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Essays on the MILLENNIUM
BRAVE NEW EPOQUE
ALLAN R. GREGG April 6 1998
BRAVE NEW EPOQUE ALLAN R. GREGG April 6 1998
ALLAN R. GREGG
Birthdays. Anniversaries. New Year's. These are celebrations of the most important passages in our lives. Around the world and throughout the ages, these milestones have provided continuity for people and societies. They have served as benchmarks against which we measure time and our own progress through life and history. But the end of the second millennium and the beginning of the third is something else again, a time to reflect on where we are going.
What does the future hold for Canada? Will the millennium bring the same advances in medicine and science we have seen in our lifetime? What will work be like in the year 2005? How will the global economy function? Where will Canada rate? Will the environment be safe? Those are the kinds of questions Maclean's will explore in a series of monthly ESSAYS ON THE MILLENNIUM. The first, which examines leadership in the next century, was written by Allan Gregg, chairman of the polling and consulting firm The Strategic Counsel.
But before peering into the future, it is helpful to first look back to see how we have changed. Canadians' modern-day belief system began to gel after the Second World War. Four decades of prosperity caused us to believe that our next car would always be faster, the next house unimaginably bigger, the next paycheque impossibly fatter, and the next generation's standard of living immeasurably better. In short, we came to believe that progress was both normal and inevitable.
We started to question that belief for the first time with the erosion of real income brought on by rampant inflation and interest rates in the early '80s. The failure of time-tested solutions (mainly governmental) to provide relief further eroded the belief that progress was normal. Today, Canadians accept that we live in a world of diminished opportunities. The public also has concluded that not everyone in society will share equally in the diminished opportunities that are available.
Both conclusions—that there are limits to progress and that the haves will be participating more than the have-nots—are revolutionary. They stand in stark contrast to the mainstays of our postwar sociopolitical culture. As well, in the past 15 years we have witnessed a breakdown in trust of traditional authority, whether government, union or church. That transformation has resulted in a population less ready to rely on leaders and more likely to have higher expectations of itself.
That is a profound break with our past traditions. When the late Canadian historian William Kilbourn characterized Canada as the Peaceable Kingdom, he underestimated how impor-
tant the progress ethos was to the preservation of the Canadian peace.
As long as each passing generation bought into the notion that opportunities were limitless, the need and demand for radical reform or restructuring of society's institutions and rules were minimal. Canada was not only peaceable, but it was also one of the most deferential societies, if not the most deferential, in the Western world. We accepted authority more or less without question, and looked to our leaders to arbitrate, and if the need arose, to actually provide for the public good. The product of this disposition was a public-policy landscape that was radically different from the unfettered laissez-faire environment of the United States, and resulted in distinctive measures such as medicare, regional development programs and an income-support network for the disadvantaged.
If there is any doubt about the popularity of government intervention in a crisis, one need only recall that the single most popular initiative by government in modern times was the implementation of the War Measures Act in October, 1970. According to a Gallup poll conducted in December, 1970, the Trudeau Liberals' popularity soared from 42 per cent to 59 per cent.
All that has changed. Far from deferential, Canadians rarely extend the benefit of the doubt to present-day leaders. This change has resulted in a decidedly less complacent electorate with demands as diverse as public consultation before major initiatives and byelections to resolve broken promises.
The loss of faith in traditional authority, in turn, has been offset by a growing sense of individualism and entitlement. Partly accelerated by the entrenchment of the Charter of Rights, and a natural outgrowth of the public's conviction that traditional power centres such as governments can no longer provide solutions, Canadians in the '90s have increasingly turned inward. They have sought new rights and powers necessary to wrest decision-making from their leaders. They have also gathered into groups of like-minded citizens to advance their causes, all the while ensuring that others would not
receive more than their share of our dwindling national entitlement.
On a larger plane, the breakdown of trust in traditional authority and solutions has also caused many citizens to question the very premises through which we have understood our universe. If progress was normal, then the foundation of normalcy was accepted as science and rationalism. We were to be ever-propelled forward by scientific advancement and a rationalist approach to all problem-solving. Once progress no longer seemed inevitable and problems appeared to be getting worse rather than better, we began to re-examine the rationalistic prism through which we viewed our world. The result has been a growing tendency on the part of Canadians to experiment and to begin a quest for meaning outside of a traditional scientific/rational model.
The success of an entire series of new-age "bibles" such as the bestselling The Celestine Prophecy, the appearance of angels on the covers 3f popular magazines, and the explosion of life-affirming seminars in inference rooms throughout the land are manifestations of this questing. In the marketplace, the endless extension of new brands and products and the decline or demise of institutions like Eaton's, signal i population that refuses to accept unquestioningly the norms of the aast, and their readiness to embrace the unknowns of the future.
Canadians have not rejected their past, but they have merely learned :o adapt to the present. If the next paycheque is not going to be fatter, hen maybe self-employment will be the best way of attaining the inrinsic reward of work. If government can no longer be expected to prodde the public good, then the public good can be realized by the private sector. And if science cannot provide all the answers in an incertain world, then there is always spiritualism.
Rather than feeling alienated or fatalistic about their new circumstances, the population is more resilient, with a renewed sense of em-
powerment. However, even in the face of this altered outlook, Canadians can still be seen clinging tenaciously to those aspects of our character that we regard as unique. Indeed, perhaps the most enduring aspect of the Canadian identity has been the very desire to remain distinctive and different, even if we cannot define what precisely it is that makes us distinct. While we seem loath to trumpet tangible accomplishments, we still point to our civility, charity and peaceableness as the central characteristics of our national self-image. And if we have difficulty articulating who we are, we are nonetheless steadfast in our refusal to submit to the juggernaut of American culture.
The Maclean's 1997 year-end survey of attitudes within different age groups underscored a rock-solid commitment to social liberalism that appears to have been transmitted across generations and is now being amplified by Canada's youth culture. Our willingness to accept diversity in others and to protect the foundations of our universal healthcare and social welfare system underscores the essential small "1" liberal character of our culture.
If our desire to preserve our distinctiveness and embrace liberal social values has withstood the tumultuous '80s and '90s, there is every reason to believe that these same characteristics will carry over into the new millennium and continue to shape public discourse in the next century. This confluence of our enduring character, coupled with our transformed outlook, invariably will produce new and unanticipated turns in the nation's journey forward.
For the first time in two decades, Canadians now report that they can see past the quagmire of government debt and deficits. The recognized limited financial capacity of the state, perhaps more than any other public-policy development, has cemented the conclusion that governments cannot solve major social ills. But this situation masks a
Essays on the MILLENNIUM-
deeper and lingering desire for leadership. Canadians do not believe that governments and traditional authority are powerless in the face of future problems. Rather they have concluded that their concerns cannot be addressed by the same old solutions that failed in the past.
The first indication of the direction this debate may take rests with the understanding that Canadians have never wholeheartedly embraced the tenets of neoconservatism. Instead, the modern-day rejection of massive public spending as the panacea to our ills flows from a pragmatic response to problems which have grown deeper and more complex as prescribed solutions went unaltered.
However, even as Canadians have come to accept the necessity of fiscal restraint from governments, they continue to see themselves as a generous and caring people. Add to this the growing knowledge that the gap between rich and poor has widened while the role of governments has shrunk, and it is not difficult to predict a significant shift in the policy focus as the deficit decreases in importance.
In fact, the post-deficit agenda of the future is most likely to be preoccupied with social policy questions. This is because demand for change and reform, for the first time in two decades, is not likely to come from the right and the business class as it is from the left-of-centre and the have-not elements of society who view themselves as the real victims of the growing inequities of the '90s. Paradoxically, they are also likely to be (at least initially) supported by more right-of-centre and "have" elements who, I polls show, are prepared to concede that 3 they have thrived while others have sufS fered. Indeed, the limited appeal of tax-cut £ proposals by the Reform and Conservative parties among the very constituency at which they were aimed—the wealthy—is evidence of the relative satisfaction and complacency of that group today.
Given the population's proclivity to reject traditional spending solutions, it is unlikely that support for any new thrust into the social policy area will be forthcoming unless the approach and framework is also new.
Consequently, even as the demand for social initiatives is likely to grow, broad-based support for traditional policy options, like government-financed day care or pharmacare, is remote. Those are policies of the past that would have been applauded by the old Canada but will be rejected as impractical and ineffective by the new. That does not mean elected leaders will be able to duck their responsibilities for dealing with widely recognized issues like child poverty or the health of the aged. Government will have to demonstrate that it can do something about the root causes of those problems. The litmus test for good public policy in the future, therefore, will no longer be how much their sponsors care about the problem (or how much they are prepared to spend on a solution) but how effective their solutions are at getting to the source of the problem.
In fact, this criterion will virtually eliminate uni-
versal day care or pharmacare as solutions. More likely to be approved is a framework which is based on the long term, is focused on the so cietal context of the problem, and integrates diverse partners into the solution. In this scenario, rather than provide more subsidized daycare for all mothers who wish to work, a new framework might involve the following: making child care available only to single mothers who agree to further postsecondary education, which, in turn, would be paid for by prearranged employers; introducing monitored nutritional programs for children at risk, which might be delivered by private sector organizations; and establishing parent-mentoring centres, which would be run by the local church.
While the challenge will be to stop spending in the same, time-tested patterns, a massive transference of leadership from one generation to another offers the prospect of doing the nation's business in a fundamentally different way. Today, Jean Charest is the only national figure who represents the largest generation in society. The fact is that virtually all other leaders in government, business, labor and the church come from a generation that grew up in the period immediately following the War. In the next 10 years, they will pass along the mantle ol leadership to those who grew up in the '60s.
Those in power today grew up in a time that stressed the importance of continuity and conformity. On the other hand, the socialization of the
Essays on the IVIILLENIMIUIVI
Big Generation placed the priority on diversity and change. This difference will produce leaders who will want to define themselves in contrast to the practices (and styles) of their predecessors. That very act will make new leaders appear more in tune with those they govern and once again bring the electorate and politicians closer together.
The transfer of power to a new generation should also accelerate even more far-reaching change in the years ahead. Now that baby boomers are firmly ensconced in, or fast approaching, middle age, they will peer into the abyss of their own mortality and thus are likely to further the tide of spiritual questing. Already we see this generation slowing down and de-emphasizing work and materialism as priorities shift to relationships and family. With this, we are also beginning to see a reattachment to more traditional notions of responsibility.
Evidence of this impending shift has been revealed in a recent Roper Center Review, published by the Connecticut polling organization, which looked at the growth of the the so-called gender gap.
Normally discussed exclusively in terms of "the women's vote," the phenomenon of diverging patterns in male-female voting has emerged as a result of men changing their preferences, the study demonstrates, while women's behavior has remained essentially unchanged. Indeed, this analysis documents a trend among men to become progressively more conservative over the past 20 years: males have become progressively more of the view that personal and social responsibility is not a core value. However, the study concludes that with the baby boom aging, this pattern is starting to reverse.
A new generation of leaders, more spiritually centered, embracing more traditional notions of responsibility, might indicate that '90s curiosities like the Promise Keepers—men rededicating themselves to their roles as fathers and husbands—will not be viewed as aberrant. Rather, movements such as these may well be in the vanguard of a more all-encompassing definition of family values—away from a fear of nonconformity and towards a celebration of relationships and the responsibilities individuals assume towards one another.
At the other end of the generational spectrum, we might also witness the emergence of a more indigenous youth culture.
As the Big Generation redefined what was "young" and "old" in the first part of the century (remember Mick Jagger promising never to sing Satisfaction after the age of 40?), role models successively also became older and, to everyone's surprise, were actually embraced by young people. In the '60s, Jean Shrimpton's modelling career was over at 20 because she was too old. By the '90s, cover girls Christie Brinkley and Cher were still considered glamorous as they approached 50. But if those role models are not old hat for people in their 50s, they are simply too old for teens and adolescents to identify with. The result is that new teen magazines are flourishing, skateboard and snowboard cultures proliferate, pop music (à la Hanson and The Spice Girls) is once again exploding. What we are witnessing is the Next Generation discovering its voice and creating its own role models.
More broadly, the ever-expanding reach of technology and media convergence is presenting every segment of society with an endless array of information and options. In the past, problems were often chalked up to "a failure to communicate." Today, it is the overwhelming presence, and not the absence, of communication that stands to
confound individuals and society. The challenge will be to sift throug the information overload and actually put it to use. It is telling that th only organizations making real money from the Internet are the one that have created search engines and browsers—services whose sol purpose is to sort through the Vesuvian outpouring now available o the Net. And the more empowered and efficacious population of the fi ture, practised at taking matters into its own hands, will respond to th proliferation of technology-generated information by teaching itse and accepting education as a never-ending process.
At the other end, we might also expect more and different demand on organizations and businesses that offer products and services to th public. In the past, the provision of the good or the service itself wa expected to engender customer loyalty. In a future with endless oj tions, businesses not only will have to offer multiple choices, but as central part of their sales pitch they wi have to articulate how their customers ca benefit from the use of their product. Thi will amount to a culture of "meta-service, where organizations continue their involve ment with their customers from purchas through the life of the product. In order t deliver on the promise of lifelong service businesses, in turn, will be forced to inves in human resources and training in a mar ner and quantity never witnessed before.
As challenging as these new set of force might be, the most destabilizing part of ou future may relate to the very health of thi nation-state of Canada itself. Nationalism ii Quebec has ebbed and flowed since thi Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, but has nev er shown any signs of disappearing. Yet a: the notion of equality and entitlement ha: taken deeper root in our culture, Englisl Canada has grown both more fatigued am impatient with what it sees as a never-end ing series of demands from Quebec fo concessions and special rights. There is nothing in our character, in our outlook o: in law that prevents a series of referen dums being held in Canada on Quebec's fu ture, every decade for the next 1,000 years You do not have to have an in-depth under standing of polls or trends to know that un less something is done to avoid repeatet votes on Quebec's future, sooner or later : Yes vote will prevail.
So the dominant question of the past 10( years—will Quebec go or stay?—is likely t( continue to reverberate into the new mil lennium. And one thing is certain: if noth ing is done or the same old solutions are or the table, Quebec will leave. Given our po tential and all we have to lose, avoiding breakup should certainly not be beyond our reach. But the key to oui national puzzle in the next millennium must be to cast off the ideas anc approaches that have failed us in the past.
To take a step beyond the confederal system that has kept the coun try together to this point (and, in doing so, explicitly reject the efforts of those who have attempted national renewal before), will requin courage to initiate, boldness to conceive and passion to execute. Re grettably, these are not qualities that we have found in great abundan« in recent years. Perhaps the prospect of a new generation of leaders, : population that will endorse only new approaches to problem-solving and a continuing desire to remain both distinctive and whole—perhaps these characteristics of the millennium can be brought to bear agains the challenge of national unity, and we will be able to succeed in the fu ture where we have failed in the past. □
As the millennium nears, people will be well advised to beware the wisdom of prognosticators, as this sampling of earlier, dubious predictions suggests.
This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
Western Union internal memo, 1876
Everything that can be invented has been invented.
Charles H. Duell, United States patents commissioner, 1899
The 20th century belongs to Canada.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 1904
Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
Lord Kelvin, mathematician and physicist, 1895
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
Thomas Watson, chairman ofLBM, 1943
There is no likelihood that man can ever tap the power of the atom.
Robert Millikan,
a Nobel Prize winner in physics, 1923
Atom's Oscar diary
April 1998 By ATOM EGOYAN
Funding feuds
April 1998 By ROBERT SHEPPARD
Has oil hit bottom?
April 1998 By MARY NEMETH
April 1998 By Anthony Wilson-Smith
Fit to be tied
April 1998 By BRIAN BERGMAN
On safari in the Townships
Survival, Then and Now
July 1999 By Margaret Atwood
June 1999 By David T. Suzuki
Selling Canada globally
July 1998 By DAVID K. FOOT
MACLEAN'S/CBC NEWS POLL
Can Canada Survive?
DECEMBER 25,1995/JANUARY 1, 1996 1995 By ALLAN R. GREGG
MACLEAN'S/GLOBAL POLL
A Shifting Landscape
December 25, 2000/January 1, 2001 2000 By Allan R. Gregg
SARS AND THE FEAR FACTOR
April 2003 By ALLAN R. GREGG


The governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has dismissed allegations by some elites in the state that he runs a family government.
Governor Okorocha stated this on Friday, when more than five thousand members of the Rochas Mandate Movement held solidarity rally to honour him in Owerri.
He said: "more than 4,000 children had gone to University through Rochas Foundation and more than 15,000 of such children are also in the various colleges of the Foundation".
He stressed that his ambition in life was to see people grow through him; adding that "those who never offered the people of the state leadership when they held sway but only shared the people's resources would never come back to power in the state".
"Uche Nwosu (his son in-law) who is from Nkwerre Local Government Area and Prince Eze Madumere, from Mbaitoli LGA are all counted today members of my family because they have grown to prominence but when they took those steps of faith no one counted them as members of my family".
The governor noted that he has done the state and her people proud with his monumental achievements.
The Imo governor also reiterated that he would neither run for Senate nor for president in 2019, but would be keen in who succeeds him and who can sustain the tempo of the achievements recorded by his administration.
"The people I see here are people who are committed. People that are following me not because of what they could gain from me, but because of what we have done for the world. As it stands, come 2019, I'm contesting for nothing. But in my heart, I have searched out and resolved that one man has good thoughts about Nigeria in his heart. Secondly, the possibility of leadership will easily get to the Igbos after him. That man is President Muhammadu Buhari".
"My coming as a leader in Imo State was by your efforts. No big political bigwig supported me and in my stride, I have brought sitting Heads of states of other countries to Imo State," he added.


