Ryan Bader Sends King Mo To The Quiet Place In Just 15 Seconds.
Former UFC top ranked contender turned Bellator light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader made his debut in the Heavyweight grand prix tonight when he faced former Strikeforce champion King Mo Muhammed Lawal in the main event of Bellator 199. Here are the highlights.
Bellator MMA (formerly known as Bellator Fighting Championships) is an American mixed martial arts promotion company based in Santa Monica, California that is owned and operated by parent company Viacom. It is the second-largest MMA promotion in the world and features many of the top-ranked fighters in Combat Sports. Its first event was held in 2009, with 195 "numbered" events held as of March 2018. The word Bellator means "warrior" in Latin.
The promotion features the talents of Gegard Mousasi, Paul Daley, Michael Chandler, Rory MacDonald, Ryan Bader, Chael Sonnen, Muhammed Lawal, Bobby Lashley, Quinton Jackson, Jake Hager, Fedor Emelianenko, Frank Mir, Roy Nelson & Matt Mitrione. Bellator was founded in 2008 by former Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. Under Rebney's ownership, Bellator featured "The Toughest Tournament in Sports", which was a single-elimination format that awarded the winner of each eight-person or four-person tournament a check for $100,000 and a guaranteed world-title fight against the current Bellator world champion in the applicable weight class.
Since Scott Coker took over as president of the promotion, Bellator has stopped with the tournament format and now follows a more traditional MMA format with multiple 1 vs 1 fights placed on multiple cards throughout the year. In December 2011, Viacom acquired a majority stake of Bellator and in January 2013, all Bellator events began airing on Spike. Bellator produced nearly 25 live events annually until 2015, as well as shoulder programming including fighter features, highlight shows and reality-based programming.
In May 2014, Bellator hosted the company's inaugural pay-per-view event from the Landers Center. The event featured a Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament Final fight between Rampage Jackson and King Mo, Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks for the Lightweight Interim World Title, Alexander Shlemenko vs. Tito Ortiz, the Bellator Season 10 Heavyweight Tournament Final between Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov and a feature fight between Ricky Rainey vs. Michael Page.
In the past, Bellator has sporadically featured tournaments, unlike several other MMA promotions. However, in 2015, Bellator President Scott Coker made the decision to drop the 8-man tournament format in favor of smaller tournaments. Bellator included weight classes from bantamweight (135 pounds) through heavyweight (265 pounds) and tournaments in each weight class were conducted over a three-month period. Each tournament began with the opening round featuring eight fighters in that respective weight class, moved onto the semi-finals and then the finals.
For four-man tournaments, only the semi-finals and finals were included. Each tournament was single elimination and there was a one-month break between opening round, semi-finals and finals. During the tournament the rules were slightly different from those of a non-tournament fight. Elbow strikes were illegal in the quarterfinal and semifinal tournament bouts due to the high probability of a cut occurring. Elbow strikes were legal in the finals. The tournament final was still a three five-minute rounds, since it is not a title fight.
Bellator partnered with Rizin Fighting Federation for the RIZIN FIGHTING WORLD GRAND-PRIX event held on December 29 and 31 2015, sharing King Mo Lawal for the Rizin FF Tournament. The former Pride FC Heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko headlined the NYE Rizin FF main event. Bellator does not run regularly scheduled tournaments, however they are always an option at Scott Coker's discretion.


text:
Childhood Disability Rates Rising For The Past 10 Years
Mental Illness Can Have More Impact on Life Expectancy Than Smoking
Research suggests that you should put away your smartphone at the end of the work day in order to be more productive the following day.
Michigan State University business scholar, Russell Johnson and colleagues discovered that workers that tried to continue working on their smartphone past 9:00 p.m. were more worn out and less engaged during the following work day.
"Smartphones are almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep," said Johnson, MSU assistant professor of management who acknowledges keeping his smartphone at his bedside at night. "Because they keep us mentally engaged late into the evening, they make it hard to detach from work so we can relax and fall asleep."
According to research, at least 50% of U.S. adults own a smartphone. Many of them consider their phones to be critical workforce productivity tools; however the National Sleep Foundation indicates that only 40% of Americans get enough sleep on most nights. Likewise, much of the self-reported data suggests that the lack of sleep can be attributed to smartphone usage for work.
To study this phenomenon, researchers asked 82 upper-level managers to complete multiple surveys daily for two weeks. They also surveyed 161 employees daily in a variety of occupations, such as nursing, manufacturing and dentistry etc.
All workers from all occupations indicated in their surveys that smartphone use for business purposes affected their sleep and drained their energy the following work day. The study also noted that smartphones more negatively impacted workers than watching television or using laptops and tablet computers.
"In addition to keeping people mentally engaged at night, smartphones emit "blue light" that seems to be the most disruptive of all colors of light. Blue light is known to hinder melatonin, a chemical in the body that promotes sleep."
It seems that smartphone use late at night impacts the amount and quality of sleep we get, which affects our attention and abilities the following day. That being said, this small study may be reason enough to turn that phone off after 9:00 p.m. to see how it might benefit us physiologically and psychologically.
Nighttime Smartphone Use Zaps Workers' Energy
Scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have discovered that an absent father during critical growth periods can lead to social and behavioral impairments in adults. This is the first study of its kind to correlate paternal deprivation and social attributes with physical changes in the brain.
"Although we used mice, the findings are extremely relevant to humans," says senior author Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a researcher of the Mental Illness and Addiction Axis at the RI-MUHC and an associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. "We used California mice which, like in some human populations, are monogamous and raise their offspring together."
Researchers were able to control the environment in which the mice were raised, including the factors among the different groups. As a result, mice studies may be clearer than human studies claims Francis Bambico, a former student of Dr. Gobbi at McGill and now a post-doc at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto.
Researchers compared the social behaviour and brain structure of mice in different groups; those raised with both parents and those raised by their mothers. Findings show that mice raised by single mothers experienced abnormal social interactions and were more aggressive than those raised with both parents present. In addition, these findings were more prevalent among female mice. Furthermore, females also experienced an increased sensitivity to amphetamine.
"The behavioral deficits we observed are consistent with human studies of children raised without a father," says Dr. Gobbi, who is also a psychiatrist at the MUHC. "These children have been shown to have an increased risk for deviant behavior and in particular, girls have been shown to be at risk for substance abuse. This suggests that these mice are a good model for understanding how these effects arise in humans."
Further studies may uncover a clearer reasoning for such findings. Is it merely the presence of a male role model? Could it be that two parents, regardless of gender, have more influence than one? Could male mice be more sensitive to amphetamine if raised by fathers alone? Many questions remain for future studies to uncover, however this research demonstrates that the role of the father and/or the presence of both parents during critical stages of growth appear to be relatively important in children's mental health development.
Dads: How Important Are They? New Research Highlights Value of Fathers in Both Neurobiology and Behavior of Offspring

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
XXXTentacion Memorial Breaks into Chaos in L.A.
posted by Papa Keith - Jun 20, 2018
The death of XXXTentacion came as a shock to many. Aside from the controversial issues he was going through, it is safe to say that he touched tons of fans with his music and message.
So much that hundreds of fans closed down Melrose Ave in Los Angeles as they remembered the artist. It got so out of hand that officials were called. Some risking their lives by jumping off roofs during a tribute to the rapper in Los Angeles, according to World Star Hip Hop.


Word on the street is that the peeps at DateDesigner.com… ;-) …are giving away a $100 Visa gift card and a $50 Visa gift card. The $100 Visa gift card goes to the user who builds the Best Valentine's Day Date, and the $50 Visa gift card goes to the most active user on the site for the month of January up until February 10th!
Make sure you get in on this contest so DateDesigner.com can help out with the bill on your Valentine's Day Date. All you have to do is register on the site, and then create a date under the "Valentine's Day Date" category (you select this when you save the date). So what are you waiting for??? DO IT!


I had the great honor of photographing Kim and Bryan's wedding. The wedding took place at The Oriental Gardens at Gordon Moore Park. The day was warm but beautiful and I couldn't have asked for a nicer couple or family to photograph!
One of the things I always try to capture at weddings is the groom's reaction when the bride walks down the aisle.
The ceremony was short but very sweet. They were surrounded by their family and friends.
After the Ceremony, we went straight to the formals which is one of my many favorite parts of photographing weddings!
The night ended with the reception.


