with them."
-Jana Meron, SVP of Programmatic and Data Strategy, Insider (Src)
Insider Inc. is one of the publishers who has been working towards building first-party data tools over the last two years. And SAGA is an example of how Insider Inc. is preparing itself for a cookie-less advertising ecosystem by collecting behavioral data of its 90M+ monthly unique visitors.
Nobody can give assurance whether the publisher-created first-party data tool will save the ad-tech or not. But if you have been following the recent news about third-party cookie alternatives, you might have already jumped the bandwagon to find a way to help your advertisers. If not, then it is high time to start knowing at least your (first-party) audience.
Google's "About This Ad" Feature
Google has always wanted the users to trust it with more of their online data while giving them promises to give them a more transparent ad experience and control over how ads are delivered. As Google's advertising platform continues to grow, the company has recently introduced a new feature "About This Ad" to help users know who is serving the ad and understand why they are serving it.
Image source – Google Blog
According to Google, there are more than 15M+ users who interact with "Why This Ad" in order to know more about the reason behind seeing the ad and how they can control it.
So, to provide detailed information about the ad, About This Ad, will display the name of verified advertisers behind each ad and it will be initially available for display ads bought through Google Display & Video 360 and Google Ads. Though the new feature has been rolled out, Google states there will be some improvements to it in the future.
"We'll continue to improve this extension based on feedback from users, and over time we expect to offer additional disclosures about ads, as well as introduce controls."
-Mike Schulman, Vice President of Ads Privacy and Safety, Google (Src)
Uncertainty Around Apple's iOS 14
The announcement from Apple in the last month in regards to the required opt-in for the ID for Advertisers (IDFA) has made everyone curious about its impact. The IDFA allows the ad-tech partners to track the users' interactions and behavior tied to a device.
But the upcoming iOS 14 of Apple will make the IDFA as an opt-in feature for the users, restricting the advertisers to target them by default. Not only this, but the update will also require the app developers, brands, and companies to disclose the data they are collecting and sharing with the third-parties.
To foresee the future and share the concerns raised in the ad-tech industry, IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab has written an open letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple in the last week. Here's what IAB Tech Lab suggested to Apple:
Image Source – AdAge
Amidst the uncertainty, various mobile measurement providers have started to identify the opportunities. Kochava, an in-app mobile measurement provider, has already introduced a new alternative, IdentityLocker which doesn't rely on third-party cookies and static identifiers like IDFA.
"It works by giving actor-specific identifiers, which means everything is a token, not a static ID."
-Charles Manning, Kochava (Src)
There is no mistake that it is a great move to protect users' privacy, but it is going to be a huge problem for the massive advertising industry especially for app-publishers due to the higher contribution to worldwide consumer spending.
Considering the users' base and contribution, this will be a big change for all. However, the industry still has some time and the proposal is under the scrutiny of Apple. For the time being, we can wait for Apple's response to the recommendations given by IAB Tech Lab.
A Chief Privacy Officer's Take On The Google Antitrust Case, CCPA And IDFA – AdExchanger
IAB Tech Lab Releases SafeFrame 2.0 Secure Ad Container for Public Comment – PRNewswire
Investments in journalism, algorithms have Axel Springer's five-year-old aggregator app Upday up over 30% in ad revenue – Digiday
How to Deal with Low...
How Publishers Can O...


The railway station at Bingley is 0.7 miles away, with a train every 15 mins to Leeds City Station, with connections to London on a regular service.
Leeds and Bradford Airport is 11 miles away , approx. 20 mins from the studio.
We are on hand to collect and drop off at either location.
or if you'd prefer a chat, call soni or martin on the number below.


Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifers hand.
Will go on striding, proud and unafraid.
The first stanza sets the setting for Aunt Jennifers dream world for her and her tigers (Aunt Jennifer represents all women who are caught under the oppressive hand of a patriarchal society). Aunt Jennifers tigers represent what women desired to be like during that time period. The tigers are do not fear men and as depicted on line four are heroic and conduct themselves in a manly fashion. These confidents tigers represent everything women desire to be.