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Perfect Home Base: Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort, in the heart of the Coral Coast, a.k.a. Fiji's Adventure Gateway
There's a reason why Fiji was chosen as the filming location for shows and films like "Survivor" and "Cast Away." It has some of the most unspoiled rainforest ecosystems on the planet, and life won't be able to catch up with you when you disappear into the lushness of Fiji's dense South Pacific terrain.
Start on the beautiful main island of Viti Levu for exploration no matter which direction you travel: jungle hikes, river rafting, and city life. Check out the eastern side's Tailevu Coast to experience a life lived among dirt roads and mangroves, and then head north to drive through sugarcane farmland peppered by small villages (try a village tour). Or take the two-pedal route on an electric bike tour through the untouched beauty of the Coral Coast.
For extinct volcano adventures, go to the highlands of Viti Levu where you'll find Fiji's highest point of Mount Victoria. Take a trail from the village of Navai to reach Victoria's 4,344-foot summit for a more advanced 4.5-kilometer hike (usually between three to six hours) where you'll be treated to undisrupted views reaching as far as Yasawa Island on crystal-clear days.
Want even more adventure? Try diving with bull sharks (and the occasional tiger shark) in Bega Lagoon, hanging in Kula Adventure Park (Fiji's only wildlife sanctuary), plus sand dune-ing, caving, zip lining and more.
The Water Lover
Perfect Home Base: Castaway Island, Fiji, in the Mamanuca Islands
While Fji's largest island of Vitu Levu, a.k.a. "Big Fiji," provides more than enough wonder, it's only the beginning of your great escape. Head to the Mamanuca Islands for some cool adventuring above and below the waves.
Fiji is known as the "Soft Coral Capital of the World," and you can snorkel among beautiful coral—try it at night to see neon coral lighting the abyss in electric shades of pink, purple and yellow. Dive with Castaway Island's PADI-certified dive center to swim among eccentric tropical fish, from clownfish and angelfish to enrapturing sea snakes. Enjoy coral planting and other conservation activities to make a beautiful impact during your stay. Try the Cloud 9 floating bar or a post-water-adventure cocktail at the world's first island beach club, Malamala.
Perfect Home Base: Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort, in the heart of the Coral Coast
Known as one of the top spots for destination weddings in the world, Fiji is for lovers, too. The spell of the Fijian sunset has also been known to cause more than a few couples to want to renew their vows.
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The Top Water Activities at Castaway Island, Fiji

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Why Government Action to Ban Illegal Seafood Caught by Slave Labor Isn't Enough
By David Pinsky, Greenpeace USA
Lead Image Source : Wikimedia Commons
There's a crisis of global scale facing our oceans. Overfishing, destructive fishing, and human rights abuses of seafood workers are some of the often unknown costs behind the tuna or shrimp sold nationwide.
As global demand for seafood has increased, populations of our ocean's top predators like sharks and tuna have dropped by as much as 90 percent over a few decades. Armies of industrialized fishing fleets use indiscriminate fishing methods (e.g., fish aggregating devices, longlines) that are decimating tuna stocks and putting sharks and sea turtles at risk of extinction. There's one motive for such destruction: catching as much as possible to maximize profits with no regard for people or the planet.
In the global tuna industry, illegal fishing and human rights abuses are commonplace. Companies are plundering fish from coastal communities that depend on seafood for their livelihood, using forced labor to crew their vessels, and cashing in on big profits.
Reports of slavery and international scandals continue to surface. Workers are subjected to low or unpaid wages, forced labor, inadequate food, shifts of 12 hours or more each day, human trafficking, and even murder. Tuna vessels fishing with longlines often transfer their catches at sea to larger vessels that return to port. The smaller vessels can remain at sea for months or even years at a time making it impossible for workers to escape.
These crises threaten seafood workers, communities that rely on seafood for their income and primary source of protein, and the existence of healthy oceans for generations to come. In response, the U.S. government took action to stop imports of seafood connected to slavery from entering the country. While a noteworthy development, government alone cannot solve this problem. We must call on the mega-corporations plundering the oceans and abusing workers to take demonstrable action. The tuna industry is out of control, and it's time to clean it up.
The Solution: A Global Campaign to Protect Human Rights and Our Oceans
This is why Greenpeace launched a global campaign on Thai Union Group, the largest tuna company in the world, to protect human rights and our oceans. The company has made headlines for slavery and deplorable working conditions connected with its products and uses destructive fishing methods to catch tuna. Thai Union's Chicken of the Sea brand appears on shelves of Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway, Food Lion, Publix, and many other supermarkets. If you're dining at a college, corporate campus, hospital, or even on Capitol Hill, foodservice giants such as Sysco, U.S. Foods, and Sodexo may also be providing you destructive tuna or shrimp from Thai Union.
In recent months, we've visited the San Diego headquarters of Chicken of the Sea with 80,000 petitions and put up crowd-funded billboards across the city. We've released a report documenting human rights abuses connected to Thai Union, and contacted hundreds of companies worldwide that sell Thai Union products or might sell them in the future.
U.S. companies like Chicken of the Sea and Walmart have a responsibility to only sell sustainable and ethical products. It starts by asking for change. If Walmart made this a priority, suppliers like Chicken of the Sea and Thai Union must either agree to meet stronger standards or lose millions of dollars when their contracts are canceled. Wise companies would do as much as possible as quickly as possible to resolve this issue. If not for moral reasons, then by the sheer fact that the public is increasingly concerned and there's even a presidential task force calling for change.
If you are concerned about human rights abuses, destructive fishing, and the future of our majestic oceans, this is your chance to use your voice! The next time you're at your grocer or in a cafeteria, ask the staff about their tuna. Express your concerns and your wish that if they're going to sell tuna, it must be sustainably and ethically caught. You can point them to our tuna guide that ranks major U.S. brands on sustainability and labor practices. Our collective voice is a powerful way to increase pressure on these massive corporations that are harming people and our planet. I invite you to take action right now by calling on Chicken of the Sea to clean up its act. With your help, we can turn the tide and transform the tuna industry.
Featured Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Alyssa Stevens says:


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Pull-out rumours are denied by Debenhams
DEBENHAMS has been urged to confirm its commitment to the town centre redevelopment, following a claim it is preparing to withdraw from the scheme.
A Debenhams employee has told the Express that the retail giant – dubbed the "anchor" of the £200million project by developers Wilson Bowden – is planning to pull out completely.
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Debenhams denied this when contacted, saying in a statement: "We are pleased to announce that we do not have any plans to withdraw from this development."
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An MBC spokesman said it was "business as usual".
Macclesfield town redevelopment


There is nothing like meeting a confident but humble individual. As a recruiter, those candidates are few and far between, but they are indelible in my mind and inevitably garner more consideration than others less sure of themselves.
Let's talk about confidence, the "self" kind. Whether you view confidence as an asset to be leveraged or a giant to be conquered, the ultimate product of confidence is a positive feeling in those who interact with you, a feeling you want your recruiters to feel when they think about you. Confidence inspires a sense of security, and humans crave the feeling(s) that perceived security brings. Why? When I encounter someone who feels sure of himself/herself, I think, "This person is competent, savvy, and in general a safe bet." The reality of that notion is not necessarily true, but we are not discussing the validity of self-confidence as it relates to an actual skill set. We are considering presentation.
There are various ways to boost confidence that might raise an eyebrow or two, but we will consider some practical methods that many teacher applicants have reported useful.
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Know more about your school of choice than they expect you to know.
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Do yourself the favor and begin practicing your more confident self today. Keep in mind that cocky is not confident nor does it translate as such. Trust your skill, your experience, and yourself, and others will tend to as well.