Shieldless Lothian, formerly of Forossa.
Hits greatly reduce enemy poise.
this ring will be clear.
Go through the Firekeepers home, cross the bridge and turn right immediately. Now follow the footsteps which lead to the Ogre with the ring.
This ring also increases Poise damage of spells.


text:
1980 English Amateur Championship
2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 1919 1918 1917 1916
1980 Pontins Camber Sands 1980 Pontins Professional 1980 World Championship 1980 Scottish Professional Championship 1980 Irish Professional Championship 1980 British Gold Cup 1980 Irish Masters 1980 Masters 1980 Tolly Cobbold Classic 1980 Welsh Professional Championship 1980 Classic 1980 Canadian Professional Championship 1980 Padmore / Super Crystalate International 1980 Pot Black 1979 Bombay International 1979 UK Championship 1979 Canadian Open 1979 South African Professional Championship 1979 Limosin International 1979 Kronenbrau 1308 Classic
Status: Amateur National Championship
Dates: January 1st 1980
Location: Various, Various, England
Note: Dates tournament was held unknown. The above dates are placeholders.
Joe O'Boye
13 (25) 9
Dave Martin
North - Final
8 (15) 3
Colin Roscoe
South - Final
Mike Darrington
North - Semi-final
Peter Bardsley
George Wood
South - Semi-final
Jimmy White
Ted Brown
North - Quarter-final
Bill Clarke
Eric Thorpe
George Scott
Steve Duggan
South - Quarter-final
Bryn Edwards
Chris Marks
Roger Cole
Geoff Foulds
North - Last 16
John Hargreaves
Stan Haslam
Billy Kelly
Graham Cripsey
Robert Close
Dave Chalmers
Eric Lawlor
South - Last 16
Dai Thomas
Terry Whitthread
Kevin Parlett
Jack Fitzmaurice
Bill Oliver
Alan Bailey


text:
3 Amazing Food Festivals in Paris in 2016
Photo courtesy of A Taste Of Paris
Exactly what we think of when we hear the words "French food"
Amazing must-dos on the Parisian culinary scene in the upcoming months
One hardly needs to justify a trip to Paris, but three upcoming food festivals make for a particularly appealing reason to stop over in the next two months.
1. Taste of Paris: February 11-14
Many found it curious that it took ten years for the international Taste Festival to reach Paris (blame red tape!), but the city more than made up for lost time with the inaugural Taste of Paris in 2015. Beginning February 11th, the festival returns to the illustrious Grand Palais for a second edition with an even more robust cast of leading chefs, including Alain Ducasse, Thierry Marx, Romain Meder, Pierre Sang, Guy Savoy, Stephanie Le Quellec and Daniel Morgan, a rising English chef based in Paris. Each will cook up a menu of modestly priced appetizers, mains and desserts (ranging from 5-12 euros) in an effort to expose a wide dining audience to their cooking.
A selection of food artisans and producers (olive oil, cider, caviar, Burgundy wines, jams and Maille mustard, among others) handpicked by the Culinary College of France will also be presenting or running workshops at the festival. Hands-on cooking sessions and a Laurent-Perrier Champagne pairing bar will lend a more practical element to the experience (and offset the crowds at the food stalls). Visiting families will be pleased (relieved, perhaps?) to know that a full roster of activities (including a treasure hunt) have been arranged to keep the younger set occupied. —paris.tastefestivals.com
2. Omnivore World Tour Paris: March 6, 7, 8
The 11th edition of the Omnivore traveling culinary festival arrives in Paris in March at the Maison de la Mutualité and will continue to focus on emerging trends and rising young chefs through a host of food demonstrations and masterclasses. Founder Luc Dubanchet calls the three-day food and beverage affair one giant party, complete with pop-up dinners and five stages—sweet, savory, liquid, artisan and, the newest and most forward-looking, avant-garde—to highlight what defines the food scene today and what may define it tomorrow (think: more entrepreneurs and reinforced emphasis on sustainability). From craft beer brewers and gluten-free bakers to specialty coffee roasters and megawatt pastry chefs, there is something to satisfy all manner of food lover.—omnivore.com/world-tour
3. Le Food Market (Monthly)
Much in the spirit of the weekly pop up street food markets in Berlin, Le Food Market began in 2015 as a way to celebrate the thriving street food scene in Paris, putting the spotlight primarily on foods that originate from beyond French borders. Complicated permits, logistics and limited space make the weekly format more of a long-term ambition than a feasibility but locals have come to look forward to the monthly outing where they can browse the 15 stands and taste a little bit of everything at less than 10 euros. The concept wasn't merely about bringing people together around the shared love of street food in all its forms and flavors, but to develop neighborhood life and community. That the Le Food Market occupies the same space as the weekly open-air farmer's market on Boulevard de Belleville isn't a coincidence. The event's founders want to drive the message that street food, from vegan veggie bowls and Tunisian couscous to Texan barbecue and savory pies, can be part of le bien manger (eating well).—lefoodmarket.fr
>>Next: The Best Pastries in Paris (Besides All The Croissants)


text:
Q: Abstract base class with an abstract method that will take one or two values (Scala) I'm thinking of how to write an abstract base class with an abstract method that will take either one ro two Int values. Something like:
abstract class Foo {
  def doSomething(???): Unit
}

The best I can think of so far is declaring a parameter as a Vector[Int] that will either hold one or two values, or perhaps to better enforce the maximum of two values a Tuple2[Int, Int].
I'd like to do this as I want to pass around algorithms within an Actor system, and I want certain messages to enforce the type of the algorithm instead of passing around an Any, hence the abstract base class.
Is this the best way, or are there better ways?

A: Typically this would just be done with an overloaded method.  Then when calling the method on Bar, they can pass in either one or two things:
abstract class Foo {
  def doSomething(a: Int): Int
  def doSomething(a: Int, b: Int): Int
}

class Bar extends Foo {
  def doSomething(a: Int): Int = a
  def doSomething(a: Int, b: Int): Int = a * b
}

Or alternatively, using a default parameter (which still allows you to do new Bar().doSomething(5))
abstract class Foo {
  def doSomething(a: Int, b: Int = 1): Int
}

class Bar extends Foo {
  def doSomething(a: Int, b: Int): Int = a * b
}

But it sounds like you want to do this in a way where you always call the same Foo method, so in that case, you can do the polymorphism on the parameter:
trait Thing
case class Thing1(a: Int) extends Thing
case class Thing2(a: Int, b: Int) extends Thing

abstract class Foo {
  def doSomething(t: Thing): Int
}

class Bar extends Foo {
  def doSomething(t: Thing): Int = t match {
    case Thing1(a) => a
    case Thing2(a, b) => a * b
  }
}

Or, since you just have two choices, you can do the same thing with an Either:
abstract class Foo {
  def doSomething(t: Either[Int, (Int, Int)]): Int
}

class Bar extends Foo {
  def doSomething(t: Either[Int, (Int, Int)]): Int = t match {
    case Left(a) => a
    case Right((a, b)) => a * b
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


MECHANICSVILLE, MARYLAND (February 21, 2018) – Maryland International Raceway ™ (MDIR) proudly announces the addition of the new and exciting Ray's Siding No Clock Street List and Shootout program to the Speed Unlimited Midnight Madness events beginning with the Friday, April 20 season kick-off date.
The new Ray's Siding No Clock Street List program is a no-time and no time slips, heads-up, pro tree, Top 10 style class ran on the 1000' with callouts between list racers & shootouts where the shootout winner gets a shot at number 10 on the list.
The program will begin at the April 20 event with the initial shootout eliminations to determine the "first-ever" Ray's Siding No Clock Street Top 10 List. Once the initial list is established, moving forward, only the winner of the event shootout at subsequent Speed Unlimited Midnight Madness dates will get a chance to race for the number 10 spot. The shootout will be the same as The List races, including pro tree starts with a single elimination bracket. At each event, including the April 20 opener, the Shootout program will include $500 to the winner along with a 4' tall trophy and a 3' tall trophy to the runner-up all season courtesy of Ray's Siding and Maryland International Raceway. A running Top 10 list graphic including driver photos will be created and maintained throughout the season for both racers and fans to enjoy and talk smack about, and an end-of-season Top 10 list will also be established and carried forward to following seasons.
The shootout class run at all nine Speed Unlimited Midnight Madness events will be paired randomly at the front of staging lanes with a deck of cards, including a bye run in case of an odd number, as the cars are pulling out of the lanes onto the pad behind the water box. For each pair, 2 cards will be drawn by an official from the deck. If the 2 cards are red, 2 cars from the right lane will run each other with first car having lane choice. If the 2 cards are black, 2 cars from the left lane will run each other with first car having lane choice. If 1 card is red and the other black, then 1 car from each lane will run each other in their respective lanes.
To be a part of this exciting new program, all shootout competitors must meet all the rules stated (see complete rules link below). Rules designed for the Ray's Siding No Clock Street List were created to maximize both even competitiveness as well as street car appeal to coincide with the Speed Unlimited Midnight Madness program. To compete, all vehicles and/or drivers are required the following: valid driver's license, valid vehicle registration, and valid license plate. Dealer/Temp plates prohibited, factory VIN plate must be visible in stock dash and vehicle must have operational street equipment including: working headlights, taillights, brake lights and exhaust.
High-level vehicle rules for the list include OEM steel (fiberglass/composite if OEM equipped) body shell required, stock-appearing dash and finished interior mandatory including front seats for driver and passenger, carpet throughout, and door panels. Stock-type front suspension or stock bolt-in type replacement front suspension required, hood exits prohibited. An exhaust system with mufflers is required, except turbo cars (turbo is the muffler), single power adders are permitted. Single power adder examples: single or multiple turbos, single or multiple stages of nitrous. You cannot mix power-adders; for example: single turbo & nitrous, multiple turbos & nitrous are not permitted. For tires, competitors will run on 275 tires with 15" rim or smaller; 315 tires with rims over 15", 10.5 X 25 slicks permitted (NO "W" slicks). Front wheel drive vehicles are allowed to run drag slicks (no restrictions).
Welcome to the Speed Unlimited Midnight Madness Street Car Series. These events are for street legal cars, trucks, and Motorcycles. No race cars allowed.


