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The True Story Behind the Reverse Art Heist That Went Viral on TikTok
By Ari Schneider, @ari_schneider
Gabriel Serrano/Cameron Robbie
On an autumn day in London, a handsome man in drab dress sat on a bench in Regent's Park trying his best not to be noticed. He had a painting hidden beneath his oversized tan puffer.
Passersby hurried to enter the Frieze art fair. But the man just waited and contemplated. He was nervous — so nervous that he had nibbled cautiously on his omelet that morning, concerned a full stomach combined with his nerves might result in something unsightly.
Every little glance he exchanged with a stranger brought a pulse of paranoia. Could they tell by his uncomfortableness that he was hiding something? It's hard to have a secret without worrying that everyone around you already knows it.
The man, an artist named Cameron Robbie, whose work features tentacles, grew up in the northeast of Scotland, a creative child introduced to painting by his grandmother. Now 24 years old, he has been working as a full-time artist for two years and recently opened a studio in London.
When we spoke by Zoom, he told me his artistic message is "anticonformative," which is a mostly made-up word, but that only seems to further his point. "I don't like this idea that there's a way you're supposed to do something." So, when the biggest contemporary art fair came to London, he figured it was an opportunity to break some rules.
"People are coming in from all around the world," says Alexis Hyde, a curator and art advisor from Los Angeles. "Out of all of the Frieze fairs, London is the most prestigious."
Robbie doesn't speak glowingly of the establishment. "It's a close knit group of people who go to these [art fairs], and what they say counts. They get to say what is fine art and what isn't fine art. So what happens if I put a painting on the wall that isn't, according to them, fine art? Can they — do they even realize? Do they even know what they're talking about?"
Cameron Robbie, who goes by Criatura criatura.art.com
On an 8 by 12 inch canvas he painted a bright pink and green tentacle under the text: "This doesn't belong here."
"I wanted it to be some sort of message that was almost like, I'm literally telling you, this shouldn't be here. And you still can't tell."
On the first day of the fair, he and a cameraman went in for reconnaissance. There were more than 160 galleries with space at the fair, and Robbie wanted to pick the perfect spot for his painting. "We found a few that would've been easy to do. They were kind of tucked away. It would have been easy to get it on the wall and no one would have seen us. But we thought, if I'm doing something like this, I want to make some noise with it." Right when he walked through the entrance, straight ahead, there was a white wall with nothing on it. "It's literally the front wall you see when you walk into the fair." And the wall happened to be in the Gagosian exhibit.
Larry Gagosian is an emperor in the art world, owning galleries around the globe and representing some of the most recognized talent. "I remembered reading about this guy in a book," Robbie says in a nonchalant way that would surely make an art connoisseur wince. He had brazenly emailed Gagosian pictures of his work, "saying like, I don't know, do you want to work together or something? And obviously getting no reply."
This story did, indeed, make Hyde wince. "Cold emailing Gagosian is not going to get you anywhere, at all. I mean, that's just not how any of it works, the same way that you can't just email info@saks.com to hope they're going to carry your shoe line," Hyde says. "There are ways to interact and network, and etiquette that goes along with it."
@___criatura___
REVERSE HEISTING: FRIEZE LONDON 2022 #criatura #art #frieze #friezelondon #contemporaryart #gagosian #london
♬ sonido original – Criatura
Robbie doesn't care. He's zealous and, mind you, not into rules. One year after attempting to attract Gagosian's interest, Robbie simply decided to use his wall sans permission.
The night before the reverse heist, he laid in bed thinking about all the possible outcomes. It crossed his mind: "imagine if someone bought it for like a million or something."
The morning of, he put the painting in a plastic bag then tied it to the coat hook loop on the inside of his jacket. "That way, if they wanted to see inside my jacket," he gestures with his hands as if unzipping a coat, "there'd be nothing there because it's on my back." (The art experts I spoke to noted this was a bit overdramatic. "Frieze security at the door was quite relaxed," says artist Kinnari Saraiya. Still, she "thought it was quite funny that they sneaked it in.")
Everything seemed to be going as planned until they approached their chosen wall and saw the layout had been changed slightly. On the recon day, the entrance to the Gagosian gallery was open space filled with people mingling. But now there was a transient installation — a 1960s Indian street vendor inspired bioscope curated by Saraiya — which was being moved throughout the fair each day. What made things worse for Robbie was the U-shaped seating that had been added around the bioscope for its viewing, and the only side without a seat was where the wall was. "Suddenly, there was a seating area where all the benches were facing the wall that we needed no one to look at. So that added an extra layer of difficulty to it," says Robbie. "We were just waiting for something — I didn't really know what it was going to be — but something to give a bit of cover." Then a tour group walked by. "That tour guide, like you couldn't write it, it was perfect."
The painting went up and below it he stuck a placard he'd made, on which he included a Gagosian logo with "Not" written in brackets above it. "Again, I wanted it to be like so obvious. I'm telling you, it's not what goes in here."
Robbie stuck around for about an hour, watching from a distance. "People just went about it like it was a normal painting, just doing like, normal art people stuff." Some browsed it closely, some took photos, many just walked right past. "Eventually we realized, like, no one's taking this off the wall, we're not getting arrested. Like, we might as well just leave it here and head off," Robbie says. "So we just left it. And that was it."
His cameraman cut together long and short versions of the stunt for TikTok. The two videos went viral, together accumulating well over five million views. "I think it's cute. It's a cute bit," says Hyde. "It's a fun little thing. It's probably less fun for the people who have the booth and have to clean it up or explain to their boss how somebody snuck in and hung something up."
For the most part, the reception on social media supports the anti-establishment moral of Robbie's video. Some commenters commended the reverse heist as art itself. Although others noted the caper derivative. Robbie is not the first to reverse heist an art gallery. Banksy has installed his work in New York museums. Though his reasoning was much simpler. He told NPR: "I thought some of [the paintings] were quite good. That's why I thought, you know, put them in a gallery." Several YouTubers have done similar pranks, for fun. A little more in line with Robbie's stunt, in the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mac tries to put a doodle in a gallery to prove that anything can pass as fine art. The gallerist immediately notices and throws the drawing in the trash.
Robbie seems to have actually pulled it off, at least for a moment, and in an incomparably bigger venue than Mac's fictional attempt in a small-time gallery. But precisely how long Robbie's statement lasted is an enduring mystery.
The question repeated the most in the comments section is: "what happened next?" Robbie has yet to answer publicly. That's partly because he revels in the suspense, but also because he doesn't really know.
He tried to scheme up some way to steal back his painting. Maybe if he could figure out where it was he could go undercover and pull off a reverse-reverse heist. "I tried getting in contact with Frieze. Just about every possible number online I tried ringing up," he says. "Most of the numbers go straight to answering machines or they're not recognized numbers anymore." He tried calling Gagosian galleries, pretending to be an assistant for Jared Leto, claiming Leto was interested in buying the piece. The employee on the phone said she would circle back but never did.
Hearing this, I became consumed by two questions: How long did the painting stay up? And, where is the painting now? I assumed, as a reporter, I might make better headway than Robbie. But I couldn't get anyone to speak to me either.
All of my calls to Frieze's press office went to voicemail. I sent them five emails, and the best I got was a brief reply from an anonymous press official informing me that they "do not wish to comment."
I emailed Gagosian galleries in London five times and never received a response. I called twice, and both times I was told my emails had been forwarded to their press office but otherwise they couldn't talk to me. They refused to even provide me with a direct number to reach said press office, but they assured me they would follow up on my behalf. I never heard back. Desperate, I emailed Larry Gagosian three times. No response. I thought, at the very least, there must be one Frieze or Gagosian employee who'd heard some rumor of the painting's fate. I messaged over a dozen, offering to grant them anonymity if they could tell me anything. I got nothing.
A third question arose: Why won't anyone speak? Even just to say that they don't know what happened. Then another crossed my mind: If the painting is still out there, if someone is holding onto it, how much is it worth?
As this keeps me up at night, I like to imagine the tentacle painting hanging above the fireplace in Larry Gagosian's house in the Hamptons. He looks at it every morning with both admiration and loathing. Maybe, many years from now, it will show up at auction, selling for the million dollars Robbie had wishfully dreamed of on the eve of his reverse heist.
Either that or it's already in a landfill somewhere.
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TSG EVOLUTION GRAPHIC COLOR is a perfectly fiting helmet with Anatomical shape that is copying your head and feels highly comfrotable to wear. Features a tough skate-style hardshell contruction that keeps your head safe. Available in various colours..