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Outside Shooter
Michele A. Roberts, the first female head of the NBA players union and a newcomer to pro sports, prepares take on the league's owners in a battle that could go far beyond basketball.
Christopher Leaman
Story by Max Chafkin
"I think it's just gonna be us." The voice came from one of the grizzled sports reporters gathered in a nearly empty Manhattan hotel ballroom on a cold Friday evening in February. There was the reporter from NBA.com, the house organ of the National Basketball Association; there was the travel/sports/entertainment writer for the Queens Chronicle; and there was a guy who had a lot to say about the New Jersey Devils.
We were there, the four of us, for a mid-season press conference organized by the National Basketball Players Association to coincide with the league's All-Star festivities. Professional sports unions, dedicated as they are to the cause of helping millionaire athletes make more money, have never been popular, but the nearly empty ballroom felt especially grim relative to the weekend's other attractions. The All-Star Celebrity Game—pitting the 5-foot-4-inch comedian Kevin Hart against, among others, Mo'ne Davis, the 13-year-old girl who starred in last year's Little League World Series—would tip off at Madison Square Garden later that night. That, at least, had news potential.
Then, in an instant, the dynamic shifted. Word circulated on Twitter that LeBron James, the biggest star in American professional sports, had just agreed to join the union's leadership as vice president. Dozens of reporters who had been camped out elsewhere in the hotel poured into the ballroom. Lens caps were popped off, recorders emerged from backpacks, smartphone screens lit up. This was a coup. Like many American labor unions, the National Basketball Players Association has seemed moribund in the past decade, a feckless organization that rolls over for team owners whenever a new league-wide contract is due. In 2011, after a 161-day lockout, the players agreed to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in income in order to save their season. James's appointment presented a possible turning point: a chance for the most beleaguered of the four major sports unions to strengthen its position, and a victory for Michele A. Roberts, the Players Association's new firebrand boss.
"Let's call it what it is. There. Would. Be. No. Money. If not for the players. They create the game."
Roberts, a compact woman of 58 with close-cropped hair and a charisma honed during a career as one of the country's top trial lawyers, was elected executive director last summer, becoming the first woman to lead a major sports union.
Her ascent had been slightly controversial, with some grumbling by sports agents about her lack of NBA experience. And then there was the issue of her gender. "I bet you can tell I'm a woman," Roberts said in her July pitch to the players before they voted on whether to give her the job. She told them that men who underestimated her did not fare well: "My past is littered with the bones of men who were foolish enough to think I was someone they could sleep on." She defeated the two male candidates—Dean Garfield, a trade-group executive, and Terdema Ussery, the Dallas Mavericks CEO—on the first ballot, winning nearly every vote cast. "I'm still trying to find out who those two players were," she jokes.
The current labor agreement between the owners and the players will expire in 2017, and Roberts has already made clear that its renewal will not be a simple affair. In an interview with ESPN The Magazine shortly after she started, she attacked the basic financial structure that has come to define pro basketball: a league-wide salary cap, currently $63 million per team, based on a roughly even split in revenue between the owners and the players, and strict limits on individual players' salaries. "It's mind-boggling to me that people think that the players make too much," Roberts told ESPN The Magazine. "There would be no money if not for the players. Let's call it what it is. There. Would. Be. No. Money. If not for the players. They create the game."
Roberts walked into the press event alone and sat in a chair in the far corner of the room. A dozen very tall men ambled in next and crowded behind a podium. Among them were Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, two of the league's brightest lights. Paul has been the union's president since 2013, the first legitimate star to hold the office since Patrick Ewing in 2001. Anthony has no formal role in the union leadership—not yet, anyway—but his presence added to the gravitas around Roberts. She stood up, hugged them, and then took the mic. She triumphantly made the James announcement and indicated that Anthony—"my man Melo"—might join the union's executive committee. "These men inspire me in ways I can't even begin to tell you," she said. Then she introduced her senior managers. "These are my gladiators."
The metaphor was apt. Roberts has signaled that war is coming. Some sports commentators have gone so far as to speculate that she is laying the groundwork for an exodus from the NBA and the launch of a new, player-sponsored league. Whatever happens, the battle could reverberate well beyond basketball. By casting the owners as replaceable cogs who have merely been smart enough to buy into a monopoly, Roberts is challenging the underpinnings of all the major pro sports leagues.
If she succeeds, she could hand the labor movement a much-needed symbolic victory. Granted, it would be one based on making rich athletes even richer. But union victories of any kind have been few and far between in recent years. With the help of James and the other stars who surround her, Roberts has put herself in a rare position for a 21st-century union leader: one of strength. "The marquee players have the attention of the media, have the attention of the fans, and have the attention of the players," she told me a few days after the press conference. "You guys listen to LeBron."
Roberts with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty)
From the fans' point of view, these are not basketball's best days. Because of a disparity in team quality between the Eastern and Western Conferences, in recent years a handful of worthy teams in the West have missed the NBA playoffs (which this year began on April 18), in favor of squads with losing records. Not that this matters much, since true upsets are exceedingly rare in the NBA playoffs. Whereas some of the most hapless football and baseball franchises have in recent years gone from bottom-of-the-barrel status to championship contention, NBA fans have learned to live with this truism: the Minnesota Timberwolves always suck.
The NBA has attempted to address the issue of what league officials call "competitive balance" by restricting salaries and by allowing the worst-performing teams to draft the best young players, paying them a preset salary for the first four years of their career. But that has at times only seemed to make things worse. The allure of the annual draft lottery can lead underachievers to conclude that mediocrity is not a worthy goal and simply tank their seasons in pursuit of a higher draft pick. "You can't be in the middle of the pack," the basketball great Magic Johnson said in December, offering a bit of strategic advice to the Los Angeles Lakers, his former team. He urged the Lakers to try to "lose every game." By spring, other contenders for worst record this season included the Timberwolves and the New York Knicks. Things got so bad in New York that The Times moved its beat reporter, Scott Cacciola, to cover, among other things, a fifth-grade basketball game in Springfield, Illinois; a Division III college rivalry in small-town Michigan; and senior-citizen pickup ball at a Manhattan YMCA. An editor's note explained that Cacciola deserved "a break from such woeful basketball" as that played by the Knicks.
The funny thing is, from an economic perspective the Lakers, the Knicks, and the Timberwolves—in fact, all 30 NBA teams—look like winners. The business of basketball, which is more and more about television ratings than about filling arena seats, has never been stronger. A proliferation of new entertainment services—Netflix, YouTube, HBO Now, you name it—has meant that live sports, along with the Academy Awards and a handful of other events, have emerged as the only reliable way for TV advertisers to reach a large audience. (In October, ESPN and TNT struck a joint deal to pay the league $2.7 billion a year starting in 2016, nearly triple the size of a similar deal signed in 2007.)
As a result, the values of NBA teams have soared. The Brooklyn Nets, uninspiring as they may be on the court, are now worth an estimated $1.5 billion, according to an annual list published by Forbes, up from an estimated $365 million when the Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov took control of the team just six years ago. And though the Timberwolves have lost a few million dollars in each of the past seven seasons and failed to make the playoffs for the past 10, Forbes estimates the team's value at more than $600 million, up from the $89 million that its owner, Glen Taylor, paid in 1995. As Taylor told a reporter in 2013, explaining why he'd rebuffed possible buyers, "Whatever the franchise is worth today, I'll make a lot of money when I sell."
Taylor can say this with confidence because team owners operate as a cartel, cushioning even the most ineffective among their ranks. The NBA employs a revenue-sharing system that requires all 30 teams to pool about half of their revenue and then divide the pot equally, helping teams that narrowly lose money turn a profit, and ensuring that very poor teams like the Timberwolves lose much less money than they otherwise would. No matter how empty the Target Center in Minneapolis is on a given night, fans in Chicago and Miami will pick up part of the deficit. Further protections include a litany of anticompetitive measures—the draft and the salary cap, as well as a de facto prohibition on new franchises and an age minimum, which essentially allows owners to postpone signing players while they develop in the unpaid minor league that is Division I college basketball. (In baseball, by contrast, young stars get multimillion-dollar contracts long before they're ready for the Major League, ensuring they'll get paid even if an injury ends their careers.)
In other words, it's easy to tell a story in which the owners, rather than the players, are the overpaid ones—and this is exactly what Roberts intends to do. "I'll give the league credit," Roberts told ESPN The Magazine. "They've done a great job promoting the notion that the owners make all the investments and take all of the risks and barely make a dollar … One of the things that I have on my list, that I will absolutely not go to my grave until I correct, is responding to that narrative."
Owners dominated the past two rounds of labor negotiations, using a looming work stoppage in 2005 to reduce the maximum length of contracts from seven to six years and to raise the age minimum to 19. The union did earn an important concession that year: the league guaranteed that at least 57 percent of revenue would go to the players, up from about half. But the players gave that gain back during the lockout in 2011, thus forfeiting more than $300 million a year in earnings. "The formula has been: after a few months when the checks don't come, the players cave," Roberts told me a few days after the press conference. "I can't say with certainty what Hunter did wrong. But he clearly failed."
Hunter is Billy Hunter, Roberts's predecessor. A former college-football star who spent two seasons in the NFL and then went on to serve as a U.S. attorney, Hunter took over the Players Association in 1996. He initially won praise, but then he seemed to grow overly comfortable in the role; a union-commissioned investigation raised questions about his travel expenses and potential conflicts of interest. Most embarrassing, Hunter appears to have hired vendors who employed his family members. The owner of one such company, an investment firm called Prim Capital, where Hunter's son, Todd, happened to work, was eventually sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after attempting to defraud the union. Hunter sued for breach of contract after the Players Association fired him in 2013—his suit is scheduled to be argued this month—but there's no doubt he lost control of his membership during the 2011 lockout, when players publicly broke ranks and urged their peers to join them in pursuing a deal.
Unlike Hunter, Roberts has almost no experience in the world of professional sports, and she has used that distance to her advantage while attacking four decades' worth of collective-bargaining agreements. "What's shocking to me is that people think my opinions are revolutionary," Roberts said. "You're not supposed to say that it's unfair that players have their salaries capped? What shocked me was this notion of 'Oh my God! How can she say those things?' "
The Monday after the All-Star Game, Roberts met me in the waiting room of a low-slung office building in Harlem. It was Presidents' Day, and she'd given her 39 employees the day off. Wearing jeans and a teal cable-knit sweater, she led me past two neat rows of cubicles and into her third-floor office overlooking the Lenox Avenue Planet Fitness.
Roberts likes to say that she has been preparing to run the Players Association her entire life, but she admits that she knew little about the business of basketball until fairly recently. In 2013, after reading about Hunter's dismissal in a news article, Roberts contacted the search firm that had been hired to help find his replacement. "I knew the union had been taking a beating in terms of the salary cap, and I always had thought that was unfair," she told me. As a corporate lawyer, she'd been paid enormous sums for bringing in a hefty slate of clients. Her talent had been rewarded. Why, Roberts wondered, should talented basketball players be treated differently? "The more I read, the more I thought, Not only can I help; no one can do it better than me," she told me. Roberts recalled being told that she could make her case to the players, provided she could commit to the job promptly. "I remember thinking, Fuck you," she said, breaking into a cheeky grin. "Giving me a deadline!"
Roberts has cultivated this bluster throughout her career, first as the head of the trial division at the prestigious Washington, D.C., Public Defender Service and then as a white-collar defense attorney. In 2002, she led Washingtonian's list of the capital's best lawyers. Roberts was "magic with juries, loved by judges, feared by opposing counsel," according to the magazine. "Lots of people call themselves litigators, but if they were to go into a courtroom, they would fall flat on their faces," Roberts told me. "A trial lawyer persuading 12 strangers who don't know each other and probably don't like each other to all agree that you should win? There's nothing like it."
She worked at a series of top-tier firms, most recently as a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which is known for absurdly high salaries—the average partner reportedly makes $2.7 million a year—and a hard-charging culture. Roberts, an unmarried, unrepentant workaholic, thrived in this environment. She told me that her staff had the day off only because they'd worked the entire All-Star weekend, and even that was a painful concession. "I haven't taken a single day off" since starting the job, she said, smiling. "I frankly want to cancel holidays."
Roberts grew up just two miles from the union's headquarters, in a South Bronx housing project, the fourth of five children. Her mother, who died shortly after Roberts passed the bar, raised the family on her own, subsisting on welfare checks and odd jobs. "We were very, very poor," Roberts told me. "So there was no money to go to the theater or even to a movie. She had to find something to amuse herself." Some ladies went to church every day; Elise Roberts passed her time in the galleries of criminal trials—free entertainment before the advent of Court TV—and brought her precocious daughter along. Roberts was, like her mother, fascinated by the law, but also outraged by its injustices, and after working her way through Wesleyan and UC Berkeley School of Law, she landed a job as a public defender in Washington, D.C.
Roberts was fiercely ambitious during those early years. "She committed to it," Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a Harvard Law School professor and, for a time, Roberts's boss at the Public Defender Service, told me. "She'd get in at 6 in the morning and stay till 11 at night, seven days a week." But what set Roberts apart from the other young lawyers was her ability to turn off all that naked ambition once she got inside the courtroom. In the poor, mostly black Washington, D.C., of the 1980s, "she used her race and gender to her benefit," Ogletree said. "She had a really folksy way of getting along with people who were total strangers. She was like the 13th juror."
Since taking over the players union, Roberts has visited all 30 NBA teams, pitching her plans to the 400-plus players she now represents. It has not been an easy sell. Despite (or perhaps because of) their athletic gifts, players have little incentive to engage in a protracted fight with the league. LeBron James may be a talent like no other, but even his prowess will not last long, which means a strike or a lockout could be devastating to his earning potential.
"The problem is that basketball players have an average career of four years and an average salary of $5 million per year," says Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College. "Given that and given that these guys love to play basketball, they don't really have the basis to stay unified for a substantial period of time. They're saying, 'You want me to risk half a season so my salary could go from $5.1 million to $5.2 million?' That's going to be Michele Roberts's main challenge."
It's hard to argue with that logic, and Roberts is almost certainly posturing—talking tough in an attempt to win concessions without a strike. But she still needs players to make a convincing-enough show of solidarity for owners to take the threat seriously. This is where her work most resembles that of a traditional labor leader.
The Players Association, of course, enjoys certain advantages over other unions—there is, after all, no LeBron James of autoworkers. But it doesn't help that, with organized labor on the decline nationally, few of Roberts's young players are likely to have had close contact with a member of any kind of union. "That's a problem for unions across the country, not just sports unions," Roberts said. "People just don't understand what it took to get better wages, what it took to make better working conditions."
The history to which Roberts is referring began, for professional sports, in 1966. That was the year Marvin Miller, a former United Steelworkers economist, persuaded Major League Baseball players to make him the head of their players union. Miller noticed that players' salaries were stagnant and foresaw huge revenues looming in the not-too-distant future, thanks in part to the growing popularity of television. He began a campaign to chip away at the owners' power. At the time, players in all the major sports were bound by the so-called reserve clause, which meant that they were tied to the team that drafted them for the entirety of their careers unless the team released them. Miller struggled early in his tenure, largely because players were pretty sure that being paid thousands of dollars to play a game was a good-enough deal.
"People just don't understand what it took to get better wages, what it took to make better working conditions."
"Players were not only ignorant about unions, they were positively hostile to the idea," he wrote in his autobiography. But Miller used a classic organizer's playbook, building support by winning small concessions and then using that goodwill to mount more-sweeping challenges: helping to take the reserve clause to the Supreme Court and staging a two-week strike, the first major walkout in sports history, in 1972. By 1975 the reserve clause was gone, and veteran players could become free agents.
Miller's achievements are rightly celebrated. But the best athletes in baseball, football, and basketball are still paid salaries far lower than those in unregulated sports such as boxing and international soccer. LeBron James, like all basketball players, is subject to the "max contract," which means that the Cleveland Cavaliers could not pay him more than $20.6 million for this season. By comparison, the top boxer, Floyd Mayweather Jr., is expected to make $180 million when he fights Manny Pacquiao in early May. (Pacquiao, now a fading great, will get a mere $120 million.) And at a time when actors and musicians exercise new levels of control over their work—Jay Z, for instance, runs his own record label—basketball players still have little or no say over where they spend the first four years of their careers, despite the fact that many careers do not last that long.
These restrictions are not without purpose. Some owners argue that the league's salary regulations preserve an environment in which teams in small and midsize cities, like the Oklahoma City Thunder, can reasonably compete for championships. European soccer leagues do not have salary caps or drafts, and as a result, many countries are dominated by a handful of clubs year after year. But it's not clear that our system is better for fans, and it certainly hurts the earning potential of the best athletes. When I brought up the issue of "competitive balance" with Roberts, she bristled. "I think 'competitive balance' is capitalists wanting to become communists," she said. "It's nonsense. The answer to the problem of competitive balance comes from smarter forecasting and planning on the parts of teams."
The nod to free-market ideology is surprising coming from the head of a high-profile labor union, but it is also telling. Approval ratings of unions have fallen to near-all-time lows in the three decades since Ronald Reagan fired striking air-traffic controllers and dealt a devastating blow to the labor movement. Since then, many Americans have come to see business owners as risk-taking entrepreneurs who have rightly earned their lofty profits and inflated salaries. Unionized workers have been cast as overpaid grumblers. Roberts may be trying to subvert that image, but it's an uphill battle when a large majority of Americans supports right-to-work laws and only 21 percent of Americans believe unions will grow stronger in the future, according to Gallup.
In the lead-up to the 2011 NBA lockout, Billy Hunter and his allies ignored this recent history and tried to make raising the salary cap a populist cause. "It's part of the overall climate that one sees around the country," Hunter said, likening the players' struggle to that of the American working class. "True, our players may earn a few more dollars than the average person, but they're still confronted by the same issues." This was, of course, ridiculous, and Hunter's strategy backfired. Players did not see the battle for a few additional percentage points of salary as an existential struggle. Fans were disgusted.
This may be why, paradoxically, the best case for the players union doesn't rely primarily on appeals to solidarity or to the greater good, but rather to old-fashioned capitalism. "No one faults Mark Cuban for being successful," Roberts told me, referring to the Dallas Mavericks owner, who made billions of dollars on a short-lived dot-com start-up and used some of that money to buy the Mavericks for $280 million in 2000, according to Forbes. Cuban's team is now worth an estimated $1.2 billion. "We have to stop thinking there's something wrong with basketball players' making money," she added.
Roberts told me that during her law career, no one would have dared suggest that the best lawyers accept anything less than their market value. "It's un-American."
Max Chafkin is a contributing writer for Fast Company.
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Upper Dublin Police Department/Google
Teacher Rose Marie LiMuli Met Student In Dog Park For Sex
By Harley Tamplin
A female teacher who lavished a high school student with gifts while forming an illegal sexual relationship with him is facing jail.
Rose Marie LiMuli, 40, has been found guilty of institutional sexual assault, relating to her relationship with a student at Upper Dublin High School in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.
The former English teacher, a married mom of two, could be jailed for seven to 14 years, The Intelligencer reports.
Montgomery County Court heard she picked the 18-year-old student up and took him to a dog park where she gave him oral sex, and the pair had sex at his home.
Assistant district attorney James Price said,
It shows that a teacher cannot use the sanctity of a school to foster an inappropriate relationship with a student, no matter how old the student is.
Upper Dublin Police Department
The sexual assault charges involved one count of oral sex and one of sexual intercourse. LiMuli was cleared of 10 other sexual assault charges.
Their relationship took place between December 2015 and March 2016. Police began investigating the following month.
Initially, the student denied the relationship because he "didn't want her to get in trouble."
In a statement, he said he would hang out in her classroom with other students because "everyone was cool with her" and she would bring in baked goods, The Ambler Gazette reports.
As soon as he turned 18 in November 2015, LiMuli put her number in his phone — wrongly believing their relationship was legal because he was at the age of consent.
In addition to the sexual relationship, she bought him gifts including a dirt bike, clothes and alcohol.
He said,
She bought me anything I wanted, honestly. She was buying me stuff every single week. I caught on that she wanted something sexual out of everything she gave me. I didn't have any affection toward her. She was buying me stuff.
LiMuli claimed she never had sex with the student, and he was blackmailing her and threatening her family because she was in a relationship with someone else.
But she admitted to giving him cash and gifts to buy his silence.
Citations: The Intelligencer, The Ambler Gazette