Today was our first workout in Old Town. We stayed within a two block radius of our office and utilized objects around us for an all around workout.
A walk at the beginning took us to the corner at River City Brewing Co. We did jumping jacks and squats for all drivers on 1st Street to see. Bench push-ups was our last exercise at this spot. By putting our arms on the seat part of the bench and our legs far back behind us we pushed through our palms to make the small movements. Many people think they have to go as far down as they can, but this doesn't help to define the muscles it only puts more pressure on the shoulders.
Making our way down the block past Mort's and around to Larkspur we used benches to do dips and more bench push-ups. In dips you act like you are sitting on the bench a few inches from it and use your arms to raise and lower your body. Don't have a bench? Use your office chair to get the same effect. Great exercise for the triceps.
After jogging for a while we did wall push-ups on the backside of Heroes. Using the stairs leading up to justinmcclure.tv's office, we showed off our fast feet like in aerobics to get our legs moving. A fast jog back to the office and we were sweating. It was a lot of fun to be outside instead of in the gym or office all day long. It truly is our recess.
Want to join the fun? Follow our #thinkingfit hashtag on twitter to find a time that fits with your schedule.


text:
Rhesus este o tragedie care a fost atribuită de unii cercetători lui Euripide. Deja din antichitate au existat rezerve față de includerea ei în rândul operelor lui Euripide, deși este cert faptul că marele dramaturg a scris o piesă cu acest nume. Se consideră de obicei că piesa care s-a păstrat este doar o prelucrare mai târzie a subiectului, scrisă în stilul lui Euripide. Acțiunea piesei se bazează în mare parte pe cântul al X-lea al Iliadei, supranumit Dolonia.

Locul acțiunii: În fața cortului lui Hector, la porțile Troiei.
 Scena 1 - versurile 1-86 - Străjile troiene (corul) îl trezesc pe Hector din somn, deoarece au observat agitație în tabăra aheilor.
 Scena 2 - versurile 87-148 - Enea îl sfătuiește pe Hector să nu pornească un atac noaptea, ci să încerce să afle intențiile inamicului.
 Scena 3 - versurile 149-194 - Dolon este trimis ca iscoadă în tabăra lui Agamemnon.
 Scena 4 - versurile 195-223 - În timp ce străjile invocă ajutorul zeiței justiției, Dolon devine tot mai arogant.
 Scena 5 - versurile 224-263 - Străjile (corul) înalță o rugă pentru izbânda misiunii lui Dolon.
 Scena 6 - versurile 264-387 - Un păstor de pe Ida îi anunță lui Hector sosirea lui Rhesus. Prințul nu vede sosirea acestui aliat tardiv cu ochi buni, deoarece crede că a cucerit deja izbânda.
 Scena 7 - versurile 388-526 - Hector îi aduce lui Rhesus nenumărate reproșuri. Acesta își justifică întârzierea prin războiul pe care a trebuit să-l ducă împotriva sciților, care-i invadaseră patria. Acum, când sciții sunt înfrânți și obligați să plătească tribut, deoarece fiii căpeteniilor lor se află ca ostatici în mâna tracilor, Rhesus poate lupta pentru Troia.
 Scena 8 - versurile 527-545 - Schimbul străjilor în Troia.
 Scena 9 - versurile 546-564 - Străjile se întreabă de ce întârzie Dolon.
 Scena 10 - versurile 565-594 - Dolon a fost prins de către Odiseu și Diomede. Aceștia au putut, datorită trădării lui Dolon, să pătrundă în taberele apărătorilor Troiei și ajung chiar în fața cortului lui Hector, intenționând să-l ucidă pe prințul troian.
 Scena 11 - versurile 595-641 - Atena intervine, sfătuindu-i pe Odiseu și Diomede să-l ucidă pe Rhesus.
 Scena 12 - versurile 642-666 - Se răspândește vestea că au pătruns iscoade în tabăra troiană. Paris îl avertizează pe Hector, dar acesta este calmat de Atena, care îl amăgește luând chipul Afroditei.
 Scena 13 - versurile 667-727 - Rhesus este ucis. Atena îl îndeamnă pe Odiseu să fugă.  Acesta reușește să treacă de străji datorită parolei pe care o aflase de la Dolon.
 Scena 14 - versurile 728-807 - Străjile află de la conducătorul carului de luptă al lui Rhesus că regele trac a fost ucis și că atelajul său a fost furat. Această nenorocire îi fusese aghiotantului înfățișată deja într-un coșmar, în care se făcea cum că doi lupi săriseră pe crupele cailor lui Rhesus, care se cabraseră îngroziți (v. 780 ss.). Visul premonitoriu nu mai este deci, ca în epopeea lui Homer, atribuit lui Rhesus însuși.
 Scena 15 - versurile 808-996 - În timp ce conducătorul carului de luptă al lui Rhesus îl acuză pe Hector de uciderea stăpânului său, apare muza, care dezvăluie adevăratele circumstanțe ale uciderii mișelești și ia trupul neînsuflețit al fiului ei. Ea îl invocă pe Orfeu, vărul lui Rhesus, ca inițiator al unor secrete de neînțeles privind nemurirea. Datorită înrudirii cu el, Rhesos nu va trebui să coboare în infern; Persefona îi va acorda o existență după moarte în inima munților Pangaion, ca profet al lui Dionis și venerat ca un zeu de credincioșii săi, dar despărțit pentru totdeauna de a sa mamă  (v. 961 ss.).

Note

Bibliografie
 Philippe Borgeaud: Rhésos et Arganthoné, în: Philippe Borgeaud (îngrijitor de ediție): Orphisme et Orphée - en l´honneur de Jean Rudhardt, Geneva 1991 (= Recherches et Rencontres. Publications de la Faculté des lettres de Genève 3), p. 51-59.
Fritz Graf: Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens, Berlin, New York 1974.
 Vladimir Iliescu: Zeitgeschichtliche Bezüge im Rhesos, în: Klio 58 (1976).

Legături externe
 O sinopsă a piesei cu exemple din traducerea franceză

Teatru antic grec
Piese de teatru

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The stage could not have been set more perfectly.
The Chelsea High football team was playing on its home field against Northeast Metro. The Red Devils were sitting at 7-1 and could win the Commonwealth Athletic Conference Title with a victory over the Knights.
Instead, the Red Devils are left wondering what happened this week after coming up just short in a 14-12 loss. The best Chelsea can hope for now is a share of the conference title, which will only get if Northeast is upset by North Shore Tech on November 25.
Chelsea's inability to control the clock proved to be its undoing. The Knights dominated the time-of-possession battle, particularly in the second half, in which the Red Devils only had three offensive possessions. The troubles started in the first half when Northeast scored on a ten-play drive to open the game. They followed a 45-yard touchdown run with a successful two-point conversion to give themselves an 8-0 right off the bat.
The major factor in the game became apparent in the second quarter as the Knights consumed most of the period with one very long drive that began deep in their own territory. Northeast got to the Chelsea five-yard line before the Red Devils put the drive to waste by forcing a fumble, but the lengthy march was a sign of things to come.
After recovering the fumble in the endzone for a touchback, the Red Devils had their best offensive possession of the game, marching 80 yards down the field and scoring on a 5-yard Daniel Martinez run with eight seconds to play in the quarter. Chelsea was unable to complete the two-point conversion, however, and went into halftime trailing, 8-6.
The Red Devils were determined to find the right adjustments to prevent the Knights offense from dominating the clock. But while the Chelsea defense was able to keep Northeast out of the endzone for much of the game, most of their stops came after Northeast had already been holding the ball for several minutes. Making matters worse was the fact that the Red Devils offense struggled to move the chains on their own drives, which often forced the defense to get right back to work just a few moments after leaving the field.
The Knights broke through after another long drive that ate up the final minutes of the third quarter. Once again, the Knights went for the extra two, but this time they failed and settled for a 14-6 lead early in the fourth quarter.
With the clock winding down and the situation becoming desperate, the Red Devils came up with a clutch fumble recovery near midfield with 1:18 to play in the game. Needing a quick drive into the endzone and a two-point conversion to tie the game, the last stand got off to a disastrous start for Chelsea as quarterback Nelson Molina was sacked for a 12-yard loss. Having no timeouts remaining, Molina was forced to spike the ball on the next play to stop the clock and give Chelsea time to come up with a play.
On third-and-long with 27 seconds remaining, Molina launched a 63-yard bomb that was caught for a touchdown by J.J. Rivera. Needing the extra two, the Red Devils once again opted for a passing play. This time however, the Knights put a strong rush on Molina, forcing him to hurry the pass. The ball landed incomplete, and there was nothing more the Red Devils could do but watch as Northeast squeezed the last few seconds from the clock and began to celebrate their victory.
For the game, Molina completed four of eight passes for 115 yards, while Martinez had 75 rushing yards on 75 carries. But the impressive individual outings did little numb the frustration of the loss that put a bitter twist on an otherwise spectacular season.
A Thanksgiving loss by Northeast to fall into a three-way tie for the CAC lead would be unexpected – to say the least. After all, North Shore Tech is the team that Chelsea throttled, 42-14 on November 6. The win was one of the highlights of the season and featured dominant performances from both the Chelsea offense and defense. North Shore Tech was held to just 21 total yards on offense in the first half, while the Red Devils racked up 435 total yards in the game, thanks in large part to Daniel Martinez, who rushed for 225 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.
The Red Devils (7-2) are scheduled to play at Charlestown High on Thanksgiving morning.