In a study presented, in June 2010, (at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting), investigators report a 69% response rate (reduction in lymphocyte count by >/=20% or a 50% reduction in lymph node size) in patients with a common leukemia type, called chronic lymphoctyic leukemia (CLL), when they received a green tea extract (EGCG). The EGCG was well tolerated with very few side effects.
As always, discuss your use of any supplements (including green tea) with your oncologist if you are actively undergoing cancer therapies.


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Freedom Day and Belarus's Ongoing Quest for Identity
By: Grigory Ioffe
March 30, 2016 09:15 PM Age: 7 years
Freedom Day in Minsk
On March 25, opposition-minded Belarusians celebrated Freedom Day (Dzen Voli). On that day, in 1918, the Belarusian People's Republic (BPR) was proclaimed in Minsk, under German military occupation. The quasi-state lasted barely eight months, when, on December 10, 1918, the Red Army recaptured Minsk. The Belarusian opposition has always claimed that the BPR laid the foundation for Belarusian statehood and that without it there would have been no Soviet Belarus (Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic—BSSR). The latter, they argue, was Moscow's response to a call for self-determination first embodied in the formation of the BPR. This year, about 1,500 people participated in the Freedom Day rally, which was permitted by the authorities (Charter 97, March 25; Svaboda.org, March 28).
Two aspects of the event are noteworthy: the fight for establishing historical facts, and the significance of the BPR for Belarusian identity. Concerning historical facts, Belarus's official standpoint on the BPR currently is that it was "an important but controversial" hallmark of Belarusian history (Svaboda.org, March 28). Thus, its significance is no longer rejected out of hand, as it used to be, but it is not promoted either. Pro-government analysts, however, still try to deny its importance. Thus, Aleksei Dziermant of the Citadel group claims that the BPR was actually an exercise in collaborationism that was elevated to a higher stage during World War II (Dziermant, March 27). Dziermant invokes a 2009 article by Vadim Gigin, now the dean of the Philosophy and Social Science School of the Belarusian State University and a TV anchor, which cast doubt on the BPR–BSSR lineage thesis (Belaruskaya Dumka, December 2009).
The role of the BPR in shaping Belarusian identity is arguably a more significant issue than just establishing historical facts, however. First, a relationship between national mythology and facts has always been ambiguous, and this ambiguity is by no means endemic to Belarus. Second, Belarusian identity is still feeble. Even the Belarusian Popular Front, the country's oldest opposition party and one most dedicated to the idea that Belarusians' cultural essence is unique and has nothing to do with that of Russia, recently referred to a "not fully formed national consciousness" of the Belarusians. The group made this statement in its appeal to the government to not facilitate "the mass acceptance of economic migrants from a different civilizational milieu" (Tut.by, March 19). Third, the number of options for nationally conscious Belarusians in the area of historical memory is fairly limited, so it is hardly surprising that the BPR and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are persistently invoked in an attempt to boost that memory and, consequently, Belarusians' sense of their unique historical path. The official reading of history only makes a desire for such additional references unavoidable. After all, according to the official ideology, Belarusian statehood began with the BSSR, created by the Bolsheviks in 1919, and the Belarusians' greatest achievement was the victory in the Great Patriotic War (the Russian name for World War II). Moreover, the Bialoviezh agreement, which did away with the Soviet Union, is treated as a grave mistake. This is hardly a winning strategy, if the government's aim is to foster allegiance to a nation by invoking not so much its own unique experiences as those inseparable from other national communities—Russians in the first place, who are culturally close to Belarusians anyway and are, therefore, destined to play the role of the meaningful other.
In the words of Yury Drakakhrust of Radio Liberty, the sustainability of a resulting construct of national identity raises doubts. So what was the basis for the resounding "no" to Vladimir Putin's 2002 suggestion that Belarus stop pulling its own and everybody's leg and each of its six regions simply join Russia one by one? Given the limitations imposed by the official ideology, the only response was President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's famous dictum that Belarusians are "Russians of better quality." To wit, Russians sold out to their oligarchs and sharks of global capitalism, whereas Belarusians remained loyal to fairness, soulfulness and equality, the argument goes. This reasoning, which Drakakhrust exposed in an article he wrote in 2008 (Neprikosnovennyi Zapas, 2008), is not in itself particularly convincing.
It is, therefore, noteworthy that under a new geopolitical situation shaped by the war in Ukraine and economic decline in Belarus, Freedom Day has stopped being a divisive line between the government and the opposition. Minsk now needs to boost national identity; and guardedly but persistently it is changing tack both at home and abroad. In his recent talk with Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, President Lukashenka clearly expressed his major foreign policy credo of rejecting all zero-sum approaches to dealing with East and West. "If the partners with whom we are conducting a dialogue," said Lukashenka, "are going to insist that we choose whom we side with—either East or West, that is, either Russia or the European Union—if they continue to face us with that choice, this is not for us. I think more than anybody else, Poland is interested in Belarus remaining not only an independent state but also a stable one. I think that one more unstable [neighbor], in addition to Ukraine, is of no use to Poland" (Tut.by, March 23). Incidentally, on March 1, Poland opened four visa processing centers in Minsk, Brest, Grodno and Gomel. Four more visa centers—in Pinsk, Baranovichi, Lida and Mogilev—will open soon (Naviny.by, February 25).
Undoubtedly, Poland's dramatic shift in its erstwhile confrontational approach to the "Lukashenka regime" proves that "the last dictator of Europe" is no "loser," despite what Guido Westerwelle, Karl Bildt, Radosław Sikorski and Karel Schwarzenberg had argued in their December 2010 article, "Lukashenka the Loser" (New York Times, December 24, 2010).
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Aligning a digital marketing strategy to deliver customer journey milestones will not only help your brand edge out competitors, but it will also improve the lifetime value and loyalty of your customers.
Customer discovery models are often built for start-ups and entrepreneurs, but it's an important part of a content strategy for established B2B and enterprise-level businesses as well.
Ask the right questions: Download our free Customer Needs Questionaire!
Uncovering these needs and motivations and using the information to guide the content strategy will ensure that prospects not only find your website, but it will also prompt them to interact with your brand, take the next step, and move into the sales funnel.
Internet marketing is an equal-opportunity success machine for today's brands. Social media is part of this machine – it gives brands a chance to promote surveys and gather data from a targeted audience.
Paid Facebook ads offer an affordable, far-reaching opportunity for B2C brands to promote their survey to people who meet specific demographic criteria. A 2017 social media survey shows that Facebook has 1.9 billion unique users per month, making the channel difficult to ignore.
Survey Gizmo offers a tutorial for setting up a survey to capture responses from targets on Facebook. Facebook Business gives additional tips and suggestions.
While Facebook leads in regard to number of users, Snapchat may top Facebook for engagement and fun factor (Search Engine Watch). Snapchat now allows links, giving brands the opportunity to link to a customer discovery survey.
It's no secret – LinkedIn is the channel of choice for B2B targets. The best part? Several people from your company can post the survey on their feed, attracting attention from industry connections and the target market.
Create a Before, During, and After Survey. Connect with customers before the sale or conversion (social media survey), during the sale or conversion (from the customer service team), and after the sale or conversion (follow-up email or newsletter).
Questions and Obstacles. Customer journey mapping focuses heavily on actions and motivations, overlooking two valuable touchpoints – questions and obstacles. Identify key questions and obstacles in the customer journey and create content for each one.
Did you know that the inspiration behind Etsy was born of discussions between creatives who voiced an overwhelming consensus on the need for an alternative to Ebay?
Etsy was created by using comments and discussions from their target market – crafters (i.e. customer discovery data), and creating the exact service that potential customers were after.
Online communities are available in almost every niche and space. If you sign up with the intent on asking questions or posting a link to your survey (if the guidelines allow), be sure to follow standard community guidelines and give helpful contributions before you ask for feedback.
City-Data Forum – Known as a relocation forum, the site also has general topics. City-Data has been active and growing since 2003.
Customer journey website tracking is available through a variety of tools with free and paid options. Interactions can be tracked from the first visit through the conversion, return visits and retention behavior, and lifetime value. Even better – access to granular user data helps you identify and filter user needs.
Before setting up KPIs and Analytics, do a bit of brainstorming to ensure you've identified the correct discovery points.
Identify customer problems and solutions. What are the main customer problems? Where does the customer go on the website to get solutions?
Identify and define personas that are involved in solving or finding answers to the problem, and align keywords to each persona.
Identify features and/or benefits that will help the customer move forward and continue in the sales funnel and align keywords to each stage.
Competitor research: How will customers identify your brand product or service among competitors? What's the unique feature? How do customers react when presented with this unique feature?
New customers vs. Retention customers: Separate new customers from existing customers who are making additional purchases and set up website content for both types.
In the B2B space, multiple decision makers are often involved, and a decision isn't likely if the gatekeepers won't share the information or the influencers aren't aware of the product or service. Identify gatekeepers, influencers, and decision makers, corresponding personas, and content that speaks to each person involved in the process.
Validation and demand. When customers are validated in their search for a product or service, what types of messages reinforce these feelings and keep the demand in place?
Once your customer journey brainstorming session is complete, it's time to identify keywords and KPIs to set up proper tracking.
Once you've identified customer pain points, research topics, and main objections, align the website action items with proper tracking within Google Analytics.
Tracking the customer journey to uncover user needs requires more than traditional brainstorming and surveys; marketers must embrace the use of personas and define KPIs accordingly.
Regardless of whether you are a start-up or an established company, make sure that your analytics account or tool is set-up to help you filter user needs with customer discovery data. For established brands and websites, A/B testing may be helpful to uncover the data without bias or assumptions.
Finally, customer journeys are influenced by the outlets on which the products or services are available. Therefore, marketers should plan on testing research results on a regular basis with a healthy distrust of counting on one small set of milestones or keywords. After all, we're talking about websites and content in today's digital transformation age, and the content that customers were searching for and interacting with just five – ten years ago is completely different than it is today.
Enter your name and email to get the Questionnaire!