text:
From the Back Pages, February 17: Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger says Jose Mourinho has embarrassed both himself and Chelsea
Arsène Wenger has escalated his feud with Jose Mourinho by telling the Chelsea manager that he has embarrassed both himself and Chelsea with a "silly, disrespectful" attack on his managerial record. (The Telegraph)
Sunday, 16th February 2014, 10:04 pm
A rematch of last year's final between Manchester City and Wigan was just one of several fascinating stories set up by the FA Cup sixth-round draw on Sunday. (Daily Mail)
Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1: It was a pity that an FA Cup tie of this quality should have a referee's error at the heart of the outcome, and not just any error but a mistake from Howard Webb that got no easier to explain on the third, fourth or fifth viewing. (x)
Brendan Rodgers was last night fuming after Howard Webb denied Liverpool a penalty as Arsenal avenged their Anfield humiliation. (The Mirror)
Manchester United are continuing discussions with Wayne Rooney over a new contract, with the club and striker confident an agreement will be reached that would make him the Premier League's highest earner. (The Guardian)
England's hopes in the RBS Six Nations Championship have been struck by a serious injury blow, with Dan Cole, the tight-head prop, due to miss the rest of the campaign. (The Times)
ONE GIRL'S delight was mirrored by another's despair yesterday as the British team faced extremes of emotion. While Lizzy Yarnold was receiving her gold medal and reliving her skeleton triumph from Friday night, speed skater Elise Christie was in tears. (The Independent)