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bethesda chevy chase high school yearbook
This letter provides millions of dollars of resources to the transition team for the next president. "Imposing a preferred architectural style for federal facilities runs counter to our nation's democratic traditions," Titus said in a letter to GSA Administrator Emily Murphy. From 2005-2007, she entered the agency and held the position of Chief Acquisition Officer. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Four senior House Democrats are demanding that GSA Administrator Emily Murphy brief them Monday on the reason she has yet to ascertain Joe Biden's win … You can find help from @GSAOSDBU at gsa.gov/small-business.". Murphy has gotten the message, and that clearly trumps her duty to follow the law. Emily Murphy, Chief of the General Services Administration (GSA), finally issued a letter to President-elect Joe Biden, granting him access to federal transition resources after winning the 2020 Presidential election. Powered by. Additionally, customer, vendor, tenant, and employee satisfaction ratings have all increased during her leadership of the agency, with customer, vendor, and employee satisfaction ratings hitting the highest scores in the history of GSA. Ms. Murphy's previous public service includes an appointment at the U.S. Small Business Administration, where she was responsible for helping the federal government meet its 23% small business contracting goal for the first time in its history. One senior White House official spoke to the newspaper anonymously about why Murphy might not have wanted to sign those papers yet. United States GSA Administrator Emily W. Murphy: Licensing. ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Murphy repeatedly refused to answer questions about the hotel. Murphy worked in a number of positions outside of the GSA from 2007-2017, including positions in the private sector and the public sector. Per her bio, Murphy leads a staff of over 11,000 government employees. It provides government access and clearance to certain members of the transition team, as well as office spaces and necessary equipment. Public domain Public domain false false: This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. She was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and sworn in as the administrator of GSA on December 12, 2017. Administrator Murphy's nomination received strong bipartisan support and she was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on December 5, 2017. Updated Nov 23, 2020 at 8:05 PM EST. After three years practicing law, Murphy got a new job at the U.S. Small Business Administration, working as a senior advisor for government contracts and business development. American government official and Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) Emily Murphy testifies at a US Senate subcommittee hearing (on the Challenges and Opportunities of the Proposed Government Reorganization) on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, July 26, 2018. An official website of the United States government. But Murphy has yet to sign the letter. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy has refused to brief Congress on why she is blocking the Biden transition. In that role, she helped launch the Centers of Excellence program within the Technology Transformation Services of the Federal Acquisition Service. Claim: A photograph shows U.S. GSA administrator Emily Murphy at a 2016 Trump rally in a "fuck your feelings" shirt. According to the federal statutes, it's the GSA administrator's job to ascertain "the apparent successful candidates for the office of President and Vice President." That ascertainment is … #DYK? But according to the media (search Google for "GSA Biden"), Emily W. Murphy, the head of the GSA, just authorized Biden to get transition funding, legitimizing him as the President-elect. Official websites use .gov Administrator Murphy's private sector experience includes five years in executive positions at a technology startup company engaged in federal contracting, and three years as a government contracts attorney with two Washington, D.C. law firms. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Administrator Murphy is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Virginia School of Law. She has refused to sign a letter recognizing Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election which created a buzz on the internet. That means millions of dollars in funds can be released to help set things up for the new administration and provide briefings on an array of domestic and international matters. During Administrator Murphy's tenure, GSA launched the Federal Marketplace Initiative, which has increased sales using GSA contracts by 36%, from $55 billion to $75 billion. Under her leadership, GSA has produced more than $20.3 billion in savings and cost avoidance for customer agencies in fiscal years 2018 - 2020. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy has become a focus of controversy over the past few days, due to her refusal to formally sign off on the transition to President-elect Joe Biden. As the GSA Administrator, one of Murphy's jobs is to sign a formal letter allowing the transition process to begin, from one presidency to the next. subscribe (Photo by Alex Edelman/CNP/Getty Images) GSA administrator Emily Murphy has signed off on the transition process. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, in transition approval letter, claims she was 'never directly or indirectly pressured' by White House to block Biden Manage Subscription Login ! She was appointed to the role by Trump, and sworn in unanimously … A few weeks ago, Emily Murphy, Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) started making waves in the news. https://t.co/hPDEBGC4Zq pic.twitter.com/PwX1TLCV4A, — Emily Murphy (@GSAEmily) October 13, 2020. General Services Administrator Emily Murphy had previously refused to allow Biden's administration to receive government funding and data to begin … Murphy is the GSA Administrator, making her the leader of the government agency. Emily Murphy, GSA Administrator: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Copyright © 2021 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. "No agency head is going to get out in front of the president on transition issues right now," the official explained. In this September 30, 2020, Biden gestures during a … Emily Murphy, the General Services Administrator who has refused to sign the paperwork to begin the transition of power, is a villain here. She was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and sworn in as the administrator of GSA on December 12, 2017. Kristen Holmes of CNN tweeted: GSA responds to Dems on briefing- Dep. Her expertise in government procurement and work in creating opportunities for small businesses have earned her numerous awards from small business and contracting groups. © Provided by Mediaite For the overwhelming majority of … Murphy's refusal to sign the transition papers for the Biden team has massive implications for the process, the Washington Post reports. As GSA provides building space for more than 1.1 million federal employees, she has overseen $3.55 billion in lease cost savings from GSA's Public Buildings Service, and has reduced the federal government's leased footprint by 4.7 million square feet. Emily Murphy, the once-obscure administrator of the General Services Administration, finally authorized the transition process between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden on Monday. WASHINGTON, D.C.—Emily W. Murphy was today sworn in as administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). She was appointed to the role by Trump, and sworn in unanimously at the beginning of his presidency, according to her bio. Prior to her role as GSA Administrator, Murphy has served a number of other positions in the agency during her time there. Emily Webster Murphy (born 1973) is an American attorney and government official who is the administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA). Ms. Murphy also spent nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives on the House Committee on Small Business and the House Armed Services Committee. via @1100penn https://t.co/pFNPzSvFT6 pic.twitter.com/TDJh4HIMCg, — Zach Everson (@Z_Everson) November 9, 2020, In January, Murphy appeared before Congress in a hearing for the Trump Hotel in D.C., a USG tenant. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Administrator Murphy previously served at GSA from 2005-2007, where she was appointed as the inaugural Chief Acquisition Officer and led the transformation of the agency's assisted acquisition centers and the consolidation of the Federal Supply Service and the Federal Technology Service into the Federal Acquisition Service. Per The Washington Post, GSA spokesperson Pamela Pennington provided the following emailed statements: "An ascertainment has not yet been made…and its Administrator will continue to abide by, and fulfill, all requirements under the law.", Murphy's most recent public statement came three days ago, in the form of a tweet that had nothing to do with the presidential election. 2:08 Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), revealed Monday that she had received threats from those attempting to coerce her into approving the presidential transition of Joe Biden "prematurely." That's how things work in a cult. Administrator Murphy leads a staff of more than 11,200 GSA employees nationwide, overseeing more than 370 million square feet of property, approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, 4.9 million government credit and purchase cards, and 225,000 leased vehicles within GSA's fleet. Biden's transition team cannot receive official government email address until she signs those papers. The federal government's goal is to award at least 3% of all federal contracting dollars to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses each year. Murphy was eventually promoted to GSA Administrator, where she resides now. She helped draft and prepare bipartisan government contracting reform packages, helping more small businesses compete for government contracts by minimizing barriers to entry, reducing regulatory burdens, and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government contracting. There are now fifteen agencies hosting at least one GSA Center of Excellence project.". Administrator … On her official government Twitter account, she tweeted, "Happy National Veterans Small Business Week! Before serving in the GSA, Murphy was an attorney for the Republican National Committee and worked for several congressional committees and executive departments in the field of acquisition policy. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) attacked President Donald Trump's General Services Administration chief, Emily Murphy, for refusing to sign off on … pic.twitter.com/J2QCCwCBN0, — Emily Murphy (@GSAEmily) October 27, 2020. Read GSA Administrator Emily Murphy's letter to President-elect Joe Biden. Administrator Emily W. Murphy was nominated by President Donald J. Trump to lead the U.S. General Services Administration. Prior to being confirmed as administrator in 2017, Ms. Murphy served as senior advisor to GSA's acting administrator. There will potentially be a new GSA head to replace Emily Murphy, however, incoming administrations often stick at least initially with the current person in that position as GSA … Murphy has mad Members of Congress issued another letter to General Service Administration chief Emily Murphy, who refused to answer questions before Congress after … (Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call) One of the most profound mysteries of our time is why so many ordinary people have sold their souls for the dubious privilege of lying for Donald Trump. When asked if the Trump Hotel had received money from foreign governments, Murphy replied, "GSA does not have that information.", When asked if the hotel violates the emoluments clause, Murphy replied, "That issue is still being adjudicated and can't be commented on.", When asked why the GSA hadn't privately audited the hotel, Murphy replied, "It's up to each contracting officer.", I enjoyed speaking about Category Management and other topics with with @DeptofDefense Chief Management Officer Lisa Hershman today at @ACTIAC's #ImagineNationELC! A lock ( Secure .gov websites use HTTPS GSA offers to brief lawmakers on Biden transition next week; Emily Murphy won't host Published Mon, Nov 23 2020 3:16 PM EST Updated Mon, Nov … GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, shown in 2019, has not acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden's victory, a holdup that could impede his transition team. They don't get access to federal offices, and they can't do the necessary work of filing papers with the Office of Government Ethics for financial disclosures and conflict-of-interest forms. Murphy has made House Democrats have demanded that General Services Administration (GSA) chief Emily Murphy cooperate with the Biden-Harris transition. Nor would many Americans recognize the name of the GSA's Administrator, Trump appointee Emily Murphy. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy Facing Mounting Backlash Over Stalled Election Certification. At a hearing in January, GSA administrator Emily Murphy (@GSAEmily) repeatedly refused to answer questions about the Trump Hotel DC—a USG tenant—from a House subcommittee with GSA oversight. Emily Murphy is an American attorney and government official who currently works as the Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) as appointed by the ex-president 'Donald Trump'. Emily Murphy is a General Services Administration (GSA) worker in charge of signing the papers that will allow Joe Biden's presidential transition team to begin work this week — but she's refusing to sign those papers. Although GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, speaking to the House Appropriations Committee in April, mentioned discussions of funding with … Many people might be wondering whether Murphy is personally refusing to sign the letter for her own professional reasons, or if she's been given a directive by the White House. Her bio reads, "In that role, she helped launch the Centers of Excellence program within the Technology Transformation Services of the Federal Acquisition Service. After graduating from law school in 2001, Murphy worked at Wiley Rein LLP, a law firm specializing in government contracts and affairs. According to her LinkedIn, Murphy is an alum of Smith College, where she received her undergraduate degree, and the University of Virginia Law School. 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Home - Health - Indian High Commission Hosting Medical Camp to Mark Diaspora Day
Indian High Commission Hosting Medical Camp to Mark Diaspora Day
The High Commission of India in Jamaica will be hosting a free medical camp at Northern Caribbean University (NCU) in Mandeville, Manchester, on Sunday, January 23.
The event forms part of activities commemorating India Diaspora Day on Sunday, January 9, and marking the 176th year since the arrival of Indian immigrants.
The camp will be supported by Indian community doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and NCU.
India's High Commissioner to Jamaica, His Excellency Rungsung Masakui, told JIS News that there are plans to have a medical camp in each parish over the next five to six months.
"We are going to have one camp every month until August. We will [then] decide if we can continue until the end of the year [and if so], we will do that," he said.
The High Commissioner said the main purpose of the camps is to reach out to residents in rural communities who are in need of basic medical services.
"So we are making a special effort to reach out and to help [persons] people who cannot afford to access health facilities in urban areas," he added.
Last month, the Indian High Commission hosted three free medical camps in the Corporate Area.
These were held at Chandolu Global Healthcare, the Good Samaritan Inn, and the Constant Spring Library.
High Commissioner Masakui said Diaspora Day commemorates the late political and spiritual leader, Mahatma Ghandhi's return from South Africa to India on January 9, 1915.
He pointed out that Mr. Ghandi became one of India's most prominent Diasporans while in South Africa.
See also Breast Cancer Survivors Credit Early Detection, Strong Support System
"We have more than 20 million India Diasporans across the world, including Jamaica, and for us it is important to reach out to our Diaspora," Mr. Masakui added.
To mark the day, he said the Government of India will disseminate messages to the various Diaspora regions globally.
Additionally, Mr. Masakui said a short programme will be held on the lawns of the High Commission on the day to recognise the contributions of Indian nationals who have made Jamaica their home.
Last year, the High Commission honoured Kenneth Benjamin and Dr. Guna Muppuri, who received Indian Diaspora Honour Awards.
Two elders, 93-year-old Ernst Thompson and 87-year-old Ram Harajh Rajdeif, were also honoured.
Mr. Masakui noted that although members of the Diaspora left India for decades, they have retained roots and links in the country.
"We continue to keep links with India. We continue to nurture and sustain the cultures, customs and traditions that we carried along when we came out of India many years ago," he added.