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The planned re-election of Obama, revolutionary style
It was not the proverbial 3:00 a.m. phone call, but close enough. And it was not made to the White House, but to my house, which is not white, nor is it in DC. It was about 2:30 a.m. on 25 April 2012, and the call itself was somewhat unexpected. I had anticipated the telephone call from my DHS insider much earlier the previous day, but our schedules didn't synch up. I was traveling on an investigative assignment, while my source was in meetings all day. I had just fallen asleep, and was slumbering no more than 20 minutes when the phone rang.
n most households, a ringing phoneat that time of night causes concern for everyone who hears it. In my household, it seems to surprise only my surly, 140 pound light-sleeping German Shepherd. He let out an objective grunt as I stepped over him to take the call in another room. It was "Rosebud," the code name given my insider source.
About Rosebud
Just a little bit here about my source and his "super-secret code name." I've known this government insider since 1979, when he first became a municipal patrol officer. He took a job in a bigger city and had a very successful run as a cop. Before retirement and after the events of 9/11, he was tapped by the feds, where he worked in various capacities under the umbrella of DHS. He worked his way up, and suddenly found himself in what he terms the inner sanctum of the "TEC" building. TEC, he explains, is an acronym for what he calls "The Estrogen Challenged," which houses the upper echelon of the Department of Homeland Security. I'll leave it at that.
Via: Canada Free Press
Labels: 9/11, Canada Free Press, DHS, Obama, Rosebud, TEC, United States, White House
112th Congress Most Unproductive Since 1940s?
WASHINGTON -- As 2012 comes to a close, the 112th Congress is set to go down in American history as the most unproductive session since the 1940s.
According to a Huffington Post review of all the bills that hit President Barack Obama's desk this session, Obama has signed 219 bills passed by the 112th Congress into law. With less than a week to go in the year, there are currently another 20 bills pending presidential action. In comparison, the last Congress passed 383 bills, while the one before it passed 460.
The 104th Congress (1995-1996) currently holds the ignominious distinction of being the least productive session of Congress, according to the U.S. House Clerk's Office, which has records going back to 1947. Just 333 bills became law during that two-year period, meaning the 112th Congress needs to send nearly 100 more bills to Obama's desk in the next few days if it wants to avoid going down in history -- an unlikely prospect, considering that both chambers are squarely focused on averting the "fiscal cliff" before the new year.
The 112th Congress has done far less than the 80th Congress (1947-1948), which President Harry Truman infamously dubbed the "Do-Nothing Congress." Those lawmakers passed 906 bills that became law.
While Obama has signed several pieces of large, consequential legislation in the past two years -- such as sanctions on Iran and the National Defense Authorization Act, allowing the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without charge -- many of the bills passed by Congress have been small and noncontroversial.
At least 40 bills, including ones awaiting Obama's signature, concerned the renaming of post offices or other public buildings. Another six dealt with commemorative coins.
Meanwhile, significant pieces of legislation that have traditionally received bipartisan support -- such
Via: Huffington Post
Labels: 112th Congress, 1947, Huffington Post, NDAA, Obama, President Harry Truman, Washington
HURRICANE SANDY AID BILL INCLUDES $150 MILLION FOR ALASKAN FISHERIES
One out of every $20 spent in a new bill to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy will go to "non-relief-related pork," says American Majority Action Spokesman Ron Meyer in an email to Breitbart News.
On Friday, the U.S. Senate passed a $60.4 billion bill that contains expenditures for areas that were unaffected by the storm, including $2 million roof repairs for Smithsonian Institution museums, $150 million for Alaskan fisheries disasters, and $58 million in taxpayer dollars to plant trees on private property in areas where Sandy never touched down. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) attempted to remove the $150 million fisheries "pork" spending from the bill, but his amendment was defeated. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tried to strike down the tree subsidies but his amendment failed as well.
"It's disgraceful to load a bill like this that has good motives, that has good intentions that is going to help people, with pork," said Mr. Meyer on Fox Business. "Why are you putting your own projects in it? It's disgraceful. It's typical of Washington."
Particularly troubling, says Mr. Meyer, is the fact that 85% of the bill's allocations do not kick in until after 2014. "That's not immediate relief," says Meyer.
The bill passed the Senate on a 61-33 vote. Twelve Republicans supported the bill.
Labels: Breitbart, Fox Business, Hurricane Sandy, John McCain, Republcans, Ron Meyer, Tom Coburn, U.S. Senate
EDITORIAL: Obamacare's costly new year Taxpayers to start feeling law's unhealthy effects
The re-election of President Obama means Uncle Sam is only going to grow larger. As the new year arrives, Americans are likely to see with their own eyes the consequence of their choice of chief executive as health care costs escalate thanks to Obamacare.
Provisions of the law that take effect in the new year will reveal the true price tag of the president's signature health care system in the form of five new taxes. Starting Jan. 1, a 2.3 percent medical device tax will be imposed on the miracles of modern medicine such as heart pacemakers, stents, prosthetic joints and diagnostic scanners. The levy will apply to sales, not profits, so startup firms that might be just breaking even could be pushed into the red by Obamacare. With 80 percent of medical device companies employing fewer than 50 people, the tax is a disincentive for small firms to stay in business — exactly the opposite of the effect needed to jump-start the nation's flagging economy.
Obamacare will raise the threshold for the tax deductibility of medical bills from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent, making it harder to write off the cost of health care. Pre-tax flexible spending accounts, which 24 million consumers rely on to pay for medical bills and currently have no federally imposed limit, will be capped at $2,500. These two provisions mean a greater share of families' income must be devoted to health care, contrary to the promises Democrats made when selling the plan to the public in 2010.
Labels: Americans, FSA, Gross Income, Healthcare, Medical, ObamaCare, President Obama
New York newspaper to list more gun permit holders after uproar
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A suburban New York newspaper that sparked an uproar among gun enthusiasts by publishing names and addresses of residents holding pistol permits is now planning to publish even more identities of permit-toting locals.
Further names and addresses will be added as they become available to a map originally published on December 24 in the White Plains, New York-based Journal News, the newspaper said.
The original map listed thousands of pistol permit holders in suburban Westchester and Rockland counties just north of New York City.
Along with an article entitled "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood," the map was compiled in response to the December 14 shooting deaths of 26 children and adults in Newtown, Connecticut, editors of the Gannett Corp.-owned newspaper said.
The next batch of names will be permit holders in suburban Putnam County, New York, where the county clerk told the newspaper it is still compiling information.
Some 44,000 people are licensed to own pistols in the three counties, the newspaper said. Owners of rifles and shotguns do not need permits, the newspaper said.
The publication prompted outrage, particularly on social media sites, among gun owners.
"Do you fools realize that you also made a map for criminals to use to find homes to rob that have no guns in them to protect themselves?" Rob Seubert of Silver Spring, Maryland, posted on the newspaper's web site. "What a bunch of liberal boobs you all are."
Republican state Senator Greg Ball of Patterson, New York, said he planned to introduce legislation to keep permit information private except to prosecutors and police.
A similar bill that he introduced earlier as an Assemblyman failed in the state Assembly.
"The asinine editors at the Journal News have once again gone out of their way to place a virtual scarlet letter on law abiding firearm owners throughout the region," Ball wrote on his Senate web site.
The newspaper's editor and vice president of news, CynDee Royle, earlier in the week defended the decision to list the permit holders.
Via: Yahoo News
Labels: CT., Guns, New York, Newtown, Putnam County, Reuters, Rockland County, Westchester County, White Plains
Sheriff Arpaio Putting Armed Posse In Schools
In response to a nearby county's announcement that it will arm teachers and principals to prevent a Newtown, Conn.-style massacre at its schools, America's most famous sheriff said he will send members of his armed posse to schools around his county.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he would send members of his posse to protect the 50 schools that are located in areas that his department is singularly responsible for protecting, according to KTVK-TV in Phoenix.
"I have the authority to mobilize private citizens and fight crime in this county," Arpaio said. "[Politicians] are going to be talking about the guns now for years. But I have certain resources at my disposal and I'm not going to talk about it. I'm going to do it."
Arpaio created the 3,000-strong posse during the 1993 holiday season in response to violent incidents at malls. There haven't been any violent acts in malls there since the volunteer police force was created.
Posse members will be sent to the 50 or so schools that are in areas the Sheriff's Office patrols, a response to nearby Pinal County officials saying they'd like to arm teachers and principals.
Arpaio said he's a fan of school resource officers and though funding has been cut in recent years for their presence, he thinks putting them back in schools will make them safer.
"I support arming cops in the schools," Arpaio said. "If you have a cop that's armed you don't need a teacher that's armed."
Via: Newsmax
Labels: Arizona, KTVK-TV, Maricopa County, NewsMax, Phoenix, Posse, Schools, Sheriff Arpaio
'MILK CLIFF' COULD MAKE PRICES $8 PER GALLON
If Congress fails to pass the Farm Bill before January 1st, milk prices could rise to $8 a gallon.
America could go over the "milk cliff" because of an arcane 1949 provisionthat could more than double the price of milk:
At the heart of the trouble is an old provision designed to create a floor for how much dairy farmers are paid for milk — a kind of minimum wage. The formula for calculating that price, however, is based on assumptions that are a century old, predating the improvements in dairy farming. That old formula, if not replaced by a new farm bill, would push prices higher.