text:
Arkansas State Police investigating death of robbery suspect
By Associated Press - Friday, January 9, 2015
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a robbery suspect who they say died after a struggle with a Union County sheriff's deputy.
The Union County Sheriff says a deputy arrived at a pharmacy in Strong after an alarm triggered early Thursday morning. He says the deputy, whose name was not released, found 36-year-old Artago Damon Howard of Monroe, Louisiana, inside.
The sheriff says the deputy and Howard struggled briefly, and the deputy's weapon discharged. Authorities say Howard fled the store, but the deputy caught him outside.
Once the deputy realized Howard had been shot, authorities say the deputy requested an ambulance. The suspect died outside the pharmacy a short time later.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (https://bit.ly/1xOUfHw ) reports that Arkansas State Police is investigating the incident.
Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, https://www.arkansasonline.com


text:
Get Fit Foundation... The activity and fitness governing body... get-fit-foundation.org
Home About GEFF Diabetes I-Ped Activity Tracking System DIY Health Test BMI Calculator 20-20 World Cricket Classic Tennis rules Volleyball rules Swimming rules Event Calendar GEFF Partners Contact Us
Volleyball ? Basic Rules for Experiencing Safe Gameplays
You might have seen many people playing Volleyball as it is considered one of the best games for staying fit and improving your playing skills. The people who love to play Volleyball must learn about the major rules that play a significant role while playing this game. Volleyball is played with the help of a circular-shaped ball and net, and two teams are there that take part in playing this game.
Both teams significantly impact their playing skills and have the same goal of winning the match. Many people prefer to play Volleyball because this game allows them to impact their health significantly and allows them to stay fit. The people who get involved in playing Volleyball must have some basic knowledge about it so that they can experience safe gameplay in the starting itself.
If people don't pay attention to the major volleyball rules, then it will be difficult for them to get involved in this game and stay connected with it for a longer time period. Different games have different rules, and it is a must for people to learn about the rules related to that particular game they are planning to play. The people interested in playing Volleyball must stay connected as the below information will help them grab proper details about the rules for playing this game.
Volleyball Rules
The people who prefer to play Volleyball then must be aware of the major rules that play a significant role while playing this game. In Volleyball, two teams are there, with six players each in the front row and 3 in the back row.
There are three main hits per side that play a major role, and the points are decided according to those three hits. The points given to the teams are mainly according to the service given to the winning team of the rally, which is known as rally-point scoring.
The players who are involved in Volleyball may not hit the ball twice in a succession which is a block is not considered hit; that is why they played off the net during a volume or a server.
When the ball hits the boundary line, make sure that it will be the line inside the area that comes in the area for playing Volleyball.
When the ball gets out of the boundary line, its antennae shows that the floor is completely outside the court. The net or the cables of the boundary are considered a non-playable area by the referee and the pole standing for overviewing the game.
The ball included by Volleyball needs to be played with the hands, and it is considered illegal to contact the ball with any other part of the body. If you use any other part of your body to hit the ball, it will be considered illegal.
If players catch, hold, or throw the ball, then it is also known as illegal because the ball needs to be hit by the hands. The player cannot block or attack the serve from on or inside the 10-foot line because it is considered illegal and makes players face troubles while playing Volleyball.
When the service takes place in the front line, the players can switch positions at the net. Volleyball matches are made up of sets, and the entire number is based on playing the matches.
The three sets considered two sets of 25 points, and the third set is 15, each set is required two more points to win the match, and the team that wins to match must consider the winner of the game.
Another match set is five, considered the four sets of 25 points, and the third set is 15. The team is required to win the match by winning two points according to the rules dictate for playing Volleyball, and the team will win three points first with considered as the winner of the game.
By considering the information mentioned above, you can learn about the major volleyball rules that will allow you to have a great impact on your knowledge. Once you learned about the major rules, then it will help you to experience wonderful gameplays. It is a must for people to learn about all the major rules to avoid any query while dealing with Volleyball gameplays. For better understanding, you can pay proper attention to all the details mentioned above, so try to stay focused and connected for having better understanding without facing any doubt or query.
Copyright © 2021 Get Fit Foundation Ltd


text:
Direct-to-consumer  (DTC) or business-to-consumer (B2C) is the business model of selling products directly to customers and thereby bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or any other middlemen. Direct-to-consumer sales are usually transacted online, but direct-to-consumer brands may also operate  physical retail spaces as a complement to their main e-commerce platform  in a clicks-and-mortar business model.

History

Direct-to-consumer became immensely popular during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s when it was mainly used to refer to online retailers who sold products and services to consumers through the Internet.

This business model originated before modern transportation and electricity when people consumed  locally due to  geographical distance and business competition was more limited.

As  new modes of transport kept emerging (steamboat, train,  automobile, airplane),  consumers gained access to a  wider variety of goods and service providers, increasing business competition.

The emergence of the Internet further increased access to many different types of goods and services, and increased competition meant that businesses had to put additional effort to win and keep customers.

Advantages and disadvantages

Direct-to-consumer enjoys lower costs compared to physical retail, as it has reduced the number of different business components like employees, purchasing cost, mailing confirmation, renting or establishing a physical store.

DTC  enables smaller companies to compete with large and successful companies  in terms of price, availability of the products, and quality since costs are lower.
Direct-to-consumer sales can drive stronger brand loyalty and  customer  retention.

The main risks in the online Direct-to-consumer are expanding liability risk, cyber risk and more  supply chain demands. DTC exposes a business to tasks that  would otherwise be taken up by wholesalers and retailers, such as shipping, labelling, and cybersecurity. Data privacy and cybersecurity are especially important in online businesses. Accepting online payments can make DTC businesses a target for hackers and cyber criminals, exposing them to the risks of fraudulent payments and false chargebacks.   The direct-to-consumer business model puts the entire burden of the supply chain onto the firm itself; rather than selling to only a few distributors,  the products must be delivered to many individual customers.

See also
 Retail
 Disintermediation
 Consumer-to-business
 Over-the-top media service
 Marketing channel
 Wholesale fashion distribution
 Types of e-commerce

References

Business terms
Retailing
Marketing strategy
Merchandising

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: 'HubCallerContext' does not contain a definition for 'Request' singnalr .netcore I'm using signalr with .Net Core 3.0 and Angular 8
public class ConnectionHub : Hub
{
    public ConnectionHub()
    {
    }
    public override async Task OnConnectedAsync()
    {
        //get userName, token and other stuff
        await base.OnConnectedAsync();
    }
    public override async Task OnDisconnectedAsync(Exception exception)
    {
        await base.OnDisconnectedAsync(exception);
    }
}

Added in startup.cs:
app.UseSignalR(options =>
            {
                options.MapHub<ConnectionHub>("/ConnectionHub");
            });

In angular
//configure
private connection: any = new signalR.HubConnectionBuilder().withUrl("http://localhost:6002/ConnectionHub?userName='abc'")
        .configureLogging(signalR.LogLevel.Information)
        .build();
//start
this.connection.start()

I want to access my custom data sent in query params, but in OnConnectedAsync, the context is following:

How can I access query params in OnConnectedAsync() method.
Documentation says I can use Context.Request, but in OnConnectedAsync it says 'HubCallerContext' does not contain a definition for 'Request'

A: I found the solution

*

*Inherit ConnectionHub with Hub<IHubClients>

*get request object by using Context.GetHttpContext().Request
so the ConnectionHub class will look like this:
 public class ConnectionHub: Hub<IHubClients>
    {
        public ConnectionHub()
        {
        }
        public override async Task OnConnectedAsync()
        {
            //get userName, token and other stuff
            var userName = Context.GetHttpContext().Request.Query["userName"];
            await base.OnConnectedAsync();
        }
        public override async Task OnDisconnectedAsync(Exception exception)
        {
            await base.OnDisconnectedAsync(exception);
        }
    }