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Nordisk Microfiber aims to provide the best denier possible. All Nordic Microfiber Clean Plus cloths have a standard of 0.14 Dtex and the ultra-fine glass cloths are even more effective with 0.19 Dtex. This is the best thickness for the optimum cleaning result compared to the product lifetime. Although the fibers are extremely thin, the mixing ratio of the cloth is very durable - tested by over 500 machine washes.
With Nordisk Microfiber's environmental policy, their objective is to have minimal environmental impact. The aim is to prevent pollution, continually reduce environmental impact and resource consumption in both production and with the end-users. This is achieved by ensuring the use of environmentally friendly processes, products and aids in production stages. Nordisk Microfiber's environmental policy states that used products are disposed of safely for the environment.
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Édouard Turquety, né à Rennes le  et mort à Paris le , est un poète français.

Dans la lignée de Lamartine, il passa du romantisme lyrique, dans ses Esquisses poétiques de 1829), à la poésie religieuse, mais de manière bien plus fervente et complète que chez l'auteur des Harmonies, et que Laprade après lui. Il fut admiré de Charles Nodier et ami de Lamennais.

Œuvres
 Esquisses poétiques, 1829
 Amour et Foi, 1833
 Poésie catholique, 1836
 Hymnes sacrés, 1836
 Primavera, P., Chamerot, 1841 (nouvelles édition augmentée des Esquisses poétiques)
 Fleurs à Marie, 1845
 Les Représentants en déroute, ou le Deux Décembre, poème en 5 chants, 1852
 Poésies religieuses à l'usage de la jeunesse, 1858
 Un acte de foi, poésies posthumes, 1869

Notes et références

Lien externe

Notice biographique avec quelques poèmes
Notice biographique avec Amour et foi (complet)

Poète français du XIXe siècle
Naissance en mai 1807
Naissance à Rennes
Décès en novembre 1867
Décès dans le 16e arrondissement de Paris
Personnalité inhumée au cimetière du Nord (Rennes)
Décès à 60 ans