The dusty law was implemented "as a poison pill to get Congress to pass a farm bill by scaring lawmakers with the prospect of higher support prices for milk and other agriculture products," says Montana University Professor Vincent Smith.
Some conservatives like Charles Krauthammer say going over the milk cliff would "actually be a good idea":
I do think if we went over the milk cliff it would actually be a good idea. [If] people actually saw the milk price double, it would be less abstract than watching a debt clock. They would finally understand that we have the insane laws, that acquire barnacles over the decades. And the farm laws are the worst. They are all kind of pressure, special interest favors, pay offs which make no economic sense. I'd like to wipe them out and start all over again, and it would be good if the law expired. People would actually be awakened to how insane our system is and how much we really need tax reform. It wouldn't be an abstraction, it would be real.
On Thursday, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging him to "consider other legal authorities that are available to mitigate the impact of the 1949 Act."
Presently, a gallon of milk costs $3.65 per gallon.
Labels: congress, Farms, IDFA, Milk, Montana, Tom Vilsack
Graham: Obama's Cliff Meeting is Political Theater
President Barack Obama and congressional leaders were to meet on Friday for the first time since November with no sign of progress in resolving their differences over the federal budget and low expectations for a fiscal cliff deal before Jan. 1.
Instead, members of Congress are increasingly looking at the period immediately after the Dec. 31 deadline to come up with a retroactive fix to avoid the steep tax hikes and sharp spending cuts that economists have said could plunge the country into another recession.
"It's feeling very much to me like an optical meeting than a substantive meeting," said Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, noting that it was not a sign of urgency to set a meeting for mid-afternoon with a deadline just days away.
"Any time you announce a meeting publicly in Washington, it's usually for political theater purposes," Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said on Thursday on Fox News.
"When the president calls congressional leaders to the White House, it's all political theater or they've got a deal. My bet is all political theater," said Graham, adding that he did not believe an agreement could be reached before the deadline.
With taxes on all Americans set to rise when rates established under former President George W. Bush expire on Dec. 31, lawmakers would be able to come back in January and take a more politically palatable vote to cut some of the tax rates.
U.S. stocks fell on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 0.48 percent as investors fretted about the lack of certainty.
But some in the market were resigned to Washington going beyond the New Year's Day deadline, as long as a serious agreement on deficit reduction comes out of the talks in early January.
"Regardless of whether the government resolves the issues now, any deal can easily be retroactive. We're not as concerned with Jan. 1 as the market seems to be," said Richard Weiss, a Mountain View, California-based senior money manager at American Century Investments.
The new factor in the mix was involvement by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who held conversations with Obama this week and said he expected a new proposal from the president that he would consider.
Labels: Bob Corker, DJIA, Dow Jones, Kentucky, Lindsay Graham, Mitch McConnell, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington
Store Says NO To HHS Mandate
In November a federal judge ruled Christian-owned Hobby Lobby must pay for abortifacient drugs and birth control for their employees.
This week Hobby Lobby announced it will defy the Obama HHS mandate and risk potential fines of up to $1.3 million per day.
Life News reported:
Following a decision by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denying Hobby Lobby's request for an exemption from the Obama administration's HHS mandate, the Christian retail company said it will defy the mandate.
As LifeNews reported, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has refused to act favorably on an emergency appeal Hobby Lobby stores filed to stop enforcement of the HHS mandate against it.
After a federal court denied a request to temporarily stop enforcement of the abortion pill mandate against the Christian-operated business Hobby Lobby, it took its HHS mandate lawsuit to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor denied its request to block the mandate and the millions of dollars in fines it will be subjected to starting January 1 for not complying…
…Now, an attorney for Hobby Lobby says it will defy the mandate and potentially risk potential fines of up to $1.3 million per day.
Kyle Duncan, an attorney for the pro-life legal group Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a statement that hobby Lobby doesn't plan to offer its employees insurance that would cover the drug while its lawsuit is pending.
"The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees," Duncan said. "To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs."
Via: Gateway Pundit
Labels: HHS, Hobby Lobby, Justice, Life News, ObamaCare, Sotomayor, Supreme Court
RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH YOUR NEW HEALTHCARE TAXES
Most of the new healthcare taxes will fall on high income earners, but the middle class and medical device industry will also take a hit.
Directly impacting taxpayers is the Medicare tax hike on high income wage earners, higher taxes on investment income, lower contributions to flexible spending accounts and a higher threshold for deducting medical expenses from income tax.
The Affordable Health Care Act is funded through the Medicare taxes of high income earners. These taxes hit individuals earning over $200,000, and joint filers earning more than $250,000. Medicare taxes will go up by .9% for these folks and they will be hit with an additional 3.8% on unearned income.
Also hit will be folks who earn a greater share of their income from investments. Even if their regular income isn't high enough for the additional taxes, their investment income would be hit with an additional 4% tax. The consequence will most likely be less investment.
The cost of the Affordable Healthcare Act will not just hit the "rich." Two new taxes will affect the middle-class. Taxpayers used to be able to deduct health care expenses that total more than 7.5% of their income. Starting in 2013, that threshold will rise to 10%. This deduction is most often utilized by lower income earners with high medical bills.
According to Lindsey Buchholz of the H&R Block Tax Institute, about 10 million taxpayers deduct around $80 billion in health care expenses a year.
The second of the two middle class taxes is a limit on flexible spending accounts. Previously there was no limit to what an individual could contribute in pre-tax dollars, but now contributions will be limited to $2500. These two provisions are expected to raise $40 billion of the next 2 years.
The medical device tax, and addition 2.9% tax on medical devices, is expected to raise $29 Billion over the next ten years. Unlike other taxes that can be passed on to the consumer, Medicare is the largest purchaser of medical devices; Medicare doesn't function in a free market where companies are able to pass the costs on to consumers. The industry will have no choice but to absorb the costs by cutting the work force or reducing their output.
Labels: Affordable Care Act, Healthcare, HR BLock, John Boehner, Middle Class, Obama, ObamaCare, Tax Institute
Lawmakers huddle as options dwindle for tackling fiscal crisis
President Obama and congressional leaders were facing a rapidly shrinking set of options for averting the fiscal crisis as they met Friday afternoon, with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell warning they are "running out of time."
Just a few weeks ago, lawmakers had high hopes for a "grand bargain" that would narrow the deficit, overhaul the tax code and set the country on a course to curb its entitlement spending -- all while averting massive tax hikes and spending cuts set to hit Jan. 1.
Having squandered that time, lawmakers -- and taxpayers -- will now be lucky if they can just avert the tax hikes.
Obama and the top four congressional leaders were meeting Friday afternoon at the White House, along with Vice President Biden and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. At the meeting, Obama was expected to pitch a "Plan C" that's essentially a version of the scaled-back proposal he floated a week ago before leaving for Hawaii.
Under the proposal, lawmakers would extend the current tax rates for the "middle class." What income level defines middle class remains up for debate -- Obama had previously pushed for tax hikes on families making over $250,000 and later upped that threshold to $400,000. House Speaker John Boehner, in a proposal that died in the House last week, called for tax hikes only on those making over $1 million.
Beyond the tax rate issue, Obama wants to extend long-term jobless benefits for 2 million people set to lose them at the end of the year, and perhaps agree to some spending cuts that could short-circuit the automatic spending cuts scheduled to hit the Pentagon next month.
Via: Fox News
Labels: John Boehner, Pentagon, President Obama, Senate Republicans, Timothy Geithner, VIce President Biden
Obama Orders Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers
President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden.
According to disclosure forms, Biden made a cool $225,521 last year. After the pay increase, he'll now make $231,900 per year
Members of Congress, from the House and Senate, also will receive a little bump, as their annual salary will go from $174,000 to 174,900. Leadership in Congress, including the speaker of the House, will likewise get an increase.
Here's the list of new wages, as attached to President Obama's executive order:
"A new executive order has been issued providing for a new pay schedule beginning 'on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning after March 27, 2013,'" reports FedSmith.com. "The pay raise will generally be about 1/2 of 1%."
Jeryl Bier points to an example of the pay increase for average government executives:
Via: Weekly Standard
Labels: congress, House, Joe Biden, Leadership in Congress, Pay, President Obama, Senate
Hey, let's elect a new Speaker from outside the House
Ed's headline in the Greenroom for this piece (written by the co-author of "The Republicans Are the Problem") tells you all you need to know about what an unserious bit of trolling it is, but I'm oddly comforted to see it show up on WaPo's op-ed page. It's proof positive that even the most celebrated newspapers aren't immune from having to scrounge for content in the news desert between Christmas and New Year's. Coming tomorrow, presumably: "Let's repeal term limits for Obama."
Still, it's worth writing about for two reasons. One: Conservative dissatisfaction with Boehner is real. We may well end up with a new Speaker on January 3. No harm in thinking about alternatives. Two: It's a useful prism through which to consider the leadership void in the GOP right now.