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The BAP focused on the issue "whether Rule 1009(a)'s "any time before the case is closed" language creates a "specified period" during which an act must be done." If it does, then Rule 9006 applies and debtors must show excusable neglect. If it doesn't, then amendment may occur as a matter of course while the case is open. In re Dollman, BAP No. NM-18-030, 11 (10th Cir. B.A.P. February 5, 2019).
The BAP concluded that the phrase "any time before the case is closed" is not a "specified period." The BAP started with application of the plain meaning analysis. The language "any time before the case is closed" references an indeterminate timeframe because it is impossible to determine the date a case will close.
The BAP also concluded that reopening a bankruptcy case under 11 U.S.C. § 350(b) is a purely administrative task and that the bankruptcy court has a duty to reopen a case whenever there is prima facie proof that a case is not fully administered. Since reopening is "…'purely administrative' Rule 1009(a)'s language does not impose a substantive limitation on the debtors' ability to amend their schedules…A reopening renders a case open." Id. at 13. Rule 1009(a) contains no distinction between an original case and a reopened case nor does the rule require schedules be amended prior to the first closing of the case. Id.
The BAP concluded that "Simply put, Rule 9006(b)(1) does not apply to Rule 1009(a)…" Id. at 15.
• Rule 1009(a) doesn't contain a specific time period to amend schedules so Rule 9006(b) should not apply.
• Always reopen and amend schedules to list omitted assets and exemptions.
• If there are issues in your case please reach out to Tara Twomey at www.NCBRC.org for assistance. You will find briefs and wisdom to assist your argument.


text:
A robot lizard to explore the surface of Mars
No rigid and heavy rovers: the key to Martian exploration is all in this ingenious "cyber lizard".
Graeme Smith: "extraterrestrial probes would arrive in reverse order"
A study by the University of California tries to answer the question of what extraterrestrial probes could really look like
LSPOP, an oxygen pipeline will run through the lunar South Pole
A pipeline as the easiest way to transport oxygen from the South Pole to the lunar equator: Artemis has clear ideas on how to bring man back to the Moon forever
NASA studies "pellet beam" propulsion: space travel 9 times faster
A new propulsion technology that can significantly shorten the duration of space travel enters Phase 1.
Smile: life on Earth is just beginning (I didn't say "man", though)
Not new news for a message that has no age: life on Earth literally defies the end of the world.
Today we will use HAARP to hit an asteroid with a radio "bullet".
The HAARP radio system will be used for the first time as a radio "cannon" to know the interior of the asteroid which today will pass at a distance twice that of the Moon
Twin water worlds discovered in the constellation Lyra
Astronomers at the University of Montréal have discovered 2 twin "aquatic" worlds around a red dwarf star: the first case of its kind.
Rigel, a geological robot will travel 1000 years to study an exoplanet
A geologist robot on an alien planet: it looks like the plot of a movie, but it's a project that has just been presented. And it's not nonsense at all.
Forests under glass on Mars, the "crazy" idea of the English professor
The idea of an English academic has yet to be demonstrated, but it will bring new studies and research into an increasingly beaten field.
Project 921, China studies reusable rockets that can be "lassoed"
The space race gets interesting, and "ambitious" projects accelerate: the latest Chinese rockets show a strange method of reuse.
Page 1 of 23 1 2 ... 23 Next


Berlin Bier Shop: Trappist is not a Beer Style !
"Trappist" is not a style of beer. Trappist monks brew pale ales, dark brown dubbels, blonde tripels, quadrupels, witbiers and strong, dark ales. Now, with the addition of a brewery at the Austrian Trappist monastery, there will soon be even more beers added to the list. With so much variety, one could hardly use the word Trappist to describe a style of beer.


text:
20 chansons d'or est un album de Mireille Mathieu (1984).
 20 chansons d'or est un album de Jacques Higelin (1998).


You heard them before you saw them. Cries of "Harry! Oh my God!" Hysterical squeals.
Then you realised it was a false alarm. A camera crew had asked for a demonstration of enthusiasm for their live-cross and the cheer had spread among the crowd – but the rumours of a royal arrival proved greatly exaggerated.
For those following the Duke and Duchess' whirlwind tour of Melbourne on TV, radio and online it must have seemed like constant delirium among the royal watchers.
Hundreds flocked to the Royal Botanic Gardens well before 8am for their chance to catch a glimpse of Harry and Meghan at their first public engagement in Melbourne at Government House.
The royal couple didn't arrive until about 11.25am.
In those intervening hours, total strangers became friends. The more senior among the crowd swapped tales of royal visits passed, of photographing Prince Charles and Lady Di in 1983 and touching Queen Elizabeth's dress in 2011. Some vowed to never wash their hands again.
People put down their homemade banners and gifts, rested their weary legs and shed the weight of their plastic crowns. They waited.
Then the screaming started and, this time, it was real.
For those waiting near the gates, the 20-something minutes it took Harry and Meghan to walk Government House Drive must have seemed like an eternity. The glamorous couple worked the crowd, often one on either side of the aisle, shaking hands, kneeling to talk to little ones, stretching to receive gifts.
A sea of raised hands clutching smartphones followed their path as the onlookers sought to capture their brush with royalty.
Harry and Meghan did what royals do. They shook hands, smiled, exchanged pleasantries.
And then, just like that, they were gone. After all that waiting, the 20-something minutes felt like just a moment.
Some stood, literally shaking. Others checked their photostream. Newly formed friends swapped stories. People rang those who missed it to brag.
For a moment, Melbourne was filled with a flood of warmth and happiness. Smiles abounded as Melbourne embraced the newlywed couple, who just this week announced they are expecting their first child.
"Congratulations!" people yelled, as the couple walked past.
The royal fever continued as the Duke and Duchess arrived on a tram at South Melbourne beach. There was a huge roar from the crowd as the tram doors opened.
A great stampede followed as people ran from the tram stop to the beach. So eager were some to catch a glimpse of royalty, they kicked off their shoes, rolled up their pants and waded into the rather chilly waters of Port Phillip Bay.
Formalities didn't matter now. Meghan and Harry's relaxed style made this visit all the easier to enjoy.
After their brief moment in the presence of royalty, the ordinary folk of Melbourne went back to their lives, but with a wonderful story to tell over the dinner table, and for years to come.


text:
Twitter Fan Page
Bipartisan Report
Hero Police Officer Sits During National Anthem After Crowd Saluted Confederate Flag (VIDEO)
Carissa House-Dunphy
Would you stand for the national anthem if you were facing a Confederate flag?
Recent protests during the national anthem by NFL players in a show of solidarity against police violence perpetrated against Americans of color have spurred much debate and controversy, but Utah police officer Daniel Argueta never expected to be part of that.
'With all the controversy going on with the flag recently and people sitting during the anthem, we had all intended to stand, but we couldn't. People probably looked around, probably wondering what we were doing.'
For Argueta, it wasn't about unpacking the intricacies of systemic racism; it took a much more blatant and recognizable (for some) symbol of racism to make him and his family sit out "The Star-Spangled Banner."
When a truck at the demolition derby in West Jordan, Utah, made the rounds with a Confederate flag raised, Argueta's young children were upset. They became even more so when they were asked to stand and salute the long-held symbol of racism and white supremacy during the national anthem.
Argueta's 10-year-old daughter, Jasmine, told reporters:
'When I saw the Confederate flag, I didn't want to stand because it meant slavery.'
The truck was owned by Stirrin' Dirt Racing, with whom the city of West Jordan contracted to arrange the event. A spokeswoman for the city, Kim Wells, apologized to attendees.
'From a city's perspective, we're very disappointed. We didn't know that was a part of the show […] We're very surprised and we apologize. We certainly didn't mean to make people feel uncomfortable.'
Owner of Stirrin' Dirt Racing, Jim Simko, blamed one of the company's "helpers" for the incident.
'It wasn't politically correct, I'm sure, for some people. But there's some people who look at that flag and say this is the land of the free […] It shouldn't have happened, but I can't, unfortunately, watch what everybody does at every minute.'
Simko, proving that he still doesn't get it, also said that he felt the incident had been "blown way out of proportion." Offficer Argueta disagrees.
'What's awkward is our kids understood what it meant. My son asked me, "Dad, are we really going to stand with the Confederate flag there?" And as a father, it's a hard decision, especially in the spur of the moment, but the right thing to do was protest.'
For local news coverage of the disturbing incident, see video below:
Featured image screengrab via video
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