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"The ISO in a Box Activ product is now used by thousands of business people and over 200 companies."
Julian Russell, Owner, Equas Smartpro
Equas SmartPro is a successful supplier of Quality Assurance systems and ISO 9001/14001 accreditation processes. Since inception, the company has invested heavily in the design of modular quality processes that it tailors to each client's application and delivers via a network of regional consultants, who often go on to form long term relationships with the client company. Equas has built an enviable reputation among its many clients across private and public sectors and its "ISO in a Box" product is an accepted success story.
Keen to expand, Equas began to explore the possibility of franchising the "ISO in a Box" model, building a network of independent consultants who relied on Equas for the core systems design and to keep procedures and documentation up to date.
After thorough research, Equas commissioned GreyRidge to design and manage a new internal management system that would allow them to monitor and control the Activities of its franchisees. This project proved a great success. The new software was developed using GreyRidge's GRAD framework which ensured that the project was delivered on time, on budget and proved an immediate hit. This enabled Equas' expansion plans to proceed with confidence.
Until 2008, the company's operations were based wholly in the UK. The large amount of documentation required to implement an ISO accredited quality assurance system was delivered in paper form – as were the frequent updates to each client's system and most communications with franchisees.
The company's ambitions then turned abroad (ISO 9001/14001 being an international quality standard) looking for involvement in multi-national projects and to expand its by now successful franchise model into foreign markets. Equas Managing Director, David Morgan, and his fellow directors quickly determined that the company's existing paper based distribution processes would not work in an international setting and again turned to GreyRidge for ideas.
GreyRidge were able to see how an electronic document management system could solve Equas' problem. Such a system not only allows initial document sets to be distributed (via an Internet hosted service) it provides easy access to clients who, having logged in, can call up whatever document they may require at a given point in time. Updates to documentation are equally easy to implement and distribute.
GreyRidge's questioning (part of the information gathering that happens within the GRAD framework) led it to suggest that an opportunity existed to make Equas' product dynamic. In other words, moving beyond the design and delivery of quality assurance systems into activ monitoring of the system's use. Implemented correctly, this enables Equas to provide a far more valuable product to its customers – one that is also far more lucrative to Equas.
The fruits of this partnership is Equas new "ISO in a Box Activ" product. Launched in December 2008, ISO in a Box Activ allows franchisees to establish new customer accounts on-line, automates the production and distribution of documentation which customers can access anytime and anywhere they need to. The "Activ" part of the product's name describes the new processes that audit the customer's operation of its new Quality assurance system, providing feedback to the customer nd to the franchised consultant enabling systems to be tuned and adapted to meet each customer's requirements and practices.
Equas has gained significant advantages from GreyRidge's large scale investment in GRAD and its underlying technology, not to mention the quality of commercial experience and business understanding that GreyRidge's people bring to every project. GRAD provides the Internet hosted, secure environment that an application such as Equas new "ISO in a Box Activ" product needs.
GRAD (and the methodologies surrounding its use) also provides impressive speed to market – ISO in a Box Activ was turned from idea to live product in just five months. In fact, GRAD provides an ideal basis on which to build the latest Software as a Service (SaaS) type products that allow knowledge- and service-based business to obtain the benefits of the eCommerce revolution that has already driven large changes and benefits into manufacturing and distributive industries.
It goes without saying that ISO in a Box Activ is easy to use. GRAD delivers a consistent, proven user interface – accessible via any Internet browser running on any kind of computer operating system. Greyridge provides Internet hosting, payment processing mechanisms, backup and full technical services to ensure that ISO in a Box Activ is available to Equas and its clients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
A further benefit to Equas and its customer that derives from use of SaaS technology is that almost no capital investment is required to access or use the system. Customers need only their existing PCs and Internet connections and have no need to invest in expensive new data servers – or the specialist skills to operate them. This leads to shorter sales cycles, faster decisions and impressive return on investment.
Equas partnership with GreyRidge has delivered the technological service advantage Equas sought to expand their business and deliver their established ISO product but in a new, dynamic and intuitive manner that brings opportunities for growth and profit beyond the company's initial expectations.
ISO in a Box Activ can service any company anywhere in the world no matter how large or small. In unison with the highly professional and knowledgeable consultancy provided by the franchisee network and ISO in a Box Activ framework, Equas are seeing an increase in size and budget of their clients.
As a result of it's use of ISO in a Box Activ, in February 2009, Equas signed its largest ever contract for delivery of an ISO 9001 quality assurance and accreditation system, to a multi-national engineering company whose operations cover 6 different countries with multiple users in multiple locations in each country. The ISO in a Box Activ system enables both consultant and client to monitor every aspect of the system's performance and greatly reduce the cost of obtaining accreditation as audit is an essential by-product of system use.
By late 2011 Equas was still enjoying of recession-beating high growth. Multi-national contracts aside, global distribution of the ISO in a Box Activ service is well underway with a Canadian consultancy group contacted to represent and sell the product throughout Canada and with negotiations underway for partnerships in Denmark, Germany and Dubai. The current product is now used by thousands of business people and over 100 companies.
The ISO standard is an international benchmark implemented the world over and ISO in a Box Activ is in good form to become the premier quality assurance system for any company looking to become certified in ISO 9001/14001.


Are you interested in learning more about the important elder topics and issues? Elder Services is happy to join you in your organization or community to address a topic of your choice or to hear about how Elder Service can assist you or a loved one.
Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley is committed to community education and raising awareness about aging issues. Our speaker presentations are provide an important educational resource to elders, family members, caregivers, professionals working with older adults and Human Resource Departments whose employees may be caring for older relatives, partners, neighbors or friends. Our 35 years of collective experience and leadership in the aging field has earned us a reputation for excellence in the areas of assessment, advice, care management and service delivery.
If there is a subject related to aging that you do not see listed, we will be happy to research it and work with you to formalize a presentation. For additional information or to request a speaker, contact our Development Office at development@esmv.org or 978-946-1433.


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Full Description Blue and Brown Handpainted Wall Letters - Personalize a boy's room with our handpainted wall letters in blue and chocolate brown. We've combined fun patterns of stripes, plaid, diamonds, and polka dots. We can modify this design to coordinate with your boy's bedroom, or you can request a completely custom letter design. Tell us your inspiration, and our amazing artists will hand paint it on his wood wall letters. It's such a fun an attractive way to personalize a boy's room. Each letter is handpainted with top quality paints and sealed with a non-toxic, non-yellowing varnish to ensure that your wood wall letters will last for years to come.


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Home » Articles » Stand Against Tyranny
Stand Against Tyranny
He is one of the world's most successful investors.
A wizard of Wall Street.
And he has just given tens of millions of dollars to an American organisation wholly dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism.
When asked why now, the as-yet anonymous donor explained that he has been travelling the world for more than 40 years, meeting with business people from in Asia, Africa, the Mid-east, Europe, North and South America.
But now, something has changed.
Never, he remarked, has he felt more vulnerable being a Jew.
Simply put, he no longer feels safe.
Following the grisly carnage in the Kosher Market in Paris, I suspect that more and more Jews, and not just in France, will be seized by this sense of fear.
Heartbroken, I have not slept more than a few hours a night since last week.
The faces of the 12 journalists felled in Charlie Hebdo, the police officers, and the four Jewish victims in the kosher grocery keep me up.
Flashing through my mind are the many times I quickly ran into a Kosher supermarket just before Shabbat to pick up a few items, and the maniacal cruelty of Amedy Coulibaly who gunned in cold-blood Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen and François-Michel Saad, who were there doing exactly what many of us do every week.
I don't want to sound alarmist, but even those accustomed to the constant and ugly manifestations of anti-Semitism, and who are familiar with the frightening cauldron of Jewish hatred and scapegoating brewing in the world, have been shaken to the core by this premeditated, repellent crime and are worried about what's next.
A colleague in the USA told me, half-jokingly, half-seriously, that being a Jew today should carry a warning label, just like cigarette packs do: "Being a Jew can cause death".
The writing has been on the wall.
For years, we have been sounding the alarm about the dangers and violence of the rising tide of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism here and abroad.
We have been shocked by the frenzy of the 'longest hatred', aided and abetted by the biased media reporting of the conflict, by the BDS movement, by the anti-Israel sentiment on university campuses, by the international double-standards and hypocrisy towards Israel, and by the indifference and lack of outrage in response to anti-Semitism and Israeli suffering, from too many nations.
We have stated that those who beat, stab and shoot Jews, who riot, lay siege and torch synagogues, who chant "Jews to the gas chambers", who label Israel a Nazi state, and who cheer Hamas, will not limit their violence only to Jews.
When Jews are at risk, everyone is at risk.
The home-grown Islamist fanaticism we are witnessing is a deadly threat to our security, freedom and peaceful way of life.
And it's unlikely to go away anytime soon.
The bottom line is that we are under attack by a mortal enemy with a death wish, who cannot be appeased, reasoned with or accommodated.
The horrific massacres at Charlie Hebdo and in Porte de Vincennes are linked not just by locality, or by the fact that the perpetrators operated in concert.
The ISIS inspired terrorists were motivated by a fundamentalist islamist ideology that has been targeting Jews and western liberal democracies for decades and which dominates and drives large parts of the Middle-East.
The Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly were part of a genocidal campaign cutting a wide swathe across the planet, waged by Boko Haram, Hamas, Al-Qaida, ISIS, Al-Shabaab, The Taliban, Islamic Jihad, Iran, Jemmaah Islamiyah and Hezbollah, to name but a few.
Its catalogue of carnage and mayhem includes beheadings, the bestial massacre of 132 schoolchildren in Pakistan, the slaughter of 2000 people in Nigeria, and the murder and rape of Christians and other religious minorities.
Last week's horror was not an isolated episode, but an extension of a long, and unchecked history of fatal assaults on Jews.
Incredibly, but expectedly the international community has been tone deaf.
While the terrorists had different names, anti-Semitism was at the heart of what led Abd al-Rahman al-Shaloudy to run down and mercilessly kill three month old Chaya-Zissel Braun; what fuelled Mohammed Merah to murder four at Ozar Hatorah Jewish Day School, including three children; what animated Abed Abu Jamal and Ghassan Muhammad Abu Jamal to brutally murder five Israelis in Har Nof; what drove Hamas to murder Naftali Fraenkel, Gilead Shaer and Eyal Yifrah.
The list goes on.
For the record, this is not a battle between Israelis and the Palestinian people or the Arab world, or between Jews and Muslims
This is a battle between good and evil, liberty and tyrannism.
So what can western nations do now?
One, back Israel in its relentless fight against fundamentalist Jihadism in Gaza and the West Bank, and understand that it cannot reach an accommodation with Hamas in the same way that there is no possibility of a political engagement or compromise with al-Qeada and ISIS.
Second, cut off funding and diplomatic relations with any country or authority that recruits and funds terrorists and which maintains an educational, spiritual and political system that incites and breeds intolerance and violence among impressionable children who grow up to be suicide bombers and masked shooters.
Third, stop emboldening and empowering radicalism by irresponsibly recognising a Palestinian state in EU parliaments, remove the PA from the International Criminal Court, re-list Hamas as a terrorist organisation on the EU list, and refrain from inviting to any future marches against terror the head of Palestinian Authority who personally celebrates and glorifies terrorism or the Prime Minister of Turkey who backs Hamas.
Fourth, send a clear message that the free world will fight terrorism whenever and wherever it appears.
Unless western democracies stop coddling up to dictators and unite to take comprehensive, decisive action, I'm afraid that we will see similar attacks to the ones that took place in Paris and in Sydney.
This article was originally published in the Australian Jewish News, January 16, 2015.