What if Boehner doesn't survive? Go to Article I, Section 2: The Constitution does not say that the speaker of the House has to be a member of the House. In fact, the House can choose anybody a majority wants to fill the post. Every speaker has been a representative from the majority party. But these days, the old pattern clearly is not working…
The best way out of this mess would be to find someone from outside the House to transcend the differences and alter the dysfunctional dynamic we are all enduring. Ideally, that individual would transcend politics and party — but after David Petraeus's stumble, we don't have many such candidates. It would have to be a partisan Republican.
One option would be Jon Huntsman. By any reasonable standard, he is a conservative Republican: As governor of Utah, he supported smaller government, lower taxes and balanced budgets, and he opted consistently for market-based solutions. As a presidential candidate, he supported positions that were in the wheelhouse of Ronald Reagan. But a Speaker Huntsman would look beyond party and provide a different kind of leadership. He would drive a hard bargain with the president but would aim for a broad majority from the center out, not from the right fringe in. He could not force legislation onto the floor, but he would have immense moral suasion.
Another option would be Mitch Daniels, the longtime governor of Indiana and a favorite on the right. Daniels has shown a remarkable ability to work with Democrats and Republicans, and he is a genuine fiscal conservative — meaning he does not worship at the shrine of tax cuts if they deepen deficits, and he would look for the kind of balanced approach to the fiscal problem put forward by Simpson-Bowles, Rivlin-Domenici and the Gang of Six.
Via: Hot Air
Labels: Christma, Constituition, Hot Air, John Boehner, John Kasich, Jon Huntsman, New Years, Ronald Reagan
Will 'Fiscal Cliff' Accelerate Millionaire Deaths?
Pigeon Productions SA | Riser | Getty Images
Because the "fiscal cliff" will not stop for death, it looks as if death's carriage may make a "kindly" stop to pick up some American millionaires this year, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson.
In 2010, after a year in which the estate tax was zeroed out altogether, Congress passed a law that set the estate tax at 35 percent and exempted all estates under $5 million, adjusted for inflation. That law expires in January 2013 when the exemption will fall to $1 million and the tax will rise to 55 percent.
Many families are faced with a stark proposition. If the life of an elderly wealthy family member extends into 2013, the tax bills will be substantially higher. An estate that could bequest $3 million this year will leave just $1.9 million after taxes next year. Shifting a death from January to December could produce $1.1 million in tax savings.
It may seem incredible to contemplate pulling the plug on grandma to save tax dollars. While we know that investors will sell stocks to avoid rising capital gains taxes, accelerating the death of a loved one seems at least a bit morbid—perhaps even evil. Will people really make life and death decisions based on taxes? Do we don our green eye shades when it comes to something this serious?
Via: CNBC
Labels: American, congress, Death Tax, Emily Dickinson, Fiscal Cliff, Millionaires
House, Senate Leaders Frozen On Fiscal Talks
The rhetoric heated up Thursday as time on the clock wound down for a fiscal crisis deal, with lawmakers trickling back into Washington and no plan of action in place for averting the tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to hit next week.
President Obama returned Thursday afternoon from vacation in Hawaii, as the Senate gaveled into session for unrelated business. House leaders announced that members will return late Sunday – but that leaves just one full day to act on any legislation before the deadline passes.
Rumors were flying Thursday afternoon about last-ditch efforts to craft some sort of a scaled-back package that can shield most Americans from the more than $500 billion in tax hikes scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.
But with hope fading, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on the floor that "it looks like" the nation is going to miss the deadline.
Reid also put all the blame on House Speaker John Boehner, likening him to a dictator and claiming he was putting his speakership before the good of the country.
"John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the nation on firm financial footing," Reid said. "He's waiting until Jan. 3 to get re-elected as speaker before he gets serious with negotiations because he has so many people ... that won't follow what he wants."
Labels: congress, Fiscal Cliff, Harry Reid, John Boehner, President Obama, Senate, Speaker, taxes
Another Leftist Rag Bites The Dust: The Last Print Issue Of Newsweek…
IT DID NOT HAPPEN SOON ENOUGH. TIME MAGAZINE IS NEXT!!!
Via: Daily Beast
Labels: Daily Beast, DUST, Leftist Rag, Newsweek, Time Magazine
Obama Golfs with Buddy Busted for Soliciting Prostitute
President Barack Obama is in Hawaii for Christmas. Right now, he's golfing with White House chef Sam Kass, staffer Marvin Nicholson, and friends Mike Ramos and Bobby Titcomb, according to the White House pool report.
Titcomb was arrested in Honolulu last year for soliciting a prostitute.
As ABC reported at the time of Titcomb's arrest:
One of President Barack Obama's oldest friends has been arrested in Honolulu on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute.
Robert "Bobby" Titcomb was one of four men arrested in an undercover prostitution sting operation Monday evening and later released on $500 bail, according to Honolulu police.
Titcomb, 49, attended Punahou School with Obama in their hometown of Honolulu in the 1970s. The president graduated in 1979, a year before Titcomb.
Since their time together in school they have remained close. Titcomb has visited the White House on numerous occasions to see the president, most recently during Obama's August birthday when he was included in a round of golf with Obama's closest friends at the links of Andrews Air Force Base. Afterwards Titcomb, among other friends, joined the president for a barbeque at the White House.
The fivesome is golfing at at the Kaneohe Clipper course at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
The Obamas are in Hawaii for Christmas.
Labels: Christmas, Hawaii, Honolulu, President Barrack Obama, Robert, Titcomb, Weekly Standard, White House
WSJ: Obama Threatened Boehner With Using Inauguration, SOTU Address To Blame GOP
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 21: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement on fiscal cliff at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House December 21, 2012 in Washington, DC. Obama called on congressional leaders to work out a solution on the fiscal cliff over the Christmas break. He also said "becaues we didn't get this done, I will see you next week." (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
President Obama has threatened House Speaker John Boehner that if no deal is struck on the "fiscal cliff," he will use his Inaugural address and State of the Union speech next month to blame Republicans,according to the Wall Street Journal.
In the Journal's behind the scenes account of how fiscal cliff talks between Obama and Boehner hit a wall, what comes across is that the president is emboldened by his reelection and eager to extract more concessions from Boehner than he was willing to accept during last summer's debt limit talks.
This excerpt from the piece is revealing:
Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn't reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault.
At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?"
"You get nothing," the president said. "I get that for free."
Via: Washington Examiner
Labels: Barack Obama, Congressional Leaders, House Speaker, John Boehner, Republcans, State of the Union, Wall Street Journal, Washington
Advertising Guru Sells Hamptons Estate: 'I don't Want My Money Going To Obama'
He got taxed out of town.
Legendary advertising guru Jerry Della Femina is the latest Hamptons fat cat to unload his East End spread at the precipice of the dreaded fiscal cliff, The Post has learned.
The flamboyant Madison Avenue guru has sold his 8,500-square-foot estate — the host of many legendary Hamptons bashes — for $25 million, and blames his flight squarely on President Obama's fiscal policies.
"I want the proceeds of this sale to go to my kids and my grandkids," said the man behind iconic ad campaigns for Meow Mix and Absolut Vodka. "I don't want my money going to Obama, and that's what's going to happen in the New Year. That's why I sold right now, that's why I wanted to get this done."
Doug Kuntz
TAXING DECISION: A Hamptons party at the oceanfront mansion of Jerry Della Femina in happier times — before Obama's "class warfare."
The listing broker for the East Hampton oceanfront property, Corcoran's Susan Breitenbach, declined to comment on the megabucks deal.
Sources said that the buyers are a New York based family.
Della Femina's buzzer-beating sale is just one of many big-ticket closings sweeping the Hamptons as affluent homeowners seek to move their blue-chip digs before taking a capital-gains beating in the coming year.
A fall off the fiscal cliff could trigger a 40 percent rise in taxes on short-term investments and a 5 percent spike in taxes on long-term capital gains.
Della Femina said that brokers are in the midst of a frenzied sell-off as the fiscal cliff approaches.
"I'm basically the loser in Obama's class warfare," he fumed. "That's what this boils down to. If Romney was elected, we would have had our parties in East Hampton this year."
Via: New York Post
Labels: Class Warfare, Hamptons, New York, New York Post, President Obama, taxes
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(Reuters) - Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne is unsure if he can get back to his best for the reigning Premier League champions after injuries restricted his playing time this season, the midfielder said on Friday.
The 27-year-old has had a stop-start season with two knee injuries and trouble with his hamstring limiting him to only nine Premier League starts this season while City chase an unprecedented quadruple.
The Belgian was one of the favourites for the player of the year award last season, with eight goals and 16 assists in City's league title-winning campaign, but has scored only two league goals this season.
"I don't know what my level is going to be but to be fair I don't really care," De Bruyne told reporters.
"Now it's the business end (of the season), I just need to do what I can do to help the team win games. If that means playing five games or 10 games, I'll take it all. It's been that kind of season.
De Bruyne said recovering from injuries that sidelined him for more than 19 weeks this season was far more difficult than stepping on to the field for City.
"I feel sometimes my season had double the length of other players because every time you need to be in, you need to make almost double the hours," he said.
"It's more draining than to play in the end. You never have a day off because you need to work on your recovery.
City play Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium later on Saturday.