The second stanza represents the reality of Aunt Jennifers life. She is depicted doing needlepoint, which happens to be a very traditional activity for a woman. However, she is having trouble with this activity as expressed in line 7. Her inability to do this needlepoint represents her inability to express herself in a male dominated society. This weight that rests heavily on her hand is not something she enjoys and is oppressing her from doing what she really wants to.
The third stanza gives us a truthful look at the reality and end of Aunt Jennifer. It re-emphasizes the impact living in this patriarchal society had had on her. Despite the tragic end of Aunt Jennifers life these tigers and the ideas of an oppressed free life for women carry on.
What does Rich say about this poem?
Im startled because beneath the conscious craft are glimpses of the split I even then experienced between the girl who wrote poems, who defined herself in writing poems, and the girl who was to define herself by her relationships with men (632).
Rich says this poem is an example of a split that took place in her earlier writing. She has written in the oppressors (male) style however, has expressed feelings of a woman not writing for a purely male audience. Rich has gotten away with expressing these ideas because she wrote using the strategy of formalism that inevitably allowed her writing to sound the same as traditional male writing.
I wanted women poets to be equals of men, and to be equal was still confused with sounding the same (632).
What does she intend to illustrate? How does the poem illustrate this point/s?
I believe she meant to illustrate a narrative of a woman, Aunt Jennifer, under the oppression of a male. This is illustrated in the 2nd stanza when Rich describes Aunt Jennifers hand as being too heavy to pull the needle through the wool because of the massive weight of Uncles wedding band (7, 633). This massive weight is mans control over his wife and the wedding band is a symbol of his control. This idea is also supported in the third stanza when Rich describes Aunt Jennifer dead being still ringed with the ordeals she was mastered by (9-10, 633). Overall the poem illustrates oppression by stating in the first stanza what she really desires and then describing how she is oppressed and held back by the male in her life.
For a poem to coalesce, for a character or an action to take shape, there has to be an imaginative transformation of reality which is no way passiveMoreover, if the imagination is to transcend and transform experience it has to question, to challenge, to conceive of alternatives, perhaps to the very life you are living at that moment. You have to be free to play around with the notion that day might be night, love might be hate, nothing can be too sacred for the imagination to turn into its opposite or to call experimentally by another name. For writing is renaming (635).
How does the poem relate to the quotation at the top of the page?
The poem relates to the quote by transforming reality. She creates this world of the tiger that is a challenge to the norm. This is Richs alternative to the life of Aunt Jennifer. She shows in this poem both what the reality is and what the reality she wants is.
How is the poem an act of transformation? What is transformed? To what end?
The poem tries to transform the normal life of women, represented by Aunt Jennifers life, into the life of the tiger. The normal life is bound by the traditions that women have set for them by men. The tiger is free to roam do whatever he wants in a world full of color. So instead of an actual transformation in the poem its more of a wish for a transformation.
Rich wants this transformation because she hopes for herself and other women to be free from the duties that normal life holds for most women, such as marriage and knitting.
How is the poem a renaming?
The poem is a renaming because it is using Aunt Jennifer to represent the state of women, but the tiger is there to show what should be the state of women. Instead of saying directly the new way that women should exist in the world she places the tiger there to show by example.
This poem is the first that Rich presents us with. It was written during her early stages of writing when she was a student. It was during the period when she was still confused with equal and sounding the same (632).
This poem was incorporated to exemplify Richs beginning years as a writer. It gives the reader a starting point for her to show how drastically her writing changed throughout her career.
She realizes years later when she is re-visioning that in those years formalism was part of a strategy like asbestos gloves, it allowed her to handle material I couldnt pick up barehanded (633).
This means she was able to touch on subjects that werent directed solely for a male audience because she was able to make them sound the same by using formalism. Formalism was the male rule or known way to write poetry.