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Perhaps this is how it feels to be a grandparent. While reading the work of my Advanced Fiction Writing (AFW) students — each of whom I've taught for one to five years — I catch glimpses here and there of my own approach to character and narrative. At the same time, each of these nine voices is unique, distinct — and distinctly not my own.
What's more, my students are also my colleagues; their influence is evident in my work, just as mine is in theirs. In my "…Disco Prince" story, for example, the paragraph describing the curbside area onto which Phil is ejected grew out of a suggestion from my longtime student Lisa Janis to "play up the contrast" between the glimmering interior of the Park Avenue dance club and the dark, dismal street outside. Every story here has benefited from similar suggestions, for each has been "workshopped" by the group, in part or in whole, and is thus a team effort.
Each of the contributors to this collection began studying with me at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where I have taught the non-degreed, non-accredited Fiction Writing in Depth "minicourse" continuously since 1998. Each subsequently was invited into the AFW, which I founded in 2001 and teach out of my home. Of the nine, Betsy Doherty and Lisa have been with me the longest, while Carla Ng, having first taken my course a year ago, is the "new kid" — not that you'd know it from her work.
The 18 short stories and one borderline-novella in this anthology are, as the book's title suggests, all written in the first-person voice. In addition to this stylistic connection, each originated in and/or was further developed through our collaborative workshop/critique experience. But what about their content? Can a common thread be found there as well?
I believe it can. For as I dip into the minds, hearts and lives of these wonderfully varied lead characters — seven women, seven boys, three men and two girls — one theme continually presents itself: the quest for human connection. From Pete at the Lobster Shack and his dream of a life with Denny's waitress Sherry, "watching movies and having sex," to young Paula's need to make sure that her connecton with her father is intact; from Karen Reyes' fiercely protective love for her older brother (and de facto father), the troubled Viet Nam vet Deeze, to the nameless protagonist of "Reflection" and her odd bond with a stranger glimpsed in a diner; from six-year-old Andy, who is offered a helping hand by the unlikeliest of neighbors, to Lenny, whose own neighbors spontaneously converge in the wake of tragedy to soften the blow; from the narrator of "Still Life," who longs for reunion with her loved ones just about as much as she fears it, to Marty, whose sister's suicide has left a void that no one can fill — though his "Gram" comes closest; from Phil, whose fake i.d. gets him into the disco, though not into the Disco Princess' bed (or her heart), to Alyssa, whose search for affordable housing in the Big Apple brings her life into quirky intersection — briefly — with so many others….
Our world gets bigger as its population continues to explode; our world gets smaller as information technology creates a global — albeit virtual — community. And so we navigate this bigger/smaller, fuller/emptier, ever-shaky terrain, stumbling along the way, each one of us very much a "person imperfect" — though united by a perhaps perfect goal: to reach and touch and know one another.
Which brings me to Boys Hope Girls Hope (BHGH), the independent, not-for-profit organization which my students and I have chosen to receive a portion of the profits from the sale of this book. BHGH came to our attention through the aforementioned Betsy Doherty, who worked for two years (initially through AmeriCorps) at the Girls Hope group home here in Evanston, counseling "high-potential at-risk youth" from throughout the Chicago area.
Explains Betsy, "Middle- and high-school-aged students who apply to BHGH are admitted on the basis of need, desire and performance." While continuing to be a part of their own families, each girl and boy in the program lives with as many as seven peers and three or four residential counselors for up to six years as she or he attends academically demanding secondary schools, prepares for college and learns to live and grow in a unique second-family environment. "The program," Betsy concludes, "runs on the belief that each scholar will develop the skills, confidence and compassion essential for leadership and service, both now and in the future."
The contributing authors of this book are honored to lend the voices of First Person Imperfect's 19 protagonists to BHGH's resolute call. (For more information, call 847-256-5959 or go to www.chicagobhgh.org)
In introducing this, a collection of my students' work, I would be remiss were I not to acknowledge both of my own faculty mentors (I'm lucky; some people don't even get one). In high school, Jan Martin taught Modern Lit in a way that revealed to me the "secret language" of fiction: symbolism and subtext, foreshadowing and framing devices. Her approach to literature made me want not only to read, but to write. Then, in college, Mark Dintenfass showed me how to write, constantly challenging me to stray outside my comfort zone and dare to be true to my characters. I've modeled my own fiction-writing workshops largely on Mark's. Indeed, both he and Jan helped me become — for better or for worse! — both the writer/editor and the educator that I am today.
The same goes for my students. Each of the contributors to this collection has proven instrumental to me in my growth as a writer, a teacher and — with this collection — an editor. I'd also like to thank the newest AFW student (too new to our group, unfortunately, to make it into this anthology), Kim McNabb, for bringing to the proofreading of this book both the expertise of a professional editor and the sensitivity of a writer.
In both of the classes that I currently teach, I share four key aspects of my own approach to fiction writing, the first being the primacy of character. Setting and theme are important too, but I challenge my students to all but ignore the plotline (I've been known to write the word "story" on a leaf and toss it out the window), instead allowing it to develop on its own. There's no need to outline, or to think too far ahead; if you create engaging characters and place them in a setting appropriate to exploring your theme, then the plot is, quite simply, whatever happens. Besides, how can you know the ending — or even the middle — of a story at the outset, when you barely know the characters? Character-driven fiction requires that the author exercise only partial control over the machinations of the plot — particularly, I think, when the story is in the first person. Ideally, you want to reach the point where you and the protagonist are writing the story together.
Secondly, I encourage my students to focus on writing in the moment. Many authors over-rely on back story and flashback, particularly in the opening pages. You've picked up a novel, and you're a paragraph or two in. The protagonist and the present moment have just been established…when suddenly, you're reading about the arrival of this fellow's grandparents at Ellis Island 80 years before. Why should you care? You don't even know the guy. The reader should meet the characters the same way we meet people in real life: not by immediately hearing their life stories, but by watching and listening to them in the moment. How is his posture? Does she gesture when she talks? What makes him laugh? What pisses her off? Bring a moment to life in vivid detail, and then move forward from that moment — taking the now quite engaged reader along for the ride.
(Granted, writing in the first-person voice does give an author some leeway in this department; arguably, the reader is "in the moment" as long as he or she is paying attention to that which the protagonist feels compelled to say — whatever it may be.)
Thirdly, I extol the virtues of the plausible suprise. A plot development can be plausible but predictable (reader response: "I believe it, but I figured that would happen"), unpredictable but implausible ("I didn't see it coming, but I'm not sure I buy it"), predictable and implausible ("I had a feeling that would happen, but it doesn't ring true") or — the Holy Grail of story development — plausible and unpredictable ("I didn't expect that, but, wow — it makes perfect sense!"). How does a writer grab said Grail? Simply by composing non-outlined, character-driven, in-the-moment narrative that, by its nature, ushers one's unconscious into the writing process. You can't plan a plausible surprise, but it's a natural byproduct of writing what I think of as "organic fiction."
Finally, I introduce a theoretical construct that I call the Tightrope of Disclosure. As author, you stand at one end of a tightrope: the beginning of a story. You must make your way to the other side — the end — disclosing information all the way. If you lean too far to one side, you'll fall off the rope and into Confusion: the reader will have no idea what's going on. Lean too far the other way, and you land in Obviousness: you're hitting the reader over the head. Throughout the narrative, you must strike the perfect balance. How? Here's my shortcut solution: while the reader should at no point wonder what is going on, it is acceptable — even advisable — for him or her to wonder why.
As you read the stories in this collection, I think you'll find that each of my AFW students has incorporated portions of this sensibility into her or his own writing. You'll also find places where they've gone their own way — and more power to them! In the words of the late Montana writer Richard Hugo — words (from his essay "Writing off the Subject") that I read aloud at the beginning of each term at Northwestern — "You'll never be [a writer] until you realize that everything I say today and this quarter is wrong. It may be right for me, but it is wrong for you. Every moment I am, without wanting or trying to, telling you to write like me. But I hope you'll learn to write like you."
Betsy, Carla, Drew, Elizabeth R., Elizabeth S., Emile, Laura, Lisa and Sarah: my congratulations. Each and every one of you has learned to write like you.