UK tanker specialist Union Maritime is growing its fleet of bulkers, placing an order for two plus one 63,000 dwt bulk carriers at China's Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry, the shipbuilding arm of China Cosco Shipping.
The vessels will be constructed at Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry's Yangzhou yard, formerly the Jiangsu yard of China Shipping Industry. Other contract details were not disclosed.
The two parties are also in talks to form a long term strategic partnerships for more newbuilds in the future.
Union Maritime currently operates a fleet of 33 tankers and three bulkers.


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Q: Update variable value via add_filter I have this apply filter in my plugin.
$pre_html = apply_filters( 'events_views_html', null, $view_slug, $query, $context );

I want to change $view_slug value dynamically from child theme using add_filter because I do not want to modify plugin files. But this code is not working. It is displaying value of $view_slug instead of displaying complete page content.
function add_extra_val( $view_slug, $query, $context  ){
    if (is_singular('tribe_events')) {
        $view_slug = 'single-event';
    }
    return $view_slug;
}

add_filter('events_views_html', 'add_extra_val', 10, 3);

It is a basic question but I have limited knowledge of WordPress filters and hooks. Some guidelines regarding this will be appreciated.

A: Filters only allow you to directly modify the first value passed to them. In your case, that's null. If you shifted view_slug up a place, it would be available to filters using your events_view_html tag.
add_filter( 'events_view_html', 'my_callback', 10, 3); // passing 3 args to the callback, assuming you need them for something.

function my_callback( $view_slug, $query, $context ) {
// Do whatever you need to do to $view_slug
// $query and $context can be read but not changed
return $view_slug;
}

A: Below is an example to modified the value using the add_filter hook:

// Accepting two arguments (three possible).
function example_callback( $view_slug, $query ) {
    ...
    return $maybe_modified_value;
}
add_filter( 'events_views_html', 'example_callback', 10, 2 ); // Where $priority is 10, $accepted_args is 2.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Theatres reopen: Ranveer Singh's '83 confirmed for a Christmas release; Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi to arrive in 2021
ByHimesh MankadHimesh Mankad / Updated: Oct 12, 2020, 07:43 IST
Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev in '83
On Friday, it was announced that the Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday-starrer, Khaali Peeli, which released in pay-per-view format on a digital platform, will be among the first films to arrive in theatres, which reopen after seven months on October 16. While cinemas in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and a few other states remain shut, exhibitors in other territories, who are short of content, are hoping the action thriller will bring in some crowds.
The film's delighted producer, Ali Abbas Zafar says the film was always designed for a theatrical release, but because of the ongoing pandemic, they had to change their strategy. "But now, many of the exhibitors who saw it on the OTT platform want to screen it in their theatres and we are happy to oblige them," he exults. Prod him on his expectations, commercially, and Ali reasons, "This is not about box office numbers anymore. It's a test to see how many people return to the theatres, a kind of a warm up for the bigger releases to follow later in the year."
Sushant Singh Rajput case: Rhea Chakraborty to take legal action against people who 'defamed' her, says lawyer Satish Maneshinde
Rhea Chakraborty, who was released from Byculla jail on October 7, has now decided to take legal action against several people who tried to "defame" her in the case of Sushant Singh Rajput's death.
Trade analyst Komal Nahta points out that there is no precedent to follow in the situation. "Going by simple logic, instead of re-releasing old films, it's better to go for new content because penetration of OTT in India is not much. Any film that has already been released in cinemas has no future owing to its 'second time' tag," he avers. According to Komal, this Diwali might see the release of three films: Diljit Dosanjh, Fatima Sana Shaikh, and Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari, Kiara Advani's Indoo Ki Jawani and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's production, Tuesdays and Fridays.
Akshay Kumar in Sooryavanshi; Vivek Oberoi in PM Narendra Modi; Ananya Panday, Ishaan Khatter in Khaali Peeli
That's not stopping the makers of the PM Narendra Modi biopic. Featuring Vivek Oberoi in the titular role, the film had opened earlier on May 24, 2019, and will now re-release on October 15. "The decision to release is between exhibitors and producers; the government does not interfere. But, what better way than this film to welcome audience back," exclaims producer-distributor Anand Pandit.
Anita Hassanandani: Rohit Reddy believes his father is returning as our child
On Saturday, Anita Hassanandani and husband Rohit Reddy shared the news that they are expecting. Since then, congratulations have been pouring in for the would-be parents.
Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi shares that many producers have made their entire slate available for re-release, but exhibitors will take an individual call on this. "Now that even big-ticket Hollywood films like the Bond film, No Time To Die, Fast & Furious 9 and Jurassic World 3 Dominion have been pushed ahead by months, even a year, exhibitors may have to consider the option of re-releasing a film, produced by a top studio."
Another trade analyst, Taran Adarsh, too, believes that it's better to play a comparatively new film, like Khaali Peeli, that opened just two weeks ago, than to replay an old film. Rathi believes the film would have got good footfalls if the makers had held it back exclusively for theatres. "Right now, more than the impact of OTT, we need to gauge the impact of piracy. But with such baby steps, we can take giant strides towards normalcy," he asserts.
Police question three officials of Republic TV
CEO and COO questioned in the city, another official records his statement in Daman
Meanwhile, buzz is, some single screen owners in interiors have shown a keen interest in screening not just Khaali Peeli, but Akshay Kumar's upcoming horror comedy, Laxmmi Bomb too, slated for a Diwali release on OTT, simultaneously in their cinemas. However, a source reveals that national multiplex chain owners have put their foot down, refusing to release a direct-to-digital film on the big screen. They are also wondering if playing Khaali Peeli could set a wrong precedent.
Rathi is insistent that hybrid releases won't become the new normal because then theatres will become unfeasible. "A call will be taken by the associations, representing both producers and exhibitors, on this. We need to focus on the long-term scenario rather than short term returns," he avers, while Komal adds that at the most, the 8-week window between theatrical and OTT will be reduced.
Amitabh Bachchan is booked for a year
While most actors half his age are still wondering about when to get back into action, Amitabh Bachchan brought in his 78th birthday on Sunday on a set
Meanwhile, Rohit Shetty's cop thriller, Sooryavanshi fronted by Akshay Kumar, which was slated to arrive on Diwali, is not going to make it to theatres this year. The Kapil Dev biopic, '83, featuring Ranveer Singh, still sticks to its Christmas release. Shibasish Sarkar, CEO, Reliance Entertainment, who's one of the producers of both films, says, "We definitely don't want to change the date of '83 for Sooryavanshi. The sport drama is still slated to release on Christmas. We have to decide on the new date of Sooryavanshi with the director and actor, but the film should release between January and March."
INCENTIVES TO GO TO A THEATRE TO WATCH A FILM
► To start with, ticket rates slashed
► Tickets free for frontline Covid-19 warriors, like doctors and cops
► In the beginning, when you buy two or more tickets, you will get to watch the next film free
► Couple or family can book seats together and adjoining seats will be kept vacant
► Three shows per day per screen as compared to five-six shows earlier
► Strict 50 per cent occupancy and no extra tickets will be sold even to accommodate families
► Enforcement of all government SOPs for safety of the audience
—Shared by PV Sunil, MD, Carnival Cinemas
In Photos: As Mumbai unlocks itself, Bollywood celebrities keep another essential handy - masks
Guess who's behind the mask
As Mumbai eases itself out of lockdown, Bollywood celebrities have been spotted in and around town, donning the mask as per the guidelines issued. Be it taking your dog for a walk, en route to the gym or just stepping outside to catch a breath of fresh air, the mask has been handy in protecting oneself from the coronavirus. While a few celebrities have gone for the basic black and white, others have matched their masks to their attire with different colours or patterns. There are two celebs in this photo. Let's see how good you are at this guessing game. After all, even this is part of our new normal. (Continue to scroll on for the right answers) Photo by Raju Shelar/ MMCL
Ananya Panday steps out of a salon
Mom and daughter - Bhawna and Ananya Pandey were spotted at a suburban salon in Mumbai. Did you also notice Peppa Pig? It won't be the first time it has occupied a pride of place in Ananya's life. Photo by Satyajit Desai/ MMCL
Who's keeping Ananya Panday company?
In case Peppa Pig wasn't very clear in the previous photo, here's a close-up. And it's not the first time Ananya Panday has shown her love for Peppa Pig. Photo Source: Yogen Shah
TV czarina Ekta Kapoor was spotted as she stepped out of a salon in Bandra. Photo by Raju Shelar/ MMCL
Sonal Chauhan was spotted in suburban Mumbai. Photo Source: Yogen Shah
Vidya Balan is upping the mask game by making sure the masks she wears go with her outfits. It's also lovely to see her radiant smile which would otherwise be lost behind that mask. Photo Source: Yogen Shah
Sophie Choudhry
Spotted walking along Carter Road in Bandra, this is Sophie Choudhry. Photo by Raju Shelar/MMCL
Nimrat Kaur takes a stroll
Photo by Raju Shelar/MMCL
Varun Dhawan and Natasha
Varun Dhawan was spotted with Natasha Dalal were clicked in Bandra as they stepped out of a salon. Photo Source: Yogen Shah
Ready for some art attack at home?
It was a family outing for Arjun Rampal as he stepped out with Gabriella Demetriades, baby Arik and his daughter. They were snapped as they stepped out of a premium art supplies store. Photo Source: Yogen Shah
Shweta Bachchan
This one wasn't easy to guess but we've made it easy by adding her name to the title itself. Shweta Bachchan was spotted in Bandra. Photo Source: Yogen Shah
Jaqueline Fernandes spotted in Bandra
Disha Patani clicked in Bandra
A breath of fresh air for Kareena, Tairmur


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


My name is Ali Tarhini and i am a Dev. Lead at a local software company in Lebanon. I am currently working in the domain of HealthCare solutions and building software systems for hospitals and other government institutions in the MENA region. Before healthcare, I used to work on Travel Management Systems and even before that I was a developer for Content Management Systems for building dynamic web content.
I have a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering & Informatics from Beirut Arab University and have a Master's degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the American University of Beirut. My undergraduate thesis was about pattern recognition, specifically about face detection and recognition where I developed, along with my collegeaus, a software package that is capable of finding and detecting human faces in still images and apply two recognition algorithms in order to identify the names behind the faces. My masters thesis was on Automatic Loop Parallelization where I invented a new approach for automatically finding an optimal schedule for running multiple iterations of loops in parallel in order to optimize execution speed and reduce memory overhead.
I am a software geek, so my posts will mainly focus on programming, particularly on the .Net Framework and the web, SQL, and a strong focus on algorithms.
Hello. My name is satryo. I'm a bachelor degree student in Computer Science UGM, Indonesia. Can i've ur email contact? I want make implementation of face detection using matlab from viola and jones paper "robust real time object detection" for my assignment, but i could'nt understand some part. Like how to construct weak classifier from rectangle feature? I'm not sure with parity,unknown threshold,and what features to make that equation (hj). Could you give me explanation or sample implementation about viola's method? Great thanks.
Thanks for your good works.I want you to send me Chi-merge discritization program exe. (for IRIS data set) .if ypu can send , I will be glad.
thank you for your interest in chi-merge. I have the implementation in vb.net, please send me your email address.
you are working with face detection algorithm? I am a Student in Germany from Lebanon.
I am working now with the Methode Modified census Transform from Ernst and Fröba. They work with 3 stage cascade and winnov update rule.you have a adaboost cascade algorthm for Matlab and winnov update rule?
adaboost carry the histograms of the training images face and non-face with the Pixels of the given image or also with the histogram?
I'm Lakshmi, from India. I'm working on face detection algorithm. I need to know more about the training of faces using adaboost to make the detection of faces more accurate.
Regarding your chi merge discretization, why did you set E = 0.5 if its value is less than 0.5?
I want a permission to use one of the image that I saw in your work. The picture is about variation in illumination, So may I use it in my thesis ?