Here's an applied example of my design process for Cubi, my Portal 2 community map. You can find Cubi under the Personal Projects section. You can also download Cubi on the Steam Workshop.
Cubi is one of my most successful projects. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and very thankful for how well it was received by the community. Since being released on the Steam Workshop, Cubi has a 5 star rating with over 72,000 total ratings and a 96% positive rating. A very big thanks to everyone who helped playtest Cubi during its development, and a big thanks to the community for playing!
After establishing the map's goals, the next step was to collect information on how chambers are made, how mechanics interact with each other, and how the visual language for chambers is presented. There's a lot of knowledge I carried over from making Conundrum (my Portal 1 map) in regards to higher level puzzle design theory and portal map making, so what's explained here is less about that and more specific to this map.
After making the test maps for the different puzzle elements, and keeping in mind my difficulty goal, I decided to use cubes as my focus (hence the map's name Cubi). Cubes are an easy to understand mechanic that have incredible depth when combined with other supporting puzzle elements, such as buttons, lasers, fizzlers, and faith plates.
After looking more in-depth at the different visual styles, and knowing I wanted to use cubes as my gameplay focus, I opted for the Clean Room visual style for the chambers.
The Prototype part of the process was broken up by chamber. The order of which I made the chambers is different than the order in which they appeared in the map. Each chamber was made in its own map and tested individually at first, before coming together in one main map after prototyping. I made each chamber one at a time and only moved onto making the next chamber when I felt the current one's layout and gameplay were solid.
Playtesting and iteration was key here to make sure puzzle felt cohesive, layout worked well, and the difficulty was right. After I felt a chamber was in a playtestable state, I sent the map to playtesters of varying skills and player types. I had them record demos of their initial playthroughs, and they would send those to me along with a short thumbs up or thumbs down rating and brief description about what their high and low points were. This allowed me to iterate on the chambers to get rid of friction points and focus on what the chamber did well.
After iterations were made, I'd send the chamber out to the group again for further testing, including a group of players that have yet to play the chamber so I could see first impressions along side the previous group's feedback on current iterations.
The fizzler chamber was the first one I made for the map. The goal for this chamber was to test the player's order of operations problem solving skills. The fizzler was used heavily in Portal 1, but not in Portal 2. Fizzlers allow for great order of operations style gameplay, as they require players to think about how and where to place their portals, and the order in which they do it as going through a fizzler removes all placed portals and destroys gameplay elements like cubes. Combining faith plates and tractor beams with the fizzler in test maps allowed for cool ways for players to bypass fizzlers in addition to normal portal usage.
With the fizzler, faith plate, and tractor beam mechanics in place, and knowing the cube needs to be involved as a core mechanic, the first iteration of the puzzle required players to get a cube on the other side of a goo pit by setting up portals to get a tractor beam going over the goo pit on the other side of the fizzler. By using the faith plate, players could jump over the fizzler, into the beam, and ride to the other side. Once on the other side, players would use the beam to get to a switch to drop the cube, then after getting the cube players would reset their portals and portal back to the other side with the cube. Once back on the other side, players would set the cube on one of the buttons, stand on the other, and portal through the exit door.
The resulting iterations proved very successful. It gave more depth to the tractor beam, made the fizzler core to the puzzle, and players utilized the faith plates multiple times solving the chamber. It also had the side benefit of reducing the chamber's foot print simplifying the layout.
The laser chamber is the second one I made for the map. After making the order of operations chamber, I wanted to create something that tested a player's spatial recognition and geometrical problem solving skills. Lasers and relays, combined with angled architecture can provide some great opportunities for this.
However, lasers and relays alone were used to a great degree throughout Portal 2's campaign. The challenge here was to make a laser puzzle that played different than puzzles in the campaign, without being frustrating. What came to mind thinking about this challenge was that in every laser puzzle in the Portal 2 campaign, the relays were always static and the player only adjusted the beam or reflecting cube's position. I decided that there was potential in manipulating the relay positions as well.
Creating a hexagonal shape around a group of vertically adjustable relays allowed for a variety of combinations of relay positions. By arranging switches near the edge of the goo pit with the pistons, players could easily hit a switch to raise and lower them. To give the laser puzzle depth, I had another reflecting cube behind a door that the player opens using one relay alignment using one cube, and the exit door requiring another alignment using both cubes. I had a light bridge in the room the players could use that matched the same height as the raised relay position, which allowed the cube to be above ground and create 3D relay alignment gameplay.
The initial implementation showed a lot of promise, but there was a lot of frustration with the light bridge. The bridge is a mechanic that players will spend a lot of time walking on and adjusting its position even if it doesn't need to change. This means the bridge was a major distraction from the laser relay puzzle. The laser relay part of the puzzle looked to be working fine for unlocking the first door and getting the second cube, but the light bridge manipulation made the solution to unlocking the exit door very messy.
Removing the bridge and adding the lift worked great. The puzzle's solution was clearer, with the red herrings coming from the laser, relay, cube, and portal positions instead of an unrelated mechanic not used in the actual solution.
The cube co-op chamber was the last one created for the map. From a pacing standpoint, the fizzler chamber and the laser chamber were both gameplay dense and difficult to solve in their own way. Playing two back-to-back chambers without a mental break between them could have a negative impact on the overall experience even though the chambers themselves play well. Therefore, the cube co-op chamber focuses on the more physical, flinging gameplay instead of the mental problem solving gameplay to give the brain a break.
One of the puzzles in the co-op campaign of Portal 2 required players to fling themselves against timed buttons within a close time interval of each other to open a door. I enjoyed that use of the timed buttons, and wanted to recreate that experience in a single player fashion. Utilizing everyone's favorite cube (the companion cube!) and portal flinging, players can hit multiple timed buttons to unlock a door.
The initial implementation worked very well as it was. All the playtesters solved it and enjoyed it. The most common critique was that it was too easy, but being that the goal of this chamber was to be easy-but-fun, that critique was ultimately a good thing. Minor adjustments in the scale of the room and platform positions were made, but nothing as big as the other chambers' changes were needed.
Now that each chamber's gameplay was determined, the entire experience start to finish needed to be realized in a single map. Lots of the time spent here was making sure the overall pacing of the map felt right, adding in the visual and audio touches to make the map feel like a complete experience, and looking for and fixing bugs impeding the complete experience.
The first step was moving all the chambers into one single map. I decided to place the fizzler chamber first and laser puzzle last. The laser puzzle felt like the best choice for being the finale chamber as the player unlocks the room with the laser relays all lining up. Portaling through a door from standing on buttons felt like a less exciting exit.
After migrating the chambers into one map and adding the geo needed to connect them, the next step needed was adding the entry and exit elevators. Thankfully, this was much easier to do in Portal 2 than it was in Portal 1 due to the instance tech (thanks Valve!).
Now that players could enter in an elevator, play all the chambers, and leave in an elevator, the map needed ambiance. The next step involved adding ambient audio, background music, and GLaDOS voice lines. Visual detailing with textures, light fixtures, observation rooms, and security cameras also give the map the touch needed to make players feel like they're playing a real Portal 2 map.
Playtesting and iterating continued during this phase. Rather than looking at how a chamber plays, the playtesting here was looking for how the overall experience (the gestalt) felt in addition to trying to find ways to break the map. Iterations here were primarily aesthetics and audio based, such as changing what music is used for what chamber and how often GLaDOS would speak. Additionally, finding and fixing bugs to make sure the map's quality was high took some time.
By now the gestalt experience was playing well. The remaining work left was putting on the final touches and making sure performance was good. Most of the time spent was on optimizing as well as looking for and fixing bugs, but a few more final touches on detailing were also done. I did a final detailing pass, a lighting and shadow pass, double checked the area portaling on the doors, made sure Nodraw textures were on all the brush surfaces not seen by the player, and looked for any hard-to-find bugs.
Now Cubi was ready for release! It was submitted to several different Portal 2 community and mod sites. When the Steam Workshop was released, I researched how to take a map made in Hammer and modify it so it can be published on the Steam Workshop.