Fierce grace offer hot yoga sessions in London. Fierce Grace actually introduced Bikram Yoga to London, back in 1994. They now offer 6 different classes, from beginning yoga classes to advanced yo ga classes for the experience yogi's.
They also now have 6 yoga studios across London, including studios in Finchley; Primrose Hill; Brixton; Old Street; Kentish Town and Queens park, truly making hot yoga accessible to all Londoners at all levels.
My experience of Fierce Grace yoga is associated with their Primrose Hill branch; the class: 'Classic'.
As somewhat of a newbie to yoga I opted this for this class on the basis it's applicable to all levels, whilst still providing a yoga session to facilitate the development of core strength; flexibility and working on total body alignment: a key focus of mine at the moment.
The routine, along with instructors certainly made it an effective yoga session. The positions that you go through are applicable to 'new yogis' and not overly complex, yet still having a positive impact on alleviating notoriously tight areas that develop as a consequence of sitting for long bouts of time, such as the hip flexors and shoulders. All this whilst still developing strength in areas that lead to improved posture, including the core and the glutes.
If you're anything like me and find yourself sitting for long bouts of time, then you're likely developing/developed upper and lower cross syndrome. This is essentially a postural issue where you fold forward at the shoulders and hip. It can often lead to pain and injuries so find remedies,such as yoga, is crucial for maintaining healthy body alignment.
Whilst the movements and instructions are applicable to benefiting people who are new to yoga and suffer with the posture issues above, I would still say that if you are completely new to yoga and rarely train, this may not be the right class to start on.
The reason for this is because of the 90 minute class duration. 90 minutes of regular yoga for someone who is completely new to this training type may be tough enough, but the fact that the room is heated to a fairly high temperature makes it a pretty tough class to initiate yourself onto.
Instead – if you are completely new to yoga and even training in general – maybe opt for their 'warm' or 'S.O.B' class, which allow you to train in a lower temperature or for less time respectively.
If you're unsure on what class to kick-start on then do speak with one of the Fierce Grace instructors who are both incredibly experienced and very helpful, sharing their knowledge to identify the best course of action for your needs.
It's worth noting that you'll need to rent both a towel and a yoga mat; you'll also need a lot of water! They do have communal showers (can only speak for the men's) and changing rooms on site, which is more of a necessity and less of a luxury after a sweat-fest session like this.
In terms of instructing, Fierce Grace is certainly one of the best yoga glasses in London.
However, an issue with Fierce Grace, in comparison to other hot yoga classes in London, is the over-subscribed classes.
Fierce Grace encourage and appeal to everyone to take up and reap the benefits of hot yoga. They were actually the major influence in me starting yoga. It's a superb approach to adopt, opening yoga up to everyone. However due to Fierce Grace's success at providing Londoners with superb yoga sessions, they have naturally become very popular. This leads to a lack of floor space during popular periods and I think the total experience would be enhanced if classes were capped at a lower capacity. Again, I can only speak with regards to the Primrose Hill branch.


text:
Buen Vivir: Panacea or Political Spin?
Sophie Coombs | Latin America Fellow
The "Wiphala" rainbow flag associated with Bolivia's indigenous peoples and with indigenous communities in Latin America more broadly. Credit: Esteban Ignacio.
As climate change progresses, placing increased stress on dwindling natural resources, societies must rethink untenable, industrialist and extractivist approaches to economic development. The transition away from unsustainable models of development will first and foremost require a transition in the way we think about natural resources. Considering humanity's long-term survival is contingent on that of the planet, it is perhaps time we ditch the anthropocentric notion of 'natural resources' altogether and start envisaging the environment as another stakeholder in the climate change debate.
What is Buen Vivir?
Many Latin-American Indigenous belief systems have long espoused this view, conceptualising humanity not in opposition to, but as a part of the environment. Popularised in the early 2000's, the concept of Buen Vivir, literally meaning 'to live well', is a general term based on several Indigenous worldviews such as the Quechua idea of "Sumak Kawsay" (plentiful life) and the Aymara notion of "Suma Qamaña". Buen Vivir emphasizes the idea of a collective wellbeing in which the collective refers to both society and the environment. The movement places a premium on solidarity, reciprocity and an ecocentric way of life.
In practice, the implementation of the Buen Vivir philosophy favours alternative economic models that recast productivity as being of equal importance to positive social and environmental outcomes, such models include the solidarity economy and the circular economy. The concept has also gained traction at an official level, with Ecuador and Bolivia incorporating Buen Vivir and the rights of nature into their constitutions in 2008 and 2009, respectively. But has constitutional recognition of Buen Vivir in Ecuador and Bolivia had a meaningful impact on environmental and economic policy? Or is it merely an exercise in co-opting Indigenous identity for political gain?
Pure politics?
Despite enshrining ideals of social and ecological harmony in their respective constitutions over ten years ago, it is debatable whether the Ecuadorian and Bolivian governments have actually implemented the principles of Buen Vivir in a significant way.
In Ecuador, the inclusion of Buen Vivir at a constitutional level was spearheaded by socialist president Rafael Correa. Similarly, in Bolivia, constitutional acknowledgement of Buen Vivir took place under the leadership of leftist Indigenous president Evo Morales. It must be noted that the efforts of the Correa and Morales governments have gone some way towards realising the ideals of Buen Vivir. Social policy implemented in the two countries has seen poverty decrease significantly in the past decade. Additionally, recognition and valorisation of indigenous culture in the national political sphere, as seen in both countries, is also an important step towards reckoning with Latin-America's colonial past.
However, the positive outcomes of Bolivia and Ecuador's successful social-aid programs are somewhat marred by the fact that both governments relied on state-led extraction of natural resources to fund these initiatives. In clear opposition to the ecocentric principles of Buen Vivir, mining in Ecuador has, in fact, expanded since the 2008 constitutional reforms, with President Correa allowing foreign extractors to encroach on at-risk indigenous lands. Furthermore, the Correa government has even threatened and attempted, somewhat successfully, to silence Indigenous-led environmental activism groups which has led some commentators to believe that political commitments to Buen Vivir, in Ecuador at least, are but a superficial endeavour to garner indigenous votes.
What can we learn from Buen Vivir?
It might be argued that Ecuador and Bolivia's failure to honour Buen Vivir in terms of environmental and economic policy signals an incompatibility between Andean indigenous philosophy and the globalised modern world. Yet, the fact that Buen Vivir clashes with western development's 'progress at all costs' attitude is precisely why we should take notice of it. Considering climate change is a product of unchecked human development, taking stock of the environmental and social impacts of our economic activities can only be a good thing.
Buen Vivir has the potential to provide communities with a roadmap for simultaneously tackling social and environmental issues in a wholistic way. Many community-centred economic projects are already reaping the benefits of the sustainable, small-scale development often associated with the ideals of Buen Vivir. One such example is the Cleveland model, in which citizen-owned cooperatives provide local institutions like hospitals or universities with essential goods and services - thereby cutting down on the environmental cost of transporting such products as well as tackling community unemployment.
Envisaging climate change as a local, immediate problem that can be mitigated with community-based action, is perhaps one of the most important lessons to be adopted from Buen Vivir. In contrast to national or international climate action bodies, communities are often able to mobilise rapidly against local issues, and collaboratively construct solutions tailored to the conditions of a certain area.
Crucially, Buen Vivir is also firmly rooted in Indigenous understandings of human-environment relations. With indigenous peoples set to be disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, it is imperative that their voices and epistemologies are centred in the transition towards a greener future.
The truth is that there is no silver bullet solution to climate change. But in taking a leaf from Buen Vivir and considering environmental and social wellbeing in every political decision, however small, we may start to construct a more just and sustainable world.
Sophie Coombs is the Latin America Fellow for Young Australians in International Affairs.